Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 71 Items

Japanese pressing. With OBI. Cover and vinyl are very close to NM.

Copy closer to VG+

Japanese pressing. With OBI and insert. Vinyl is close to NM. Slight stains on the cover.

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Note: INCOMPLETE!
Disc 4 Side G & H is missing.
Includes original inner sleeves.

Released in 1999 on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label, »optimal.lp« was the debut album by Dan Abrams under his Shuttle358 moniker. For its 25th anniversary, Keplar presents it on vinyl for the first time with three previously unreleased tracks—the digital version also includes a alternative version of »Tank«—as well as a new artwork recreated by Daniel Castrejón and a remaster by Andreas [lupo] Lubich based on the original pre-masters that were been restored and cleaned up for the reissue project by Abrams. »optimal.lp« was inspired by the rich tradition of ambient music and the rhythmic complexity of 1990s electronica while also sharing many traits with the then-emerging clicks’n’cuts movement, making it a true sui generis piece of work—both informed by tradition and visionary, idiosyncratic and seminal for many artists after him.

Abrams developed an interest in ambient music when he was still a child, scouring through cassette tapes of environmental sounds, new age music, and world percussion. Discovering Brian Eno’s »Thursday Afternoon« as a young teenager marked a turning point for him. »It gave me the idea that ambient music could be an intentional creative act, that tone itself is a legitimate form of expression,« he says today. During the 1990s, he increasingly immersed himself in the electronica scene and the output of labels such as Instinct, where Deupree worked as an Art Director and released his first records as Human Mesh Dance. Abrams found a home on 12k after sending Deupree a demo tape that would later evolve into »optimal.lp,« released as the label’s fifth catalogue number.

writing on label.

Numbered limited edition of 3000 on 180 gram vinyl with 3D lenticular sleeve and 11" x 11" full colour 12 page booklet. Beginning seam split on top seam and sticker residue on the front cover, closer to VG+. Vinyl closer to NM. Copy n° 642

Damaged Cover.

Deluxe Anniversary Edition of the 2013 Emancipator album 'Dusk to Dawn'. Features 4 previously unreleased songs from the album sessions. 3LP vinyl edition also includes remixes of 'Dusk to Dawn' tracks.

Damaged cover!

Douglas Appling (born 1987), better known by his stage name Emancipator, is an American electronic music producer based in Portland, Oregon. He launched his music career by self-releasing his debut album “Soon It Will Be Cold Enough” in 2006 while he was still a college student. He has subsequently released six albums, founded his own record label, and formed a live band, the Emancipator Ensemble, whose sold-out shows have been called by one critic "an unforgettable experience".

Orange / Blue viny. Includes original inner sleeve. Copy closer to NM. Cover with hype sticker on the front

.

Outer sleeve not included.
Still shrink wrapped but opened.

Sealed copy!

Vinyl 1 ONLY (Side A/B)

US reissue from 2020.

Lime Green Transparent vinyl. Cover with hype sticker on the front, close to NM

Sealed copy!

Icelandic musician and visual artist Sunna Margrét is set to release her debut full-length album, Finger on Tongue, via No Salad Records. Citing influences from krautrock legends CAN and Neu!, outsider synth pop artist The Space Lady and electronic music pioneers Suzanne Ciani and Eliane Radigue, Finger on Tongue is a masterclass in experimental pop, capturing an authentic Icelandic essence through its electronic and spellbinding sounds. Some tracks offer softness and peace while others invite you to dance, and the album homogeneity is precisely ensured by the rigorous approach to writing.

