quête:v effect

By now you’re probably familiar with our wildly popular Brown Acid series of rare, lost and unreleased proto-metal and stoner rock singles from the 60s-70s. In the endless pursuit of those glorious gems, we often uncover equally brilliant rarities from the late-70s to late-80s Golden Age of Heavy Metal that also just must be heard, but they don’t fit the series’ aesthetic. Scrap Metal, Volume 1 collects some of the greatest unknown and lost Heavy Metal tracks, long buried beneath the avalanche of the era’s classic output.
We all know the old adage that history is told by the winners. But sometimes the losers tell the best stories. And while none of these bands found fame and fortune, this artifact and the volumes to come are testament to the enduring power of heavy music. You can hear the blood, sweat and beers that went into each of these singles. The recordings may be low budget, but the inspiration and talent is immutable. Not only are the amps turned up to 11, the boyish sexual innuendo is cranked to 69. You can hear the convergence of influences — NWOBHM, thrash, glam metal, doom, etc — colliding at once as the era birthed a wellspring of subgenres.
Many of these singles are self-released and were thus limited to a small run of copies. Those that remain are hoarded by collectors and sold for exorbitant amounts. We’ve collected the best of the best for you here. As with Brown Acid, all of these tracks are licensed legitimately and the artists all get paid. Because it’s the right thing to do.
LINER NOTES:
Rapid Tears launch this series with the perfect christening. The Toronto, ON quintet’s 1981 single “Headbang” is such the pinnacle of heavy metal madness that it almost sounds like a spoof. There’s also enough of the rapid-fire sputum that inspired Metallica to bang the head that doesn’t, as such, engage in said practice, to be found on the band’s sole full length Honestly. But “Headbang” is a straightforward glammy anthem for the ages.
Air Raid’s “69 In A 55” may be lyrically so sophomoric that it’s actually pretty clever, but this 1983 Bay Area power metal single is loaded with sleek Judas Priest riffs and interwoven melodies that are downright sublime. The band’s sole release, the 2-song Rock Force 7” features a curious band photo in which 3 band members — dolled up in Crüe makeup and leather — are sexually menacing the lead singer/guitarist tied to a bed. Another low budget highlight is when singer/guitarist Tommy “Thrasher” Merry imitates a delay effect on his vocals as he sings, “tonight!...tonight...night.”
Hades’ “Girls Will Be Girls” has a real demo cassette feel to its vastly uneven mix, but the energy to the performance makes this an undeniable keeper. The long running Paramus, NJ quintet’s 1982 2- song debut 7” titled Deliver Us From Evil features this blistering thrasher dominated by shimmering leads and confident vocals that show why the band went on to near-fame on Metal Blade Records.
Resless don’t need no T to prove that they’ve got “The Power” with this 1984 driving mid-tempo rocker in the vein of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. The River Vale, NJ quartet’s tight crunch wails all over Bon Jovi posers but it’s the band’s unique and subtle deployment of background vocals that gives this rager its staying power.
Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is home to Don Cappa, a band that pays tribute to the burgh, the metal, and the awesomeness of both with “Steel City Metal.” Their lone single, issued in 1987 with only 300 copies released, sounds like the work of some serious steel driving men, with a drummer who might’ve forgotten to wear a hard hat one too many times on the construction site.
The Beast has more of a punk feel to their aggressive “Enemy Ace” track from the 4-song Power Metal EP from 1983 — something like Dr. Know meets D.O.A. But their look, artwork and lyrics all prove that Heavy Metal is where their hearts lie. And this hook filled monster delivers repeated lines like, “I command them all in my lofty realm,” with commendable conviction.
Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, debuting in 1984 is not to be confused with Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, who also debuted in 1984. The former a workman’s hard rock bar band, the latter a political peace punk band and neither knowing of the other’s existence throughout their tenure. The pre-internet days were a marvel, indeed.This Dead Silence spits out a slick, Nugent tinged rocker called “Can’t Stop” about life on the road.
The Danger Zone is, by all accounts, not the place to be. And, Hazardous Waste of Boston, MA saw fit to add their two cents on the matter with this 1986 single that combines Van Halen’s flashy musicianship with NWOBHM aggression that sounds so awesome it teeters on itself entering the “Danger Zone.”
Czar’s heavy, doomy “Iron Curtain” single from 1982 hearkens to the sleazy sounds of Saint Vitus and Pentagram with its cranked up DOD Distortion pedal in a Peavey combo amp guitar tone and meaty, barking vocals. The upstate NY quintet only issued this 2-song single, but its driving rhythm, nosedive whammy-bar guitar solos and comparatively mature Cold War subject matter show they had real potential.
Not much is known about Real Steel’s majestic “Viking Queen” from 1987, other than it rocks hard and the 7” 45 sells for upwards of a grand on the collectors market. The Flint, Michigan band recorded at the home studio of local radio personality Bill Lamb, who primarily released Christian Gospel recordings. So, perhaps the band was struck down by a bolt of lightning shortly after this rare single’s release. Whatever the case may be, it’s a must have for fans of classic metal mayhem.

Composer, electronic music innovator, and Pere Ubu's original synthesist Allen Ravenstine returns to Waveshaper Media with the diptych LP (comprised of 1 EP per side) Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir, the final two parts in Raventine’s Tyranny of Fiction series. Waveshaper Media first came into contact with Ravenstine when we interviewed him in 2012 for our modular synthesizer documentary I Dream Of Wires.

Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir brings together 21 of the prodigious composer’s recent lyrical and abstract compositions collectively comprised of the sounds of analogue and digital synthesizers, alongside traditional acoustic instruments. The first 10 recordings, subtitled Nautilus, are found on Side A of this LP while the second 11, Rue Du Poisson Noir, comprise Side B.

Using a singular blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, each track on Nautilus, weaves its own wayward travelogue amidst stray bits of audio verité and wafting musical fragrances—by turns tropical and foreboding. Rue De Poisson Noir takes cues from its fragmentary companion both in palette and approach, slithering between cinematic intrigue, off-brand jazz, avant-garde mischief, and fried electro without ever batting an eye. Together they form a beguiling collection of hyperrealist miniatures that remains strange, restless, inquisitive and — most of all — evocative throughout.

For those in the know, Allen Ravenstine has been one of the most creative synthesizer players of the past forty-plus years. Ravenstine started out in the mid-1970s experimenting in his Cleveland apartment with an analogue EML 200 synthesizer, eventually creating a piece in 1975 that became known as Terminal Drive. While he had no intention of releasing his compositions, word got out about the kind of sounds he was experimenting with, which led to an invitation to join pioneering “avant garage” group Pere Ubu for the recording of the group’s first 45, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” He soon joined Pere Ubu full-time, bringing to the band’s sound unpredictable textures, effects, bleeps, squalls, pulsating washes of sound—whatever he felt could enhance the soundscape of the band’s performances and recordings.

By the early 1990s, Ravenstine had grown sick of the road, band infighting and the music industry in general. Deciding a change was needed, he opted to forego music altogether, making his living as an airplane pilot. His music career remained in limbo until 2012, when an interview for the I Dream Of Wires documentary, alongside Robert Wheeler who had succeeded him as Pere Ubu’s synthesist, turned into a recording session for the duo, leading to a series of collaborative releases. As well as having his 1975 Terminal Drive recordings released to great acclaim in 2017, Ravenstine has been prolific in recent years, with Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir now marking his 4th solo full-length.

