The definitive illustrated story of electronic sound, from WWI to the AI-enabled future, presented by the godfather of the genre. Jean-Michel Jarre is a true pioneer of electronic music. From his early role in electronic sound to his current work with AI, technology is at the forefront of everything he does.

Having amassed an extraordinary collection of electronic and electroacoustic instruments – one of the largest and most important in the world – JMJ provides the ideal raw materials for this unique illustrated book. Machines begins in 1913 with The Art of Noises Futurist manifesto and chronicles the genre as fundamentally European, originating with Surrealism and the Bauhaus, and later shaped by radio. Detailed descriptions of more than eighty instruments – from the iconic ARP 2500 to rare, bespoke, one-off creations – illustrate shifts in electronic sound.

Throughout, JMJ’s personality and devotion to the electronic cause shines through, aided by biographical anecdotes and his unparalleled depth of knowledge.

Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.

After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.

"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.

Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.

Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.

From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.

During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.

Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis

Mannequin Records is elated to present Electronic Corporation "1998–2006", a compilation bringing together rare and long unavailable recordings by the German electronic projects heimelektronik and MAS 2008.

Active around the turn of the millennium, both projects share the involvement of producer Ive Müller while developing distinct collaborations and approaches to electronic music. H.E.I.M. Elektronik was founded in 1996 by Holger Erlenwein and Ive Müller (after the two artists split in 1999, Müller continued using the name), while MAS 2008 is the project of Ive Müller together with René Kirchner. Though separate entities, the two projects explored a similar sonic territory: stripped-down electro, minimal electronics and machine-driven body music shaped by analog hardware and a raw DIY production ethos.

The roots of Müller’s work go back to the final years of the DDR. As a teenager he worked as a licensed DJ — officially known as a “Schallplattenunterhalter” — operating a travelling disco across Saxony. With limited access to official Western releases, music circulated through cassette recordings taped from West German radio stations such as RIAS Berlin, NDR2 and Bayern3. Together with friends he travelled between youth clubs and discos around Leipzig with a “rolling discotheque”: a Russian Wolga pulling a trailer loaded with Electro-Voice sound systems sourced through the black market.

At the turn of the 2000s this background in underground electronic culture resurfaced in a series of recordings rooted in electro, EBM and minimal machine music. The tracks collected on Electronic Corporation 2000–2002 capture this moment: cold sequences, driving rhythms and stark synthetic textures produced with a direct and uncompromising approach.

Compiled and remastered by Rude 66 from the original sources, Electronic Corporation 2000–2002 documents a small but fascinating chapter of German underground electronics from the early digital era.

For fans of: Le Syndicat Electronique, I-F, Dopplereffekt, Drexciya, Legowelt, Adult., The Hacker, DMX Krew, Gesloten Cirkel, and early Bunker Records electro.

TRACK LISTING

das leben vor augen
der motor treibt uns an
body to body
so suess
freaks are electronic
love in my eyes
music is the voice from beyond
electroviolet
alles klar
memories

Meaning “soul friend” in Gaelic, 'Anamchara' is a new compilation of buried treasure from Nina Walsh’s colossal Woodleigh Research Facility archive.

W.R.F. was formed in 2015 by Nina and late studio partner Andrew Weatherall to help wrangle the vast output recorded together beyond his solo releases.
Spotlighting nine tracks from the 'Apparently Solo' series of EPs recorded between 2016- 2019 and released on Bandcamp in 2023, this lustrous time capsule marks the culmination of Walsh and Weatherall’s creative relationship born after they clicked at London’s earliest acid house clubs, becoming partners then managers of their Sabres Of Paradise/Sabrettes labels before taking different paths by the late '90s.

An accomplished musician, Nina had learned the art of studio technology by the time they reunited and started working together in 2012. Created at her Facility 4 Studio situated in the dangerous, gang-ridden no man’s land between Streatham and Mitcham, 'Anamchara' captures the super-prolific creative stretch starting in 2015 that produced Weatherall’s Convenanza and Qualia solo sets, W.R.F.’s 'The Phoenix Suburb (And Other Stories)' plus a whole lot more. According to Nina, Andrew envisioned the spectacular ‘Borderland’ as natural successor to ‘Smokebelch’, his most revered track. When it came to his remix, Nina enlisted renowned viola virtuoso Sarah Sarhandi and composed new harmonies with Pachelbel’s 'Canon in D Minor' in mind.

The set also catches the breakthrough period when, through Nina’s careful coaxing, Andrew started using the computer system she’d set up to better express his musical visions by arranging the elements, grooves and melodies she sent him. Still considered the UK’s greatest DJ-producer, Andrew’s arrangements were inspired by his club-igniting sets. “This allowed me to mix the colours for his palette whilst he was painting the picture,” says Nina. Anamchara straddles the gamut of musical styles explored by W.R.F. at this time, from slower paced psychedelic “drug chug” outings ‘We Two’. ‘Heat To Meat Ratio’, ‘Hidden Watchers Part 1’ to banging acid house and techno sometimes inspired by the violence outside the studio door, including ‘SCHLAP’, ‘Crack-Ed’ and churning acid juggernaut ‘Yacidik’ (“After much dangling of the acid carrot, Andrew took a bite and, after one familiar raised eyebrow, never looked back,” says Nina).

