The state51 Conspiracy HHV Records 26 Items

Influenced by artists like Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Judee Sill, and Tom Waits, Mann has a deep love and care for songwriting. Her lyrics are vivid and visceral, and her approach to songwriting is not one of purging emotions but rather of composting them—digesting life’s experiences and cultivating them into something meaningful, tangible, hopeful. She is also a talented visual artist, and this often plays an integral role in her songwriting process. Using the intricate and sweeping motion of illustrating with ink, charcoal, and sometimes watercolour, she can evoke thoughts and poetry onto the page, offering a way of making sense of things and to communicate in a way that words alone cannot. The album was primarily recorded at the 4AD Studios in London, produced and mixed by Fabian Prynn (Martha Skye Murphy, Ex:Re, Fabiana Palladino) who carefully facilitated an imaginative space for Mann to express the playful, strange and real parts of herself. Two of the tracks, It Only Hurts, and the title track Rift were both recorded in the living room studio of her friend Tom Kellett’s home in just one afternoon, with this setting mirroring the raw intimacy of these tracks. She has previously toured with Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear), Billie Marten, Bill Ryder-Jones and Youth Lagoon.

Heavyweight double gatefold vinyl with remastered audio and new and updated artwork reworked by the designer of the original sleeves

Sixth June was formed in 2008 by Serbian visual artist Laslo Antal and Serbian actress Lidija Andonov. After a short period working and living in Belgrade, the band relocated to Berlin, where their first album was released in 2010. Their first LP, "Everytime" rapidly gained attention in the music scene and enabled the band to play all over Europe. In 2011 the band released their EP “Back for a day” for the Italian label Mannequin Records. Their “Pleasure” EP was also released on Mannequin Records in December 2013.

Music videos and live projections are an essential part of the performance of Sixth June. Having two people in the band who are closely connected to film, theatre and video art makes not only the music, but the whole image of Sixth June recognisable. Berliner Zeitung characterises their music as “sweet, cool, dark electropop”, while Vice refer to Sixth June music as “music for dreaming and the new beginnings”.

Sixth June’s album Virgo Rising was released on February 17th on Berlin based label aufnahme+wiedergabe. In Virgo Rising, the saxophone, fretless bass, and horns accompanying the precipitous synths colour the entire album. The video accompanying the track Night Before is an electric dream that is an abstraction of new wave romance. Sixth June’s Virgo Rising release party was at Berghain on March 2nd 2017. In 2018 they released album “Without a sign” with demos and unreleased tracks for aufnahme+wiedergabe.

Eight decades in and Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now) isn’t slowing down, he’s picking up the pace. Following on from a sensational string of gigs and festival performances, his latest endeavour - Abstract Concrete - is now primed to release this astounding self-titled debut via state51 Conspiracy.

The band features the luminous cast of Agathe Max (Mésange, Ukaea) on viola, Otto Willberg (Yes Indeed, Historically Fucked) on bass, Roberto Sassi (Snorkel, Glenn Branca) on guitar, Yoni Silver (Hyperion Ensemble, Steve Noble) on keyboards and, of course, Charles himself on drums and vocals. With this undeniable experimental pedigree, it’ll likely come as one hell of a surprise that this group are now responsible for one of the most persuasive and hook-laden avant pop albums of the year.

state51 proudly presents a brand new remaster of Chilean psych-folk-prog-rock heavyweights Los Jaivas' classic opus - Alturas de Macchu Picchu - on 180g heavy weight Colored Vinyl, housed in a newly designed deluxe gatefold sleeve. Based around the poems of the same name by globally renowned Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and recorded in Paris during the Pinochet regime, Alturas sees the band blend deep Andean music, with synths and an approach to reinterpreting traditional music that touches on the UK folk rock acts of 10 years before - Fairport Convention and Trees. Alturas de Macchu Picchu has since become one of the most seminal albums in South America; an icon for Andean culture, a fundamental musical text in Chilean music - now this RSD edition will bring new fans deep into the world of Los Jaivas and the Heights of Macchu Picchu.

'state51 proudly presents a brand new remaster of Chilean psych-folk-prog-rock heavyweights Los Jaivas' classic opus - Alturas de Macchu Picchu - on 180g heavy weight clay-Colored Vinyl, housed in a newly designed deluxe gatefold sleeve. Based around the poems of the same name by globally renowned Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and recorded in Paris during the Pinochet regime, Alturas sees the band blend deep Andean music, with synths and an approach to reinterpreting traditional music that touches on the UK folk rock acts of 10 years before - Fairport Convention and Trees. Alturas de Macchu Picchu has since become one of the most seminal albums in South America; an icon for Andean culture, a fundamental musical text in Chilean music - now this RSD edition will bring new fans deep into the world of Los Jaivas and the Heights of Macchu Picchu.