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch’s dark, throbbing score to
Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror debut ‘Censor’ is out now on
vinyl, after previously being released on digital platforms.
 The vinyl is pressed on clear vinyl with black smoke effect
and comes housed in a deluxe spined sleeve with double
sided printed insert featuring beautiful imagery from the
film.
 Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch manages to inhabit a space
between Ennio Morricone, Goblin and John Carpenter in
her stunning score to ‘Censor’.
 “I wanted the original score to focus on two different
elements of the film’s storytelling which slowly intertwine
as the movie progresses,” Emilie told Booklyn Vegan.
 “One sound palette represents the trauma of our lead
character Enid, with a use of manipulated vocals and
synthesisers, slow moving, almost suspended, and at
times disorientating cues, with short melodic motives, little
lullabies Enid might softly sing to herself to sooth her
anxiety and guilt of having lost her sister. The other palette
is much more anchored in the time period (1980s) and
genre the film explores.” She calls that second sound
palette a “love letter to classic Carpenter and Goblin
soundtracks, using vintage synths, rare Japanese
instruments and choirs to bring us deep into the fun,
surreal, and meta elements of the film.”
 ‘Censor’ received critical acclaim upon its release,
including a 5-star review in The Guardian, and is available
to watch now.

This is a new project out of the Harmonious Thelonious camp. It´s stripped down, dub infused, harmony driven danceable music with deep basslines, chords and dub effects. Should be checked out live on a heavy sound system!! The sequencer is the weapon of choice!!!

green vinyl

For a duo whose youthful energy rejuvenated the world of house music at the start of the 2010s, it seems incredible that Disclosure are now into their second decade of musical life. The incredible vigour of those early records, the spark of invention and ever-onward musical thrust, remains with the Disclosure brothers, Howard and Guy Lawrence, to this day. The emphasis throughout DJ-Kicks is on motion. After a brief ambient introduction from Pépe's Life Signs, Disclosure keep the energy high, in a mix that showcases the wonderful malleability of a house beat in the right hands. From sub bass to disco samples, African funk to 303 tweak, all is welcome in Disclosure's house, with the mix allowing individual songs space to breath even as the pace remains harefooted.

52 Beats is project initially started on Bandcamp with Snips uploading 1 beat per week over the course of a year with an accompanying behind the scenes video. This is the final release of the entire project as a limited run cassette. Musically Snips stays true to his Hip Hop roots chopping samples and keeping the sound rooted in traditonal Boom Bap which birthed his style

ALTER- : A REACTION TO THE ALTERMODERNISM IN SOUND ART
For the Automatisme - Alter- album. I am inspired by how the art historian Nicolas Bourriaud defines the Altermodernism. Bourriaud understands the term "Alter" as a way to mean "other". The altermodernism would be another modernity that is different from the avant-garde modernism and post-modernism. More precisely, this is a new paradigm from the XXIe century with alternative ways to motivate artists to be more radical in art by traveling in the physical and digital world, by cutting the frontiers and by creating other time lines. I apply the "alter" subject to time and to landscape and those, to the rhythmic and the ambient glitch music.

1- THE ALBUM HAS A RHYTHMIC SIDE AND A LANDSCAPE SIDE.
1- a : The rhythmic tracks are named Alter-Rate. That means that I offer other types of rhythms by calculating beats with time rate experimentations. The form of the rhytmic tracks, expresses a course, a wandering, which, in the altermodern life, is not just in a standard 4/4 , or just grid based or non-grid based, but it's in a complex hybrid of all of those.

1- b : The ambient tracks are named Alter-Scape. That means that I offer another type of landScapes by a paused temporality and not by a random time or by the time of the nature. Alter-Scape tracks mimic the saturated globalized soundscapes of the XXIe century.

2- THE GLOBALISED AND SATURATED TIME
For Bourriaud, the artists respond to a new globalised perception. They traverse a cultural landscape saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expressions and communications1. The Alter- album tracks have saturated rhythms Rates and static ambient soundScapes. The specific context within which we live is the age of globalisation2. In this album, it means that globalised or always evolving rhythm Rates are in constant movements and are also different every time an Alter-Rate track is exported or performed. On the other hand, a globalised landScape is an ambient track with a motionless temporality. In the era of the altermodern, displacement has become a method of depiction3. The movement of the sound in the Alter- album is two sound spaces. The first is the rhythms that make time movement become apparent and the second is an ambient paused or static time that makes possible to feel and to analyze the movement effect of our surroundings.

3- THE CONSTANT TENSION STATE OF ART
For Gilles Deleuze, art is in a constant state of tension, in as much as it oscillates between the poles of chaos and order4. The Alter- album is a tension between chaos and order in rhythmic beat tracks and ambient soundscapes tracks. It is a deterritorialization of the rhythms and the ambiences of today's natural and digital landscapes and it brings them into the computer glitch music format.

By pushing new softwares to their limits, I push at the extreme the software capacity to calculate and to generate sounds. The Alter-Rate tracks are experimentations with time rates and rhythms with the use of probability and artificial intelligence based sequencers. The partition signal starts from a master sequencer that gets into all instruments on a track. Each instrument receives this signal and modulates it with other sequencers that are each programmed differently for every instrument. Finally, all the instruments signals return to a master output that contains a stutter effect. This master channel is sequencing all other channels into one single rhythm. In short, a single rate merges and expands into a vast archipelago of rates and the transformed signal becomes a new single rate. The Alter-Scape tracks are experimentations with midi triggers that give the sensation of a timelessness. Multiple reverb effects are also routed into each other to create soundscapes of continuity. About the type of sounds created in this album, I do experimentations with deep frequency modulation synthesises (FM) on all Alter-Rate and Alter-Scape tracks.

I put a few layers in the tracks to be able to focus on the time space and perception. The tracks are generative and every parameter uses probabilities to be programmed. This is something that was not possible some years ago. The computers are enough powerful to generate that now. I export many times the tracks and i push the computers to their limits by making hard for them to calculate and to generate the tracks with a deep, a pointillist and an extreme software programming. These techniques do different versions every time that I export or perform a track and in my opinion, that opens a fresh and innovative way to do new experimental club music and ambient music. The computer has its own limits too.


Reviews in The Wire, Gonzo, A Closer Listen, Datacide, African Paper, Silent and Sound, and more

Line-up
Chra / Christina Nemec: electronics, field recordings, effects
Christian Schachinger: guitar, effects

Editions Mego recording artist Chra/Christina Nemec and Christian Schachinger spark off abstract electronic/guitar noise-layers in reminiscence of Italian avantgarde composer Giacinto Scelsi.
As a trio together with Peter Rehberg - SHAMPOO BOY - they have previously released two albums on Blackest Ever Black.

Paradiso Infernal was recorded and processed by Christina Nemec and Christian Schachinger at TROST Waldviertel Studios 2020–2021. Mastering by Martin Siewert. Artwork by Susi Klocker.

White Vinyl Repress

The young and talented Polish producer DEAS debuts on Planet Rhythm with a bang. 4 effective techno cuts to be played at any time during a proper warehouse rave.

LP on blue marbled vinyl in printed innersleeve.This talented jazz trio stands out, not only for excellence in musicianship but also for its unique blend of effected vibraphone leading the beast from jazz funk to hiphop punk.

This is the 26th release on RIOT Radio Records, a fiercely independent techno label based in Scotland.

Moscow based Trust True is a producer and DJ who’s quite literally off his rocker. Displaying agonizing and often deranged broken beats which seize the very beat of your heart, his music rushes, grinds and pulsates with so much ferocity, even your living breath will be succumb to its lethal effect.

Continuing with our ‘Limited As Fuck’ series of releases, this additional hard hitting ‘OUTBURST’ will further provocatively attack your gnarly senses in an additional unrealised beguilement stemming from this mental Russian’s 1st ever vinyl release on RIOT Radio Records, ‘Outburst – The Red Mixes’, in April 2021.