Many tracks fly elements from the enormous sonic library Nina inherited from late partner Erick Legrand that she called The Akashic Library of Sound. Marking Andrew’s 2016 admission into the vault, ‘Rattly Old Puffin’ boasts Erick’s psychedelic guitar and tumbling drum loop Weatherall would run with, including on ‘Borderland’. “Erick was like our third member,” says Nina.

Bringing down the curtain, ‘Alma’’s exquisitely poignant melody that unfolds over thirteen time-stopping minutes was composed by Nina while navigating Erick’s birth and departure date anniversaries to accompany Andrew’s reading from Gordon Burn’s 1991 same-named novel at 2018’s Durham Literary Festival. Burn’s novel imagines early 60s popstrel Alma Cogan, who succumbed to cancer in 1966 surviving to reflect on fame. “Now it just makes me think of Erick. And every time I hear those well-placed cymbal crashes I can only think of the Captain himself.”

A beautiful grand finale for this astonishing selection of pure gold from the vaults.

TRACK LISTING

1. We Two
2. Crack-Ed
3. SHLAP
4. Hidden Watchers Pt.1
5. Yacidik
6. Borderland (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
7. Heat To Meat Ratio
8. Rattly Old Puffin
9. Alma

First reissue of the highly sought-after 1978 instrumental album released on cult Lebanese label Byblos. Curated by Dikraphone's Ahmed Khalil and featuring the dancefloor killer "Al Ghaba".

Wewantsounds continues its Middle East reissue series with Assa’d Khoury’s 1978 rarity, Electronic Touches Belly Dance. Reissued for the first time in nearly 50 years in partnership with Byblos Records founder Mozart Chahine, the album features Oriental classics reimagined through Khoury’s pioneering electronic keyboards. This definitive edition includes original artwork, remastered audio, a new introduction by Ahmed Khalil (Dikraphone), and an exclusive interview with Chahine, the album’s producer, conducted by Mario Choueiry (IMA)

TRACK LISTING

01: Lamma Bada Yatathanna (Trad.)
02: Ya Shadil Alhan (Trad.)
03: Tele't Ya Mahla Nourha (Sayed Darwish)
04: Ahwak (Mohamed Abdel Wahab)
05: 'Ana Jar (René Bendaly)
06: Is'al Alaya (Ahmed Sidqi)
07: Kahil El A'in (Melhem Barakat)
08: Al Ghaba (Assa'd Khoury)

Studio Kosmische’s music is rooted deeply in the ethos of the 1970s krautrock movement. Blending psychedelic instrumentation with a healthy disregard for conventional song form, this is music intended to encourage altered states. Primarily the solo project of musician and producer Dom Keen, usually working in collaboration with fellow musician and label mate Jonathan Parkes. Through Keen’s influences and ongoing collaborations, SK has carved out a niche within modern kosmische and psychedelic music, creating immersive journeys that blur the boundaries between inner and outer space.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: BOOM! Dom Keen's superb Studio Kosmische project returns for another selection of deeply evocative Harmonia-flavoured krautrock, wonderfully rich and almost dubby in parts, showing the true range of emotion that Keen and Parkes manage to eke out of their instruments. This time sees a much more loose, improvisational spirit, but results in something that feels a lot more organic while retaining the core spirit. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Sorcerers Gather
2. In Search Of Magick
3. Golden Dunes
4. Esoteric Modulation
5. The Great Author Of The Universe
6. As Above, So Below
7. Eternal Dream Musick

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Following on from the much loved EP released in 2022, 1989 Remixes 1992, follows 1996 Remixes 1999, compiling a selection of remixes from Electronic’s second and third albums Raise The Pressure and Twisted Tenderness. It features remixes by Darren Price, Cevin Fisher and Bernard Sumner himself under the name Fluffy Dice.

Simon Reynolds's first book in eight years is a celebration of music that feels like a taste of tomorrow. Sounds that prefigure pop music's future - the vanguard genres and heroic innovators whose discoveries eventually get accepted by the wider mass audience. But it's also about the way music can stir anticipation for a thrillingly transformed world just around the corner: a future that might be utopian or dystopian, but at least will be radically changed and exhilaratingly other.

Starting with an extraordinary chapter on Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, taking in illuminating profiles of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boards of Canada, Burial, and Daft Punk, and arguing for Auto-Tune as the defining sound of 21st century pop, Futuromania shapes over two-dozen essays and interviews into a chronological narrative of machine-music from the 1970s to now. Reynolds explores the interface between pop music and science fiction's utopian dreams and nightmare visions, always emphasising the quirky human individuals abusing the technology as much as the era-defining advances in electronic hardware and digital software. A tapestry of the scenes and subcultures that have proliferated in that febrile, sexy and contested space where man meets machine, Futuromania is an enthused listening guide that will propel readers towards adventures in sound.

There is a lifetime of electronic listening here.