Valentina Villarroel is a sound artist and phonographer who explores the intricate dynamics within various Southern ecosystems. Her work revolves around the profound potential of acoustic ecology, particularly in the face of encroaching real estate development on natural spaces. She also delves into the consequences of sound pollution on numerous species, contributing to their decline or disappearance. In recent years, her focus has extended to urban soundscapes and significant sonic events, such as the October 18th protest in Chile. With a solid background in bioacoustics applied to both human and animal well-being, Valentina assumes the role of co-director at AOIR Sound Laboratory. There, she spearheads an interdisciplinary initiative that centers sound as its core element. This includes the creation of the sonic cartography portal aoir.cl, as well as the development of handmade electronic devices like the Bowerbankii and the creation of various experimental microphones.

Solpara's new album, Melancholy Sabotage, marks his return to Other People. While it was recorded over Covid lockdowns, Jaar had been talking about wanting to back a Solpara full-length since he put out Swing. The album came to life while Solpara was living alone in a Brooklyn loft, collecting unemployment checks and viewing ample free time as the artist residency he'd dreamed of; he'd previously been forced to make music in odd windows between numerous jobs and the unmerciful pace of city life. Free from obligations, he would wake up early to take Arabic lessons, read Tracey Thorn's autobiography, and skateboard the deserted streets, then come home and design sounds until he had a track that felt like it needed to be released. While this easy going lifestyle was peaceful in many ways, Solpara found more complex inspiration in the emotion that stemmed from participation in Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion which rocked all of his extended family members in Lebanon.

Working with a mix of VST synths, guitar, live vocals, and plugins, Melancholy Sabotage is Solpara's uneasiest outing to date. "The melancholy is going and going. It's both beautiful and painful and you can get engulfed by it, but you can sabotage it," he muses on the album's title. The record pinpoints the duality at the heart of Solpara's sound, which is as plaintive as it is searing.

French saxophonist Musina Ebobissé unveils Armaun, his third release under the Blendreed name. Armaun – Ambient Resistance Music Against Urban Noise – takes a stand against the interference of invasive irritants with sublime slow motion music. Its four pieces evoke an ecstatic peace, allowing both artist and listener to breathe deeply. As the compositions unfold, each exhalation resonates at the frequency of the human mind in repose.

Layers of treated and reverberant saxophone fuse into a hypnagogic whole, as elongated melodies interact with their own fragmented and transformed echoes. In a semi dream state, existence is experienced at a languid pace, as each phrase decays into a haze of crosscurrents.

If Armaun recalls the fourth world music of Jon Hassell and Eno, it equally finds oblique kinship with André 3000's "New Blue Sun". Likewise, it shares essential DNA with vaporwave and the tape-loop experiments of Terry Riley. Conceived as a confluence of acoustic and electronic elements, Blendreed explores the intersection of jazz, ambient, post-rock and experimental music.

This is work of exquisite beauty with a direct function. It provides an antidote to the bombardment of our senses. After unhooking your mind from temporal entanglements, Armaun will absorb your soul.

Isik Kural returns with Moon in Gemini, a luminous scrapbook of slow-flowing narratives couched in intuitive and symbolic storytelling. Bending a playful take on environmental music to the folk song form, Isik's vocals coo atop pastoral field notes, airy chamber instrumentation and archival recordings culled from a curious musical life. A tender pastiche coalesces across the suite of Moon in Gemini's fourteen pieces, and Isik invites the listener to daydream as-deep-as-possible."The songs on Moon in Gemini don't mind being slower or taking their time to reach the listener," says Isik, who wanted the title to speak to the album's dreamy, liminal nature. "I enjoyed how the phrase could be used to describe an object, a time or a place simultaneously," he explains. Similarly and subsequently, these songs contain a multiplicity of sonic artifacts, moments and spaces that span Isik's rich musical career to date.With the bulk of the album realized between Amasya, Turkey and Isik's current home in Glasgow, in both domestic and studio recording environments, additional tracks unearthed from his personal recording archive lend their lush patina. The record emerged as a fertile space to reimagine a handful of previously unreleased songs and unfinished ideas spanning the past fifteen years of his life and work, including streetside sounds documented while growing up in Turkey and recordings made while studying music engineering in Miami, Helsinki and Glasgow.Looking to the more recent past, Isik found himself wanting to build upon some of the methodologies and textures explored on his 2022 album in february, seeking a newly intimate, vocal-forward sound. He points to the track "film festival" from that album as a door through which to enter Moon in Gemini, where sample-based arrangements are presented in the context of asymmetrical "build ups and progressions" and ambience and vocals intertwine.Inspired in part by listening to iconic, if not sometimes misunderstood, singers such as Nina Simone, Aldous Harding and...