Four tracks from that menacing beast have been given the full-on remix treatment and oh boy, what a bunch of hard as nails remixers are on this obliterating follow up release. The Scottish contingent kicks proceedings off with Duellist at the helm followed by Argentinian duo 909distortion & AxggaA literally melting the wax it’s printed on their remix is that fierce. It continues at a relentless pace with Canada’s Patrick DSP mangling the howls of ‘AAIRAA’ to ravenous levels and the mechanical mind of Italian Max Durante finishes the release off with borderline hardcore vengeance.

WARNING: FROM AFAR THE DEMENTED BRINGS FORTH IT’S DERANGED LUNACY ONCE MORE

Ltd White vinyl LP w/ printed inner sleeve lyric insert (1000 copies ww)! Emma Ruth Rundle's forthcoming Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that's endured trauma and grief, there's a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanize that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre. The album captures a moment where a masterful songwriter strips away all flourishes and embellishments in order to make every note and word hit with maximum impact, leaving little to hide behind. "I really wanted to capture imperfection and the vulnerability of my humanity," Rundle says of the album's sonic approach. "Here are some very personal songs; here are my memories; here is me teetering on the very edge of sanity dipping my toe into the outer reaches of space and I'm taking you with me and it's very fucked up and imperfect.'" Emma Ruth Rundle has always been a multifaceted musician, equally capable of dreamy abstraction (as heard on her album Electric Guitar: One), maximalist textural explorations (see her work in Marriages, Red Sparowes, Nocturnes or collaborations with Chelsea Wolfe and Thou), and the classic singer-songwriter tradition (exemplified by Some Heavy Ocean). But on Engine of Hell, Rundle has opted to forego the full-band arrangements of her previous albums in favor of the austerity of a lone piano or guitar and her voice, which creates a kind of intimacy, as if we're sitting beside Rundle on a bench, or perhaps even playing the songs ourselves. It's an extremely up-close and personal confessional with a focus on the rich subtleties and timbre of Rundle's graceful performances. "For me this album is the end of an era to the end of a decade of making records. Things DO have to change and have changed for me since I finished recording it." In essence, Engine of Hell signifies a major turning point for Rundle as both an artist and as a person. The catharsis of this type of songwriting has effectively served its purpose, and to continue ruminating on the past going forward is less of a healing process and more like picking at a scab and refusing to let it heal. This may help explain why Rundle is less than enthusiastic about divulging the details about her muses, but it doesn't alter the fact that these songs served a purpose in their creation, and that they may continue to bring comfort to others.

We used to enjoy presenting Chapelier Fou's work using the idea of music in the form of a treasure hunt. However, while the phrase in itself it still just as relevant today, we would never have imagined that it would become such an integral part of one of his albums. Or two of his albums to be perfectly exact - Méridiens and Parallèles. Two records with twelve songs each which answer each other back in the form of anagrams. They are like the two sides of the same planet - similar but simultaneously so different. They need to be discovered one after the other taking the time necessary to travel through the sound territories produced by his imagination. The starting point is a sombre night in Uqbar… Chapelier Fou's opening reference to Borgès was obviously not made by chance. He subsequently confided in us the objective of his diptych, namely to combine reality with fiction to question certainties and our relationships with the imaginary sphere. He has continued with his traditional classical-contemporary electronic approach which, although now known to a wide audience, has the advantage of opening up a whole range of possibilities right up to the infinite scale. Moving away from an "État Nain" (Dwarf State) to take refuge on an asteroid...Throughout Méridiens, each composition can be seen as a universe in itself or a specific landscape with its own temporality. Proof of this is the introduction to the chamber music format composed for and performed by only strings which can only be given the date we want to give it. This is "État Nain" in which violins are played like guitars. In some parts we find the spirit of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the idea of cheering up classical instruments and not taking everything too seriously. In other parts, we find something close to a mischievous and childish unplugged grunge anthem that could be from the French series Les Shadoks. This mischievous view of things is shown to full effect in Am Scharchtensee. The introduction shows Chapelier Fou's whole classical universe and mastery of orchestration in which "modular" electronics provide a subtle and discreet backdrop. Then, the record suddenly switches to a surrealist dialogue between these classical sounds and modular synthesizers with the flavour of the German pioneers Kluster/Harmonia to name but one example. Timelessness and imaginary places. La vie de cocagne confirms this choice of total freedom. It's traditional music with old sounds, a kind of forgotten bourrée (old French dance) in which electronic sounds disturb the established order and thus reach another musical dimension. Le méridien du Péricarde followed by Désert de Sonora push this idea of a trompe l'oreille and a hall of mirrors even further. The latter track ends almost like a catchy 80s melody and we can no longer find any logical meaning. We let ourselves be carried away by this profusion of madness and are a little amazed by this mastery of sound, composition and space. It sometimes all seems like a succession of conjuring tricks. Chapelier Fou takes not being serious very seriously indeed. The end song Everest trail is the perfect conclusion, a deadpan track in which the primary aspect of a totally classical melody in all its straightness is underpinned by a permanent exchange of electronic tweets which mocks the main musical posture. This impertinence harks back to Pierre Schaeffer who directed the ORTF's very serious experimental department in another era and allowed the development of Jacques Rouxel's series Les Shadoks thus introducing the general public to the notion of concrete music. This is also perhaps why Louis Warynski's stage name is French – because he has opted to use his French musical heritage. Thus the first singles selected from this album, Constantinople with its groovy and jazzy allure and Le Triangle des Bermudes evoke composers like Michel Magne or Michel Colombier both of whom have totally open minds and consider all music to have the same importance, namely that of sound. In absolutely all the tracks that make up Méridiens, you will find at least one detail - a pattern, melody, sometimes a simple sound - that will draw you back to explore it a little more. And the words are carefully weighed for sure. It's quite simple. This is undoubtedly his most hypnotizing and catchy album. Chapelier Fou has become a complete master of his own universe. He draws the start and finish lines himself and no one can follow him in a field that now belongs to him alone. Composed imaginary spheres, illustrated territories...Music is just as meaningful as the more visual arts. Therefore the artwork of Méridiens had to project each of the twelve tracks considered individually and not just the whole album as such. Chapelier Fou therefore asked his old friend the contemporary artist Corentin Grossman to create twelve windows to represent glimpses of the twelve worlds composed for the record. Windows or mirrors when it comes to that? You can never be sure of anything...Space OK. But what about time? The years go by and sometimes we forget that fact. But a simple glance back is often enough to gently touch the time that has passed. It is over 10 years since his first official record and he has been composing, recording and sharing his music for almost 20 years. 20 years is a long time. It makes some people look old while others fall into reassuring but sterile nostalgia. Chapelier Fou, on the other hand, has released his most ambitious project and tried to take a higher view of his discography that was itself nevertheless irreproachable. Although the journey is over we can see Parallèles universes on the horizon. Chapelier Fou has announced 12 additional tracks which are like echoes of the compositions on Méridiens' and will be released on the album Parallèles next spring. They are neither twins nor opposites – they are instead totally original new compositions which go further in exploring a universe which is already richly abundant.

