Cosmic | Balearic Vinyl 393 Items

One of life's most difficult arts is learning to let go. You can try to cling to control in the face of a turbulent world, but the only constant we can count on is change—the tendrils of cleansing fire wiping away the old, new life springing forth from the dust and ash. So what's the point? Give yourself over to the depths. Surrender to the flow. G.S. Schray's new solo album The Changing Account is an appropriate soundtrack for learning to cope with a world we can't count on. Each piece is full of elliptical melodies that swirl with the unstable logic of dreams. Flurries of piano, guitar lines, and other more alien instrumentation shimmer delicately, but before they coalesce into familiar shapes or rhythms they change, then change, then change again. Listening is a bit like falling asleep on a long road—with each passing song you're waking up somewhere new, trying to get your bearings in another strange world. How did I get here? Where are we going? It doesn't matter. Close your eyes, drift away again.

Anadol is a psychedelic synth folk project by Gözen Atila, a Turkish sound artist and photographer based in Berlin. Her third album Uzun Havalar is based on collective improvisations of middle eastern folk songs called „uzun hava“. They turn out as rich, atmospheric synth ballads. A diverse roster of improvising musicians creates their fascinating complexity. Anadol recorded them during extensive sessions in Istanbul. You can hear drummers laughing and playing guitars, composers howling, announcements in French and screams in no language, record collectors playing oscillators, and trumpets through spacious echoes. Anadol represents Gözen Atila’s liberation from a rather academic approach to electronic composition which she pursued during her music technology studies in Istanbul. She calls her education the „darkness of serious music“ where she first tried to belong, then to break free with the help of lo-fi synth pop. As a producer of radio plays and an expert field recording artist she has developed a distinct sense of timing, editing and sound design. Her Anadol project walks in the footsteps of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment. On Uzun Havalar she translates her experimental background into these floating folk ballads. The album was originally released on tape via Kinship in 2018.

Compilation of the works by MJ Lallo, weird harmonizing mantras layered with drummachine rhythms.. Very psychedelic compositions where she uses her voice to create all kinds of sound(scapes)
Take Me With You is a revelatory voyage through the captivating universe of voice artist and poet MJ Lallo. The works on this 2LP compilation were all recorded in her home studio between 1982 and 1997, primarily using drum computer, synth and her own voice processed through a Yamaha SPX 90 digital effects unit. They range from wordless harmonizer mantras and primitive drum computer meditations, to psychedelic latin dance-floor anthems and synth-drenched end-of-the-nighters. Lallo has created her own inimitable galaxy of sound where the human voice, liberated from the constraints of language and abstracted using digital technology, is able to explore the outer realms of human expression, like Joan La Barbara with an Eventide and a new-age sensibility. Although Lallo’s flight path is distinctly her own, her journey converges with other travellers as diverse as Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Stereolab, William Aura, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Gertrude Stein and even Terry Gilliam (whose film Brazil was a big influence on Lallo). Like something beamed in from another planet, Lallo’s work is both fascinatingly strange and strangely familiar, and will leave a lasting impression for lightyears to come. Double gatefold LP, remastered DDM pressing.

Finally, this great record gets a nice re-press!

Music From Memory’s latest release in their 12” series focuses on the little known UK band The System. A project masterminded by Bob Lamb, a somewhat cult figure in Birmingham's music history; the short lived group released only one album ‘Logic' and a single in 1983 on the somewhat obscure French label ‘Romantic Records’. This distinctively forward thinking new wave/synth pop album met with poor distribution and with almost no promotion to speak of at the time and quickly dwindled into obscurity. The albums sense of technological exploration, outstanding production value coupled with the band’s gift of writing deeply emotive, yearning pop tunes, make it sound though perhaps more relevant today than many other far more successful albums of its time.

12th Isle revisit the various artist compilation format first explored with 2019’s ‘Inkosi’ and assemble a veritable mixtape of sorts unfolding across six tracks aimed with the club in mind. Echo Party get things started with a dub heavy, studio alchemy excercise in discipline that appears in an extended mix to the original form on Murray Collier (Dip Friso) & Hannan Jones’s self-released Cd-r. Italian newcomer Guizzi features with a thunderous downtempo excursion with tight conga percussion in a DK/RAMZi vein that feels very at home on the label. Der Opium Queen pulls off a propulsive, video game OST style dancefloor hit that brings to mind that Les Aeroplanes project on Jamal Moss’s Mathematics label from way back when whilst on the Side B a freak-folk skit from Memotone sits next to heads-down motorik from Lo Kindre and a bleep-infused dub techno piece by Toronto via Bangladesh real one Raf Reza. More V/A's to come.

