Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 213 Items

Late Night Tales and Bonobo were pretty much made for each other, it just took them a while to both realise it. Stepping forward into the compiler’s spotlight for the 33rd edition is Simon Green – aka Bonobo – a musician, producer and DJ perfectly suited to soundtrack an evening spent reclining to some parallel beats.

180 gram vinyl incl. download code!

TIM HECKER’s classic Ravedeath 1972 approaches a form of secular musical transcendentalism from within the battered temple of spirituality. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this piece is essentially a live recording. In reality, it exists in a nether world between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice as a unity. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine. While the title of the piece “Hatred of Music” might be a clue, the album is also partly an attempt to confront a pervasive negativity surrounding music. Historical rituals of destroying pianos, mountains of pirated CDRs pushed by bulldozers in Eastern Europe, or the melancholy of the digital music era began as sideline motifs which quickly informed the work on this record. They also really didn't at all. Despite that the context is wide open in such a form of musical abstraction, the substance of these immersive compositions showcases Hecker s continued mastery of organizing sound into a visceral near entity. It is an almost physical presence that the listener feels as much as hears. This work is a significant contribution to Hecker's oeuvre, one which spans over ten years of musical production. Ravedeath is an enigmatic document of beauty and force. The album was recorded mostly over the period of one day in July of 2010. Iceland-based musician BEN Frost assisted with the engineering and performs on this recording.

Who thought this would ever happen? All new album from Michael Sandison & Marcus Eoin Sandison! Gatefold sleeve with printed inners.

Oooohwee! New Bonobo for 2013!
incl. download code

Itʼs been five years since the last Belong long player, as the duo works slowly to organize their sound works. Both the time invested, and the wait, have been well rewarded with this return. Common Era shows extraordinary progression from that first album of dense, scorched earth instrumentals, hints of a new direction having been revealed on the Colorless Record EP from 2008 which contained covers of four should-have-been classics from the original psychedelic era. The new material has such common pop elements as “songs”, vocals and drum machines, but the results could hardly be called conventional and are like little else happening on the current “scene”. The songs themselves are akin to radio transmissions received from another time and place, just as likely to be the future as the past, or even from a contemporary alternate universe. They are both passionate and dispassionate, grey yet technicolor, ghostly and palpable, distant yet immediate, grainy and focused. Upon listening these conceptual contradictions are dismissed with ease, as the recordings reveal that they fit all of these descriptors simultaneously, an extraordinary balancing act.

Die limitierte Auflage kommt als "rauchig schwarzes" Vinyl mit Download-Karte, die digitale Bonustracks enthält. Nach Ausflügen in Deep House, Acid und Techno, die ihn laut Resident Advisor zu "einem der fesselndsten Künstler Berlins" gemacht hatten, brachte Lorenz Brunner 2013 sein Projekt Recondite mit dem Album „Hinterland“ bei Ghostly International unter.

Der Produzent schaute auf die Heimat seiner Kindheit, Niederbayern, und nutzte Field Recordings, um die Musik mit den Emotionen der Jahreszeiten in der Region zu verbinden. „Hinterland“ präsentierte eine besondere Atmosphäre - eisige, unheimliche, melancholische Musik, die intime Melodien mit knackigen Perkussion-Sounds kreuzte -, die zum Markenzeichen von Recondite werden sollte. "Das ist das Album, das irgendwann aus Recondite herauskommen musste", sagte er damals. "Es ist Recondite." Ein Jahrzehnt später ist der Sound immer noch ganz und gar sein eigener.

