Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Sale 117 Items

(2xLP, printed innersleeves, sticker sheet) nit is the genius underdog of the current French chanson scene. After playing along with Sébastien Tellier or Juliette Armanet (a huge success in France), after remixing Phoenix, Myd, Dita Von Teese, Cola Boyy, Tony Allen or Jane Birkin, here he comes with his debut album. The balearic sound is always a big nit influence, feel good electronics & lush acoustic chords.

Spotted by French label Record Makers (Sébastien Tellier, Kavinsky, AIR, Cola Boyy) with his 2017 “Dessous de plage” first EP, nit has since grown from funky DIY library music to a lush and complex groovy sound. The magic of this debut album “Big Bang Puzzle” is a keen sense of composition and an innate affinity for 90’s European electronica.

It’s a playful album, the work of an artist at the peak of his craft, determined to twist styles and references (Daft Punk, Ennio Morricone, Robert Miles, Vangelis...) in order to give them a new form.

“Big Bang Puzzle” is a tangle of psychedelic and cartoon-esque pieces, an abstract modernist painting of sounds inspired by vintage pop music. The cover, created by Swiss artist Flora Mottini, offers a first glimpse of his brand new universe.

But it’s also by collaborating with French iconic design studio H5 that nit suddenly enters the French Touch genealogy. nit takes the shape of an n that grows legs and arms to become a cheeky cartoon character traveling through a real space-time continuum. Parisian H5 studio has been involved since the end of the ‘90s in the design of strong visual concepts for French Touch’s elite (Etienne de Crécy, AIR, Mirwais). French music at its best from which nit is a direct descendant. And one who expands and opens even further: pop, italo-disco, trip-hop impulses, Morriconian cavalcades, lo-fi aesthetics, Caribbean music. Producer and mixer Lucien Krampf (Oklou, Ascendant Vierge, Casual Gabberz, Crystallmess) was the person in charge of mixing this ambitious record.

nit is both a question and an answer, and a musical enigma that pushes us to explore the far reaches of our imagination…

Rodion-Ladislau Rosca spent his lifetime creating music that was ambitious, groundbreaking and innovative. He was a pioneering composer, a talented multi-instrumentalist and producer. He pushed musical boundaries to their limits. This he did as a solo artist and with his group Rodion G.A.

Handmade sleeve. Limited Edition LP.

Label Text "sophomore release from Toronto dream-duo Joseph Shabason and Ben Gunning, this time a more cosmopolitan affair, mapping fragmented cityscapes from bent electronics and late-night FM jazz transmissions. The boys are back in town. After recording their debut in a remote cottage in Northern Ontario, the duo relocated their jams to Shabason’s Toronto studio where they gained unlimited access to a virtual cornucopia of analog and digital gear and had the time to really push those instruments to the brink. In the crisp autumnal sessions the duo consciously set out to make Ample Habitat with a fresh slate; not a single melody or patch was smuggled in on a USB stick. Fuelled with off-brand club soda, the ethos was to infuse the sessions and the music itself with a sense of discovery. Another perk of the new locale was being closer to friends and neighbours; TO music-scene luminaries Kieran Adams, Bram Gielen, and Thom Gill dropped in, rounding out a full jam band for the convivial B-side surprise “Is Jubilee.” Although the album calls on a wild menagerie of digital voices, the heart is warm and human, favouring performance and play over presets and quantization. "

Dresden 7inch label Copyshop releases their first long player by sound magician Bronko Taubenheim recorded between 2020 and 2023. Utterly ltd to only 279 copies. Comes with silk screen printed artwork.

Ruutu Poiss with his second album “ii” after his 2021’s debut full length “Palav Aed“, a welcome return to Wake Dream. Recorded in a concentrated period of time during the dark winter days of late 2022 and early 2023, “ii” now finds it’s way to the public’s ears in the brighter days of the year.

An album as conceptual as it is emotional, with feelings of transformation and dreaming, hope and arrival, and an aesthetic that is both cinematic and hypnagogic, nostalgic and futuristic, it turns contradictions into harmonies, brings together the dark and the light, spinning and whirling freely around a steady core.

Recorded mainly with one synth and a collection of old drumcomputers, Ruutu Poiss once again shows his futuristic sonic virtuosity within the boundaries of a compact studio setup.

Featuring: Deena Abdelwahed, Rabih Beaini, Fari Bradley, Dieb 13, DJ Sniff, Gavsborg (Equiknoxx), Electric Indigo, Donzilla Lion (Nyege Nyege), Marina Rosenfeld, Microhm, Muqata’a, Bob Ostertag, Rrose

Project presentation:

Sampler / Sampled is an album made of two interdependent parts rather than a double-album.

