MAGIC MIX

house . techno . electronica . ambient . neo-classical

WEEK STARTING 18 Oct

Genre pick of the week Cover of Crush by Floating Points.

Floating Points

Crush

Ninja Tune

We've come an awful long way since Floating Points' first utterances entered our stratosphere. That opening trio of twelves ("J&W Beat", "Love Me Like This" and "Vacuum Boogie") immediately caught the attention of us and our customers and we've been hooked on this cat throughout the last ten years.

Whereas the incredible "Elaenia" (2015) was a five-year process, "Crush" was made during an intense five-week period, inspired by the invigorating improvisation of his shows supporting The xx in 2017. He had just finished touring with his own live ensemble, culminating in a Coachella appearance, when he suddenly became a one-man band, just him and his trusty Buchla opening up for half an hour every night. He thought what he’d come out with would 'be really melodic and slow-building' to suit the mood of the headliners, but what he ended up playing was 'some of the most obtuse and aggressive music I've ever made, in front of 20,000 people every night,' he says. 'It was liberating.'

Fundamentally, this is still stylistically a Floating Points record. Classically informed pieces drift into focus without beats, only to dissolve into a mist of modular-generated textures. There's some speaker-tested mainroom techno moments, namely the lead single "LesAlpx" which concludes side A's meticulously programmed schedule with a moment of undiluted dancefloor energy. Fans of his jazz-flecked house will find tracks like "Last Bloom" and "Anasickmodular" a joy to behold; possessing that idiosyncratic shuffle and swing that instantly characterize an FP production. "Bias" opens side B with a unfathomably futuristic, attitude-ridden bass monster until Sam unexpectedly flips into his patented, cerebral jazz-house hybrid. Don't get me wrong though, he's not resting on his laurels in any way. His New Sounds bite and spit, as he seems to harness extraordinary levels of intricacy and power from his trusty Buchla synthesizer and his much lusted-after Arp Odyssey. More refined, more evolved, deeper, richer - but the same Floating Points - sound up your tree? It should be. 


STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The Chetham's graduate has been a permanent fixture on our shelves for the last decade. 'Crush' embodies everything we love about him across a succinct and direct two sides. Drifting through a highly musical sanctum, we get expressions on modular and synth informed, and indeed elevated, by Sam's well documented and rich musical education. Floating Points is a great ambassador for modern dance music which often gets berated by the older lot for its lack of musicality.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Indies Exclusive LP Info: 140g black vinyl housed in a glossy sleeve with exclusive cover art, artwork printed inside and out, 4 page A4 booklet featuring a score of album track ‘Birth’.

Indies Exclusive LP includes MP3 Download Code.

LP Info: 140g black vinyl housed in a glossy sleeve with artwork printed inside and out, 4 page A4 booklet featuring a score of album track ‘Birth’.

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

CD Info: CD in digipak with fold-out booklet featuring a score of album track ‘Birth’.

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Cover of The Clearing by A Produce.

A Produce

The Clearing

All Night Flight

    The Clearing is the debut album by the late Los Angeles-based musician Barry Craig aka A Produce. As co-founder of the underground cassette imprint Trance Port Tapes, Craig managed to assemble local artists who were working within the realms of DIY electronics and rhythmic, spacious sound. Incubated over a three year period, '88 release The Clearing draws on the roster of TPT associates such as Scott Fraser (Kronos Quartet), Daniel Voznick (Afterimage) and guitarist Scott Marc Becker resulting an 'an album of conceptual space', owing equally to the guitar-based new-wave releases of the imprint prior as to the later, and deeper ambient trance sound that would follow. Coming at this intersection of styles, there are moments of deep introspection and sulking, minimal drum machines followed by pieces of more outward expression only to be plunged back into tense, oppressive atmospheres. Yet despite these shifts in style, the sense of mood and cohesion throughout is ever-present, giving a true sense of inhabiting a unique space - or 'The Clearing'. Stockport-based store All Night Flight Records is proud to present this official reissue, with the blessing of Craig's estate and artwork replicated by the original artist - renown designer Bruce Licher of Independent Project Recordings. Distributed by Low Company.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Patrick says: Microdosing man Tom Houghton launches the label arm of his vinyl empire All Night Flight this week, with a meticulous reissue of esoteric LA rarity "The Clearing" by A Produce. Fusing post punk, tribal, minimalist and ambient into a surprisingly accessible LP, Trance Port boss Barry Craig came up with a sublime LP, which we now get the chance to enjoy!

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    Cover of Lanterns by Alex Albrecht Presents Melquiades.

    Alex Albrecht Presents Melquiades

    Lanterns

    Analogue Attic Recordings

    Alex Albrecht returns to the Analogue Attic imprint under his Melquiades guise; delivering a five-track package in the shape of "Lanterns".

    Albrecht explains 'The concept is a continuation of my last release with AAR and aims to take the listener on a journey to a strange place - falling asleep, it leads one down a rainy, lantern-lit path and into another world. At the end of the record, the listener is finally awoken by a familiar voice.'

    All of the compositions are improvised explorations with field recordings at their core as the framework. "Lanterns Pt. 1 & Pt. 2" lead, easing you into the project with swirling, hazy atmospherics and ethereal piano melodies floating atop rounded subs and soft percussion.

    "Neon Canal" follows, bringing the rhythm to the forefront whilst bubbling bell chimes, warm chords and expansive delays ebb and flow within.

    Up next is "Cockatoo Horizon", a Balearic tinged cut employing off-kilter organic percussion, soft guitar licks and airy atmospherics before 'Embers ft. James Harbard' strips things back to floaty chords, bumpy drums and jazzy guitar melodies subtly unfolding throughout.

    "Federation Bells" then rounds out the release on a beatless tip, laid out over six minutes with otherworldly tones, melancholic piano chords and textural intimacy. Excellent!



    STAFF COMMENTS

    Sil says: No hard edges on this one. As polished as they come. Subtle, melodic, hypnotic. A standout among the dross.

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    Cover of Juice B Crypts by Battles.

    Battles

    Juice B Crypts

    Warp

    Battles return with their fourth album "Juice B Crypts" on Warp Records to follow their complex, mind-bending predecessors "Mirrored", "Gloss Drop, Dross Glop" and "La Di Da Di". Their latest album is a sensory overload of information that throws everything you thought you knew about Battles into flux once again. John Stanier's percussive power drives the LP through motorik, jazz and post rock, while the cubist keyboard and guitar melodies of Ian Williams capture the fractal pop majesty the group have made their own over the past decade or so.


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: While Battles' previous outing definitely tread more through the math rock spectrum, and sometimes suffered cohesion losses through it's jagged momentum, 'Juice B Crypts'leans slightly more towards the free-jazz end of things, with loungey grooves and deep rolling basses keeping a solid backline behind their characteristic madness.

    FORMAT INFORMATION

    2xColoured LP Info: Indies exclusive transparent vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

    2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

    CD Info: Gatefold wallet with poster booklet.

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    Cover of Get Lost by Bruno Bavota.

    Bruno Bavota

    Get Lost

    Temporary Residence Ltd.

