Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 317 Items

Skinshape is the project of British musician, William Dorey. The sound has roots in many genres, but in particular 1960s-70s Funk, Soul, Reggae, Psychedelic Rock, Afrobeat and Folk. Skinshape grew out of a love for old music and the way it sounded. Initially Dorey experimented with samples (especially drum breaks) to create instrumental hip-hop/trip-hop tracks, but then later started to play around with tape machines as a means to create his own 'samples'. This process gave birth to Skinshape, with all elements being recorded by Dorey since the first self-titled album, released in 2014. He released his second album Oracolo in 2015, and in 2017 he released his third album 'Life & Love.'

The title ‘Persona’ was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name, specifically a shot in the opening credits of a child reaching out to touch a woman’s face on a screen, which is shifting between one face and another. This powerful image struck Ryan and it inspired the album’s main theme — an exploration of the persona, the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us, the spaces in between; between states, people, light and dark, the inner persona and the outer persona.

“My music is generally inward looking. I like finding something about the self within music, that doesn't have to be specific but maybe asks something or reveals something. This record is a continuation on the self through electronic sounds. Like Legowelt once said ‘a synthesiser is like a translator for unknown emotions’, which I think sums up what I am trying to do. I think all these emotions we have make up our persona. So in a way by finding new ones you alter or expand your persona. And that is what I want my music to try to do. I deliberately aimed to be more sonically diverse with this record. I wanted to experiment more. I wanted to create new sounds and new emotions.” — Rival Consoles

The first in a series of compilations by Jura Soundsystem is a blend of Dub, Ambient, Downtempo, Boogie and Proto House with a focus on music never before released on Vinyl, sought after out of print titles and some special versions edited specifically for the album.
The intention with this project was to delve deeper into the reissue pond and unearth some lesser known tracks and artists. Highlights include Smackos (AKA Legowelt) Ambient epic ‘We Can Watch Alf In The Hotel Room’, never before released on Vinyl, the Dub / Psych hybrid of Minus Group’s ‘Black Shadow’, Kash’s sought after ‘Percussion Sundance’ and special edits of Ken Dang and Tabou Combo. The end of the album includes some soothing Ambient tools.

In the late 1960s, Ursula Bogner started to record her own music on reel-to-reel tapes. With some of these titles, we only found individual tracks of pieces recorded on a four-track-recorder – in these cases, I had to recombine the separate tracks to recreate the original piece. Unfortunately, I could not involve Ursula Bogner in the mixing process as she passed away in 1994. Invoking the original’s authenticity might seem insensitive, yet there was no other way to release them in their entirety. Ultimately, only three of the tracks featured on this CD/LP are such ‘reworkings’. All other titles were taken straight from the original reels. Covering a fairly short period of her creative career, they also convey a peculiar coherence in both form and content. A coherence that reflects her accessible, rhythmic and sometimes even ‘poppy’ side. Naturally, my own preference played a part in the selection process. All my personal favourites made it on the CD/LP, and whenever I listen to this collection, I invariably succumb to the titles’ light-hearted nonchalance. This might leave many hours of undiscovered gems, but a further compilation is already in the works.
My thanks go out to the Bogner family, especially Sebastian Bogner, who was generous enough to grant me access to the reels and supply me with invaluable insights into his mother’s life. I hope that listeners will enjoy the same exhilaration I experienced on discovery of Ursula Bogner’s music.

Jan Jelinek

"...a more twisted, trickier and to some extent bolder version of dark-synth, compared not only to the artist's earlier releases, but everything the genre has presented since its resurgence... still heavily inspired by the eighties, still carrying its cinematic character with pride, yet, darker... a spotless record, worthy of continuous repeats and encouraging of the notion that we have expressed in the past, that Confrontational is one of the best acts - if not the finest one - in this much competitive and as of late super productive synthwave business." ~Destroy/Exist

Beacon's third full-length record enters sight as a work of meticulous revision and refraction.
Returning home to New York in 2016, four years and several tours since the duo's first
release with Ghostly International, Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett knew the next
direction would be di-erent. Together they embarked on open-ended sessions, adopting a
more linear style of songwriting compared to their previous loop and texture-driven method.
They fundamentally constructed demos from piano chords and guitar phrases with vocal
melodies, editing iterations almost ad infinitum, looking through each from a multitude of
angles. Compositions expanded, while others pared back to where they began. Like the
bending of light, this abstractive and patient process outlines a space and scale in which
seemingly separate colors _ minimalist ballads, elaborate pop spirituals, and four-on-the-floor
dance sequences _ can coexist at di-erent speeds, fanning out with spectral cohesion. A
prismatic collection Beacon call Gravity Pairs. On Gravity Pairs, Beacon channel the
philosophy with pure pop mystique, slicing through dense and foggy dance and electronic
music apparatuses to create something familiar but unique, melodic but cathartic. Rippling
through these songs are iridescent synthesizer lines, stoic piano phrasing, dazzling percussion,
posh harpsichord, understated xylophone, and a crisp voice in complete control. Taken as a
whole, in their various combinations and compressions, these complementary and secondary
tones unlock the lushest field of color, a universe of light.

