Electro 119 Items

Dan Barrett—the man behind Have A Nice Life, Giles Corey, and Enemies List Home Recordings—has unveiled his sophomore album as the electronic project Black Wing on The Flenser. No Moon is a gorgeous chillwave / post-punk record with nine bleak yet blissful songs and is a fitting close out to the year 2020. Written over the course of the last few years, with about half of the songs penned over the last six months (mostly due to pandemic “free time”), No Moon is a heart-wrenchingly honest outpour of emotion. Throughout the writing process, Barrett was having recurring dreams and felt a strange sense of timelessness—that, combined with quarantine is what he simply describes as “a weird experience.” Barrett explains, “Quarantine was profoundly isolating. With writing this record, more than anything I just wanted to prove to myself that I could make something out of it. That ended up being a lot of songs about feeling isolated, a lot of ‘trapped in my own head’ moments. I think that was a lot of people’s experience as well.” Barrett formed Black Wing in the mid-2010s as an opposite to his project Giles Corey; where Giles started as “only acoustic instruments allowed,” Black Wing started with only digital instruments. In 2015, Black Wing released its first proper full length, …Is Doomed, to great critical acclaim. Much like that album, No Moon bubbles with electronica and indie-pop with earworm melodies and affecting lyrics. But No Moon is a transitional change from Black Wing’s debut; the songs here are a bit more experimental and there’s a significantly wider emotional range to them. The lyrics are haunting and personal and resonate deeply with the listener. The nine new tracks on No Moon are gloomy yet glorious, heavy while ambient, overwhelming yet alluring, and offer an earnest and honest look into one’s self during such a troubling and confusing year—something everyone can relate to.

Montreal duo Biochip return to Central Processing Unit with their new LP Crux Alley. The pair of Melissa Speirs and Julian Kochanowski turned plenty of heads when they first rocked up on the Sheffield label back in 2019 with debut drop Synthase. Synthase found Biochip twisting up Braindance, IDM and electro to their own ends, and Crux Alley is an album which hits similar sonic sweet-spots.
It's clear from the off that Biochip have brought their A-game here. Opener 'Mind Bubbles' has no time for pleasantries, dropping the listener straight into a nocturnal IDM-electro groove where bass dances nervily around shadowy synth pads. 'Mind Bubbles' is followed-up 'Polymorphic State', a tune whose laser-gun synth-bass plumbs even more energy into the pair's Rephlex-indebted sound. It's a hugely arresting way to begin an album, and the bold sonics here align Crux Alley with recent CPU releases like Bit Folder's Silicon Frontier and Annie Hall's Fum.
Other tracks on Crux Alley ease up on the frenzied feel of those opening numbers. Take 'Orbital Rendezvous', a cut which is still full of zippy melodies and keening keyboards but whose contemplative strut recalls the legendary electronic music duo referenced in the track's title. There's also a distinct cyberpunk flavour to this track, and this is brought out further on the vivid 'Dopamine City' and 'Tower 13' - it is at these points where Biochip most resemble the work of fellow CPU act B12.
Biochip record their music straight from the mixing desk, an approach that gives their tracks a spontaneous energy and one which sometimes leads Speirs and Kochanowski into novel sonic terrain. Crux Alley's 'Antagonist Part 6', for instance, is a spiritual successor to Synthase's 'Acid Billy' in how the overload of electronics almost pushes it into industrial-techno territory. Furthermore, while most of the LP draws on the Detroit electro continuum of Drexciya, DJ Stingray et al, 'Neutral Current' obliquely recalls the jazz-tinged house of Theo Parrish - although the wobbling synth chords and reverb-laced drums make 'Neutral Current' sound more like an extra-terrestrial reimagining of the Motor City legend's music.
Biochip continue to mark themselves out as one of contemporary electro's most exciting new acts with the Crux Alley LP.
Riyl: Cygnus, B12, Annie Hall, Orbital, Silicon Scally

Taken from the forthcoming Dekmantel LP Center Parcs by esoteric Dutch production duo Betonkust & Palmbomen II, comes the 'Leo/ Mirjam’. The track is a rendition of upbeat-melancholic, future- retroism, and a slice of saturated house music. The flip features a special, unyielding, acid-tempo rework by Legowelt. Likely to vanish soon.. TIP!

Ben Pest debuts on Berlin's Mechatronica with four lethal electro cuts, built to morph minds and move bodies.

