Full Circle is the sixth album by long time Ghost Box roster member, The Advisory Circle. Self-avowed synaesthesiac, Cate Brooks conjures a very visual fantasy in four acts (the vinyl version across four sides of a luxurious gatefold double 10”). Her tracks evoke human dramas played out against the timeless backdrop of a utopian built environment, where leisure, luxury, elegance and romance are always in fashion.

Brooks' music is by turns ambient, dramatic, upbeat and melancholic. It's instrumental electronica of the very highest calibre, an expert and masterly manipulation of electronic equipment both old and new. Light touches of acoustic and electric instrumentation and flourishes of both tape and digital sound manipulation add colour throughout.

This long running solo project is saturated in 70s and 80s TV and library music influences, and in some ways Full Circle is a call back to the 2005 debut EP Mind How You Go. However, the music and production have evolved over the yers, into a distinctively rich and three dimensional soundworld. The album wears its influences and sonic components proudly, but feels contemporary, cool, and fresh. Brooks' music career predates and now transcends the world of hauntological electronica that it inspired.

TRACK LISTING

1. Full Circle
2. Wait Hear Now
3. Time Immemorial
4. Autres Voix
5. Russian Doll
6. Blueprint
7. Recovery Process
8. Just A Dream
9. Fit For Purpose
10. Away Days
11. Inner Activity
12. Situation One
13. The Architecture
14. Sky Court
15. The Luxury Spectrum
16. Full Circle Logotone

Evolving the tactics of works like ‘Quixotism’, ‘Hubris’ and ‘Simian Angel’, Oren Ambarchi invites an international all-star cast to dialogue with his guitar and triggers inventions.

Intricate theme-and-variations build upon the staccato rhythms via expansive improvs from BJ Cole, Sam Dunscomb, Chris Abrahams, Jim O’Rourke and Julia Reidy.

Bridging minimalism, contemporary electronics, and classic ECM stylings, and bringing together a cast of preternaturally talented contributors, ‘Shebang’ is unmistakably the work of Oren Ambarchi: obsessively detailed, relentlessly rhythmic, unabashedly celebratory.

TRACK LISTING

I
II
III
IV

Island Songs is the innovative brainchild of BAFTA award winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, alongside acclaimed film director Baldvin Z (BBC’s Trapped, Life in a Fish Bowl).

Ólafur will travel to 7 towns across Iceland where he will collaborate with 7 local artists, and at each location he will create, record and perform a new composition with the artist. He will deliver the audio and video the following day. Mercury Classics will release one audio track and one live performance video, each Monday.

Island Songs is a real-time interactive project that will evolve in the digital space, hosted via a bespoke website. Arnalds’ dedicated fanbase will be able to follow him on his travels via Facebook live-streams, Snapchats, Instagram, Twitter and Apple Connect. 

BAFTA winning Icelandic composer,Ólafur Arnalds' highly anticipated new record 're:member' features Ólafur’s ground-breaking new software, Stratus, which transforms the humble piano into a unique new instrument. He is currently performing his new material on a huge worldwide tour. The Stratus Pianos are two self-playing, semi-generative player pianos which are triggered by a central piano played by Ólafur, and are the centrepiece of his new works. The custom-built software is born out of two years of work by the composer and audio developer, Halldór Eldjárn. The algorithms generated from Stratus were also used to create the innovative album artwork.

On the album Ólafur uses these methods reinvigorate the compositional experience, feeding back into the creative process in a completely new way. As Ólafur plays a note on the piano, two different notes are generated by Stratus, creating unexpected harmonies and surprising melodic sequences. Speaking of the album, Ólafur says, “This is my breaking out-of-a-shell album. It’s me taking the raw influences that I have from all these different musical genres and not filtering them. It explores the creative process and how one can manipulate that to get out of the circle of expectations and habit.” 

"Band Of Cloud’s David Owen has previous. Hailing from Leeds, he knocked about with Soft Cell early doors, hoovered up 80s synthpop, got distracted by The Sisters Of Mercy, formed The Hollow Men, dropped out for a couple of decades and popped back up in 2011 with the utterly brilliant ‘We Know Where The Time Goes’ by The FLK – a folk version of The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’. Yes, it’s as great as that sounds.

Judging by all that, ‘This Is Tomorrow’ should be good. David reveals that the first album he bought, aged 16, was Tangerine Dream’s ‘Force Majeure’. On clear vinyl. With a sticker. It’s a record that has impact, this is his homage.

‘This Is Tomorrow’ is like a fever dream, all drifty and floaty and hypnotisey. It comes as four lengthy tracks that sound like they should build to some of release, but never quite do. It has a kind of ‘Twin Peaks’ what-the-f*ckery about it. Odd samples, noises here, strange sounds there. ‘The Hidden Memory’ is proper flickering light bulbs stuff."
- Neil Mason, Moonbuilding, Summer 2022

