Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 304 Items

* Originally released in 1998 * Pressed on Black Vinyl * Produced and written by Yasushi Ide / Originally released on CD and Cassette in 1998, this awesome record is finally being reissued on vinyl for the first time ever!

The CD version of Yapoos’ third album released in 1991 continues to be a best seller at P-Vine records, but this release marks the first time the record has been released in analogue vinyl format. As a solo-artist, frontwoman Jun Togawa already has an extensive catalogue of art pop/new wave releases under her own name, but along with her band-members in Yapoos, they have been a household name at the forefront of the Japanese post-punk movement. Their legacy is unquestioned within japan, and with the help of internet forums and youtube sharing, audiences across the world are slowly coming round to the unique world of Yapoos.

Dadada ism, as with all of Jun Togawa’s projects, is another bestseller in the P-Vine catalogue and was the followup to Dial Y wo Mawase! released in 1992. On Dadada ism, the band began to experiment more with electronic production, and the underlying industrial spirit behind tracks on here could have seamlessly found their way into cyberpunk film soundtracks at the time. As an artist Jun Togawa, to this day is comparable to no one, but we can only hope that in time some may draw comparisons between her work ethic to push the limits of pop, and western artists such as Bjork and Kate Bush.

"Multila" was the third album by Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti under the moniker Vladislav Delay. It compiles the "Huone" and "Ranta" 12"EPs Ripatti released on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction label in 1999 and 2000. The album features six hauntingly murky dub ambient tracks and the impressive 22-minute techno odyssey "Huone." More than 20 years after its original release as a full-length CD album (Chain Reaction), these iconic recordings of modern electronic music are now available again as a double vinyl edition, featuring a revised artwork by Marc Hohmann that matches the new design of the »Whisteblower« and »Entain« reissues. "Life films us exactly. Our experience of it, though, lies beyond images and descriptions. Emotions, coming in irrational flashes, are non-figurable. We lose our little connection to them very quickly. We look for forms which promise to take us to our own experience. We construct forms with this in mind: that they can take us to meet the subconscious. Multila's construction is principled this way. Fragments of experience, moments without definition or localisation are captured within tiny fragments of time and then within one's mindspace. We can look into it and see that experience has left some of its data to us. As we receive it, again and again, we are connected and reconnected to certain indefinable moments. Both during and after its recording, Multila is a tool to learn about the unintentional states of us. It is a way to see our own emotional loops. Multila is a soundtrack for vision." - Vladislav Delay in the year 2000 Remaster by Rashad Becker. Vinyl cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M. Artwork by Marc Hohmann.

The Keplar label presents the next instalment in a series of reissues from the catalogue of Sasu Ripatti’s seminal Vladislav Delay project. Originally released on Mille Plateaux, the vinyl edition of »Entain« from 2000 omitted two shorter tracks and included all others in an abridged form. With this reissue, the full album as it was pressed on CD is finally made available on vinyl. Besides a new remaster by Kassian Troyer, it was also given new cover artwork by Marc Hohmann that picks up on that of the »Whistleblower« reissue, released in early 2023 by Keplar. This serial visual approach highlights the conceptual continuity between those masterful explorations of the interplay between dub techniques, noise, and repetition. Ripatti himself had reworked material from 1999’s »Ele« album for the release of »Entain,« which means that it can be considered the debut album proper of his Vladislav Delay project. It saw the Finnish artist aim more vigorously for abstraction than in his earlier releases as Vladislav Delay for labels such as Chain Reaction, which were collected on the iconic »Multila« compilation in 2000; another milestone from his back catalogue that has been reissued by Keplar in recent times. To mark this special occasion, »Multila« will be repressed by Keplar with a new artwork that matches the new design of »Whisteblower« and »Entain«. »Multila« and »Entain« correspond with each other conceptually as much as they seem to differ on a musical level. The material on »Multila« was clearly indebted to the Berlin dub techno sound, marked by its grainy and at times abrasive sonic aesthetics. From the very first moments of the 22-minute long opener »Kohde« however, it becomes clear that »Entain« takes things further away from the dancefloor, aiming less for physical impact than for intellectual stimulation. A sort of electronic minimal music, it was primarily interested in letting discrete elements freely come into play with one another. Much like »Multila,« however, »Entain« highlighted the subtle differences embedded in what only feels like repetitive music. Of course the massive bassline and ghostly dub riddims that permeate »Notke« as well as the deconstructed beat at the core of »Ele« still hint at Ripatti’s roots in beat-driven music. However, they also make his artistic transformation audible by turning their sources of inspirations into something entirely unheard of. »Entain« took the dub techno formula further than any other record before it—onwards into the realms of pure abstraction.