Stop what you're doing and give us your full attention because Hell Yeah mainstay My Friend Dario's new album Senza Estate is going to define the sound of summer 2024. It's an eclectic eight-track collection that has something for everyone and is inspired by dreamy Italian soundtrack composers Piero Piccioni and Umiliani.

Curveball Italian talent Dario is a real dance floor don who collides acid, nu-disco, breakbeat and electro. His take on Balearic is unique and always sends dance floors wild, as proven with his last outing Food For Woofers Vol 2 earlier in the year. His new album is the sound of life by the Mediterranean, Balearic audio pleasure for daytime dreaming and nighttime dancing with vocal tracks written and performed by the UK's Space Echo Records associate Darene Obika.

Dario hails from Catania on the island of Sicily and his inspiration for Senza Estate, which translates as 'without summer,' was an imaginary holiday, weekends at the seaside, car journeys in the sun, relaxing sunsets and late-night dancing. 'For five years, I worked in a shop six days a week so despite living on a Mediterranean island I could never enjoy these things. Instead, I locked myself in the studio and jotted down the ideas, sensations, melodies and rhythms I had about another lost summer.'

'Keep On Cruising' is a downtempo opener with innocent synths that are filled with hope and promise for the warm months ahead. 'Zingarella' is a wide open sea view with wispy pads, seductive flutes and jazzy melodies that bristle with life and the tropical title cut gets more dancey on shuffling broken beats and radiant synth glows. There's a seductive laid-back cool to the tumbling keys of 'Marittimo' and 'What You Need' is a horizontal groove with loved-up vocals, 'Falò' pairs sensual acoustic guitar with work with pillowy drums and 'Il Pianeta Proibito' layers up sci-fi synths and stuttering bass into a bubbly sound that leads to cosmic take-off. 'Acid Panorama' is the melancholic closer which hints that the summer sun is setting one final time after weeks of carefree fun.

But the good news is, you can repeat the joys of My Friend Dario's masterful Senza Estate over and over again.

Music From Memory is pleased to announce the upcoming release of ‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’, a collaborative album from Tim Koh and Sun An.

Tim Koh is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles. He has been touring, releasing music and showing art works internationally for nearly two decades. Sun An is a Southern California-based graphic designer, art director, and sound designer who has self-released music since 2012.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ plays somewhat like a dreamlike collage; across 18 short compositions, finger-picked guitars melt with electronics and warped samples to create a form of American Primitivism bent and refracted through Tim and Sun’s unique lens.

Their collaborative journey unfolded gradually, exchanging snippets via email over the span of a year or so, Sun in LA and Tim in Berlin. Amidst personal struggles and uncertainties, the act of recording and composing became a refuge, a safe space where they could navigate life's complexities together. Though they didn't converse much, mostly just sending music, their musical dialogue spoke volumes, shaping a narrative that evolved naturally over time. As they shared their musical ideas, they discovered a profound sense of connection and understanding with one another. The music became a conduit for healing, bridging the gaps between them and offering comfort in times of need.

Their musical influences and backgrounds anchored them. From reminiscing about past scenes to exploring cultural intricacies of being Korean American in Los Angeles, infused with a natural sense of shared identity, their collaboration reflected a mergence of old and new memories into a hallucinatory, dream-like experience. Across the 18 compositions that make up the album, incense emerges as a poignant motif, symbolizing the passage of time. Each incense stick becomes a vessel carrying the essence of moments gone by, while the holder becomes the custodian of these ephemeral memories.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ invites the listener on a boundary-transcending journey of introspection, joy, and pain, creating an experience that lingers long after the last note fades.

