Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 242 Items

Music From Memory are excited to present the first compilation of works by British electronic pioneers MLO aka Peter Smith and Jon Tye. Titled ‘Oumuamua’ and second up in the Virtual Dreams series, the compilation is an in-depth artist focused release containing twelve thoughtfully selected tracks that touch on highlights from the duo’s discography as well as newly (re)discovered music drawn from a vast archive of unreleased pieces, sketches and extended jams recorded between 1993-1995.

MLO’s ambient explorations began when Pete and Jon, having first met in rival punk bands during the late ‘70s, found themselves with unlimited access to an incredibly well-equipped studio, having been hired to produce an Icelandic pop star’s record in the early ‘90s. Particularly charmed by the Korg PS 3300 and an Emulator 2, Smith and Tye were also deeply fascinated by outer space and set about developing a musical landscape informed by both this new state of the art musical equipment and what lay beyond the Earth’s limits. Painting with a palette informed by classical minimalism, new age and the works of Cluster & Eno; the duos primary colours were drones, sustained tones, washes, calming tides, gentle temple bells and soft angelic voices with flickering glimpses of percussion and drums that hinted at the possibilities of a dance floor.

‘Oumuamua’ is a collection of music to get lost-in, a wander down the mazed, mirrored corridors of the subconscious. Peaceful, flowing, fresh-water patterns, drawing the listener toward a mediative, inner space. Not strictly ambient, rather the music rests temporarily within the boundaries between drum ‘n’ bass, library music, soundtracks and Techno. Or how Jon Tye himself puts it: “It really feels like music from a different place, a different time, made by different people.”

Artwork by Vica Pacheco, design by Steele Bonus, liner notes by Dr. Rob

Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti have worked together on a powerful hybrid album, where taut rhythms fuse with haunted vocal melodies and spoken word, and field recordings meld with extended ambient pieces. As part of Umor Rex’s 15th anniversary, we here present an album that builds a dialogue between two lands and two unique artists. Mexico is the origin and conceptual residence of our label, while Germany is where we produce and manufacture our records (Berlin functions as the center of distribution and logistics, thanks to our friends at Morr Music). The intertwining imaginations belong to German producer Gudrun Gut (Malaria!) —a notable figure of the subculture and the German music scene since the early 80s, and also a founder of Monika Enterprise and recipient of the ‘Listen to Berlin’ Award in 2019— and singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Mabe Fratti (originally from Guatemala, now based in Mexico City). We knew about "Let's Talk About The Weather" from the beginning, and since the moment Gudrun and Mabe made us part of their project, our excitement could not be greater. The process started with Gudrun and Mabe having long distance conversations, asking about their whereabouts and discussing the weather. This might seem rather commonplace, but it works as a key thematic component for the entire album. The weather as the new great unknown, perceived through the optics of everyday life. Sound files were methodically exchanged, with Mabe exploring words and vocals, and Gudrun working with field recordings taken from each city. In the end, this joint musical venture would provide a healing effect for both artists during life in quarantine. "Aufregend", the opening track of the album, reflects upon a general lack of excitement in modern life. It wonders what the future might hold. Is it cold? Is it warm? Will it be the same? "Air Condition" is an eerie, dazzling collision of climates: the hazy warmth of Mexico City, the deep cold of Uckermark. The last track, which gives the album its name, is a long ambient piece composed of four parts: sound sculptures, field recordings of city life, news and weather forecasts, and private conversations about the climate. It's kind of a collaborative diary, obsessed with a single, all-encompassing subject. Produced and recorded by Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti between Berlin, Uckermark, Veracruz and Mexico City. Mixed by GGut at Stern Studio Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork & photos by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.

