Stroom's restless release schedule continues to excite and amaze, in terms of both quantity and quality. The labels 5th release of 2019 (that's so far, there are two more titles slated for March), is a heroic dose of head music from Bruges musician Aponogeton, who makes his vinyl debut after a 2016 cassette and digital EP in 2017. As befits an artist named after an aquatic plant, "A Place Of Solace" is a deep and immersive creature, composed during a period of inner and outer reflection. Moods range from the intense (eventually) propulsive "Prologue" to the celestial calm of "The Night Sky Is Falling", by way of the anxiety ridden "This Concerns You" and "Artemievs Dream", but the message remains the same - turn on, tune in and engage your brain.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Prologue
A2. A Date With The Zone
A3. The Night Sky Is Falling (Sizth Seal)
A4. This Concerns You
B1. Hardness & Strength Are The Companions Of Death
B2. Artemievs Dream Or: The Metaphysical Horror Of An Unpredictable World
B3. A Quiet Place
B4. Consolation For Martiska

Atelier du Mal were formed in Florence in 1983 by Lapo Pistelli (synths, electronic drums), Iacopo Ficai Veltroni (bass, synth) and Ignazio Matteini
(drum programming, percussions). Recorded in 1984, "Noblesse Oblige" was the first and subsequently the only demo tape by the group, self-released using classic gear like Korg MS-20, Roland Tr-606, Roland Tr-808, Roland Juno 60, Roland TB-303. The ten tracks on offer fuse the melancholy vocal melodies, snapping drum machines and propulsive sequences of the early Human League with angular post punk guitars, gloomy basslines and a touch of cinematic new wave. A forgotten gem from Italy's electronic past, returned to the shelves thanks to the mighty Mannequin.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Promise
2. Back To Taiwan
3. Another Kind Of Madness
4. Waiting For Someone
5. Staticita
6. Palau
7. Marienbad
8. Decadence
9. Palau 2
10. Someone's Calling 

New from the ever discerning Nous camp comes AYLN's RehtomEP, a 25 minute exploration of the kind of unrelenting machine music for which both artist and label have come to prominence.

Side A is a journey through sparse syncopated rhythms, industrial noise motifs and the kind of buzz and hum that the heroes of the second wave of techno music championed, culminating in the EP's title track 'Rehtom' which is an exercise in analogue techno mastery.

Side B's delivery is subtly more dulcet, kicking off with Digital Memories, which has a more classical techno structure than anything that came before, building intricate melodies into an otherwise taut and tightly woven electronic landscape while the closing Impulsive Sheit is a gentle downbeat number, exploring the space within the music and creating an atmospheric ambient discourse to outro the heady charge of the EP as a whole.

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Techno, industrial a-la-L.I.E.S. and loads of urban decay. Machines ruling the world and chips controlling our brains. If you dig that approach to life on planet Earth, this is for you. If you dig good industrial techno, you totally need this.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eivissa
2. Victim
3. Rehtom
4. Digital Memories
5. Impulsive Sheit 

"A Heart From Your Shadow" is the debut collaborative LP from Michael Beharie (New York) and Teddy Rankin-Parker (Chicago). Since graduating together from Oberlin College, Beharie and Rankin-Parker each veered into markedly different avenues. Beharie joined up with the ever-confounding New York ensemble Zs (Northern Spy, The Social Registry). Rankin-Parker became an on-demand cellist for his prowess in the work of improvisation and avant-garde music, lending his talents to a wide array of collaborators such as Primus, Iron & Wine, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros. Rather than jump into stream-of-concious improvisation, Beharie and Rankin-Parker chose to focus the album's themes via intricately composed pieces. "A Heart From Your Shadow" could be described as protest music, brimming with intense energy, harrowing anxiety, and steadfast optimism. Produced by Michael Beharie, mixed carefully by Jim O'Rourke, mastered by James Plotkin and cut to LP at D&M Berlin.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. So Much Trash
3. Paper Tiger
4. Gully
5. Smooth Face
6. Fake Money
7. Roses
8. Promise
9. Icon
10. Petaluma 

Macadam Mambo put pay to any misty memories of the season of goodwill with their first release of 2017, a very special EP of radical dance music by the German band The Blech revisited by Hamburg's Wosto. Working industriously and industrially between 1985 and 1996, The Blech released 6 fizzing LPs of the dark wired sound. These cult recordings have become a treasure-trove of extravagant, groovy dancefloor artistry, at once hypnotic, irritating and erotic. Here, Hamburg's Wosto (one half of Fallbeil) selects two tracks from 1987's "Zip Zip" LP, "Nichts Wie Vorher" and "Zip Zip", and "Die Einame Trane" from 1989's "Ich Wollte Meine Schuhe Zerschneiden", and transforms them into bristling metal dance cuts. "Die Einsame Trane" dives off at the NDW deep-end in search of rusty industrial wreckage. Churning bass, squealing horrorscore synth-strings and guttural vocals set a queasy tone, occasionally punctured by brief outbursts of metallic percussion. The steady intro of "Nichts Wie Vorher" grows from post punk dirge into a weird and warped mutant disco cut, alive with undead orchestral samples, snapping drum rolls and arabesque vocals. It's already an unhinged winner, but you'll be punching the ceiling and stomping like a berserker when Wosto drops the 303! The B-side belongs to Wosto's "Power Dance Mix" of "Zip Zip", a teutonic technoid slammer which sees tough beats punctuated by cut and paste sampler work, yelped German vocals and dreamy synth work. If Yello had pursued a career in the scuzzy world of the new beat underground, then this would be their "Oh Yeah". All hailz the Dark Wired Sound...

TRACK LISTING

A1. Die Einsame Trane (Wosto Edit) 5 :56
A2. Nichts Wie Vorher (Wosto RMX) 8 :29
B. Zip Zip (Wosto’s Power Dance Mix) 8 :23

New York City by way of Miami, Alex Suarez delivers his debut lp the eight track "Autogolpe" for L.I.E.S. Autogolpe, is a term for military coup initiated by a dictator to take control of an existing government and Suarez uses this loose idea to create the range of emotions associated with said act. Musically he expands on his prior releases for Bank and Primitive Languages as heavy industrialized sonic beatings sit next to somber passages; oil drum slow beat tribal clangers provide a back drop for screams shooting out of the dark. Musically it paints a distorted picture of world in decline, an exile from another land and arrivial to anothers in chaos or the clinging hope of something better on the other side.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Gloomy and dystopic, Alex Suarez' debut LP muses on military coups, offering hissing ambient pieces, abrasive industrial workouts and polyrhythmic techno snarlers over the course of eight impactful tracks.

TRACK LISTING

1. American Motels 
2. Encantada 
3. Opened Cell 
4. The Mountains Are Crying 
5. The Seventh Sister 
6. Simbiotico 
7. False Prophets 
8. Disgust 

The fifth release in the sonic saga of San Francisco's electric noise factory Squirrels On Film is the first solo EP from label co-founder C.l.a.w.s., and his first solo release since 2017's “Stygian Morass” on Left Hand Path.

His distinctive, idiosyncratic take on Techno has found its way onto the Various Squirrels, and as half of Kit 'n C.l.a.w.s with Joshua Kit Clayton, but “Splat City” is his party, and you're invited.
The dance begins with “Into The Eyes Of The Zombie Queen,” its Liquid Sky cold-wave disco throb complete with laser zaps, Simmon's tom fills and drunk punk Moroder bass (defo half inched from Miss Broadway). This is C.l.a.w.s. in full-on Fun Mode, so feel free to break out the party favors. “Pacific Fog Authority” escalates the mirror-ball Goth Drama to delightfully inappropriate crescendos, think vamp / zombie B-movie orgy at your high school prom. “Slug Bait” gets a bit tougher, the motorik, leather-bar shuffle exploding in ecstatic strobe light seizures . “Splat City” keeps things heavy and depraved, a sleazy nightmare smoke-machine Strip Anthem. Your next late-night Cosmic Adventure has a perfect soundtrack.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Kinda cosmic, well wavey and goth in the most eye-shadow laden Giallo horror kind of way, Claws serves up a four track EP which would perfectly soundtrack an 80s B-movie where vampires take over the prom, and the bad kid (drum use, leather jacket, motorbike, no fucks given) comes good to save the cheerleaders.

TRACK LISTING

A1. "Into The Eyes Of The Zombie Queen
A2. "Pacific Fog Authority
B1. "Slug Bait
B2. "Splat City

Copeland brings the (schizoid, neon, frenetic) noise for his newest LP on L.I.E.S. Kicking things off with the juddering lo-fi stomp of 'Convoy', pushing hi-passed snares and delayed synth squeals through the mincer and ending up with some mechanically recovered heat, slavered liberally atop a solid foundation of mealy kicks and shuffled hats. 'Qualified' continues where we left off where vox are concerned, taking the mean voice of a hundred robots and gating them with some brutal sample & hold abstractions. In case this wasn't enough of thematic giveaway, bit-crushed synths fire off like lasers into the neon-lit heavens, turning the casual romp through the dystopian wilderness into a climactic white-knuckle boss-fight. 
Moving further along, and 'Doggy' presents the first indication of rhythmic convention, with lithe bass fragents flickering over a classic four-to-the-floor percussive backdrop before pulling out the flicker-machine once again to heavily treat the melodic overtones into a brittle amalgam of crystalline pulses and terse filter cuts. 
'Ultimo' veers into lite grime territory with sqelchy digital synths weaving their way around the cut-up vocal snippets and tinny flanged cymbals (it would sound great blaring out of a nokia speaker on the back of the 168). Brilliantly futuristic but with nods to everything that has secured its passage up to this point. Copeland has always pushed the boundaries, and this is no different, it just so happens that his boundary pushing has veered squarely into the wonky lo-fi house/techno/misc zone I find so appealing. RIYL Opal Tapes / Cloudface / SNES.  

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Brilliantly eccentric soundtrack to futuristic mishaps, last-life white-knuckle gaming and dusty sampler glitches. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Convoy
2. Qualified
3. Chinatown
4. Doggy
5. Oopsy Dazee
6. Following The Man
7. Ultimo
8. From The Hip
9. Flipper
10. Copacabana
11. Big Wheel
12. Larry Of Acadia 

Continuing to please anyone with a penchant for the esoteric, Lullabies For Insomniacs presents ‘For Leena’, a collection of unreleased pieces composed between 1991 & 1998 by Dino J.A. Deane for the choreography of Colleen Mulvihill. Deane began his professional career, at the age of nineteen, as a musical arranger and multi-instrumentalist (trombone, flutes, keyboards, percussion). He worked in funk bands around Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco in the mid 1970’s, where as an improvising artist he became involved in the diverse communities of dramatic theatre, modern dance, free jazz and punk rock. In the early 1980's Mr. Deane pioneered the use of live-electronics, live-looping and live-sampling in three distinct genres that heavily informed his later compositions: As a member of art-punk band 'Indoor Life', touring and recording with fourth world pioneer Jon Hassell and as an electro-acoustic percussionist in the Conduction orchestras of Butch Morris. During this period Mr. Deane also worked as a sound designer for the theatre, with directors Sam Shepard, Julie Hebert and Christoph Marthaler. He also maintained a presence in the world of modern dance, creating and performing compositions for former Olympic gymnast Colleen Mulvihill.
The couple met in San Francisco in 1979 through his good friend Bruce Ackley, whom was commissioned to compose a score for one of her solo pieces. Colleen, was than a member of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and was planning to move to New York City to set out on her own as a dancer and choreographer. Their paths crossed again in 1980 when Dino moved to NYC with Indoor Life, during this time they began a long term relationship both on and off the stage, which continues to this day.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: This retrospective collection on Lullabies For Insomniacs focuses on the beautiful, beguiling and blissed out electro-acoustic compositions of Dino J.A. Deane. A million miles away from the angular art punk of Indoor Life, these pieces for contemporary dance drift through serialism, minimalism and fourth world ambience creating the perfect sound to sway to.