      Bruno Bavota – the young, prolific Italian composer whose music has often been labeled with earnest, adjective-laden descriptors such as “disarmingly sincere” and “extraordinarily emotional” – has experienced a self-imposed creative transformation over the past few years. Where his early records were pristine, piano-driven expressions of universal themes, his more recent works have found him in a place of thorough meditation and self-examination.

      As Bavota explains, “While at the beginning of my music and career, I focused on crystal clear piano sounds, eventually all the time spent at the piano day after day changed my sense of the piano itself. I started to see the piano like a living instrument.” Get Lost is Bruno Bavota's first studio album since the 2016 release of Il Pozzo D'Amor thrust him into that peculiar world of anonymous but significant success via high-volume streaming playlists and high-profile TV commercials. Il Pozzo D'Amor would be his last album of immaculate, traditional piano music. If Get Lost isn't a complete reinvention, it is at the very least a completely different direction. Rather than obsess over the sound of the piano itself, Bavota now explores the sounds around the piano - the resonance, the silence, and the acoustic ambience of the living, breathing space in which the piano resides. He employs an array of outboard effects pedals and processors to not just capture those sounds that are often overlooked, but to sample, loop, and reposition them as central figures in a story.

      Bruno Bavota gave Get Lost its name when he found himself drifting deeper into the darker side of his music. Inspired by a familiar observation of modern life, Bavota confessed, "I think people are becoming more selfish and don't seem to have time to listen to other people who need to be heard. We don't show much empathy." Much like Bavota's evolving approach to the piano, he has discovered profound purpose and influence in the people and places least visible but most meaningful

      FORMAT INFORMATION

      Coloured LP Info: Indies-only green undertone vinyl.

      Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

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      Cover of Mizik Bel - Inc. Africaine 808 by Esnard Boisdur.

      Esnard Boisdur

      Mizik Bel - Inc. Africaine 808

      Favorite

      "You don’t need to be a fan of Gwoka or even Antillean music in general to fall in love with the deep, expressive voices of the singers of the genre. Artists like Cosack, Anzala and Esnard Boisdur have fascinated music lovers around the globe for decades. It’s not only the drumming style accompanied by their beautiful melodic intonation, but also the revolutionary spirit of these songs that make them a unique and powerful document of the culture and the history of the Antilles and the Caribbean.
      I remember the first time I listened to this type of drumming and signing, live at the re-enactment of the slave riots, and being completely emotionally overwhelmed by it. Some of my record collector/DJ colleagues and friends – first and foremost Hugo Mendez and Émile Omar – shared the same fascination for the genre and kept inspiring me, and countless others, by their DJ sets at Tropical Discoteq in Paris, where I have had the pleasure to be one of the residents for five years and counting. At one of those nights, I met my friend Pascal Rioux from Favorite Recordings and told him about an amazing unreleased track I received months before, on a home-burned CD, from Esnard Boisdur. Among other beautiful songs, it contained one outstanding track, a mix of modern Gwoka and Zouk called “Mizik Bel”.

      When I started playing that track out, there were fierce reactions on both ends. The crowds loved it and after a while you could hear people cheer when they heard the first notes. Many DJs and labels wanted it, demanded it, and would even go as far as to block or unfriend me if I refused to comply. It became clear to me that the track had to be released on vinyl for the first time and made accessible to people who wanted to play it, while giving the original artist full credit. At the same time, I knew a remix version of the track that would pay respect to the original could only be created by getting the original stems, and not by editing the main track and pressing it into an “electronic dance corset.” Pascal agreed to the idea and started the licensing work and the search for the stems, which resulted in an ongoing three-year quest that was crowned by the finding of the ADAT containing the original tracks.
      As AFRICAINE 808, Dirk Leyers and I spent considerable time trying to re-create the composition of the original, respectfully slicing and re-arranging it, adding new instrumentation, and recording additional percussion and talking drum with our percussionist Eric Owusu (Pat Thomas/Ebo Taylor). We stretched it, adding a krauty synth part without losing the focus of Esnard’s beautiful voice and lyrics, describing Caribbean music in all its diversity and beauty.
      With this in mind, I hope you can now enjoy the beauty of “Mizik Bel” as much as we have so far.” – (DJ NOMAD, June 2019)

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Sil says: Plenty of African soul on this one with some heavy drums supporting the powerful vocals and playful keys. The remix is dubby and more psychedelic in its own way.

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      Cover of Chalk Hill Blue - Deluxe Edition by Will Burns & Hannah Peel.

      Will Burns & Hannah Peel

      Chalk Hill Blue - Deluxe Edition

      Rivertones

        ‘Chalk Hill Blue’ is the first album by poet Will Burns and musician and composer Hannah Peel: a record of electronic ruralism channelling lives threaded through the chalk landscapes of Southern England.

        Existing and reacting off each word and sounds in the studio together; with the words of poet Will Burns, the analogue electronic compositions of Hannah Peel and the overarching eye of producer Erland Cooper, all tracks were produced and recorded in their entirety within 12 hours.

        The spoken words and sound worlds often seem to emerge from subliminal processes of call and answer; a fertile blurring of collective inspiration and intention circling this abstracted chalk landscape.

        This deluxe edition of ‘Chalk Hill Blue’ also includes a 7” single featuring a pair of new pieces from Hannah Peel and Will Burns, combining the same evocative, powerful sonic palette and plainspoken poetry as their acclaimed album.

        A commission to create a new collaborative work for the BBC resulted in ‘Moth Book’, an elegiac mediation on loss which flowers into a driving, hypnotic synth workout, perfectly offset by the haunting flipside track, ‘Wendover, Bucks’.

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        Cover of Pale Tussock by Will Burns & Hannah Peel.

        Will Burns & Hannah Peel

        Pale Tussock

        Rivertone

          Hannah Peel and Will Burns announce details of a new double-A sided single, ‘Pale Tussock’, released via Rivertones. The 7” single features a pair of new pieces from Hannah Peel and Will Burns, combining the same evocative, powerful sonic palette and plainspoken poetry as their acclaimed album ‘Chalk Hill Blue’.

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          Cover of Look Up Sharp by Carla Dal Forno.

          Carla Dal Forno

          Look Up Sharp

          Kallista

          Dal Forno beckons a bold new era in her peerless output pushing her dub-damaged DIY dispatches to the limits of flawless dream-pop. In a transformative move towards crystal clear vocals and sharpened production, "Look Up Sharp" is an evolutionary leap from the thick fog and pastoral stillness of her Blackest Ever Black missives, "You Know What It’s Like" (2016) and "The Garden EP" (2017). Three years since her plain-speaking debut album, the Melbourne-via-Berlin artist finds herself absorbed in London’s sprawling mess. The small-town dreams and inertia that preoccupied dal Forno’s first album have dissolved into the chaotic city, its shifting identities, far-flung surroundings and blank faces. "Look Up Sharp" is the story of this life in flux, longing for intimacy, falling short and embracing the unfamiliar. Dal Forno connects with kindred spirits and finds refuge in darkened alleys, secret gardens and wherever else she dares to look.