A collaboration between Turner-Prize winner Tai Shani, The state51 Conspiracy and Strange Attractor Press: a beautiful collection of music, image and text presented across a fabulous cherry marble 12" vinyl wrapped in an arresting gloss sleeve, stunning accompanying hardback book and a very small number of folio prints.

The 40 minute album features a reading of the Shani's text by Molly Moody, backed with a captivating, hypnotic score for cello and electronics by Maxwell Sterling (Warp Records). Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Tai Shani's new solo show 'Your Arms Outstretched Above Your Head, Coding With the Angels' is currently running at London gallery, Gathering.

NIK Colk Void (Factory Floor, Carter Tutti Void, Nvpr) and Alexander Tucker (microcorps, Nonexistent, Grumbling Fur) new collaborative album as Brood X Cycles.

In the spring of 2019 Void and Tucker convened at Void’s Demna Studio to record two days of modular improvisations. Using their individualised modular cases they connected the two configurations to create one whole system where they could integrate and meld sequences, beats, drones and samples. Key to the duo’s process was bringing the organic textures of guitar, cello and voice together with machine rhythms, creating a balance between circuitry and the human body.

The duo edited down the raw recordings into their crucial moments, expanding upon the improvisations into eight cohesive pieces. Sleep Nameless Fear carves out a world of heavy percussive patterns, monolithic drones, disembodied voices and noise frequency manipulation into one detailed vortex.

1992: Minty came together around Leigh to present ‘actions’ on the fringes of music, art, and politics and to explode (sometimes literally) in the face of the growing celebrity culture. The band represented those marginalised through sexuality and delighted to challenge all that which usurps the established order. Word of their live shows spread fast, Leigh was a mainstream figure back then and Minty were becoming notorious for what were considered outrageous and disgraceful performances. At a time just before the internet, scandalous talk and sensational press articles brought the band to the attention of the authorities. The UK’s draconian, indecency and public licensing laws soon led to bans, legal action and police raids. Every show opened with ‘Useless Man’ - an amazing unapologetic, foul mouthed, pro-femme, pro-sex, pro-queer club anthem with lyrics made to shock and a playful homage to a Pepsi Cola ad byline from the 70’s.

“Every time you do acid it’s different from the last, but it’s still got a unique signature to it,” says Michael J York. It’s roughly analogous to the way in which the music of Teleplasmiste – his duo with Mark O Pilkington – can be experienced. Their music is lush and layered like a rainforest floor, a complex lattice of sound that moves in several directions at once. Some of those movements are under the surface, buried purposefully low in the mix “so they can surprise you when you’re under different conditions,” as Pilkington puts it. “Like psychedelics, we like to think that people can return to the music in different moods and different frames of mind, and that different things will appear in their hearing.” It fits the cosmic experimentation that the duo have explored on previous albums such as To Kiss The Earth Goodbye and Frequency is The New Ecstasy, and acts as an adjunct to York’s previous work as part of Coil, and currently alongside Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi in The Utopia Strong.

Vanishing Twin’s expansive and magical psychedelic epic with lyrics adapted from A.E. Housman’s 1922 poem, ‘Tell Me Not Here, It Needs Not Saying’ was initially commissioned by The Quietus for Sound + Vision subscribers before being released as part of state51's ongoing Singularity series. Here it's presented in transparent vinyl, over two sides.

Vanishing Twin fly deeper into their sonic universe, blending elements from an improvisational session, raw recordings of the natural world, and early 20th century poetry to create sublime, cosmic pop.

This twenty-minute piece has embellishments of sparkling synth and lyrical vignettes that are reminiscent of English folk melodies.

The NID Tapes’ presents a collection of early Indian electronic music uncovered at the archives of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Recorded between 1969-1972 the compilation chronicles electronic works from the previously unknown Indian composers Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Shama and Jinraj Joshipura who worked at the nation’s first electronic music studio founded at the NID during the utopian years following India’s independence - a radical period of visionary experimentation and artistic freethought.

The studio was founded with support from the New York composer David Tudor who personally set up a Moog modular system and tape machine in the autumn of 1969, and The NID Tapes also includes an excerpt from Tudor’s work discovered amongst the collection of tapes. The release developed from a long-term research project by the British artist and electronic musician Paul Purgas who travelled to Ahmedabad over many years to explore the origins of electronic music in India. This resulted in the discovery of the electronic music archive at the NID and its eventual restoration and digitising, which featured in the acclaimed BBC radio documentary Electronic India.