TRACK LISTING

1. Liquid Time
2. Into The Flight
3. Merlin
4. A River Beneath The River
5. Dark Heart
6. NB4
7. Last Supper
8. The Burila Tree
9. Narrow Chamber
10. Mud Girl 

This is a reissue of ‘Casioworks’ by Gust De Meyer, originally released as a cassette on Ding Dong Tapes and Records in 1983. This stuff has been making crooked collectors, old and young minimal-wave heads and other music lovers going bonkers for years. At the age of 35, back in 1983, Gust De Meyer was working as an assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Leuven, were he did some groundbreaking work. He got a PhD in musical industry and introduced the study of video games.
Besides that he was busy writing texts and selecting records for a weekly 4-hour pioneering radioshow called ‘Funky Town’ on Belgian national radio. The show was specialized in the Afro-American dance music of the era: discofied electronics, funk, boogie and rhythm & blues. Next to brand new American records, from Chicago, Philly and New York there was also room for European stuff, sharing a likewise bouncy character or electronic groove: italo-boogie, kraut-grooves and some local danceable new-wave. Slick, glossy and commercial but also groundbreaking and goddamn funky. No wonder this radioshow became a hit in no time, even outside the national borders.
The producer of this radioshow was the now world famous composer of minimal and soft classical music Wim Mertens. Around 1981 he started up his Soft Verdict project. The first LP Wim released under this name, was in fact a collaboration with Gust: ‘For amusement only’, a rather radical and raw experimental album concentrating on sounds made by pinball-machines and early computer games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man. It was released in 1982 on the now legendary Les Disques du Crépuscule label. This label was promoting a fresh and eclectic mix of ambient, post-punk, exotic electro-pop and contemporary music, all nicely dressed up in well designed sleeves.
Continuing the interest in the chipset sounds of those early videogames, Gust soon released his own magnum opus and: ‘Casioworks’. After which he, strangely enough, never ever released music again.
‘Casioworks’ was made at home with only one instrument: the then very popular and cheap Casio VL Tone 1 synthesizer. Every track was recorded in one take on a porta-sound Fostex 250 4 track cassette recorder/mixer. For a first record it’s very focused and mature but also playful and heavy with urgent and visceral power.

TRACK LISTING

1. Casiowork 1.1.1
2. Casiowork 1.1.2
3. Casiowork 1.1.3
4. Casiowork 1.1.4
5. Casiowork 1.2.1
6. Casiowork 1.2.2
7. Casiowork 1.2.3
8. Casiowork 1.2.4 

Tasty tackle from the Supergenius Records who reach the micro-milestone of release five. DJ Koyote & Too Smooth Christ aka Alexandre Lotz & Christophe Le Gall pretty much dominate the label's releases thus far, operating somewhere outta France.

"Error Does Not Compute" is a rough but clever electro-techno hybrid; with skeletal but well programmed drums ricocheting against trickski LFO / quantize patterns that'll tighten the trouser of the more avid tech-heads. "Strike (On A String)" has elements of grime, funky and kwaito - big synth-brass stabs, rampant digital hand claps and a "Township Funk"-era synthline all displaying its three disparate ingredients. Finally "Modern Action" sees funky meet Detroit as rippling synth patterns ride a bouncy UKF riddim. Top stuff here, well fresh! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Urgent and cutting edge but still purpose built for the dance. Fierce stuff here from DJ Kotote & TSC.

TRACK LISTING

1. Error Does Not Compute
2. Strike (On A String)
3. Modern Action

Between 2014 and 2017, DJ Slyngshot's Yappin label delivered some of the most interesting, off-kilter dancefloor excursions around. The imprint has been dormant since, so it's great to see Slyngshot bring it back to life via this 12" from close pal DJ Neewt. There's something particularly inspired about opener "Hymn", where an increasingly intense acid bassline, raygun electronics and trippy electronic motifs wrap around a skewed breakbeat groove. Slyngshot joins in the fun on the deep, tribal and quietly psychedelic thump of "Pearls For Knives" - all dense drums, dub delays and mind-altering motifs - before Neewt finishes things off via the meandering lo-fi synth lines and chugging deep house grooves of "Mud Voices". It's good to have Yappin back, that's for sure.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Ridiculously tasty but stylishly understated club traxx here from the newly reinstated Yappin Records. Top drawer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hymn
2. Pearls For Knives
3. Mud Voices

Germany's Alex Seidel brings some heat for Schwarz 12 Records. The whole EP possess that playful, skewed, after party vibe that you only really get after spending more than 24 hours awake dancing to repetitive music. Perfectly at home in Berlin's non-stop hedonism, all five tracks exude a frazzled, lucid flow which wander in direction and eschews the more traditional structures of house and techno for a more free-form, non-linear exploration. The sounds and beats are fractured and fizzy, instantly piquing the interest of the intoxicated listener. If you're one of those DJs who gets up at 3AM to get ready for a gig, then this is the record for you. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Can It Be All So Simple
A1. Come Clean
B1. Yaga
B2. Most Hated 4 No Reason
B3. There Are Still These Fucked Up Dream

Echovolt have proven themselves excellent exponents of high grade house music. Through some expertly timed re-issues and ingenious originals they've become a fully established tour de force on the modern landscape.

"Time Heals All Wounds" is a new EP from George Earnest & Der Opium Queen containing three tracks that perfectly encapsulate the deep, epic and euphoric sides of house music that seem to epitomize Echovolt's ethos.

"Ultralush" kicks off with swirling pads, ascending arps and evocative bird song; it's that hi-def deep house sound with rainforest inflections that we go absolutely ape shit for here at Picc HQ.

"Rainy Day" blends wistful pad lines, dewy-eyed keys and beautifully formulated sfx with a smooth and simple broken beat for a moment of dreamlike relaxation with just enough thrust for you to bob your head to it.

Finally, "Time Heals All Wounds" ends the journey on a heavenly high note, a meandering organ part highlighting all that is good in the world as it travels through shuffled house drums, woozy synth riffs and a raise-your-sprits-to-the-sky chord progression. Add that impeccably timed, incredibly evocative spoken word vocal part (that appears just at the right time) and you have, my friends, a slice of deep house perfection few will rival all year! Form an orderly queue please!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The title track, "Time Heals All Wounds" is a beautiful and blissful house track that's gonna be in my box all Summer and probably all Autumn. I suggest you check it out!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ultralush
B1. Rainy Day
B2. Time Heals All Wounds

Delfonic stumbled upon the tracks that make up this release during a none-descript warehouse party around 2013. After founding out they were actually made in 2008, Oye Black hunted down the artist, Martin Georgi and signed two tracks off the original EP, and backed them up with a DJ friendly edit by Delfonic.

The first track is a mid tempo, low-NRG MPC house jam - well constructed drums, an eyes down pad pattern and a catchy female vocal hook. It could easily be a lost Sound Signature jam, or, finds new alliances with Bastien Carrara and Eddie Danielle. The second unnamed track keeps the vibe flowing as organs, strings and picked guitar lines are gleefully chopped up and rearranged across the MPC's 16 pads. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Move Fantastic
2. Sit Down Showers

1. Interlude

Hard edged EBM and industrialized stomp here on the newly minted Ratteznake records. First single also by Effet Rose. "Los" sounds like it's been ripped off a lost Medusa edits twelve, its mix of Nitzer Ebb, Ministry and Severed Heads rippling off the wax with a ferocious intent. "Warschauer" sees concentric dark acid mixed with incomprehensible vocal utterances, recalling some machine darkness from Glasgow's Clan Destine Traxx. Finally, "Dance For Me" sees the gremlins' battle cry eeked out of a frazzled outboard, drawing out all the mutants for a techno moshpit of destructive proportions. Head for the bunkers!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Colon-busting biznis here from newly minted Rattleznake. Tuff enough to blow even the most hardened new beater a new orifice or two. Yowzers.

TRACK LISTING

Los
Warschauer
Dance For Me

Hamburg based Label Mantra Mantra drops its first EP by 11Schnull. "Imperia" is not only the first release by 11Schnull, Hamburg-based DJ and producer, but also marks the birth of a new record and design label named Mantra Mantra. It will release electronic music from up-and-coming artists as well as handcrafted merchandising items, created specifically for each new output.

On this first EP the title track spans over an epic length of 10 minutes and combines an ecclesiastical sample field-recorded in the basilica of Imperia, Italy, with trippy choral soundscapes and hard crashing drums. The B side contains "Jam des Terrorglobus", a rough uncut session he held with his friend Baxmann, and a dark and quaky electro piece called "Roofies on fire", a harsh club banger that could potentially be the last track played at an illegal rave before the "Polizei" shows up. But this part of the story will be told on vinyl only.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Imperia
B1 Jam Des Terrorglobus (feat. Baxmann)
B2 Roofies On Fire
B3 Polizei

Limited edition Greg Beato album / comp here under an alt alias and released on his own Ni Un Pero imprint. Existing fans should be kept more than interesting with his vigorous mix of bangin' and clatterin' drums, metallic textures and hefty kick drums. Haphazardly contrasting stark, industrious moods with glimmers of harmony. Rhythmically strong throughout, paying most obvious tribute to the years of house and techno music that precede it. This isn't some pastiche though, every track feels real and honest and battered out of Beato's boxes with abandon.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Proper dark resonant electronic acid mayhem here from Beato, with snapping bit-crushed percussion, industrious squealing 303's and frantic, crescentic melodies. Killer.

TRACK LISTING

1. 2K17
2. WP7
3. WP8
4. Pushing You Till It's Over
5. P.U.T.I.O
6. KLK
7. 2K17 Temp
8. El Man Ese
9. Fake 80's
10. Food For Profit, Not Health
11. 2K17 Part 3 

Following up his self titled 12" earlier this year; Austin, Texas-based Shane English continues in his path exploring the deep and bizarre edges of the American DIY electronic world. Over these eight tracks we get English's dissonant take on collapsing industries, the ever growing immunity to antibiotics and the failing nature of human consciousness. Inspired by the failing American Dream and society's great demise, it highlights an era dominated by micro-species - insects, bacteria; and cybernetic implants. A land devoid of human experience, novelty and warmth; haunting, slightly menacing and heavily impacting. If you lack optimism about the progression of our species on this planet, then this is the record for you! 

Neka Neka' (on General Purpose) is the first solo release by multi-disciplinary artist, Ex Ponto (Ivan Mašic). Coming of age during the mid-90s Melbourne rave scene, Ivan was infected with music by the legendary Kate Bathgate on 3RRR community radio.
Hearing music by the likes of Oliver Lieb, Will E Tell, HMC & and other producers of the time, an infection quickly turned into a music obsession that lives on today.

In the following years Ivan would go on to manage one of Melbourne's longest running record stores (Dixons Records) and in 2005 built a recording studio, aptly named The Womb. From 2005-15, he produced and played on over 20 albums for improvisation collective, Council of Elders and experimental, no-wave band, Wunderlust.
'Neka Neka' is a nod to ex-Yugoslavian experimentalists of the 80s (Rex Ilusivii, Kozmetika, Miha Kralj etc) and the thriving, late-night hedonism of Belgrade's Club 20/44.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Excellent experimental electronics and wave here from lesser known Melbourne musical mainstay Ex Ponto. Amid the buzzing textures and immersive compositions, the humid "Straight To The Tropics" and Bush-of-Ghosts styled "Stuck In Oberon" sparkle particularly.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ex Ponto
A2. ESP
A3. Straight To The Tropics
B1. No Sweat
B2. 20/44
B3. Stuck In Oberon
B4. Vraar

Smiling C collaborate with Bahamian super talent, F.J. to compile a selection of six lost tunes from his catalogue, many of which make their first appearance on vinyl. Fritz Bootle, Jr. (F.J.) created a unique blend of reggae and r'n'b while living on the Grand Bahama island in the early 90's. Subtly inspired by the Compass Point Balearic locus of the nearby island of New Providence, and locally by a flourishing scene of soca, reggae, and disco, he developed this sound to fill a gap he saw in popular music.

He was fortunate to marry into a family that gave him unlimited access to work in the legendary studio on Freeport, G.B.I. Recordings, run by Frank Penn. Always more of a passion project, he would come up with these in the evenings after work, finding a way to blend all his different influences (Bob Marley, George Duke, Teddy Riley, Journey...). Fooling around with Cubase he navigated his way to this magical deep bass sound and new jack style drum programming. "That's The Way" is the retrospective collection of the best moments from his Bahamas chapter.