As a direct result of the Beatles’ keen curiosity about experimental music and other avant-garde artistic expression, Apple Records launched its short-lived Zapple subsidiary in February 1969 as a forum for unfettered sonic exploration, or, as announced at the time, “more freaky sounds". George’s 'Electronic Sound' and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 'Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the Lions', both released in May 1969, were Zapple’s only releases before it was closed down. 'Electronic Sound’s cover art, painted by George, depicts his Moog IIIp (which was later used on four tracks by the Beatles on their album Abbey Road) with the four modules from which the sound was synthesized. Each side of the 'Eletronic Sound' LP featured one exploratory long-form work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Under The Mersey Wall
2. No Time Or Space

System Olympia presents a bold, cinematic compilation that redefines the sound of sensuality. Love Language is an 18-track double-vinyl release pressed on both heavyweight velvet red and white linen colour vinyl, also a deluxe heavyweight black vinyl. The CD and full-length digital package expand the experience to 20 tracks, that comes mixed & unmixed. It’s accompanied by a provocative, limited-edition 24-page fanzine, exclusive to 18+ audiences.

This is not just a compilation, Love Language is a manifesto. A carefully curated sonic journey through eroticism, artistic rebellion, and liberation, it spans nearly five decades of music and features exclusive edits and rare gems that illuminate System Olympia’s radical aesthetic vision.

Various Artists – curated by System Olympia "Love Language"
Since her emergence on the electronic underground, System Olympia has carved out a distinct, sensual sonic universe, equal parts vulnerable and defiant. With Love Language, she presents her most audacious project to date: a compilation rooted in what she calls The Aesthetics of Sexual Desire in Sound.

It’s a daring declaration that desire is more than a feeling - it’s a language. Across 20 tracks, including her own sultry opener “The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN)” and a rare System Olympia edit of Working Men’s Club’s “Ploys”, this compilation speaks in rhythms and textures that evoke longing, intimacy, and ecstatic release.

This is not a traditional compilation. System Olympia’s sequencing is cinematic and deliberate. Every track a scene in a film that exists only in the listener’s imagination. From the retro-futurist seduction of Flavia Fortunato’s Italo gem “Se Tu Vuoi” to the deep, extended tension of Musclecars’ “Running Out of Time,” each piece plays its part in an arc of anticipation, climax, and reflection.

Uniting artists as diverse as Daniele Baldelli, Piero Umiliani, and DJ Rocca, Love Language refuses boundaries of genre, era, or expectation. It dances between vintage Italo-disco, dreamy electronica, sweaty club tracks, and avant-garde jazz, forming a rich tapestry of sound and sensation.

System Olympia explains, “This is music for lovers, outsiders, and dreamers. It's a rebellion made of velvet and basslines.”

The accompanying 24-page fanzine insert, restricted to adults, further deepens the narrative, with erotic visual fragments and poetic texts that amplify the compilation’s raw, sensual energy. A tangible extension of the music’s spirit, the zine invites listeners to step into Olympia’s world and engage their senses fully.

As much a provocation as it is a celebration, Love Language is a deeply personal curation and a radical act of creative freedom. It champions eroticism as art, desire as dialogue, and music as a liberatory force.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN)
2. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi 
3. See Thru Hands - Hot City
4. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light 
5. Ruins - Sexual Desire 
6. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix) 
7. Musclecars - Running Out Of Time 
8. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit) 
9. Royalty - Heart Strings 
10. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper 
11. Admiral - Soho Girl 
12. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go? 
13. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever 
14. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro 
15. LNDFK - Hana-bi 
16. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante 

CD Tracklisting:

CD1 - Mixed:
1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (ft REINEN)
2. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light
3. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi
4. See Thru Hands - Hot City
5. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go?
6. Royalty - Heart Strings
7. Musclecars - Running Out Of Time
8. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix)
9. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit)
10. Starr Traxx - Let Yourself Go
11. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper
12. Admiral - Soho Girl
13. Stefano Torossi - Feeling Tense
14. Piero Umiliani - Chaser
15. LNDFK - Hana-bi
16. Ruins - Sexual Desire
17. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever
18. DJ Rocca - Basik Drinc
19. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro
20. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante

CD2 - Unmixed:
1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN)
2. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light
3. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi
4. See Thru Hands - Hot City
5. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go?
6. Royalty - Heart Strings
7. Musclecars - Running Out Of Time
8. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix)
9. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit)
10. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper
11. Admiral - Soho Girl
12. Piero Umiliani - Chaser
13. LNDFK - Hana-bi
14. Ruins - Sexual Desire
15. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever
16. DJ Rocca - Basik Drinc 24
17. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro
18. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante

Electronic were Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Johnny Marr (The Smiths), who together produced critically-acclaimed alternative dance, and gave both Bernard and Johnny the creative freedom to fully express themselves.

'Twisted Tenderness' has never been released on vinyl and will also be released on 2LP.

The album was recorded alongside bassist Jimi Goodwin from Doves, and drummer Ged Lynch of Black Grape.