The first part of the project, Sampler, is a trumpet solo album that catalogues the unique sounds and extended techniques that Mazen Kerbaj developed for the instrument in the past 25 years; it consists of 318 pieces ranging from less than a second to forty seconds each, and presenting different sonic materials. This catalogue of sounds works on various levels: first and foremost, it is a trumpet solo that could be played in its original order, or in random mode to create different pieces of music. But it is also a collection of samples that could be used for various applications (ringtones, phone sound effects, cinema…) and, of course, to create new pieces of music based on sampling.

The second part of the project is the composition Sampled for a musician working with loops and/or samples. The composition has one instruction: create a piece of music using solely tracks from Sampler as your sound source (with the possibility to use all kind of effects or treatment). Each interpreter/musician becomes thus a co-composer who appropriates the piece and makes it their own. In this regard, the musicians that were commissioned to play Sampled were chosen from different geographical origins and musical genres to create highly different and personal pieces of music.

One important output of this project is putting in practice the overused idea of music as a universal language. This idea is very present in “free improvised music” where musicians from different origins can meet for the first time and make music together without the need to adapt to different musical traditions. But here, the collective part of creating music in real time is not involved. It is rather the contrary: it starts with one middle-eastern musician creating a new language/vocabulary for his western instrument, to be later used by other musicians from around the globe who will appropriate this vocabulary and use it with their own language/grammar. The final output of this double faceted album that was recorded during the Covid lockdown proved to be a very efficient new way to collaborate from a distance in times of world isolation, and ultimately put in practice the universality of music by breaking the boundaries of genres that are the most difficult to break.

Intersection of The Wyrding Module and Salford Electronics. Full wingspan hi-fi wide screen sound design, synthetic down tempo, and dirty Mancunian street breaks. The Killing Zoe of rave ambience.

Vancouver-based vocalist Laucan makes a captivating entrance onto the Astral Black stage with his inaugural LP, 'Lorcan.' Partnering with the accomplished producer Samuel Organ, renowned for his recent collaborations with musical luminaries like Caroline Polachek, Shygirl, Sega Bodega, and others, the album is a sonic journey through the realms of ethereal folk and avant-garde electronica. Samuel Organ, the executive producer behind the entire project, brings his expertise to the forefront, drawing inspiration from his role as the chief practitioner at Northamptonshire’s Nene Valley Sonic Research Centre. His specialization in ethnosonic-archaeology is evident throughout the LP, as he skillfully documents and restores found audio, transforming them into the primary source material for the album's mesmerizing productions. The opening track, 'Aignish On The Machiar,' perfectly exemplifies Organ's unique approach. Laucan's vocals harmonize seamlessly with one of the earliest recordings of the traditional folk classic, showcasing the projects intricate blend of past and present. The album weaves through a diverse tapestry of musical moments, from 'Keeping My Head Down,' where Laucan's vocals shine against Samuel Organ's acoustic guitar, layered atop field recordings from the Nvsrc project, to the sun-soaked 4x4 track 'The Chalk,' which draws inspiration from both the worlds of traditional folk and modern electronic music. In tracks like 'Future Musings' and 'Cyren,' Samuel Organ takes the reins with his electronic-infused production, offering listeners a glimpse into the folk-infused avant-garde electro that defines his distinctive style. Lorcan is available on 12” vinyl, with full colour sleeve designed by Kerrie IRL - limited to 100 copies worldwide.

An edit-reissue of this gargantuan double cassette released back in 2014 under the Typhonian Highlife moniker, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' finds netherworld voyagerSpencer Clark at a particularlybeguiling conjunction of his labyrinthine-esque soundworld. With complete disregard for linear timelines and trajectories, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' finds both inspiration in the swiss master's vision and the Cenobite iconographypreviously exploredby Clark on Fourth World Magazine's 'Pinhead in Fantasia'. The CD Head Cenobite picture adorning the cover makes the connection more than apparent.

A sprawling, two and half hour excursion on the tape version, here properly edited down to the wax container, the first two volumes of 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' are some of Clark's most mystifying recordings. A baroque odyssey through an hermetic maze of alien voices, warping sound effects, oneiric keyboards and a quasi-orchestral sense of space and dynamics, 'H.R. Giger's Studiolo' feels like an hallucinatory fever dream still unlike everything else, either from before or after. Time doesn't apply here, anyway.

At Voyager we like to push the boundaries and tell a story with the music. Mike has done this in his own style with an enormous vision of the Voyager spacecraft missions. Each track gives its own take on the journey of spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, with a story board for each track contained inside this limited edition press. Netherlands native Mike is no stranger to conceptual sci fi music, with numerous releases and albums on Axis Records, plus EP releases on Warm Up Recordings and Modularz to name but a few. Mostly all his tracks are written live in one take, with no recall. This makes his music very unique in the digital DAW age.