Sunny Crypt is incredibly happy to announce its seventh release: a retrospective compilation of six previously CD-only tracks by Nightmare Lodge, a name that might ring the bell to many enthusiasts of Italian experimental music. It Passed Like A Dream is a selection of some of our favourite tracks they released between 1994 and 2000, aiming to spotlight a small glimpse of the amazing body of music they did throughout the years. Nightmare Lodge is a musical project by Minus Habens Records / Disturbance founder Ivan Iusco alongside vocalist B. Mazzilli and bass player Gianni Mantelli, when the Bari based trio decided to decided to embark on a path in search of their own dreamlike musical dimension tied to introspective explorations. Over the years, the group's lineup evolved, eventually solidifying as a duo comprising Iusco and Russolo. With their first release dated 1987 and staying active till the early 2000s, it is quite challenging to put the Nightmare Lodge discography in a precise musical box. Their first outings flirted with post-industrial music and a more stripped down sound palette marked by a DIY approach to composition, while in later years leaning towards a more horroresque / cinematic feeling and following the development of new technologies but always charactering their output with a ritualistic, trance inducing and mystical approach, whatever if it’s ambient, downtempo, techno not techno, or a whole lotta else...

Back yard - Back yard is the first single from the new Teen Daze album, Elegant rhythms, and features singer-songwriter Andy Shauf on drums, and LA jazz staple, Sam Wilkes, on bass. This is a stark change in sound for Teen Daze, who’s last album Interior was an exploration of neon-lit House music. Back yard is a mellow groover, conjuring up images of Laurel Canyon in the 70s, yet still with its flourishes of contemporary sounds.

We’re out of phase again - We’re out of phase again is another vulnerable glimpse into the inner world of Teen Daze, and marks the release of his most personal album to date, Elegant rhythms. In contrast to the synthesized, digital world of his prior album, Interior, here we’ve been brought into a lush, organic arrangement, brought to you in large part to the stunning bass playing by Sam Wilkes. While the verses pulse forward, the chorus slows things down, and evokes the sophisti-pop sounds of The Blue Nile. This track is a stunning showcase of the world of Elegant rhythms.

Nothing’s gonna change my love - Teen Daze returns with his second single of the year, Nothing’s gonna change my love. The stark change in sound, as heard on previous single Back yard, is on display here again: a smouldering, 2 and a half minutes of slow jazz-pop, indebted to the great Sade, or perhaps the feeling of leaving downtown LA at 2 AM. Lyrically, we hear a story of a love, challenged by the unpredictable nature of our lives. This may be Teen Daze’s smoothest song to date.

Neighbourhood - Neighbourhood is the third single from the recently announced LP from Teen Daze, Elegant Rhythms. Along with Andy Shauf on the drums, and Sam Wilkes on the bass, Teen Daze gives us a languid tour of his quiet neighbourhood. The sun has set on the pleasant, tree-lined streets, and a stranger, more surreal environment presents itself. The song plods forward at an extremely comfortable pace, held down by the paradoxically loose-yet-tight rhythm section. Lyrically, we walk around the Neighbourhood at night, and while the chorus reveals a type of sobriety, the vibe of the song makes it easy to feel a little…effected.

Fade away - Fade away sets the tone for Elegant Rhythm’s side B: a deeply personal, though somewhat veiled, confession of loss. How does it feel to grieve something that was never really here? A smouldering, slowly progressing first half erupts in synthetic noise, and then fades into the ether with it’s repeating refrain, “I can feel you / feel you fade away / when there’s nothing / nothing left to say”.

Fall ahead - A sweet piano tune which serves as a quiet break in the record, intended to help the listener reflect and take a moment of pause before we reach the final two songs on the album.

HST underwater - The penultimate track on the record tells a story where the narrator finds themself in an alien, yet oddly familiar place. Arpeggios soaked in crystal blue water flow through the stereo field, while the narrator, vocoded and drenched in autotune, searches for meaning and purpose in a confusing world. This is one of Teen Daze’s most cinematic, emotional songs yet.

In the rain - It’s never really made explicitly clear on this record, but a lot of these songs find Teen Daze wrestling with life as a new father, and this song, the final on the album, expresses the fears of generational trauma. A touching, tender ode to his children, we hear Teen Daze at his most personal and vulnerable. The falling rain surrounds some absolutely breathtaking bass playing from Sam Wilkes, and Teen Daze’s signature ambient keyboard sounds.

Following on from Los Rayos Del Sol (2021) & the follow up Los Rayos In Dub (2022) NuNorthern Soul presents ‘Moonbeams’ by Ibiza based producer, per-cussionist and sunset selector, George Solar.

Inspired by nocturnal moods and illuminated by the moon in all its phases, this collection follows the vibrations of 'Los Rayos Del Sol.' It's a journey into night-time peace and harmony, embracing the moonlit atmosphere.

Eight cuts of cinematic electronic music from synthwriter OFFLINE. To follow this rainbow of silky sounds is to reach a point of no return, where the last person on Earth you'll be able to communicate with will be a 1970s synthesiser.

Geier aus Stahl is one of the many artistic guises of Leonard Prochazka. No superfluous elements take away from the core experience of his sound. Somewhere a statement from David Byrne crossed our path, able to highlight something of the essence of Leonard's art: “No matter how alienated the subject or the singer might appear, the groove and its connection to the body would provide solace and grounding. But the edgy, uncomfortable stuff was still on the foreground”. The debut album 'Strapazen und Genesung' takes us to an exciting world that twists, squeaks and creaks, yet is grounded by an unmistakable groove.