          In her own territory between plaintive pop, folk and post-punk dal Forno conjures the ghosts of AC Marias, Virginia Astley and Broadcast through her brushwork of art-damaged fx and spectral atmospheres. The first half of the record is filled with dubbed-out humid bass lines, which tether stoned hazes of psychedelic synth work as on ‘Took A Long Time’ and ‘No Trace.’ These are contrasted with songs like ‘I’m Conscious and ‘So Much better’ that channel the lilting power of YMG and are clear sequels-in-waiting to dead-eyed classics like ‘Fast Moving Cars.’

          The B-side begins with the feverish bass and meandering melody of ‘Don’t Follow Me,’ which takes The Cure’s ‘A Forest’ as its conceptual springboard. It’s the clearest lyrical example since ‘The Garden’ of dal Forno’s unmatched ability to unpick the masculine void of post-punk and new wave nostalgia to reflect contemporary nuance. Look Up Sharp reaches its satisfying conclusion with ‘Push On’ - dal Forno’s most explicit foray into an undiscovered trip hop universe between Massive Attack and Tracey Thorn. The album’s last gasp finds personal validation in fragility: ‘I push on / I’m the Place I’m Going,’ a self discovery lifted by reverberant broken beats and glass-blown vocals.

          Adding further depth to Look Up Sharp are the instrumentals, which flow seamlessly between the vocal-led pieces. ‘Hype Sleep’ and ‘Heart of Hearts’ drink from the same stream as The Flying Lizard’s dubbed-out madness and the vivid purple sunsets of Eno’s Another Green World. While ‘Creep Out of Bed’ and ‘Leaving for Japan’ funnel the fourth-world psychedelia of Cyclobe’s industrial-folk into the vortex of Nico’s The Marble Index.

          Conceived as a whole, Look Up Sharp is a singular prism in which light, sound and concept bend at all angles. A deeply personal but infinitely relatable album its many surfaces are complex but authentic, enduring but imperfect, hard-edged but delicate. A diamond. Look up sharp or you’ll miss it.

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          Cover of Punch by Dalo.

          Dalo

          Punch

          ESP Institute

          Dalo aka Nadia D’Alò emerged at the ESP Institute in 2018 with a brutal remix for Benedikt Frey’s Private Games. Having been floored by her sinister aesthetic and stripped-back approach to production, as well as being long time fans of INIT (her collaborative project with Benedikt), the ESP institute was compelled to commission a dedicated solo work. Across four beastly tracks, Nadia pulls from a gritty palette of instrumentation, combining ritualistic drums, industrial percussion and scratchy acid lines with a blurry montage of demonic sighs and whispers. The result is deeply hypnotic. As we slip into the abyss of her psyche, we attempt attaching to the repetitive instrumentation, clinging to what’s familiar for a sense of security, however, every element in Nadia’s world betrays us as it slowly mutates and slips from our grasp, leaving us in a perpetual state of bewilderment. Similar to a deep dream or a heavy trip, incidents in the music replay on mental loop, accumulating layer upon layer of subconscious meaning, deteriorating our senses until we’re completely removed from our safe zone. It's precisely this dose of danger that keeps the listener inquisitive and on-edge, a potent potion that Nadia has proven effective without over-cooking or adding extraneous ingredients. On the surface, there is an admirable dryness to her tonality, even through the intermittent tape echoes, detuned vocals and haunted smears of reverb, the music is never drowning. Such achievements are the marks of a bold and confident artist, one whose firm grasp of a particularly psychedelic craft supports a warped command of nuance.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Sil says: Our heaviest and harder techno 12" this week courtesy of Dalo. Expect no mercy. Dark but accessible. I do like it!

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          Cover of Da Life EP by DJ Spinn.

          DJ Spinn

          Da Life EP

          Hyperdub

          Chicago footwork legend and co-founder of the Teklife producers crew (alongside his musical collaborator DJ Rashad), DJ Spinn makes his long awaited return to Hyperdub with ‘Da Life’ EP, and we couldn’t be happier to have him back. Featuring four brand new offerings, ‘Da Life’ EP is energetic, fast paced and classic footwork. First up is the high energy ‘Knock A Patch Out’, a frantic and cascading key melody contained in crisp claps, with Spinn’s vocal flowing in half way through the track. Next up is ‘Make Her Hot’, which starts out in half time blossoming into a full blown footwork slow jam. ‘Sky Way’, featuring Teklife member DJ Manny, has a moody G Funk melody that starts slowly in half time, with rolling snares and organic kicks. Closing track ‘U Ain’t Really Bout Dat Life’ is an ode to Teklife. Icey synths rise and shimmer with an auto tuned vocal from Spinn spelling out ''T-E-K-L-I-F-E”. Alongside Rashad, Spinn united the footwork genre's producers and took it global. 'Da Life' represents his re-entry back into the scene, four years after 2015's 'Off That Loud' EP, and he’s coming back as strong as ever. 

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          Cover of Earth by Essaie Pas.

          Essaie Pas

          Earth

          DFA

          Montreal duo Essaie pas return to DFA with a single that picks up where their 2018 album ‘New Path’ left off. ‘Earth’ is a blistering ride through the rave, an amalgamation of techno and trance. The galloping bassline is the backbone of the song and Marie Davidson’s vocals climb to new heights against synth stabs. ‘Corps Étranger’, with its stuttering percussion, is a slow burner in comparison. For the remix of ‘Earth’, Marco Passarani of Tiger & Woods (Running Back, Numbers) doubles down on the Italo disco angle and doesn’t shy away from the more anthemic moments of the original, managing to rework it into something akin to a celebration of this place we call Earth.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Patrick says: DFA duo Essaie Pas find their inner Faithless with a trancey techno journey on the A-side before knuckling down for some arthouse electro on the flip. Italian legend Passarani steps up on the remix doing a 'Lectric Workers meets Visage Italo romper perfect for the next Red Laser party.

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          Cover of My Blue Horizon by Eye Nono.

          Eye Nono

          My Blue Horizon

          Mad Habitat

          Mad Habitat returns with a serene full-length from Eye Nono. Channeling the more progressive side of American New Age and 80s Public Access soundtracks alongside the rich tradition of Australian ambient music, the record is awash with dreamy melodies and drifting pads. Evoking days spent by the water along the coastline, the album is a beautiful synthesis of the ocean's abundant natural beauty.

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          Cover of Ocean In A Drop EP by GoGo Penguin.

          GoGo Penguin

          Ocean In A Drop EP

          Blue Note

          GoGo Penguin present Ocean in a Drop (music for film), a 5 track EP drawing from music originally written for their original live score to Godfrey Reggio’s cult film Koyaanisqatsi. Expect music that moves from fragile beauty to powerful themes that offer both a stand-alone snapshot of the trio’s world and echoes of the images that inspired the music.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Millie says: As soon as you hear those distinctive piano keys roar into electronic jazz action you know you’re in for a treat. This five track EP is filled with their beautifully delicate and classic sound. I’d quite happily have them soundtrack my life!