TRACK LISTING

Fools Love
Thats The Way
Bahama Unite
I Want Her
Chate
In My Heart

Lullabies for Insomniacs deliver the debut release from the intoxicating Garland. A project which emerged years ago and subsequently developed and transformed through overseas exchanges. Influenced by popular media and musical practices the duo channels a resonating wonderland that echoes, calling for magic to ignite. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Amb.Guit
2. Dada.Dub
3. Kat.Ar
4. Lead.Dub
5. Smo.Dve
6. Bas.Ic
7. Single.Dub
8. Sum.V 

Before your very eyes, and lucky ears, Garland return with their second album on LFI. The follow up to their debut "Preludes # 1" is a surreal journey in which the duo further explore their shared interest of sample based music, minimalism and arrangement methods found in the dub tradition. By combining analogue and digital technologies with found sounds and acoustic instrumentation, Cologne based DJ Phillip Jondo and Glasgow based artist Simon Weins invite the listener to delve deeper into their exploration of time, space, texture and form...
Returning with a more refined body of work, Garland sets the tone on # 2 by shifting attention to the ever-changing nature inherent to sound itself. Worlds in which the origin of sound is untraceable and where micro events become the basis for extended explorations.

TRACK LISTING

1. S.Am
2. Gar.Ske
3. (((Noh)))
4. Eps.Ans
5. Tom.Pt
6. Candy.Blp
7. Detar.Hu
8. Fa.De
9. E.Ijyh

By now you should be familiar with the witching hour electronics on offer from the Neubau stable, and this new 12" from Gil.Barte is just about as ketty as they come. Title track "L.i.G" layers corrosive synth blasts and dystopian waveforms over a slow and slanky techno-tropical rhythm, sounding somehow dubby, urban and ritualistic at the same time. A primo example of the dark wired sound here and an an uncompromising slow-burning tool for the club. Next up Lamusa II drops by to shift the gravitational field, exposing the title track to a nugget of radioactive material and wrapping it in a strange sonic mist. B-side bonus "AGH" cuts the pace to a K-Hole stroll for a strange and psychedelic trip into wormhole sonics and cough-syrup sludge - A-grade weirdshit for twisting nerves.

TRACK LISTING

L.I.G
L.I.G. (Lamusa II Remix)
AGH

R. Girardin – "Emotional Music" is a collaborative release from Palto Flats and Zero Grow, a contemporary rendering of synthetic midi-fusion and DAW experimentalism. Drawing links between Rashad Becker’s textured compositional approach and the multicultural electro-fetishism of Benjamin Lew, "Emotional Music" uses known palettes in non-traditional methods.
In "Emotional Music" we are treated to Girardin’s tooling of the synthesizer as a spiritual instrument, one where the typical motifs of musicality and style degrade in favor of poetic modulation matrices and breath controlled hopefuls. Synthesizers occupy a special place in sonic energy, dependent on electricity for physical sound creation, void of voice without human intellect and touch. "Emotional Music" is a synthesis of both the human and synthesizer’s expressive logics; one of internal architectures capable only through external inlets and outlets.

R. Girardin is a Hollywood location scout living in Los Angeles. Recent work includes contributions to the score of Invernomuto’s film "Vers L'Europa Deserta, Terra Incognita", and lectures on the aesthetics of decentered spatiality in Southern California at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland and UC Irvine. Girardin has previously released music on Italian label Hundebiss.

The artwork features a cover photo by Girardin and blind drawings by artist Roee Rosen. 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. "Atrium Air"
2. "Behind Shine"
3. "Grown Man"
4. "Cry"
5. "Third Hut"
6. "Nth"
7. "Royal"
8. "Splashed On"
9. "Sunk"
10. "Wave Rash"

Perennial Piccadilly favourites Born Free find the time to turn out one last tonker before the end of 2k17, serving up a searing 3 track EP from Rotterdam-techno explorer Louis Guilliaume. Presumably armed with a phat sherm stick and a battered MPC, Louis gets deep and deranged on the hunt for electronic funk. "Freezse" employs its homonymic technique to fire off a burst of strobe lit stabs over the top of a restless techno perc track, opening the EP with a steely glare across the post-peak dancefloor. From there, "Close Encounter" drops into a totally off-the-wall outpouring of overlapping rhythms, clattering drums and spaced out sci-fi FX, filling our ears with disorienting drug noise before an intergalactic lead line traps us in its tractor beam. Finally "Time Trap" offers heat treated percussion, industrial aesthetics and a mindwarping sequences, closing a killer EP which makes your brain buzz and your tummy bump.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Some wacked-out shit for y'all here.... Think White Hotel at 6.30am when the gremlins come out to play....

TRACK LISTING

1. Freezse
2. Close Encounter
3. Time Trap 

Hailing from the Ruhr Area in Germany, the Homewreckers (Johannes Ehmann, Gregor Pottmeier and Krischan Wesenberg) have 20 years of musical background - meandering between jazz, blues, soul, house and techno (!!!). Moving between electronically powered dancefloor music to film soundtracks with ease, the trio of self confessed music obsessive's present an excerpt from their upcoming album, "Machine Kiss". "Confusion" sends old jazz loops through an audio tumble drier before layering up some rich, fervent male vox. "Rotthausen" sees delicate piano notes demolished by thudding perc hits and torn up electrics. Serene and psychedelic in equal nature it recalls the crazed rhythmic power of Where 2 Now? or some of Boomkat's recent forays. As we flip the disc the mood remains constant - the lights are low, the time is late, smoke and heady atmosphere fills the air. It reminds me of sipping classy cocktails in places like Fitzgerald's - prohibition themed jazz bars with sexy lighting and even sexier bartenders. Finally "Guestlist" concludes the trip, possibly the most 'modern' sounding track on the EP. Disjointed and with a nod to glitchy hip-hop (or wonky-hop as we call it here), it squelches and squeals as various elements are mashed and mangled, reconstructed into something resembling a groove. Challenging, innovative and definitely not for the faint hearted! 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Confusion
A2. Rotthausen
B1. If I Should Loose You Part I
B2. Guestlist

After starting to build a reputation featuring on different compilations like the Sofa Elsewhere LVI, shelTer, Risks Issues Opportunities and at first the punkish electronic Danzas Electricas Vol.2, Houschyar is on to deliver his debut album on Macadam Mambo.
Originally from Dresden (DE) and now based in Istanbul, Marius (his real name) has made his experience in different places in East Europe, studying Fine Art and developing his skills and senses for music, to let emerge a singuliar style influenced by special electronic genres like Minimal-Synth, Berlin School, Krautrock, Electro and never too far from Punk.
Produced in his living room in Ömer Hayyam - Tarlabasi, « Temmuz » must be taken as the soundtrack of a night ride through Istanbul by a warm summer night. Houschyar succeed to catch with brio the intriguing vibe of the turkish city, developing tension and mystery in a deep immersion full of rhythms, synthetizers and guitar effects. Probably one of the highlights of 2020, don’t miss!

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Macadam Mambo can't stop themselves right now, continuing the string of must have madness with this T-R-I-P from Houschyar. Berlin school, tribal electronics and wormhole crunchers ensure a far out time.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Sylphide
A2. Escape
A3. Kavir
A4. Faunus
B1. Leguan
B2. La Cosa
B3. Lamassu

Another brilliant suite of dubby acidic techno and Drexciyan electro from Australian producer, Jeremiah R on Voodoo Gold. We kick things off with the appropriately titled 'Arp', with flickering sine waves backed by filtered pads and a slow, churning filter sweep into the heavy hitting follower, 'Far Away From Everything'. Here we start to feel the true force of Jeremiah's hardware collection with frenetic beats and soaring stacked saws punctuating the machinated throb before cooling things down into the rhythmic dubby beauty of 'Legacy'. 

It's this contrast that has always been at the forefront of JR's legacy and continues to form the backbone to his sound, with full-force spectral meltdowns being closely followed by loose dubby rhythms before launching once again into the stratosphere. 'Thinking Of You' picks up the percussive aspect once again whilst retaining the slowly sweeping pads and soaring delayed saw waves. 

'Signals From The Parallel Universe' could easily have been a more modern outing from Drexciya, keeping the skittering percussion in-line with resonant filter notches and plucked vactrols over the top, complete with rapidly changing chords and airy stabs before ending on the stunning closing duo of 'Get Down' with it's shimmering euphoria and the industrial churning of 'Globular Cluster' making sure things don't get too cheery before closing things out. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly immersive and perfectly written collection of post-industrial drones and head-bobbing 130bpm electro. Perfectly balanced throughout, and prime listening for darkened dancefloors. Killer.

TRACK LISTING

A1. ARP
A2. Far Away From Everything
A3. Legacy
A4. Thinking Of You
B1. Imaginary
B2. Signals From The Parallel Universe
B3. Get Down
B4. Globular Cluster

Slip on your shades, shut the curtains and find some Dutch courage, you're about to hear the debut LP from Jonny Teardrop. Inspired by Native American peyote songs, using his Jaguar as a bass and drum samples from obscure Japanese crust punk songs, the Jonny charges through 13 snarling blasts of dark wired sound snapping polaroids and conjuring fragments of memories. Gritty, corrosive and raw, "No Problemo" adopts the grunge and gloom of Royal Trux, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire and JAMC to take me all the way back to drunken nights stumbling through the dark of Retro Bar with a warm Red Stripe in hand. A short movie made of 13 scenes, written by himself and directed by Louis Vignat will be presented alongside the album. The 13 videos will be your introduction to Jonny's weird and complex universe; a door that won't be easily closed once opened. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Jonny Teardrop makes his debut on Rouge Mécanique with thirteen blasts of corrosive post punk energy. Essential listening for fans of The Kills, JAMC, Suicide and Whitey, this is the stuff of nightmares and eyeliner. All hailz the Dark Wired Sound!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Shave My Head
A2. Shotgun
A3. 4AM
A4. Secret Death
A5. No Mercy
A6. Gluey World
A7. Suburb Kid
B1. The Room
B2. Eden Rebel
B3. Dodge
B4. Fragment
B5. Internal Server Error
B6. So I Trudged Upstairs

Last time we caught up with the GCZ he was strung out in heaven, aligning chakras and hitting the bong with two volumes of "Lushlyfe" for Rush Hour. Now Jordan's back on his own Off Minor imprint, bringing the noise with three versions of "Fission Transmission" for all the freakz in the club. Rattling away along the A-side, the 'Main Mix' lays waste to the competition with wild Italo-disco arpeggiators, swelling, adrenal synthlines and squeeling gremlins trapped deep in the inner workings of the drum box. The "Drum Mix" kicks things on a touch, incorporating a schlamming 4/4 beat and plenty of EBM energy to level any rave bunker you find yourself lost in. Finally, "Suspicion Transmission (No Drum Mix)" bathes us in the brilliance of Czamanski's vintage hardware, bubbling electronics and charming weirdness. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Fission Transmission
B1. Fission Transmission (Drum Mix)
B. Suspicion Transmission (No Drum Mix)

Wino go full Zeppelin! Inspired by a recent trip to New Orleans and the deep South, Davy & Co. wrangle sliding basses and pumping organs into 20 minute rock n’ roll-on odyssey. Chugging locomotives fall into an infinite groove on the A side, while the B takes the underneath perspecitve- rattling out subdued sub bass frequencies. Full sleeve artwork by (the legend) The Germ . Mastered by the Bastard.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: After that Wino-D release made us freak last year, the Irish outfit return with a new style for the new era. The modular bleeps and buzzing circuitry remain, pluming acrid smoke from the fresh solder, but now they play ensemble with motorik percussion, blazing guitars and wailing vocals, raging away until the bassline brings the groove. Flip it and journey further into the freakzone. This is neo-PZYK magik for the next generation - don't get left behind.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Pilot (part 1)
B1. The Pilot (part 2)

L.I.E.S. alumni Nick Klein lands at Alter with a diverse four tracker of cryptic machine conversations. The set gets off to an ambient start with the crystaline tones and glassy bass notes of "Burning Mattresses", (full on late 80s Eno vibes here) before lurching into industrial territories courtesy of the discordant bleeps, queasy lead lines and distorted bass pulses of "Pena Adobe". Over on the flipside, "Smelling The Sheets" keeps it dark and distorted with buzzing waveforms and thrusting rhythms, but cuts back on the full frequency craziness for a crisp dancefloor experience. Finally "The God In Vodka" gives us all out insanity, tripping out into droning feedback and garbled sequences, the woozy leadline the booze laced icing on a very strange cake. Recorded in Brooklyn NY, on an economic set-up, this is fringe shit for the real freaks out there.