Synth legend Suzanne Ciani, Demdike Stare’s Sean Canty & Finders Keepers’ Andy Votel come together on this killer hour-long 2014 synapse popper of a collaboration pooling the occasional group’s esoteric collage-based approach into a remarkably foreboding session pregnant with a dread that’s never quite resolved. Think Vladimir Ussachevsky, Todd Dockstader, Spectre and Company Flow melted thru the Deutsch-Italo industrial DIY tape era and funneled thru an almost impenetrable fog of Ann Arbor basement noizze. Hustling some of Neotantrik’s most amorphous gestures, ’241014’ is a four-segment movement of reduced Buchla treatments, destroyed vinyl loops and scraping foley suspense; like a cosmic dream diary layered into a collage of drones and clatters. Little in Ciani’s extensive catalogue has hinted at what’s on display here; the joyful lullaby-pop of “Seven Waves” or metallic alien soundscraping of “Flowers of Evil” are only hinted at. She instead paints new sonic vistas, allowing space for her collaborators to make themselves known; Votel’s chiming toy autoharp and Bubul Tarang (a Punjab string instrument) add a distinctive flavor, while Canty’s grimy drones and noise-soaked textures drizzle pitch-black molasses into the cracks and crevices. Together, the effect is a bit like hearing Philip Jeck improvising over Popol Vuh’s peerless Moog-led debut “Affenstunde” or Demdike Stare knocking out impromptu reworks of Tangerine Dream’s abstrakt early run. Perhaps unusually, the trio have still never set foot in a studio together, exclusively maintaining their practice in-the-moment and on stage when schedules intersect. So it’s all the more remarkable that their improvisations naturally find a democracy of role and such a heightened level of intuition, beautifully converging their thoughts to mutual, open-ended conclusions that leaves billowing room for interpretation. In a most classic sense, it’s like the sensation of sleep paralysis or dream/nightmare ambiguity, with a level of suggestiveness that’s disorienting from end to end. For the first time the recordings are now available in high fidelity (there was a tape version a couple of years back) - now remastered by Rashad Becker to better represent the otherworldly scope of their actions on stage, from the NWW-like queues and drone of ‘Scanned Accents’ and keening silhouette of ‘Second Action,’ to new sections of subaquatic Porter Ricks-like murk in ‘Anti-Contraction’ and the levitating webs of synth and tactile, sampled textures in ‘Last Canción.’ Tape music and synth music have long shared a passionate embrace, and here turntablism coolly slides in on the action. Canty and Votel’s background in beat tape assembly and crate digging pays off: they’re keenly experimental creators but bring an unfussy sense of rhythm and performance that’s miles beyond any facile repetition of a nostalgia for vintage glory. Combined with Ciani’s delicate Buchla work - it’s a unique proposition.

Mastered by Rashad Becker for this vinyl edition, ‘5 S-Bahn’ finds Lucy Railton rendering a sublime, haunting impression of Berlin made in early Spring 2020 for our Documenting Sound series of sonic postcards from around the globe. It’s essentially a recording of a world-renowned cellist duetting with the S-Bahn outside her apartment in Prenzlauer Berg, playing with, thru, and against the atmosphere of Berlin in spring during lockdown, capturing a scene that feels timelessly nostalgic, pregnant with an unresolved and restless quietude. For a compelling 45 minutes Railton describes the slow daily arc of life under lockdown in a usually bustling Berlin slowed to stasis. Quite brilliantly, her voice and her musical gestures become fleeting ephemeral presences as much as the passing trains, planes overhead, birdsong, and the gorgeous church bells of P’Berg, which all unfold and recede in languorous turns. It reminds us of the exquisite, seemingly effortless location recordings used in Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ - ambient sound in the truest sense of the word; suggestive of life just outside our field of view; close - and out of reach. Railton’s ear for ghostly haptics serves to search out an underlying poetry in the ubiquitous and everyday, highlighting the serene yet dread-filled uncanniness of a usually bustling Berlin awakening from winter into the torpor of lockdown. Railton sets the scene: “On the other side of our backyard wall is Berlin’s main railway line, the Ringbahn. A train passes the apartment block about twenty times an hour, drowning out our conversations and waking us up at night. It is a communal annoyance you learn to love. It structures the shape of this place and enforces a rhythm. I’ve always been glad of these interludes, they provide rich listening material that heightens an otherwise peaceful sonic space. ‘5 S-Bahn’ is my attempt to inscribe part of my sonic location and my own position within it. Over the wall, I learn the look of the garage, the church, the rows of Maple trees, the tracks, a playground and the graffiti. Up here, the traffic on Schoenhauser Allee is more pronounced and the deep hum of the city funnels in along the tracks. The machines and people who had been in our ears all this time are now visible. Pressing record I start the process of learning this space and its articulations, hearing it washed out over and over again by the train’s intense interruptions. I wash out with it too, listening from inside my apartment with my headphones on, playing along, singing along, in duet with the tones and frequencies of this space and the organic shapes of its drama. There is so much music already here, maybe this is a collaboration or a dedication of some sort. I find myself admiring its virtuosity and its personality: relentless, seductive, beautiful in all its variation. By taking part in collaboration, I learn and absorb the character of the other, and through the sitting process, I find new shapes and tonalities and temperaments.”

