On 'Models', Lee Gamble liberates sonic spectres to inform a suite of illusory anthems, subliming vulnerable, half-remembered fragments of dream pop, Soundcloud rap and trance in the process. Sung by cybernetic voices in an almost wordless language, his widescreen memories reverberate across the last few decades of pop history, smudging Elizabeth Frazer's surreal poetry into disembodied diva cries and Lil Uzi Vert's abstract, AutoTuned mumbles. Extracting haunted fragments of synthetic corrupted chatter and indecipherable non-words to sculpt dreamy pop simulacrums, Gamble takes the concept of the pop producer to its logical extreme; examining how intonation and language is engineered to monopolise our attention, his magical inversion of pop playing like a bewitching symphony of earworms.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Purple, Orange
A2. Juice
A3. XIth C. Spray
A4. She’s Not
B1. Phantom Limb
B2. Blurring
B3. Your Weight On My Arms

‘Gentle Confrontation’, Loraine James's third Hyperdub album, opens a new chapter of her real and sonic life in which she examines her past and present. It's a positively languid, enjoyably disjointed set made while listening to her teenage favourites; math rock and emo-electronic such as DNTEL, Lusine and Telefon Tel Aviv. The album also features an ever more diverse set of peers, placing them in her unusual musical settings and drawing out sensitive and reflexive performances. At other times the album stretches out into a drifting ambience as if seeking a sense of bliss in the everyday. ‘Gentle Confrontation’ is about relationships (especially familial), understanding, and giving back a little grace and care, while the tone of the record criss-crosses watery ambience with denatured rhythm and asmr beats. These 16 tracks are Loraine's best work yet, and a personal and musical leap forward, delivering a totally unique vision of electronic pop music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The inimitable Loraine James effortlessly mixes languid lounge jazz, scattered electronics and woozy downbeat on her third album for veteran electronic superlabel, Hyperdub. It's full of melodic hooks, submerged under a wash of beautifully produced electronic soup, and it's my favourite thing she's done by far. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Gentle Confrontation
A2. 2003
A3. Let U Go Ft. KeiyaA
A4. Déjà Vu Ft. RiTchie
B1. Prelude Of Tired Of Me
B2. Glitch The System (Glitch Bitch 2)
B3. I DM U
B4. One Way Ticket To The Midwest (Emo) Ft. Corey Mastrangelo
C1. Cards With The Grandparents
C2. While They Were Singing Ft. Marina Herlop
C3. Try For Me Ft. Eden Samara
C4. Tired Of Me
D1. Speechless Ft. George Riley
D2. Disjointed (Feeling Like A Kid Again)
D3. I’m Trying To Love Myself
D4. Saying Goodbye Ft. Contour

(CD BONUS TRACK : Scepticism With Joy Ft. Mouse On The Keys)

On 'Love Hallucination' Jessy Lanza is in control as a songwriter and producer, flexing her skills in the studio and rebuilding her sound, taking chances with production and energy in all directions, from club-ready, to downbeat and sultry, with the theme of trusting yourself in the moment and using intuition as a compass driving the record forward. ‘Love Hallucination’ is the sound of an artist in bloom, an album of big emotions and big songs, with direct, personal lyrics, such as the upbeat but panicked opener 'Don't Leave Me Now' and the 2-step drama of 'Midnight Ontario', or 'Limbo', an ear worm disco stomper about produced with Marco 'Tensnake' Niermeski. Also featured as co-producers are David Kennedy (Pearson Sound), adding slick arrangements for the club, long-time collaborator Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys), and Paul White. ‘Love Hallucination’ is a bold and immediate record from Jessy Lanza, her most clear, authentic and best to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jessy Lanza brings us her most flamboyant, widescreen release yet, with soaring synths and scattered percussion beautifully brought together into a startlingly modern soundclash of R&B, synth-pop and driven dancefloor electronica. A big stylistic leap forwards for Lanza, and another banger for one of the best labels in the alt 'tronica business.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Don’t Leave Me Now
A2. Midnight Ontario
A3. Limbo
A4. Casino Niagara
A5. Don’t Cry On My Pillow
B1. Big Pink Rose
B2. Drive
B3. I Hate Myself
B4. Gossamer
B5. Marathon
B6. Double Time