A double album of sumptuous, expansive downbeat luxury written by Pete Woosh - one half of the celebrated duo Digs & Woosh and Nottingham's DIY collective - with Andy Riley Toka Project, Inland Knights) during the illness which would eventually claim Pete's life. Given the background of its creation, it's a blissfully peaceful and optimistic sounding collection. The chilled disco/house hypnotism of 'Keep Yr Shape' and 'For Your Love', all slinky, hazy vocals and headnodding back room hedonism, are obvious highlights, but more reflective moments like 'Piano Fades' make this into a varied and enduring 'proper album' listen rather a mere collection of tracks. All profits will go to the Spirit Wrestlers foundation, founded in honour of Pete's memory and devoted to good causes in his hometown of Nottingham.

The first album of Maga is a sonic journey through different resonances. Fully recorded in Guadalajara, Resona is the combination of jazz and electronic influences.

Over the past two years, Mickael Agarla aka Maga visited Guadalajara several times to record different types of sounds and vibration. From the mystical trombon, to the edgy trumpet, and the low frequency Tuba as well as vocals and drums, Maga mixed these different sounds with an electronic edge.

Zapatilla, better known as Louis Hackett, is a founding member of Brownswood 's Owiny Sigoma Band and key collaborator on Eska's Mercury nominated debut album, but has a neat side hustle making house music with one foot in the gentle melodies of Balearic beat and another in the irresistible energy of Afrobeat. It's a recipe that he continues over onto this fine four tracker, which opens with the smoothly grooving but lively 'Like Dat' before 'Zimzimmer' builds up around a gently frenetic Afro guitar riff. On the flip, 'Disco Facial' is slower and more retro, with a synth line that could be from a lost John Carpenter soundtrack. 'Self Isolated' completes the package in its most esoteric fashion, another synth work rooted in the past, this time perhaps echoing the approachable experimentalism of Jean Jacques Perry.

Go Dugong is back on Hyperjazz Records! The new album "Meridies" is the result of his ongoing investigative work into traditional Apulian music from the south of Italy, inspired by his hometown, Taranto, and the phenomenon of the Tarantella - started with Trnt (2019, Hyperjazz). On a quest to push the boundaries of traditional Apulian music, Go Dugong’s research has allowed him to rethink and rework these musical traditions of his homeland, leading to the creation of a soundtrack for an imaginative and futuristic ensemble of peasants and farmers. In "Meridies" Go Dugong has collaborated with several musicians in order to combine traditional Apulian music with sounds and influences belonging to other Italian and Mediterranean regions, reinterpreting a genre that for many years has lived trapped in its canons.