The first vinyl reissue of Hiroki Ishiguro's masterpiece "koh Maiton", which has been gaining attention from diggers and collectors in recent years after being featured on the groundbreaking compilation album "Heisei no Oto: Japanese Left-Field Pop From the CD Age (1989-1996)" from one of the most renowned label "Music From Memory". Hiroki Ishiguro is a Tokyo-based pianist, synthesizer player, and composer born in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, who has composed and produced numerous studio and support musicians, videos, and event music. This is the first ever analog release of his second solo album, "koh Maiton", released in 1993, while the song "Unity" was also picked up for the aforementioned "Heisei No Oto" and was highly sought after in the context of the New Age revival and beyond. The album was created during a stay on Ko Mai Thon, a small island near Phuket, Thailand, and includes a total of 10 melodic and poetic songs, including "eternal", reminiscent of nostalgic video game music from the early 2000s, "Unity", a gem of city jazz that reflects a sophisticated urban nightscape, and "epilogue", a new age fusion number with an ethereal and transparent feel that echoes the world of Ken Muramatsu's "+blue". This is a must-listen album recommended to a wide range of listeners, from city pop to fusion to new age / ambient fans!!

We're thrilled to unveil 'A Soundtrack for Strange Times', a special 4x12" album, the latest masterpiece by electronic maestro Horror Inc., marking his return after a decade-long hiatus. His previous tour de force was featured on the legendary Perlon label, and with this release, the anticipation built over 10 years has come to a triumphant end.

“I first composed this music for myself as an adjunct to meditation, Tai Chi, and bodywork, and as music to play in the background of life, to replace the everyday cacophony with new and ordered sounds of an unpredictable nature. New sounds freed from preconception. …over time, friends who heard the music asked if I could make them copies. I then wrote two more pieces with the same intent: to relax the body, mind, and spirit and facilitate meditation.” - Lou Reed

Lou Reed’s final solo album, Hudson River Wind Meditations, is one of his most personal musical works, combining Reed's love of creating drone music with his passion for Tai Chi, yoga, and meditation. The album's ambient soundscapes have been described as a counterpoint to his intense Metal Machine Music album—but they are similar outliers in Reed's 40+ year exploration of drone music and feedback harmonics. It's for a certain time and place of mind.

The album has been remastered by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin with vinyl pressed at Record Technology Inc. (RTI). The Double LP and CD releases are designed by GRAMMY®-winning artist, Masaki Koike and feature new liner notes by renowned Yoga instructor and author, Eddie Stern, who guided Reed’s practice for years. Also included in the physical editions is a fascinating conversation between author/journalist Jonathan Cott (Rolling Stone, The New Yorker) and Reed’s wife, artist Laurie Anderson, who discusses the album, as well as her husband’s devotion to Tai Chi – one of the album’s primary inspirations.

Hudson River Wind Meditations marks the latest release in LITA’s Lou Reed Archival Series. Launched in 2022 in tandem with the late artist’s 80th birthday, the ongoing series has celebrated one of America’s most influential songwriters through such acclaimed collections as Words & Music, May 1965 featuring many of Reed’s earliest (and previously-unreleased) recordings, including the earliest-known versions of “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Pale Blue Eyes.”

House of Mythology proudly presents the official release of Ulver’s monumental Grieghallen concert from the 2018 Bergen International Festival.

Grieghallen 20180528 documents the pinnacle of Ulver’s 2017–2018 touring cycle, following the release of their landmark album The Assassination of Julius Caesar. A massive explosion of sound and light went off in Bergen that night, leaving the baffled audience floating somewhere between pleasure and fear.

Professionally multitracked by the Bright AS stage tech team, Kristoffer Rygg and Anders Møller were asked to mix the tracks for the 2020 “streaming edition” of the same festival. After having circulated as a YouTube bootleg, it is now being made official partly due to popular demand, and partly because we think of it as a magnificent companion piece to the studio version of Caesar – showing Ulver at the height of their live game.

First vinyl issue for this 2023 release with bonus track not available on CD.

Nine majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue.

Born of a conversation centered on the notion of “rich sources” as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The timbre of the instrument and spatial fluctuations of room tone infuse the music with a subdued, sacred feel, like vaulted light in a nave of stained glass. They describe the album as “an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion,” sifting the swells and drones of the organ for every shivering shade of radiance.