‘Escapology’ - Kode9's first album since 2015's ‘Nothing’ – is the first audio document of a wider project, Astro-Darien, ongoing since last year. His most ambitious work yet as a multi-disciplinary artist, ‘Escapology’ is the soundtrack album to the sonic fiction Astro-Darien, which will be released in October on Hyperdub sub-label Flatlines.The music reconfigures Astro-Darien's tense, off-world atmospheres into slices of high definition, asymmetric club rhythms, woven through thrilling sound design and vertiginous sonics.‘Escapology’ is just one entry point into of the Astro-Darien universe, which had begun to surface in 2021 as a two-week audiovisual installation on the main dance floor at club space Corsica Studios in South London, and as a multi-channel diffusion on the 50 speaker Acousmonium at the invitation of INA-GRM in Paris, the institution founded in 1951 by the musique concrète pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, composer Pierre Henry and the engineer Jacques Poullin. The artwork for both ‘Escapology’ and Astro-Darien was produced by Kode9’s long-time collaborators Lawrence Lek (digital world design), and Optigram (typography and gfx). 

TRACK LISTING

01. Trancestar North
02. The Break Up
03. Toxic Foam
04. Orbex
05. Angle Of Re-Entry
06. Freefall
07. In The Shadow Of Ben Hope
08. Sim-Darien
09. Cross The Gap
10. Uncoil
11. Astro-Darien
12. Lagrange Point
13. Docking
14. Torus
15. T-Divine

Burial follows up the bleak and desolate "Antidawn", with more shimmering emptiness from the event horizon. The sublime three-track EP "Streetlands". Like being alone in an abandoned lost city long after humans have been made nearly extinct from Earth. I imagine it'd make amazing music for The Walking Dead video game. Or like I said about "Antidawn" - it continues the theme of 'walking through Skyrim loaded up on dissociatives. More brilliance from the master. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Burial follows up the bleak and desolate "Antidawn", with more shimmering emptiness from the event horizon.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hospital Chapel (7:59)
A2. Streetlands (14:15)
B. Exokind (12:13)

700 Bliss is the forward-thinking duo of DJ Haram and Moor Mother. Their first full length for Hyperdub is an album of noise rap that ties together the raw edges of club music and hip hop with punk energy, jazz, house-party catharsis, percussion-heavy analogue sound design, and cheeky skits, ranging from experimental rap tracks with rolling hi hats and lyrical bravado, to poetry set to noise and sound collage.

Moor Mother and DJ Haram started collaborating in 2014 and eventually formed 700 Bliss, a blistering live act in Philly's DIY scene, releasing their 2018 debut, Spa 700 on Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni Records. Since that time, both artists have grown global followings. Moor Mother is a prolific solo artist and collaborator, writer, and member of Black Quantum Futurism while Haram has been curating and creating radio shows, DJing, and producing (including an EP for Hyperdub in 2019).

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a smart, danceable revelation, a chiseled soundscape of dive bombing bass, piercing bleeps, crunchy distortion, and wavering synth lines. Welcoming in a variety of voices from their extended, cross-genre scene, 700 Bliss also bring along a cast of collaborators, including vocalists Orion Sun, Lawfandah, Ase Manual, and Ali Logout (from the band Special Interest), plus Palestinian producer Muqata'a, and writer M Téllez who delivers a surreal sci fi monologue over a pounding kick drum on ‘More Victories’.