TRACK LISTING

1. Band Of Cloud
2. The Hidden Memory
3. Night Visiting Song
4. This Is Tomorrow

each album always starts with a feeling
that i try to shape into sound
this time around
the feeling was landing
( after my last album utopia which was all island in the clouds element air and no bass )
on the earth and digging my feet into the ground
it was also woven into how i experienced the "now"
this time around 7 billion of us did it together
nesting in our homes quarantining
being long enough in one place that we shot down roots
my new album "fossora" is about that
it is a word i made up
it is the feminine of fossore ( digger, delver, ditcher )
so in short it means "she who digs" ( into the ground )
so sonically it is about bass , heavy bottom-end,
we have 6 bass clarinets and punchy sub
i would like to especially thank bergur þórisson and heba kadry
side project , el guincho , hamrahlíð choir , soraya nayyar , clarinet sextet murmuri , siggi string quartet ensemble , emilie nicolas , serpentwithfeet
viibra and last but not least : sindri and dóa .
visuals were made by viðar logi , james merry , m/m , nick knight , andy huang , edda , isshehungry , tomi , sayaka , sunna , sara and heimir
and my ever so loyal and magnificent team : derek , rosamary , catherine , chiara , hilma and móa

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Returning to Iceland during the pandemic, Bjork's tenth record 'Fossora' began as conceptual clarinet album that was in part inspired by the death of her mother. However 'Fossora' ultimately became, as Bjork describes it, an "Iceland album". Much like the volcanic landscape of Iceland, 'Fossora' is a vast, alluring and beautiful record that once again proves that Bjork will always be here to push the boundaries she once set - all whilst dressed as a mushroom.

Martin Buttrich is famously as fluent behind a mixing console as in front of a virtual drum kit. That technical prowess, combined with a fascination for music of every shape, has resulted in outstanding releases on influential labels such as Planet E, Four: Twenty, Cocoon, Poker Flat, Nervous and Desolat. Having recently retired from DJing, Buttrich has devoted himself entirely to his own productions over the last few years. “I discovered how much better I am as a producer. I'm so happy in the studio, and so productive. It feels good after 15 years on the road as a house and techno DJ to take a little breather and gain perspective,” says Buttrich. Relieved from heavy touring schedules and the pressure to make dance music, the veteran producer took a trip down memory lane for his latest album project, Light Vessel Automatic, which he releases under the new alias Stoned Autopilot.
It’s an album for slow appreciation and careful consideration, much like pictures in a photo-album, every track on Light Vessel Automatic captures a memory of a moment in time of Buttrich’s rich musical life. In all its layers it expresses just how far Buttrich has come as one of Germany’s foremost producers.

TRACK LISTING

A1 June
A2 Son Of Sunshine
A3 Ending For Us
A4 Light Vessel Automatic
B1 Better Days
B2 Purple Jack
B3 Indecisive
C1 Lovefields
C2 Flawless
C3 City Pulse
D1 People Like Us
D2 Jazzalude
D3 Hollywood Swing

The absolute Don of Italo piano house, Don Carlos brings his legendary sound to RNT with an EP of classic floor fillers. Don (Carlo Troya) and S-Tone (Stefano Tirone) released two records on Bologna label Calypso in the early 90s under the artist name Montego Bay.

Incredibly, the four tracks on this EP were also produced 30 years ago, then shelved and forgotten about until recently when a connection with RNT inspired to Don dig up their rare vintage! From pumping melodic house jams like Music All Night and Waited So Long, to sampled disco house cuts Keep Dancing the Boogie and Gotta Keep Dancing, this EP is a veritable time capsule, dripping with the swag and sonics of the golden era of 90s club music.

TRACK LISTING

A1.  Music All Night (Deep In Milano Mix)
A2.  Keep Dancing The Boogie
B1.  Waited So Long
B2.  Gotta Keep Dancing (Original Mix)

From a shared love of electronica, aquatic techno funk and tribal rhythms comes this collaboration between Varial regular Mat Carter and the legendary Radioactive Man.

Recorded at The Cube, raw electronics and warm analogue sounds flow and almost breath with life as synths spray atmosphere over washed out stabs which swing from one note to the next. Layered effects sit alongside glitches and heavily distorted breaks perfectly suited for the rumbling subwoofers of soundsytems. It's got that cybernetic B-boy swagger throughout, as well as possessing some of the most stimulating and texturized synth patches you're likely to hear all year! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Good old Keith. A national treasure in my humble opinion. Loving these recent collaborations (see also the one with Ara-U) but this one with Mat Carter takes the biscuit! Hardwired scuzz n swirls cemented with some tuff electroid beats. With Keith a cutting room wizard, the vinyl sounds ultra fat and weighty too. In short, high grade electro goodness you can't do without!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Morph Ball
A2. Morph Ball Stripped
B1. Phase 4
B2. Ancestral Charge

A unique collection put together by Clark of new tracks, unreleased music and sought after fan rarities.

Mastered from the original tapes.

C2 is a previously unheard improvisation with Broadcast.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Frau Wav (Brief Fling)
A2. Re-scar Kiln
A3. Urgent Jell Hack
B1. Dead Shark Eyes
B2. Boiler The Wick
B3. Dusk Raid
C1. Roller The Wick
C2. Herr Bar (Improv)
C3. Observe Harvest
D1. Sparrow Arc Tall
D2. Dusk Swells
D3. Autumn Linn 

Double CD featuring a remastered edition of Clark's 2006 album Body Riddle alongside the companion LP 05-10.

Mastered from the original tapes.

Includes previously unheard improvisation with Broadcast (Disc 2 track 8).