Sleeve art by Brian DeGraw, design by David McFarline.

ontains remixes by BXP, Big Hands, Elena Colombi and Front du Cadaux.

Unveiling the upcoming release – a captivating remix of La Serpiente's "You Are Dreaming!” Immerse yourself in the sonic journey as BXP delivers a psychedelic rework with its unique loop and arrangement style. Front de Cadeaux explores downtempo techno, Big Hands introduces trippy polyrhythms, Elena Colombi contributes an energetic uptempo track, and (exclusively for digital download) enjoy a 15-minute mind-blowing remix by Wang Inc. Together, these remixers redefine musical boundaries, promising a dynamic and eclectic experience. Get ready for a transcendent odyssey through diverse sounds and styles. This record has been realized with the contribution of the Bologna Unesco City of Music and Comune di Bologna.

Artist Bio:

Marco Segato is a sonic explorer, producer and live performer currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He's the co-founder of Rete Neurale Milano E.S.T. - an event born in the infamous Milanese multi-cultural space Macao - and curator of the mix series Empty Signal Transmission. He was a Red Bull Music Academy alumnus in 2016 Montréal (Canada) and graduated in Audio Production at SAE Institute Milan in 2017. During the last few years, Marco released his music under three different monikers: La Serpiente, MS, and Narvalos (a duo project with Alessio Costantino aka Askmeaboutdogs). Across these projects, his sound maintains a sense of mysticism brewing with eerie tension, influenced and incorporating sounds of broken beats, post-industrial experimentations, and ritualistic elements to conjure psychic immersion. He produces and performs live sets with analog and digital hardware, with a sonic outcome that always saturates the mind with extra-musical ideas. Marco has released on labels such as Brokntoys, Xcpt Music, Random Numbers, Sons of Traders, Communion Records, Dionysian Mysteries, Vastechoses, etc... as well as on many solidarity compilations like Перамен! A Compilation for Belarus, Despertar: Chile, Sonic Resistance. A Compilation For Rojava. Recently, he has started a journey of sharing his extensive music selection with his monthly residency “Searching for the Sublime” at Tbilisi’s Mutant Radio.

"Step into the enigmatic realm of ‘Funest Human Nature’, an audacious collaboration between avant-garde luminaries Jac Berrocal, Pascal Comelade, and Vincent Epplay. In this mesmerizing sonic odyssey, the boundaries of experimental music are shattered as Berrocal's haunting trumpet, Comelade's whimsical piano, and Epplay's immersive soundscapes converge to create a kaleidoscope of textures and emotions. A journey through the depths of the human psyche, where surrealism meets primal instincts and the absurd dances with the profound. The trio's fearless exploration of sound, inviting listeners to unravel the mysteries of the human condition through an eclectic tapestry of sonic experimentation. From the eerie whispers of forgotten dreams to the jubilant cacophony of uninhibited joy, 'Funest Human Nature' is a testament to the boundless possibilities of artistic collaboration. Embrace the unexpected, embrace the sublime, and immerse yourself in the haunting beauty of this extraordinary musical venture." Pascal Comelade, born in Montpellier, France in 1955, is a prolific Catalan musician and composer known for his distinctive blend of minimalism, surrealism, and musical primitivism. He started his music career in the mid-1970s and has since created a unique sound using toy instruments, pianos, and traditional ensembles. Comelade's work is characterized by its eclectic influences, ranging from rock and folk to classical and avant-garde. He has collaborated with various artists, including PJ Harvey and Robert Wyatt. Over the decades, Comelade has built a cult following with his unconventional approach to music and his impressive discography that spans numerous albums and soundtracks. Jac Berrocal, born in 1946 in Saint-Jean d'Angély, France, is a pioneering avant-garde trumpeter and composer known for his fusion of jazz, rock, and experimental music. His career, which began in the early 1970s, is marked by innovative albums like "Musiq Musik" and extensive collaborations with artists from Nurse With Wound to Vince Taylor. Berrocal is celebrated for his theatrical live performances, which often incorporate elements of poetry and drama. His work continues to defy conventional music boundaries, maintaining a cult following and influencing diverse musical genres. Through his distinctive approach, Berrocal has carved out a niche in the avant-garde music scene, continuously exploring the intersections of sound, performance, and art. Vincent Epplay, born in 1964 in France, is an innovative sound artist and musician known for his work in creating immersive audiovisual environments. His artistic approach often involves the manipulation of sound to explore its interaction with space and audience perception. Epplay's works are characterized by a keen interest in the experimental music tradition, incorporating elements of chance and the use of unconventional sound sources. He has collaborated extensively with other artists, including Jac Berrocal and David Fenech, contributing to a dynamic and exploratory sound art scene. Through installations, performances, and recordings, Epplay continually challenges and expands the boundaries of auditory and visual experiences.