New York United is an experimental group at the musical intersection of a classic New York avant-garde scene and forward-looking electronic production. Comprised of multi-instrumentalist and 577-cofounder Daniel Carter (Saxophone, Flute,Trumpet, Clarinet), electronic producer Tobias Wilner from Blue Foundation (Synthesizers, Percussion, Vocals, Piano, Guitar), Wu-Tang Clan bass playerDjibrilToure and 577’s Federico Ughi (Drums), their sound reflects their decades of collaboration. This second volume follows their celebrated debut, the eponymous New York United (2019), and matches its characteristically dreamlike effect, while maintaining a steady, rhythmic momentum. Like the first volume, this album was initially recorded in an improvised studio performance, and manipulated by Wilner in post-recording production, lending a uniquely ambient, electronic effect to otherwise spontaneous composition between musicians. Inescapably connected to its namesake city, the project is a testament to the transformative energy that sustains New York, dissolving individual boundaries into a collective sense of itself

Brand New Tom Moulton Exclusive mixes
It's June 2020 and I'm on a video call with Tom Moulton. We're in the middle of a worldwide pandemic but life for Tom Moulton hasn't particularly changed a great deal. He's effectively been in self-isolation for most of his life wedded to the two things he likes most in life, namely, music and cats.

I've known Tom for almost 50 years. The first 20 of those years were spent listening to Tom's mixes, and I listened to everything he did (including all the un-credited stuff) and quickly realised he was the master. I wore all those 70s Trammps albums out very quickly. The dynamic on all those mixes was really off the scale. I eventually met Tom when I did Salsoul Mastercuts in the early 90s. Little did I realise I'd be working with the guy forevermore.

Over the last 30 years I've been fortunate enough to work with him on a variety of projects and all of them were fantastic experiences. Tom's what I call an original creative and the whole art of mixing is a very emotional thing for him. It made for some long conversations. We fall out all the time but I'm always there for him and he's always there for me. It's one of those annoying Master-Servant relationships. Plus I always need access to his archives.

Anyway Tom got access to the Spring/Event vaults and then started working. This project started almost four years ago and, typically in this day and age, went through a number of mutations and delays. We're lucky it's finally here.

I still listen to everything that Tom does. These mixes bring out aspects of the songs that I never properly listened to before and, in a couple of cases, had never even heard. Thus is the art of the creative remixer.

It's been particularly poignant talking to Tom throughout this pandemic. Tom is really the last survivor of his type. A master-craftsman using 80 years of skill and knowledge and who is every bit as passionate today, surrounded by his cats and computers, as he was in the 60s, surrounded by a coterie of young and adoring music fans.

Marco Shuttle's third album, Cobalt Desert Oasis, features a varied collection of music recorded across a two year period. Often traveling to remote destinations, Marco would come back to Berlin with field recordings, images, and other inspirations to process in his studio and turn into sound.

The theme of the journey turns into a something more abstract than a travel diary, where environmental sounds blend in with modular synthesis, drum machines, effects and analog oscillators resulting in a cinematic listening experience where psychedelia, ritualism, and mysticism weave together in a sort of alien soundscape - that as the title of the album suggests, is reminiscent of a parallel utopian world.

The album is rich in complex rhythmics, and more than in any of his previous work, has strong acoustic elements. Amongst other percussion instruments, Marco used the Tombak, a traditional Persian hand drum capable of reaching a very wide range of frequencies - from deep round subby toms, to high pitched sharp rimshots, throughout the record.

Marco Shuttle is certainly not new to these sort of elements, but in Cobalt Desert Oasis he brings the environmental element of his sound into the forefront in a way that takes the listener into a hazy expanse where it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the machine elements from the natural - and where the music almost becomes a visual experience, which relates to Marco's own photography used throughout the cover and insert images.

With "Broken Land" Daniel Nitsch presents the first album of his latest project "Hounah" - and thus grants a deep look into his feelings and thoughts. Pieces like "Sorrow", "Fairbanks" or "Norton Bay", which invite you trace inside, are accompanied by those that present Daniel's personal views on very political and generally relevant issues, presented in songs like "Revolution", "Guilty State" or "Cash For Your Home". They cover topics like racism and gentrification, deal with the burden that imperialism places on us. Ask for what a future could look like - and how it could successfully happen at all. Thus, Hounah is not a feel-good project, "Broken Land", the title suggests it, a profound, here and there even painful inventory, which wants to stimulate reflection and further thinking. Very diverse, thematically as well as musically – and created with great attention to detail. Listening closely allows light bulb effects in terms of content, but also in terms of sound, lets us walk in the footsteps of downbeat, hip-hop, trip-hop, ambient, electronica and jazz. Hounah quickly reveals here that they are not afraid of breaks, but are also capable of soulful fusions in sound collages. The circle of friends behind Hounah, consisting of producer Daniel Nitsch, pianist Johann Blanchard, singer Lena Schmidt and guitarist Marten Pankow, came together for the album "Broken Land" in order to immediately try out further alliances: two of the songs on the album were created in creative cooperation with A-F-R-O, the internationally known rapper from Los Angeles. And so it is little surprise that each song creates a new world of sounds and thoughts – and one suspects already after the first tracks that there is more waiting for us, that "Broken Land" will not remain Hounah’s last work.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UNFORTUNATELY THE SIDES ARE REVERSED ON THE VINYL, I.E. THE A-SIDE IS THE B-SIDE AND VICE VERSA. WITH THE PURCHASE OF THE VINYL OR THE CD YOU WILL GET THE SINGLE MP3 FILES AS WELL AS A CONTINOUS MIX VIA E-MAIL.

With the cover artwork for Pop Ambient 2022, longtime KOMPAKT graphic artist Veronika Unland has once again outdone herself. Following the almost baroque, blood-red and jet-black, extremely physical sculptures of Pop Ambient 2021, which emerged from a dark, floral sea like bodies erect for dancing, the front of 2022 is adorned with a pastel-white form, intertwined, folded many times and crisscrossed with delicate shading, which seems to float on a pale pink background; soft, gentle waves woven from Venetian colors that leave the viewer puzzled: Is it a flower, a coral, a mollusk?

Again, the current edition of the tradition-steeped compilation series curated by Wolfgang Voigt is about the persistent and ever-necessary definition of beauty, of reduction, of electronic music of heavy lightness and light heaviness, of ambient's eternal promise of a state of physical and acoustic weightlessness and Pop's of redemption. And about the question why a never arbitrary combination of soundscape, drones, samples and loops, put together in a certain way, can create this feeling of warmth, depth and space, - something three-dimensional, where the imagination feels at home as a fish in the water or a bird in the sky. A key aesthetic stimulus that sends all the senses into a slow glide and drift, after which your synapses feel like they've been bathed in essential oil. Next to Soul, Ambient is probably the most effective musical healing plant of mankind.

Behind the aural test tubes, the who's who of Pop Ambient is once again at work, led for the first time by the highly trafficked Californian duo Blank Gloss, whose debut album "Melt" this year was certified by The Guardian as nothing less than "heartaching beauty". Yui Onodera's "Chrome" as well as "Kari", a cooperation of Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth, could also be imagined in the score of Denis Villeneuve's new film version of DUNE - however, colleague Hans Zimmer managed that quite well without the three. After such wonderful and stylish contributions by Reich & Würden, Triola and Thomas Fehlmann, the ear then lingers a bit longer on the ghostly "Weiht" by Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella, a track like a temple of sound, a deep electronic immersion in a Japanese onsen. In this sea of unnameable time you could sink forever, but with the tracks of Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer and Max Würden & Pepo Galán the journey slowly comes to an end.

Mit dem Cover-Artwork für Pop Ambient 2022 hat sich die langjährige KOMPAKT-Grafikerin Veronika Unland einmal mehr selbst übertroffen. Nach den geradezu barocken, in blutrot und tiefschwarz gehaltenen, äußerst physischen Formationen von Pop Ambient 2021, die wie zum Tanz aufgerichtete Körper aus einem dunklen, floralen Meer auftauchten, ziert die Vorderseite von 2022 eine pastell-weiße Skulptur, in sich verschlungen, vielfach gefaltet und von zarten Schattierungen durchzogen, die auf einem blass-rosa Hintergrund zu schweben scheint; weiche, sanfte Wellen aus venezianischen Farben gewebt, die dem Betrachter Rätsel aufgeben: Ist es eine Blüte, eine Koralle, eine Molluske?