TRACK LISTING

1. Burning Mattresses
2. Pena Adobe
3. Smelling The Sheets
4. The God In Vodka 

After a seven year hiatus since the release of their debut LP on ESP Institute, Kyle Martin and Jonny Nash’s Land Of Light return with their sophomore album for Melody As Truth. Written and composed over the course of two years, “The World Lies Breathing” reflects the pair’s shared development towards spacious, abstract composition crafted from a wide range of contrasting sound sources. Utilising a combination of acoustic instruments, contact microphones and Martin’s self-built modular synthesiser “The World Lies Breathing” focuses on the space between sounds, conjuring up an organic yet alien landscape that exists on the edge of an unknowable void.

TRACK LISTING

Between Two Grains Of Water
Hand Holding Mine
Light Of The Milligram
Mystery And Fire
Human Archeology
Age Of Tin And Copper
Possession Of Silence
Distracted Tenderness

Australia's Balearic mystic is outback, ready to take us on another sunset stroll through the bush on his own General Purpose imprint. Originally written between 2014 and 2015, these discarded, lost ideas persisted enough to require further investigation. Taking a pause between his dub explorations, "Initials" is an electronic experimentation in forward-thinking Balearic music. "TFTC" opens the set in vintage Leise fashion, freewheeling through New Age melodies, woozy pads and nuanced percussion while a host of otherworldy idents shimmer in the distance. Birdsong and whirlytube introduce the madcapped and metallic rhythms of "MITD" on the B1, a fresh twist on the fourth world vibe built out of the skeleton of '92 ambient house releases. Finally, "STTS" gives us subtle percs, echo drenched sound design and robotic rainforest idents, all filtered into a haunting and atmospheric vision of Balearic dub-techno.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Lysergic, cryptic and kind of mystical, Len's music is like a Monday morning conversation with our own Matt Ward - and I'm more than glad the Aussie producer is back. Where recent releases have crashed and womped through dubspace, "Initials" sees Len return to the outback esoterics of old, offering up a trio of Balearic dancefloor hits tinged with his otherworldly oddness. Killer!

TRACK LISTING

A1. TFTC
B1. MITD
B2. STTS

Over the last decade, we’ve come accustomed to Jason Letkiewicz releasing material under a dizzying array of aliases, each utilized to explore a different side of his multi-faceted musical persona. Now, some 14 years after he made his recording debut alongside Ari Goldman as Manhunter, Letkiewicz has joined forces with Into The Light Records to release his first album under his real name.

"The Reflecting Pool" sees Letkiewicz exploring the uncomplicated and uncluttered in the pursuit of pure aural beauty. While his recent album as Opposing Currents was dense, dark, urban and industrial, "The Reflecting Pool" is stripped back, quiet and melodious. The contrast between the two projects is marked, with "The Reflecting Pool" drawing more on Letkiewicz’s love of crystalline ambient, slow burn synthesizer soundscapes, early ’80s library music and the kind of obscure electronic new age music that has been a hallmark of Into The Light’s releases to date.

The set’s 12 tracks gently ebb and flow, with Letkiewicz making great use of dusty old drum machines, effects units and a range of vintage analogue and digital synthesizers. It’s a set-up that results in a range of complimentary mood pieces and interludes, from the delay-laden military drums and lilting lead lines of “Out of Body Experiences”, to the drowsy, sunrise bliss of “Sunspot”, the bubbling Tangerine Dream style shuffle of “Mind Awake Body Asleep” and the outer-space atmosphere of “The Kill Fee”.

Throughout, Letkiewicz showcases his seemingly intrinsic grasp of mood, atmosphere and melody. It can be heard within the glacial guitar motifs, occasional beats and elongated chords of “The Reflecting Pool”, the rhythmic bustle of “Numb Drums”, the glassy-eyed melancholia of “Arhythmia” and the cinematic paranoia of “Burning Off The Morning Fog”. It’s also evident amongst the classically beat-less ambient of closing cut “Weightless”, whose alien electronics, effects-laden pulses and opaque chords recall established masters of the genre.

With "The Reflecting Pool", Letkiewicz has provided us with a much-needed dose of stress-free musical escapism, at the same time offering hope that in these troubling times, love may still save the day.

TRACK LISTING

A1. White Of The Eye
A2. Mind Awake Body Sleep
A3. Double Dream
A4. Out Of Body Experiences
A5. Numb Drums
A6. Sunspots
B1. Afterimages
B2. Burning Off The Morning Fog
B3. The Kill Fee
B4. The Reflecting Pool
B5. Arrhythmia
B6. Weightless

More amazing music from Jamal Moss' Mathematics Recordings - celebrating 22 years of cutting edge electronic music! It's a spiritual house odessy for the 104th sonic missiv to date, with Giorgio Luceri on production duties and featuring the vocal talents of Gregg Fore.

If you like your house deep, emotional and with a certain tribal edge, then you'll be in for a treat here: think NDATL, Robert Owens, Kai Alce and half Jamal's past signing that he's knowingly groomed and nutured, creating a roster of artists he can truly call his own. 

"All That We See Or Seem" grabs us by the hands and takes us on a star-lit tour of Chicago house history, from the jacking, mechanized drum beats, to the string-soaked emotive epics and back through late night, speaker friendly almost-techno, it's an inventive and captivated listen from the off. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Ridiculously strong Mathematics' release that turns up at the club way past midnight. Emotional, fractured and with deep rooted tribalism; this is the edgy shit to keep you hooked till morning.

TRACK LISTING

I Am Love (feat Gregg Fore) (6:17)
Giove A Favore (8:22)
Can Move On Without U (4:55)
I Am Love (feat Gregg Fore - Ambience Version) (7:18)

After Vox Populi!'s "Half Dead Ganja Music" and Frank Dommert's "Kiefermusik", we have a hand picked compilation by the Hamburg artist Maat. Maat is a solo project by Dorte Marth, who created two secretly powerful and underappreciated records in 1993. They were released on two labels (Dragnet, Dom Elchklang) run by Achim P. Li Khan, the co-founder of the Greatest Band On Eearth, H.N.A.S. Maat's musical pallette is at once, strikingly, a more dark and brooding occult version of Anima and Limpe Fuchs. One can hear classical music references much like Coil's Unnatural History, but played further, blurring the shadowy lines between sampling and virtuoso playing.

Maat's dark and glisteningly illustrated use of electronic drums, Pan-Asian arrangements, and classical styles, invent a private world where she uncovers and projects forth, a new and ancient female energy. Its almost as if she is orchestrating her pallette and shooting it through star-clusters beneath the world. Probably Typhonian Highlife's and 4th World Magazines greatest influence. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Krypt
2. She
3. Sie
4. Shaku
5. Monoton
6. Duster
7. Sphare
8. Quer
9. Tudelo
10. Vopice
11. Kurz Davor 

Two years after Leonardo Martelli made his debut with the retro-futurist four tracker 'Menti Signole', he returns to Antinote with Volume 2, an update of that initial electronic vision. Sparse, clear-cut and slightly nerve-racking, "Micaella" opens the record with the precision of a neurosurgeon. The song can be seen in many ways as a good introduction to the music of the Italian musician – past and probably future. Ethereal string machines balance the nagging acid leitmotiv, dancing cheek to cheek above a restless drum pattern. "Alice" is another triumph of opposition, pairing joyous melodies and exuberant electo rhythms over a melancholic vocal sample and bittersweet pads. On "Laura" - just like with "Alice" - Martelli keeps on playing with the potential of abstraction of rap samples, lending the glassy melodies and snapping beat a freestyle feel. "Sofia" gives a particularly striking example of this weird game he likes to play with language as Biggie Smalls’ words get progressively eviscerated from their meaning. Backed by bare percussive samples (a numerical metronome, copyright-free digital ersatz of percussions, strange string pluck) "Sofia" depicts despair in a post-industrial world, where everything has lost any sense of materiality. Disarmingly simple, Menti Singole Vol.2 offers electronic mourning music at its most elegant.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Antinote continue to push the boundaries of the current electronic scene with another genre blurring release from Leonardo Martelli. Avant garde instrumentation, abstract composition and a decidedly melancholic tone twist the electro, techno and freestyle in strange new directions.

TRACK LISTING

1. Micaela
2. Alice
3. Laura
4. Sofia 

Cuerpo y alma was Eduardo Mateo’s second record as a soloist, originally released by Sondor in 1984. Recorded between 1981 and 1984. In this record Mateo also experimented with percussion trying to get closer to a Hindú Percussion. This record reissued for the first time.

Eduardo Mateo is one of the most important influences in the history of the Uruguayan Music. Mixing beat, jazz, bossa nova and candombe. He was the one who created the “candombe-beat” mostly known as “fusión”. He also was member and inspired the legendary band “El Kinto”.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cuerpo Y Alma
A2. Nombre De Bienes
A3. Maria
A4. El Son Oro Scope
A5. Carlitos
A6. El Tungue Le
B1. Lo Dedo Negro
B2. El Boliche
B3. Si Vieras
B4. Un Canto Para Iemanja
B5. La Casa Grande
B6. El Airero

It's the 21st Century and the cult of mass information has finally vanquished the allure of mystery. Reality TV, live blogging, social media and iCloud leaks - we don't wanna see our idols airbrushed, we wanna see them before they zip their skin up. We want the process dammit, the 4 a.m. burnout, the smudged ink and the pencil shavings. 
Melody As Truth know what we want, and the Amsterdam label duly give it to us with their new MATstudio series. Inviting us into their workspace, Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft catalogue some of the experiments, explorations, accidents and fortuitous events that regularly take place. Each record will feature two compositions created from a collage of works created using guitar, bass, synth, piano, chime and fx.
This first offering treats us to a pair of drifting dreamscapes, both strange, beautiful and organic. Imagine floating down a river in a land of divergent DNA.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft serve up the first in a series of recordings taken from live jams, improvised sessions and machine experiments. Floral beauty on the A-side, seismic power on the flip.

TRACK LISTING

A1. In Strange Company He Spoke Softly
B1. The Land Through Which We Pass

It's the 21st Century and the cult of mass information has finally vanquished the allure of mystery. Reality TV, live blogging, social media and iCloud leaks - we don't wanna see our idols airbrushed, we wanna see them before they zip their skin up. We want the process dammit, the 4 a.m. burnout, the smudged ink and the pencil shavings.
Melody As Truth know what we want, and the Amsterdam label duly give it to us with their new MATstudio series. Inviting us into their workspace, Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft catalogue some of the experiments, explorations, accidents and fortuitous events that regularly take place. Each record will feature two compositions created from a collage of works created using guitar, bass, synth, piano, chime and fx.
This second outing tessellates through organic, crystalline and electronic territories as the two men show their multi-instrumental prowess and subtle touch. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Side B

Part 3 of the Melody As Truth Studio vinyl documents lands in store, gently wrapping us in ambient ecstasy as Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft embark on a pair of improv experiments. On the A-side "Crushing Indifference" drifts through subtle percussion, fractal voices, radiostatic and swelling keys, all bathed in a haze of delay and reverb. While B-side "An Inn For Those Not Permitted" takes a decidedly experimental and mangled approach to saxaphone, sampling and guitar.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Crushing Indifference Excerpt 1
A2. Crushing Indifference Excerpt 2
A3. Crushing Indifference Excerpt 3
A4. Crushing Indifference Excerpt 4
B1. An Inn For Those Not Permitted Excerpt 1
B2. An Inn For Those Not Permitted Excerpt 2
B3. An Inn For Those Not Permitted Excerpt 3
B4. An Inn For Those Not Permitted Excerpt 4

One half of the KWC 92 (who has previously delivered two top notch lps for L.I.E.S.), Swedish producer Max Stenerudh aka Maxxx Bass steps forward with a 9 track solo effort titled "Gone Fishing". Right off the bat we hear Stenerudh immersing himself in a world of chilled out and narrative FM electronic explorations that call to mind places past. The untitled tracks leave it to the listerner to create a story on their own, as voice pads, hand drums and dare we say pan flutes push and pull their way through the album creating dreamlike textures and otherwordly escapes. Ideal music to fall into a late afternoon summer siesta to. LP comes come with full color 22cmx28cm color poster and download card.