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          Cover of Dawn Chorus by Jacques Greene.

          Jacques Greene

          Dawn Chorus

          Lucky Me

          LuckyMe proudly present the new album from Jacques Greene, "Dawn Chorus". The record is bold step forward and his most collaborative project to date, featuring additional production and instruments from film composer Brian Reitzell (Lost In Translation), cello by London’s Oliver Coates, additional production from Clams Casino and vocal contributions from ambient artist Julianna Barwick, rapper Cadence Weapon and singers Ebhoni and Rochelle Jordan.

          If the Canadian artist’s 2017 debut album "Feel Infinite" was the soundtrack to a dream pregame - amping you up to lose yourself in the club - then "Dawn Chorus" resides in the post-rave reflective moment. A time of heightened sensuality and latent possibility.

          Now 29, Greene has been making music for the club for over a decade. His sound could be described as an emotional haze, in that its balance of sonic elements work to illuminate the overlapping feelings that lie between the familiar binaries. "Dawn Chorus" opens with "Serenity", an all-back-to-mine breaks tune that Greene describes as 'a weird, euphoric take on Chemical Brothers.' "Night Service" is a neon-lit hip house anthem helmed by Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, who drapes a love letter to the club around Greene’s acid-dipped synths. Elsewhere, "Distance" blends ambient textures with sampled birdsong and the snaking lines of Oliver Coates’ cello.


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          Cover of Follow Me - Inc. Jay Glass Dubs Remix by Ground.

          Ground

          Follow Me - Inc. Jay Glass Dubs Remix

          ESP Institute

          Ground is an Osaka native, but his soul is truly that of a nomad, traversing the planet, befriending kindred spirits found in humans, animals and plants. He is exceptionally receptive to the beauty in everything that surrounds him - the incidental music of a city street, the orchestral chaos of a scrambling radio, the syncopated grace of migrating birds, the simplicity of an isolated hand clap - and as his roadmap continuously unfolds, he accumulates a vast catalogue of visceral tools to musically recount his experiences. 'Sunizm' is a cross section of the artist’s process - an array of complex microcosms overlapping to comprise a thematic whole - gathering field recordings, found instruments, jagged electronics, synthesized chanting, and weaving all into a dense narrative that appears obsessively constructed yet divinely improvised. 'Follow Me', the second of two singles surrounding the album, is complimented with a pseudo drum’n’bass treatment by enigmatic Greek artist Jay Glass Dubs, as well as a massively triumphant b-side entitled 'Ozone House', which is exclusive to this single release. Attention all humans, animals and plants, Ground and the ESP Institute present, 'Sunizm'.


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Patrick says: If you've heard me play out lately then chances are you've heard a whole lot of Ground, whether in solo mode or alongside Mori or Bartellow. Here we get a killer cut from his LP, brand new cosmic excursion "Ozone House", and a brutalist breaks mix from Jay Glass.

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          Cover of FTC001 by Kyle Hall.

          Kyle Hall

          FTC001

          Forget The Clock

          First new Kyle Hall record we've had in in tiiiiime! The Detroit upstart comes correct with more of his trademark kix-hats-n-perx, supplemented with a jazz / boogie-informed palette and direction.

          It's certainly worth the wait as this star of the D showcases his unique, playful & psychedelic style. A master of synthesis, the level of depth and control he has over his machines is often unfathomable.

          Seriously limited copies, first come first served!

          Artwork By Michio James

          Pieces to Share Mixed by Kyle Hall & Steve Lehane @ Rust Belt Studios

          Mastered By Matt Colton: Alchemy Mastering London

          Photography By Em Gorzelnik


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Matt says: Purple bursts and hydraulic splurges galvanized with Motor City bump and grind? It can only mean Kyle Mother F***in Hall is back in tha area! Form an orderly queue plz...

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          Cover of I Needed / Intercession, On Behalf by Hanna.

          Hanna

          I Needed / Intercession, On Behalf

          Melodies International

          Melodies International’s 18th release and it’s a biggie, presenting two of their favourite tracks by Chicago based house virtuoso Warren Harris aka Hanna: I Needed / Intercession, On Behalf. Blending deep house vibes with broken beat, soulful vocals creates this dancefloor anthem.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Sil says: Hanna is back. I have a Hanna 12", it is called 'Time'. I bought it after someone played at Sankey's one night. Unadultered soulful American deep house. The formula is tried and proven to work. Nothing new here but plenty of quality for y'all!

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          Cover of Significant Changes (Remixes) by Jayda G.

          Jayda G

          Significant Changes (Remixes)

          Ninja Tune

            A thumping remix from Honey Dijon, who takes on Jayda’s light-hearted ode to the dancefloor - ‘Stanley's Get Down (No Parking on the DF)’ - with Jayda’s tongue-in-cheek scorn “Hey you! I see you, with your phone, looking at Instagram” admonishing those people who stand motionless in the front row at her gigs: “This is the dancefloor baby, this is where you’re supposed to get down”. Talking about the remix, Dijon says "It was so much fun remixing an artist who has a clear understanding and respect for the foundation of dance music heritage and culture.”The EP is completed by Dâm-Funk’s “Re-Freak” of ‘Move To The Front’ and a remix from DJ Fett Burger of ‘Missy Knows What's Up’. 

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            Cover of The Lighthouse by Mark Korven.

            Mark Korven

            The Lighthouse

            Sacred Bones

              “Composer Mark Korven and I developed a shorthand working together on The Witch. This made collaborating on The Lighthouse an incredibly enjoyable process. But it was not without its many challenges. Originally, I wanted a score with no strings at all. The Witch soundtrack was so string-prominent that I wanted a full departure. I only wanted horns, pipes, conch shells, concertina – things that sounded like the sea – or the lighthouse station’s ominous foghorn. It would be a minimalist aleatoric soundtrack with a nod to sea shanties and ancient Greek music. As Mark and I embraced the sound of big brass sections, it quickly became a maximalist aleatoric soundtrack.

              From the beginning, Mark thought that we might need some string textures to tell the story and that I was being foolhardy. As usual, he was right, but it took some time for me to hear that I was wrong. We eventually set up an experimental session with a cellist and a double bass player to create some strange, otherworldly sounds to use in moments of high tension, rather than relying on the tried and true Penderecki-esque string rises of horror cinema (although we still use a couple). These strings would be obscured and camouflaged. I was fine with that.

              To create the ethereal and monstrous sounds of the light itself, Mark experimented with the waterphone, glass harmonica, his famous Apprehension Engine – as well as friction mallets drawn across cymbals, wood, and glass. This beautiful work of Mark’s, combined with Damian Volpe’s sound design, does so much to convey the inner world of Rob and Willem’s characters.” -Director Robert Eggers

              “Robert [Eggers] and I were rather like the two wickies that went insane in The Lighthouse, musically speaking. We travelled to some very dark harmonic and textural places. We both enjoy not just breaking the rules, but blowing them to smithereens. The spirit of experimentation was always present.” -Composer Mark Korven

              FORMAT INFORMATION

              Coloured LP Info: Limited clear vinyl edition.