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a deeply layered rewriting of hip hop and electronic music that gives more with each listen. You won't hear another rap album like it in 2022.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nothing To Declare
A2. Totally Spies Ft Lafawndah
A3. Nightflame Ft Orion Sun
A4. Anthology
A5. Discipline
A6. BlessGrips
A7. Easyjet
A8. Candace Parker Ft Muqata’a
B1. No More Kings
B2. Capitol Ft Alli Logout
B3. Sixteen
B4. Spirit Airlines
B5. Crown
B6. More Victories Ft M. Téllez
B7. Seven
B8. Lead Level 15 Ft Ase Manual

"Antidawn" marks the return of Burial - our nation's beloved shadow dweller, emo-garage innovator and cultishly adored bass producer. After nearly 2 decades unravelling the mystery - with countless breakdowns, assessments and even dissertations written about how the artist composes and records his music - William Bevan had decided it's time for a further redux.

Reducing the sound to just vapours, the record 'explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world game-space ambience', which perfectly puts into context what you have in front of you. Like walking through Skyrim's metaverse loaded up on dissociatives  and ketamine, there's no real linear structure to the album. As usual, snips, sounds and textures take precedent, but it's the silences and the spaces BETWEEN the snips that Burial has really emphasized on "Antidawn". There's a movement created with sparseness - a change of feeling; a beckoning towards the light through tense and dark realms.

Encapsulated in a frozen, urban Winter; there's movements of painful sadness, juxtaposed between bursts of radioactive warmth as whispers of forgotten angels drift in on FM radio interference. It's quintessential Burial - crackles n static n all - but occupying a space that couldn't be further from the dancefloor. If his more recent 12"s have hinted at this wandering, non-linear, long-walk-home approach then on "Antidawn" we're lost & abandoned in the multidimensional realities of the present; with little reassurance that 'everything’s going to be ok'...

It's as breathtaking and awe-inspiring as you'd expect from the UK demigod yet brittle, fragile, constricted and smothered in darkness. It's really nice to see him explore these realms and while thousands of his online bloggers and trolls will no doubt have countless critiques on his development; I for one am well on board.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Burial heads even further down the cold, long & lonely road into almost pure isolation. Like walking through Skyrim's metaverse loaded up on dissociatives it's a completely transportive, if fragile and desolate listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Strange Neighbourhood [11:04]
A2. Antidawn [08:43]

B1. Shadow Paradise [10:20]
B2. New Love [07:13]
B3. Upstairs Flat [06:07]

"Chemz" is hooky, rushy and loved-up - both an unhinged premonition of unleashed post-pandemic joy, and a demonic flashback to past ecstasies in a hardcore style perfected in the UK. "Chemz" is a 12-minute rave monster that has ingested several tracks and incorporated them into its distended body. At the other end of the Burial bi-polar spectrum, "Dolphinz" is a desolate oceanic love letter to our underwater friends.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Still languishing comfortably in a decade-n-a-half long purple patch; Mr. Beven's faultless formula returns to Hyperdub. "Chemz" is up there with some of his most anthemic offerings to date; an endorphine-jacking hit of skewed 2-step littered with rave idents and possibly the catchiest garage hook of the last century! Literally unmissable. DO NOT SLEEP.

TRACK LISTING

A. Chemz [12:31]
B. Dolphinz [09:03]

‘All The Time’, Jessy Lanza's first album since 2016's ‘Oh No’, is the most pure set of pop songs that she and creative partner Jeremy Greenspan have recorded, reflective and finessed over time and distance. Innovative juxtapositions sound natural, like rigid 808s rubbing against delicate chords in ‘Anyone Around’, subtle footwork flutter giving a nervous energy to ‘Face’, unusual underwater rushes underpinning ‘Baby Love’.

The songs also sound more “live” than ever before. Jessy’s voice is treated, re-pitched and edited on songs like ‘Ice Creamy’ and gestural sounds seem to respond to her lyrics in songs such as ‘Like Fire’, which reward the listener on repeated plays. More than previous albums, the lyrics on ‘All The Time’ became an important focus for Jessy too, channelling the negativity of anger and frustration arising from some significant changes in her personal situation into the text. These lyrics sometimes process raw feelings, which aren't obvious to begin with, but are soon felt, standing in stark contrast to the cushioned settings of the music. ‘All The Time’ has ended as a triumph and an abstracted diary of a sometimes difficult, but enduring friendship and creative relationship, and it’s their best work yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jessy Lanza has made many waves in the music world, finding a perfect home in the home of off-piste electronic adventures, Hyperdub. This one sees Lanza in a more playful mood, encompassing aspects of synthpop, future beats and r&b. It's a beguiling and exciting listen, and a superb return for Lanza.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Anyone Around
A2. Lick In Heaven
A3. Face
A4. Badly
A5. Alexander
B1. Ice Creamy
B2. Like Fire
B3. Baby Love
B4. Over And Over
B5. All The Time