TRACK LISTING

1. Track 1
2. Track 2
3. Track 3
4. Track 4
5. Track 5
6. Track 6
7. Track 7
8. Track 8
9. Track 9 

There's no shortage of heat emanating from the Neapolitan scene right now, and Periodica's latest must have masterpiece comes from the expanded mind of E. Fierro, otherwise known as Space Garage and Mystic Jungle Tribe member Milord. Switching up the format for spectacular 7" to luxurious LP, the Italian keeps the palate reassuringly spacey, tripping us out with library-style synthesis, twisted space echo and killer funk arte facts. Ambient opener "Mnemonic Induction" chimes wonderfully with the retro-futurist sleeve art, bringing to mind Superman's Fortress of Solitude or that trippy crystalline bit in Bill & Ted. "Onironauta" introduces rhythm in the most syrupy cosmic style, serving up spaced out slow mo complete with churning sequencers and tasty FX. We take another plunge into the symphonic and synthetic with the soundscaping of "Sub-aquatic level" before "Virus Of Time" takes us on a subtle glide through sparkling circuitry and dub delay. Flipping the disc, we're instantly unhinged by the library-styled techno of "The Glass Maze", scattershot electro of "Third Layer" and deliriously disorienting synth squelch of "Static Rain". All that remains is for "False Awake" to fling us through an interdimensional portal of sleek sequencing, proggy tones and tripped out FX and we're entirely enlightened by another amazing Periodica release.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Naples in the house! The Italian city is totally killing it at the moment, dominating our staff picks with releases from Nu Guinea, Mystic Jungle Tribe, Space Garage and Whodamanny. Now Milord goes solo on Periodica with a killer LP of spaced out sounds, proggy electro funk and A-grade cosmic. As usual, it's buy on sight tackle.

TRACK LISTING

Mnemonic Induction
Onironauta
Sub-aquatic Level
Virus Of Time
The Glass Maze
Third Layer
Static Rain
False Awake

'I wrote this album in prison. I went to the music room every week to play on their keyboards. I studied different styles of beat patterns and sound recording to be a recording engineer. I wanted to create this new sound, so I took go-go, hip-hop, house, and drum and bass to blend up a new pattern of beats with a DJ sway. So I rapped on it. I need a perfect mix sound so I used a reverb gate, small room because I was in a small room. I used my mom's blankets to trap the sound waves in the room. I use a digital mic from radio shack and was rapping with a blanket over my head to trap the sound waves. I played my keys in F flat to deepen the tone. I put tom toms on it to fill the spaces with handclaps to have that snap. Then I put a reverb gate on every instrument to get the lo-fi audio sound. I mastered it with all knobs on zero. Equalizer on zero. I mastered my own sound by tweeking and listening with cheap headphones. So that's why I call myself Mix-0-Rap because I master my mix and DJ rap style with a touch go-go rapping. Thank you for supporting me and my music, I hope you enjoy this.' - Mix-O-Rap

Who'd have thought when we were getting all creep to "For Thugz" way back in '15 that it was the product of a spell in the slammer! Mix-O-Rap finally delivering his full length for PPU. Standing out completely on its own but I guess its nearest reference would be the strung out, DIY minimal wave of 80s San Francisco in that it shuns fidelity and polish for grit, attitude and ruthless experimentation. A guttural, concrete distortion covers the whole record in a kind of sandblasted patina while Mix-O-Rap's unique, staccato rap phrases are pushed right to the foreground. It's an interesting and arresting listen and one of the more out-there releases from Tom Noble's exquisite label. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Kickstarting the whole 'prison-rap' movement. Mix-O-Rap claustrophic, lo-fi take on the genre is both arresting and unique and gritty as any time spent in the slammer.

TRACK LISTING

Busting Off (4:13)
Eyes Of A Key (4:15)
Writing With A Pen (4:37)
Can You Represent (3:17)
Breaking Off (4:15)
I Get Paid (4:11)
I Am The DMR (3:35)
Spitting Game (4:24)
I Don't Play (4:04)
Stop Sweating Me (4:31)
Leaving Scars (3:53)
I Got That Fire (3:43)

Equally adept at reissues and new releases, Stroom have quickly become one of our favourite labels, and the Belgian imprint excel themselves once again this week with the newest release from multi-instrumentalist Annelis Monsere. The label describe is as "...a record about a parting of ways. It is dedicated to the one who has been left behind and the one who left." And despite the 'happiness' of the title, the nine tracks found within embody a profound and beautiful melancholy. Musically Annelis charts a course through avant folk, minimalism and bedroom electronica, while her vocals, half whispered, half double tracked, convey an eerie gloom. Intimate, expressive and sorrowful, this is music for the moonlight.

TRACK LISTING

1. You're On Your Own
2. Hold Music
3. Happiness Is Within Sight
4. Your Bones, Your Skin
5. The Night Draws Near
6. Abandonment
7. Hold Music II
8. Your Future Was Planned
9. Untied 

Over 22 years and with an artist & label discography that'd take a whole evening to read through, Jamal Moss is one of Chicago's, and the global dance music community's true unsung heroes. A visionary artist through and through, under various monikers, aliases and collaborations he's one of house music's lesser celebrated stars; a bit like that amazing uncle you don't meet until you get married cos your mum's always told you to stay clear, but when you meet him he's the coolest mutha fucker at the party! Jamal Moss has done more to stear the course of house music in new, exciting and pleasurable directions than most people would care to admit and is 100% drafted onto Piccadilly's 'Dance Music Legends' board (I just made that up... but it's legit! - ed).

Maths102 finds him joined (or invent) a new Chicago house supergroup - Allonymous & The Hamitic Building Society and is possibly the most curveball and surprising releases I've ever witnessed him put out! - a truly astonishing fact when you consider just how maverick and leftfield he's been in the past. I WAS NOT expecting this - sprawling through camp Chi-town romp a la Derrick Carter on side A, which quickly descends into a late 80s NY styled number, somewhere between Arthur Russell and Codek with post-punk / no-wave art grooves on "Path To Wisdom" - and garnished with an evocative spoken word part. Flip and side B starts off with more familiar Jamal tackle - a reflective series of synth patterns marching to a vintage drum box and fluttering with frequency ripples. On "Broken Toy" I actually had to check I still had the phono switch on - I was that taken aback by what came out the speakers - somewhere between Nick Cave, David Bowie and Ghostpoet (!!!!!!!) - what the feck?! Is there nothing this man cannot do?! My heads still spinning about this track tbh....Anyway, "To Stay" concludes the EP with a trippy, flange-soaked vocal acapela...Jamal Moss peels back layers like I peel onions - in his mid 40's we're now hearing more new stuff as this true artist paints his picture and his philosophy. Get on board - one of the most defining artists of our generation. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Proper had to check mesen when I heard "Broken Toy" - buy dead pleased to see Jamal open up into some new directions. Still impertive in 2018, still doin' what he does...

As we cross the milestone 100 release mark, Jamal Moss' imperative label continues to supply the goods for intergalactic movers and shakers. This latest project features music from Cuban performer and guitarist Vivian Garcia who gets tweaked and polished by Italian hardware obsessive, Deviere. Beautifully injecting some fresh energy into classic house grooves, we open with the expansive, high gloss thriller that is "Ven Vonmigo", a classic 90s house vibe decorated with vibing sax licks, nice female vox and captivating arrangement. "Luna" gets two reworkings by the Italian maestro. First his "Deeply Envisioned Rework" strips it back to a warehouse dwelling creeper; thick square waves dominating a skeletal drum palette with that exotic vocal straddling the sonic structure wonderfully - eerie, tense and with a thousand uses out in the field. Finally we get a wild, late night orientated club refix which sends the vox spiralling out of control whilst concentric kick drums pound against strewn out atmospheres and cavernous piano notes before Deviere dumps a bucket load of analogue fx onto the stem and completely flips the vibe. Don't miss this last beauty it's gonna destroy the club! Mathematics rides again! Always worth a punt!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ven Vonmigo (Deviere World House Music Rmx)
A2. Luna (Deeply Envisions Rework Deviere)
B1. Luna (Boston Club Sound Deviere Rmx)

Music From Memory continue to cook up the heaters here, beaming onto your deck with a remix disc inspired by that curious and crucial Afro-Belgian LP. The odd combination of electronic elements, rubberised grooves and the sunbaked flavours of the mother continent took us all by surprise when it dropped a couple of months back - bounding out the speaker like a long, lost twin of Zazou, Biyake & CY1 with just a little extra oddball rating. Now the dons of the 'dam invite a veritable who's who of contemporary production druids to work their body moving magic on a bunch of "Criola" originals. Swedish drum fiend Prins Emanuel kicks us off with a suitably percussive reinterpretation of "KWEI!!", cycling through chanted vocals and pinging synths over an irresistible blend of circular rhythm elements and breezy bass. Next up Holland's afro-cosmic wunderkind comes up to the plate with a "Turtle Maraca" remix of "Intermezzo B" perfect for a memorable night of chicken limbo and lysergic marinade. Picking up where he left off on "Rigola", Dazion stretches the OG into a proper cosmic roller, surrounding the psychedelic flute refrain with shamanic drums, hypnotic sequences and a deep and earthy kick drum. Second Circle's most recent recruit, Androo continues his fine run of early form with an astrally inclined kosmische mix dripping in otherworldly dub elements. The slow and sensual drum pattern holds it down from top to bottom, creating more than enough space for echo drenched guitars, delicate mallets and smooth synths to enjoy an ear pleasing threesome. Flipping the disc we're dropped into the dark and sticky domain Detlef calls home, coming face to face with a transportative Tolouse Low Trax mix of "Veronika". Slicing and dicing the emotive vocals and soft-goth guitars over a typically lopsided groove, the German makes us move...slowly. Mechanical, packed with soul and slow enough to lock your shoulders into a right good roll, it's another eyeball licking masterpiece from Dusseldorf. As we reach the B2 we take a break from the remixes in favour of an unreleased version of "Veronika 02" with about 4 tons of extra electronic bass banged under it - holy heft it's muscular. Finally, Dutch electro chief Interstellar Funk delivers a slow moving sci-fi rendition of "Intermezzo 2" which drifts through the deadzone dodging growling synth stabs and static space junk to the tripped out patter of a rippling rhythm track.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: MFM revisit the madcapped magic of "Criola" with a star studded remix package perfect for the more open minded dancefloors of the world. Dig in for Afro-cosmic strollers, deep space rollers, mechanical soul and subbed up dub. A perfect accompaniment to the original, with more than enough retweak to turn the dancefloor inside out.

TRACK LISTING

A1. KWE!! (Prins Emanuel Remix)
A2. Intermezzo B (Dazion's Turtle Maraca Remix)
A3. Funyaka (Androo's Romantic Dub )
B1. Veronika (Tolouse Low Trax Remix)
B2. Veronika V02
B3. Intermezzo 2(Interstellar Funk Remix) 

Mesh-Key treats the open minded listener with a lavish, limited edition run of this heretofore unheard collaboration, finally seeing the light of day 15 years after its recording. Acoustic instrumentation and synthesizers meet Mukai’s haunting voice for four sparse, minimalistic compositions unlike anything in either artists’ previous output.
Chie Mukai is a composer and musician from Osaka, Japan, best known for her underground improv-folk group Ché-SHIZU (PSF), which she founded in 1981. In addition to her song-based work, Mukai has been an active improviser since 1975, when she joined the East Bionic Symphonia group under the leadership of Fluxus violinist-composer Takehisa Kosugi at the Biggako Art School of Tokyo. She has since collaborated with Keiji Haino, John Duncan, Agata Morio and many others. Her primary instrument is the bowed Chinese er-hu, but she also plays piano and percussion.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sugita Hi No
2. Hi Tsuki
3. Nami No Hate
4. Untitled 

Continuing their rich vein of form, Mannequin Records present a LP compilation of Michael Antener (Swamp Terrorist) early 80's minimal synth/industrial projects Nacht'raum (with Michael Stämpfli) and, as solo, Bande Berne Crematoire.
Heavily influenced by the works of SPK and Nocturnal Emissions, Michael Antener made his first recordings in the basement of his parents house in a small village nearby Bern, Utzensdorf. He started BBC in 1980, a hybrid of Neue Deutsch Welle and noise/experimental, making a household name in the international home recording scene of the time and participating to many tape compilations.
Teaming up with Michael Stämpfli as Nacht’raum, he self-released the untitled mini-lp in 1983. Coming out from the same town of Grauzone, the duo moved into the darkest minimal electronic sounds, choosing German as main language for the lyrics and a Roland Tr-808 as main drum machine, bringing the sound to a proto-electro dimension. Nacth’raum will be historically a real gem in the 80's Swiss underground electronic music, together with Mittageisen, Grauzone, Liliput, The Vyllies.
Michael, by the way, later teamed up with Ane Hebeisen and they went by the name of Swamp Terrorists, releasing seven albums and touring throughout the world until the end of the nineties. At the end of the nineties he sold all his instruments and became independent as a graphic artist. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Viva Espana
2. Tiere Schreit
3. Kranzo Roses
4. Rosa Bernet
5. Sahel Passe
6. Ich Muss
7. Maria Tanz - Maria Flieg
8. Consume
9. Menschwirtschaft
10. Ende
11. Plastiktraume
12. Nachstes Jahr 

