Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 301 Items

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, “The San Francisco Sound.” Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.


By the mid-70’s, Patrick’s synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco Heat” and “Stars.” This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12″ singles, like “Menergy” and “Megatron Man”. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, “Menergy”. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, “Do You Wanna Funk” for Sylvester, and “Right On Target” for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album “Mind Warp”. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.


In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick’s songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections “Muscle Up” and “School Daze” released in 1979 and 1980. “Afternooners” is the third collection of Cowley’s instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we’ve used the titles from Fox Studio’s 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick’s time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on “Afternooners” reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.


Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick’s 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

Decadent Yet Depraved, the debut album by Belief Defect, finds shelter and complicity in Raster as home and label. Familiar with the underground music scene and how its skeptical nature can also be an obstacle to overcome, Belief Defect abandon any claim or credit in an attempt to transcend the limits authorship imposes, avoid the boundaries or expectations earned or self imposed and find the clearest, most direct path to their music for themselves and the listener. At the core of the album is the music that inspired them, the conclusion of countless recordings listened to in their formative years that ultimately result in a life-long devotion to electronic music: from dance floor to primal anger and self-annihilating noise, to transcendental, ambient escapism and intense self-reflexive sonic layering. The result is a soundtrack for this apocalyptic time, an uncompromising reflection on the state of mankind and its uncertain future, underscored by a sense of religious and secular demise referenced in track titles, samples, and soundscapes scattered throughout the album. Yet, more than a political statement Decadent Yet Depraved is an introspective journey, turning each listener into a spiritual soul-seeker staring into the abyss, reaching for some kind of cathartic truthfulness.

Litüus returns to Avian. Sparse and reflective, the Chicago native’s work occupies a curious space on the periphery of the Techno genre. By stripping back the music to all but its most vital elements – most notably the Sequence, but at the same time maintaining a sense of urgency in its articulation, Litüus crafts exquisite, ghostly shadows of busier, more fleshed out material. Neither intro nor outro, but rather suspended in some middling point of formation – what remains is a remarkably pure examination of minimalist, experimental synthesis.

Angel-Ho proclaimed virtuoso, also known as Angelo Valerio/Deep In The Pussy/Ruffle Queen, and a co-founder of NON Worldwide, is in celebration of what makes them uniquely queer. With a limited run of their vinyl titled Red Devil, Angel-Ho presents an array of classical electronic inspired cacophony. This is a chance for the symphony to be contextualized, since its release not having any word spoken by the artist a Beyoncé moment if you will. Red Devil is an autobiographical mix where by Angel presents the realities of the mind, ones ability to shift their perspectives of the world, through applying the principles of balance in their music. All which is deeply connected to the experiences queer and trans people encounter daily, be it personal demons to greeting violence in public to the reasoning of joy among the chaos, Angel describes it as transformation. So many people live in fear of transformation and I am not necessarily making it a point to gender, sexuality, but not limited to recent political or social acts in 2017. I enjoy transformation like many of my fellow artists around the globe. Everyone forgets that I studied art and have done performances prior to the release of Ascension. Being able to see beyond my mind and make things tangible is a mirror of how I move through space, time, and transformation, wasting no time in doing so I want to be the best I can be because in doing so I see the cause and effect of being true to ones nature, to do what makes you happy with what youve got. Red Devil is led by a fierce orchestra and choir, of which Angel-Ho visualises animates in their dreamscape, not being reduced to its potential as a digital sound file. It is inspired greatly by the collision of music styles and genres and true to the proceeding agency of Angels own envisioning of a, moffie only, klopse troupe roaming through the neighbourhood at 2am in the Summer with their sharpened instruments ghostly parading the echo of their afternoon rehersals. Red Devil becomes a celebration of all that is denied by ourselves and others. The self-saboteur, as RuPaul Andre Charles heralds, is what is vanquished through ones ability to name it and deconstruct the information as to why one would perceive a dismal perception of reality what halts ones ability to achieve and excel. It is through this action we can equip ourselves with the tools we need to perceiver in a world where we living queer, breathing trans, bodies have to everyday prepare ourselves for the worst when leaving the solitude of our homes and safety of our family.