Angel-Ho is known as one of the founders of Non Worldwide, alongside Chino Amobi and Nkisi. Highly regarded as a DJ and electronic music producer, on ‘Death Becomes Her‘ she shifts things up to another level. Pulling on inspiration from her flamboyant favourites from Lady Gaga, Missy Elliot, and Bjork through to Kanye West, this ambitious, artful and sometimes radical album of neo-pop pushes the pop framework even further, often teetering on the brink of vertiginous chaos and dissonance, whilst slowly revealing its depth and grandeur once you settle into its sound world. Alongside a cast of collaborators that include French producer Nunu, South African producer Baby Caramel, Asmara Maroof from Nguzunguzu, Bon and Gaika, Angel re-orientates the usual trans-atlantic pop sound to encompass a brace of experimental, diasporic producers to create beats that alternate between angular, propulsive, murky, loose, abrasive and breezy.

On top of these often advanced rhythms, she also raps and sings for the first time with lyrics about love, sex, glamour and struggle, universal fantasies, treated with an ambiguity that restructures the narrative within a trans-identity. Her choice of guest MCs also reflects this energetic queering with K-$ and Qweezy from Cape Town, plus underground Asian American rapper K-Rizz laying down assertive bars. On ‘Death Becomes Her’, Angel-Ho carves out a new space with her unique take on contemporary pop. Overflowing with charisma, sometimes reminiscent of Grace Jones, this album is fiercely sassy and celebratory. It feels like the start of something very exciting.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Business
A2. Drama
A3. Like A Girl Ft. K Rizz
A4. Jacomina
A5. Muse To You
A6. Good Friday Daddy Ft. Queezy

B1. Cupido
B2. Live
B3. Desity
B4. Pose
B5. Bussy
B6. Baby Tee Ft. K-$
B7. Like That
B8. Parachute

A generation younger than the founders of the Teklife crew, DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn, DJ Taye was originally a rapper and beat maker before hooking up with the collective and jumping into the world of footwork production and DJing. However, it was Rashad’s untimely passing in 2014 that was the unlikely catalyst for developing the sounds and ideas for this album. He says, "When Rashad passed away I felt inspired to continue evolving the music that I loved so much coming up in this world. So, I had to do something…make something brand new." 100% committed to pushing further the potential of the footwork template, Still Trippin’ is ambitious in its range and scope.

Taking two years to formulate, the record broadens the possibilities of the sound, forcing it to adapt to songwriting, and also revives Taye’s talent for MCing and producing beats to which he can rap and sing. Furthermore Taye definitely ups the ante with his complex and precise drum programming, never losing sight of footwork’s ability to confound. The album features a range of guests that span contemporary music; the eccentric, instructive rapping of Chuck Inglish of Detroit duo the Cool Kids is featured on ‘Get It Jukin’, Odile Myrtil, a young vocalist from Montreal, lends her smokey soul to ‘Same Sound’, Fabi Reyna, the editor of the celebrated women’s guitar magazine She Shreds, sings and plays bass and rhythm guitar on ‘I Don’t Know’ and Jersey club queen UNIIQU3 offers production and rapping on ‘Gimme Some Mo’.Also, Teklife members DJ PayPal and DJ Manny assist on production, and DJ Lucky is a guest MC on ‘Smokeout’. Taye is ambitious in his hopes for the album; "I took this as an opportunity to not have boundaries with footwork. Different approaches to our ‘underground’ sound to make it broader. It’s only underground until it crosses that visible threshold.” This album brings all of this to the forefront. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. 2094
A2. Trippin’
A3. Need It (ft DJ Manny)
A4. Smokeout (ft DJ Lucky)
A5. Same Sound (ft Odile Myrtil)