Letherette return to their WULF imprint, this time with EP5. Whilst EP4 was aimed at the dance floor, EP5 sees Letherette slow it down a little. Featuring the velvet pipes of Olivier St Louis on EP opener, 'Love Lust', as well as signature Letherette chops on Pal Mal, After8, Fresh & Clean and Pianto.

Anne, the second album By Toronto saxophonist and composer Joseph Shabason, is
a tonal essay on degenerative illness. Delicately and compassionately woven with
interviews of Shabason's mother from whom the album takes its name, Anne finds
its creator navigating a labyrinth of subtle and tragic emotions arising from his
mother's struggle with Parkinson's disease. Across the nine vivid postcards of jazzladen
ambience that comprise the album, Shabason unwraps these difficult themes
with great care and focus revealing the unseen aspects of degenerative diseases that
force us to re-examine common notions of self, identity, and mortality. Shabason's
uncanny ability to manoeuvre through such microscopic feelings is mirrored by his
capacity to execute a similar tightrope-walk through musical genres. His music
occupies a specific space that is as palpable as it is difficult to pin labels to. R.I.Y.L.
Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Laraaji, Robert Rich, Harold Budd

Follow up to their debut Liquid Deep, Dreamcast Davon and Sasac are back for another PPU PRODUCT.

After a break of 6 years, Atlanta based electronic musician, producer and sound
designer Richard Devine returns with a new album. Recorded between 2016 and
2017 using Richard's custom built Eurorack modular system and two Nord G2
Modular units, Sort\Lave features 12 tracks of intricate electronica that ranges from
abrasive percussive experiments such as `Revsic` to `Astra's dazzling juxtaposition of
sounds and onto the radiant ambience of the album's closer `Takara`. Talking about
the album's genesis Devine explains "I've been using modular synthesizers since I was
17, but have never written complete tracks using these newer systems. This was my
first experiment to see if it would be possible and I probably spent about 5 years
building up the systems that I used on this album." "The aim here was to create
something that felt very organic, detailed, spacious, big and warm and just as
importantly, a record that you could put on and play all the way through that flowed
in a seamless way. So the tracks are more like captured snapshot performances
where I could play around with the idea of probability-based sequencing for every
patch, string multiple sequencers together that would feed other sequencers to
come up with interesting rhythms and melodies. It was really fun coming up with
new sounds this way too, I felt like I created several I haven't heard before with this
album. Some of the tracks on the album were complete accidents and evolved from
something that happened spontaneously." Making his debut in 1995, Devine's
releases for labels including Schematic, Warp Records and Detroit Underground
have established him as one of the leading figures within the electronica community

Dixon gave his personal touch to LCD Soundsystem's 'I Used To' on the A side. B side features a previously digital only version of 'Pulse'.

At the beginning of 2015 I approached Victor Greetham at The Agile Rabbit Pizzeria about programming a series of concerts at his spot in Brixton Village, an open air marketplace in the heart of Brixton (London, UK).

The premise being that I would bring a selection of great, strictly one hour long concerts every Thursday night, some of which would be completely improvised free form music. These performances came to be named “Agile Experiments”, paying homage to Victor & his venue for allowing us to expose the market's passing trade audiences to something they may well have never had an opportunity to hear before or ever again for that matter.

We implemented two simple rules for the performances:
1. We wouldn't discuss or plan anything around what we were going to play.
2. We would play for an hour straight with no breaks.

After a year of concerts in the market place, I organised 8 one hour long recording sessions in a studio with 8 different combinations of musicians I had had the honor of performing with over this period and we applied the same rules as we did for the live performances in order to document these happenings.

Two further years down the line, after sitting on these recordings trying to find a way for them to be heard, I am extremely pleased to announce a sequential release of two limited edition vinyls featuring 12 extracts from these raw & unpredictable performances.

I hope that you will truly enjoy these minutes of off-the-cuff cooperative creativity.

In good faith and love for people and music,

Dave De Rose

Lucrecia Dalt's Anticlines is a volume of poetic theory and sound contemplating the bodies of self and earth's surface. On Anticlines, Dalt conjures a sonic space of speculative synthesis and spoken word where South American rhythms rattle contemporary composition recalling Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley, and Annea Lockwood. CD version comes with lyric booklet documenting Dalt's collaborative work with Regina de Miguel and Henry Andersen.