Natürlich geht es auch in der aktuellen Ausgabe der traditionsreichen, von Wolfgang Voigt kuratierten Compilation-Reihe um die beharrliche und immer wieder notwendige Definition von Schönheit, von Reduktion, um elektronische Musik von schwerer Leichtigkeit und leichter Schwere, vom ewigen Versprechen des Ambient auf einen Zustand körperlicher und akustischer Schwerelosigkeit und dem von Pop auf Erlösung. Und um die Frage, warum eine nie beliebige Kombination aus Klangfläche, Drones, Samples und Loops, auf eine bestimmte Art zusammengefügt, dieses Gefühl von Wärme, Tiefe und Raum entstehen lassen kann, - etwas dreidimensionales, in dem die Fantasie sich so zuhause fühlt wie ein Fisch im Wasser oder ein Vogel in der Luft. Ein ästhetischer Schlüsselreiz, der alle Sinne in ein langsames Gleiten und Driften versetzt, wonach sich deine Synapsen wieder anfühlen, als habe man sie in ätherischem Öl gebadet. Neben Soul ist Ambient die wahrscheinlich wirksamste musikalische Heilpflanze der Menschheit.

Hinter den auralen Reagenzgläsern hantiert einmal mehr das Who-is-Who der kompaktschen Pop Ambient-Riege, erstmals angeführt vom hoch gehandelten kalifornischen Duo Blank Gloss, deren diesjähriges Debüt-Album “Melt” der englische Guardian nichts weniger als “herzergreifende Schönheit” bescheinigte. Yui Onodera’s “Chrome” sowie “Kari”, eine Kooperation von Markus Guentner und Joachim Spieth, könnte man sich auch gut im Score von Denis Villeneuve’s Neuverfilmung von DUNE vorstellen, - das hat der Kollege Hans Zimmer allerdings auch ohne die drei ganz gut hinbekommen. Nach so wundervollen wie stilsicheren Beiträgen von Reich & Würden, Triola und Thomas Fehlmann verharrt das Ohr dann etwas länger beim geisterhaften “Weiht” von Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella-Weiht, ein Track wie ein Tempel aus Klang, ein tiefes elektronisches Eintauchen in einen japanischen Onsen. In diesem Meer aus unnennbarer Zeit könnte man ewig versinken, doch mit den Tracks von Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer und Max Würden & Pepo Galán geht die Reise langsam zu Ende.

Color of Time is a long distance, ambient and drone project featuring Kevin Sery (From Overseas) and Nick Turner (Tyresta). Created with guitar, synthesizers, Mellotron and effects, their music focuses on themes of impermanence, loss and the impact that humans have on each other and the planet.

Color of Time is a long distance, ambient and drone project featuring Kevin Sery (From Overseas) and Nick Turner (Tyresta). Created with guitar, synthesizers, Mellotron and effects, their music focuses on themes of impermanence, loss and the impact that humans have on each other and the planet.

Color of Time is a long distance, ambient and drone project featuring Kevin Sery (From Overseas) and Nick Turner (Tyresta). Created with guitar, synthesizers, Mellotron and effects, their music focuses on themes of impermanence, loss and the impact that humans have on each other and the planet.

Stephan Bodzin proves once again why he is one of the most innovative techno artists in the world with new album Boavista. The expressive 17 track full length lands on Herzblut Recordings on October 8th 2021 and is proceeded by lead single 'Boavista' on the Afterlife label.

German icon Stephan Bodzin is globally recognised on a number of fronts - his live show is one of techno's most celebrated, his productions constantly push the genre forward with his own trademark sound. He has put out well-received solo long players Liebe Ist and Powers of Ten as well as worked on many other iconic projects under a range of aliases.

In the last year, Stephan had the chance to look back on the vast archives of music he has recorded but never finished. While spending time in Brazil, he picked his 25 favourites and finished them properly, with the best 17 making up Boavista. His simple aim was to tell stories with each track, to paint musical pictures that conjure up very real emotions in the listener. As always, playing the album live was in the back of Bodzin's mind throughout the creative process. This means each track is a powerful piece that is both emotional and honest, physical and straightforward, but also true to the authentic Bodzin sound. The lack of DJ gigs and club experienceshad no impact on the music: Stephan has long since done his own thing and has never tried to conform to expectations.

And so it proves. The album kicks off with the lush 'Earth' which pays homage to all the elements of life - water, fire, wind, as well as time, light and the rotation of the planet. 'LLL' is an electronic lullaby track defined by a sense of love for the people in Stephan's life and 'Astronautin' has a lead synth that came about after Stephan's daughter said she would like to be an astronaut when she grows up. It truly takes you to the stars before the simple but effective melodic patterns of the title track light up a night sky with real hope.

Elsewhere there 'Infinite Monkey' which was a freeform jam that was led by the music itself, the epic pads of 'Dune' and interstellar explorations of the more thoughtful and melancholic 'Cooper Station’. 'Nothing Like You' was written in a hotel room before Stephan's last pre-lockdown gig, then 'Isaac' is another powerful journey through space and time, different worlds and alternative realities.

Further hypnotising highlights come from the soft melodies but powerful basslines of 'Collider', the expansive synths of 'Trancoso' and the delicate beauty of 'Ataraxia', which references German composer Klaus Doldinger who was a huge influence on Stephan's understanding of melodies and harmonics. 'Breathe' is a second spindling vocal track featuring Luna Semara next to 'Nothing Like You' and closer 'Rose' isa heartbreaking piano piece.

Boavista is another exquisitely crafted album of rich, synth-heavy electronic music that takes you into new worlds of emotion and leaves you in awe

From different latitudes, they have come.
Look up the noise they bring.
Open up your mind.
Strange times are here...

Leng Records has long admired Andrew Meecham’s work as the Emperor Machine. Last year, Meecham made his first appearance on the label via a fine remix of Harks & Mudd favourite ‘Susta’. 12 months on, Meecham returns to Leng with his first Emperor Machine outing of 2021, a typically eccentric, heavily electronic dancefloor outing featuring the seductive vocals of rising star Séverine Mouletin. Meecham is one of British dance music’s most experienced and lauded producers, with a packed history stretching right back to the acid house era. He first rose to fame as part of Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips (both alongside long-term studio partner Dean Meredith), but over the last two decades has devoted far more time to solo work as The Emperor Machine. In the process, he’s developed a sparse, hypnotic, heavily electronic trademark sound that combines analogue and modular synthesizer sounds with nods to post-punk disco, new wave, trippy proto-house and the mind-altering experiments of the Radiophonic Workshop.



‘Dance Par Amour’, his first solo single on Leng, is typical of his now familiar personal sonic style, with echoing, alien-sounding synthesizer motifs (some reminiscent of those that marked out Chicken Lips’ club classic ‘He Not In’), with bubbly sequenced bass, unfussy machine drums, rubbery slap-bass riffs and flashes of post-punk disco guitars.