The compilation presents excerpts from the 27 reels of archive tape spanning the three years of the studio's operational history, showcasing work from the pioneering electronic composers which included the musician and poet Atul Desai, NID teachers and technicians I.S. Mathur and S.C. Shama, Gita Sarabhai who had previously studied with John Cage in New York in the 1940's and the young architecture student Jinraj Joshipura who was just 19 years old at the time of first composing with the Moog synthesiser. The audio showcases their various visions for electronic music production, exploring analogue synthesis, tape collages, voice experiments and field recordings revealing a meeting point of Western and Indian avant-garde traditions, and offering a unique insight into South Asia’s post-colonial sonic imaginary. The vinyl and digital is a collaborative release by Strange Attractor Press and The state51 Conspiracy and has been mastered by Hari Shankar Kishore (hvad) with design for the release and a vinyl etching created by Shreya Aurora a recent graduate from the National Institute of Design.

Launching at the same time through Strange Attractor Press will be a book titled ‘Suncontentinental Synthesis: Electronic Music at the National Institute of Design, India 1969–1972’. Edited by Paul Purgas this collection of critical essays will reflect on the larger cultural and political dialogues surrounding the studio as well as written contributions by Geeta Dayal, You Nakai, Rahila Haque and Jinraj Joshipura the last surviving composer from the NID.

In tandem with the recorded album Senyawa undertook the creation of the Vajranala Monument, a 21st-century artefact standing 3.5 metres tall and 2.8 metres wide with a thickness of 2.4 metres, made up of 4100 pieces of carved red brick, surrounded by 26 carved andesite stones. The monument possesses a feature that can emit fire and is built with the hope of becoming a knowledge artefact for humans in the future.

Vajranala sees the Indonesian experimental duo of vocalist Rully Shabara and multi-instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi explore how, over centuries, the natural world has shaped our society, the knowledge systems from which power derives, and why that still resonates today. It’s an exercise in understanding the root of the power (knowledge) discussed in their 2021 release Alkisah. When it comes to ‘power’, says Senyawa vocalist Rully Shabara, “people will normally think of someone political, but I don’t think that’s the case. The origin of power goes deeper than that.” It’s the shamans, he says, who were the first possessors of power: “If you’re in a village, if you’re considered to have the knowledge to connect people with the realm of the gods, then you will have power before the leader. It’s very fundamental to explore this.”

‘So Medieval’ captures all the musical foibles, idiosyncrasies and departures from the norm which Blue Bendy have displayed across their previous releases. Expressing their sound over the course of a full record for the first time, ‘So Medieval’ is an explosive mix of genre, atmosphere and emotions. The end result is something rare for a new band: a debut album which is as experimental as it is confident and assured, as tender as it is visceral, as quiet as it is loud, as bloody as it is teary.

‘So Medieval’ captures all the musical foibles, idiosyncrasies and departures from the norm which Blue Bendy have displayed across their previous releases. Expressing their sound over the course of a full record for the first time, ‘So Medieval’ is an explosive mix of genre, atmosphere and emotions. The end result is something rare for a new band: a debut album which is as experimental as it is confident and assured, as tender as it is visceral, as quiet as it is loud, as bloody as it is teary.

The history of India’s first electronic music studio founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad by David Tudor.

A book companion to the compilation album The NID Tapes: Electronic Music in India 1969-1972 released by State51.

Subcontinental Synthesis explores the history of India’s first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad with the support of the composer David Tudor. The essays and writings unravel the narrative and context surrounding the studio as well as the work of the Indian composers who created groundbreaking recordings during its four years of activity.

The texts reflect on the role of electronic music within a post-independence India, considering its interconnections with experimental design, radical pedagogies, and the international avant-garde, as well as the encircling conditions of Western ideological soft power within the global expansion of Modernism.

A special 7 inch single presentation of the classic Donovan tracks (The Tinker and the Crab / Wear Your Love Like Heaven) taken from his seminal double album A Gift from a Flower to a Garden.

Hey Colossus's mammoth, nearly album-length cover of 'You Laugh At My Face' from Catholic by Patrick Cowley and Jorge Socarras, was initially commissioned by The Quietus for Sound + Vision subscribers before being released as part of state51's ongoing Singularity series. Here it's presented in marbled red vinyl with a stunning Bass Clef remix on side B.

"I think the mixing and the choice of sounds in anything that Patrick Cowley did is flawless," says Chris Summerlin of Hey Colossus. "Especially the instrumentals on School Daze – you can imagine the places they're in, the planets they're on, and I think that's a good approach to mixing any type of music."

The result is the group's latest high-water mark. Over its almost 22-minute runtime, Hey Colossus make the song their own by utilising an expansive arsenal of dub-like tactics. Excepting a rough-and-ready surprise near the track's conclusion, their 'You Laugh At My Face' is a genuinely gorgeous, psychedelic exploration of the Cowley and Socarras original.