The third instalment of Island Of The Gods sees Balearic / Ambient / Esoteric mainstays Johnny Nash (Melody As Truth) and Lindsay Todd (Firecracker) come together for a lush LP inspired by the paradisal surrounds of Bali. Over the course of twelve compositions we find the pair utilising their recordings in a whole host of ways, avoiding the well-trodden cliches of the “exotic” and instead attempting to achieve a personal interpretation of the flora, fauna and climate of the island. Spending time amidst the insects, rice fields and scorching sun, the pair gathered a library of found sounds which were then taken back to a studio space to be stretched, mangled and manipulated alongside a variety of electronic and acoustic instruments. The outdoor studio itself became a living instrument, with the duo setting up multiple microphones for durations of up to 12 hours around the space, layering and processing the results in tracks such as “Fauna Mapping” and “A Series Of Small Frogs”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Island Of The Gods invite a pair of true sonic trailblazers to take a journey of self discovery amongst the warungs and rice fields of Bali. The result is a deeply textured LP rich with mystical tones, immersive compositions and bold expressions of an earthly paradise.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gecko That Wore Its Skin Out
2. Dengue
3. Hotel Harriat
4. Pigeon
5. Kelahiran Kambar
6. Fauna Mapping
7. Petrol And Nab Champa
8. Kokokan
9. No Pigeon
10. Pipe To Pipe Bushment
11. A Series Of Small Frogs
12. Mushroom Omelette (and The Now Prevailing Cosmic Anxiety) 

Last edition from the Nature Boy re-issue series. You know the score: five pumpin' club tunes in that typical Nature Boy style. Phazed and funky, packing some serious bottom end weight but laced with organic instrumentation and biotic sensibility that places it alongside luminaries KDJ, Theo Parrish, Ron Trent and Wyndell Long. Think classic Peacefrog & mid 90s house records, the MPC2000 and big spliffs; c90 mixtapes, exuberantly styled shirts and sharp undercuts. All that good stuff that's getting repackaged and dumbed down in 2018 reppin' here in fully authentic, OG form. Strictly 4 da headz....!

TRACK LISTING

1. Prayer - Demo Mix
2. On Your Side
3. Relax Man
4. Goin' Thru Changes
5. Whatchusay (Dubwize)

Fox & His Friends drop their second release on your unsuspecting asses, delivering some high-grade conceptual art pop from Zagreb's underground. Formed Dejan Krsic in 1982, NEP (Nova Evropa) played around with graphic design, music, photography, video and table tennis, exploring the transgressive possibilities within each discipline. Musically NEP focused on experiments in ambient and tape-music, mostly self-released or hard to find compilations like "The Cassette Played Poptones" (1988). Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic's search for perfect pop music with cutting critical edge peaked in 1989, the year "Decadance" was conceived in the studio, though it was never released. Pumping 808 beats, with sampled vocals from Linda Cooper asking herself "How do I dance to this music?" were chosen by Fox & His Friends label owners Leri Ahel and Zeljko Luketic for a 12" opener of the unknown NEP's pop history. This single is a sneak-peak into the world of "POP NOT POP", the album and a graphic book merged into one multimedia entity, to be released later this year. All material is restored and mastered from original reel-to-reel tapes and presented on wax for the first time and for this occasion, deconstructed and reinvented in a remix B-side by Snuffo, masked hero of the Snuff Crew fame. Snuffo split the title vocal into a new cut-up, telling  audiences to "Dance to this music" - and dance you will!

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: How good is this! Long-lost, late-eighties art-pop from the former Yugoslavia, rediscovered and ready to r-r-r-rock any decent dancefloor! A good friend might call this dancing for mental health...

TRACK LISTING

1 Decadance (Original 1989 Version)
2 Decadance (Snuffo's 2017 Reinvention)

Today’s News Flash. Public Possession takes another step forward by signing Nice Girl to the label. Their collaboration w/ the New Zealand born, Melbourne based artist is initiated by a two-track 10” featuring one original song by the artist, plus a remix by long-time label affiliate Bell Towers.
The original “Take A Step” is an instant party starter (does not take long to make its point), layering snappy vocals over some functional perx before siren synths and bass weight carry you into the jacking zone. The remix gets all big (room) & techy, Bell Towers adding a wriggling bassline and nagging chime to the drum track. Two tracks – maximum spectacle. Right on.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Take A Step
B1. Take A Step (Bell Towers Remix)

Spanish techno stalwarts JC Cabrera and Kastil come together once again for their No Spiritual Surrender project, this time debuting on L.I.E.S. Direct, rhythmic, textured and dense techno gear with hints of James Cotton, the Modern Love-affiliated Hate, and even the stadium tickling prowess of Adam Beyer should all be familiar across the release.

It's tuff, uncompromising and it grabs you by your private parts before swinging you round its head like a techno caveman... typical LIES tackle then...

Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Primordial techno that's likely to bring out your inner caveman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Yo Prefiero
A2. Origae
B1. Intro
B2. Spinning Circles
B3. HB

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Every Born Free 12" deserves attentive listening as they are almost always bangers. This one is no exception.

TRACK LISTING

1. Incident
2. Haunted Tales
3. Navy Fit Republic 

Invisible City Editions officially re-release the sublime extended 12” version of “Praise Jah” with soaring vocals and wild electronics. Oluko Imo was a Trinidadian born multi-instrumentalist, founder of the legendary spiritual afro jazz groups Mansa Musa and the Black Truth Rhythm Band. He moved to New York City in the 80s and divided his time between teaching music there and touring Africa with Fela Kuti as both his manager and part of the band. Praise Jah is Imo’s crowning achievement. An elevated electronic mantra that perfectly fuses synthy soca disco with his spiritual afro-Trinidadian leanings. It’s a timeless piece of music that sounds as visionary today as it did when it emerged from the aether back in 1979.

TRACK LISTING

1. Praise Jah
2. Praise Jah (Dub)

In an era of increased nationalism and xenophobic bullshit, Antinote reach out to make their first French-Russian connection. Olga is from Moscow. She introduced herself to the label after Dominique Dumont's show in Paris, winter 2018. Zaltan et al immediately fell in love with the song 'Mojno' and step by step built up a nice collection of tracks which became the "1905" LP! Very active in the electronic music scene, she’s spent the last ten years releasing music, performing, recording & DJing as well as being busy with her tech-project Playtronica (with them she's created 3 controllers with which you can play scales on people, objects and colors). Across the "1905" LP she utilises some DIY devices such as Yamaha sampler vss-33, voice glitcher from the Russian company “Naked Boards” and organelle synth that creates this synesthetic tone in “ready when you are”. Besides dreamy pads and dancy beats Olga is ironically singing on Russian about her daily routine, in a positive way. There's no sadness and melancholy in the dark snowy days, where even the full moon or retrograde-mercury don’t even bother you ...if you are in harmony with mother nature's 5 elements.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Contemporary cold wave, icy electro-pop and melodic minimal wave from Russia's Omma here, who works her magic in the same vein as Carla Del Forno, Epsilove and fellow Antinote fam Domenique Dumont.

TRACK LISTING

A1. La Qi
A2. 1905
A3. Romantika
A4. Vmeste
B1. Ready When You Are
B2. Mojno
B3. Hearteater
B4. Normalno

ot to not to is an experimental RnB project by VA native Ian Mugerwa that combines low fidelity electronic recording techniques with unconventional song structures to produce music that serves as homage to dusty old blues recordings. At 19, Ian left his hometown of Fairfax for Richmond, where he slept on friends’ floors for several months while recording Goshen. During the day he would “hunt dussy” and during the night he would haul borrowed equipment over to the VCU music facilities and record until the morning. He was moderately successful on both fronts. The resultant recordings form a coming of age album, a snapshot of Ian from the ages of nineteen to twenty. Ian’s goal was to explore new aesthetics in black music through use of nontraditional methods, creating less polished, less sterile RnB in the process. Such methods included layering 40+ cello tracks to create the illusion of an orchestra, or collaging four, separate, 4-minute tracks of improvised percussion into one. Most drums were recorded last. Despite the focus on experimentation, it was important to Ian that he be crafting pop music. It is his belief that an impactful artist has, at least to some degree, a moral responsibility to deliver their art to the maximum amount of people (to efficiently help art as a whole progress). In other words, if restraint can be exercised, it ought to be.

TRACK LISTING

1. Withdrawal And Restraint
2. Mamama
3. Little One
4. Regretta II
5. Addiction And Indulgence
6. Never
7. Ever (Kalimba II)
8. Regretta I (ft Noah Smith)

Established in 2012, Borneo have restricted their output to just a steady trickle - releasing at best only one twelve a year!

Nonetheless, the crew deliver number seven in the digest, coming correct with four cuts of electronic & leftfield dance material in various BPM’s.

Mystery man MW Parsons takes care of the A side with "Altvornorge", a melodic and somewhat melancholic journey with vintage drum machines, spectral keys and nice keyboard flurries making for an evocative, atmospheric listen. The producer hangs onto the reins through "Kusanagi", a jolting, moon-rock crawling jaunt into deep cosmic chug.

Parsons tags in OG party crew Marck who enter the ring for the finale. "Gluten Vrij" ulitizes filthy acid notes and lysergic delays to create a swirling, strung-out electroid jam for the early hours of the day after. Meanwhile "Sushi Delight" closes off the jam with cinematic analogue synth squelches, a touch of percussion and more heavy gated drums for a sci-fi tinged darkwave classic.

TRACK LISTING

A1. MW Parsons - Altvornorge
A2. MW Parsons - Kusanagi
B1. Marck - Gluten Vrij
B2. Marck - Sushi Delight 

The career of Patience Africa Spanned over 40 years. After almost a decade of success on a major label with her Zulu Disco sound, and a few years in the early 80s experimenting with a more soulful sound, the funky synths of the 80's would force her to stay relevant in the quick changing times. It would be in 1987 that she would sign to the independent Ream Music which with the help of their tight knit in house production team had released hits for upcoming disco artists Makwerhu, Ntombi Ndaba, Sunset, Athena, Percy Kay and more. The label's success in the traditional market made Patience a perfect fit and could have been their first crossover artist.

With the help of owner's Danny Antill and Clive Risko they would cut a 4 track EP that like many others of the time ended up being lost in to the hyper saturated market of the emerging Bubblegum demand. Two tracks would be written by Patience, including the title "Wozani La" Musically these were more aligned with her sound of the 70's accompanied by a purely digital production, but it's the two songs written by label boss Danny Antill that appear on this release. These two songs are unlike anything heard at the time. Embracing full commitment to the digital studio and some extensive and risky experimenting the trio managed to slide heavy house bordering electro pop and a haunting swing beat groove alongside the compositions of Patience to complete this EP for both markets. Although the album had great potential, poor promotion and low sales led Patience to feel cheated and after not earning a cent for the record left the label and took her first break from music since the early 70's. She would later return to her original sound recording up to til 2006 when she released what would be her final album before her death the following year. Still loved by her fans and those who knew her, she is remembered through the Patience Africa Foundation. Founded by her son Mangaliso in 2017 to help create a better South Africa in our lifetime.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: TLDR – Aimed squarely at the dance floor, these two forgotten gems from the nascent days of SA house manage to serve synth pop and new beat with an irrepressible African flavor, while remaining first and foremost heavy house hitters.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hide And Seek
2. By Hook Or By Crook

June 2018, Amsterdam, NL: 12 months ago we concluded a series of experiments with a test subject named Ben Penn. A year on, we decided to repeat this experiment at his Tilburg base. Once again, the results were startling...
.
After being provided with a sizeable dose of an enhanced and notably stronger derivative of 4-Ho Met (codenamed ST011), Penn not only reported intense hallucinations but also enhanced music production capabilities. With the aid of electronic instruments and hardware, he worked quickly, producing both his trademark “higher level inter-dimensional funk” and compositions that defied our previous expectations.