2001’s »Anima« was the third album released by Sasu Ripatti under his Vladislav Delay moniker and marked a turning point in the stylistic development of the prolific producer. Clocking in at roughly 62 minutes, the single piece draws on dub aesthetics while working with Musique concrète-like methods through the liberal use of samples to create a dreamlike logic. Muffled voices, lush chords, subtle rhythms and indefinable sound events are not so much integrated into a composition with a predetermined outcome but rather engage with each other freely in a constant sonic flow, forming constellations in one moment before moving on to connect with other elements in the next one. »Anima« marked the first time Ripatti was using a DAW in his working process, creating a piece constantly in motion that subtly evolves over time. This vinyl reissue on the German Keplar label follows up on the 20th anniversary edition of 2000’s »Multila« and will be complemented by a ten-minute long version of the original piece, previously only available on the CD version released by the artist on his own Huume label in 2008.

After the release of his »Ele« and »Entain« albums in 1999 and 2000, respectively, Ripatti took the 1998 independent movie »Hurlyburly« as a conceptual starting point to experiment with different gear and production methods. »Until then I had worked with an old Msq-700 Midi sequencer and an Ensonic Eps16 sampler/sequencer that had one or two MB of sampling memory and mixed the music live on a Mackie, which was very limiting arrangement-wise,« says Ripatti. Loading a slightly shortened version of the film into his DAW however allowed him to play along to it with the DrumKAT Midi controller, triggering and playing all the sounds that can be heard on »Anima« while also contributing synths, bass and other sounds during repeated playthroughs before mixing a total of six stereo tracks together. »This way, after I had edited out most of the few parts that had music in them, I was in the movie; almost like an extra character playing music,« explains Ripatti. »This was certainly the most organic way in which I have ever made music, and I have never again approached another record like this.«

While »Anima« sounded like an unusual Vladislav Delay record at the time of its release, it also prefigured many of the developments Ripatti would go through in the course of his long career. Combining visceral immediacy with a sense of abstraction, it is far more than a mere missing link in his discography but rather a conceptually and musically outstanding piece of work that remains as engaging as it was 21 years ago.

Beat sampler with tracks by Waxolutionists, Texta, DJ DSL and others!

Are you sitting comfortably? Artificial Intelligence is for long journeys, quiet nights and club drowsy dawns. Listen with an open mind.

Back in 1992 when Warp released the Artificial Intelligence compilation it almost instantly changed both the course of Warp as a label and arguably what many would consider club music as an entity to be. Artificial Intelligence came housed inside a prog rock styled gatefold sleeve depicting a cover image of a robot blowing smoke rings whilst reclining on an armchair. Its extra long rolling papers and tin of tobacco just out of reach, whilst a high-end stereo plays out the sounds of Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, their LP sleeves lay strewn across the floor. This image along with the above text that as printed on the sleeve acted as a guide for the listener on how to best experience this new mode of techno music, one that was designed for those nights when your body stays in but your mind steps out.

Having been in operation for three years by the time they compiled and released the Artificial Intelligence compilation, Warp had already proved itself as a worthy force within the world of quickfire 12 singles of acid house and the emerging hardcore scene. Starting as a predominant pusher of the new bleep 'n' bass sounds of their hometown Sheffield, Warp had enjoyed success with early anthemic singles from artists such as Nightmares on Wax, LFO & Richard H. Kirk's Sweet Exorcist project. These building blocks laid the foundations for what many would go on to define as the Warp sound but it was 1992's Artificial Intelligence compilation that cemented their place in music history.

Artificial Intelligence was notable for early appearances by people who went on to become pioneers of the hypnotic groove for both Warp and electronic music in its entirety. Artists such as The Black Dog/Plaid whose melancholic contribution The Clan (produced under the alias I.A.O.) bears long drawn out strings combine perfectly with the tear-drenched techno of Carl Craig with the trend for looped breakbeats to create a track that still resonates deeply every time it is played. Looking further out than most, B12's Telefone 529 with its recording of an automated incorrect phone number message carries an air of nostalgic puzzlement, while Preminition transports a diva vocal and hardcore piano roll into a zero-gravity soundtrack of space. Autechre's Crystel and The Egg offers the first steps towards the path of abstract oblivion that they would go on to travel throughout the post-AI years. Both pieces focus an acidic gurgle around some cut up vocals, its timeframe existing perfectly within a distinct hip-hop cylinder that brilliantly displays their roots within b-boy culture.