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              Cover of Um Dada by Stephen Mallinder.

              Stephen Mallinder

              Um Dada

              Dais

                Stephen Mallinder, co founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has returned with his first solo album in over 35 years: Um Dada. Laced with leftfield house and cut up sound collages, Um Dada is a melding of energies that are an exercise in simplicity and motion. Sincere, playful realism that beckons your body to move, always reminding you to never take yourself too seriously without forfeiting your agency.

                While steering Cabaret Voltaire through the 1980’s, Mallinder was already busy piecing together his first solo album entitled “Pow Wow”, which would help define Mallinder’s interest in the more leftfield electro sounds shaping England at the time. It was this diverse and abstract hybrid that helped inspire generations of artists and musicians through steeping raw machine funk within the whimsical and absurdist ideology.

                Since the release of “Pow Wow” in 1982, Mallinder continued his pioneering work with Cabaret Voltaire, as well as recording and touring with his electro projects Wrangler, Creep Show, Hey Rube, Kula, and Cobby & Mallinder. In addition to his non stop schedule in electronic music, his professional life as a journalist, broadcaster, producer and now a professor of Digital Music & Sound Art at the University of Brighton, has lead Mallinder to a unique point in his career. Most in his position would be caught up in rosy retrospection, but Mallinder himself says, “There’s too much digital finger licking right now; every thought and desire at the turn of a dial... well a click of the mouse. And there’s a giddy, false nostalgia about the analogue past. Sorry to burst your bubble but the truth of history is more mundane: practical, pragmatic...Um Dada is about ‘play’ cut and paste, lost words, twisted presets, voice collage, simple sounds things that have been lost to technology’s current determinism. Let the machines talk to each other, let them dance .. they lead, we follow.”

                Um Dada opens up with the exact machine led surrealism that Mallinder recommends in “Working (You Are)”. A thick, stripped back dance floor groove provides the ideal foundation for Mallinder’s eccentric vocal cuts. The frisky chops present an almost twisted irony, subtly bringing to mind the role we’re all forced to play as just another cog in the ever grinding capitalist machine of life. Yet, somehow, the listener is left feeling optimistic. A prime example of simplicity at work. Tracks such as “Satellite” give a skillful illustration of Mallinder’s adeptness with his musical expertise while preserving his core historical context as only simple reference. The underlying bassline and percussion, coupled with the floating melodies and airy vocal refrain disclose the vulnerabilities of love and loss without a hint of irony or nostalgia.

                Um Dada is mischievously idealist, however never loses touch with reality. Offering structure while simultaneously dismantling any and all preconceptions. The spirit of sincerity that sustained Cabaret Voltaire’s lengthy career is abundantly present within founder Stephen Mallinder’s journey through his own whimsical utopian consciousness and staking claim to an identity that is solely his own.

                STAFF COMMENTS

                Barry says: One of the most singular voices in English electronica returns for his first solo album in over 30 years. 'Um Dada' encompasses everything we love about Mallinder and while his most recent collabs (Creep Show with shop favourite John Grant was a particular highlight) clearly showed his influence, it's great to hear his own sound, undiluted and unadorned, and switching effortlessly between a huge range of influences and sounds.

                FORMAT INFORMATION

                Coloured LP Info: Clear vinyl. Signed copies while stocks last!

                CD Info: Signed copies while stocks last!

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                Cover of Ghost Trance / Release by Dominik Marz & David Kochs.

                Dominik Marz & David Kochs

                Ghost Trance / Release

                Belters

                Strap yourselves in troops! This next one by our Bavarian brothers has proven to be a bit of a HIT round these parts over the past year. Recently they’ve been prompting many ID requests with the support of Dixon, Ame, Peggy Gou, Roman Flugel & Kornel Kovacs and now the secret is out for all to enjoy!

                Kickin' off with David Kochs' wobbly, sine-tone led rave banger "Ghost Trance" (a mix between "Township Funk" and perhaps "Wonky Bassline Disco Banger"), and then "End Scene" - which heads to the nether regions with a low rumbling B-line supplemented perfectly by ADSR-tweaking modular bleeps and bits. Cranium twisting guaranteed throughout the A-side then!

                Side B features Dominik Marz who drops "Release" and "Forever". The former utilizes a thin, digital keyboard line to create tension with its unusual choice of musical scale, a real creeping mystery to beguile the floor; while the latter is brighter, shining rays of optimism and warmth through a kinetic drum palette and rich velvety synths for a moment of sunrise-themed bliss... hear the ripples of jubilation radiate from its core - magic! 


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                Cover of Listen Move And Dance by Daphne Oram - Vera Gray.

                Daphne Oram - Vera Gray

                Listen Move And Dance

                Fantome Phonographique

                  Brand new reissue of Daphne Oram and Vera Gray's Listen Move & Dance, originally released in 1962. The British composer, musician, and audio engineer Daphne Oram was a pioneering figure in the use of electronic music. Coming to prominence through her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which she co-founded, Oram was one of the first British composers to feature electronic instruments in her work and has been rightly hailed as helping musique concrete to become accepted in Britain. Oram's composition "Still Point", involving two orchestras, two turntables and five microphones, was deemed too radical by the BBC, though she was promoted to studio manager in 1950, leading to the gradual introduction of electronic music and musique concrete techniques on BBC soundtracks. In 1957, she composed the music for the play Amphitryon 38, using a sine wave oscillator and homemade filters, and this and other subsequent works led to the establishment of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop the following year, but Oram soon tired of the conservative constraints of the BBC, leading to her resignation in 1959 to pursue her own vision at the Oramics Studios for Electronic Composition, located in Tower Folly, a former hop kiln located at Fairseat, near the village of Wrotham in rural Kent. "Oramics" was a radical sound composition technique that sought to transform images to music, enacted by drawing onto 35mm film, which would then be read by photo-electric cells; in addition to its use in Radiophonic Workshop material, "Oramics" was also employed for sound installations, theater productions, and feature films, such as The Innocents, though financial pressures forced Oram to seek a range of commercial engagements in addition to creating her own artistic works. The Listen Move & Dance series of BBC programs were devised as a radical new technique to help British schoolchildren learn how to dance; on the LP releases, Vera Gray arranged short adaptations of classical pieces by Bartok, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and others, designed for "stamping, punching, kicking and jumping" movements, as well as "running lightly", "dancing on toes" and "shaking all about", which contrasted sharply with Oram's electronic abstractions, which seemed to have been beamed in from outer space. 

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                  Cover of Space Tribe by Pablo Valentino.

                  Pablo Valentino

                  Space Tribe

                  ERK005

                  Sporting a mighty fine centre label this week's Eureka! record comes courtesy of Pablo Valentino and "Space Tribe". The founder of Faces Records with MCDE, this fifth release features collaborations with Kez YM and Simbad.

                  The A-side kicks us off with "Bananas" and it's vintage house organs riffing from the start alongside vibrant piano lines and a solid, jacking drum beat. House as pure as it gets, true to form and lively as hell.