Sparse but weighty and pleasingly trippy, the EP-leading ‘Extended Vocal Mix’ is classic Emperor Machine: a near ten-minute workout in which Mouletin’s tender but confident vocals rise above Meecham’s stylish and note perfect backing track, which sits somewhere between early ‘80s ‘no wave’ New York disco, lo-fi European synth-pop and the trippy late night dancefloor dubs that were once a feature of American boogie and proto-house records. Meecham further explores his love of these sparse, effects-laden “synth-dubs” on the accompanying ‘Erotique Dub’, a thrillingly heavy, heads-down affair awash with echoing vocal snippets, hypnotic drums and synthesizer flourishes that attractively echo across the sound space. Like the best DJ-focused dubs of the early 1980s, the remix is propelled forwards by a strong bassline, around which other elements – guitar, bass guitar, sparkling synth sounds and mind-mangling electronics – appear, make their mark and then drift off into the ether. With key passages of Mouletin’s vocal appearing periodically to encourage people to dance, it’s the kind of delightfully wayward revision that will keep people dancing well into the early hours.

absent origin’ reassembles and reimagines recordings and musical
scores composed by Mira Calix, globally, over the past decade. It’s a
collage album about edges and borders, cutting and tearing, and
composing new combinations that point to an audio visual manifesto for the 21st Century.

“Like Duchamp, I had started out wanting to make an album, or box, of approximately all the things I produced. In the end, I realised - as much as a collage is the coupling of two or more realities, it also offers the means to examine the materials and culture of an era, questioning and expanding its borders.” - Mira Calix

Every song on the album was created by applying a different collage
process relating to a different visual artist, spanning the history of collage to contemporaries of the practice. The sonic materials are subjected to a myriad of processes; layered, synthesised, constructed and assembled into electronic melodies, textures and complex, frisky dance rhythms that are constantly shifting in surprising ways. absent origin employs collage to make sense of the current moment of displaced voices, disjunction and political unrest.

Calix’s recording sessions from all over the world are the many
fragments we hear across the album; from India to Tasmania, Jordan to Belgium, China to Uganda, her former home of South Africa, to her
current home in Britain. Slicing into these are further recordings of
vocalists, percussionists, choirs, orchestras, quartets and soloists, never appearing in the form in which they were originally intended. The record is a polyphony of predominantly diverse female voices held together by pulsating baselines, haunting electronic sounds and orchestrated melodies and with them, we travel.

The album fizzes with a political energy and the interconnectedness of
everything. At this moment in time, there is an impossibility of separating one thing from another; the effect is strange and not exactly reassuring.

Collage suggests infinite possibilities and each track here is a singularly unique compositional combine, a dizzying hall of mirrors with its own unlikely harmony, its own distinctive rhythm. On ‘absent origin’, collage becomes the tool to make sense of a present that is often anything but.

2LP in printed inner sleeves with 5mm spine outer, printed insert and
digital download code.

It's back-to-back hits with the return of the Names You Can Trust split single series featuring two new emerging artists and record debuts.

After years on the local New York scene as DJs, collaborators and permanent fixtures amongst the brightest of musicians and artists, Raspadura has spent a long time brewing behind the curtain, tucked away in the musical minds of real life partners Josue Granados (Sonidero Mixteco, Los Taxis) and Dayan Silva (Dayansiiita). Their coming out party as recording artists is a perfect encapsulation of the duo's raucous but delightful energy. "Pa Que Gocen" is pure punkera, but seasoned with a deep musical appreciation that abounds in the timeless tropical music universe, and surely a precursor to further recording adventures, as this debut should warrant. The appeal is obvious as soon as the needle drops. Silva's enchanting vocals grab you immediately, with tales of sweets upon sweets. Pure visions of dulce, panela and miel are chanted over the rhythm of Granados' low down ska-beat and hypnotizing tres cubano. For Raspadura, dessert is first!

Come fly with Grupo Pernil in this ode to the timeless vibes of gypsy rumba, merengue and guaracha. Featuring an international all-star cast of musicians from travelling adventures and collaborations of recent years, "Danza de la Cabra" was originally conceived at home in the NYCT studio, and later brought to life with additional sessions inside Amsterdam's Heat Too Hot and Barcelona's Nación Funk studios. This one-off instrumental recording turned into a case of severe psicodelica, under the influence and improvisation of the group's talented players and percussion professionals, then amped and electrified for maximum effect with a touch of studio magic and a taste for local iberico. Featuring members of Greenwood Rhythm Coalition, Conjunto Papa Upa, Fundación Tony Manero and Los Fulanos.

The Kniteforce Complete Collection Volume 4 does exactly what it says on the box, giving you the full Kniteforce Vinyl releases of the tracks from KF61-KF80, fully remastered, in both Wav and MP3 format. These tracks have NEVER been released on the digital stores, and until now have never been avaialbel in any digital format. All the tracks here are from the beginning of the new vinyl era, and as such feature some of the names that have made themselves in recent years, such as Mannik, Nicky Allen and Shadowplay, not to mention tracks from old skool masters such as Hyper-On Experience, Billy Bunter and The Fat Controller, right beside Kniteforce’s legendary roster of Dj Ham, Dj Force & The Evolution, Luna-C, Alk-e-d and many more…

Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Ray Keith, Nookie, El Hornet, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

Three years after the platinum Effet Miroir (Mirror Effect), Zaz is about to release her fifth album. A record she began making during the spring 2020 lockdown.

After a frenzied decade of sold-out concerts, awards and prestigious collaborations (Quincy Jones, Charles Aznavour), it was after her last world tour which ended in the United States that Zaz refocused herself. For this album, recorded between Provence (Southern France), Brussels and Amsterdam’s area, Zaz worked with Dutch producer REYN (Vanessa Paradis, Stephan Eicher, Benjamin Biolay, Gaëtan Roussel…). “Imagine a world in tune with you”, advises Zaz in the first single. “When you see the state the world is in, it saddens me. What are we going to leave for our children?", asks the artist, who has always held deeply ingrained questions of education and environment. “It's sad, scary. But ‘Imagine’ is a song of hope", she explains, putting things into perspective.

Legally blind from birth, Brazilian keyboard player, composer and bandleader Manfredo Fest learnt to read music in braille and began studying classical music at a young age. By 17 he had fallen in love with jazz (particularly the music of fellow blind pianist George Shearing) before becoming swept up in Rio's emergent bossa nova movement in the sixties. Moving to the States in 1967 where he would go on to work with fellow countryman Sergio Mendes, Fest recorded and self-released Brazilian Dorian Dream in 1976, enlisting Thomas Kini (bass), Alejo Poveda (drums, percussion) and Roberta Davis (vocals).

Like a turbo-powered, intergalactic elevator ride, Brazilian Dorian Dream builds on the principle of the modal diatonic scales of the Dorian mode, with influences of Brazilian rhythms, North American jazz and funk, and music of the European baroque and romantic era. The coming together of these intergenerational and intercontinental styles coupled with Fest's visionary use of the Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Arp and Moog synthesizers (plus a whole load of effects units), makes for an album light years ahead of its time.

The miraculous wordless vocals of American jazz singer Roberta Davis are nailed so tightly alongside Manfredo's keys and mind-bending synths that it sounds almost alien. On the album's liner notes, Fest preaches Davis' ability highlighting how hard it is to sing such precise intervals so accurately. One of the tracks on which the vocals shine brightest is space funk stepper "Jungle Cat", which features hard funky drums, freaky synth lines and expert Rhodes comping. The track builds up and up before releasing into the unmistakable scat melody in the chorus.

A few years after releasing Brazilian Dorian Dream, Fest recorded and released his Manifestations album in 1979, featuring 'Jungle Kitten'': a new dancefloor focused variation on "Jungle Cat". At around 140 BPM 'Jungle Kitten' was possibly deemed too fast for statside dance floors, which explains why it never got a US 12" release. But the track became something of an underground hit at jazz dance clubs and all-dayers across the UK in the 80s and as a result it has probably become Fest's most well known track since.