France, 1990. Fun Radio, NRJ, Skyrock set a new pace, and their crushing hegemony irrevocably marks the end of the free radio utopia. The giants become vital in the hit industry and carry on fuelling France’s greatest invention: la variété. A quintessentially French version of British dance pop with a very specific tang to it, too coy to emulate trendy clubs’ and rave parties’ music, europop cautiously tests the waters of what will soon turn into a tsunami : house music. Is house the soundtrack of the 90s? In Europe, it gave steam to comeback bands just as much as to the most memorable formations of the decade, while in France it paved the way for the global success of French Touch. “Real” house music emerges in early 80’s Chicago (where the Warehouse club, which allegedly gave its name to the genre, closes down in 1983). England’s acid house and Belgium’s new beat, its European offshoots, fed the cravings of tabloids in 1988 and 1989. The house music we’re interested in though, the type bound to soon overwhelm European charts, is already pretty far away from the afro-american music born in Chicago. So far away it inherited a new name: dance music. Just like it had been the case with disco a few years back, house and techno aren’t exactly in the good books – acid house and new beat even less so. And it’s precisely the genre’s mainstream iteration this compilation focuses on; the house en français, which strives to get on board the running train in 1990. The house which sports the all-over jean look, bandana, cap, chewing gum, peugeot 205 complete with snazzy beats on the radio. The big deal big fuss type, miles away from the original, underground house. It might not have been born in the nineties, but that’s clearly when house music became mainstream. What underpins house music might even be what is to define the decade to come: jingles and pin’s, megaclubs and clips. That and the hits. Very soon house is everywhere: on the air of the big radio stations and on TV, creeping in as far as kids’ programs. The French may not even notice, but they’re all listening to it. Meanwhile, music producers smell the gravy and, willy-nilly with the earnest, enlightened amateurs, propose their very own club versions, cross breeding French variété and house. The result: a chart and club ready ersatz that is to quickly seduce young audiences. Hits, that’s what we want – or tubes for the French, like in House Tube, one of the landmarks of this compilation. The tracklist, like the soundtrack to a club night that never happened, fictitiously reconstructs the fleeting moment when house made its arrival in France, bridging the gap between variété and eurodance. House quiproquo House music barges in like a UFO on European land. With the arrival of this repetitive, yet transgressive music, tabloids freak out, while widespread incomprehension over the genre inspires dubious misconceptions. The media are happy to suckle on the music’s popularity, though well hidden behind the veil of decorum: NRJ airs a remake of a famous new beat track, Rock To The Beat, in which, however, “ecstasy” is swapped for “fantasy”. Dechavanne, thoughtful as usual, calls fans junkies and nazis on his tv show, Ciel Mon Mardi – though the show’s theme song is nothing else than a house track. The footage became a classic, and the comments, sampled by producers, provided the vocals for a flagship new beat track (Dr. Smiley – L’Echo Dechavanne). The Dechavanne episode is representative of the general confusion surrounding this barbarian music; skepticism remained high, even (if not more so?) in the musical world. In fact, it’s the subject of the unequivocal House Tube: “House tube, bouse tube ; on n’aime pas vraiment le house tube House soupe, bouse soupe ; on n’aime pas vraiment le house soupe” That is: “House hits, house shit; we don’t really dig house hits House soup, shit soup; we don’t really dig house soup” The success of house music inspired many exasperated reactions, just like House Tube (the B-side of a deodorant ad’s theme). Laurent Castellvi, surprised that the joke-track he composed at the time still sparked interest, told us: “At the beginning of the nineties, house was all over the radio. It annoyed me a little that most tracks were based on the same two chords. House Tube is a joke, it’s me sitting at the piano playing two chords. And that’s what the lyrics say.” On the other hand and following up with the next track, Fred de Fred was clearly in the know. The Frenchman had moved to the epicentre of the English commotion, Sheffield, a few years prior to the arrival of house. That’s where Warp (Autechre, Aphex Twin) originated – and at the time Warp still went by the name FON, Fred already hung around in their studios. Robert Gordon, Fred’s pal and co-founder of the label, signs the remix of one of his 1989 tracks, Sous Sous. In 1991, he composes a record of songs, and when it comes to pairing a suitable club remix single, Fred knows what’s up. Je T’Aime En Amour, sleek rock, mutates into a syncretism of french chanson and nearly rave breakbeat (here provided in its “2020” version). Fred de Fred is exemplary of the variété-club crossover driving this record; his career started within the collective ZNR, he crossed paths with the likes of Alain Bashung and then the Stone Roses, was close to Warp, and ended up signing a record on Barclay. Studio sharks Electronic musicians are often referred to as “producers”. This emanates from the delimitation of roles in the making of recorded music, traditionally assigned as singer, songwriter and producer. The latter takes care of the recording per se; that is, he manages the project, rents the studio, hires the musicians (known as requins de studio – studio sharks – for accumulating studio sessions) and cashes in at the end. The artist in electronic music is the producer alone, who essentially combines all roles at once: totally autonomous in his home studio, he can do without musicians or singers. The moment we’re interested in is this transitory period in which the two types of producers coexist. On the one hand, the new producers, like Fred Rister with Everybody Dancing, who recorded in a shack on a 4-track recorder, according to the sound engineer. On the other, the revival of old brigade producers, always on the lookout for a hot deal. The producer behind Près De Toi is of the latter type – pursuing a long musical career though quick to forget Claire-An (and so did posterity). New beat’s heritage isn’t negligible : its pioneers fashioned the “new generation” producer formula, a one-man-band in his machine-filled home studio. They’re also the first to churn out major hits, hitting the floor of a few Belgian clubs and eventually making it to the European top 50. What seems like mad creative abundance (hundreds of tracks between 1987 and 1989) is in fact the work of a handful of Belgian producers, barely ten, hidden behind multiple aliases. Among them, Marc Neuttiens, Jack Mauer and Fabian Van Messen, who often work as a trio and produce some of the genre’s most iconic tracks. In the midst of which On Se Calme, produced under the name Bassline Boys, sampling none other than Christophe Dechavanne. It’s no coincidence then that Anne Zamberlan should knock on their door with in mind the idea of an antidrug track. She wants to make noise, they know how to make a hit. And the track has it all: proto-acid gimmicks, big beat, house piano, verses rapped with a hiphouse flow… It might have been great, but even a Virgin Megastore ad she appeared in two years later got her more success. À la folie, je danse This tale is also the one of the pioneers who brought house music to France, first on the radio, well before rave parties or Laurent Garnier’s nights in Paris. As soon as the early eighties, Robert Levy Provençal plays the edits of the young Dimitri from Paris on the airwaves of Radio 7. At the time they’re unusual: like one would use samples in hip hop, Dimitri loops soul, funk and disco tracks, creating extended mixes. He breaks down tracks, reducing them to a gimmick or a bass line, thus creating easy-to-mix tools for DJs and bringing them closer to the sounds of house and techno music. He soon becomes resident DJ on NRJ and hosts the popular show Hot Mix. Like his colleague RLP, Dimitri proposes a trailblazing selection, blending together French news and the odd new sound from the States. At the turn of the nineties, when europop wants in at the club, only these influencers master the dance side of things. There’s RLP, Bibi Fricotin, Dom T… And Dimitri, who becomes the assigned variété remixer, adapting dozens of songs that were never meant to make it into a club. The general tendency however is less to official remixes than to bootlegs: a “pirate”, unauthorised and often private remix – just like Jacques Dutronc’s Opium, stretched out into a nearly 7-minute-long mix. The nineties also set the stage for the first TV stars, the ones who become famous without anyone really knowing why. Take, say, Jordy, four years old. The kid, in his diapers, sings along a New York style, house piano production and somehow makes it to the top 50’s number 1. For years, Jordy plays out the role of the child star and demonstrates that dance music is a perfectly profitable affair: it fuels the radios turned juggernauts, and lands on TV, seeping through music programs… In 1989, Vincent Lagaf (a famous french TV host) dives in with Bo Le Lavabo. The pitch is simple: the TV host adapts a track well known overseas, Lil Louis’ French Kiss (without any direct reference), simply adding lyrics taken from a sketch. He’s rather clear on his intentions (“Well, that’s just how you make it to the top 50”) and has no mercy for a musical genre he clearly understands nothing about (“See? Easy.”). Single night stars The club is a democratic place where anyone can be a star for a night (a nineties remix of Andy Warhol’s famous saying, meaning to imply: never has fame been so near, yet so far). The ghost of stardom haunts all of these forgotten tracks… This is particularly true in the case of Techno 90, Fred Rister’s first band. The DJ hailing from Northern France takes part in the short-lived though seminal Maxximum radio and mixes everywhere on both sides of the Belgian border, quickly becoming a local celebrity. At the turn of the century, he starts collaborating with David Guetta – another DJ, slightly better known than Rister and a rising star of the Parisian club scene. Together they eventually co-sign a few global hits: Love Is Gone, When Love Takes Over, I Gotta Feeling. This tale is the story of French variété’s unforeseen encounter with the avant-garde, of DJs who rose to the status of pop stars and others who descended deep into the rave party scene. It’s all of these oddities our compilation seeks to recount, like a wacky TV show featuring anonymous stars, forgotten ghosts of a decade bygone (Jacques Dutronc, Jean-Francois Maurice) or yet to come (David Guetta), inspired though unlucky blokes plus a girl band. And somewhere in the shambles, the tracklist of our compilation, the B-side of dance music’s official story – what could have been France’s alternative hit machine.