Novo Line reprises the meter-messing genius of his Movements album with the Dyad mini LP - a brilliantly uncompromising follow-up for Ecstatic. Exclusively using the tools of ’88/’89 professional recording set-ups - namely the Atari ST, but with a slight algorithmic alteration. While it’s increasingly hard to find new tricks in old gear, especially with the resurgence of hardware fetishism and the ubiquity of DAWs, that’s exactly what Nat Fowler has been doing for the best part of a decade as Novo Line. By, in his own words, “misusing one algorithmic composition program (not, by a longshot, a professional music production tool of any epoch) contained in 208kb of data on a 3.5” floppy disk”, He generates and explores new permutations of old music which, ironically enough, sound fresher or at least more innovative than a lot of new music in circulation right now.Inputting ever-changing parameters of melody, and 29 year old algorithms, the machine’s voice is live-mixed and presented un-rendered as maxed-out waveforms via 1MB RAM, resulting in a severely compressed and combusting effect that leave mastering and sound engineers the world over scratching their heads in puzzlement. However, the effect is equally enthralling to anyone whose ears have become overly accustomed to contemporary emulations of ‘space’ in electronic music, and genuinely sound unique in relief of the contemporary field.The release poses a playful question: can a record be ambivalent as to which speed it should be played? Celebrating vinyl and futhermore physical media, the listener is encouraged to find their exact speed of preference with the RPM toggle and pitch slider, that nearly forgotten joy in modifying speed in real time without a CPU mediating between the listener and sound; some tracks stumble heavily at 33rpm like boulders in the tumble dry, while others flash by at 45. In the taut, recoiling thud of Monad, thru the frenetic pop edit of Ennead to the ‘floor-curdling prong of Dyad Marcia on the front, to the forceful New Beat mutation Tetrad, and the mind bending Melpomenean Dyad which closes the LP, its some heavily challenging but deeply satisfying gear that seriously yet playfully messes with convention.Essentially Novo Line is revelling in the pure spirit of computer music and the sonification of dance music as we know it - born in the ’88/’89 phenomenon of techno-house music, including its Industrial/EBM precedents, and its New Beat/Euro House offshoots. And like John McCusker’s delectable artwork of a beige room and monitors interwoven with tubular, computer generated follies, Novo Line provides a captivating perspective that shortcircuits nostalgia’s illness to result in a killer vaccine against/for convention.

Exists in the same forward-thinking, boundary-less world inhabited by post-classical contemporaries Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.

First release in a series of four compilations, which includes international artists of the slow-industrial, tribal and experimental scene.

The third artist album on Omena is here, 'For The Dreamers' by Saine.

An effortless blend of crisp beat-work and delicate textures, the album feels equally suited for playing out loud or for those hazy summer night headphone marathons.

Album artwork by Rickard Ljungdahl Eklund
Label artwork by Ivo Kiusalaas (bildansvarig)
Mastering by Andreas Saag

Over the last decade or so Brightons Fujiya & Miyagi have been steadily building a vast body of work that explores 1970s Germany-tinged beats, whip smart electronica, intoxicating disco, shimmering pop and generally concocting an idiosyncratic blend of dance music that sounds utterly and uniquely their own. The group have decided to revisit their 2006 classic, Transparent Things, and for the first time release the full album on vinyl. Transparent Things managed to look deeper and further beyond the zeitgeist whilst simultaneously remaining in it. They explored krautrock music with a passion, grace and respect - creating a hybrid sound of music that felt deeply indebted to innovations of the past but was filtered through a deeply contemporary mind-set. The end result of the album was a sound for the dance floors of the past, the then and the future. With a plush new re-master, the album sounds even more crisp and punchy than it did before and still sounds every bit as contemporary, managing to show none of its age.

