Shadow of Fear is Cabaret Voltaire’s first studio album in 26 years. Richard H. Kirk is the sole remaining member; he’s released many acclaimed solo albums, having invented bleep techno via his groundbreaking work in Sweet Exorcist. Kirk has formed this new album from a series of pulverising live shows. The tone and personality of CV is ingrained in its core as it dances across techno, dub, house, 1970s Germany and general esoteric explorations coupled with mangled vocal samples.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: As important a document as anything they've done, 'Shadow Of Fear' is a swimming electronic odyssey, split between hypnotic industrial percussion and slowly evolving synth arps, bringing the churning driven thump we know so well, as well as a more playful, danceable backbone. Superb.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Limited edition purple vinyl.

2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Follow-up EP for Multi Culti from this Berlin duo merging sleek Krautrock influences, decades long production experience, jazz-percussion chops and funky German vocals.

‘Kometenschweif’ will sound the most familiar to fans of Sascha Funke’s club-ready tracks, with percussive and vocal flourishes from Niklas Wandt. ‘Kreidekreis’ takes the tempo down while ramping up the trippiness, a circular journey into funk bass, synth prog, and again, a percussion masterclass.

Finally, ‘Weg Vom Leder’ sounds like a lost Falco tune, brought up to date. On the remix side, Alexander Arpeggio somehow manages to swing ‘Kreidekreis’ into a digital reggae slowburner, while Whodamanny turns Kometenschweif toward indie-kraut-wave bop.

STAFF COMMENTS

says: My favourite percussive piss-taker gets back in the ring with Sascha Funke for a very German edition of the oddball house / shamanic electronics experience. Post kraut hypnotism, commune funk and NDW chuggers on the OGs, while Alex Arpeggio and Whodamanny embrace the cosmic and leather clad on their remixes.

PVA are a new genre-melding 3-piece from London’s Brixton Windmill / Speedy Wunderground scene consisting of Josh Baxter, Ella Harris and Louis Satchell. They are the exciting new signing to the Big Dada roster with new EP ‘Toner’.

With influences across the musical spectrum, their music traverses a fistful of genres, throughout rapturous live sets. Incorporating techno landscaped Balearic euphoria and industrial miasma within the same songs, the band’s unique energy combines with blocky synths, deadpan vocals and motorik drum loops to earmark the group as one of the capital’s foremost new bands.

The EP is produced by Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Squid, Black Midi).

The EP also features remixes from Mura Masa, an early fan of the trio, Lynks and Daniel Fox of Girl Band. Remixes by INK (of Squid) and DJ Dairy to follow in 2021.

PVA initially formed in the aftermath of a house party in 2018 and have since earned a fearsome reputation as one of the capital’s premier live outfits, garnering hardcore support before even setting foot inside a studio.

The band have headlined The Windmill in Brixton with regular shows at The Five Bells and the Bunker in Deptford, defining PVA as a big part of the local music community in their early career. Support slots have included Franc Moody, A Certain Ratio, HMLTD, The Orielles, Dry Cleaning, Black Midi and Squid. They have played an enormous string of festivals in the UK and Europe, including Great Escape, Wide Awake, Visions, Valkhof, End Of The Road, Bluedot, Midi, Visions, Noroeste, Sur Le Lac, Into The Great Wide Open, Fuzz Club, Manchester Psych Fest and Sonic City Festival.

For fans of Black Midi, Squid, Working Men's Club, Black Country, New Road, LCD Soundsystem. 

STAFF COMMENTS

says: Swarve, urgent electro-indie-dance here from a group who certainly seem to know their onions. It's been a while since anyone gave The Juan Maclean and LCD a run for their money, but I believe these could well do it!

FORMAT INFORMATION

12" Info: 140g black vinyl in printed card inner sleeve inside a 3mm spine printed sleeve. Digital download code included.

This is Ryuichi Sakamoto’s landmark 1981 album reissued for the first time in decades outside of Japan. The album is superb blend of Electro, funk and ambient. All remastered by Bernie Grundman with new introduction by British Journalist Anton Spice. Wewantsounds reissue of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s third solo album “Hidari Ude No Yume” (Left Handed Dream), originally released in 1981 on the Alfa label. Save for a small-scale Dutch vinyl release in 1981, it is the first time the album’s original Japanese edition is released outside of Japan (the European release on Epic Records included significantly different tracks and mixes).

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xDeluxe LP Info: Limited double LP indie exclusive edition with the 2nd LP featuring a full instrumental mix never released on vinyl.

Teletronix is a musical alter ego of British producer Will Holland aka Quantic. Side A ‘Metropolitan’ was composed, performed and mixed entirely on the famed OP-1 mini synthesizer made by Teenage Engineering. The track mangles 8-bit Afrobeat rhythms with vapor wave montunos, supplying heat for a virtual dance floor in a Zoom side room near you. Side B is a DJ tool of assorted sirens and sound effects for use in DJ sets, largely made up of siren sounds produced with the OP-1. Use them sparingly to spice up a mix, season lightly or sound the alarm in your neighborhood for your next houseparty broadcast.

FORMAT INFORMATION

7" Info: Limited to 183 copies.

Bristol's Twelve Hour Foundation return to Castles in Space with their first new LP since 2018's long sold out "tree little mile egg book...and other non sequiturs". Their blend of musique concrète, treated field recordings, library music, early electronic pop and the Radiophonic work of John Baker and Paddy Kingsland has never sounded better.

The initial inspiration for the album is a journey - regularly taken by Jez Butler (Yamaha CS-10, flute, vocals, field recordings) until the end of the 70s, from Cleethorpes to Hull, by diesel multiple train and British Rail paddle steamer, hence track titles like "Lincoln Castle Engine Room", "New Holland Pier" and "Chalk Factory" - a reference to a small production plant viewed from the train window that rendered the neighbouring landscape white. The ferries and pier were scrapped following the opening of the Humber bridge.
As with the previous album, the idea behind most of the music is to draw on abstract childhood emotions and their associated memories. It's an incredibly warm and evocative listening experience.

The majority of tracks are expertly underpinned by a musique concrète backing, drawing on the band's recordings of houshold objects. In most cases, the bass was derived from a length of ribbed plastic tubing, the cymbals from a metal kitchen draining rack, and the pads/chords from the filtered sound of an electric hair clipper. This is overlayed with vintage analogue synthesizers, treated field recordings and - on a couple of tracks - the odd vocal or flute line. The track "Polivoks" takes it's title from the Soviet analogue synthesizer of the same name which was manufactured throughout the 1980's.

The album's sleeve was designed in keeping with the scholastic nature of much of the music, incorporating Polly Hulse's (Moog Rogue, Korg Volca Keys, concrète sequences) photos from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry.

The album's title, "Six Twenty Negative" refers to the film used in the Kodak Brownie Box camera. Famous for producing slightly wooly prints from large individual negatives.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Heavyweight brown vinyl.