TRACK LISTING

1. Make It Happen
2. Haze
3. Vivid
4. Breakdown
5. Can't Find My Way Home
6. Twisted Tenderness
7. Like No Other
8. Late At Night
9. Prodigal Son
10. When She's Gone
11. Flicker

Electronic were Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Johnny Marr (The Smiths), who together produced critically-acclaimed alternative dance, and gave both Bernard and Johnny the creative freedom to fully express themselves.

'Raise The Pressure' will be out on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1996, as a 2LP for superior sound quality. Its original release was on 1LP.

This album had the added touch of Karl Bartos from Kraftwerk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Forbidden City
2. For You
3. Dark Angel
4. One Day
5. Until The End Of Time
6. Second Nature
7. If You've Got Love
8. Out Of My League
9. Interlude
10. Freefall
11. Visit Me
12. How Long
13. Time Can Tell

Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller & Gareth Jones, release their brand new album, Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3, via Mute’s Parallel Series.

Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3 is a collection of nine improvised tracks, recorded using the duo’s Eurorack modular systems, and builds upon the self-imposed parameters laid out on their 2021 debut.

Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute, and Gareth Jones, producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen, have been collaborating for four decades. Although neither dwell on their past work, preferring to constantly explore new ways to create, Miller and Mute’s legacy is given a nod on the track ‘Splendid’ which opens with the distinct hiss of cassette over a rhythmic heartbeat before oscillators burst and collide. This track was recorded using the original 4-track TEAC that Miller picked up second hand in the late 70s and recorded The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ 7” on.

This record follows their debut Electronic Music Improvisations Vo1.1 (2021) and second album Electronic Music Improvisations Vol.2 (2023), along with their Bandcamp exclusive release Electronic Music Improvisations Live in London and Frankfurt, which captured their live shows at Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Electronic Music and London’s IKLECTIK.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Drifting electronic beauty from Sunroof here, with shifting platters of noise and drone sitting beneath paddling modular synth freakouts and swirling, psychedelic echoes.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Splendid
A2 Brotherly
A3 Ensnare
A4 Stratum
B1 Freezer
B2 Earthen
B3 Second Thoughts
B4 Link
B5 Conspiracies

It's always a good day when a Pure Life record lands on my desk. This time, it's been a little while since it landed on my desk (sorry Andrew xx) but if anything, that's made the wait all the sweeter. As ever, the visual aesthetic of any PL record is absolutely on point, and anyone who heard the piccadilly chart-bothering Cult Member release from earlier this year will know, the quality of the music is always first rate. 

This time sees the shadowy Phazma smash out a bristling neon-city filled suite that is both incredibly futuristic and forward-facing while effortlessly absorbing and reconstituting elements of all of my favourite electronic music from the 90's and 00's. There are hints of flickering braindance and alien textures, slamming acid breaks and snappy hi-passed breakbeats, woozy aquatic drift and the solid core of meditative ambience and crsyalline digital percussion. In short, if you're a fan of any sort of electronic music with a bit of drive, you'd do well to pick up this beauty. Big recommend. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Impeccably manicured avant dance music that's both wildly inventive and perfectly produced, encompassing elements of breakbeat, braindance, IDM and a whole host of others seamlessly. A triumph in design and execution, and another release that's perfect for legendary MCR synth institution, Pure Life.

TRACK LISTING

1. 2049 03:12
2. RONIN 04:33
3. Dead Aim 05:05
4. Ninsei 05:57
5. Futurizms 03:56
6. Flash Clone 05:36
7. Brain Dive 06:17
8. Ishimura 05:24
9. Cyber City 04:32

Recording technology was completely revolutionized in the 80s by the multitrack recorder, with the popularity of 24-channel SSL consoles sweeping the world. Japanese pop music created during this wave of digital improvement is now recognized worldwide as ""City Pop."" Techno Pop was another offshoot born of the same revolution.

Precise, computer-controlled beats produced by groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) introduced a different type of sound to the masses. By now, these works have been brought into the international limelight and continue to be a major influence on today's music.

At the center of Tokyo’s Techno Pop scene was ALFA/YEN Records. The label left behind an impressive body of work, but much of it wasn't made widely available... until now!

This new, definitive compilation focuses on the music archives of the YEN Records catalog, available for the first time exclusively at Light in the Attic. This is a true celebration of Japan's Techno Pop scene of the 80s, reissued with the intent that future generations, internationally, will be able to discover, enjoy, and appreciate ALFA/YEN and its significant contributions to the sonic landscape of the 80s and beyond.