B1. 9090
B2. Anotha4 (ft DJ Manny)
B3. Bonfire (ft DJ Paypal)
B4. The Matrixx (ft DJ Manny)

C1. Get It Jukin’ (ft Chuck Inglish)
C2. Pop Drop (ft DJ Paypal)
C3. Gimme Some Mo (ft UNIIQU3)

D1. Truu (ft DJ Paypal)
D2. Closer
D3. I’m Trippin’
D4. I Don’t Know (ft Fabi Reyna)

"The Underdogg" is DJ Tre's debut EP for Hyperdub. He contributed two brilliant tracks to the DJ Rashad tribute set "Next Life", but compared to other long term members of the Teklife footwork crew, he hasn’t released much. Tre has been about since the early days, born and raised on the south side of Chicago. Encouraged by Rashad and his partner DJ Spinn, he has been making tracks since 1999, over a decade before footwork's ascent to global popularity. On this EP his sound, for the most part, is rooted in the speedy 4/4 of juke. It features a sparse and minimalist take on footwork but he's got a knack of adding in tight little switches and details that keep the tracks moving as essential dancefloor weapons. The EP starts with "It’s House Hybrid", which has its musical roots in Chip E's "It's House", one of the very earliest house tracks. It’s a tried and tested dancefloor devastator on dubplate, built on a crackling and hiccuping juke 4/4 which grows in intensity, until a ferocious amen break cracks it open and joins in the onslaught. "A Hammond Jam" matches a moody organ with typical sub rumbles and ghetto-tek drum programming. "Get Dat Ass Up!" bounces against a twitching melody that'salmost purist Detroit techno in its executed, save for the stuttered footwork rhythm that underpins it all. "Tha Rhodez Jam!" micro-edits a delicate Rhodes sample into flickering shapes against switching 8 bar patterns of drums that go from rolling to soca-like pulses with whistles. Essential tools for DJs on the hyperplane.

Laurel Halo returns to Hyperdub for her third LP with a fresh approach and a new sound. Routed out of the electronic abstraction of 2015’s In Situ - but with clear reference to 2012's sleeper-hit Quarantine - Dust is an album revolving around loose and languid songs; warped, sun-filled, melted and at times, heavy-hearted and obscure. Recorded over a period of two years, the writing process began at EMPAC in upstate New York in January 2015. With access to microphones, percussion, keys and a wide range of routings, Laurel spent days alone in the cavernous space, later inviting musicians Eli Keszler and Lafawndah to join her there. Those sessions would eventually become this album: a collection of breezy, broken songs, based on woody instrumentation, sub bass and restless, intricate electronics.

Earnest songwriting meets with modal cut-up strategies, improvisational playing with higrade digital dust. Tactile and fibrous throughout the record, the vocals and percussion coalesce and breathe life into each other. Swung grooves eddy and collapse; acoustic drums are warped into sensual, febrile melodies. The lyrics are themselves bricolage, without a specific narrator or place in time. They slip in and out of view, something that is visualised in the album’s inner panel. Extending the influence, the album opener ‘Sun To Solar’ is an adaptation of 'Servidão de Passagem' by Brazilian concrete poet Haroldo de Campos. In line with the album’s sound, Dust is 'Laurel Halo' as a flexible cast of characters. Filled with dialogue, the album helms an interchangeable ensemble of vocalists and musicians, featuring vocals from Klein, Lafawndah, and Michael Salu, as well as musicians such as Eli Keszler, Craig Clouse ($hit and $hine), Julia Holter, Max D, Michael Beharie and Diamond Terrifier. Laurel’s omnivorous influences play out in mutated fashion - coalesced, unfettered and inclusive - a broad musical palette free from entrenched modes, catalysed by digital production that could only happen in 2017

TRACK LISTING

A1.Sun To Solar
A2.Jelly
A3.Koinos
A4.Arschkriecher
A5.Moontalk
A6.Nicht Ohne Risiko

B1.Who Won?
B2.Like An L
B3.Syzygy
B4.Do U Ever Happen
B5. Buh-bye

Finally, time for a brand new solo effort from the shadowy producer, Burial.  'Young Death' sees a warped vocal cut smeared atop atmospheric drones before launching skyward into an airy and euphoric arpeggiated synth riff. Swirling chimes and sliced loops melt into a warm bath of celestial drones and crackling faded polaroid memories. 