During the early stages of his ST011 experience, Penn completely ignored the provided Rhythm Composer and instead crafted a colourful, humid, jazzy and beat-free track entitled “Nix”, which boasted loose and fluid synthesizer motifs. As his hallucinatory experience intensified, Penn giddily tapped out tropical rhythms on the provided beat-making device, smothering them in alien electronics and sticky melodies. When we asked what this devilishly good cut was called, he simply replied: “Not Important”.

As the test went on and the most intense symptoms died down, Penn was much like his old self. Before the ST011 wore off completely, he was able to finish two examples of his trademark “inter-dimensional funk”: the skewed, introspective, bassline-driven wooziness of “Ben” and the mazy, kaleidoscopic goodness of “People”. The latter composition was particularly potent and ear pleasing, suggesting that his ST011 experience had finished on an intense high

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: More synthetic 4/4 funk from Young Marco's entirely psychedelic Safe Trip imprint. This time round, Ben Penn hits us with a vibrating beatless jam, a tropical tonker and a pair of saucer-eyed steamers (check that bassline on "Ben"!). Grab a copy and rock a dance floor.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nix
2. Not Important
3. Ben
4. People 

One of the many musical entities the French collective Simple Music Experience sent to earth to vociferate electronic incantations, Radiante Pourpre is the name of a duo comprised of Alex and Leopold as well as the name of their 2017 debut album on Antinote. Last year, they have released an acclaimed LP on Kneklehuis under another moniker, Violent Quand On Aime, but the place from which they keep on transmitting musical signals has not changed: a post-exotic world ("No Zone") where the only remains of the societies we live in are barbwires, battered radio transmitters ("Takato") and deserted oil rigs the duo uses as fictional shelters.

From their precarious haven, they send us field recordings of waves mixed with analog glitters ("Interlude"). From their lost at sea run down tower, they record the cries of ominous seagulls ("Small Talk") and a bewitching Spanish voice ("Mala 800"), incorporating these to primitive drum machine patterns… And then…

A miracle happens when the record is flipped: a Balearic hit for post-apocalyptic times ("Lemanja")! Begining exactly like the opening track ("The Cops, The Jazz, The Birds"), in an unexpected twist of fate, it summons the angelic voice of Galadriel Andrade for a delicate Brazilian conjuration. There might even be a sunny spell lurking in the spirited closing tune ("Ms Butterfly"): “No Borders, No Cops, No Problems”.

TRACK LISTING

The Cops, The Jazz, The Birds
Lesson Tropic
Untitled
Mala 800
No Zone
Iemanja
Interlude
Small Talk
Takato
Ms Butterfly

Kicking proceedings on A Side is the almighty ‘Thought Crime’ which opens the package with murky atmospheric textures, skippy hat patterns and shuffled organic drums grooves driving the composition before the focal stages see the introduction of eerie piano chords, spoken word vocal samples and acid tinged bass which ebbs and flows within the depths. ‘No Fear’ follows next, laying focus on a bumpy drum groove, modulating synth swells, ethereal tension building pads and a snaking sub bass groove to create a dynamically unfolding, hypnotic cut.

Ravingly good Perlon’s Wareika step up to rework ‘Thought Crime’ which opens the flipside, as always from this trio shining light on chuggy bass grooves and jazz tinged ever-unfolding drums whilst stirring in the original’s eerie voices and choppy pianos to create a frenzied, dynamic feel throughout. On B2, ‘Since 1984’ is next to round out the release, an interlude of sorts featuring a bubbling arpeggio, dreamy piano melodies and an amalgamation of swirling, dubbed out echoes spiralling amongst muted kicks. 

Folks, do not let this beauty pass you by. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Ravingly good and effective minimal house. There are aplenty of these so called minimal cum house records. Few are worth your time. This is one of them and cements Red Pig Flower among the most promising producers out there. Cheerio.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thought Crime
2. No Fear
3. Thought Crime (Wareika Remix)
4. Since 1984 

Life And Death’s next album project finds label boss DJ Tennis connecting with Israeli duo Red Axes to express themselves with total freedom and explore the similarities and differences between their respective sounds. Entitled Redrago and due for release as a 2 x 12” on October 11th, the adventurous and subversive full length is preceded by this two track single release. DJ Tennis was introduced to the Red Axes duo by The Pachanga Boys at a festival in Corsica. “Their faces, their expressions and their attitude—gentle, smart, loving and funny—impressed me at first sight“ remembers Tennis. That was many years ago, and since then they have deepened their personal and musical connections, but “always by chance” says Tennis. Around a year ago, they were having a discussions and decided they should attempt to combine their “love of psy and mediterranean influences” and scheduled a week of recording sessions together. After making at 9am and having a proper Israeli breakfast, the artists went to a studio on top of a decadent old shopping mall in the Centre of Tel Aviv. Each of them then set up in one corner of the studio with their own instrument (including Tennis’s Pearl Syncussion, a small modular setup, a Juno and bunch of guitar pedals, while Niv and Dori “used their usual weird cheap instruments including bass and guitars”) and they began playing, experimenting and jamming, recording everything they did then swapping stations and repeating the process. “It was a friendly and loving experience” say Red Axes, who add that they then took all the recordings into various editing sessions and finalised the adventurous, multi-genre exploration that is Redrago. “The aim was to find a kind of Italian-Israeli connection in our musical approach,“

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Whacked out electro disco from DJ Tennis and Red Axes here, who combine roving hardware basslines with Indian konnakol scatting on the A-side, while the flip reminds me of Lindstrom & Prins Thomas' "Run".

TRACK LISTING

A. Redrago (Club Version)
B. Il Veliero (Club Version)

Stockholm's Born Free always bring it for the dancefloor, pushing their own distinct style of house and techno with no time for hype. Playful, soulful, deep or dirty, you always know a Born Free record when you hear one. This time out, it's Stockholm' underground legend Daniel Savio at the controls, serving up three unconventional house jams which pay homage to his immediate family, Lovisa, Valle, Hjalle and Manfred. Getting down to business Daniel infuses opening cut "Lovisa" with a galloping house rhythm, tripped out fx and a duet of trilling e-flute and squelching bass. Savio ups the intensity with the scuzzy and snapping "Valle A Hjalle", a freaked out flip on classic house tropes with just enough acid to get the blood fully pumping, before the emotive flange-odyssey of "NY Manfred" sees us home in hallucinatory fashion. The vibe is soulful, deep and simple, just like a warm heart pumping at 120 bpm.

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Deep and dark grooves for the open-minded folk out there and for the beat hungry fella who wants to rock and roll! Not too fast not too slow, just the right speed, thank you.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lovisa
2. Valle A Hjalle
3. NY Manfred 

The first fully autonomous artificial intelligence with the ability to learn and improve itself is created by the Sega corporation. Two years later they invent the first time machine, and call it the Timecast. Sega decides to send the A.I. named Segadeath back in time to 1881 to destroy Nintendo before its creation. Helsinki's Mesak and Marseille's Bill Vortex are the Jompo Boys and their Jompo dance to the Jompo Anthem is the new craze all over Europe. It's a uniting front we form while Jompo spreads and spreads and takes over every fiber on the planet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: In other words, Segadeath hit us with a razor sharp and rambunctious acid snapper (think DMX Krew), moody and menacing electro weapon (big Lawnmower man vibes), while the Jompo boys offer fractal 4/4 grooves on a post minimal tip and a ring mod body popper for 8bit Bboys.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Segadeath - Terraform
A2. Segadeath - Locutus
B1. Jompo Boys - Jomp Anthem
B2. Jompo Boys - Epawire

"Plus or Minus Two" compiles four songs from Kansas City wave pioneers Short-Term Memory’s first cassette album, "Every Head Needs Cleaning", with two previously unreleased tracks recorded in the 90s.
This EP focuses on the group’s prescient dance-floor DIN-sync workouts which share sensibilities with contemporaneous early Detroit experiments by Juan Atkin’s Cybotron, Ron Hardy’s visionary Kikrokos tape edit, Shoc Corridor’s extended 808 exercises, and 90s Techno Pop by Haruomi Hosono. Rounding off the EP is the existential electronic soul ballad "Words".
Kansas City, 1983: a band formed, wires connected and synapses fired. Three friends, tired of guitar/bass/drums rock started jamming with newly acquired synths and Roland TR 808. They called themselves Short-Term Memory. Thanks to the vanguard technology of the time, these electronic instruments spoke to each other, and Jim Skeel, John Paul & Robert Duckworth could program their instruments, riding the DIN-sync wave. Weekly jams became more ambitious, and in 1983 they released their first album "Every Head Needs Cleaning" on their own Silly Poodle Music label. Over the 80s members drifted in and out of the group, and they released two cassettes, an LP and a 7” EP. By the 90s Jim Skeel was at the helm, the only original member, and joined by Tim Higgins he continued to record in MIDI mode for a few years before pulling the plug, leaving recordings and memories that resisted the great fadeout of time, and today sound vibrant and more visionary than ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Around a dozen releases in and Seance Centre are yet to put a foot wrong. Whether it be deep disco-not-disco, experimental, ambient or new age, the reissue label's aim is always true. Here they hit us with four proto-techno, synth wave jams and two unreleased cuts from Kansas City's Short-Term Memory. As well as pre-Detroit hardware heaters like "Twitch & Jerk", "Hysteria" and "The Veldt", check the esoteric flavours of "City In Mind" and lost wave ballad "The Words" for more sombre scenarios. Killer artwork from Alan Briand as standard...

TRACK LISTING

Twitch & Jerk
Yelping Doggies
City In Mind
Hysteria
The Veldt
The Words

New, retroistic electro-boogie / proto-house here written, performed and produced by synth wizard Skymark on his own Modern Sun Records. Colourful piano chords, pentatonic solos, Prophet synth bass and soulful vocals drizzled in echo mean it's impossible not to throw a few Dam Funk comparisons in there. But don't worry, this ain't no pastiche to the LA funkster - Skymark's just adding to the fruitful cannon of modern funk / bedroom boogie artists and producers currently keeping the scene alive in 2018. Limited to 500 copies, stick it next to your Star Creature, Red Laser and PPU releases to make it feel most at home.

Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The stream of new boogie and modern funk continues to pour over the good ship Pic; with Skymark's synth-ship bobbing over the waters from Spain to delight us with his sound!

TRACK LISTING

1. Facing The Truth (Vocal)
2. Facing The Truth (Instrumental) 

Remember that straightforward mix of EBM and synth-punk that came out on Antinote last year, wrapped in a suggestive black and gold sleeve? The lyrics were far from ambiguous and the music produced by Panoptique and Paula was joyfully aggressive.
Broken glass, dogs barking & cats roaring: Succhiamo is back and gives us news from the scrapyard.
The thing is, it seems that Succhiamo’s scrapyard has been animated by Bill Plympton : in place of dogs and cats, it’s a lewd Pink Panther chasing a spaced-out Scooby-Doo on Dolore Dentro or Stai Male. Happily championing bad taste, the two musicians even venture into the illegitimate territories of italo-pop missed hits, shaped for lipsync performances on Rai Uno with the nagging Que Pena.
As we’re getting close to the middle of the record, the music gets openly punkier, climaxing with the explicitly named "Desiderio Di Violenza", brushing past 200 BPM. While the inevitable silence following the last notes of "Que
Pena" temporarily puts an end to the pleasant nightmare that is "Mani In Fuoco", the figures – somehow similar to those inhabiting the world of Fritz the Cat – that Succhiamo insidiously inserts into the listener’s head don’t fade
away: they patiently wait for the duo’s pulsing drum machines and the saturated synths to wake up again and set them in motion for another ride.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: After last year's sleazy exercise in electroclash revivalism, Succhiamo return to Antinote with their bedut longplayer "Mani In Fuoco", a scuzzy synth-punk journey through brash EBM, bruised electronics and S&M techno. Fans of Liaisions Dangereuse need to check out "Vecchia".

