Emotional Response is delighted to announce Foreign Affairs - a limited edition special remix 7-inch single featuring reworks from Alexis Georgopoulos & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's "Fragments of A Season" album by Woo and Felicia Atkinson.

Last year's ""Fragments of A Season"" represented a unique chapter in both artist's canon. Georgopoulos, who released the Arp album "Zebra" in June this year and Cantu-Ledesma, who released "On The Echoing Green" in October 2017 - both on Mexican Summer and to critical acclaim - wanted to stretch out and create a discrete work. A peripheral listen to "Fragments" revealed a resonant album of delicate, ambient vignettes, suggesting a Balearic take on Vini Reilly, Young Marble Giants and other poetically-minded, minimalistic post-punk era bands.

The Brothers Ives aka Woo were a major influence on the album's makers and so AG and JCL are thrilled they've submitted a beautiful reworking of the album's "Marine". Whereas the original sounded like Marine Girls and The Gist getting together for a nice beach day jam, Woo's rework transforms it into pulsating track of glistening proportions. Percolating synths, some guitar and clarinet - the true classic, idiosyncratic Woo-ification - creates a woozy, romantic, impossible to categorize slice of Balearic meets dub atmospherics.

If "Marine" is all midday sun, intoxicating and potently optimistic, Atkinson's remake represents the literal and figurative flip, bringing out the overcast dreaminess to "Cleo". Sounding like an outtake from a Rohmer film, or perhaps Cocteau Twins and Broadcast having a picnic in Biarritz, the version veers between abstraction, celluloid ambiguity and suggested narrative. Atkinson's reworking adds poetry of the tune (quite literally!) with her soft vocal under-gliding to perfection. Representing a temporary idyll, a meeting point where cobblestone streets lead to the sea. At nightfall, a discotheque heard in the distance. The morning mist burns off. Only such memories remain.

After the success of the 2 Late 4 Love EP, Roy Of The Ravers returns to Emotional Response with a double LP with a deeper perspective, experimenting in ambient and drone textures, lucid techno travails and acid interludes. Recorded between 1997 and 2017, the album was pieced together over the last six months after Roy's archives were first feared lost and then found. Approached by the label to release a follow up with something more introspective and personal, it was discovered that a recent move to a new studio had led to over 20 years of music being misplaced after it was believed they were mistakenly dropped at a local charity store. However, deep in a box of what were thought to be patch cables were in fact the decades worth of hard drives and here presented, is a sample of those lost recordings. The nature of the music is introspection, eschewing the acid beats and white noise for a personal encounter between man and machine. The orchestral opening of the title track gives way to the submarine beats, pulsing TB303 and gliding hats of Robinson College 10 to set the outlook to come. Even with the scattering A Dim And Distant Past waking lulled senses, the melodies and feel all lead to a pause and reflect rather than jump and shout. This is continued with the haunting drives of Bounce Erec and Oriental X0X-Press; the twisted, warped jams of The Weber Traum Boat Pt.3, Ichi and Roland Corp Labs 05; and the beautiful, heartfelt odes in Sade Lost Theme, The Clock House Pt.2 and closer, Nemesis '01. The album's melodic nature hums and shines as CS (6x8) appears as much a centre piece as a alternative consideration to the acid tinged, club bangs of Roy's releases to date. A surprise package maybe, but in the rolling, word of mouth phenomena that was Emotinium II, all this and more was sensed and so White Sunrise Music II, spreading across 12 songs of contrasting moods, is a further affirmation that there is something good and worthy of exploration.

Emotional Response again teams up with Meda Fury and Sad City to present an EP of remixes from the acclaimed debut album, Shapes In Formation. Enlisting a killer tag-team of DJ Nature, HOLOVR and Herron to bring their own retakes of Gary Caruth's music, arrives with justified anticipation.

The success of Sad City's debut opus was a deserved conclusion to a journey across fourth world ambient, found sound samples and jazz-touched beats. All are reworked and expanded here while retaining the artist's all encompassing atmospheric oeuvre.

First Milo Johnson dons his DJ Nature moniker for two mixes of Steady Jam. The stand out of the album for many, it seemed right to request Milo's skills to push the sample-based loops to a deep dance floor. Rolling congas, skipping hats and the teasing, soulful melodies come together to work their magic. Vocal and Dub are crafted and cut as one long-form take for the more adventurous, this is dub-disco for the today's real (to reel) entertainers.