The tracks are named for the hue each piece suggests – from the gauzy levitational miasma of “Yellow” to the pulsing melancholic mirage of “Violet” to the seething twilit sandstorm of “Magenta.” Morgan and English are both adept at conjuring moods of muted grandeur, like landscapes veiled in dusk, still looming and luminous.

PHILIPP ROLLER produced his album, "Sommer 97," back in 1996 during his student days in his small home studio. Drawing inspiration from acts like Kraftwerk, Orbital, various artists on Warp Records, and computer game music, Roller crafted a unique sonic experience. Initially released on cassette, the album was unveiled to an intimate audience at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart in February 1997. Following the initial release, Roller had the opportunity to sign with a small British label. Unfortunately, circumstances led to the label's dissolution before the record could see the light of day. Despite efforts to secure a new label, "Sommer 97" remained confined to DAT tapes and hard drives for years. Fast forward to 2020 when Michael Kübler and Daniel Varga (Rework) joined forces to establish EXLOVE Records. Recognizing the album's potential, they decided to bring "Sommer 97" out of obscurity and into the world. Philipp Roller, now residing in Berlin and working as a freelance interface designer for music software, has had an illustrious past creating a lot of music not only on his own but even for fashion shows, art and image films, and contributing ideas to Rework's debut track "Anyway I Know You" on Playhouse. In August 2021, Roller released his first single, "Kiss & Tell / Roller Disco," on Exlove Records. Finally, after a remarkable 26-year journey, Roller's legendary "Sommer 97" tape is set to be released as a double album on vinyl and digital formats at the end of May 2023.

Flee new issue tries to document a Caucasian musical phenomenon mixing criminal songs, Adygean culture & post-soviet society; and features original recordings of traditional songs, and contemporary reinterpretations by a selected line-up of electronic-esque producers: Emmanuelle Parrenin & Colin Johnco, Misha Sultan, Zongamin, Minami Deutsch, Valentina Goncharova, Simone Aubert, Ben Wheeler... Ulyap is a village in the Caucasus, where one can find an enormous number of accordion and harmonica players. "Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition" represents an attempt to document ancient bards' chants and their entanglement with popular rural heritage as well as post-Soviet culture during modern times, through a critical prism. This publication reflects on a music phenomenon involving talented female and male musicians, performing in lively (and sometimes festive) social dynamics. It does so by revealing important songs of the repertoire on the one hand, inviting original artists to experiment with Ulyap songs on the other. Built around an important work of documentation on this genre mixing criminal songs, Adygean culture and lyrics related to post-Soviet society, the book and record (available separately or as part of a bundle) include essays, archive and contemporary photographs as well as three art commissions questioning this original phenomenon from various point of views. Written in English and Russian, the book encompasses a dozen contributions. Musically, the double LP conists of rare and unpublished archives as well as recordings made by Flee, Ored recordings and Nikita Rasskazov over the last years in various locations of the Caucasus. These original celebration and drinking songs performed by group of professional and amateur musicians alike have been used as a creative fabric by sonic sound artists and musicians.

With the death in 2020 of long-standing occasional third member Peter Stapleton (percussion / electronics), A Handful of Dust has regrouped as the core duo of Alastair Galbraith (violin, guitar, cello, piano, drums) and Bruce Russell (guitar, electronics). This new set of live-to-four-track recordings from January 2022 is the first album to be wholly recorded 'in the studio' since 1995's Towards a Soundtrack to the 'Anabase' of St-John Perse. Committed to tape at the Rugby Hotel in Dunedin, the four-track recordings were played back in the room where they were made and recorded again, this time to Android telephone, to make a digital mono master which you hear on this record. Unadorned, brutal and sonically austere, this new set captures the 'wild Mercury sound' for which this long-standing unit is rightly feted among cognoscenti of the Antipodean New Thing. Three pieces that will pop your third eye in seconds flat. Astral travel for now people. Duck and Sally continue their unplanned career in the extreme abuse of the rock'n'roll toolkit. Drowned Phoenician sailors bob disconcertingly to the surface while the captain's tower rocks to a sustained monomachy 'twixt Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, brought back from the grave for that specific purpose. Don't be shy - please jump out of your window. You know you gotta trust us, when you need a friend...

Step through a portal into a world of utter bliss and creative inspiration with the second synthwave compilation ‘2 A.M Chill Session’, featuring our beloved new character. Euphoric synths, polished drums and reverberations and accompany you through new dimensions, creating electrifying atmospheres and conjuring goosebumps. Suddenly.. You were nostalgic for something you’d never known.