Aphex Twin appears under his alias The Dice Man, opening up the operation with a track that would become an alias in itself, Polygon Window in many ways formed the core sound of the Artificial Intelligence compilation and subsequent album series that followed it. Rolling post-acid dynamics, a strong knowledge of breakbeat techno and some serious subs keep the track in a full forward motion, Polygon Window still stands out as one of the most unbeatable techno tracks within Warp's discography. Elsewhere, chief ambient technologist Dr Alex Paterson put forward a four-minute cosmic ambient piece akin to his work as the central figure of which The Orb revolves around. Whilst Richie Hawtin made an appearance with his euphoric almost gabba track Spiritual High, produced under the name Up! his fellow Plus 8 producer Speedy J stepped in with De-Orbit, a track that you could say on reflection, almost helped shape the early steps towards what would turn into the deeper recesses of liquid drum & bass.

Warp co-founder Steve Beckett was quoted around the time of the Artificial Intelligence compilations release in 1992 as saying you started to hear tracks by B12 and Plaid and Speedy J that just didn't fit into any category, B-sides and last tracks on EPs. We just realised that they weren't meant for 12-inches, it was just that this was the only outlet for that kind of music. We realised you could make a really good album out of it. You could sit down and listen to it like you would a Kraftwerk or Pink Floyd album. That's why we put those sleeves on the cover of Artificial Intelligence - to get it into people's heads that you weren't supposed to dance to it!. This train of thought led to Warp putting together one of the most forward-thinking compilations to appear within the early 90s post-acid explosion, and many others tried to copy the formula but arguably no imprint ever came close to topping or even releasing anything that stands tall alongside Artificial Intelligence for its undeniably experimental, yet sheer futuristic scope and vision.

Listening back now, 30 years since its original release, it's striking how contemporary and fresh the music of Artificial Intelligence still sounds. While many tracks from those days still and will forever sound brilliant, many AI contemporary compilations have taken on the sheen of a more retro and throwback feel. When digested with a knowledge of what has been made within the last quarter of a century, the tracks that form Artificial Intelligence still carry a strong, almost outside of time feeling that's influence shines as strongly today as it did 30 years ago. A timeless record that will continue to point the way forward for electronic music for many years yet to come.

Ursula 1000 returns to ESL Music with a brand new jam called "step Back" featuring London MC Sista Widey in a bashment/dancehall style. Flip it over for a skanking dub rocker from Jstar!

“Upopo Sanke“ means “Let's sing a song" in the Ainu language. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was one of the best-known artists of the Ainu, an indigenous, long-suppressed community in northern Japan. She sings their traditional songs together with Oki Kano on the Tonkori harp, who also recorded the album. The two are supported by members of the female vocal group Marewrew as well as Ainu percussionists, a string player and a male singer who provides rhythmic shouts and also throat singing. The call-and-response structure of many of the songs is performed with a mantric quality in a vocal style that is perhaps best described as elastic and breathing. There seems to be a gentle smile in every note and syllable. This music softly hits the heart.

Upopo Sanke was recorded on a farm in Tokachi in the summer of 2003. We hear dogs barking, a distant thunderstorm and voices imitating animals. The liner notes that accompany the 2LP release gather the anecdotal memories of Umeko Ando and Oki Kano about the stories of the 14 songs. Oki Kano is a musical ambassador of the Ainu culture who tours worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band and also gives solo concerts, always playing the Tonkori, the five-stringed Ainu harp.

The Ainu have suffered from the oppression of their culture and language by Japan, especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Only recently, in 2008, were the Ainu officially recognized again as an indigenous people culturally independent of Japan. As a result of the marginalization, there are now only a few hundred native speakers of the Ainu language left, making it a particularly worthy object of preservation.

"Upopo Sanke" was mixed again in part by Oki Kano, before being mastered and cut to vinyl by Kassian Troyer. The 2LP plays on 45rpm and it sounds fantastic. This album was the second album by Umeko Ando, the follow-up to „Ihunke" and also re-released in 2018 by Pingipung together with Oki Kano.