                  "Inspiracao" stumbles confidently into downbeat territory, lighting up a carrot for the smokers as it melds fluttery strings and keys to a head-nodding sub-90bpm snap.

                  Side B's "Space Tribe" brings our journey into crisp, tribal-tinged house styles that bring to mind Kai Alce and the NDATL label. Featuring the beautiful echoing synth sounds of veteran London producer, Simbad this is a beautifully dreamy way to end the EP staring up at the stars.

                  *Artwork by Kouhei Asakura (http://www.asakurakouhei.com)

                  *Mastering by Hideo Kobayashi.


                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Sil says: Downtempo vibes with heavy cut and paste ethos on the A side backed with some deep house affairs that will easily warm up the dancefloor.

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                  Cover of Listen To The Music by Quiet Force.

                  Quiet Force

                  Listen To The Music

                  Rogue Cat Sounds

                  More stuff from Ben & Dean's exquisite Rogue Cat squadron. Now delving into reissues and excavations via their ReSounds branch, this is the second record to receive attention and treatment from these new disco mavericks.

                  Quiet Force's "Listen To The Music" is a mid-pyramid Balearic nugget. Owned by most of the third tier, but still fetching upwards of a ton via trading markets, it's the domain of Balearic scribes and soldiers out of reach of the meagre peasantry and unwashed.

                  Coming here, backed with two remixes, the original is a superbly evocative slice of Italian balearia - slow in pace but with a maxed out, post-coital glow that lends itself to white loungers draped across sandy beaches awash with cocktail-wielding patrons.

                  Straus & Pask flip the mood to an electro-disco fuelled drug chugger laced with 303s, vintage synths and primitive sampling that's defo gonna work early doors in the club.

                  Apiento & Tepper drop the second remix: slightly shuddering with some well deployed noise gates while a vintage, late 80s electro-soul beat fuels the motion as a whole manner of expansive melodies, vox and pad sweeps elevate our soul.

                  Dean and Ben are also responsible for the Rotation Soundsystem - a Klipschorn-powered, mobile party that counts stately homes, country gardens and subterranean basements amongst its choice spots of revelry. 


                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Sil says: Rogue Cat here with some well-dug Balearic gold, galvanized with some modern alchemistry to great affect. I'm sold.

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                  Cover of A Rainbow In Curved Air by Terry Riley.

                  Terry Riley

                  A Rainbow In Curved Air

                  Music On Vinyl

                    Keyboard virtuoso Terry Riley started experimenting with different instruments in the ‘50s. One of his electronic music landmarks is his third album A Rainbow in Curved Air. Through the use of overdubbing, he recorded all the instruments to feature on the title track. The composition consists of three movements, each representing another part of his musical influences. As the song progresses, its structure goes through frequent changes. It’s an colorful, psychedelic, atmospheric and revolutionary song. The second track consists of a loop of saxophones and is the dreamy and calm opposite of the title track. Fans of electronic music, such as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, would love this record. Taking inspiration from Hindustani classical music and jazz techniques, Riley’s masterpiece influenced many musicians, from the likes of Brian Eno to Emeralds.

                    A Rainbow in Curved Air 50th anniversary limited edition is available as 500 individually numbered copies on transparent vinyl.

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                    Cover of The Ground Our Sky by Saariselka.

                    Saariselka

                    The Ground Our Sky

                    Temporary Residence

                      The debut album by renowned composers and ambient Americana pioneers, Chuck Johnson and Marielle V Jakobsons (Date Palms). There is an old Norse myth that says the great northern glaciers stored energy until they burst with fluorescent light, creating the Aurora Borealis. Saariselka is inspired by the meeting of earth and light, where slowly moving land masses merge with enveloping light fields. This sonic collaboration between composers Marielle Jakobsons (Fender Rhodes, organ, synthesizers) and Chuck Johnson (pedal steel guitar and treatments) is as expressive as it is enigmatic. On their debut album, The Ground Our Sky, a kind of new ambient Americana is unearthed and explored. The respectively singular artistry of Jakobsons and Johnson collectively craft a universe of remarkable resonance. It is a vibrant, seemingly infinite sway of sounds that exists unmoored in time and space. The Ground Our Sky gets its lift by pondering the universe not while staring up at the sky, but rather down at the ground – gazing into the earth, where we are all individually and collectively a meeting of the ground and the sky. This inverted perspective is at the heart of Saariselka’s music. That feeling of becoming ungrounded is universal and inevitable – and increasingly necessary to seize those rare opportunities for meaningful changes in perspective. “Something is happening. 

                      FORMAT INFORMATION

                      Coloured LP Info: Indies-only dark blue vinyl.

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                      Cover of Bioluminescence by Shorelights.

                      Shorelights

                      Bioluminescence

                      Astral Industries

                      Written and produced by Shorelights (Rod Modell & Walter Wasacz) with executive production by Ario Farahani (head of Astral Industries), "Bioluminescence" is the sixteenth release on this exquisite label and sees Rod make a much welcome return.

                      Two sides of impenetrable noise and static; a thick, acrid air suffocates both productions as they crawl forward with a slow but devastating tectonic thrust. Occasional moments of optimism and brightness break through, before being buried under more metamorphic electrostatic. It's an arresting and heavy piece of sounds that will affect any environment it's aired in. Essential for lovers of Rod's extensive catalogue, his work with Waler Wasacz is different to that of his Deepchord / Echospace work and very deserved of your attention!

                      Another sterling addition to this amazing label...

                      Artwork by Theo Ellsworth. 


                      STAFF COMMENTS

                      Matt says: Big Roddy M and Astral Industries are like lemon cake and prosecco. They go well every time! Hear the Echospace dub surgeon gets heads even more into the ether dropping an ambient exercise in electrostatic alongside his chum Walter Wasacz. Tip!

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                      Cover of Who We Are by Sinfol & JP Enfant.

                      Sinfol & JP Enfant

                      Who We Are

                      Anagram

                      Anagram Label start off their new vinyl only series with a split EP from De School resident JP Enfant and label owner Sinfol.

                      The whole EP seems to have the stadium and open-air arenas in its sights with every track possessing that 'big room sound' we know and certainly love here at Picc Records. Sinfol's "Who We Are" is a frenetic, rave-breaks banger with clever vox and spine-tingling releases while JP Enfant remixes the track into a pounding bleep techno slammer full of sonars, distant melodies and rumbling low end.

                      That rumbling, steam train techno is continued onto side B with JP Enfant's original track "Buoyance" before Sinfol also takes a turn on the stems and true-to-form, opts for a more syncopated, UK flavour that nods to garage and rave in equal measure - utilizing a gliding, almost-Reese B-line to truly devastating effect - watch yer bassbins as always folks!

                      Like breaks and techno? Get this!

                      Limited to 200 copies.

                      STAFF COMMENTS

                      Sil says: Raw beats and electronics for the analog minds out there all drenched in melodies and futuristic landscapes

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                      Cover of The Decalogue by Sufjan Stevens & Timo Andres.