TRACK LISTING

1. SEOUL MUSIC - YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA
2. ZOOT KOOK - SANDII
3. Sakisaka To Momonai No Gokigen Ikaga One Two Three - You An’ Me Orgasmus Orchestra
4. Drip Dry Eyes - Yukihiro Takahashi
5. SUKI-SUKI-DAISUKI - Jun Togawa
6. Parallelisme - Miharu Koshi
7. Bikkuri Party No Theme - Haruomi Hosono & Yukihiro Takahashi
8. Sakasa Kenjin Eagas - Apogee & Perigee
9. Yumemiru Yakusoku - Haruomi Hosono
10. ROCK - Hajime Tachibana
11. Riot In Lagos - Ryuichi Sakamoto
12. Radarman - Jun Togawa
13. Platonic - Haruomi Hosono
14. BEAT THE RAP- Super Eccentric Theater
15. Rap Phenomena - YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA
16. LEXINGTON QUEEN - Ryuichi Sakamoto
17. Chanel No #5 No On The Rock - Sheena
18. Beach Girl - TESTPATTERN
19. FLASHBACK - Yukihiro Takahashi
20. Automne Dans Un Miroir - Tamao Koike
21. Ascending - INTERIOR

Listening to the Music the Machines Make is the revolutionary story of electronic pop from 1978 to 1983, a true golden age of British music. This definitive account explores how krautrock, disco, glam rock and punk inspired a new generation to rip up the rulebook and venture toward a new frontier of electronic music - one that laid the foundations for Hip-Hop, house, techno and beyond. Including an extensive collection of archive images throughout, Richard Evans's kaleidoscopic narrative draws on years of research, a plethora of archive press materials and the input of key figures, including Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), Martyn Ware (The Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17) and Daniel Miller (The Normal, Mute Records).

From the gritty and experimental to the camp and theatrical, this book charts the careers and impact of electronic pop's earliest innovators and luminaries, from Devo, The Normal, Telex and Cabaret Voltaire to Soft Cell, Gary Numan, OMD, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode.

First released in 2006, ‘Get the Message: The Best Of Electronic’ is the career spanning collection from the Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner band who released a string of critically acclaimed hits including their debut single ‘Getting Away With It’, ‘Get The Message’ ‘Disappointed’ and ‘Feel Every Beat’. This compilation captures the very essence of their groundbreaking sound, blending Marr’s distinctive guitar work with Sumner’s vocals and guest features from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant (Getting Away With It, Disappointed) and Kraftwerk’s Karl Bartos (For You, Imitation Of Life). 

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl:
Side A
1. Forbidden City
2. Getting Away With It
3. Get The Message (Single Remix)
4. Feel Every Beat
Side B
1. Disappointed (Single Mix)
2. Vivid (Radio Edit)
3. Second Nature
4. All That I Need
Side C
1. Prodigal Son
2. For You
3. Imitation Of Life (New Edit)
Side D
1. Out Of My League
2. Like No Other
3. Twisted Tenderness
4. Late At Night (Radio Edit)

CD:
CD1
1. Forbidden City
2. Getting Away With It
3. Get The Message (Single Remix)
4. Feel Every Beat
5. Disappointed (Single Mix)
6. Vivid (Radio Edit)
7. Second Nature
8. All That I Need
9. Prodigal Son
10. For You
11. Imitation Of Life (New Edit)
12. Out Of My League
13. Like No Other
14. Twisted Tenderness
15. Late At Night (Radio Edit)
CD2
1. Getting Away With It (Vocal Remix)
2. Lucky Bag
3. Feel Every Beat (DNA Remix)
4. Lean To The Inside (2013 Edit)
5. Get The Message (DNA Groove Mix)
6. Free Will (Edit)
7. Disappointed (12” 808 State Remix)
8. Idiot Country Two (Edit)
9. Gangster (FBI Mix)
10. I Feel Alright
11. A New Religion
12. Turning Point
13. Until The End Of Time (Fluffy Dice Remix)
14. King For A Day
15. Radiation

Naarm alchemists Sleep D's revelatory new synthetic 'Electronic Arts' is ready for circulation.

Having released 4 EPs of mind-altering club tackle since 2019's 'Rebel Force', the duo overcome second album syndrome, boiling down their chaos with a more developed sense of songwriting. Never banging one drum, 'Electronic Arts' mirrors the anything goes mania of their DJ sets, tactfully shifting through different sounds and styles. Tempos intensify and decelerate, at times pushing the threshold to 150 bpm from docile canine dreamscapes to full tilt Space Invaders in AR mind games.

Largely built on road tested material from their live performances, the album is a tangible Butter Sessions gathering, busting out the gate with Martian rave initiation Planet Waves, Outdoor System's polyrhythmic beatdown and the Orb-like hero dose affirmations of Sunrise In The Crater (I Exist). While 'Electronic Arts' is otherwise a self-dependent effort, Punch Drunk is brewed ever more potent by the hypnagogic vocals and lucid trumpet cycles of former futsal team member YL Hooi. Their unified energy incidentally manifests a profound matrix of ambient techno, motorik, Don Cherry and Everything But the Girl.

Also touching on apocalyptic doof and minimal, the album is not exclusively peak time with Maryos Syawish and Corey Kikos' specialty curveballs also playing their part. From Village To Empire finds the duo rooting down in Syawish's heritage with a tapestry of purposefully deployed Iraqi and Syrian ethnographic samples and field recordings, dubbed within range of Muslimgauze and On-U Sound. As minimal techno finale Textile trails off into footsteps wandering back to base camp with a satisfied exhale, one wonders where Sleep D's existential pathfinding could possibly take us next?