Ulver's Blood-Red Baroque 'n' Roll Album turns 18! Hailed by critics and clerics upon its release, and described by the band as a maelstrom full of wreckage, it is undoubtedly their most byzantine and excessive work to date. A trip through the lavish void!

Ulver's Blood-Red Baroque 'n' Roll Album turns 18! Hailed by critics and clerics upon its release, and described by the band as a maelstrom full of wreckage, it is undoubtedly their most byzantine and excessive work to date. A trip through the lavish void!

The Dutch dance project Twenty 4 Seven scored several major hits during the Nineties. The group was founded in 1989 by producer Ruud van Rijen, who is seen as a pioneer in Eurodance. He was one of the first to put together a male rapper and female vocalist. In 1993 he gathered singer Nance Coolen and rapper Stay-C and recorded the third single “Slave To The Music”, which secured their big international breakthrough and became a major worldwide hit. The track was the first single of the same-titled album that came out later that year. Besides “Slave To The Music”, the album spawned three more singles that all charted well - “Is It Love”, “Take Me Away” and “Leave Them Alone”. The album received several Gold and Platinum records, including 2x Platinum in South Africa, Platinum in Czech Republic and Gold in the Netherlands. Slave To The Music is available as a limited edition on crystal clear & blue marbled vinyl and includes an insert with lyrics.

Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album »From Tokyo to Naiagara« by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist’s career and personal life: While she was preparing to leave Japan behind, she succinctly connected the dots between her experiments in pop music and her interest for more abstract sounds. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks’n’cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect. Tujiko fondly remembers the time when she made the album. »I had a lot of time for myself back then and I didn’t even feel like I was very busy,« she says today. She describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as »quite Tokyo and very local.« They explored parts of the city that they hadn’t yet been to for a photography project (finding, among other things, a coin laundry called Naiagara—a transliteration of Niagara). This left its mark on a record that mixes melancholia with joy. The driving opener »Narita Made,« named after one of Tokyo’s airports, already makes this clear: Tujiko’s wistful vocals and lyrics like »I miss you terribly« emphasises the sense of bittersweetness that forms the common thread for a sonically diverse and stylistically open-ended album—this music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. »I have so much more to do and not enough time for that,« she muses, before quickly adding: »But I also feel less alone having that album again.« Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.

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.

On Blowback Tricky works with Ed Kowalczyk, the singer with the band Live, Alanis Morissette, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ambersunshower, Cindy Lauper and Chris Blackwell's signee Hawkman. The album is full of contrasts and surprises. The excitement and the imagination and the sheer audacity that made the first album 'Maxinquaye' such a ground-breaking record are back. "When I made that first album I had a dream of changing the world," Tricky says. "You realise after a couple of years you aren't going to do that and its all a load of bullshit. Which is OK and you carry on. But now I've got my dream back. Music has stood still or five years and it's time to change it around again.

Tosca's second album 'Suzuki' (Studio K7) takes a lighter, airier approach to the trip-hop terrain that Opera explored. The spare, shimmering title track's delicate synth textures, minimal beats, mellow rhythms, and breathy vocal samples set the tone for more moody musical fairytales from Richard Dorfmeister, this time with Rupert Huber under the guise of Tosca. Suzuki is--like his releases with Kruder and Dorfmeister--a sublime work that manipulates emotions through sound. Soft and sweet, subtle and supple, Tosca's tracks drift, sifting from one dream to the next. Though they patch hip-hop, jazz, ambient, and techno together, you can't hear where one begins and the other ends. "Annanas" pairs sneaky, squeaky scratching with a lusty female vocal and bossa-nova-inspired hip-hop breaks, while "Orozco" loops a playful riff, running it through reverbs and filters, creating something like pure bliss for the ears.