TRACK LISTING

1. Dolore Dentro
2. Mani In Fuoco
3. Desiderio Di Violenza
4. Stai Male
5. Vecchia
6. Que Pena Sin Ti 

Classic sounding but contemporary hip-hop here from beatmakers Tagi & Steven Beatberg who, after previously producing instrumentals finally get round to presenting a comprehensive, multi-voice album with a wealth of collaborators. Falling in the same vein as the conscious, chilled and weed-friendly styles of DJ Food, Mr. Scuff, Dilated People's, Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, The Roots etc. The album features rapper Big Pooh, former member of the Little Brother group, the contemporary soul star Lisa Spada, alongside, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Tiemoko from Paris and many many more. Boom-bap beats; dusty, sample heavy grooves and smooth-ass vocal deliveries that encourage the listener to pay attention and explore the lyrical content. I really like this, it brings back fond memories of days spent skateboard and smoking weed, late afternoons catching the bus home as the sun sets on an industrial landscape. Of hanging out in small terrace house bedrooms and backyards. There's a real emotion, spirit and flavour to nearly every track. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Youaresurrounded (The Intro)
2. This Is Life (Featuring Rapper Big Pooh & Sly Johnson)
3. Boom Bap Love (Featuring Lisa Spada)
4. Leiho (Featuring Pumpkin & Sly Johnson)
5. N.T. (Featuring Georgia Anne Muldrow)
6. Lost Art (Featuring Finale & Sly Johnson)
7. Danceonitifucan
8. Ame Son (Featuring Tiemoko)
9. F___ It (Featuring Sly Johnson & Saga)
10. Raponitifucan
11. Retrograde (Steven Beatberg's Raw Mixxx With Sly Johnson)
12. Run To The Sun (Featuring Elodie Rama) D.B.B.S.M. REMIX
13. La Dune Noire (With Dilouya) 

Munich. 1994. A group buck current trends with a ground-breaking release. Tikitaka by Tamburá left aside the techno of the time to focus on a the lesser known styles of afrobeat and tribal music. The result was three tracks that sail and soar on a primal energy, three works that whisk listeners away to exotic lands of wooden wind instruments, ritualistic vocals and, even, bag pipe majesty. For twenty five years this record has been an unattainable mystery, until now that is. Kalahari Oyster Cult have lovingly restored all three of the trailblazing original tracks alongside two very special remixes. Melbourne’s Tornado Wallace adds new layers of intensity as he cuts and reshapes melodies and beats to set any floor alight with this visionary remake. Dazion offers a very different interpretation. Focusing on vocals, this new talent accentuates the shamanic-like chants of Tikitaka, using them as a base from which throbbing synth lines grow as new depths are explored. An EP every bit as daring in 2019 as it was in 1994.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tikitaka (Highland Mix)
A2. Tikitaka (instrumental)
A3. Tikitaka (Tabla Mix)
B1. Tikitaka (Tornardo Wallace Remix)
B2. Tikitaka (Dazion Remix)

Now for a trip into an impossible land, generated on a hacked copy of Populous, wrought out of melting circuitry and bootlegged YMO LPs, projected on early green screen and filled with failed CGI from the Waterworld era. Panagiotis Melidis and Stathis Kalatzis are Territroy, the newest member of the Dekmantel family, and the creative insanity behind the newest UFO release, "Skulls & Plants". Now, I don't recall taking a massive dose of 4-AcO this morning with my cornflakes, but that may well have happened, as this is one trippy listen. At various points EBM, tropical house, machine voodoo and shamanic breaks are twisted, warped and frazzled, all achieving the demented sound signature of this lunatic Grecian duo. Rhythms collapse, stutter skip and slur, crispy distortion coats otherwise healthy melodies and oddly exotic idents flutter across the landscape, though you could never be certain they were there. Highly psychoactive electronics and primal rhythms for fans of Helena Hauff, Detlef, Lena Willikens and the Silk Road.

TRACK LISTING

Delirium Vivens
Wax Smiles
Non Sayers
Sleeping Fury
Instar
Upside Down Sinner
I Meant You, Not You
Their Menads
Bold Like A New Sun (Ft. Olympia)
Prosopagnosia

Analogue powered music here from TSC on the fledging Supergenius imprint. Big gated drums, even bigger synthlines and a nice organic sway and flutter characterize the four productions as they touch on house, freestyle and boogie stylings, galvanized and ready for heavy speaker damage. Image if Hidden Groove had, instead of living in Glasgow, grown up around the pinnacle period of Chi-town house music and you'll be some way to grasping the sound contained within. Really strong!

LIES' experimental noize merchant and high concept artist, Torn Hawk, is back with another slurry of mechanized freakouts, electro-static discharge and industrialized chaos. A producer who manages to impart his own sense of impending collapse onto whatever style or genre he's working in there's also a fragile sense of personality he oft manages to convey through dark electronic ballads and avant-garde soundscapes.

Across eleven tracks for LIES we see further into the mind and soul of this exploratory and fearless producer. At times painfully bleak, at others aurally arresting, it takes no prisoners and compromises on nothing. A truly personalized rendition of environment, mood and feeling from a unique and out there artist of the 21st century. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Come To Be
2. I Took What You Did To Me And Made A Sword Out Of It
3. Jade City
4. Books Smell Good
5. Lenny Dykstra
6. The Dreams Hurt
7. I Hate Weed
8. Weaponized Loss
9. Breaking Down The Gates
10. Crows Everywhere
11. Find Me In The Rain 

Tourist Kid's first release for Melody As Truth. Recorded in Perth and Melbourne between 2016 and 2017. Though the idea of movement between two places could be a somewhat romantic afterthought, a more palpable sense of dislocated unease creeps up on the listener throughout the album.

On "Discourse II", stutters of digital trash segue seamlessly into a plateau of serene, glassy ambience – and on "Bacterial", the hiss and sting of rehashed foley seems to dance around a plaintive, oh-so delicate piano solo. These striking contrasts are deftly managed, playing upon notions of digital noise and ambient, while never feeling weighed down by the limits of reference or gesture. Indeed, numerous touchstones to Tourist Kid's earlier work – and to that of contemporaries – are synthesized and expanded upon to great detail and atmosphere. "Crude Tracer" sits in its own adeptly nuanced and assured space.

Tourist Kid's production encompasses all manner of tangible and otherworldly sounds as a vehicle to explore something far more intriguing than a simple instrumental fetish – so much so that the overwhelming sting of blasted detritus or a broken and bent vocal is capable of eliciting such delicate impulses as glistening, heart-wrenching piano chords. It's a unique – and very special – kind of beauty that Tourist Kid gracefully achieves with "Crude Tracer”. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Jonny Nash embraces the burgeoning Aussie ambient scene for the latest Melody As Truth release, inviting Tourist Kid to open our eyes and align our chakras. Shifting, shimmering and beautifully intangible, ‘Crude Tracer’ filters dreamlike compositions through the most delicate static, resulting in a truly ephemeral experience.

TRACK LISTING

1. Example
2. Discourse II
3. Learn
4. Variegare
5. Know
6. UV Bleacher Tangent
7. Bacterial
8. Petrol 

A split release on Kode. Two exclusive tracks from Transformation & Beau Wanzer.

Transformation are relatively new kids on the block, this being their 2nd document to date. A creeping, slo-mo tech jaunt, even slower than Juju & Jordash's druggy escapades and with eerie leads and haunting arps prevalent throughout.

Beau Wanzer has a bit more clout behind him, with Russian Torrent Versions and L.I.E.S both laced with his discography. Here we find him lurking in the shadows in an opiated state as "Oklahoma 3" pulls back the curtain to reveal a smoldering & rotten corpse, chemical reactions still occurring on its surface it is slowly decomposes back into the ground. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Transformation - Sketch 4
2. Beau Wanzer - Oklahoma 3 

Tel Aviv based two man project TV.OUT has been making a name for themselves these last years putting on impressive live sets, djing around the world, and running their Paralaxx imprint releasing various strains of rugged, well informed electronic music. On their debut for L.I.E.S. we get a smoking three tracker spanning styles that would not seem out of the place being played on the West Coast of Den Hague in the late-90s. Think early Legowelt meets Coca Disco meeting heavier techno sounds as a starting point. Club gear for the gearheads. The electroid snap of "Further" gives way to the techy pulse and melancholic synths of "Moon" before the bristling perx of "Galaxy" takes us down a darkroom wormhole.

TRACK LISTING

1. Further
2. Moon
3. Galaxy 

Way back in the early days of Tresor, TV Victor was one of the first artists to make waves on the label, with several of his ambient and trance productions including "Trance Garden 1-3" and "Trancecology Chapter 1". In 1989, he launched his first solo project: "Moondance – The Magic Sound of the Moon", where he lay foundations for later explorations with experimental sounds fused with pop elements and anticipated an ambient excursion to be had in the future.

In the following decades TV Victor created impressive solo works that traversed between ambient and trance, he collaborated with artists like Moritz v. Oswald, Max Loderbauer, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Paul Browse and Tobias Freud. Contrary to common mainstream tendencies he created a very unique interpretation of both genres. In recent years Victor has concentrated on creating experimental and abstract sonic spaces for escaping reality, spaces that live through the imagination of the listener. Each piece, a segment of a larger musical movement; stands alone to create new sonic continuums. Otherworldy music that is in its own sphere.

30 years after the release of Moondance and 50 years after the first landing, Lullabies For Insomniacs revisit TV Victor’s musical roots with ‘Back To The Moon’. The previously unreleased works were carefully selected from his vaults and restored by Berlin based engineer Brett Olke (B Ashra), the album offers a glimpse into the future by creating a soundtrack for mankind’s settlement of beyond in a conceivable hereafter.

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Hole Ceremony
2. Echo Of 89
3. Moon Shack 48
4. Zero Gravity
5. Moon Ecstasy

Theater De Kreet was a short lived theatre collective that existed between 1979 and 1981. In that period the troupe presented just one performance, a musical called 'Adeline' which had a run of six shows during 1981.

The members of Theater De Kreet were originally part of a bigger group called Grasgroen, which was founded by art history students from the Leuven University. The collective mainly focused on so called ‘animations’ in the public space. After a while, Grasgroen split into two different groups (theatre and performance), and Theater De Kreet came into existence. Its core members were Walter Verdin, Guy Dermul, Hilde Wils, Gaby Geysens and Nicole Boffin. Mainly using improvisatory methods, the collective started working on 'Adeline' in 1979. The premiere took place in October 1981 and was met with very mixed critical reviews. Walter Verdin was in charge of the music for 'Adeline'. Originally an art history and visual art student, Verdin was introduced to the Belgian music scene through his record sleeve and poster designs. Prior to the music for 'Adeline', he released a solo album and a 7” white man reggae project with Grasgroen ('Storingen' by Specimen & The Rizikoos). Later in his career, he had his biggest commercial success with Pas de deux, the band that represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest in Munich (1983). After the Pas de deux adventure, Verdin gave up on popular music and had a blooming career in video art, working on video concerts and installations and later on with renowned theatre and dance companies from all over the world.

To write the soundtrack for 'Adeline', Verdin took to the studio of the Audiovisual Services of the KU Leuven, which was his audio and video laboratorium for around 20 years, and subsequently to the ICP Recording Studios in Brussels for post-production. Verdin & co. didn't compose behind a writing desk or a piano. Music for them meant playing - with an instrument, but also with non-traditional instruments. The spring of a desk lamp for instance, could be used to produce music too. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Stroom just don't slip up! The Belgian label keep us coming back with a wonderful collection of improvisational electronic grooves from Pas De Deux man Walter Verdin. Combining all your favourite bits of minimal wave, Balearic, synth funk and cosmic pop, the eight tracks on "Voor Adeline" are the kind of wonderful oddities that litter all the best mixtapes.

TRACK LISTING

1. De Zus Van Adeline
2. Squeezin'
3. Dreamin'
4. Wavin'
5. Lancement
6. Vijf Tape Loops
7. De Zus Van Adeline (Playback Mix)
8. A Million Miles (Pas De Deux) 

Za Talent is a fresh alias from regular collaborators Jonny Nash and Suzanne Kraft. While their previous outings were unashamedly ambient and horizontal in nature, this 12" for Animals Dancing is deliciously dancefloor-focused - even if there trademark rich chords and glassy-eyed electronics do feature prominently. On the A you'll find "Telex", a quirky chunk of laidback electro smothered in fax machine electronics, bubbly melodies and punchy drum machine hits. Flip for "The Whale", where intergalactic police sirens weave in and out of spacey electro motifs, gently pulsing electronics and a rhythm track that can't decide whether it's broken, jazzy or just plain weird. It is, though, really rather good.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Telex
B1. The Whale