                      Sufjan Stevens & Timo Andres

                      The Decalogue

                      Asthmatic Kitty

                        Oscar- and Grammy-nominated composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens releases his acclaimed score for Justin Peck’s ballet The Decalogue via his own label, AKR. Performed by the pianist Timo Andres, the recording is the first time the score, premiered during the New York City Ballet’s 2017 season, is available to the public. 

                        The Decalogue is the third collaboration between NYCB Resident Choreographer Peck and Stevens, following 2012’s Year of the Rabbit and 2014’s Everywhere We Go. The piece was widely praised upon its premiere; The New York Times lauded the “beauty and charm” of Peck’s choreography as well as Stevens’ “romantically modernist études.”

                        Brooklyn-based composer-pianist Timo Andres is a Nonesuch Records artist, who has written major works for the Boston Symphony, Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, the Takács Quartet, the Concertgebouw, and elsewhere. He performs regularly with Gabriel Kahane, and has frequently appeared with Philip Glass, Becca Stevens, Nadia Sirota, the Kronos Quartet, John Adams, Ted Hearne, and others. As a pianist, Timo has performed at Lincoln Center, for the New York Philharmonic, the LA Phil, at Wigmore Hall, for San Francisco Performances, and at (le) Poisson Rouge. Upcoming highlights include a curated program for the Cincinnati Symphony (featuring Dance Heginbotham and a performance of Andres’s cello concerto, Upstate Obscura), and a solo piano recital for Carnegie Hall. Previous work with Sufjan Stevens includes the orchestration of “Principia” for Justin Peck and the New York City Ballet.

                        A singer-songwriter currently living in New York, Sufjan Stevens’ preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), an expansive EP in homage to the Apocalypse (All Delighted People), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz) and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10). BAM has commissioned two works from Stevens, a programmatic tone poem for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (The BQE) and an instrumental accompaniment to slow-motion rodeo footage (Round-Up). Stevens’ Planetarium, a collaborative album with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and James McAlister imbued with themes of the cosmos, was released in 2017 to widespread critical praise.

                        2015’s highly acclaimed Carrie & Lowell explored his relationship with his mother in the wake of her death; a companion collection of outtakes, remixes and demos, The Greatest Gift Mixtape, was released in 2017. The songs “Love Yourself” and “With My Whole Heart” were released in 2018 in celebration of Pride Month, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Ali Forney Center in Harlem, NY and the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit, MI. Stevens also contributed three much-lauded songs to Luca Guadagnino’s critically acclaimed film Call Me By Your Name, including the Oscar-nominated “Mystery of Love.”

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                        Cover of Horizon Volume 1 by Masahiro Sugaya.

                        Masahiro Sugaya

                        Horizon Volume 1

                        Empire Of Signs

                          Aside from his brief inclusion on Light in the Attic’s Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 (compiled by Empire of Signs’ Spencer Doran), Horizon presents this work outside of Japan for the first time.

                          Remastered from original tapes in cooperation with the artist .

                          Almost completely unknown in the west, Masahiro Sugaya has been composing and producing music since the 1980s in an exceptionally wide range of fields and practices. From arrangements for musical acts like the acoustic guitar duo Gontiti to acousmatic diffusion at spaces like Paris’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Sugaya’s reach is almost exhaustive in its breadth, but it was in the 80s bubble-era kankyō ongaku scene that he first found his musical voice. Horizon, Volume 1 presents a window into these works, culled from Sugaya’s early scores for experimental Tokyo theatre group Pappa Tarahumura.

                          As a teenager, Sugaya would visit the avant garde hub of record/book shop Art Vivant run by Satoshi Ashikawa of Sound Process, guided by Ashikawa’s recommendations into the worlds of experimental composition, jazz and ethnographic music. It was there he also met musician Yoshio Ojima—the two would become close friends and contemporaries, working within a circle of Tokyo musicians that also included Midori Takada, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Satsuki Shibano. Ojima, an early adopter of new musical technology, would introduce Sugaya to the possibilities of composing with computers, synthesizers and samplers, which would become a trademark in Sugaya’s early works. Surprisingly, the sound sources on Horizon are entirely digital, showcasing Sugaya’s ability to organically recreate complex musicianship approaches via keyboard using hyper-realistic samples. Much like Ojima and Yoshimura’s work, the results eschew electronic music’s usual coldness for something more warm and inviting, the feeling of a human in deep conversation with technology.

                          Flourishing within the boom of experimental theatre subsidized by corporations during the bubble economy, Pappa Tarahumura forged a unique dream-like style that merged performance art, modern dance and fantastical installation-like stage sets. Sugaya fashioned multiple soundtracks for their productions in collaboration with director Hiroshi Koike, the first two of which, The Pocket Of Fever_ (熱の風景) and Music From Alejo_ (アレッホ – 風を讃えるために), he self-released in 1987 on cassette, handing them out at Tarahumara performances. The third, The Long Living Things (Zoo Of The Sea) (海の動物園) followed in 1988 as a CD on Yukio Kojima’s ALM records. 


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                          Cover of Non Zero Sum Game by Thatmanmonkz.

                          Thatmanmonkz

                          Non Zero Sum Game

                          Shadeleaf Music

                          New LP from Sheffield's finest, Thatmanmonkz, following on from 2016's "Columbusing". "Non Zero Sum Game" sees the esteemed producer further galvanize the musical bonds between Sheffield, Berkeley, Detroit and Atlanta with a raw but fluid take on OG house music flava....

                          Featuring a plethora of collaborations which hammer home the cross-pollination of regional styles, the global exchange of ideas and energies runs rife through the album's two discs as our manmonkz skillfully dispenses cowbell, swing, bass and perx to devastating effects! There's a gritty acid blaster ("Chai Tea"), some serene and soulful moments ("Them Thangs", "Thee Others") and a broken-beat house hybrid to close ("Syntax D'amour"). Tracks like "Freaks N Prophets" sound unfathomably fresh, with speaker-pushing rhythms, while Monkz is also able to inject new life into that classic, loop-n-filter disco-house with "LvNlmtd" and "WhatyouthinkIdo". Rugged with a firm low end foundation throughout, these tracks are built to stand extensive use on demanding dancefloors! Mega.


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                          Cover of 11000 Dreams - Reissue by Jan Van Den Broeke.

                          Jan Van Den Broeke

                          11000 Dreams - Reissue

                          Stroom

                          So far so far out for Stroom, who continue their journey through the lesser thumbed pages of the Belgian underground with this sublime retrospective of art-house hero and ambient music weirdo Jan Van Den Broeke. Famed for his wavy, sample heavy synth compositions as Absent Music, The Misz and June 11, Van Den Broeke made an appearance on Alain Neffe's Insane Music imprint, with the lo-fi tropicalia of "The Desert" (included here folks). Falling somewhere between Spike, Marc Barreca, Eno's poppier moments and the bedsit anxiety of a Flying Nun band, the music collected on "11000 Dreams" beguiles, intrigues and transfixes us with its introverted magic. Working with a minimalist set up of drum machines, guitar, synth and spoken vocal, Van Den Broeke pursues his own unique musical path to create a sound which falls into a flawless musical no man's land - Absent Music indeed! So, if you dig on Balearic, minimal wave or ambient sounds, you NEED this in your life.