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 - Body Riddle
01 Herr Bar
02 Frau Wav
03 Springtime Epigram
04 Herzog
05 Ted
06 Roulette Thrift Run
07 Vengeance Drools
08 Dew On The Mouth
09 Matthew Unburdened
10 Night Knuckles
11 The Autumnal Crush

Disc 2 - 05-10
01 Frau Wav (Brief Fling)
02 Re-Scar Kiln
03 Urgent Jell Hack
04 Dead Shark Eyes
05 Boiler The Wick
06 Dusk Raid
07 Roller The Wick
08 Herr Barr (Improv)
09 Observe Harvest
10 Sparrow Arc Tall
11 Dusk Swells
12 Autumn Linn

Now regarded as something of a classic in the Clark catalogue, it has been cited by producers including Arca, Rustie and Hudson Mohawke as being an influential record. Writing for The Quietus back in 2014, Ed Gillett commented: “It's no hyperbole to say that Clark's 2006 LP Body Riddle is one of electronic music's unheralded masterpieces, its layers of heat-warped melodies, flickering textures and muscular drumming (played by Clark himself) creating a beautiful and unstable mixture of violence and wistfulness. Its production is immaculate, almost inhumanly so, swaddling the listener in midrange before pummelling them viciously, shifting seamlessly between organic instruments and impossible, vertiginous sound design.”

Recorded during a period the producer was living in the Midlands city of Birmingham in the UK, shortly before leaving for Berlin, Clark recalls the genesis of the album: “I can remember that period as getting really into krautrock and spending the day drumming on pillows along to Can records for six hours a day, when I think of that record that’s what I think of.”

Striking up a friendship with local band (and Warp labelmates) Broadcast was also a key factor: “They lived about ten minutes from me and I borrowed James Cargill’s drum kit and some mics of his, and all of the drums on that album are his old drum kit. There were some jams that me and James had, there’s one at the end of ‘Roulette Thrift Run’ which is basically just him on guitar and me plundering away on some drums, and I just pitched it up. Broadcast weren’t really in my circle of friends at the time but going to their place was sort of like a holiday from my normal social life, and I just loved it. Both Trish and James were both so full of wisdom, but I wasn’t really in with their scene of people at all, I’d just go there on my own and listen to records and have cups of tea.”

Broadcast also feature on an improvised version of ‘Herr Barr’ that was only previously available as a download on the Clark website. It has been compiled alongside other sought after rarities and unreleased material that related to Body Riddle on the new 05-10 collection. Clark explains a bit more about the tracks on it:

“It is that thing of collecting things that would otherwise be lost to the internet and wanting to put a shell around it. It’s important to do because I really love some of that material. I suppose what I love is some of those processes, there’s a modular jam called ‘Boiler The Wick’ that I just had all my gear setup and was recording like five modular tracks a day. I still miss that time because my studio is very different today and I’m slightly sick of modular because everyone’s got modular and everyone’s doing it, but this was like ten years ago and I can’t really say it’s connected to Body Riddle exactly, but it feels like a companion piece of sorts. For example that ‘Boiler The Wick’ track has a very similar energy to ‘Re-Scar Kiln’ and it feels like it could be from the same world.

The Throttle Furniture EP was 2005, and some of those tracks could have gone on Body Riddle but they would have took it in a more clubby direction, so it felt good to put a fence around them and just use those for live shows. Around the time of the Body Riddle live shows I was playing those tracks out a lot in various forms. So tracks like ‘Urgent Jel Hack’ were written before Body Riddle was finished, that was me getting into Valve and Dillinja and loving that stuff as well.

The more beatless, reflective pieces that are included connect to my recent album on Deutsche Grammophon, and also other ambient pieces I’ve done for Warp, they’ve been peppered throughout my back catalogue. ‘Sparrow Arc Tall’ is like a cousin of ’Springtime Epigram’ or ‘Dew On The Mouth’, it’s that vibe of something captured on 4-track and rendered in a session. So they all feel connected to that family of pieces, and it’s nice giving people ten more tracks after however many years.”

In conclusion, looking back on Body Riddle with 16 years of hindsight, Clark reflects: “I feel really good about it, it’s interesting hearing it again. It seems to be an album that meant a lot to some people and be a significant record, but for me it is just another album of mine.

It is a bit of a blueprint for how things have gone with my music since then, because it’s just so dynamic and all over the place and messy, but intentional, and the mess feels deliberate and the accidents feel illuminating and exciting, and that’s a spirit that I think I always want to capture in music. You know when you hear music that is less than the sum of its parts, and it should work because everything’s tidy and in its place but something doesn’t work? I think I always aspire to make music that’s more than the sum of its parts, that shouldn’t really work but it does, and that’s such a magical quality. I don’t know whether the record has that or not, but the album is certainly the result of trying to be like that, all of these diverse styles sitting alongside each other but the overall album makes it coherent.

I’ve always tried to write albums rather than tracks for streaming services. I’m always going to be an album artist whether the form’s alive or only loved by a hundred people on the planet, for me it’s still the ultimate form of expression. An album’s a perfect length of time, it’s like a short story, you can do it in a sitting and it’s not too much. With an album you can just go for a walk and have it in your headphones, and Body Riddle is that classic ‘go for a walk and listen to an album in one go’ kind of record. It’s not trying to be a club record, it’s pure listening music.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Herr Bar
A2. Frau Wav
A3. Springtime Epigram
B1. Herzog
B2. Ted
B3. Roulette Thrift Run
C1. Vengeance Drools
C2. Dew On The Mouth
C3. Matthew Unburdened
D1. Night Knuckles
D2. The Autumnal Crush