Welcome to Nicolini’s wonderful world of surprise - Penni’s Palace. Here you will find zebra-chairs and matchbox countachs, colourful tv-screens and Penni the cat presiding over proceedings. You will also find Nicolini, hunched over his MPC or Casio keyboards, sweeping the EQs to make the sounds move, jamming out his songs in heavy microdoses. They are the sounds of machines and the city - Amsterdam centre to be precise - brought to life with volts of electricity.

These songs started out as a live show on the terrace of Garage Noord nightclub, and over the following months Nicolini tweaked and re-recorded them into the collection of tracks you have before you. Bristling with energy, these live jams have a loose, almost mystical feeling - you never know quite what’s around the corner. Sounds jump out of the speakers at you, from car engines to reverb crashes. Opposites face off against each other - the mechanical meets the organic, and the cold emptiness of the city contrasts with the warm timbres of tropical climes.

Nicolini is quite used to combining disparate elements, particularly as a member of the re-configured Zamrock band Witch. As pioneers of some of the heaviest space fuzz back in the ‘70s, Witch combined garage-psych guitars with Zambian dialects and culture to create a wildly unique sound. Nicolini joined the band during their resurgence over the last few years, as they toured far-flung corners of the world. It’s an experience that undoubtedly helped Nicolini hone one skill set in particular - combining unexpected sounds together in unusual ways - and it’s on full display across these nine tracks.

BLACK VINYL RE-PRESS

Copenhagen’s Echocord returns with a long player from Mathimidori this October, entitled the ‘Akebono’ LP and comprised on ten original compositions. Mathimidori, better know by most as Mathias Kaden has been using this alias as a way to showcase his take on dub-leaning, minimalistic and refined Techno via labels such as Dorian Paic’s Raum Musik, Tokyo’s Mule Musiq and Berlin’s Ornaments. Here though we see deliver his debut long player under the guise, and fittingly the LP will be released via esteemed Dub Techno imprint Echocord, home to releases from the likes of STL, Deepchord, Fluxion, XDB and Forest Drive West. Across the ‘Akebono’ album Mathimidori delivers hazy, spaced out instrumentals like ‘Maiia’, ‘Ork’ and ‘Soso’ while tracks like ‘Asaka’ and ‘Shao’ offer a darker approach. The project also welcomes an assortment of collaborations such as opening track ‘Java’ alongside Spain’s Pulshar, ‘Kioku’ featuring Japanese artist Tomomi Ukumori and ‘Kobe’ with Germany’s Rhauder which all lean towards downtempo dub territories. Also featured are Sakura who provides spoken word vocals for ‘Akebono’ and Shoco who joins Mathimidori for the ambient leaning album conclusion ‘Akari’.

Digital renaissance & romantic ambient by ccctyyy with contributions by isangyi. Reoccurring payment reminder

Hallucinating Gnarly Spring Breakers

Classic Szare release.. Last copies...