TRACK LISTING

1. Planet Waves
2. Outdoor System
3. Sunrise In The Crater (I Exist)
4. Strange Sounds
5. From Village To Empire
6. Punch Drunk (feat. YL Hooi)
7. Textile
8. Happiness
9. Hector (Dreaming)
10. Hockey

Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 is the second collection of improvised modular pieces recorded by Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute and Gareth Jones, a producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen. The album recorded through 2022, is available on CD and white vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. January #2
2. July #2
3. November
4. July #3
5. October
6. September
7. July #1
8. January #1

Electronic Ambient Remixes Three was originally released in 2001 and includes ambient remixes and soundscapes utilising Chris Carter’s original Throbbing Gristle rhythm tapes from the 70s and 80s. Tracks from this instrumental series have been used internationally in gallery installations, performed at numerous electronic music festivals, featured on TV and radio broadcasts and within Hollywood movie trailers.

Electronic Ambient Remixes One was originally released in 2000 and includes ambient remixes and reinventions of the album ‘The Space Between’. Tracks from this instrumental series have been used internationally in gallery installations, performed at numerous electronic music festivals, featured on TV and radio broadcasts and within Hollywood movie trailers. Electronic Ambient Remixes One is now available for the first time on double violet coloured vinyl as well as CD, download and streaming.

Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 is a collection of eight improvised modular pieces recorded in various studio spaces across London in the spring and summer of 2019 by Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute and Gareth Jones, a producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A selection of deep modular cuts, blipping oscillators and paddling arpeggios, imbued with the spirit of experimental German synth music but brought to you by a couple of already legendary names in the music biz. It's entrancing and immersive experimental synth music at its best.

Anthoney Hart returns with his second Basic Rhythm album for Planet Mu. 'Electronic Labyrinth' is a maturing of his sound that draws a line under his work as Basic Rhythm thus far. The title itself conveys the overarching theme of the album, evoking the journey through a musical labyrinth that Hart has undertaken over the last 30 years or so, following a path through to the centre where these disparate strands have coalesced and solidified into a coherent whole.

The underlying themes are of a more personal nature, intimated by the cover photo of St Fabian Tower where Hart first joined the now infamous Rude FM in the late 90s, the sometimes misleading directness of the track titles, as well as explicit references to books such as Wilson Harris’ Palace of the Peacocks, the ontological promiscuity of Harris’ writing mirrored here in Hart's own musical endeavours. What you end up with is an album that not only draws upon a wide range of influences from both the musical and literary worlds, intertwining them within a deeply personal context that imbues the music with a depth of meaning, but that is also somehow more coherent despite such a wide range of references and hidden meanings. It is at once both an album of subtexts open to interpretation, and a cohesive whole that fits together perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

A:

1/Craft
2/Hayward Road
3/Acid Track
4/Larkin Around

B:

1/Electronic Labyrinth
2/Techno
3/Palace Of The Peacock
4/The Secret Ladder

Electronic are proud to present the release of their self-titled album. Pressed on 180g black vinyl, this reissue features the black cover on vinyl for the very first time, which was first used on the CD version released in 1994.

Electronic were the coming together of Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr in 1987. This was the year of the sudden and wholly unexpected demise of The Smiths, who imploded in July after Marr left the group. Two months later, midway through a North American tour, Bernard Sumner shocked his bandmates by announcing that he planned to take time out from New Order.

Marr and Sumner had met in 1984 when Marr added guitar to Atom Rock by Quando Quango, an electro-dance track co-produced by Sumner. Marr sums up their coming together for Electronic; ‘We were two musicians who wanted to get away from the suffocating politics of the band. At the same time, it was OK for duos and DJs and non-groups to make records, and that really appealed to Bernard and me.”

The project was a joyous Venn Diagram of Sumner and Marr’s influences. Although ostensibly coming from different disciplines, the experimental dance-pop of New Order and the fullbodied jangle of The Smiths, their common interests were many: dance music, a good tune and pushing musical boundaries. At the time of release (May 1991), ‘Electronic’ was met with huge acclaim and stands up as one of the most important electronica albums of all time.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Idiot Country
Reality
Tighten Up
The Patience Of A Saint
Gangster


Side Two

Soviet
Get The Message
Try All You Want
Some Distant Memory
Feel Every Beat

In support of their forthcoming Bob Moog documentary 'Electronic Voyager', Waveshaper Media have produced a compilation LP of Moog recordings from the 1960s. The first compilation of its kind, "Electronic Voyages: Early Moog recordings 1964-1969" contains tracks by Robert Arthur Moog, Herbert Deutsch, Joel Chadabe, Lothar and the Hand People, Intersystems, Ruth White, Max Brand, and Paul Earls. All of these tracks, released here on vinyl in an edition of 1000 copies, have been scarcely heard and difficult to track down, with all but three of them previously unreleased on vinyl.