MAAVAK a two 10xCD box sets presenting the intense, present, sometimes fragile & often challenging music of Swedish/Israeli composer, musician, artist and activist DROR FEILER, celebrating 50 years of musical, artistic and political actions in Sweden and around the world.
These two box sets presents his wide range of styles; from noise attacks to orchestral compositions, from chamber music to solo saxophone pieces. There is a sort of brutal sensitivity to his works, or maybe rather a sensitive brutality. Let it be works for solo acoustic instruments or full symphony orchestra works (in one of them with Blixa Bargeld as vocal solist).

MAAVAK a two 10xCD box sets presenting the intense, present, sometimes fragile & often challenging music of Swedish/Israeli composer, musician, artist and activist DROR FEILER, celebrating 50 years of musical, artistic and political actions in Sweden and around the world.
These two box sets presents his wide range of styles; from noise attacks to orchestral compositions, from chamber music to solo saxophone pieces. There is a sort of brutal sensitivity to his works, or maybe rather a sensitive brutality. Let it be works for solo acoustic instruments or full symphony orchestra works (in one of them with Blixa Bargeld as vocal solist).

* First-ever official reissue of the pioneering 1986 ambient work * Produced in full cooperation with Hiroshi Yoshimura’s estate * New liner notes by original album producer Hiroyoshi Shiokawa * Includes Yoshimura’s original notes in Japanese & English * Remastering and lacquer cutting by John Baldwin * Vinyl pressed at Gotta Groove Records "If Surround can be listened to as music that’s asclose to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or assomething that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle groundbetween sound and music, and transforming it into a comfortable space, it wouldbe much appreciated.— Hiroshi YoshimuraTemporal Drift proudly presents the long-awaited, first-everreissue of Surround, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s sought-after ambient classic. Originally released as an album in January 1986, Surroundwas recorded by Yoshimura as a commission from home builder Misawa Homes,intended to function as an “amenity” designed to enhance the company’s newlybuilt living spaces. A pioneer in the field of environmental music, Yoshimura’sprevious works included Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), originally producedto be played back inside a museum space, and designing sound environments forpublic spaces and subway systems. Surround was recorded almost concurrentlywith the acclaimed and popular Green (1986); the two albums are described byHiroyoshi Shiokawa in his liner notes as being Yoshimura’s yin and yang. In his original notes for the album, Yoshimura recommendsthat Surround be placed in the same family of sounds “as the vibration offootsteps, the hum of an air conditioner, or the clanging of a spoon inside acoffee cup.” And, as he suggests, “with the addition of city noise from outsidethe window,” you may hear Surround in a completely new way."

What the artist may consider the most formative years for the project and what clubbers may have heard in numerous live sets with the ‘encryption nets’ classic dub track. Despite being created over a decade ago for limited double cassette and then compiled on ‘it stands to conceal’ this is widescreen esoteric cold industrial perfectly suitable for our collapsing world.

The world is already fallen and the temples are all new again.

Originally released on limited 10" double-pack in 2017, 'Luxor Necropolitics' was once again produced by Joshua Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv, and includes a super rare remix from Female of Sandwell District fame.

Formed in the late 70's, the duo is still grooving at their studio in Vesterbro, Copenhagen.
Laid Back gained their first international major break through in the 80's with Sunshine Reggae and White Horse. The dualism and originality of the two songs has left a worldwide and everlasting reputation of their music. The 3rd evergreen from their hand was made in 1990 named Bakerman altogether with a music video by Lars Von Trier.
More recently, the two members has co-founded their own record company, Brother Music, which has released Laid Back singles such as Cocaine Cool, remixes from Soul Clap, and latest the mini-album Cosyland and the chill out album, Cosmic Vibes.
In 2013 they released the double album Uptimistic Music.
2019 was the 40th anniversary and release of the album Healing Feeling.

Recorded by Anthony Linell & Jonas Rönnberg in Muskö, Sweden 2021 Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at EnissLab, Rome northernelectronics.se
“The collaborative project of Northern Electronics' founders, Anthony Linell and Jonas Rönnberg, has never ceased to confront with their coupling of industrious delirium and pensive austerity. By now we know that only adrenaline can make sense of the toxic ensemble of purposes at the heart of Ulwhednar. Meditating on higher flights of thrill and disorder than their previous record, and with an acknowledgement of their Stockholm roots, 'Area 08' induces fever and anticipation with every gesture.
The opening tracks make a raucous yet resolute introduction to proceedings, eventually issuing one of the album's most exquisite moments of reprieve with 'Akalla/Broken Swords'. However, it is the second half of 'Area 08' that formally admits their latest work has cro ssed a threshold yet unexplored by the pair. A suite of villainously propulsive tracks spit embers of caustic balms as they careen out of reach with the engorged march of 'Commuter Madness'. Cunning in as many ways as it is earnest and audacious, 'Area 08' is a welcome alarm from the nucleus of the mission.”