'Nightmarket' takes the arpeggio route, but in a more instantly noticeable way. Opening with an uncompromised broken-chord rise and then abstracting that into darkened corners. Faded covertly into juddering drone and grown organically into slowed-down chordal bliss. Ambient passages intersperse with assured but physically fragile solar-flare lights before launching into a bout of retro-futuristic dusty hardware jet-stream shimmers. 

As stylistically contrary as you would ever expect from Burial, but without losing any of the post-everything charm.  A classic. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Young Death

2. Nightmarket

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

First ever vinyl pressing of Kode9 & The Spaceape’s 2006 debut album, including previously unreleased extra track ‘Stalker (alt edit)’.

Limited edition of 1000 copies exclusively for Record Store Day, pressed on translucent yellow vinyl, in gatefold sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Glass
2. Victims
3. Backward
4. Nine

Side Two
1. Curious (Ft Miss Haptic)
2. Portal
3. Addiction
4. Sine

Side Three
5. Correction
6. Kingstown
7. Nine Samurai
8. Bodies

Side Four
9. Lime
10. Quantum
11. Stalker (Alt Edit)

The fourth and final EP taken from Terror Danjah’s "Undeniable" CD opens with the amazing "Leave Me Alone" featuring Terror’s old vocal spar Bruza. This time it’s different though - instead of his usual cockney mateyness, Bruza’s reflecting on his bad mood. "All I Wanna Do" is the album’s densest track, featuring East End singer / songwriter Lauren Mason, who complements Terror’s moody music with a forlorn and angry vocal about a break-up, Terror editing her lines into strange rhythmic shapes which rub against the subtle trap-doors and fills of his accompaniment. "Time To Let Go" is light and breezy in comparison. With light Rhodes keys and a vocal from Terror himself , this is a house track in disguise, as the constant shifting patterns of the drums work against the flow of the melodic elements to produce something that is simultaneously recognisable as a both genre track and a Terror Danjah trademark tune. Number Four in a series of four limited-edition EPs bringing "Undeniable" to life on vinyl. Limited pressing on phat wax.

The third EP taken from Terror Danjah’s "Undeniable" CD kicks off with one of the big surprises of the album, the inimitable genre-traversing "SOS", with a simple melodic riff played out over drum patterns that shift up in down in rhythm and tempo, grinding to a halt in the middle of the track before starting up again. "Sonar (Selassi Mix)" is a beatless mix of Terror’s classic grime riddim ‘Sonar’, where the originals rhythmic fx and melody pulse in and out of the mix creating strange smeared textures as sounds rub against each other. The album’s title track "Undeniable" features D Double E of Newham Generals, doing something you’d not expect of him – being romantic over Terror’s warm, colourful chords and melodies. Number Three in a series of four limited-edition EPs bringing "Undeniable" to life on vinyl. Limited pressing on phat wax.

London's Burial issues this belated overview of his career to date on Hyperdub, including the definitive "Spaceape" and other formative dubstep and grime highlights. It encompasses the myriad of styles which have followed and continue to manifest themselves after UK garages's implosion. Universally acclaimed as one of the best, most ground-breaking releases of 2006.

TRACK LISTING

Untitled 0:36
Distant Lights 5:26
Spaceape 4:02
Wounder 4:52
Night Bus 2:20
Southern Comfort 5:02
U Hurt Me 5:23
Gutted 4:43
Forgive 3:07
Broken Home 5:05
Prayer 3:46
Pirates 6:10
Untitled 0:55