A brand new album by Daniel Grau! When Daniel Grau, Venezuelan producer and musician, achieved his first success in 1974 with “Dejando volar el pensamiento” he personally brought the tapes from his home studio to Caracas radio stations. On his own, with all his singles, great legendary songs like “El tren del espacio” (1978), “Atlantis” (1979) and “El León Bailarín” (1980), to name a few, described by many as the “magic sound of Daniel Grau” were made almost artisanal and self-promoted. Through 10 years of productive work from 1974 to 1984, he never imagined the ups and downs ahead of him and much less that his country would suffer a future debacle that would lead it to a downward spiral. His abrupt silence in the mid-80s after 9 magnificent albums is still an enigma. What happened to Daniel Grau? Where is he now? El Palmas Music, a new record label in Barcelona may finally bring the answer to you: Grau has been always there, he’s still alive and running, and never stopped composing in the same home studio where he started 45 years ago.

Having contacted Grau, El Palmas was allowed to access his current work, and finally decided to end with his long silence. In this, his first release as a record label, they bring to life a completely unpublished work of Daniel Grau. “El Mágico Mundo de Daniel Grau” (2019) presents 8 new songs to give him back a voice. This album offers a fusion between Space Disco and Smooth Jazz that connects us directly with his previous work, however, on this basis Grau is building an amalgam of styles resulting from his experience over these years, freeing his work from any classifications. El Mágico Mundo evades the vacuous exactitude and automatism like water to oil, Grau offers a humanized sound from synthesizers and sampling of instruments, music that he has played, sweated and, definitively, lived in the flesh. Different ingredients come and go introducing us to a singular world, the “magical world” where Grau wants to tell us something, we find his old footsteps and his new elements touch us, pop synths are suddenly colored with textures, reminiscent of the disco era piano are wrapped between brushstrokes and ornaments of funk and soft rock. In general, Grau invites us to a sensory reconnection with sounds that he has collected in his head for 30 years, striking elements that we can imagine as a living thing against a world almost numbed by the automation of production tools. The album is released in vinyl LP and has been produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Daniel Grau under the executive production of Maurice Aymard.
Two singles are extracted from the album whose sounds summarize this proposal immediately. ‘Freedom’, the first cut, is a sensorial journey in smooth jazz where a delicate progression of chords serves as the basis for the succession of different phrases of synthesizers, an almost libertine hedonism from start to finish that features a video made by Grilled Cheese Studio. The second one ‘Dance with me’, opens the doors to a world of disco music, but in the Grau way, oneiric, synthesized, spacey, located in a crack between decades, 80’s and 90’s, synth imaginings of funky brass, pianos and strings apparently made for dance floors that dialogue with reverberant guitars and sampler textures.
El Palmas Music in this inaugural release wants to return Daniel Grau to music, allowing him to continue offering us new sensory experiences, as long as time permits. Although it is his first record after years of silence, Grau shows us that he has never been exactly still, nothing is further from reality, he is active and his challenging personality is intact.