This is a super-limited strictly 1000 copy one-off only edition pressed on white coloured vinyl of this in-demand Trees Speak classic debut album.
When the band Trees Speak, coming out of nowhere, released an exclusive one-off 100-pressing white label 45, described as CAN/NEU! meets LIQUID LIQUID, it sold out so quickly (in less than 30 min) that Soul Jazz Records decided to release their album almost immediately.
Soul Jazz Records rarely release new music but found the music of TREES SPEAK’s album ‘OHMS’ so stunning and to have so many elements of music that they admired that they felt compelled to release it.
The group Trees Speak are from Tucson, Arizona and create new music that sounds like GERMAN KRAUTROCK meets NO WAVE/POST-PUNK and PSYCH ROCK – music for fans of CLUSTER, TANGERINE DREAM, CAN, NEU!, SILVER APPLES and early KRAFTWERK.
The album ‘OHMS’ sounds at times like a tripped out & moody JOHN CARPENTER/GOBLIN/MORRICONE soundtrack that seamlessly segues into propulsive, ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals loaded with fuzzy, hypnotic mellotron, synths and analogue effects, as well as elements of ART ENSEMBLE free jazz, and all at times reaching a kind of post-rave psychedelia. More recent comparisons would include BEAK and GHOST BOX who draw upon similar themes and styles.
Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz plus musicians from the Tucson, Arizona scene such as Giant Sand, XIXA and James Hunter. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in Trees and plants – using them as hard drives – and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.

Splatter Vinyl

Latest compilation of ISSUES containing big tracks from artists such as Detlef, Chicks Luv Us, George Smeddles, CAAL & BAUM and Brown Vox.

On the A side we find George Smeddles with hard hitting house track “FIX”, from trippy and sexy vocals to smooth cut baselines. Second track by Caal & Baum “I Wish”, a playful groove, solid bassline, robotised vocals and a powerful breakdown.

On the B Side Detlef is on remix duties for Chicks Luv Us “Other Dimension’ with a bass driven remix, combined with clever effects, chopped vocals and a solid breakdown that will bring dancefloors to life and last but not least we have Brown Vox’s “Do It Ma Way”. A track with smooth elements, bouncy beats, subby basslines, a massive breakdown with vocals and a quick drop that surprises everyone before it kicks in.

Trees Speak is an experimental rock band that transcend mainstream influences by incorporating elements of Avant-garde, Neo-psychedelic, Minimalism, art and electronic - along with violin-bowed guitar, Theremin and a glut of effects pedals, and it's an ear-bending rush of lush soundscapes.

Trees Speak - as much a sound laboratory as a rock and roll band - is the musical venture of acclaimed visual artist and musician Daniel Martin Diaz (formerly of Blind Divine and Crystal Radio). For the debut double-LP Trees Speak is joined by Michael Glidewell (Black Sun Ensemble), Gabriel Sullivan (XIXA, Giant Sand), Connor Gallaher (Myrrors & Cobra Family Picnic), Damian Diaz (Human Error), and Julius Schlosburg (Jeron White Acoustic Trio). The studio itself should also take top billing, because in the tradition of krautrockers Can and Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, the band takes its winding, incandescent motoric rock and roll improvisations and edits them into coherent compositions using the mixing desk after recording. And that's where the sound lab half of the equation appears. The end result is flowing and droning ambient proto-punk reminiscent of fellow travelers NEU!, Stereolab, - Joshua Levine

Our intention is to create music with an unrehearsed minimalist approach performing simple beats, riffs, and sequences that take one inward. We attempt to create a sonic environment to set one's mind free and to become aware of the nuances of tone, melody, and structure. We organize our recording equipment with the same approach, in a transparent manner. Our recorded performances are never rehearsed. Our belief is that a brilliant rehearsal is a lost opportunity to capture a magical moment. We are chasing the mystery of music and tone. We let the musical performance sculpt its own destiny and create imperfect perfection. Our tool of creation is the anxiety one feels when they are unrehearsed or prepared for a performance. We believe this approach brings us closer to the authentic self. The result is genuine music without an agenda that captures the unfiltered spirit.
- Trees Speak


The music was recorded live in one room with no overdubs or repairs, only using edits to create arrangements. All tracks were written over a 5 day period at Sacred Machine Studio and Dust & Stone Studio.

Flatland/Spaceland is the debut solo release from renowned pedal steel player, visual artist and composer Joe Harvey-Whyte, who has worked with the likes of Tony Visconti, The Hanging Stars and Susanne Sundfor. Flatland/Spaceland blurs the borderlines between ambient and neoclassical to create an engaging and meditative listening experience.


The first side of the 2 track EP, titled Flatland is a glacial ambient creation made using pedal steel guitar processed through multiple effects together with field recordings and occasional revelatory sounds from Himalayan singing bowls. Spaceland, on side B, takes the composition and refracts it through an orchestral lens. A 26-piece ensemble delicately creep in to the calming world echoed by side A. As the piece develops the result is something more akin to a film soundtrack. Occupying the space between ambient and neoclassical, Flatland / Spaceland by Joe Harvey-Whyte invites us to take a step back from the busyness of our lives for 20 minutes and reflect.

The Pop Group’s seminal 1979 album ‘Y’ has been
given a new dub mix by British reggae legend
Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell, who has produced for
a wide variety of artists including Fela Kuti,
Bananarama and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
 This new version of the album features reimagined
arrangements of the original album’s tracks with
mind-bending space echoes and a plethora of
other studio effects.
 ‘Y’ is ranked by The Wire as one of the 100 Most
Important Records Ever Made and by Pitchfork as
one of The Best Albums Of The ‘70s.
 CD housed in a brown Kraft Board card sleeve
with vinyl replica CD.
 Double vinyl in brown Kraft Board sleeve with
exclusive poster insert and additional packaging
plus digital download code.
 Cassette with booklet and digital download code.

The Pop Group’s seminal 1979 album ‘Y’ has been
given a new dub mix by British reggae legend
Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell, who has produced for
a wide variety of artists including Fela Kuti,
Bananarama and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
 This new version of the album features reimagined
arrangements of the original album’s tracks with
mind-bending space echoes and a plethora of
other studio effects.
 ‘Y’ is ranked by The Wire as one of the 100 Most
Important Records Ever Made and by Pitchfork as
one of The Best Albums Of The ‘70s.
 CD housed in a brown Kraft Board card sleeve
with vinyl replica CD.
 Double vinyl in brown Kraft Board sleeve with
exclusive poster insert and additional packaging
plus digital download code.
 Cassette with booklet and digital download code.

12” gatefold jacket w/ full color matte UV print, 1x translucent purple cloudy effect vinyl, black dust sleeve, printed LP labels, marketing sticker and free digital download card

Gregory Keltgen (aka DJ Abilities) gravitated toward the turntables at a young age, becoming a DJ at only 17, before going on to compete in the legendary DMC DJ competitions only 2 years later in 1999. He won the regional title and advanced to the U.S. finals that year, before doing it again in 2001. Soon after, Abilities was also garnering attention for performing all the scratches on indie classic, Fantastic Damage, the debut album by El-P of Run The Jewels’ fame, as well as contributing his turntable talents and production skills to other Hip-Hop cult favorites like The Anti-Album by Semi.Official, and The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel? by Deep Puddle Dynamics. But above all, his name would become most celebrated throughout the 2000’s as one-half of the dynamic Hip-Hop duo Eyedea & Abilities.

DJ Abilities had first met Micheal “Eyedea” Larsen in the mid-90’s, and the two soon began a working relationship that would eventually play a prominent role in the burgeoning Indie-Rap movement of the time. Together, the pair developed a near symbiotic

creative union that produced three albums—First Born; E&A; and By The Throat—a catalog animated by the burning fusion of Eyedea’s introspective and technically adept rhymes with Abilities’ precise scratches and versatile production. Tragically, his partner Eyedea passed away in 2010 leaving Abilities to soldier on by himself, but the influence of their partnership continues to shape DJ Abilities’ music to this day.