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                          Cover of Chain Tripping by Yacht.

                          Yacht

                          Chain Tripping

                          DFA

                          Chain Tripping — the band’s seventh LP and third for DFA —was recorded between Marfa, Texas and the band’s home in Los Angeles. The ten songs are unlike anything YACHT has ever made: pop experiments from a sideways dimension coaxed into their studio through a portal opened by machine intelligence.

                          “AI and Machine Learning represent a revolution in music equivalent to the introduction of the synthesizer or the beginning of laptop music. We’ve been a band long enough to watch technology overwrite our assumptions many times, and felt compelled to bring these new tools into our life,” explains YACHT.

                          YACHT (an acronym for “Young Americans Challenging High Technology”) is Claire L. Evans, Jona Bechtolt, and Rob Kieswetter. For "Chain Tripping", the trio invented their own working method, at the intersection of DIY and high-tech: they used neural networks to break their patterns apart into infinite variations, which they re-assembled into new songs that they then learned, performed, and recorded live. Rather than rely on any single tool, they brought together several distinct AI processes to generate lyrics (Char-RNN), musical data (MusicVAE), raw audio (SampleRNN), and instrumentation (a “neural synthesizer” called the NSynth). They were inspired by the long history of generative composition, from William S. Burroughs’ cut-up writing method to David Bowie’s custom “Verbasizer” lyrics software from the ‘90s.

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                          Cover of Cloud Hidden by Susumu Yokota.

                          Susumu Yokota

                          Cloud Hidden

                          Lo Recordings

                          This year marks the 5th anniversary of Susumu Yokota’s departure from this world and yet he is very much still here. His music always had a timeless quality and this new release is a perfect example. It was conceived following the discovery of a DAT tape by Mark Beazley containing unreleased tracks and early sketch versions of tracks that formed ‘The Boy and the Tree’. Mark had worked with Yokota on the Rothko/Yokota collaboration EP ‘Rivers Edge’ but had no recollection of why or when he was sent the tape. Mark sent the tracks to Jon Tye who ‘decided to do my best to honour the spirit and legacy of Yokota’s work by completing the tracks in a way which I thought he would approve’.

                          ‘I only met Susumu once but communicated with him many times and always felt a strong connection with him and his music, it all came together swiftly and flowed from start to finish without thought or question. I hope what I have created is a fitting tribute. It was a privilege to enter the world of Susumu Yokota and spend time with his spirit. Many of the titles and the quotation below are taken from the book ‘Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown’ by Alan Watts, which I was reading at the time the tracks were mixed’.

                          Searching For The Hermit In Vain

                          I asked the boy beneath the pines,
                          He said ‘The masters gone alone
                          Herb-picking somewhere on the mount
                          Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown

                          Chia Tao (777-841) Trans. Lin Yutang

                          FORMAT INFORMATION

                          Coloured LP Info: Limited clear vinyl.

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                          Cover of Dead Horse 03 by Various Artists.

                          Various Artists

                          Dead Horse 03

                          Dead Horse

                          Dead Horses continue to ply their narcs at the best discos and underground dances in town, this third installment a particularly heady offering from the firm.

                          The mysterious Otherlover opens proceedings with a teasing cut, "Need Your Love" which seems to throb at the very edge of climax throughout its loopy duration. Meanwhile DJ Nature remixes "Music Moves Me" by Dicky Trisco & Love Drop - a steady-away, mid-tempo number that should keep the momentum rolling with its detailed low-end and subtle, smooth samples. The pair also drop "Waiting For The Sax", which is the most disco flavoured offering here, with Trisco and LD chopping some up (unbeknownest to me) disco grooves and added a subtle, weightier kick underneath. Sometimes you don't need sorcery to move the floor, just tried and tested body science. Dead Horses know their respective fields inside out....Recommended.




                          STAFF COMMENTS

                          Sil says: Chuggy disco house heavy on the sample side of things. Promises to ravage your dancefloor for real. Three cuts of sublime house music at the right tempo!

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                          Cover of Glitterbox - Hotter Than Fire: Mixed By Melvo Baptiste by Various Artists.

                          Various Artists

                          Glitterbox - Hotter Than Fire: Mixed By Melvo Baptiste

                          Glitterbox

                          Melvo Baptiste steps up to mix the latest Glitterbox compilation, "Hotter Than Fire" featuring the upfront disco heat that has been setting off the dancefloor all summer at Glitterbox parties in New York, London and Ibiza. A strong contender for the hottest party on earth, Melvo has headlined Hï Ibiza for another record-breaking season this summer. "Hotter Than Fire" channels the energy of a Glitterbox event, with this three-disc special exploring the best authentic house and disco sounds.

                          Featuring highlights from the Glitterbox imprint such as The Shapeshifters’ gloriously instrumented "Life Is A Dancefloor", enchanting dancefloors since its release and featuring Chic lead vocalist Kimberly Davis, as well as brand-new heat like JKriv’s "Yo Love" and KON’s remix of Qwestlife’s "Fever", a track that features iconic US talent including Sugarhill Gang and Siedah Garrett.

                          Transitioning through the decades, "Hotter Than Fire" traces all the way from the 1978 soulful-disco cut "Gotta Keep Trying" by Tenderness, Goldie Alexander’s 1981 "Show You My Love" and the 1983 "Body Work" (Vocal Mix) by Hot Streak on CD1 through to warm 90’s sounds on CD2 such as Masters At Work’s Club Dub of Chic’s "Chic Mystique" and Shay Jones "When Love Calls" (E-Smoove's Late Night). Transitioning gradually into 2019, the compilation features upfront house and disco exclusively available on the compilation like Seamus Haji "Boogie 2nite "(Dr Packer Extended Remix), Loods "Love" and the Kormak remix of Low Steppa "You’re My Life".

                          Demonstrating what Glitterbox does best, "Hotter Than Fire" re-creates the atmosphere of the party, with an abundance of disco, house and soulful sounds that embody the hands-in-the-air, euphoric, confetti-filled moments that the events are loved for.


                          FORMAT INFORMATION

                          2xLP 1 Info: VOL. 1

                          2xLP 2 Info: VOL. 2

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                          Barry is all over this Vic Mars @VicMarsmusic album ‘Inner Roads and Other Paths’ released earlier this month on… https://t.co/9LGcceRgty
                          Thu 17th - 1:09
                          Massive thank you to @state808 today who played a great set and signed a few copies of their new album ‘Transmissio… https://t.co/Ez3Cd7yuy4
                          Sat 12th - 7:11
                          Haha. No problem. Thanks for sharing. https://t.co/VKvgqJfreB
                          Sat 12th - 6:55
                          🙌🏻 https://t.co/jLHyu8AfuI https://t.co/Yx9R7dro2U
                          Sat 12th - 9:33
                          Ready for National Album Day @AlbumDayUK Open from 10 - 6 today as usual. Follow the link to this week’s albums… https://t.co/8AzifY3uYo
                          Sat 12th - 8:07
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