Stump Valley now pop up on Dekmantel. The committed Berlin based studio outfit head into new areas after their previous work on Uzuri, Off Minor, Dopeness Galore and No 'Label ( that already had them jumping around styles and influences).
The label say "Stylistic, enigmatic, and effortless. Stump Valley’s Dekmantel debut EP is a smooth melange of glossy soul, jazz, and serene house. Produced by the mysterious, and ultimately under-the-radar duo, the extended EP breezes through tropes of balearic analogue, warm Chicago sounds, yet remaining ultimately Italian. The duo, originally from Turin, prove their skills as true alchemists, as their forge hypnotic house and tropical flare through their array of drum machines, synths, and informed artistry derived from their deep stockpile of assorted records.
Debuting they may be, but the Italian duo are no strangers to Dekmantel, having played at Dekmantel Festival, Selectors, and Lente Kabinet. Having released groove tracks across a whole spectrum of labels, Stump Valley’s reputation even precedes them. Throughout the EP, their sound echoes that of Prins Thomas, Larry Heard, and other select funk-driven Italian live producers that are making waves in the current scene. It’s a sound that’s permanently upbeat, radiant, and filled with joy.
Berlin based vocalist and Max Graef collaborator Wayne Snow collaborates on vocal opener 'Natural Race', creating a slow groove, and funk-driven tempo. The music then veers into equatorial territory, as the duos' uses of classic 707 and LinnDrum sounds evoke a sense of sunset grooves; the sound of Theo Parrish slowly winding through an Adriatic cocktail party. Further on and 'Proletarians In Space' reflects the producers' more Detroit-like influences, with oscillating machine music. 'Zoo Planet X' takes the sound further, with dubby pads, and old-school kicks and hats, that transport the Turin-based artists across the Atlantic with their out-of-time sonic aesthetic."

Île Flottante is Mr. Beatnick´s 5th album, following 2023’s Joy In Variation (including the notorious cover of Love on a Real Train) and his well-received off-beat collaboration with London-based avant-garde agitator Richard Greenan – Coasty – this is his first contribution to the International Feel trademark. Probably best known for some big deep house revivalist tunes circa 2013 on the now dormant Don’t Be Afraid record label, Beatnick now converts that aural quality and dimensionality into the Balearic system. Île Flottante takes its name from the tastiest French pudding of Mr. Beatnick’s childhood holidays. The name, also a jeux de mots - floating island - hinting at the album’s inspirations and sense of identity, as a danceable soundtrack to a fictional island. Explored with high intensity and over a yearlong process, the sounds of the well-worn, but never failing Balearic universes were a mind expanding influence. Think of genre staples like Software, Manuel Goettsching, Mark Barrott, Len Leise, Don Carlos, Gaussian Curve, Joan Bibiloni or Yasuaki Shimuzu. „I spent a year listening to a lot of synthesized island music, and marveling at the many twinkling wonders of the Balearic musical universe. Struck by a sense of belonging that had often eluded me on my musical journey thus far, as the weirdo at the back of the club who had orbited many scenes for 20 years, but never felt like I fitted in, I found music that made me feel like I had come home. The songs that came out of this process are presented in the order that they were written - an open book of ocean hymns, honest and spoken from the heart.“ Île Flottante tries its very hardest to avoid being any one thing in particular. At one point, it is a gentle beach walk accompanied by polyrhythmic drum plod and flourishes of Guzheng. At another, the infamous James Yancey septuplet swing is repurposed against a marimba melody that wouldn’t be out of place in one of Link’s forest adventures. Elsewhere, there are the bellows of distant whales, touches of Italian dream house and a splash of vintage madchester, all working to create a space that feels both familiar and loaded with well worn tropes, but with its own quirky sense of personality, facets which are often attributed to Mr. Beatnick’s holistic b-boy approach. This is his understanding of a Balearic (b-boy) stance. Just with a float instead of a freeze.

Especial welcomes new artist DJ 1985 to the label. As so often, the idea of pushing new music has been the raison d'etre of the past decade. An EP of a love for Acid, from the breaks anthem of the title We Trippin’ to exploring the ethereal and even mind-melting Ambient House and Balearic of how the Roland Tb-303 has become a fundamental element in the history of electronic music. Soviet born; Belgrade exile Stanislav Grishchuk is DJ 1985. A man of many monikers, came to House later, originally progressing from Breaks, Hardcore and onto Drum and Bass as DJ Saint Man, a Mixmaster in the truest sense, switching it up to include Ghetto House and Booty, DJing led to producing, finally seeing DJ 1985 emerged to encompass Acid, Bleep, Breakbeat, Chicago and beyond. A DJ supreme from the old school – check his Boiler Room mix for live vinyl dexterity – his productions nod to Aphex Twin and the Rephlex / UK lineage, the Techno. Electro of masters Underground Resistance and Drexciya and on to Italo, Italian House and early 90s New Jersey and New York’s golden period and of course the masters Kraftwerk, all influence the sounds of this debut EP. Starting as 808 and 909 Electro and Techno jams, all the tracks are recorded live, MPC, synth and drum machines, no computers involved. We Trippin’ is built around the “Think” break, with trippy 303 line, some 808, synths and off we go “we trippin”. Dolphin and Sirens was inspired by the Boka Bay dolphins of Montenegro, near where the recording was made. A flotation bath of warm dreamy acid beats and aquatic found sound, fast, shifting breaks, the Adriatic Sea of Croatia and beyond beckoning. Catland’s title is a nod to Stanislav’s love of all the feline, but the breaks’n’303 cut is an endlessly uplifting spark, celestial, a cosmic evolutionary odyssey. DJ 1985 completes his debut EP with the aptly titled The Last One. Spherular, mysterious, this rise of spatial breaks is a reawakening of symbolic music that is touched by both East and West. Stanislav’s music intersects, trans-national, almost spiritual and psychedelic. Live jamming, more hearted, the snap electro percussion, dream-laden pads are twinned with an ethereal otherness via the endless possibilities of the Tb-303.