Cousin unleashes some modern sorcery on Nummer. Jackson Fester, hailing all the way from Sydney, concocts a suitably shamanic offering for our favourite late nite spellbook. Five meticulously crafted slices of modular dance ritual that channel both the ancient wisdom of the rainforests, the mystique of the deep ocean and the infinite knowledge of the cosmos. Humbling and healing, a stream of universal conciousness harnessed by a skillful soul and transmitted through a finely tuned selection of modern technology. Transcending past and future trends and existing solely in the now. Unfathomable greatness from a true wizard. You need! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Our shamanic section's been looking a bit thin of late. Cue Cousin with his electro-dance-rituals that'll rouse your inner 5-D avatar.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Patrol Shrimp
A2. Moon
A3. Homing Loop
B1. Locked
B2. Nemo’s Dream

Originally from Auckland, NZ and now London based Louis Anderson-Rich, known amongst the dance world as Manuel Darquart, makes his return to the inimitable favourite white label Semi Delicious. With two appearances on various artist compilations in the past, and a slew of releases since 2017 on labels including Wolf Music Recordings, Infinite Pleasure and Seb Wildblood’s Coastal Haze imprint – the time has come for Manuel to deliver his unquestionably chic sounds with a larger-than-life Italo-house EP entitled ‘Turbo Shandy’.

Tangling the roots of Italo-house from yesteryear with a forward thinking, dynamic approach to his arrangements and mix, Manuel Darquart steps off the precipice with the title track ‘Turbo Shandy’. A constantly rolling and evolving piece of synth laden ecstasy with reverberating snares and metric hats for an authentic 90’s feel. ‘For You’ follows, a rhythmic groove with Roland toms and crunchy hats setting the stage for swathes of rompler style SFX and a carefully-building progression that brings swirling synth pads and bold lead lines throughout.

The percussion-party continues with ‘In The Club At 5am’, a perfect perker to perk up the dance in the wee-hours. Soothing sore rave joints and ecstatic muscles while the sun rises outside; tremulating basslines join cascading chord phrases for a final surge of late night energy.

The EP is closed down with ’89 When Things Were Fine’, a triumphant closing piece that’s joined by a superb remix from label boss Demi Riquísimo. Both combining punchy basses and splashy, immersive drum grooves at contrasting paces, each with their signature touch.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Turbo Shandy (Original Mix)
A2 For You (Original Mix)
A3 In The Club At 5am (Original Mix)
B1 89 When Things Were Fine (Original Mix)
B2 89 When Things Were Fine (Demi Riquisimo Remix)

Advanced Myth is the lucid debut album from Dialect, the long standing project of British composer, multi-instrumentalist, and field recordist Andrew PM Hunt. An enchanted exploration of unusual source synthesis, electroacoustic arrangements, and sound found in foreign environments, Advanced Myth is its own cosmos expanding and contracting in real time. Advanced Myth coincided with the creation of the Liverpool-based musician’s Dialect moniker, marking a more permanent uncoupling from the “frontman” dynamic Hunt wrestled with as part of Sophisti-pop band, Outfit. Happily unmoored ever since, Hunt has built a broad oeuvre with a quiet confidence across several album, including Gowanus Drifts (2015), Loose Blooms (2017), and Under ~ Between (2021), his debut for RVNG Intl., and its companion piece, Keep Going…Under.

“Doing something as abstract as Advanced Myth was a real change for me at the time and turned out to be something of a new start,” Hunt explains. “The band had a studio set up in a disused block of flats just across from the big, shared house we all lived in, and I started to record there by myself a lot. At some point in 2013, I realized I’d amassed a huge collection of miniatures and a few larger pieces which had nothing to do with what the band was doing. Dialect became a way to gather these ideas together and find my own voice.”

Steering towards lesser-explored musical terrains wasn’t new to Hunt even then; he’d toured the UK and Europe underground in various projects since his teenage days, and contributed to large ensemble performances of work by the likes of Terry Riley and John Cage. However, Advanced Myth was made amidst a correlation of events that set him on a fresh trajectory, including a new relationship (with his now-wife), the winding down of Outfit, and time spent living in New York City. Hunt says that he hears “a lot of beauty and excitement, but also the sadness and struggle” of NYC in Advanced Myth. Having left Liverpool to rent an apartment there in the fall of 2014, he immersed himself in the library of critical theory and art history books that its owners had amassed, alongside reading materials like the diary of Hercule Barbin and satirical short stories like The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. This almost academic absorption of ideas contrasted with the time Hunt spent volunteering at a homeless shelter, where hardship was on full display and privilege checked at the door.

It’s perhaps no surprise then, that although a largely meditative listen, Advanced Myth oscillates between moments of shimmering lucidity and corrosive washes of noise. Take the improvisational zither session he recorded one morning, sections of which appear on the almost folk-like “Hung Rose” and “Unanswered Prayers.” On the former, this chiming instrument twists unbridled until submerged by a discordant hiss, the sound of traffic, and the elevated ambience of a sporting event. On the latter, though, its delicacy and poise is bolstered further with the addition of strings and clarinet. Advanced Myth is a coil of both reflective and reactive composition.