His latest project, Phonograph Phoenix, finds the DJ/Producer returning to the forefront and embracing an entirely new approach to making music. A departure from previous work that was primarily sample-based, Phonograph Phoenix finds Abilities opting to build the album’s compositions from the ground up, creating his own sound through Ableton Live and various soft synths, with razor sharp cuts and select vocal chops providing a voice where his fallen partner may have once stood.

International power duo Dasom Baek (traditional Korean flutes) and Violeta García (cello) present their debut album. is the sound of two leading composers and improvisers pushing their instruments to the technical and creative limit, then beyond into places unnavigated, futuristic and often haunting.

Dasom and Violeta tussle with playful and at times brutal mastery between passages of sparse melody, acrobatic percussion and harmonic drift, while interjecting voices fracture and reassemble into intimate, improbable forms. It is hard to imagine an album more abundant in ideas and motifs, all atomised as soon as they are brought to life. The effect is a tapestry of rugged spirits - moving, and at times just plain beautiful.

Recommended for fans of Okkyung Lee, John Butcher, Messiaen, or Ernst Reijseger.

Dasom Baek is a composer, improviser and performer of traditional Korean instruments, mainly Daegeum, Sogeum. Dasom pursues ground-breaking and modern music rooted in traditional Korean instrumental performance. She is a Certified Master of Important Intangible Cultural Asset, no.45. She has achieved Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Korea National University of Arts, and is currently undertaking a PhD course at Seoul National University. She has also represented Korea at the International Flute Festival. In 2019 she was selected as a fellow for the OMI Music residency in New York, collaborating with various genres of musicians from different countries. In 2020, she released her debut album, titled . In 2021 she was selected as a showcase artist at SXSW Festival.

Violeta García is a cellist, improviser and composer born in 1990 in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied at the Conservatory Astor Piazolla, and holds a degree in Composition from the Conservatory Manuel de Falla, with Ricardo Capellano. She also has a degree in Musical Arts, specialising in violoncello, from the Universidad Nacional of Arts (U.N.A).

After being championed by John Digweed on his iconic Transitions radio show, London duo The Pressure team up with Digweed and his long-time studio partner Nick Muir on Counting Down The Days, a soaring, hypnotic, emotive progressive house cut that points to brighter times ahead.

The Pressure are a London-based electronic band. Diverse production and energetic performance form the pair’s foundations, with influences from rave culture and performance-centric dance acts such as Depeche Mode and Underworld prominent across their releases and live shows.

2020 saw them self-release Ride and Planes: two tough club tracks with songwriting at the heart of them. A statement of intent from the duo, both cuts showcased a varied production approach reminiscent of the Bristol-era of UK electronica. Earlier in 2021 they made their debut on Undisputed Music with Saturday Night, a distinctive dance cut that sat somewhere between deep house and crossover electronica, and has to date clocked up more than a million streams across all platforms.

John Digweed is one of the most celebrated electronic artists of all time, and alongside Nick Muir is responsible for an incredible catalogue of music, so even before you listen to it you know this is going to be something special. Counting Down The Days is a stunning collaboration, combining the pure, driving progressive house of Digweed and Muir with the poignant emotion and raw talent of The Pressure to incredible effect.

Passionate about breaking records and being immersed in the music that fuels our most cherished dancefloor moments, Undisputed Music is doing just that with a coalition of existing and new artists spanning many electronic genres, lining up releases to illuminate audiences across the globe.

Founded by industry aficionados Tony Garvey and Marc Thomas, they share over two decades of experience between them. From currently running the UK Electronic roster for world renowned management company, Red Light, to many years within the walls of, Island Records, Def Jam, Priority Records, MCA / Motown, AM:PM, Defected Records, Strictly Rhythm and Universal Music Publishing, their wealth of knowledge is well earned.


DJ Support:

Pete Tong, John Digweed, Nick Muir, Taiki Nulight

Cinema' is a brilliant snapshot of both artists working together in unison, with Fabrice providing his trademark 'high tech funk & soul' sound alongside Wolfgang's keen, tried and tested ability to fuse clever pop inspirations and catchy vocals through the use of robotic mechanics. Perfect music which balances the headphones and dancefloors on the horizon.
Five versions are on hand with the EP, including the original version of 'Cinema,' a French version of the original, as well as a remixes from Detroit's Ectomorph, UK Electro kingpin Carl Finlow, and Dutch synthesis maestro Versalife aka Conforce.
The original version of 'Cinema' is a gorgeous slice of sonic wizardry designed for exploring the borders between underground electronic club music and pop sensibilities. Catchy vocals play alongside a multitude of synth textures, coexisting perfectly in a melodic mélange equally as pleasing to the ears as the dancing feet. Catchy and clever vibes in equal doses.
Detroit legend Ectomorph's 'Sinema Mix' strips away the main elements and twists the original into an analogue heavy, heads-down drum workout saturated with carefully calculated effect manipulations to the vocals. Equal parts trippy and relentless, the remix is a broken beat workout designed to melt minds, fully ready for a dark concrete warehouse when permissible.
Electro legend Carl Finlow (Random Factor / Silicon Scally) delivers an interpretation of the original which stays loyal to the playful pleasantries of the original version. The signature bouncy, staccato-tinted grooves from Mr. Finlow are at center stage, with the UK producer fully embracing the original vocals and musical elements. A crisp, clean and precise remix, just as expected.
Versalife (aka Conforce) brings his beloved Dutch electronic style to higher levels with his take on the original, fully utilizing (what feels like) each and every one of his favorite machines from within his studio. Aggressive, quickly moving mischief is the name of the game with his remix, complete with sharp, attention- grabbing synths stabs and punchy, powerful drum programming.
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Best known as Hot Chip's clear-voiced frontman, Alexis Taylor also pursues a solo career as an introspective singer/songwriter, exploring distinct themes and ideas with each record. Today Alexis announces the release of his sixth and strongest solo album to date, Silence,

Partly about silence - and how we intersect with it, observe it, try to record it, and how we feel about it when it’s gone, as we remember it - the record is also about religion, transcendence, giving oneself over to something bigger than you, or beyond this world. “I’m not religious myself,” adds Alexis, “but the songs which deal with the idea of gospel music or religion, look at it from a distance (rather like the shaky hand-held lens through which we follow the action in Pasolini’s ‘Gospel According To Matthew’) and try to uncover its influence on music and on people in desperate circumstances.”
The genesis behind Silence started a few years ago with Alexis ruminating on silence as a subject and making plans to make a record of the sounds you hear in public spaces as people observe moments of silence. He then lost his own personal access to silence as tinnitus began in his right ear in 2019 at a Hot Chip show. As Alexis explains, “I started to think about what it meant to me to lose quietness, solitude, meditative head space - as that was no longer available to me.”
Mostly composed in enforced isolation, Silence is a beautifully rich and unexpected conceptual album that is also Alexis’ most accomplished solo record and one that has seen early comparisons with a notably eclectic range of artists including Mark Hollis, George Michael, Big Star, Epic Soundtracks and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. This record sees the first time Alexis has collaborated with Sam Becker (double bass), Kenichi Iwasa (horn, trumpet) and Rachel Horton-Kitchlew (harp), who due to lockdown had to work in isolation from Alexis. In one case Kenichi recorded musical passages which were then superimposed on songs he had never heard - in effect keeping the songs themselves silent from the playing until the mixes were played to him.