Quirky Rethought Cyber Assault

Another timeless release by Redeye from 1994 to be back in stock on After 6 AM in January. Highly recommended! Don't support the Discogs sharks. Support the original label and the artist!

This is the new instalment of Soul Jazz Records’ ground-breaking Deutsche Elektronische Musik series, ‘a near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music’ (The Guardian).

This latest edition features many of the classic German electronic and Krautrock groups from the 1970s & 80s – including Can, Amon Duul II, Harmonia, Conrad Schnitzler, Agitiation Free, Roedelius – as well as a host of lesser known artists such as Dzyan, Klauss Weiss, Gruppe Between and many more.

Deutsche Elektronische rarities unearthed on the album include Kalacakra (whose fan-base included the great Moondog!) and their superb ‘Nearby Shiras,’ taken from their super-rare spiritual/psychedelic private press concept album Crawling to Lhasa, from 1972.

Deutsche Elektronische 4 includes a wealth of German electronic experimental artists – the seminal pioneering group Harmonia (Roedelius, Moebius and Michael Rother), avant-garde guru Conrad Schnitzler as well as lesser known synthetic artists such as Klauss Weiss, Deutsche Wertarbeit, E.M.A.K. (Electronische Musik Aus Koln), Gunter Schickert and others.

Finally, the album also features an array of heavy and progressive German cosmic rock groups – Dzyan, Virus and the amazing Turkish/German tripped out sound of Alex’s ‘Patella Black’, recorded at Can’s Inner Space in 1973, produced by Holger Czukay and Jackie Liebezeit.

Deutsche Elektronische 4 comes with extensive newly commissioned sleevenotes by David Stubbs, author of the seminal books ‘Future Days: Krautrock and the building of Modern Germany’, ‘Mars By 1980: The story of Electronic Music’, and ‘Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy’.

This album comes as a heavyweight triple vinyl edition with full colour inner sleeves, as well as a deluxe double CD edition with outsize booklet and slipcase. Both formats include full liner notes and extensive rare photography.

Counterchange presents 'Eigenlicht' by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer and award-winning film composer John Gürtler. Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments and moments of rich ambience, 'Eigenlicht' is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin's infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named 'Field Station Berlin', surrounded by forest to the west of the city.

This EP was compiled between 2017-2020, during a transition from California back to Oregon, my original home. The album was created entirely with Elektron Digitakt drum computer, Sequential Prophet Rev2/08, Novation Bass Station II, and Roland Gaia Sh-01 synthesizers.

Bristol based artist, Sunun with a killer 6 track EP - the first 12" of the year on Idle Hands (ran by Chris Farrell) . A member of the city's Young Echo collective she has made waves with her abstracted take on dub for Bokeh Versions and Cold Light Music, gaining praise from Adrian Sherwood along the way. Her most recent release was a collaborative EP with Giant Swan’s Robin Stewart. Over these six tracks we are invited into her sonic world, described by the artist herself as “a step towards rhythm tracks, with shallower themes and confidence, with priority to the ancient components; the drum and voice” Adventurous, brooding and unique - this is an EP you need to hear. Proceeds from the EP will go to Ace, a charity organising 1:1 music sessions with teenagers in the local area where Sunun has been doing work.

Jon Brook's fifth album as The Advisory Circle is a beautiful and uplifting selection of electronic pieces, inspired by late 70s and early 80s library music. Never descending into parody or obvious re-enactment Brooks is the absolute master in this field.

The LP packaging is designed by Julian House. The elegantly simple artwork and typography, reminiscent of 80s photographic manuals and magazines, is rendered on metallic gold foil packaging. This edition, repressed by state51, is specially cut on gold Colored Vinyl to match the packaging.