In the absence of conventional structure, it’s these shifts in spirit that provide Advanced Myth’s emotive signposting, inspired in part by the likes of Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe and Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, European kosmische, but also purely textural sonic ideas from ‘70s and ‘80s GRM through to contemporary ASMR. In truth, though, Advanced Myth is to be received as its own, and as a whole. Tracks, as they are, don’t start or stop, instead bleeding into each other, in support or rebuttal, gently persuading the mood into the shadows. It’s a record from which you can sonically draw lines to everything Dialect has gone on to, yet it also stands alone as a document that’s relative tranquility doesn’t mask the sense of excitement from an artist standing at the precipice of new creative boundaries.

Originally released digitally by tasty morsels in 2015, Advanced Myth has been newly mastered by Stephan Mathieu from definitive mixes, and is available for the first time on vinyl and cassette from RVNG Intl. and Warm Winters, Ltd. on September 30, 2022. On behalf of Dialect, RVNG, and Warm Winters, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit The Whitechapel Centre, an independent local charity working to see an end to homelessness, social exclusion and housing poverty in Liverpool’s communities.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Developers
A2. Hung Rose
A3. Teams
A4. The Youniverse
A5. Shatters
B1. Chroma
B2. Strange Grave
B3. Unanswered Prayers
B4. Watermarks
B5. Jabba
B6. First Breath
B7. Waterfall End Sequence

Fabric launches a new offshoot: Fabric Originals. The imprint aims to release special projects from the artists that form the present and future of boundary pushing club music globally in single, EP, album and compilation form. To launch the label a new split 12” from hi-NRG pioneers Eris Drew & Octo Octa is unveiled. Eris Drew draws on elements of 90s big beat with a propulsive twist, adding chest-rattling bass notes to anchor the track’s eyes-down 4/4 rhythm. Created in reaction to this dancefloor wonder, Octo Octa’s "Stars & Water" takes on a much more commanding tone finding cues from a classic house sound and employing deft polyrhythms to build progressive energy. As you'd expect from the label's ethos and the artists involved - it's progressive, inovative; yet retains that magical infectious quality required for modern club music hits. We're feelin' it! 

TRACK LISTING

A. Eris Drew - Day After A Night With U
AA. Octo Octa - Stars & Water

Emeralds — musicians John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire — emerged from the rust-pocked, post-millennial Midwest drone/noise scene seemingly unable or uninterested in keeping up with themselves. Their proliferation of material was intimidating; mountains of improvised, home-recorded music were released on limited-edition tapes, CD-Rs, and split LPs. There is and was a sense that the Ohio trio was after something beyond physical mediums. By 2008, their sprawling live sets were a known can’t-miss at any underground experimental event. Tiny Mix Tapes reviewed that year’s appearance at No Fun Fest: “No one’s sawtooths, sines, and other various waveforms were so beautifully sculpted and beamed out into the Plejades as Emeralds’.” These basement dwellers were shaping meditative, psychedelic, arpeggiated electronic music in the veins of German kosmische forebears like Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. Made primarily with synthesizers and guitar, Emeralds’ music possessed the same astral psyche with a home-crafted punk edge, a distant descendant of that pioneering era, and a bridge to someplace new, someplace scorched. Released on Aaron Dilloway’s (Wolf Eyes, etc.) Hanson imprint, Solar Bridge was the first Emeralds album to receive any kind of proper distribution and represents the first attempt to archivally preserve their fluid craft. The first of an inimitable five-LP run before the band dissolved in 2013, Solar Bridge is a moment of glistening primacy that boots up a catalog and legacy that the heads still grapple with. Emeralds begin to make sense of it in the fall of 2022 with a remastered Solar Bridge LP release on Ghostly International.

The Midwest leaves an indelible mark on Emeralds’ sound; their debut characteristically vibrates as if from a ghost mall or some other relic of the rust belt. Side A, “Magic,” finds the three young musicians summoning by way of analog synthesis and processed guitar motifs. Though it could be loosely called “drone,” this miasmic wall of melody ripples through dynamics; pulses ebb and flow in and out in a way where every edge disappears. Like any good magic trick, there is something invisible at play here.

On Side B, “The Quaking Mess,” oxidized squeals and shuddering mechanical whines commingle with square and saw wave pads and flickering guitar details to create a post-industrial parking lot tableau. Eventually, the ground swells up, and a massive firmament trembles below the wobbling synths and rickety electronics. There is a power at the heart of Emeralds’ sound that displays a kind of egalitarian psychedelia, a working-class kosmische, a proletariat trip zone. Everyone is welcome to watch the world fold in on itself as they are pulled into the portal.

“Photosphere,” a previously unreleased recording included as a digital exclusive, affords a look at a more serene stretch from the same session. A demure guitar loop wafts above slowly shifting tectonic synthesizer drones; the tremendous restraint the trio shows here hints at part of the unique place they would carve out for themselves, both together and respectively, in the annals of American DIY experimental music. Elliott, McGuire, and Hauschildt are known now for being tuned into a mutual vocabulary as Emeralds. They are players that exercise a kind of profound listening. Slowness, as a kind of punk ethos. As the static sputters into the right channel around the twelve-minute mark, the scene becomes selfaware, and we are released into the ether.

Emeralds materialized as a fully formed entity radiating cosmic potential. Their discography evolved and incorporated different qualities and vocabularies but hearing where it started will always feel different. The density, the patience, and the sheer refinement presented on Solar Bridge legibly demonstrates how and why Emeralds has become a legendary part of the contemporary electronic music canon. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Magic
B1. The Quaking Mess 

Garagen Uwe’s debut studio album on Beatbude Records. Nine springy instrumentals with features by Ralph Heidel and Sebastian Alexander Gieck. Styles traverse early morning Balearic sunrises, late night boogie jams, sunlounger funk and beachball house. Displaying expert yet reserved synth work, exquisite drum programming and a delicious grasp of harmony mood and rhythm.