God knows enough has been written about Workshop. Surely you haven't read it, but this group has been around since 1985, and what they did was this: musically quite limited, they made the music they wanted to hear, but in an ingenious way. Some played the instruments skillfully and others not so much. Something came out of it! One says: that's just the way I like it. The other one boasts: yes, I understood everything how you play here, sometimes you hit it, or sometimes you play so that the parents cry with joy. In fact, seven records were recorded, which, with the exception of the second LP, are still more than worth listening to today. Are they in danger of being forgotten?

Yes and no. What is worth listening to here has often been banned. One must bring it out again. Make attentive. Against the forgetting. These impetuous songs - just let them get close to you again and listen to them in a new context and forget all the smart-ass talk that was said about them. That means to put the self with all its reality entanglements in the pillory. This is of course not only pleasant. Bravo!

UK Import.
‘Maxinquaye’ remains one of the most groundbreaking records in British music history. Upon its released in 1995, it was met with resounding critical acclaim receiving near perfect scores from music critics across the board – Melody Maker deemed it “gripping, original, sublime”, NMEsaid the record was “… unprecedented, spellbinding and revealed something new with every listen”, Q Magazine“… Tricky proves himself to be more challenging and eclectic than his peers”, Pitchfork “An unrepeatable record so unbelievably wrong it could only be right”… even David Bowie took it upon himself to write a letter to Tricky in the August of 1995 proclaiming “I’ve loved Maxinquaye for some time”. In more recent times The New York Times and Guardian have respectively said of it “… [an] album-length masterpiece” and “Time has not dimmed the impact of this extraordinary record”.

In its year of release, NME, Melody Maker and The Wire all named it their album of the year and it was nominated for a Mercury Prize(losing out to Portishead’s ‘Dummy’). It continues to be sited for its impact on music being a mainstay of “Greatest Albums Of All Time” lists such as NME’s 2013 list of the 500 greatest albums, Uncut Magazine’s 2016 200 Greatest Albums, Q Magazine’s 100 Greatest British albums, Mojo’s 100 Modern Classics, Rolling Stone’s ‘Essential Recordings of the 90s’ to name but a few. Celebrating Maxinquaye as it approaches its 30th Anniversary (2024) the Reincarnated 1LP package is a welcome reappraisal of this seminal album containing the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios.

The album has brand new artwork featuring the only known photograph of Tricky with his late mother, of whom this album is named after. The image was recently discovered by his cousin.

Limited to 500 units, includes a bifold insert with archival images and detailed liner notes.

Rainbow Generator are Australia’s first true experimental electronic music group. Consisting of David Labuschagne AKA Mojo, and Rob Greaves AKA Ras. Starting in the mid-70’s, the pair took it upon themselves to begin exploring the possibilities of the sonic dimension and with an ‘open mind’ began investigating the interface between psyche and sound.

In 1976 David established the ‘Lectric Loo’ studio in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Known to the ‘heads’ as simply the “Loo”, the 3-story building was owned by the Department of Main Roads, and slated for demolition. So, it was that the entire block became a haven for squatters, and while Mojo had the main 3-story building to himself, the rest of the buildings were taken by a hotch-potch of people that included Anarchists, a Clown School and a collection of other random squatters. Recording in the ‘Lectric Loo’ provided them the ability to record freely. In 1975 they began to experiment, putting Mojo’s Fender Strat through effects pedals, playing with sounds while manipulating shortwave radio stations and also challenging convention by playing the insides of instruments. By 1976 they had built a kit synthesizer and shortly after purchased a full Roland 100 Synthesiser set-up and were on their way.

In 1978, with little resources, or any form of distribution they released their sole LP ‘Dance of the Spheres’. As Mojo puts it, “we were intent on making music with whatever we could beg, borrow, buy, and liberate. Albeit with scant regard for the rules or conventions or niceties of the game. Ultimately, it was all an act of love, of joy. Not just an adventure; it was a musical odyssey”.

This odyssey continued their exploration of the interface between psyche and sound. Fusing genres and boundaries, Dance of the Spheres incorporates elements of 70’s psych and folk with spoken-word and of course the emerging sounds of the synthesizer and drum machines. Furthermore, the addition of traditional instruments such as the didgeridoo and the classical Indian instrumentation technique of a Raga add a timeless layer, all seamlessly complementing the other elements and launching the album to another dimension.