"Hidden Cymbals" is a bass and drum sample library by Karl Morgan. 44 tracks on vinyl. * 7 original compositions * Bass and drums stems * 15 original drum breaks * Open drum hits and percussion * Recorded and mixed by Lewis Parke Back with another Library style LP, KingUnderground are building on their collection and branching out into a new market with their third music Library release. This time Karl Morgan, shares his skills on the drums, with Daverage on bass. The guys worked with Lewis Parker to record and engineer the project, with Pete Norman behind the mastering and Bee Graphics continuing with the artwork cover series. Karl has been a passionate musician for 20 years and played in bands of almost every genre. He’s also a drum teacher and session musician in London, UK. The KU Recorded Music Library series blends influences from new school sample libraries like the Kingsway Music Library, as well as iconic labels of the 70s, such as De Wolfe and KPM. With Hidden Cymbals, they’re sticking to those high standards, using high end gear, recording equipment, and top of the range studios. You get quality and bang for your buck with 7 compositions, instrument stems, fills, one shot hits, and 15 bonus breaks perfect for the producers and DJ’s, or musicians that would like to play along, or use in their own productions. The drums are crispy, and the bass is thick; two important factors with this release. With attention to detail and technique, KU and Karl bring a quality project and a welcomed addition to the world of Library Music and Sample Libraries.

Rome’s Egisto Sopor has been making little waves with his releases for quite a while now. As Polysik, he’s put out music on Legowelt’s Strange Life Records, on 100% Silk label, and on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu. As ‘TheAwayTeam’ he’s released a DVD ‘Relax & Sleep’ and a cd ‘Star Kinship’ on Japanese label Moamoo, and he’s also one half of the low key video unit Aavv (whose work has graced many of the important releases of new lofi electronic movement). This time around he delivers another fine instalment to the Edizioni Mondo’s kaleidoscopic catalogue.

THE GOOPY GOONS ARE BACK with another collection of twisted American electronics. For those not familiar, CP/BW is a collaboration between Corporate Park (aka Shane English/Jonah Lange) and Beau Wanzer. This second LP collects tracks from various recording sessions done in Texas over the past 5 years. Humid ditties, bumpkin beats, toothless treats, and only for the freaks.

Out November 8th on Don Giovanni Records, Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes is a new full-length by Philadelphia-based artist, poet, and musician, Camae Ayewa, who performs under the name Moor Mother. A sonic black hole is a place where fluid moves so fast that it traps all sound. To be entangled in its gravity is to feel the pressure of an unjust system -- corruption so powerful that it drowns out whatever you throw at it. Analog fluids are resistance -- individuals who work to create and preserve community in the face of immense darkness and cosmic pressure. Begun in 2017 as a sonic counterpart to Ayewa's art show at New York performance space, The Kitchen, Analog Fluids was refined through exhaustive touring. It tracks Ayewa's emergence into an expanded artistic ecosystem, with contributions from a distinctive set of friends and collaborators like Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Zonal), King Britt, Saul Williams, Giant Swan, and Bookworms

The release comes on 350g vinyl.

German New Wave Funk 1979 - 1983 Compilation originally released 2003 on Gomma records. A very special compilation. 8 edits and reworks of rare German New Wave Funk and Disco Punk.

After their highly acclaimed debut album »Decadent yet Depraved«, Berlin and LA-based producers Belief Defect invited a variety of artists to join their »Remixed« project. The following 12” EP is a first four-track release of this project. The original tracks of the album are only an approximate starting point for »Remixed«. In contrast to »Decadent yet Depraved«, largely conceived in song structures, this EP is about transferring the pieces back into abstract space, and each remixer does it in his very own way. Alessandro Cortini’s one-take live recording is a lesson in classical ambient music. Telefon Tel Aviv’s remix is timelessly modern and extremely delicate sound design. Rather opposite concepts are coming from Surachai’s brutal pattern design and Kangding Ray’s expressive and analogously saturated repetitions for the dance floor.

