Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 389 Items

Danish electronic artist Rumpistol, aka Jens B. Christiansen, releases his fourth and most ambitious album yet – Floating – a collaboration with LA based vocalist Red Baron that further explores the post dub-step vocal territories opened up on last year’s Talk To You EP. With tighter song structures, intimate lyrics and the Baron’s ecstatic vocal projections, the two create a parallel world in which the domestic breakdowns of wintry Copenhagen are filtered through surreal sun-bleached Californian dreams, resulting in a robotic and hypnagogic hybrid of soul.
The sound, while still recognizably “Rumpistol” in its organically unstable clicks and gurgles, marks an evolution in Christiansen’s thinking, shedding light on the interior landscapes of existential crisis and bliss that he’s been essaying over the last ten years.

The introduction of Red Baron does a great deal to carry this forward. Many of the tracks were written in partnership with the elusive vocalist on an almost subconscious level, through a process where different phrases were recorded until the atmosphere was properly expressed. It’s through the Baron’s heavily processed voice, hovering between male and female timbres, that the ghost of American pop culture finds itself here too. In this way Grace Jones stands tall in a frozen stream on I’m Not Listening, Lionel Richie gets stuck in traffic on a bad trip in Colors Breaking while Kanye pushes his auto-tuned bicycle through the blizzard of Floating. But as the arctic arpeggiated synths let you know, the album is more about the future than any past, a future where Rumpistol and Red Baron dare to take current genres from the post dub-step and wonky scenes and defy them with the human voice for a dystopic soul music of their own.

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

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

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

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

limited to 500 copies

Future music duo Second Woman’s sophomore full-length for Spectrum Spools further hones their distinctive fusion of shapeshifting software sculpture and tessellated footwork. Shivering digital textures oscillate with and against algorithmically mapped percussion samples; smeared synthetic chords levitate in the distance; stabs of digital noise punctuate the mix in twitchy, time-distorting patterns. Their anamorphosis verges on ascetic: stark, splintered waveforms rendered into unique fiber optic hieroglyphs.

Multi-instrumentalists Josh Eustis and Turk Dietrich share a deep history going back to their days in the New Orleans ambient electronic community, as part of Telefon Tel Aviv and Belong, respectively. Even so, S/W pushes beyond their combined discographies to date, flexing impossibilities, building rhythms from arrhythmia, teasing veiled emotion from bold iterations of cold code.

Future music duo Second Woman’s sophomore full-length for Spectrum Spools further hones their distinctive fusion of shapeshifting software sculpture and tessellated footwork. Shivering digital textures oscillate with and against algorithmically mapped percussion samples; smeared synthetic chords levitate in the distance; stabs of digital noise punctuate the mix in twitchy, time-distorting patterns. Their anamorphosis verges on ascetic: stark, splintered waveforms rendered into unique fiber optic hieroglyphs.

Multi-instrumentalists Josh Eustis and Turk Dietrich share a deep history going back to their days in the New Orleans ambient electronic community, as part of Telefon Tel Aviv and Belong, respectively. Even so, S/W pushes beyond their combined discographies to date, flexing impossibilities, building rhythms from arrhythmia, teasing veiled emotion from bold iterations of cold code.

Project: Mooncircle & Finest Ego have teamed up to establish a fresh new 12” producer series, entitled “Faces”. On every edition, you will find two different producers. Respectively, each producer will have their own record-side and unique cover artwork by the aspiring Bioniq, known for his surrealistic portraits, blending humans and technology.

Faces number three will invite the two young producers Sekouia and Rain Dog to share sides on this disc and expose their musical crafts. Coming from Denmark and the UK, respectively, they are with certainty looking forward to long-lasting succesful careers. What they share is a an intrinsic feel for tiny musical details which give their music an intimate feel to keep the listener mesmerized for ages. On this record they experiment with different sounds and tempos to create a dynamic collection of unique compositions that congregate an EP of colourful, low slung and ambient tunes or simply ‘chocolatefudgebrownieplasticmusic‘.

Born in Düsseldorf, Germany and grown up in Detroit, Sekuoia is a project by the 19-year old danish producer Patrick Alexander Bech Madsen. His music, based on guitar melodies, deep bass, organic beats, and chopped and screwed vocal samples, is a take on various genres and he is best described as an experimental electronica producer. His debut EP “Trips“ was released in December last year.

Having originally studied as an artist, newcomer Rain Dog has spent the last couple of years experimenting with production software, building speakers, composing music for indie shorts and making beats out of various small bedrooms scattered across the north of England. Recently he has settled in London and with a release on Echodub‘s imprint, Cut and a track featured on Project: Mooncirlce‘s 10th anniversary box LP, he continues to develop his lowslung melodic compositions.