Leya Touch & soFa elsewhere aka Dream Baby Dream combine their left-of-centre musical perspectives on an otherworldly new self-titled album that arrives on Hell Yeah this September and will get a Japanese domestic release on CD. The duo's beguiling mix of occult synths and treated vocals ride dubbed-out mid-tempo rhythms on a retro-futurist record that blends cold wave, cosmic disco, dub and trance.

Dream Baby Dream describes themselves as 'two children who refused to grow up' and now they offer a glimpse into their very own fantastic land of dreams. This journey into diverse flavours spontaneously started after a cosy dinner and after just three sessions resulted in the album presented here. Playful yet sometimes gloomy, this music echoes life, both imaginary and real - the highs, the lows, the dark moments and the joy, trance-inducted love zones, daydreams and everything in between. It is a coherent hole but one filled with surprising turns, moments of deja vu and plenty of outsider dance floor delights.

Leya Touch is a rising voice and live act on the Brussels alternative scene. Together with soFa, a veteran DJ and producer who released on many forward-thinking labels worldwide, they provide signature vocals and synths that challenge typical genre categorisations.

Opener 'Love Zone' sets a strangely seductive basic channel vs dreamy pop vibe with wispy cosmic melodies and oodles of echoes as Touch's vocals draw you in. Lose limbed percussive jumbled and sci-fi motifs define 'Badalamenti On Fries', 'Curry Con Sax' has an avant-guard sense of soul and melodic curiousness and 'Diskoteka' is a jittery mix of retro synth sounds and whispered vocal coos that shimmer like stars in the night sky. Elsewhere there's the malfunctioning Kraftwerkian electronics of 'Körperkonsum', goa-filter madness of 'Banana Trance' and the eerie interplanetary dub of 'Carpenter On The Beach' while 'Whale Rider' and 'The Rude Red Lady' bring warped lines and enchanting vocalisations that sound like nothing you have heard before.

This is an exultant album of new musical rituals, tiny soundscapes, dehumanised words and combinations of the past, present and future that never fail to excite and intrigue.

oogielicious Synth Pop made in Napoli! "Acqua Di Sale" is the first mini-album of the mysterious Rosa. Recorded at the West Hill Studio, this is the umpteenth creation of the well known Neapolitan production team which inaugurates the "Pegaso Series" on Periodica Records.

"A deserted beach and a rendezvous at the bar, with waves crashing gently in the distance and wine glasses catching the last rays of the setting sun. The seductive panorama of Posillipo unfolds before the eyes, evoking the charms of a photo-novella, though something mysterious lurks in the emerging dark, leading to unavoidable questions and temptations of the soul. This is the Napoli of the heart…no longer a physical manifestation, but instead, a stage for clandestine encounters and forbidden desires, where the most vivid emotions take the form of notes on the staff."