10 year anniversary edition on orange & red marble vinyl. While his formative years were spent listening to everything from Yes to Photek, Scott Hansen didn't get his hands on an actual guitar or drum machine until he left his native Sacramento for San Francisco in 1995. "Encountering this whole new world at 20 years old was a profound experience," says Hansen, better known by his musical pseudonym Tycho and as the graphic artist Iso50. "At the time, I was just learning the processes of design and music; both felt very similar, and have flowed back and forth for me ever since."As seamless as his two creative outlets have been, nearly a decade passed before the release of Hansen's first proper Tycho LP, Sunrise Projector (later expanded and reissued under the title Past Is Prologue). And while three striking singles have emerged since then, the sum of all those sepia-toned parts is nowhere near the double-exposed soundscapes of Dive. The product of a prolonged break from IS050's design work and blog, it pays tribute to Tycho's prismatic past (the dense, guitar-guided turning points of "Daydream" and "Adrift") but spends most of its time pointing to the project's not-so-distant future.That can mean any number of things, really, from the halcyon hooks and hopeful horizons of "A Walk" to the expansive, wildly expressive tone poetry of the title track, an eight-minute epic that unfolds like a compressed concept album. Or at the very least, a restless vision of prog-rock - one that's been coated in neon colors and filtered through a thick piece of blotter paper. And then there's "Elegy," a spare curtain closer that pairs a vulnerable crescendo with a fitting bridge to future works.And with that, Dive establishes its position as the most diverse musical statement of Hansen's multi-medium career; the point where his skills as a performer finally catch up with his vaporized vision of a world that doesn't belong to any particular time or place."Nostalgia is a common thread in my work," says Hansen, "but this album wasn't driven by that idea. I see these songs as artifacts from a future which might have more in common with our past than our present."

10th Anniversary Edition on black & orange swirl vinyl! A decade ago, the static signal of "Terminal" booting-up sounded and Galactic Melt launched into the atmosphere for the first time; Seth Haley's Com Truise project arrived in full. A graphic designer based in New Jersey at the time, Haley found a sound on his synthesizers that sparked an immediate nostalgia response, tapping into classic sci-fi and proto-electro in a way that felt early '80s in scope, but also remarkably weird - stutter-step proggy and intoxicatingly psychedelic. Unknowingly he had stepped into a genre prism; suppose we know it now as synth-wave though the tag never landed squarely. To Haley, this was a space to explore and a story to tell, which he'd do across a saga of releases that would resonate with a legion of fans and send the producer touring the world in perpetual orbit. His full-length debut on Ghostly International, Galactic Melt delivered on the promise of Haley's Cyanide Sisters EP as well as high-profile remixes for Twin Shadow, Neon Indian, and Daft Punk. Bold, imaginative, and unapologetically cosmic, the set occupies a beloved coordinate in the Com Truise catalog, considered the gateway for many. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Haley and Ghostly have repressed the long-sold out 2xLP and added five unreleased tracks to the expanded digital edition, giving this classic its due treatment as it passes the milestone. From the keyed-up, skyscraping machine love of "vhs Sex" and "Cathode Girls" to pulsing cuts like "Air Cal" and "Ether Drift," the music on Galactic Melt is mathy, forlorn, funky, and mighty in technical ambition. That they're all noticeably cinematic is, of course, by design. Haley envisioned Galactic Melt as a "sort of film score...from the mind," chronicling the life and death of Com Truise, the world's first synthetic/robotic astronaut, from his creation and time on earth to his subsequent mission to a newly discovered galaxy called Wave 1 (released in 2014).

Established in 2013 by Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen, the duo operated until 2020 as a creative laboratory for the London-based musicians to explore beyond their traditional musical endeavours. They sought to deconstruct their usual sonic frameworks, venturing into a novel and unfamiliar auditory landscape. Their work seamlessly integrated various forms of multi-instrumentalism, traversing the realms of industrial, jazz, psychedelia and minimalism.

'The band's self-released cassette debut, 'Sleepy Jazz for Tired Cats' presents an unconstrained, complex and abstract introduction to their distinctive and darkly thought-provoking sound. In contrast, Tomaga’s seminal album, 'Futura Grotesk', further elevates their sonic explorations, leading to compositions that are more elusive and profoundly evocative, resembling the surreal and unsettling language of dreams and other subconscious wanderings transposed into a unique musical expression.