Formed in the late 70's, the duo is still grooving at their studio in Vesterbro, Copenhagen.
Laid Back gained their first international major break through in the 80's with Sunshine Reggae and White Horse. The dualism and originality of the two songs has left a worldwide and everlasting reputation of their music. The 3rd evergreen from their hand was made in 1990 named Bakerman altogether with a music video by Lars Von Trier.
More recently, the two members has co-founded their own record company, Brother Music, which has released Laid Back singles such as Cocaine Cool, remixes from Soul Clap, and latest the mini-album Cosyland and the chill out album, Cosmic Vibes.
In 2013 they released the double album Uptimistic Music.
2019 was the 40th anniversary and release of the album Healing Feeling.

2023 marks the year of a new 21track studio album "Road To Fame"

As for concerts, Laid Back is touring worldwide at cherry picked sunny locations with their two-man electronic set up and selected festivals with the band.

Artists Kyoko Takenaka + Tomoki Sanders team with In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi & Pure Person Press to release their breathtaking debut record as Planet Q.

Gatefold Single LP w/ OBI & Insert

To explore and absorb Planet Q, the new record by artists Kyoko Takenaka + Tomoki Sanders, is to become untethered from structural expectations, to reside in a realm where genre vanishes and a profound musical space remains, where the absence of gravity causes curious things to occur.

It’s a spot where handclaps may not move in time, where sonic gurgles of unknown origin offer texture, where a deep, hooky rhythm can propel a groove into the stratosphere.

At various times the tracks move like Dilla pieces, at others like Terry Riley explorations, like Flying Lotus or Milford Graves or Alice Coltrane meditations. But every time you think you’ve got the sound figured out, it hits from another angle. Though a brief missive at 33 minutes, you exit Planet Q as if leaving an utterly alien spot.

Setting: In 2021, during the covid lockdown in America, Takenaka and Sanders were both living in Tokyo without any gigs or work to be found back home. They met at a mutual friend’s cafe in the Higashi-Koenji neighborhood, and the connection was immediate. “The chances of us meeting not only someone else of the diaspora when the borders are closed, but also queer and non-binary, and also a musician? Pretty slim, and pretty fateful,” Takenaka says.

In early 2022, the Omicron variant prompted a new round of isolation. Returning to New York, they united with kindred musicians by going to private jam sessions, but at the time those evenings didn't tap the magic they were seeking. They decided to quarantine and create together. Takenaka was living alone at the time so they invited Sanders to crash there. Says Takenaka, “We made rice, ate natto, meditated and made music for seven days straight.”

That they would create something masterful does seem somehow predestined. Sanders’ late father is the brilliant composer and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, their mother a life-long music fanatic who nurtured the same. The younger Sanders, who grew up in New York and Tokyo, has been playing music – drums, saxophone, clarinet, piano – and absorbing profound sound since they had baby teeth. Takenaka is a first-generation Nikkei Japanese American actor, butoh dancer and filmmaker who also grew up with music; their father was a jazz pianist, and by age 7 they were already singing at jam sessions in Boston. Planet Q is Takenaka and Sanders’ debut musical collaboration.

That week together in isolation was pretty ritualized. Their aim, Takenaka says, was to create “a really beautiful, secluded safe space for ourselves as qtpoc folx – a planet where we both belong – and to make music as we created the space. Basking in it. Being inside it.”

They quickly fell into a daily routine that commenced with an improvised spoken meditation, tidbits of which made it onto the record. The layout of Takenaka’s apartment – an open kitchen looking out on the living room – afforded them the chance to mix rituals. They prepped meals and sampled parts of the process. Cooking rice, making curry, eating natto – the sounds simmer throughout Planet Q. Dancing and calligraphy also informed the compositions. Takenaka calls it “embodying the process, the textures.”

Tomoki says, “Before Hip hop, in my dad’s age, the saxophone was where the rapper, or the electric guitar spotlighted. It was only $500 to buy a saxophone in the 50’s...now its anywhere from $3000-$10,000. However, we fortunately are in a current time to have a whole studio literally in our laptops – and you can get a $50 midi device from a music store or online. Time of technology has advanced the music, the sound, the production – I’m challenged to reimagine things in ways never been thought before.”

Though each piece has distinct traits, Planet Q feels more like a suite of tracks, a gathering of waveforms that, despite their differences, when woven together create an utterly striking piece. The intention-setting opening piece was born through their improvised morning meditations. Tomoki uses bells their father gifted them.

“‘My Sweet, My Tender, My Loving, Home’ is dedicated to my dad and his metaphysical and galactic sounds, that is grounding,” Tomoki says. “Every intention I put into the style of music or energy comes from him and the ancestors, or god, ‘subconsciously’ – being a continuation of his DNA but in a completely different generation and time; me matching his point of view in spirituality and raising a level of self-consciousness.”