Quasai, might be an underwater bird, nearly a chamaleon, or a medusa. It iterates and evolves in a cubistic entanglement, casting songs of displacement, provoking hypnagogic magnetism and sonic pareidolia. Like a storm scene, which is made up by set of means used to give the illusion of rain, wind, thunder, and a raging sea. A nautical journey, precisely, where hypnotic rhythms float among waves of tapes, savory synthesizers and from afar the diaphonic echo of sibylline voices. And it is precisely now that we will pass through Petropolis. Quasai was born facing the nordic sea, then migrated to the outpost of Spettro, in Brescia, where Francesco Fonassi, with his colleagues, welcomes electronic avant-garde performers and sound activists to join and contribute to an always growing community. LP, special limited edition 150 copies Gatefold cover, without glue, printed on a special paper partially recycled from citrus scraps.

Chapelle XIV Music, Yoyaku’s art gallery label, proudly welcomes Shaun Soomro with a sublime record.

Blending massive lush pads, dreamy leads and breakbeat drums, Shaun Soomro's production on this record is unmatched

Furthering the passionate exploration of cinema that has guided her two previous LPs the Milanese guitarist/composer, Alessandra Novaga, returns with two sides off shimmering, tense compositions – culminating as one of her most creatively ambitious and conceptually rich outings to date – freely inspired by the life and work of Andrej Tarkovsky and Johann Sebastian Bach. Over the last decade Alessandra Novaga has emerged as one of the leading figures within northern Italy’s thriving new, experimental, and improvised music scene

Brandon Tani is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Diego, CA. He is drawn to the varied intersections of minimalist, concrète, and found sounds. Mixing narrative and abstraction. Since 2022, Brandon has released music under the moniker »Daily Rituals« and has recorded 5 releases to date. This new album represents the first release under his own name

The year is 2020, in the middle of the pandemic outbreak, »En el fin del mundo, hasta el fin del mundo« is the first production of the Chilean label EMA Records, a 21-track compilation covering improv, post rock, electronica, ambient, etc. It will now will be released on three separate vinyl albums. The first volume features tracks by Pita, Abul Mogard, Pan American and others.

On his third album as Etelin, Alex Cobb explores the intricacies of separation and belonging using field recordings and electronics, reconfiguring the dividing line between what is artificial and natural in the process. Maintaining a sense of playful reverence and lurking melancholy in its glitchy pastoralism, »Patio User Manual« hums with a meticulous and singular energy. The listener is pulled into a sound world at once ambivalent and radiant, reaching its denouement in the lovely melody that closes the final track, »Picnic at Gas Station Park«. Although the album might bring to mind the nuanced and imaginative ambient music published by labels such as Mille Plateaux, Sonig, and Silent Records in the 1990s, it is, in the end, a world of its own and very much of today.