DFA is proud to present the long-awaited debut EP by London's Marcus Marr, Familiar Five. Influenced by
classic soul, rock, disco, and acid house, the multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer makes spacy dance
music, often including percolating synths, funky bass guitar, and vocals. A regular at Berlin's famed
nightclub Berghain/Panorama Bar since 2014, the lifelong music obsessive's first encounters with dance
music were acid house records, which grew his vinyl collection of rock and soul, and attending all night
parties under Brixton's St Matthews Church. At last, Marr returns to DFA with a collection of elastic
bassline stompers, reminiscent of early Daft Punk. The title track Familiar Five originally began with a rock
riff, which he later repurposed as the backbone of a piece of slow, dark, dance music. Inspired by Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Faust, and Kafka's Metamorphosis, Marr explains that he wanted to make something
spooky and simple - a song utilizing very few elem ents, with a throb and synth vomit. On the flip side,
lead single High Times channels the electric guitar stylings of Nile Rodgers circa 1979, and makes good
use of the producer's trademark whizzing synths as well as vocals from collaborator Nandi Bhebe. Love
Release and Rocketship are both equally effective tracks built for the dancefloor.

"Pablo’s Eye is the science of studio pressure, when engineer becomes artist. Appropriating left and right as well as front and back, Pablo’s Eye uses the mixing desk to examine and exhaust the possibilities of moments. Pablo’s Eye is a record of that examination and exhaustion, but it is also a record of its own inner space. By means of depth placement, psychoacoustics and spatial fug, Pablo’s Eye is experienced in the deeper reaches of the body, bypassing the conscious part of the mind entirely.
Pablo’s Eye is the turning of recorded music inside out to show its seams. It interrogates a song, stripping down the body of the song to reveal its bones. Pablo’s Eye is in the interstices of music, it plugs the gaps, fills the holes. Pablo’s Eye seeks out the concealed mechanisms, it is a song’s hidden agenda.
For this compilation, it was decided to present the softer air-beatings of Pablo’s Eye. More than anything, Pablo’s Eye is a temporary atmosphere, like a taste or a dream..."

5th album by the nine-piece instrumental collective from Amsterdam, Jungle by Night. Incl. downloadcard. After almost a decade of heating up dancefloors across the globe, Jungle by Night have reached manhood. In the process of creating their 5th album, the nine-headed collective melted years of passion, friendship, and influences from krautrock, dance, jazz, afrobeat together into new instrumental prose, fluently speaking the language of their instruments.The band is an oddball ensemble within its own cosmos. A danceable and thundering live-act, connecting with crowds like no other, with beaming fun and energy along the way.

Though highly contemporary Bad Woman is an album that takes Pop music back to a time when lyrics where more than esthetic gimmicks. With Céline’s music, one cannot avoid to listen to what she has to say. To be honest we’ve not been struck by lyrics as much as with this record for quite a long time, and it keeps on growing. Bad Woman can be seen as a mutant blend of everything that’s been produced by the music industry these last 30 years, from Cher’s delirious come-back in the 1990’s to the most embarrassing moments in Dance music (think Gabber and Happy Hardcore), blurring the frontier between “good” and “bad” taste, between commercial and alternative. Just like Cher’s Believe, Céline Gillain’s Bad Woman sometimes sounds like the music of a former diva who’s been through tough times, saw her expectations torn apart and came back to music with a bizarre testimony of her state of mind.

The Invisible World Of Beautify Junkyards is Lisbon band Beautify Junkyards’s third album and effortlessly blend their love of English Acid Folk and Brazilian Tropicalia. In a collection of songs that conjure up a warm and verdant faerie world, delicate acoustic guitars evoke an autumnal England suffused with Iberian heat by other- worldly voices; the ethereal lilt of João Branco Kyron and the warm languor of Rita Vian (a voice redolent of Gal Costa or Os Mutantes’ Rita Lee.)

The production is tempered with a haunted electronic palette that anchors the band squarely in the world of Ghost Box. But more than this, Beautify Junkyards’ sheer song writing talent, production skill and performance virtuosity grant them a place amongst the great outside-of-time bands like Broadcast or The High Llamas.

In 2012, the band’s eponymous first album set out their stall, with a collection of cover versions; mainly of classics of the British Acid-Folk period, but also taking in Tropicalia and German Kosmiche. The album was a hit in Portugal and picked up for airplay in the UK on BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music. Their version of Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity was included on DJ Food’s Krafwerk Kover Kollection.

Their second album in 2015, The Beast Shouted Love, carried their influences forward with original songs and cemented a style that is at once traditional, experimental and exotic. In 2016 the band debuted on Ghost Box with a single as part of the label's Other Voices Series.

Packaging: The lavish packaging on all formats is designed by Julian House with artwork that attempts to capture the band’s love of the Czech New-Wave and the twilight worlds of WB Yeats. The heavyweight vinyl LP includes a free download card.