Brighton’s K-Lone helms the next chapter on Parris’ Soundman Chronicles label, backed with an oxidised dub remix by Bristol’s O$VMV$M. Apparently a year in the works, Old Fashioned convects 10 minutes of silty chords, subtle beachside atmosphere and exhaling dynamics, leading up to a levitating dub bass in classic, or should we say Old Fashioned Berlin style. Schmoke a bowl a drift off styles. In The Dust Of This Planet brings that vibe closer to the UK lean of Parris or Batu, but more low key, furtive, and O$VMV$M seemingly leave Old Fashioned to the elements, returning a wizened, saltier version.

Tokorats is Jonti’s third album for Stones Throw, following back-to-back releases Twirligig (2012) and Sine & Moon (2013). Recording for the album began in 2013, and after four years and hundreds of versions for each song, it will be released.
Jonti grew up in South Africa, lived in Los Angeles and New York, and settled near Sydney, Australia, where Tokorats was recorded. Collaborators on the record include Gotye, Kirin J Callinan, Moses Macrae, Jo Ling, Vanessa Tammetta, Tess Nicolaou, Hodgy, and rising Australian hip-hop star Sampa The Great.
Jonti writes, “A Tokorat is that supernatural creature in the mirror. A multicolored weirdo mutant composed of all the elements of your story and all the complexities of your character. In every song I was having a conversation with all the good and unflattering reflections of myself ... While this album does document a five year spiritual journey, it was ultimately a fun and luscious experience. I’m lucky I got to know my Tokorats”

Left Ear are re-introducing another ten lost tracks from Nicholas Georgieff and Virgil Work, St Louis' basement electronics duo Workdub.

The release spans material from 1989-95 and includes recordings from their sole LP and both cassette albums. Workdub’s music hardly fits into a vacuum and some might even say it’s otherworldly. Tracks like “Reach for the Stars” and “Lunar Module” reflect dreams of space-age exploration, all the while their investigation into drum machines, synthesizers, samples and digital fx’s matched with their organic live instrumentation work to create a unique atmospheric dubbed out sound.

Previously unreleased music from one of the most important and influential composers in
the history of multi-disciplinary electronic music.

Originally written and performed in 1968, and gaining worldwide acclaim throughout the
1970s, Gian Carlo Menotti would update and revise his play for the turn of the 80s which
called for a new approach to the music and sound effects - Suzanne Ciani was the perfect
candidate as demonstrated with her other cosmic cinematic itches with android music for
The Stepford Wives and The Incredible Shrinking Woman.

DJ Richard returns with another stunning release on Dial Records: Path Of Ruin. Inspired by the rather harsh magic of New England in winter - the place where the three tracks have been recorded - DJ Richard creates a wide and dark raving beauty.

Ethereal Icelandic goddess Björk new album, Utopia.
It features artwork by Jesse Kanda, who has previously designed cover art for FKA Twigs and fellow Björk collaborator Arca.

"Rhythmic Brutalism" is the title of this release, available as two CD set or two separate 12 inch vinyl LPs; the title is also a very apt description of the music itself. Romania-born Alexandra Atnif is fascinated by the harsh, grey concrete beauty and minimally repetitive force of the brutalist post-war architecture of her homeland, and this fascination has given rise to the music here.

This latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records’ successful Deutsche Elektronische Musik series delves deeper into the German nation’s vaults to bring a fascinating new collection that again brings together a selection of classic German electronic and rock groups, including Neu!, Cluster, Popol Vuh, La Düsseldorf, Agitation Free, alongside a host of rare tracks by lesser known artists which includes Michael Bundt, Bröselmaschine, Dronsz, Achim Reichel and others.
The music of Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 ranges from the introverted pastoralism of Hans Joachim Roedelius and Bröselmaschine, to the angular and futuristic electronic experimentations of Klauss Weiss, Pyrolator, Deuter, Michael Bundt and others, to the proto-punk of La Düsseldorf and the heavy space, progressive and cosmic rock of Missus Beastly, Niagara and Dyzan.
The music on Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 was all recorded in the 1970s up to the early 1980s, at a time when forward-thinking German electronic and rock groups were searching for a new musical identity in order to separate themselves from both the cultural legacy of post-world war two Germany as well the ‘cultural imperialism’ of USA and UK rock. In this process German groups created some of the most unique and inspired music, the defining motorik beat alongside a host of ethno-musical influences from far afield – including Turkey, India, Brazil – as well as the musical and futurist possibilities of developments in electronics and technology itself.
Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 is released as a heavyweight 3xLP, deluxe double CD pack and digital release. The new extensive sleevenotes are by David Stubbs, who is the author of the acclaimed book, ‘Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany’ (Faber & Faber).