Side two is given over to rising names in HOLOVR and Herron. With releases on Opal Tapes, Further and Firecracker Recordings, Jimmy Billingham 303-infused sound is perfect in reshaping Caruth's trip that is Pace, Movements I-IV. Building slowly with trademark 909 meets acid, kick eventually arrives to take the remix beyond head nodding to swinging minds and hearts.

The EP closes with a perfect dismantle and rebuild by Manchester's Herron. A man of talents, Sam Lewis is pushing his City's cultural landscape via the Soup Kitchen venue, co-running the on-point Meandyou Records, while still having time to record solo as Herron and for Hinge Finger as one half of CO/R, alongside label head Joy Orbison. The glitch beats, drone synthesis and orchestral vocal snatches of Rain fuse and percolate in the mind's eye. Sad City. Reshaped in transformations.

A spectral haze of subconscious, living rhythms & electronic prowess, A meeting of mind-tribes - Close, Kudo, Ruscha & Tripp. Hear now! - the discovery of TKIL.

The quartet creates in a non-linear, multiple level, liquid sequence. Four individuals, their subtle personality's reiterating sonic textures to form cascading minimalist atmospheres, chimes and percussion - diffused harmonics of ethnic vortices descending endlessly. Acting as coordinates that search for their source, a purity of multiplicity is presented.

Together these are focused experiments, raga-like meditations of precious expression from artistic connotation. Visionary; subtle; mysterious. Their essence an eclectic blend of composition, a natural but technical expression of cosmic minimalism and world music influence.

The outcome is a magical encounter of artists finding a creative affinity, sweeping downstream on a rolling rhythmic magic muse, beyond a bizarre excursion to capture the thrill of modernism, moments that reach the soul of alienation and togetherness in equal, savant, infinity.

For the final part of SchleiBen 5 - 8, Emotional Response welcomes two Scottish based artists to close out the series. In Jon Keliehor you have a world and music traveler with history from psychedelic rock to fourth world exposure, alongside one of the best electronic producers of the last decade, Lord Of The Isles.  
As the drummer of West Coast folk rock / psychedelic band The Daily Flash, Keleihor spent much of the mid-60 based in and out of Seattle and Los Angles, playing alongside the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Cream and The Doors, before an increasing interest in meditation and philosophies outside of the 'rock' realm led him to England in the early 70s where he become involved in dance theatre. Teaching Advanced Rhythmic Music Studies at the London Contemporary Dance School, his music composition style became influenced by his studies of world music.
Finally settling in Glasgow for over 20 years, while running the Luminous Music label and Gamelan Naga Mas, his earlier recordings for labels like Indipop, Touch and Bruton have seen a recent revival, with music appearing recently on contemporaries Optimo Music and Invisible Inc.
The wonderful recordings included here span over 3 decades, from sessions at the Luminous Studio at The Diorama Theatre, London in the early 80s, through to recent field-work based recordings in the Cairngorms. Reconfigured and updated, a common thread appears through the pieces - a sense of longing and appreciation - as Jon's knowledge of outer-national instrumentation alongside equally extensive travels around the globe gives the recordings a seamless blend of organic craft.
The tonal consonances within unlikely combinations of instruments, with tuned glasses (tarang), tabla, jaw harps, clay flutes and ocarinas, Chinese instruments that include Xiao-Bo and Xiao-Ping, large Noah bells, small and larges gongs all employed, the recordings have been reconstructed, edited and updated via sampling and digital processing. Featuring the playing of John "Jhalib" Millar - the extraordinarily gifted musician and tabla player - who has appeared with an EP on sister label, Emotional Rescue (ERC029), sadly recently deceased, the contribution acts as a tribute and more.

To close, the music of Lord Of The Isles is an excellent companion to Jon's work. Neil McDonald's list of club-based releases on labels CockTail D'Amor, Ene, Firecracker, Permanent Vacation, ESP Institute and Phonica is comprehensive and exemplary, however within his productions has often been an other-worldly element, a space between the beats and occasional fully ambient pieces.
Approached originally for series one of SchleiBen, the 7 pieces included were worth the wait, a journey in themselves and the perfect completion. Spanning almost 5 years, the majority were written during an extended exile in the Cairngorms. The lifting, ethereal, but melodic nature of the music fits that aesthetic. Blue skies, snow, long walks, space to think, but with a longing and appreciation of family and friends.
The solitary nature found in SchleiBen 8 and the geographical incidence of both artist's recordings including sessions in the Scottish Highlands fits the series ideals and is a nice closure. Enjoy and listen.