Glasgow based Seated Records return with more 1980s Scottish Post-Punk / New Wave material. In this 8-track mini compilation the label introduces the work of Stirling band 22 Beaches, offering a deep dive into music recorded between 1980-1984 - the majority of which has never seen the light of day! 22 Beaches formed in Stirling in the late 1970s as an evolution of the short lived group ‘Alone at Last’ - drummer Fred Parson’s and guitarist Stephen Hunter being the two who spanned the divide. Out of the six members of 22 Beaches, many were school friends, and the rest naturally fell together. The band toured extensively and played at a truly diverse set of venues across the UK: from a local swimming pool boiler room, to small nightclubs and university parties, to several fundraisers for the miners strike. Maybe most notably of all, drummer Fred Parsons described playing at what he calls “the Grangemouth International”, organised by local promoter Brian Guthrie and which featured an all-star lineup of 22 Beaches, The Exploited and the first incarnation of The Cocteau Twins. A coach was hired to ship the audience to Grangemouth from Stirling, the cost of which was included in the ticket. The gig then paused halfway through for a 'help yourself' buffet. Young promoters take heed. This is how it's done! Over the course of the 80s the band released music on three different, and now sought after, various artists compilation cassettes. “What Day Is It?” and “Sadie When She Died” were released on a compilation of local Stirling artists 'The A.N.K.L.E File'. The track from which the current record takes its namesake - “Dust” - was initially released on a compilation-tape for the fanzine 'Another Spark'. And ‘‘Zoo” (also featured on this record) was first released on Glasgow label Pleasantly Surprised via compilation, 'An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds', where 22 Beaches rubbed shoulders with early music from Scottish names Primal Scream, Cocteau Twins, The Wake and Sunset Gun. Unfortunately, 22 Beaches never met the same level of commercial success as these others and decided to retire the project in 1984 - leaving their recordings and demos to gather dust (hehe)…until now! This compilation, “Dust: recordings 1980-1984” follows the band's journey and the changes in their sound over the years. It moves from the raw, punk energy of early DIY recordings through to the A Certain Ratio style Balearica of their later pieces. The record's opener and title track “Dust” is perhaps the most shining example of the latter. Characterised by the plenitude of sonic space in the mix, “Dust” has an almost dub sensibility that is communicated through centrality of Parsons’ drums, McChord’s percussion, and Fildes’ Bass while the harmonising vocals of Sharkey and McGregor chant over the top to give the track its distinctive psychedelic edge. This is an atmosphere only exacerbated by the lofi quality of the recording which sits the vocals in the same aural realm as much 1960s psych-folk. On “Cartoon Boy”, the band strips things down further. A droning bass line persists through the tape fuzz and is accompanied by the sounds of a sole looping guitar chord sequence and McGregor and Sharkey’s vocals - respectively and carefully dancing around one another before harmonising in the most beautiful way. The result is a haunting and abstract Marine Girls style heartbreaker. ‘That Girl’ again delivers a dub adjacent rhythm section similar to that of “Dust”. However, on this instance crisp guitar chords, a distant, phased organ and blue-eyed soul vocal delivery, produce a track that could easily have been a lost Orange Juice recording from their sessions with Dennis Bovel. On “Somebody Got It Wrong” and “One Of Us” the band employ a more macro approach where a jangling guitar with an almost highlife-influenced tone, vocal ad-libs and syncopated percussion give the music a Talking Heads-esque swagger. Taken together these tracks illustrate a clear trajectory in the band's sound, moving from from the high energy no-wave quality of early recordings towards a more dub influenced, and stripped-back sound - a sonic trajectory followed by so many bands of the time, not least those emerging from the diaspora of Manchester’s Factory Records. On “Breathing’’ we hear the beginning of this transition, with the strong influence of the oddball NYC disco styles of Was (Not Was) and ZE records. All of this is meshed together with the residual punk rock energy of 1980s UK. This combination is employed to excellent effect with the addition of the distinctly Scottish (and what the band confirmed to me to be spontaneous) vocal delivery of: “Do you love me? Do you want me?” “Aye!” “Do you love me? Do you need me?” “Naw!”. On the record’s closing tracks, “Zoo” and “Talent Show”, we hear early examples of the band’s work, playing with their rawest all-in-one-take live energy where Hunter’s spiralling guitar riffs and McGregor's distorted vocal exclamations lead the charge. The band recalls that these initial-forays did not always translate so well into multitrack recording and overdubbing: “the deconstruction took away some of the band's natural feel”. On “Talent Show” the record ends with Sharkey delivering an almost unintelligible spoken word section over the top of the track, making for one final, disorientating, almost manic slice of post-punk. These tracks from 1980-1984 chart the progress of a unique contribution to the world of Scottish Post-Punk and New Wave, encapsulating not only the musical trajectory of 22 Beaches but also echoing the broader sonic landscape of 1980s UK, a testament to the adaptability and creativity of the UK’s underground music of the time.

Invisible Inc once again presents another incredible full-length album from the talented Double Geography. Following on from 2020's “The Indoor Gardener”, the new LP “Open Water” is bathed in a similar blissful atmosphere...it would be appropriate to describe it as rather sublime.

Double Geography aka Duncan Thornley (one half of Weird Weather and studio engineer at MAP Studios), following the success of his debut album “The Indoor Gardener” (also on Invisible Inc) had sent Invisible Inc label boss GK Machine demos of his second and third album, which the label reluctantly declined on the basis that the music didn't sound quite right for the label. However, this fourth studio album fits the bill perfectly. Leaning towards the label's more ambient and laidback output, the album is themed around water, moving on and escape and sounds as unshackled and free-flowing as you'd expect...you can almost feel the breeze in the air and the sun on your skin.

The album is a progression from his previous releases, this time featuring several additional guest musicians, including stalwarts of the London jazz scene Greg Foat and Kaidi Akinnibi, to compliment Thornley's electronics...adding a complexity and depth to each of these compositions and an overall 'organic' quality that makes these new pieces sound like quite a departure from the first album. Fretless bass, clarinet, piano and saxophone decorate the music with refrains and melodies that have been enchanting our reveries since first hearing them.

“I wanted to incorporate some live musicians on this release so called upon some of the talent I'd worked with as an engineer at MAP Studios...that was the main drive behind the music for this release. The tracks are named after things that relate to either leaving behind canal boat living, e.g. Goodbye Great Escape (Great Escape was the name of our boat) or memories from a trip to Hydra, Greece. All sorta water related… On one of our walks around the island we ended up sharing a beach with Pierluigi Collina hence Famous Italian Referee! That track felt like the weirdest of the bunch so it got designated the weirdest name / memory!” (Duncan Thornley, March 2024)

Duncan Thornley - synthesizers, programming, percussion Adam Hayes - drum kit, roto-toms (A1, A3, A5) Pike Ogilvy - congas (A2, A3) Jasper Osbourne - fretless bass (A1, A3, A5) Kaidi Akinnibi - tenor and soprano saxophones (A1, A5) Simeon May - bass clarinet (A2, A3, B2, B4) Greg Foat - piano (b1)

Recorded and mixed at MAP Studios, London Mastered by James Savage at Milk Mastering Cyanotype photography by Lydia Dique Sleeve layout and design by Gordon Mackinnon