RIYL: Turqoise Summers, Dam Funk, Andras Fox & Art Wilson.

TIP!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Low Lights
A2. Perm
A3. Root Stretch
A4. Natural Shading
B1. H2O2
B2. Dip Dye
B3. French Cut
B4. Foilayage
B5. Tortoiseshell

Peggy Gou releases a remix package of her acclaimed 2021 'I Go' single, it’s a stellar release featuring some of the most respected names in electronic music - Soulwax, DJ Koze and Maurice Fulton.

Named by Pitchfork as one of 2021’s best electronic releases among a host of other accolades (“Her vocals are gentle, but her promise of persistence (“I go I go, I go I go”) feels powerful. Throbbing drum machines further bolster her energizing message, turning a personal pep talk into a lull-crushing banger. A six-minute ’90s dance megamix that feels 10 minutes too short, it definitely goes”) Peggy’s original was an incredible piece of club-focused electronic music that showcased her love of 80s / 90s dance anthems. The remix collection has been personally curated by Gou herself, choosing some of her favourite heroes to put their own unique stamp on “I Go”.

Soulwax stay true to the original utilizing those big gated square wave analogue synth lines to devastating affect, even thicker than on the original. A subtle breakbeat adds a bit of sway in the background but it still absolutely screams of Company B's "Fascinated" - which is no way a bad thing! Some extra, club-focused SFX and swirls are Soulwax's forte, of which there are plenty; and the dynamic duo also break the arrangement up with some big sweeps, drops and breakdowns - again the pair's synonymous trademark. Basically just making the whole thing more stadium friendly.

DJ Koze can be trusted to twist things up a bit, which he does, the German veteran applying some playful toy piano lines that transform into buzzing sawtooths - showing off in the synthesis department with crazy gated vox, tumbling delays and all sorts of electronic studio wizardry! He also switches the key of the track slightly so it's a totally different run on this infectious, beach-ready vocal from Peggy.

Maurice does what he's done for Roisin, Rhye and Crazy P - injecting galvanized bass, live disco drums and unbeatable hand claps for a deep soulful new disco re-rub that's up there with one of his best ever!

A sublime remix package that compliments the original track beautiful - not to be missed! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: An all-star cast of remixers crown this already high gloss piece of celebrity dance music. Peggy Gou is a pretty unstoppable force in her own right but with these three legends in tow, "I Go" becomes a royal affair!

TRACK LISTING

A1. I Go (Soulwax Remix)
B1. I Go (DJ Koze Remix)
B2. I Go (Maurice Fulton Remix)

Cutting edge label Incienso is hyped to announce the next release of 2022 from one of the UK’s most interesting and distinctive producers, Shiken Hanzo.

While known primarily for his hybrid halftime d&b and techno sound, Shiken switches it up with new diversions in tempo and rhythm throughout "Eternity of Echoes", all the while maintaining his idiosyncratic blend of dystopian soundscapes, industrial drums, and pulsating, deep basslines.

It's got that thick, claustrophobic fog hanging over it like much of DJ Python's catalogue yet with a more much technologically focused dissection of rhythm, atmosphere and movement. It'll work alongside grime, cumbia, dembow, techno and UKF extremely well and should intrigue both club goers and home listeners with its punishing yet exquisite sound design. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Thick, fuggy, claustrophobic dembow, industrial dancehall and Cumbia hybrids that shudder and quake. Quite fearsome in parts, perfect for causing vast swathes of tension across the arena.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Darkest Entities
A2. Eightfold Blessings Of Amaterasu
B1. Eternity Of Echoes
B2. The Reaping

Burning Witches Records are proud to announce the new electronic, glitching, mind melting double album from Cory Kilduff!

"On his 2019 BWR debut, ‘When It All Gets To Be Too Much’, Cory Kilduff made a sprawling and emotionally connected album filled with lush synth textures and heart-heavy melodies, reminding us what it was like to be young with heart-on-sleeve. On follow-up, You Will Be Safe, Kilduff makes up for a mostly beat-less debut by creating a rhythmically rich record. Kinetic rhythms intertwine with Kilduff's knack for melody, giving songs like "Was That Not An Exit", "Night Night", and "The Brighter Side Of Giving Up" dance floor integrity while never losing sight of the beating heart moving us to dance." - John Hubner.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's A Feature
2. Internal Feedback
3. The Worst Miscalculations
4. Was That Not An Exit
5. We All Break Eventually
6. The Medicine
7. Night Night
8. Probably Stable
9. Restraint In Four Parts
10. That Voice You Hear Sometimes
11. The Brighter Side Of Giving Up

Kuedo is an avant garde artist based in Berlin. Synergising Vangelis-esque futuristic melodies with thunderous drum programming, the sound is otherworldly in palette and explosive in dynamics. The album sonics owe as much to modern R&B icons like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd as they do to legendary composers such as David Axelrod and Tangerine Dream or contemporary breakbeat scientists Sully and Jlin.