Bypassing the Moog synthesizer’s backseat appearance on key pop recordings by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors, and the Beach Boys, "Electronic Voyages..." aims to highlight the diverse approach of 1960s musicians and composers who adopted the Moog as their primary instrument; these recordings all feature the Moog synthesizer front and centre. Beginning with an audio letter ("The Abominatron") from Bob Moog to his musician-muse Herbert Deutsch, demonstrating some of the first Moog synthesizer prototype’s capabilities, "Electronic Voyages" veers from avant-garde and electronic soundscapes, to psychedelic madness and summer-of-love pop. In the 1960s, the Moog synthesizer was a new, groundbreaking instrument, and its use was completely uncharted territory. The pioneering use of the Moog on all of these recordings sounds fresh today - you can sense the wide-eyed exploratory delight unfolding, and the disparate results range from endearingly naive (Lothar and the Hand People, Paul Earls) to downright eerie (Ruth White, Intersystems).

The musicians and composers behind these "Electronic Voyages" may have been among the first to adopt Moog synthesizers, but the fact that they so readily found within them expressivity, heart, and a means to translate their wondrous sense of discovery, speaks far more to Bob Moog’s visionary invention and enduring legacy. A triumph!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Robert Arthur Moog - The Abominatron (1964)
A2. Herbert Deutsch - Jazz Images, A Worksong And Blues (1967)
A3. Joel Chadabe - Blues Mix (1966)
B1. Lothar And The Hand People - Milkweed Love (1968)
B2. Intersystems - Changing Colours (1968)
B3. Ruth White - The Clock (1969)
B4. Max Brand - Triptych (1969)
B5. Paul Earls - Monday Music (1968) 

Dennis Young is best known as the percussionist of the New York band LIQUID LIQUID, which is known for their piece "Cavern" from 1983, which in turn became very well known because Grandmaster Flash sampled it and used it as the basis for their hit "White Lines". But Young was more than just a member of the band, he produced plenty of his own music, much of it reflecting his passion for analog electronics. He was fascinated by the pioneers of the genre. In 2016 Bureau B released "Wave", a collection of pieces Young had issued on cassettes between 1985-1988. "Synthesis", by contrast, features tracks from 1984-1988 which have never been previously released.

Just like Memphis for Rock'n'Roll, Dusseldorf is regarded as the Mecca for electronic music. The capital of North Rhine-Westphalia became the centre of an analog electronic movement which changed the course of all popular music to come.

Electri_City is the oral account of the city's most influential bands, including Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Die Krupps and many more. This history uncovers the myths and reality of the bands emerging from the artistic backdrop of a wealthy, modern, post-WWII German city; the conditions that fostered such a creative explosion.

Interviews include Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (OMD), Martyn Ware (Human League), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Rusty Egan (Visage) Ryuichi Sakamoto and producer, Giorgio Moroder.

Two years in the making, Close To The Noise Floor is a 4CD, 61-track set exploring the origins of electronica in the UK. Featuring tracks from key figures on the cassette label underground alongside early releases by future stars of the movement, this is part primitive rave, part synthesiser porn & part history lesson. Enthralled by the mysterious electronics of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Gong & German Kosmische artists such as Tangerine Dream, Harmonia & Cluster, & inspired by the DIY ethos of punk, a quiet revolution took place across the UK in the late 70s & early 80s. The rise of the microchip & the advent of affordable synthesisers enabled countless artists for whom guitars, drums & bass had become old hat, & in grubby bedsits, unremarkable living rooms & art school halls across the British Isles, UK electronica was born.

Exploring every corner of this fascinating & often overlooked chapter in musical history. For proto synth-pop look no further than 100% Manmade Fibre & Spoon Fazer, whilst British Standard Unit & Five Times Of Dust lay out techno templates which wouldn’t take full form until many years later. Elsewhere, the synthesiser laden ambient music of Zorch & the found sound collages of A Tent sit comfortably alongside early forays by familiar names – Blancmange, The Human League, OMD & Throbbing Gristle – in over four hours of futurist, entirely modern music.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Computer Bank - Five Times Of Dust
2. R.A.M. - The Klingons
3. Re-Education Through Labour - Chris And Cosey
4. Sedation Strokes - Malcolm Brown
5. Little Bob Minor - Storm Bugs
6. Tight As A Drum - Thomas Leer
7. Holiday Camp - Blancmange
8. Fractured Smile - Inner City Static
9. Sexuality - We Be Echo
10. God With Us - Bourbonese Qualk
11. Faith - Nagamatzu
12. Disco Song - O Yuki Conjugate
13. Optimum Chant - British Electric Foundation
14. All Night Long - Kevin Harrison
15. Stopping And Starting - Voice Of Authority

Disc: 2
1. I Am Your Shadow - Colin Potter
2. D'ya Think I'm Sexy - British Standard Unit
3. The Single Off The Album - Five Times Of Dust
4. Back To Beginning - Spöön Fazer
5. Gerry And The Holograms - Gerry & The Holograms
6. Drugface - The Passage
7. A New Kind Of Man - John Foxx
8. Green For Go - 100% Manmade Fibre
9. Sentimental - Those Little Aliens
10. Protect And Survive - Final Program
11. Being Boiled - The Human League
12. New Muzak - Instant Automatons
13. Materialistic Man - Cultural Amnesia
14. (Leaving Me) Now - Worldbackwards
15. Music To Save The World By - Alan Burnham
16. Almost - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
17. Kodak Ghosts Run Amok - Eyeless In Gaza
18. Broken Vein - Schleimer K
19. The Distance From Koln - Native Europe