In celebration of the recent flurry of interest regarding the SARAH RECORDS re-issues on EMOTIONAL RESPONSE, it was decided by the bands involved to also present NEW material alongside the original Sarah recordings. This album features new and previously unreleased tracks by all four bands, and proudly sports the original “Sarah” logo, with the lettering cheekily changed to spell out “punk”. Because, as you probably know, there were very few labels in the era of Sarah that stuck so steadfastly to their punk-rock principles! Anticipation and interest is running high, as all four bands will be touring together the UK in July 2018, with shows selling out months in advance. This album serves as a reminder that some bands of the Sarah Era also stuck steadfastly to their DIY principles, whilst continuing to move forward and make new music.

Operating at the more muscley end of the SARAH RECORDS spectrum ACTION PAINTING! burst out of the fanzine scene with three frantic arrogant-riot-pop singles for SARAH and one for DAMAGED GOODS before they dematerialized. The band never realized a full length LP at the time. This collection, assembled by the band, features choice cuts from the bands 4 singles, and also includes a wealth of unreleased material that would have made up the bands debut LP had they survived the dramas of their speed driven youth.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: 12 tracks with 24 track download.

EVEN AS WE SPEAK formed in Sydney in 1986. Resisting neat labels, the band’s music is a quirky hybrid of accessible pop, ironic interjections, and experimental moments. They came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ JOHN PEEL, racking up 3 Peel Sessions and a Goodier session during their brief and prolific stay in the UK. Subsequent releases on SARAH RECORDS achieved multiple top 10 positions in the NME and Melody Maker charts. Recent interest has seen the band reform for NYC PopFest in 2016, re-release their Peel Sessions, and create a new EP ‘The Black Forest’ (Emotional Response). Remastered with new artwork, Emotional Response are proud to present the highly anticipated 25-year reissue of the band’s lone and iconic 1993 album Feral Pop Frenzy. 

Born from the largely fictitious “Wetherby scene” of the early ‘90s, BOYRACER to date have released over 800 commercially physically available songs, and have remained enthusiastic flag-wavers for many indie and punk labels from all over the globe. They have played their part in the SARAH RECORDS, A TURNTABLE FRIEND, and SLUMBERLAND records history through fiery punk-pop blasts such as “I’ve Got It and it’s Not Worth Having” and “He Gets Me So Hard” (both included here). Armed with a fuzzbox, and a revolving door cast of over 50 members past and present, founding frontman Stewart Anderson, formerly of Leeds UK, now resides in Flagstaff Arizona, and with wife (and Boyracer member) Jen Turrell, also runs the EMOTIONAL RESPONSE label. This LP collects the three EPs recorded for SARAH RECORDS between 1993 and 1994. 

Emotional Response returns to the SchleiBen series, with another offering of 4 split albums. Again artists are given free reign, encouraged to push the boundaries of their studio and live experimentation in form and texture.
For parts 5 - 8 the net is cast wide, from the psychedelic moons of Tomaga to Matthewdavid's meditative live improvisation, a collection of A Man Called Adam's commissioned sound-works to Jon Keliehor's new age visions.
First Tomaga, a duo that grew out of engine of psychedelic rock outfit, The Oscillation, to become a respected entity of it's own. Featuring long time friend of the label, Tom Relleen and drummer extraordinaire Valentine Ma, the project has grown to become greater than the sum of its parts. With 4 albums in 3 years and one more upcoming - plus their ridiculously overlooked solitary remix of Not Waving for the label - the output doesn't come close to matching their live "events", from almost constant touring.
The 2 pieces were recorded in an improvised session as an interzone between their last album, which was recorded entirely in non-studio spaces and their newer material. Featuring heavily processed long form studio recordings, the pieces, with Tom's bass and audio manipulation set over Valentine's exemplarily, intricate percussive interplay, provide a perfect, brooding introduction to the second series of SchleiBen.
This is contrasted with the first 'official' solo output of Neil Tolliday. As Nail, he has gained respect for over 25 years crafting deep, bumpin' House music on labels like DiY Discs, Remote and Classic, including the sought after Big D's Lounge album. After a sojourn as one of half of off-kilter pop duo, Bent, the Nail moniker has been recently resurrected for a new generation of followers. 