Move D (David Moufang) and Jordan GCZ (Jordan Czamanski) are back again on wax after a hiatus since their 2015 live in Seattle album, on Further Records. Here they team up again for 2 ice hot and slow burning studio jams - recorded this year in Amsterdam ... immerse yourself..TIP!

Baltimore’s PJ Dorsey has traversed a lifelong journey delving into psychoactive music which can alter one’s cognitive and conscious state. He harnesses his experiences to create music as Tarotplane. Using guitar, effects and processing he produces time suspending soundscapes - immersive music for merging the mind and body.
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358 Oblique is the follow up to First which was released on Aguirre Records in 2015. Find yourself adrift in the lapping waters of a slow unraveling sea of sound, a spectral vortex of shimmering tones and discrete samples guide the listener into an aural abyss, while plangent six-string melodies offer glimpses into a sanctifying
sensory space. The two exploration provide an evocative journey through a psychedelic continuum and beyond.

First outing for this collaborative effort from the prolific Posh Isolation mainstay Loke Rahbek and Frederik Valentin of KYO, also on the revered Danish label. As old friends circling around the same scene this is the first time they have combined their respective perspectives. The results are an ambitious aquatic infused audio environment. Recorded near water at Valentin’s studio within the vicinity of the new aquarium in Copenhagen, Buy Corals Online channels the sensual floating aspects of such environments.

For the third full length document of his classical works, Mario Diaz de Leon presents his most unified offering to date, distilling the modernistic hellfire of his previous releases to a crystalline essence. “Sanctuary” is an album length piece created in collaboration with TAK Ensemble, a brilliant NYC based quintet devoted to energetic and virtuosic performances of contemporary music. Featuring soprano voice, flute, violin, bass clarinet, marimba, and the composer’s own synthesizer work, the album is a hypnotic and ritualistic journey through realms of angelic and demonic experience, combining acoustic and electronic elements with visionary intensity.

"I’ve never met Rod Modell (Deepchord) in person, but we have met through music. He found an obscure cassette of Chi music (from ’86), sent it to Astral Industries and paved the way for the release (30 years later) of ‘The Original Recordings’ in 2016. Since then, we’ve exchanged ideas and good music. I sent Rod a preview of ‘The Kallikatsou Recordings’ - he really liked it - and here came the idea for a remix of ‘Lanterns’. I started working on some random, lo-fi samples from Youtube, using Audacity, perhaps the simplest way of producing loops and samples. It’s the only computer based system that feels like the tape recorders I used to work with. I sent the first sketches to Rod on Facebook, but they ended up in the wrong inbox. I forgot about them, but months later he came back saying he loved them. I decided to go back to working on them, maintaining the lo-fi approach. I began manipulating the samples: time-stretching, tempo and pitch-shifting, mixing different layers and adding old-school monophonic “old speaker” effects, delays and loops. I used a few field recordings, voices and samples from my early ambient cassettes, and they matched. Ario from Astral Industries got involved and the experiment turned into a plan - a vinyl release - ‘Red Lantern at the Kallkatsou’”.

Recorded in a remote English rural setting over a period of 24 hours this is an apt location for a recording that eschews time & space in favour of methodological displacement & deep psychological navigation. Modern Methods For Ancient Rituals is an experiment in acoustic & synthetic symbiosis which is deeply influenced by the atmosphere & acoustics of the rural location of Cats Abbey resulting in a set of recordings which can aid to the transformation of consciousness. Child & Bean conjure an audio experience which encapsulates elements of drone, trance, pulse, rhythm and melody subtly shifting all into a psychologically penetrating experience beyond the aesthetic and into the comforting unknown.