Collaborating with Flying Lotus on the “Blade Runner: Black Out 2022” OST (directed by Shinichirō Watanabe) led to Kuedo being signed by FlyLo’s Grammy-winning label Brainfeeder. He is a genuine genius of an artist who effortlessly treads the tightrope between electronica, classical and pop, and accordingly finds himself in demand with luxury brands such as Fendi and Bvlgari in addition to trailblazing haute couture designers such as Iris Van Herpen.

Recommended if you like… Oneohtrix Point Never, Flying Lotus, Floating Points, Flume, Arca, FKA Twigs & Space Afrika. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A undeniably Brainfeeder-esque artist drops album three (previous two on the equally experimental Planet Mu) and it's a riot of future electrics, freeform machine jazz and heavenly transmissions beamed from far away galaxies.

TRACK LISTING

01. Sliding Through Our
Fingers
02. Harlequin Hallway
03. Time Glide
04. Aeolian Bodies
05. Shadow Dance
06. Encounter(vanish)
07. Infinite Window
08. Paradise Water
09. Skybleed Magic
10. Cracked Face Panel
11. Never - Para Sempre

Channelling his considerable improvisational skills to evoke notions of island life, his concept was to create something that could work equally well in the wilds of the Western Isles as in the sunnier spots of the world that we all yearned to escape to at that time. The more he played with this idea of groups of islands, of archipelagos the world over, the more it also became about people themselves experiencing isolation as individuals, while still feeling a sense of togetherness with others in the same boat.

Working a little at home but mainly here at Athens of the North studios, he would come in each day over the course of a few weeks and just hit record, playing at times almost without mind. Sometimes the mood would call for keys, strings, or drums through delays for days and days. Often, the music would happen by chance as much as by design. One rule he tried to adhere to was to not overthink things, capturing moments honestly with minimal editing or digital processing.

What we've ended up with is a beautiful, spontaneous, timeless and honest meditation on what it is to be at once both alone and part of a larger whole.

TRACK LISTING

1. Braidbit
2. SoLong SoFar
3. Ambergris
4. Zeniba
5. Cave Code
6. Selkie Road
7. Open Sea
8. HomeWords
9. Landmasses
10. Circles

Pseudopolis returns to Redstone Press with Eris Drew for a remix under her Bassbin 23 alias!

Label co-boss Pseudopolis touches down on Redstone Press for the third time. If you’ve heard the last two you know the drill.

Taking no prisoners from the outset, “High For Life” establishes the mood of the EP, combining unrelenting breaks, bouncing basslines and a big-room energy that acts like a pressure release after many nights making music with no clubs in sight, a track that doesn’t loosen its grip throughout.

"Euphoria Inc." keeps the room at boiling point with Pseudopolis expertly fusing climatic rave energy, broken breakbeats and a murky Reece bassline into an equally euphoric yet foreboding warehouse tool.

“Haze Runner” continues with the ruffneck breaks but raises the bpms and dread level, sounding like something that would soundtrack your teenage weed psychosis or your current 6AMs spent in front of your favourite jungle sound system’s bassbins.

Speaking of which, Eris Drew hits up the label under her new guise Bassbin23. Years of dancing, rejoicing and playing dusty warehouse raves have informed this rendition of “High for Life”, stripping it back to a fun filled 4x4 rave weapon. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Bad ass raggamuffin breakbeats that bite hard. Some nice hardcore / jungle work outs contained within also. Killer release from Redstone Press.

TRACK LISTING

A1. High For Life
A2. Euphoria Inc.
B1. Haze Runner
B2. High For Life (Bassbin23 Remix)

The gift that keeps on giving, Purple Disco Machines' 'Exotica (Deluxe Album)' is being treated to some epic remixes of your favourite songs now available on vinyl.

On show here, ‘Opposite of Crazy’ gets a juicy rework by The Emperor Machine and the one and only Art Of Tones takes on ‘Loneliness’ in trademark style.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Opposite Of Crazy - Feat. Bloom Twins - The Emperor Machine Remix
B1. Loneliness - Feat. Francesa Lombardo - Art Of Tones Remix

Diving once more into the forgotten corners of the electric Spanish music scene from the 80's and early 90's, Soundway reissue Scan Man's full single "Arabian"

Bringing together a Furious Five retro styled bounce & rhyme and a bite of UK street soul, the track is taken from 2021's hugely popular compilation Ritmo Fantasía. Expect soulful American expat rap layered over sitar-like sounds, and a tumbling, rattling, 808 pattern. Along with the original track and instrumental, DJs Trujillo and Ray Mang serve a souped up instrumental primed for modern dancefloors.

Recorded at the CEV Studios in Madrid, Arabian was the first composition and production of Marcos Manzanares to get an official release. Using an Ensoniq Mirage Sampler (one of the early, affordable synth samplers), and with Stephen Sutton providing the vocals for the track, he first made his entry into the Spanish music scene. A short while later he would go onto make a career for himself under the name of Tension808, releasing with major labels like Sony Music and EMI Chrysalis.

For fans of: Soundway's Ritmo Fantasia compilation, Adonis, 808 State, Inner City, Nu Genea, Afrika Bambaataa

TRACK LISTING

Arabian
Arabian (Instrumental)
Arabian (Mang & Trujillo Long Version)

Conrad Schnitzler is one of the great pioneers of electronic music. Here Baal & Mortimer constructs new music utilising Schnitzler’s archive. Instead of reworking the material on its own,she chose to find traces of melodies, harmonies, notes within it, using them as seeds to add and derive new compositions. Schnitzler’s archive became the foundation and departure point from which a process of accumulation and chiseling away started. Through playing things on wrong speed, stretching, or warping, fractal structures appeared, one unfolding out of the previous one, almost like chaos magick set in motion.