Originally released as a hand-numbered CD on New Year's Eve of2004, Last Light captures Tor Lundvall's hushed songcraft at its mostghostly and grayscale, stripped bare like branches bracing for winter.Initially conceived of as "a piano album with sparse electronics" (with theworking title November), Lundvall's palette steadily expanded,incorporating synthesizer, samples, bass, metronomes, and his signaturespectral vocals. A journal entry from the spring of 2002 proved formativeto his evolving vision: "I remember watching the blueish-grey lightshimmering outside and hearing distant sounds echoing far away,eventually sinking into silence and stillness."The album's 12 tracks are steeped in this sense of autumnal transience,of bearing witness to what fades. The music moves in whispered swells,between dirge, drift, and devotional. Synths chime like slow-tolling bells;percussion shuffles and shivers, icy and isolated; bass traces a lowliddedplod - it's a mode both austere and seductive, lulling the listenerinto its landscapes of deepening dusk. Lyrically, Lundvall's languageskews observational and depressive ("through lace curtains / grey lightfalls / dark clouds gather / in my soul"), with each song like a gauzyglimpse into a different tableau framing winter's descent: rust-coloredleaves, frozen ponds, cold crescent moons.Lundvall has long considered Last Light a "personal favorite" in hisdiscography, and it's easy to hear why. In texture, finesse, and pacing, itvividly evokes the rare mood of fragile, frosty pastoral noir depicted in hisiconic oil paintings. His is an art of the half-seen and half-remembered, offleeting figures, shapes and shadows, and gathering darkness. Of all thatdisappears, and the ghosts that never leave: "So I wait / as the years /slowly drain the magic and the light / and the girl / I never loved / hauntsme through the dark roads of my life."

At the time of original issue, there was a small run of a few hundred vinyl copies done by a small German label, but this was pressed on an inferior sounding single LP which was much too short for the length of the album, not to mention the wide dynamic range of the recording. This new version is mastered at 45rpm over four sides for maximum sound quality. "The whole album moves with a sort of barely-contained violence that threatens to disintegrate or burst tracks into flame outs at nearly any point. it's powerful and intense ambient music that really doesn't sound like anything else being created right now."—Almost Cool

Limited grey vinyl.A more than timely reissue of Southern Lord's very first release. This is an awesome runic doom bauer of a record. Featuring Stephen O'Malley, Greg Anderson and a then 17 year old nordic vocalist, Runhild Gammelsæter. Thorr's Hammer was active only for six weeks during which it played two gigs and recorded a demo and "Dommedagsnatt". The band disbanded after Runhild's return to Oslo, Norway. Burning Witch was formed fromthe ashes of Thorr's Hammer and Runhild has currently teamed up with James Plotkin (Khanate) to form Khlyst. Long out of print and released on 180g black vinyl with new art work in a gatefold sleeve. Thorr's Hammer features Stephen O'Malley, Greg Anderson (Sunn0))), Burning Witch) and Runhild Gammelsæter (Khlyst).

Originally released on January 26, 2009 via Magic Bullet Records, this excellent split release between This Will Destroy YOU and Lymbyc Systym (featuring all songs exclusive to this release) now sees formal reissue via Dark Operative. All tracks were recorded in succession in late 2008 at Elmwood Studios in Dallas, Texas with Grammywinning engineer and mixer John Congleton at the helm. This Will Destroy YOU recorded their songs first with Lymbyc Systym arriving in town toward the latter part of those sessions to carry right into the tracking of their material immediately following. Mixing of the entire album was done all at once at the conclusion of tracking to ensure sonic consistency across both sides. Since its initial release, “Field Studies” stands tall in the discography of both bands, with This Will Destroy YOU’s “Freedom Blade” having garnered numerous syncs over the years and the entirety of Lymbyc Systym’s material being regarded by fans and critics alike as among the best they ever wrote and recorded. Marketing /

Only 1 per customer!

Fifteen years since its original release, The Other People Place's Lifestyles Of The Laptop Café is finally made available again on vinyl. A long-standing favourite among the many legions of Warp fans and rightly considered to be one of the very best electronic albums of all time.

It's hard to sum up in words just how important Lifestyles Of The Laptop Café truly is. Originally released back in 2001 as part of the Drexciyan off-shoot Storm Series, Lifestyles was one of the various projects of one-half of deep sea electro pioneers Drexciya, James Stinson. Shrouded in mystery, the two members of Drexciya took the blueprint laid out by the pioneers of the hypnotic groove, Kraftwerk and gave it a truly electro feel - cold, yet funky. Where Drexciya's sound was focused in the deepest corners of the ocean, James's work as The Other People Place was a solo project that turned its gaze elsewhere, most notably in the direction of love.

Playing out like the first meeting through the early days of a relationship, the themes of closeness and affection carry a strong theme throughout with tracks like 'Eye Contact' describing those very first seconds of connection, before the story unfolds with the twilight romance of 'Moonlight Rendezvous', and the almost doubt creeps in on the bittersweet 'You Said You Want Me' and the anthemic 'Let Me Be Me'. A track of legendary status amongst the wide-ranging spectrum of electronic music lovers, producers and DJs the world over.