“4 Tones to facilitate travel through time.” So begins the listeners’ journey into what has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of Coil history ever released.

Each of the four pieces on Time Machines is named after the chemical compound of the hallucinogenic drug that they were composed for, and the album was meticulously crafted to enable what John Balance referred to as "temporal slips" in time and space, allowing both the artist and audience to figuratively "dissolve time".

Inspired by long form ceremonial music of Tibet and other religions, where the intent is to lose oneself in the music – to meditate or achieve a trance state – Time Machines became Drew McDowall, John Balance, and Peter Christopherson’s “electronic punk-primitive” answer to this tribal concept.

Starting as a rough demo tape recorded solely by Coil member Drew McDowall, Time Machines started to take full form when McDowall enthusiastically delivered these demo recordings to Balance and Christopherson as sketches for a new Coil project with the primary goal of shifting Coil’s sound further into a more conceptually abstract direction. Largely recorded in 1997 using single takes with minimal post production, these four drones contain every intended fluctuation and tone, along with every glitch of the original – “Artifacts generated by your listening environment are an intrinsic part of the experience.”

Actual extended play (a mini Lp of sorts)... Get into the mind of the cgn wizard. BIG TIP!

Superstar & Star are back on Porridge bullet with there first vinyl E.P Proper!: Mastermind E.P!
A collection of seven classic songs from Superstar’s vaults available for the first time on an Estonian Vinyl Record!
Neville Lawrence Immigrated from his home country of Trinidad to New York in the mid 80’s where, a few years later, following his fleeting east coast success, he re-settled with Wife Anne (Star) in Omaha, Nebraska where they continued to perform, produce and record music until the present day.
After releasing a cassette, 7” and 12” single with us in the last year we are happy to present yet another wonderful release from superstar and star! Big Big Hugs!

On Kings Chambers sixth release Samo DJ brings his cheap Streetboxx sampler to Hidden Operators studio and they team up for some dancehall beat making and live mixing under the (obvious) name Streetboxxer.
Samo DJs releases on labels like L.I.E.S, The Trilogy Tapes, and of course his own Born Free label. But this ragga infused EP will not come as a surprise for those who have heard his excellent dancehall mix for Red Light Radio earlier this year.

S>>D aka Sean Dorris from Belfast delivers his debut album 'Co Intel Pro' on CPU. Refined sampling alongside hip hop influenced breaks sees S>>D operating in a similar dimension to VHS Head. Reminiscent of 1980s sci-fi soundtracks interwoven with IDM-tinged electro, haunting atmospheres prevail throughout with hints of a genre that has yet to emerge. Presented over 2x12" vinyl at 45rpm for superior sound quality.
Fans of Pye Corner Audio, Gescom or indeed anything on Skam will certainly dig this.

Further departing from both the cinematic abstraction of ‘Piteous Gate’ and the hectic drums of ‘Damaged Merc’, Berlin producer M.E.S.H.’s new full-length, ‘Hesaitix’, is marked by its hyper-ornamented rhythms and a sense of pensive, moonlit spaces.
The atmosphere has shifted; the radical deconstruction of previous releases has given way to subtler interventions, building new structures in strange territories. Shifting from the meditative to states of manic unease, Hesaitix is an unnerving injection into both the social space of club music and the interior space of digital audio fantasy.
How did I become so stupid?
A sound can be both formless and over-rendered, like a boneless but fleshy hand from a life
drawing class.
What agent could set these broken sounds in motion?
A laugh behind an evil curtain. A drummer that’s cool and grotesque, a detuned siren. A brushfire
under a full moon.
Recorded in Berlin and Umbria, Hesaitix sees Janus resident and PAN staple M.E.S.H. firmlyengaged in a kind of sonic worldbuilding, a place where the unconscious and the alien intersect