The collaborative vehicle of Seahawk Juan Tripp and Vactrol Park duo Guido Zen and Kyle Martin, Brain Machine blew our Piccadilly lids last year with the mighty "Peaks", a killer kosmische opus packed with galactic vibrations. On a follow up tip, Emotional Response are landing live and direct with two remix EPs featuring their nearest, dearest and most favourite proponents of deep electronic music. "Remixes One" sees the stems loaned out to a quartet of trusted hands including man of the moment, Tolouse Low Trax, ambient visionary Gigi Masin, afro-techno-dub specialist Harmonious Thelonious and stalwarts Ronny & Renzo.
Kicking the set off, Detlef locks into deep basement mystery mode with a brooding, propulsive and oddly percussive treatment of "Light Space." The Salon founder repurposes the haunting ambience of the original, layering those slabs of sonic disquiet over an eyeball licking groove. Surprise of the EP is Gigi Masin's remix of Crystal Clouds. Eschewing the original's celestial soundscapes, scattered percussion interplays with sub-bass to change the context, giving a rhythmic dimension while retaining the shimmering guitar and arpeggio infused cohesion.
The B-side opens with another Dusseldorf elder statesman, as Harmonious Thelonious brings his afro-visions to the party. Solo, as well as one third of The Durian Brothers, Stefan Schwander, has carved a distinct sound. Chrematistic percussion is matched with an atmospheric, dub-techno feel that perfectly fits the EP. Play loud for full understanding. Finally, Remixes One concludes with the return of Ronny & Renzo. Long time associates of Brain Machine, their 10 minutes plus remix takes the glacial original's ambience to a darker plain, fusing rhythmic pulses with alluding acid intent.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Excellent fringe electronics here as a stellar cast of remixers tinker with the mighty Brain Machine. I'm giving top marks to Tolouse and Ronny & Renzo for their computer voodoo versions, but plenty of you will fall for the ambient pulse of Gigi or darkroom throb of Harmonious.

The collaborative vehicle of Seahawk Juan Tripp and Vactrol Park duo Guido Zen and Kyle Martin, Brain Machine blew our Piccadilly lids last year with the mighty "Peaks", a killer kosmische opus packed with galactic vibrations. On a follow up tip, Emotional Response are landing live and direct with two remix EPs featuring their nearest, dearest and most favourite proponents of deep electronic music. The EP starts with a wonderful mix from Los Angeles native, Rollmottle. Running the beautifully sporadic Sentrall label since 2001, here Anthony Puglisi takes the Balearic meets Krautrock leaning of his recent album, "Fear Ritual", and crafts a lovely, drifting, textural stargazer.
Next the Dusseldorf / Brain Machine axis returns with a remix from rising names, Die Wilde Jagd. As Unit 4, Ralf Beck is considered by many to be one of the least heralded, but most talented producers. Returning alongside sometime Noblesse Oblige member Sebastian Lee Philipp, the remix eschews the motorik consistency of their early outings for a 9 minutes + remix of atmospheric nirvana.
The final side of the series goes to newer names in Cass. and Merrick Adams. One half of the excellent ZSOU (alongside Mo Morris), Merrick ventures solo here with an ever building break fuelled trip to "(Alpha) Moon". Cass. closes proceedings with a ubiquitous glow. As you'd expect after his appearance on the SchleiBen series, recent solo album and joint-release with Wolf Muller on International Feel, this mission ends with pure ambient bliss. Part 2 of the Brain Machine journey is complete. Where next?

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: This second instalment of the Brain Machine remix series takes the intensity down a notch, cutting the engines and letting us float freely through nebulous beauty. Calm and cosmic brilliance from Rollmottle, Die Wilde Jagd, Merrick Adams and Cass.

"Emotional Response continues it's fifth year celebrations in welcoming two of the label's long held favourite artists Jefre Cantu Ledesma and Alexis Georgopoulos coming together perfectly for an album of laconic story-telling and atmospherics.

Over the past decade, Cantu Ledesma and Georgopoulos have been frequent collaborators. With one another Jefre's recent ""On The Echoing Green' (Mexican Summer), Arp's The Soft Wave (Smalltown Supersound) and The Alps Le Voyage (Type) and with others. Jefre has worked with Grouper (aka Liz Harris), filmmaker Paul Clipson and has released music by Harold Budd, Oneohtrix Point Never and Keith Fullerton Whitman on his Root Strata imprint, while Alexis has worked with visual artists Tauba Auerbach and Doug Aitken, scored dance for Merce Cunningham, choreographer Jonah Bokaer and made liminal classical music with Canterbury composer Anthony Moore (FRKWYS 3 / RVNG Intl.).