Chiming, bubbling and beautiful, 'Zzzz' is a 15 minute piece that was initially composed as healing music for a sick friend. After lengthy deliberation (and one particularly fun demo listening session in Amsterdam) the accompanying B side tracks were finally decided upon, making up a thrilling set. 'Wwww' goes straight into Nobu's menacing side with a looping, brooding piece of wired paranoia. He finishes off the triptych with 'Cccc' a psychedelic drive down the darkened roads master Nobu is often known to navigate through when in murder mode as a DJ. BIG TIP!
The artwork is from a painting by Syoujou Ooido (Nara, Japan) used with kind permission.

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.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2018!

Raw, soulful and agitating: Glenn Astro, the humble house sorcerer from Berlin, produced four tunes and a sweet interlude for Mule Musiq that point out: house music is still heading for the future.

Welcome to the parallel musical universe of Miss Maria Teresa Luciani, a landscape of sonic architecture and theoretical composition constructed by a family of engineers that reinvented the wheel before the vehicle even began the journey. Imagine, if you will, the musical equivalent of Peter Cook’s Archigram group or the soundtrack to Charles and Ray Eames’ private sketchbooks, hinting at a new municipal, utopian metropolis just hours before the blueprints are suspiciously misplaced by the courier and mainstream pop building regulations piss on our asbestos bonfire. These 1972 constructions of progressive, cyclic, proto-industrial colour music were never intended for public habitation. These are the Sounds Of The City in a galaxy far, far beneath our radar and above your expectations that was never built. Pseudo-futurist pop music? Cubic folk? Tape-op-art? Sì, grazie!

Before the needle hits the first groove, the story of Maria Teresa Luciani reads like an Alphaville caper full of foreign intrigue, low intensity identification fraud, secret codes, family bonds, mistrust and wanderlust... Naturally, you are holding a genuine
Finders Keepers article. To say this rare Italian concept album is “unbelievable” is justified on multiple levels. This multi-storey storage facility of found sounds, radiophonic samples, tape loops, early electronic music experiments, mechanical
folk, cinematic vision, sound design, educated music theory, political pop and high concept art-as-noise successfully layers more musical ideas within its unique structure than one would think possible for a solo artist within any musical genre.
This is why Sounds Of The City presents us with a brand new genre defying compositional framework, pre-dating sampling culture, cut ‘n’ paste plunderism and industrial music in the process. Pre-digital, indefinable and genuinely
unbelievable. But who is Maria Teresa Luciani? On hearing this record respected collectors and enthusiasts have suggested “the female answer to Basil Kirchin,” or “the Italian Daphne Oram”. Both with justified cause. Mystery, myth, legend,
teacher, artist, inventor, author, musician, psychologist, daughter, and (possibly most importantly) sister.

Established in 2006, Bing & Ruth is an ever-evolving collective steered by composer David Moore. A pianist from Kansas and graduate of New York’s school of Jazz and Contemporary Music at the New School, Moore’s work follows in the great tradition of fellow alumni John Cage and Steve Reich, albeit looking past the more studied repetition of the style’s forerunners toward a meditative form built on feeling.
With Moore at its nucleus, Bing & Ruth’s line-up has transmuted from the eleven-strong line-up that created debut album City Lake (“A stunning, humble record built on traditions we all understand, yet, somehow feels dizzyingly new.” – The Quietus) to a cast of seven for 2014’s Tomorrow Was The Golden Age (“One of the finest leftfield releases of the year.” – Pitchfork). With No Home of the Mind, the ensemble has been streamlined to a five-person unit, exploring the piano’s percussive qualities alongside running woodwinds, warbling tape delays and splattered upright bass lines that stare out with a wide-eyed transcendence, taking so-called “classical” music to new limits.

So while people are still struggling to wrap their heads around Dean Blunt's previous long player The Redeemer, Blunt has already announced his new album and debut for the popular label Rough Trade. The new album is called Black Metal and the ghostly first single is called “50 Cent.” It sounds like neither of those reference points. It doesn’t really sound quite like anything, but still falls into a tradition of rap, rock, and the confessional intimacy of a singer-songwriter. It’s as dark, absorbing, and all-encompassing as that void of an album cover.