Christian Schoppik aka Läuten der Seele brings his »Water« trilogy to a close with his new album »Die Reise zur Monsalwäsche« (The Journey to Monsalwäsche) following up »Die Mariengrotte als Trinkwasseraufbereitungsanlage» (2022, Hands in the Dark) and »Ertrunken im seichtesten Gewässer« (2023, World of Echo). While the compositional technique of this opus still relies primarily on samples and altered audio-collages, each chapter of the trilogy was intentionally created from very different sources. The present collection is arguably less ›experimental‹ than some of Läuten der Seele's previous works, as classical music takes center stage this time. However the mastery in crafting such magnificent and intriguing narratives sees the simplicity and emotional depth of these sonic mariages become the beauty of it all.

Following their acclaimed debut album from 2022 on Alien Transistor Records, What Are People For? now release their first 7" single from the upcoming album, with a dark ambient R’n’B banger "Criminals" on the A-side, telling tales of snoozing criminals and tantalising promises of "Someday we will all be rich".

The already legendary B-Side features a charming smokefilled-bubblegum Spanish & English cover of the Cypress Hill song "Illusions", together with The Notwist, which they developed whilst on tour together last year. Obviously, a product of the recent legalisation of marijuana in Germany: Ich liebe dich Marianne.

Lone Bison / Nick Bonell lives by the sea in Ramsgate. Mainly a guitar player and pedal enthusiast, Nick bought a used Korg Ms20 and fell in love with synths. As one half of Stuntmen, Nick released the sample-heavy single "You're The Beat Find" on the Tummy Touch label, which led to him scoring three Ford adverts in the U.S and a few pieces of well-used production music - which paid for more synths and pedals!

An album, 'Transistor Memory' and single 'Drugs' came out via Dom Martin's Polytechnic Youth records in 2021. A new album, "Wave Construction" was Nick's debut release on Castles in Space last year.

The "Talk About It" / "Origin Story" EP is lifted from Wave Construction and features revalatory remixes from Concretism and Paul Cousins. The Concretism remix adds massive slabs of synths, while Paul's remix brings to the fore his mad professor tape based jiggery-pokery. (I nearly wrote "fuckery", but decided against it.) They are both epic and, which all remixes should do, add fantastical new dimensions to the genius of Nick's original tracks.

It's one for the ages, this one.

Zuli's widest-reaching and most ambitious album to date, 'Lambda' is a conspicuous left turn for the Berlinbased Egyptian producer. Draped in gauzy, granulated textures and woven with enigmatic vocal flourishes from collaborators Michaelbrailey, Coby Sey and Abdullah Miniawy, it's a vivid, soul-searching set of polychromatic reflections that sets fire to the boundaries between ambient, trip-hop, industrial music, chamber pop and symphonic noise.

In some aspects, 'Lambda' reveals Zuli's softer side; gone are the earth-shaking chopped rhythms and stopstart outbursts of corroded static that characterised his last full length, 'Digla Dive - Live'. But peer beneath the brain burrowing vocal melodies, mangled instrumental loops, anxious poems and subtle, harmonic synth washes and a new kind of intensity lurks in the shadows.

Since his early releases on Lee Gamble's UIQ label and his 2018 breakout 'Trigger Finger', Zuli has notched up major global acclaim for his futuristic, kinetic musical diversions. He cut his teeth supplying beats to local rappers back home in Cairo, soon shifting his attention to the city's burgeoning dance underground, promoting events, DJing prolifically and tirelessly supporting the scene's most experimental fringe. In 2019, Zuli teamed up with Rama to curate the irsh series of video transmissions, evolving the project into a label shortly afterwards. And now situated in Berlin, the duo have extended the concept to encompass an ongoing sequence of genre-averse club nights. All this experience and constant creative motion is etched into the foundations of 'Lambda'. It's an album that plays liberally with euphoria, but feels constantly precarious, intrepidly peering out from its tense internal world.