With the original vinyl being incredibly hard to find (for a second-hand copy, you are looking upwards of one hundred and fifty quid easily!) this freshly repressed edition is something many of us have been dreaming of, and for those looking to take their first trip to the Place, you are in for a life-affirming experience.

Like all of the very best techno and electro, The Other People Place yields some of the most beautiful sounds to emerge from the D with a limited sound pallette, stripping everything back to the essentials to compose an incredibly important yet delicate album that still to this day continues to fascinate and seduce with its strikingly subtle flow and elegant mystery.

Mixed and produced by Jim Abiss!

The Focus Group is the recording alias for Ghost Box co-founder and well respected graphic designer and film maker Julian House. This debut album was first release in 2005 on a burn to order Cd-r. Now packaged in a 4 panel digipack with the original sleeve art by Julian House that established the rules for the primary Ghost Box artwork layout. It’s a design grid that the label has continuously revisited and tinkered with ever since.

9 tracks

Guests on the album include Dorian Concept and Cid Rim, Muhsinah, Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow, but Clonious is a good nice dude, too!

180 gram vinyl

Not many acts who continue for a few albums get a chance to go back and take care of what they might see in retrospect as mistakes or tentative starts — but there are always glorious exceptions. Thus the course of events that led to the Croatian surf-rock quartet The Bambi Molesters rerecording their 1997 debut Dumb Loud Hollow Twang in a ‘deluxe’ edition, with special guests, bonus tracks and more besides.

What might have seemed a quixotic exercise gets explained in the liner notes — the album’s original run, though popular in surf-rock obsessive circles, had not resulted in a reprint, while the group’s growing popularity resulted in further demand and attention for the start. The band themselves felt the debut was far too rushed — it was literally recorded in three hours as a one-take rip with instrument leakage and bad mixing ruining the impact — so with more time to spare and a chance to flesh out the sound, the result was 2003’s Deluxe.

The quartet’s command of the surf vernacular is unparalleled — guitarists Dalibor Pavicić and Dinko Tomljanović have the reverb down and rhythm section Lada and Hrvoje Zaborac shift between mania and moodout with ease. The guest musicians add just the right touches — keep an ear out for Neven Franges’s piano on the late-night menace of “Pearl Divin’”, as well as on the smoky Eurospy vibe of “Sun Stroke” and a trumpet/sax duo on a variety of songs adding some further sting.

If the overall effect is pleasantly reverential rather than a striking new reworking of surf and garage roots, it’s still a solid result that works beyond mere genre exercise. The bonus tracks are all covers, and winners they are — the Molesters collaborator in the Strange project, Chris Eckman, adds whispering menace to “Restless”, the album’s sole vocal track. Best song title of the bunch — “Beach Murder Mystery.” (Ned Ragget, All Music Guide, 2005)

Nothin’ dumb about this one! The Bambi Molesters hail from Sisak, Croatia, and they play a slightly dark brand of traditional instrumental surf music. They’re all about subtlety. Lead guitarist Dalibor Pavicić lays back in the mix, painting the sound with dreamy apparitions of melody and tone. How much of this was always part of their formula, and how much producer Phil Dirt created at the console, I don’t know, but either way they’re onto something good here.

All fifteen tunes were written by Pavicić and guitarist Dinko Tomljanović, and that’s surprising enough for such a young band, but on top of that, all fifteen are exquisitely crafted and fully realized. “Sun Stroke” is one of the most beautiful surf tunes of the year, filled with passion and power and delivered with a delicate touch. If you fancy a twist of spy in your surf, “Beach Murder Mystery” is the bomb. By the way, if you’re voting for great titles of the year, you may want to consider “Standing on the Nose in a Stylish Manner”, which also happens to be a killer surf tune. So add Croatia to your surf scene map and keep an eye on The Bambi Molesters, because they’ve officially taken their place in the book of who’s who. (DJ Johnson, Cosmik Debris, 1998)

A stunningly good set of tracks from the only surf band in Croatia. Their writing is melodic, pristine, well structured, and unique. I find their slower material to be the best, with its stellar beauty and delicate balance between lead and rhythm. I’ve been communicating with the band for about a year, and earlier this year, they asked me to produce their album. I was honored. They laid down 16 track ADAT in Croatia, and mailed them to me in the US. I mixed them here, and mastered them as well. Based on the DAT I’d received late last year, I was expecting good tracks. I was not prepared for just how good they’d turn out to be. This will be a classic of the future. (Phil Dirt, DJ KFJC)