They say: "Contemporary synthesizer sounds illustrating wide open space activities, environment and research."

We say: Panoramic proto-techno underwater-electro library dynamite.

One of the hardest pulls on the seminal Coloursound, Open Space Motion (Underscores) isn't just regarded as one of the best releases from library-funk overlord Klaus Weiss. It's one of the very best library records ever.

As cult as it gets when it comes to library music, the Klaus Weiss sound was built on top of sometimes funky, sometimes frenetic, but always hard-hitting drums. AND YET! Open Space Motion departs from his drum-heavy approach by being completely...BEATLESS! That's right, the virtuoso beat smith, Mr "drumcrazy of Deutschland", a man known for snapping necks at will, crafted one of the most horizontally sumptuous, elegantly sweeping electronic masterpieces, sans-drums, a good decade before chill-out rooms became a thing. It features organic instruments married to pulsing synth bass atop brilliantly subdued yet irresistibly funky percussion. Possessing a very special vibe, that's at once futuristic yet cinematic, it overflows with atmosphere.

The highlights - unsurprisingly - are many. The very first track - the unstoppable "Wide Open Space Motion" - is a sinister, string-fried electro bomb that rides an unrelenting bass loop. "Incessant Efforts" is more reflective, with pastoral yet probing flutes atop strutting synth chords and head-nod percussion that really swings. The heavenly, uber-kosmiche "Pink Sails" hovers over swirling neon-synthy-strings and yet more unobtrusive percussion. The beautiful "Transiency" is a dramatic piano-led underscore, its creeping unease created by patient strings, unhurried percussion and some wonderfully strident keys. "Driving Sequences" is perhaps the key tune here, and if the Detroit crew weren't listening to this staggering piece then, well, imagine if they *were*.

The bubbling rhythms of "Southern Mentality", at first ominous, give way to a more optimistic vibe as the movement progresses. The lush, gorgeous "Bows" is deep-sea slow-motion magic whilst the bright-eyed "Outset" feels as fresh as the dawn, and no less beautiful. How these tracks haven't been gobbled up by sample-driven producers is beyond us. Equally calming is the sweeping majesty of "Constellation", again conjuring images of being at one with and fully beguiled by the wonders of nature, of space, of underwater worlds. "Changing Directions" is another fidgety, propulsive non-Detroit beatless bomb.

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Open Space Motion comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

TRACK LISTING

A1 : Wide Open Space Motion (2:19)
A2 : Incessant Efforts (2:28)
A3 : Pink Sails (2:09)
A4 : Relaxed Mood (4:18)
A5 : Transiency (1:14)
A6 : Driving Sequences (3:26)
A7 : Action And Suspense (2:06)
B1 : Southern Mentality (2:43)
B2 : Hovering (2:13)
B3 : Bows (4:30)
B4 : Outset (1:39)
B5 : Constellation (1:38)
B6 : Changing Directions (2:39)
B7 : Neutral Position (1:49)
B8 : Departure For Universe (2:10)

As well as being renowned for his photographic and design work under the name ‘ISO50’, Tycho’s music is a blend of various stylistic components, namely in the indie/electronica world blending downtempo guitar, analogue synths and ambient elements such as breathing sounds and excerpts from weather broadcasts and dialogue.

For the majority of Back To Mine artists, music was always their first love. For Scott Hansen however it was all about graphic design, drawing and photography until a friend at college gave him some damaged audio equipment. “I had just ventured into electronic music via early drum & bass and suddenly my mind started to wonder how music was made and about the whole creative process.” It was this passion for LTJ Bukem and Roni Size that set the base for the career of the San Francisco-based producer, composer, musician and creative force behind his twice Grammy nominated Tycho project. Intertwining carefully crafted visuals with a pulsating combination of ambience, samples, guitars and synthesizers, the Tycho story is now six albums old since the arrival of ‘Past Is Prologue’ in 2006.

“I have been making music for over 25 years, but I feel like I am just beginning,” he laughs from his west-coast studio. “For my Back To Mine album I wanted to take things one step further than one of my club or Burning Man sets as I knew this was an opportunity to enter that whole headphone, other worldly, cinematic, soundscape space. I wanted the album to be almost like a dream sequence for the listener.”

Another highlight in the series for Back To Mine, who have already delivered recent stand out editions from the likes of Jungle, Fatboy Slim and Nightmares On Wax. This edition from Tycho is another timeless collection in the long standing and sought-after collectable series.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tycho - Spectre (Bibio Remix)
A2. Casino Versus Japan - It's Very Sunny
A3. Lancaster - Last Sunset
A4. Nate Mercereau - Of Course That's Happening
A5. Craft Spells - Our Park By Night
B1. Panama - Destroyer
B2. Muddy Monk - Divine
B3. Schneider TM - Frogtoise
B4. Luke Abbott - Modern Driveway
C1. Little Dragon - Little Man (Tycho Remix)
C2. Weval - You Made It (Part II)
C3. Tourist - Elixir
C4. Octo Octa - Beam Me Up (Please Take Me Away Mix)
D1. Tycho - Local
D2. Ulrich Schnauss - In All The Wrong Places
D3. Tycho - PBS - Live Edit
D4. Slowdive - Sugar For The Pill (Radio Edit)