Disc: 3
1. Adrenalin (Return Of The Elohim Pt 1) - Zorch
2. Robot Dance - Sea Of Wires
3. Sea Of Tranquility - Ron Berry
4. Mistral - MFH
5. Joe Goes To New York - Adrian Smith
6. Embryo (Extract) - Mark Shreeve
7. Tripych - EG Oblique Graph
8. Encounter - Carl Matthews
9. Ynys Scaith - Paul Nagle
10. Sedation - O Yuki Conjugate
11. Western Vein - Konstruktivist
12. Dead Of Night (Excerpt) - Attrition

Disc: 4
1. What A Day - Throbbing Gristle
2. No Way Of Knowing - A Tent
3. Go For The Throat - Portion Control
4. Eco Beat - DC3
5. Dying Inside - Renaldo & The Loaf
6. In The Army - Blah Blah Blah
7. God Speed - Legendary Pink Dots
8. Muslin Gauze Muslim Prayer - Muslimgauze
9. Live At Longborne - Suisse
10. Menial Disorders, Extract B2 - Alien Brains
11. Himeal (And She Blew) - Storm Bugs
12. In The Room - Third Door From The Left
13. Dignity Of Labour - Al Robertson
14. Mzui (Extract) - BC Gilbert, G Lewis & Russell Mills

Lloyd Cole is mostly know for his outstanding pop music, but he certainly has a taste for electronic music. In 2013 he released an highly acclaimed album together with electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (BB124 "Selected Studies Vol. 1") for whom he also curated a compilation of his electronic music recordings (BB187 "Kollektion 2. Roedelius - Electronic Music. Compiled by Lloyd Cole"). Finally we are happy to announce the release of a solo album with lloyd's electronic music on September 4th: "1D Electronics 2012-2014". Some pieces were originally created with overdubs by another in mind. Some were simply experiments. One or two may have had loftier ambitions…. None of the pieces involves the use of a piano keyboard or a computer, except to record it. Some modulations were executed by hand. Most were generated by programmed sequencers and logic. Each piece is a self contained electronic circuit.

'I believe the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard.' - John Cage 1937. Although John Cage occasionally worked in large, sophisticated studios - for example, when he composed Fontana Mix in 1958 - his approach to electronic and tape music was often uncomplicated, makeshift, and pragmatic, employing simple tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc. He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan's 'global village.' The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits, and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century.

Langham Research Centre works within the tradition firmly established by Cage, using resources that would have been available to him. For the realisation of Cartridge Music, moving iron phonograph pickups were sourced and restored. These have a knurled screw designed to hold a steel phonograph needle and, in the piece, other objects are inserted and amplified: pieces of wire, toothpicks, paperclips, etc. The realisation of Fontana Mix includes the individual mono tracks from Cage's original tapes created in 1958. These are played using open-reel tape machines. These practices ensure we work within the limitations that Cage experienced and enable us to get close to the soundworld he inhabited. (Robert Worby, LRC).

TRACK LISTING

CD:
01 Fontana Mix With Aria 1958 / 13'36
02 Imaginary Landscape N°.5 1952 / 3'00
03 WBAI 1960 / 7'00
04 Cartridge Music 1960 / 10'00
05 0'00'' 1962 / 2'36
06 Variations I 1960 / 10'00 Tracklisting LP

VINYL:
SIDE A
01 Fontana Mix With Aria 1958 / 13'36
02 Imaginary Landscape N°.5 1952 / 3'00
03 WBAI 1960 / 7'00

SIDE B
01 Cartridge Music 1960 / 10'00
02 0'00'' 1962 / 2'36
03 Variations I 1960 / 10'00

• LP vinyl edition of the original long out-of-print CD from 2004.
• One of the most stunning live insect recordings ever produced.
• Recorded live on location in Laos, Thailand and Burma in the 1990s.
• Limited edition pressing with a beautiful tip-on jacket and an insert with text and photos.

There is a legend in Burma stating that swarms of male dragonflies gather to join in choruses of high-pitched tones to court their mates. The ones that don't succeed in mating eventually scream so loud that their chests explode and they drop dead to the ground. These recordings are a tribute to this legend. Droning cicadas, dragonflies, and other insects display their charm as masters of the high frequency airwaves, recorded live and unprocessed by Tucker Martine in the lush settings of Laos, Thailand, and Burma. Enter the supernatural world where entomology and electronica converge in a tropical hallucination of alien sound. Anyone who has ever wondered if these strange symphonies could be recorded or preserved as precisely as they sound in the field need look no further. Martine has done it and you will be transported to the exact experience one would encounter in these mysterious lowlands.

Limited edition LP pressing of the long out-of-print CD from 2004, comes with a beautiful tip-on jacket, including an insert with photos and liner notes by Hakim Bey and Alan Bishop.