The UK avant-garde’s rising star, Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Bingo Fury is announcing his debut album ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ due out 16 February via tastemaking label state51. Filled with noir elegance, ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is an album that revels in extremity. The album was recorded in a local church in Bristol, taking inspiration from the musician’s complex relationship with his strong religious upbringing. The influence of the church building resonates throughout the album.

‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is full of strange experiments, obscure references, offbeat one-liners, heart-breaking sentimentality and surging creativity. At the heart of it all is Bingo Fury’s crooning bass vocal, lending a vivid and slyly humorous voice to universal themes of love and pain.

Santaka is truly the sound of a culture. The name means “confluence” in Lithuanian, and the project has been exactly that from the moment DJ/producer Manfredas and drummer/producer Marijus Aleksa resolved to work together in the early days of 2020.

Not only does it bring together the talents that Manfredas and Marijus have individually honed over their own illustrious international careers in the club underground and young jazz worlds – but their recordings have drawn on talents from across styles and generations within Lithuania, creating a fusion of experimental sounds that represents the living nation. The highest common factors of post rock, jazz, dancefloor and abstract electronics, classical and more all flow together. Now, they are deepening this further, by reworking recordings by composer Rytis Mažulis and the avant-garde choir Melos Collective.

Dream team trio Better Corners – Valentina Magaletti, Sarah Register and Matthew Simms – have completed a staggering new album Continuous Miracles: Vol. 2 for state51 Conspiracy, and where their debut LP joyfully opened the door to a brand new room, this one strides purposefully inside.

Renowned drummer/percussionist Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Vanishing Twin, Moin), avant rock musician and in demand mastering engineer Register (Kim Gordon, Talk Normal) and multi-instrumentalist and modular obsessed Simms (Wire, Memorials) inject an all-too-rare sense of childlike wonder and joy into their own inimitable collage of experimental rock, wonky dream pop, analog ambient, tape experimentation, avant percussion, modular electronics and noise music.

Merging a dynamic curio of melodic guitars, disconcerting monologues and a rhythm section both technical and unruly, London’s Legss create a wholly unique and mesmerising sound. New EP Fester is a literary and disarmingly lyrical collection of art-rock songs laden with ideas and sun-licked beneath the bus smog of anxious skies.

Even when leaning into more melodic territory, there’s a pervasive uneasiness that underpins both the vocals and instrumentation. Just as you drift into the relaxing arpeggio flow, vocalist Ned Green’s soft soliloquy accelerates to an exasperated yelp and we’re jolted by discordant noise-rock stabs dragging us into Legss’ deliciously feverish and poetic world.

Singular Texan musician Craig Clouse hurtles unstoppably towards the 20th birthday of his dancefloor-splintering electronic project Shit And Shine, releasing a landmark LP, his first full-length for The state51 Conspiracy, ‘2222 And AIRPORT’. Acid house, minimal techno, electro, funk, krautrock, hip hop, found sound, spoken word, live percussion and industrial are blown apart stupendously and then reassembled – mad-scientist style, in a way peculiar to Clouse – into 13 hypnotic and transportative tracks.

Lead single SWISS, out 24 March, is a gloriously minimalist funk jam that sounds like the exact point at which someone turns the lights off at a lowkey house party and a wild night for the ages gets under way. An almost scornfully skeletal riff, sounding like a misfiring Cyberdine Systems Model 101 summoning up a Prince circa Sign “O” The Times riff while crashing head first into the hyper-processed early work of Prefuse 73, also featuring a cheeky sample of revered Mancunian DJ Luke Una talking about “existential fucking darkness”.

This is followed on 4 April by INFINITE SHITE, arguably the epic central track to the album, is a Shit And Shine banger for the ages, its dancefloor affect, undeniable. An unforgiving, pulsating Byetone-style bass drone worthy itself of being blasted on a Funktion-One rig, is just the background for a colossal acid b-line, destroying all in its path.

Micro details bristle at the liminal level, threatening to only reveal themselves to those in a club, those listening on headphones or those experiencing a heightened sensory state.

A seismic, cinematic double dose from two sonic veterans with previous in Wire, Electrelane, and Better Corners. MEMORIALS’ kaleidoscopic debut covers broad musical territory, encompassing protest songs, fuzz-flooded pop, searing drone, and psychedelic freakouts whilst carving out a sound that is uniquely their own.

Both halves of this dynamic double album were originally conceived as individual film soundtracks but once the multi-instrumental duo of Verity Susan & Matthew Simms brought ‘Music For Film’ into a live space, the desire to shape it into a cohesive whole was more than they could resist. The resulting, intoxicating, musical odyssey can be viewed independently from the associated films and stands proudly as an ambitious artistic statement.

“The music we like and admire ranges from challenging to really tuneful, and we try to bring all that together in a way that sounds natural.” - MEMORIALS