Borders blur. Rhythms lope and gallop. “竹” is a beat-driven rush featuring Takenaka on guitar. When Sanders grabs their tenor saxophone for “Grow,” the result vibes like a funky film-noir soundtrack, with Takenaka reciting the title.

Their tools: bells, electric guitar, piano, shakers, saxophone, African thumb piano, flute, keyboard, drum programming and voice. Most importantly, Planet Q is the sound of two devoted artists committing in full to exploring the mystic, hellbent on mastering the ways that two mortals can, with focus, desire and ancestral guidance, unite in music to create something that transcends the here-and-now.

The first EP album was released late 2013. The full Audi version appeared in 2014 and later with bonus tracks in 2015. Released again slighty 'remastered' in 2017.

Originally released on April 10, 2017.

noquestionsasked & Vanishing Berlin present: »Diskothek Harmonie«

An ode to places we will remember with wistfulness, even though we had no idea we would ever miss them. A homage to a sub- and neighborhood culture that threatens to disappear. Nothing lasts forever!

Diskothek Harmonie was created in cooperation with photographer Alexander Steffen's Vanishing Berlin project. The cover comes in five variations: One photo motif from each of the districts of Neukölln, Schöneberg, Mitte, Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. Framed by a handmade screen print, with individual coloring. Each motif is limited to 50 copies.

The vinyl EP's four tracks are held together by short atmospheric soundscapes and spoken cut-up lyrics. In the titular track, the warm voice of actress Barbara Philipp invites us to dance with the time signs and slogans of the present. The remaining tracks by Projekt Freizeit come from their archives of the last 15 years. Created between long gone wastelands and brick walls, pressed on vinyl to last forever.

Simultaneous double release of the percussionist / composer Steve Shehan's legendary albums!! The world's first LP reissue of his 1990 CD album "Arrows" from First on Vinyl, and his 1995 CD album "Indigo Dreams" from Silent River Runs Deep.

Nico Niquo’s ‘Esperanto’ sees the Australian artist return to Orange Milk Records six years since his album ‘In A Silent Way’, and on this new release, Nico builds upon the framework of his last two records for the label: still, ghostly Grime, retro-futurist synthesizer arpeggios, and flourishes of New Age ambiance. As per Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Esperanto’, Nico’s own ‘Esperanto’ bears palpable influences from the incidental music and audio that surround us in the everyday, and attempts to bend them into something both tender and bizarre. ‘Epistrophy’ twists a sandbox baroque of jingles, alerts and notifications into a whirring cacophony of bells, synths and faux bird calls, whereas ‘My Home In The Storm’ takes the ‘Gliding Square’ synths of early Grime instrumentals and abstracts them into a serene rumination more akin to the earlier works of Arvo Pärt. Across the record, tracks like ’Paper Peony’ and ‘Blue Ecco’ draw disparate, unusual threads together into patterns that don’t spell out something specific, but more so gesture towards something ineffable. Emile Frankel, writing for Disclaimer, posed that Nico’s music is ‘a grimoire to stillness, work that can make you feel both remote and motionless, and its companioned reverse: helium-ballooned, rising, incredible loveliness, dear and held …’ and it is the quiet, patient pursuit of these sentiments via Nico’s unusual means that typifies this record, too.

Vinyl is Close to VG+.

Still sealed.

Great EP! Record is close to vg+.

Vinyl is close to NM.

Yellow vinyl seems unplayed. With insert.

The latest by Canadian composer Tim Hecker serves as a beacon of unease against the deluge of false positive corporate ambient currently in vogue. Whether taken as warning or promise, No Highs delivers—this is music of austerity and ambiguity, purgatorial and seasick. A jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age, rough-hewn and undefined. Morse code pulse programming flickers like distress signals while a gathering storm of strings, noise, and low-end looms in the distance. Processed electronics shiver and shudder against pitch-shifting assemblages of crackling voltage, mantric horns (including exquisite modal sax by Colin Stetson), and cathedral keys. Throughout, the pieces both accrue and avoid drama, more attuned to undertow than crescendo. Hecker mentions “negation” as a muse of sorts—the sense of tumult without bombast, tethered ecstasies, an escape from escapism. His is an antagonism both brusque and beguiling, devoid of resolution, beckoning the listener ever deeper into its greyscale alchemies of magisterial disquiet.

Vinyl close to NM

Enter the Red Light District and get ready for the night of your life

Life is full of fleeting moments; capture them Keep dreaming

Limited edition LP run of 200 on neon pink Colored Vinyl in full colour jackets with OBI strip and shrink wrapped.

VentureX is an American electronic music producer based out of Chicago, Illinois who creates music that can be described as french house & nudisco. Experimenting with Hip-hop and other genres as times.