In all of their projects, the two have always been masters of atmosphere. Veering between romantic abstraction, filmic ambiguity and suggested narrative, their music draws on personal and collective memory, letting things surface. Fragments Of A Season represents a new and distinct chapter in their ongoing work together, continuing this lineage of understated but resonant work.

Arising from conversations wherein each revealed that they'd been working on tracks with a similar feel in mind, the two quickly realized their songs fit together quite effortlessly. The goal was to do something immediate and spare most songs simply use an old drum machine and a few chorused guitars, featuring live performances with minimal editing. The result, and indeed the goal of the project, was not to make an album that would simply sounds like what one would expect of the two there are no modular synths or sequenced basslines, no motorik rhythms or overdriven distortions. Rather, to pursue a tangent of simplicity and clarity.

The result is an album of warmth and cool, sparse but evocative, earthy and luminous, narrative and abstract, taking influence from Les Disques Crepescule and early Cherry Red artists the duo also cite Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale and the photography of Luigi Ghirri, whose image graces the cover.

Song titles provide narrative hints. As does New York-based writer Leigh Gallagher's short story enclosed within. Each song finds the story advancing on the beach (""Marine""); at a discotheque (""Madagascar""); sleeping in the afternoon (Mirror The Sky). Memory of cobblestone streets and a recent relationship (""Cleo"", The Streets Are Filled With Rain). A sense that this temporary idyll will end casts a shadow. Ultimately, for reasons unclear, it does (""Lost Summer"").

There is the sense that a distinct arc has taken place. On some faraway beach, the buildings are white, the skies and sea turquoise. Waves rise and crest. A shaft of light crosses an empty room. A discotheque can be heard in the distance. A mist burns off. Over the course of the ensuing astral summer weeks, an encounter sets the world known previously in relief. Days stretch out and the nights hum. 

Following the critical success of last years mini-LP 'The Last Tortuga', Black Deer is back on Emotional Response with a 4 track remix EP featuring friends and alumni Nacho Patrol, Luke Wyatt, Sad City and Valet.

William Burnett returns to the label in the form of a remixes EP that takes his original productions and hands it to a broad selection of today's finest electronic producers, plus a rare outing from one of the label's favourite pyschedelic experimentalists. While Danny Wolfer's Legowelt project needs little introduction, it was only right that his inclusion on the label came from a more cosmic outlook. With must have EPs and a long player offered, his afro-infused Nacho Patrol moniker is a must check. In 'Circle Dance' the original is taken by the hand down to an afro-tech-funk'n'breaks basement for one of his best remixes to date and rightly so for one of his old buds. Luke Wyatt follows with an uplifting and warped retake on 'Meditation'. The kraut influence of the original is built on with fuzz guitar and a solo that builds across the track to a higher peak. Play this at sunrise for reaffirmation of life itself. Next is a big favourite of the label, Sad City, who caught the ear with his first release on Underwater Peoples and a lush follow up for Phonica. The pure ambience of a 'Highway' remix strips everything back and lets the 4th World shine. Finally, one of the main influences on the label when it started a few years back. Valet aka Portland multi-instrumentalist and mum, Honey Owens offers a deep, beautiful and haunting retake of 'Tortuga', adding whispers, drones, guitar, toms, keys and intonations to swallow you whole.

As one of the rising stars of the East Coast US electronic scene, Luke’s Torn Hawk releases on the cult L.I.E.S records introduced his cut up and glitchy take on R&B and house that have recently edged deeper and darker in to the noise and techno realms associated with the likes of Demdike Stare and Regis.

This has been complimented by two recent DVDs, self-released under his own name. Mixing his day as a professional multi-media artist with his night as an increasingly experimental musician, they have gained considerable acclaim that can’t be pigeon holed as yet another Brooklyn house-head.

However, as his first white label debut EP testified, there is also an ethereal and at times (*cough*) Balearic feel buried deep within this music and it is here, on 'Teen Hawk', this is as evident as his drone-based pieces.

While the looping percussion and rhythms of 'Bertone Stratos' and 'I Recommend Starman' echo the ethereal beauty of Cluster and La Dusseldorf, they are also mixed with the darker ambient and loop-based 'Wrong Crowd' or 'Greystoke One'.

Riding throughout much of this is his beloved looped guitar and eye for a breakbeat. Never more evident that on the album closer, 'Time For Thick'. Here his influences mesh to create a swirling, blissed out, hip-hop meets Aphex MDMA anthem (minus the sexist gangster rap - phew!)