Soul Jazz Records Deutsche Elektronische Music Volume 2 is now available as two separate double LPs for the first time in over 10 years! Soul Jazz Records' 'Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2' is their second voyage into the world of Krautrock and German electronic music from the 1970s and early 1980s. Features a stunning line-up of seminal German groups, including Can, Faust, Popul Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, Amon Düül II, La Düsseldorf, as well as a host of lesser known and more obscure groups and artists such as Agitation Free, Bröselmaschine, Niagara and many more.

Limited to 500 copies.

Another great comp on the Late Night Tales imprint feat. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Koushik, Gravediggaz, Madvillain, Fairport Convention!

Heavyweight soul providers Fat Freddy’s Drop are about to take flight once again with the worldwide release of new album Blackbird!

Oh yes, finally the follow-up to Mount Kimbie's critically acclaimed debut "Crooks & Lovers", now on Warp Records!

Transcendentally beautiful, The Space Lady's music is returning to Earth. Transmitting messages of peace and harmony, The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, then San Francisco ten years later, playing versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. Following the theft and destruction of her accordion , The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter and headset mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its leading exponents ever since. The legend of The Space Lady has continued to grow in the 21st century. Following inclusions on compilations by John Maus, Erol Alkan and Irwin Chusid's "Songs In The Key of Z," the benevolent spectre of The Space Lady inspired humanity from afar in the mists of time and obscurity. 2013 sees the first official release of The Space Lady's music following a hand-dubbed cassette and CD in the early 90s. These recordings were recorded in 1990 for that hand-made release and have now been remastered by Brian Pyle (Ensemble Economique).

Tricky"s first album on his brand new False Idols imprint, launched almost a decade ago in 2013. "I was lost for ages" he says, after a 3 year hiatus since his previous album.

White label promo copy.
Writing on labels.

"We are excited to reissue Kuedo's classic 2011 album 'Severant' on double vinyl for the first time, and with a bonus track 'Work, Live &
Sleep In Collapsing Space'. The cover artwork has been redesigned by Raf Rennie (Who also designed Kuedo's recent album on
Brainfeeder, Infinite Window). In terms of feeling, ‘Severant’ explores the space between the detached world of the imagination and the
real-time world; that feeling of coming out of a daydream, on the edge of the drift from the day-to-day grind. Jamie says of this moment
”As reality shapes imagination and escapism affects your choices in the real world, there is a strange relational loop between the two
and the space in between the two. There’s a bitter sweetness in that gap, it has a certain emotive quality, kind of in between being and
non-being”. Again, musically ‘Severant’ is inspired by related themes. It sounds as if it’s in a sweet spot between the emotive, innately
futurist synth soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, borne from a time when the very idea of futurism was more prevalent, in
combination with musical ideas and inspiration from the emotionally ambivalent, materialist fantasies of ‘coke rap‘ such as The Clipse.
Rhythmically the record is influenced by what Jamie calls ”the two ultra modern musics of modern times”, footwork from Chicago, which
Planet Mu has explored in depth on its recent releases, and again the drum machine grids of coke rap. Jamie says ”I wanted to capture
a really futurist sentiment, kind of melancholy and grand luminescent, so I used the instrument that most evokes that for me - that
sweeping Vangelis brass sound.” And on coke rap he talks about the emotional ‘half being’ of the music, the energetically charged,
detached ambivalence of the MCs, and the admission that the MCs could be ”fantasising without admitting to doing so.”

Limited edition for Black Friday Record Store Day 2021!

limited to 500 copies

Still in shrink, but opened, with hype sticker

New 2 track EP from Theo Parrish. Far Out Sounds from the boss! Nuff Said!