Dancing Bear Band Information (from 2005)

Formed in 1995 under the influence of 60’s garage and surf classics, the Croatia based band The Bambi Molesters won sympathies of rock critics and underground rock audience with their first album “Dumb Loud Hollow Twang” which was released in 1997. Since then they have been playing regularly in Croatia and all over Europe and their fiery and energetic live performances have helped to build their reputation as one of the finest and most original contemporary instrumental bands.

In 1999 the band signed the record deal with Dancing Bear. They released their second album called “Intensity”. The same LP was also released in Germany on Kamikaze Records. Both “Intensity” and “Dumb Loud Hollow Twang” gained positive reviews in the music press and were nominated in various categories of the Croatian music award.

In December 2001 The Bambi Molesters released their 3rd CD “Sonic Bullets: 13 from the Hip” (the LP version is from 2003) with the following guests: Peter Buck (REM), Scott McCaughey (Minus Five, REM touring band), Chris Eckman (The Walkabouts), Terry Lee Hale and Eduardo “Speedo” Martinez (The Flaming Sideburns). Just like the previous one, the new The Bambi Molesters album was published by the Croatian record label Dancing Bear. The CD got excellent reviews in various magazines (Mojo, Uncut, Pitchfork, ...) and received the Croatian journalist award for the best album of the year 2001.

In June 2002 “Sonic Bullets: 13 from the Hip” was licensed by ACE Records and was released on their Big Beat label.

The Bambi Molesters’ songs are regularly played on American (KFJC, KFAI, KXLU, WREK, WHUS) and British (BBC RADIO 1 in London) radio stations. The song “C Alpha E” was included in the movie called “The Treat” by Jonathan Gems (screenwriter for “Mars Attacks” and “1984”). Their music can also be heard in videos (“Cross Cuts” for Tonix Pictures and Dragonfly BMX video). Three songs from the first LP are included in the movie “Barabe” (Viba film, Slovenia). During the last couple of years the band has played more than 100 gigs and supported well known acts including The Cramps, REM, Chrome Cranks, Man or Astroman,...

In July 2003 the band played as a support at the R.E.M. European tour. The Bambi Molesters played at three gigs in front of 50000 people altogether.

In June 2004, together with The Walkabouts singer Chris Eckman they formed The Strange. Their debut album “Nights of Forgotten Films” is out on Dancing Bear.

The Avalanches' Downbeat milestone back in print!

The Avalanches' Downbeat milestone back in print!

The Aloof formed in 1990 and forged a reputation as one of the hardest working bands around. While other acts incorporated an electronica into a general rock sound in the early ‘90s, The Aloof were always a pioneering electronic act. Touring alongside the likes of Massive Attack and Leftfield, they released three albums with Warner’s EastWest label: Cover The Crime (1994), Sinking (1996) and Seeking Pleasure (1998). After parting ways with Warner, they were in charge of their own destiny, and formed their own ‘Screaming Target’ label as they set about making a new record.

The resultant album ‘This Constant Chase For Thrills’ has established a reputation as a cult classic, but internal struggles and the wider pressure of the industry meant it didn’t get the coverage it deserved. Despite this, ‘So Good’ became a radio hit after featuring on the US version of Queer As Folk, and remains a fan-favourite. In anticipation of the release, it has finally issued as a single, setting the tone for the full reissue of the LP on Acid Jazz Records.

Defined by a positive DIY spirit as the band moved on their own, This Constant Chase For Thrills, has an Ibiza and Balearic feel, alongside its dark, moody and atmospheric moments. Aside from ‘So Good’ – described as ‘a dark cloud being lifted’ by founding member Dean Thatcher – there is the late night intensity of ‘Doing It For Money’, describing the need to make ends meet in difficult circumstances, which gained attraction when first released. Meanwhile, closing tune ‘Painted Face’ is arguably the album’s standout, infused with wide-eyed psychadelia and open adventure.

“I think ‘Constant Chase For Thrills’ was a return to form for The Aloof and I’m really chuffed this album is going to see the light of day properly and finally get the exposure it deserves” - Dean Thatcher, The Aloof.