Ltd. Purple & Black Splatter Vinyl. It's been four years since Zach Saginaw, aka Shigeto, returned home toMichigan from a stint in Brooklyn, NY, and since then, the multi-facetedmusician has become a part of the fabric of Detroit's music scene. Whilealways having a personal approach to his projects, Saginaw's influencesfor his third album, The New Monday are more about the community ofDetroit than anything else. Named after a weekly DJ event calledMonday is the New Monday that Saginaw does at the unassumingMotor City Wine with a group of friends, The New Monday is the resultof Saginaw diving into the city's deep record culture, where therelegacy of artist's of the past help Saginaw embrace his own contributions."It's focused on a couple things and they all kind of come together torepresent dierent things," explains Saginaw. "My time back in Detroit,back living in Michigan and spending time with a lot of kind of originalpeople who have always been here, learning from them, hearing storiesfrom them, being influenced by them, and inspired by them."While, in the past, projects like Lineage or No Better Time Than Nowwere rooted in strong personal messages, family and relationshipsrespectively, The New Monday represents a communal eort wheresolidarity is the key. Going for a simplified approach of just trying tomake good tracks, The New Monday is diverse in its styles leaning moreinto a dance music direction - new ground for a Shigeto project. A newair of confidence in Saginaw has expanded his horizons since his returnto Detroit, but traces of his past work will continue to be present."I don't want people to think I'm leaving anything," says Saginaw. "I'mstill me. It's a result of me being immersed in the culture, and inevitablymaking music that is influenced by that culture whether it be house,techno, jazz, rap. It doesn't matter. It's all coming from what I love aboutMichigan."While The New Monday still features the jazz textures long associatedwith S...

It's been 20 incredible years of psychedelic sound surfing with Shpongle and now we finally arrive at the magical maestros' 6th studio album, a visionary volume entitled Codex VI Codex VI is a cosmic collection of mystical music from Simon Posford and co pilot Raja Ram in which their elucidation of hallucination reveals once again, a seemingly effortless mastery of inter-dimensional audio. Simon and Raja are known and loved all around the globe for creating the ultimate psychedelic soundtracks to our lives and Codex VI is a fantastic further instalment in the epic audio adventures of the Shpongle story. After decades of virtuoso voyaging, Shpongle have delivered what is undoubtedly their finest masterpiece yet.

We invite you to share the inner secrets of the Codex VI formulae and get a direct download of illuminated inspiration which will leave you seriously Shpongled ! ‘this music should be put in a capsule and fired into space, as a show piece of how creative human beings can be’ iTunes

Pioneering music producer Si Begg is set to release his sixth studio album, Blueprints, on Berlin's legendary label Shitkatapult. His first LP in four years, BLUEPRINTS is a celebration of raw electronics welded to the 'romance of engineering'. The project was inspired by the discovery of an old diagrammatic notebook that belonged to Begg's grandfather, George, in his lifetime a cutting-edge engineer.

“From Love To Dust“ is a two side EP of Barry Gordon, Ireland / UK based producer. He grew up listening to classic rock like Led Zeppelin & Rolling Stones and played in several bands. Barry fell in love with hip-hop after hearing Wu – Tang Clan for the first time, and started making music as Sina. in 2009. He owns and plays many different music instruments and has got a wide range of music influences, anything from blues and folk, to ambient and hip – hop.
The 6 track EP, set to drop in November, bleeds creativity, with influences from all aspects of music being incorporated in the works of Sina. He lets you submerge, full body, into impeccably produced, brittle clean sound with amazing groove control, touching and emotional. Thus, From Love To Dust never bores and features remixes of Switzerland rising star producer Gards From KC, UK beat smith Kelpe, and UK-based producer Soosh, who has had a collab with Gards From KC for Project: Mooncircle earlier this year.
Sina.:
“I suppose the tune “From Love To Dust” (a play on the funeral phrase “From Dust To Dust”) is about the idea of human love as eternal, or at least as continuing to have a life when we are gone- through family, friends, art & music. “Remembrance” is a wistful song about the rare personal moments when we realise the beauty of the world and our life in it, and of the importance of remembering those moments when things seem darkest.“

Special uv varnish artwork print. Limited edition: 300 copies.

HHV exclusive for the "Berlin Record Store Day 2011"" November, 5th at our SelectedStore!

When experiencing zero gravity in a space station, looking back at Earth-as-one, most astronauts feel dizzy. A near revelation, this sudden awareness is named the “Overview Effect”. When they eventually come out of these periods of aphasia, they often recall having heard "strange music”, similar to the music they claim to have heard on the hidden side of the Moon. Smagghe & Cross's second collaboration (recorded before the MA album, released last year on Often) is the first attempt to recreate this celestial music.
For the past two decades, Ivan Smagghe has perfected the art of making spaced-out clubbers dance, has ridden a Fine Line and run his label Les Disques de La Mort. Rupert Cross is a London-based composer who has worked with Michael Finissy and Julian Anderson as well as writing music for television and theatre.
Before/after MA, an album which sat on the fringes of experimental music passed through an industrial particle accelerator. S&C give you the tracks codenamed Timothy Dalton (according to Ivan, "The laser sound in the track reminded us of Flash Gordon"). Neither pop, nor psychedelic, nor ambient, nor house, nor techno, nor post punk nor even new wave are spared, but none are singled out. To nurture this proto-album, the duo also called upon the talents of Tim Felton, the outstanding guitarist from the cult band Broadcast.
When listening to Timothy Dalton, the temporal and stylistic boundaries disintegrate to give way to all sorts of speculation: imagine the beardies from Tangerine Dream being kidnapped by Soft Cell, C86 and 1988, the Silver Apples composing a space opera with the help of an electro cardiogram monitor. Or the Wizard of OZ reviewed and reworked by Psychic TV. Eight tracks take us from the New Orderey beaches of Ostend to the rings of Saturn, and gradually unfold before our eyes like a machine to travel through time and space. So what if Timothy Dalton was a one-way ticket to the Twilight Zone?

Originally released in 2011, Small Black's chillwave mixtape classic "Moon Killer" highlights the band's range of influences while masterfully incorporating it all into their signature sound. It is now available for the first time on vinyl with bonus tracks! Limited to 500qty. Comes with a digital download of the album.