Full length collaboration from Duane Pitre & ELEH. Pitreleh use high resolution analog and digital tools to create music utilizing natural vibrations and harmonics as rhythm and melody. Inspiration is drawn directly from vibrational waves (sound, gravity, water). The electronics, of which both pieces are constructed, are tuned using pure intonation which utilizes the prime numbers: 1-3-5-7.

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the cannon of disco music, Patrick Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined "The San Francisco Sound." This very special LP features a compilation of restored Cowley productions unearthed in the garage of vintage gay porn company Fox Studio. Spanning nearly 90 minutes, the 11 tracks (originally recorded between 1973 and 1981), epitomize Cowley's forward thinking and his affinity for mixing elements of varying styles of music. Simply put, Cowley was a musical trailblazer ahead of his time. His credits as a producer include SYLVESTER's "Do You Wanna Funk,” PAUL PARKER’s "Right on Target" and collaborations with JORGE SOCCARAS of INDOOR LIFE—this is just the tip of the iceberg. An early victim of AIDS, Cowley passed away at the age of 32; these recordings shine a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon from us. Featuring over 80 minutes of music, this compilation contains soundtrack music from two Fox Studio films, Muscle Up and School Daze, never before released on vinyl. The tapes were restored and transferred using the same speed and pitch settings, then remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl comes housed in a glossy dual pocket gatefold featuring classic gay porn imagery from the Fox Studio vaults plus an essay from Indoor Life vocalist, JORGE SOCCARRAS. For Patrick's 63rd birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem present a glimpse into the instrumental world of a young genius. These recordings shine a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

Thomas Mullarney and Jacob Gossett, aka Brooklyn duo Beacon, introduced themselves to the world with the No Body and For Now EPs, both released last year on Ghostly International. The EPs were united by minimalist, R&B-influenced instrumentation, and also by a lyrical theme, with both serving as meditations on the darkness that underpins the most intense of human emotions: love.

The duo's debut album The Ways We Separate both consolidates and develops these ideas. The album focuses, as the title suggests, on the idea of separation — both within the context of relationships and in a more intimate, psychological sense. As Mullarney explains, "The narrative contained inside The Ways We Separate deals with two kinds of separation: one where two entities grow apart, and the other where we grow apart from ourselves. Over the course of a relationship, the two sometimes happen together, one being the result of the other."

Nigel Goodrich, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.), Mauro Refosco (David Byrnem Peppers) & Thom Yorke are Atoms For Peace!

Richard Dorfmeister & Rupert Huber with another batch of finest Vienna Downbeat with a touch of Ambient. Tip!

Amazing band from Detroit. Think Throbbing Gristle meets Joy Divison and then some. Deep, dark, dirty and funky!

Horizontal Structures is palpably a more open, more expressive album than the previous studio recording, Vertical Ascent. There is more contrast, more light and shade. St Hilaire and Muellbauer add fresh drama and swing to the intimate tonal and rhythmic interactions of the core grouping.

Chilled, tripping leftfield House/Ambient hybrid EP

Label cover.

Pink vinyl is close to NM. Limited to 150 numbered copies. Cover has tiny wear.

This 7” is strictly limited to 300.

Record and cover are close to NM.

Volker Bertelmann and Hildur Guðnadóttir hardly need an introduction - their distinct styles have graced the speakers of pretty much anyone enamored with experimental music in the last decade, and between them the two have chalked up an enviable canon of successes. Bertelmann, under the Hauschka moniker has explored the extremities of prepared piano improvisation, and Guðnadóttir has taken cinematic, explorative cello music into a new era of depth and passion, so to hear them both together is a rare and unexpected treat. Rare is putting it lightly even - „Pan Tone“ is a recording of a single concert which the duo performed on the 26th of February 2010 as part of Arctic Circle - Bubbly Blue and Green festival at Kings Place in London, and documents an event that would truly never be repeated. Sure, they could attempt to re-create the event, but the spontaneity and glorious serendipity in this particular recording is a pleasure to behold.

Bertelmann and Guðnadóttir decided to create a set of compositions which based on the idea of the ocean, and took a book of Pantones to extract exact references to the specific colors of the sea. These watery tones form the backbone of the performance and inform the direction of the collaboration, guiding us through rich blues, glassy greens and frothy whites. In listening to the music it seems incredibly appropriate that the artists should choose blue as the middle ground in their work; the ineffable lightness that Bertelmann brings to the table is a stark contrast to Guðnadóttir´s sinking darkness, and as the two styles collide we witness a plethora of tones, shades and hues. It sounds as if the two artists have been playing together for decades, and their sound is so perfectly matched you might wonder why it´s taken them this long to collaborate. All that´s left for us to do is to soak in the tidal beauty of this very exclusive body of music, to listen to it sing, bubble and crash through its duration before settling in total silence. When the record reaches its conclusion there is an unsettling calm, a sense that you have witnessed something very special indeed, and that is a feeling to prize amongst all else.

Tosca is Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder & Dorfmeister fame) and Rupert Huber, who have been crafting trip-hop and downtempo together for nearly two decades. Odeon, their sixth proper full-length album, should be darker and more subdued than previous material. Dorfmeister explains: "We"ve always had a darker, ambient side, but we really wanted to emphasize that aspect of music with this record. That"s where our hearts are at the moment, just keeping the whole vibe low and understated." The album promises to be an intimate listen as well, due in part to Tosca"s face-to-face work with a "creative inner circle" of guest vocalists.

In celebration of the label's 15th year anniversary Sacred Bones is now repressing this legendary debut on Colored Vinyl for the very first time. The vinyl colour is a mix of black, white & orange! Margaret Chardiet was born and raised in New York City. As a founding member of the Red Light District collective in Far Rockaway, NY she has been a figurehead in the underground experimental scene since the age of seventeen. She describes her drive to make noise music as something akin to an exorcism where she is able to express, her "deep-seated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them Feel something [specifically] in uncomfortable/confrontational ways." Engineered by Sean Ragon of Cult of Youth, Abandon is Pharmakon's first proper studio album and also her first widely distributed release. The songs on this album were all written and recorded during a turbulent three month time period during which several fundamental life changes forced her to begin living in a completely new way and in a new space. She describes the lyrical themes of this album as being about "Loss. Losing everything. Relinquishing control. Complete psychic abandon. Blind leaps of faith into the fire, walking out unscathed. Crawling out of the pit."

Soul Jazz Records Deutsche Elektronische Music Volume 2 is now available as two separate double LPs for the first time in over 10 years! Soul Jazz Records' 'Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2' is their second voyage into the world of Krautrock and German electronic music from the 1970s and early 1980s. Features a stunning line-up of seminal German groups, including Can, Faust, Popul Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, Amon Düül II, La Düsseldorf, as well as a host of lesser known and more obscure groups and artists such as Agitation Free, Bröselmaschine, Niagara and many more.

Stareaway is Markus Guentner (Kompakt, A Strangely Isolated Place) and Heiko Badje (La Grande Illusion) carefully combining ambient soundscapes, shoegazy guitars, melancholic Pop melodies and these amazing bodiless vocals to form a deep, subtle and somehow hard to define kind of enchanted music. Their 2013 album No Life In This Ghost Town (mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri) is now re-released (via Couldn’t Care More); seven wonderful tracks, caressing and thoughtful, yet touched by a certain darkness that makes you shiver. Brilliant works that need to be rediscovered. The album-rerelease is accompanied by a spectacular EP with remixes by Rafael Anton Iris-arri, Simon Scott (Slowdive), Thomas Fehlmann und David Westlake (ex-Sneaker Pimps).

2LP, remaster - Imperial Tiger Orchestra's Mercato [12th years Anniversary Edition] includes the best of both albums Mercato & Addis Abeba remastered with bonuses live recordings in London, Paris, Addis, Tokyo & Cape Town.