UK techno founders B12 return! The duo's history famously started in the early 90's with their music appearing under a plethora of monikers under the "B12 Records" umbrella - 12" vinyl with notorious cryptic messages engraved in the run-out grooves, before being collected into album form and release on Warp. After a hiatus in the late 90's, the pair resurfaced briefly for some live shows, a flurry of hugely sought-after 12"s and a 7-part CD anthology. They then abruptly disappeared again - this is their first appearance in 5 years, fittingly on Glaswegian imprint Soma. (Their seminal Warp Records album was named Electro Soma...is there a connection?) The Bokide 325 EP Is it a planet to be explored, or the journey through a personal hell? Only a few know for sure but at the end of this voyage expressed in the best way B12 know how, layers of sounds, beats, synths, lush pads, and seductive melodies the hope of a whole new reality is reached. It conjures up foreboding, planetary soundscapes - rooted in the more ambient, filmic side of their output, is it a reflection of recent turmoil within/ the artists personal lives? The EP opens with "Into the Void", whose simple but emotive synth line weaves its way across a variety of beats and sounds, and takes the listener into the depths where the true journey can commence. Onwards, darker and more mysterious notes loom up throughout "Descension" and "Unsound Mind", with pounding bass throbbing underneath, leading further into the world of shadows where the alarming awareness that something isn't quite right never truly leaves you. It concludes with Terra Incognita, the final track of the EP - an unknown place, left to be discovered and completed by the listener.

"He presents Daniel Johnston's Weltanschauung in a way that'll leave you awestruck; so don't be afraid - this is his finest stuff yet." Lodown Mag

Awe Kid explores ideas of trans-humanism, evolution and digital immortality on Body Logic, a fantastically lush new album for Atomnation. The immersive 10 track record plays with organic, breathing textures punctuated by moments of digital unrealness to result in an album permeated with a dream-like quality. This contrast is mirrored by the artwork from Portugal's acclaimed The Royal Studio.

Awe Kid is an alias of Sine Language Records co-founder Rick Parsons. It is the product of years spent exploring a multitude of different music. From early days in post-hardcore groups and on to a love of 90s Warp, electronic jazz and more experimental niches, the multi-instrumentalist has now settled on his own unique fusion of breaks, ambient and left-field dance music. This deft studio wizard mixes up melodic nostalgia with forward-thinking sound design using whatever he can get his hands on, from analog and modular hardware, to samplers, field recordings to digital techniques.

Says Parsons, “I love working with digital processes because you get these unexpected moments where you dial something in, that somehow takes on a tangible, organic form in the real world. Searching for these sweet spots was the motivation for the album, contrasting natural textures against synthetic elements, and finding ways to create something that feels like it exists outside of the computer.”

While the album pays homage to dance music traditions, such as the broken beat of title track 'Body Logic', and full-throttle breaks of 'Zenith', these are assimilated and repurposed to create something that defies genre categorization. The listener's journey is perfectly paced, with broody but uplifting cuts of electronica giving way to shimmering, celestial melodies, and dusty breakbeats emerging from dense layers of atmosphere, only for the mood to be reset with soothing, suspenseful synths and haunting vocal samples. Elsewhere, devastatingly emotional ambient is followed by punchy grooves and propulsive melodies to make for a real ride.

Attrition are pioneers in darker electronica. Formed in 1980 in Coventry, England, influenced by a mix of punk ideology and experimental art aesthetics, They emerged as part of the early '80's UK Industrial scene alongside contemporaries Coil, Test Department, Legendary Pink Dots, In The Nursery, Portion Control, and others. Founder Martin Bowes has steered the band through a 40-year career, fueled by a succession of critically acclaimed albums, selling over 100,000 to date. The band has regularly toured Europe, North and South America, Russia and Asia, appeared at major festivals and had their music included on a number of TV and film soundtracks. The band celebrates their 40 year anniversary with their latest release, A Great Desire on Sleepers Records. The album is a compilation of some of their best tracks from 1986-2004, some never before on vinyl.

Printed sleeve with 3mm spine UV Gloss finish, 140 G Black Vinyl. Deewee ‘s new releases now worked with Because Music. Formed in 2012, Asa Moto purvey non-standard body music from their Ghent outpost, Studio Martino. Closely affiliated with famed Soulwax imprint, Deewee, the Belgian duo’s recorded offerings carefully juxtapose expert synth-work with aesthetic imperfection. Charming melodies and throbbing rhythms come courtesy of archaic tone generators and acoustic instrumentation alike, landing Asa Moto in a zone of confident sonic idiosyncrasy. Their studio prowess has hardly gone unnoticed and during their breakout year of 2018, Resident Advisor, Redbull and the BBC were quick to take note of the group’s steady ascent. Via their ever-changing live performances, Asa Moto have become regular fixtures on the European touring circuit, touching down for club nights and festival appearances across the continent. As astute selectors, they operate a bi-monthly radio show in Brussels, digging into their sprawling collection, ranging from obscure jazz records to contemporary electronic cuts. Asa Moto have re-adapted their unmistakable strain of body music into a live show, which premiered on the Mainstage of the Lokerse Feesten 2019 and at the 40th anniversary of Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. In 2020, they co-produced and mixed the Turkish band, Altin Gün album ‘Yol’ marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders.

Red vinyl with downloadcode!

Best coverartwork ever! And the track isn't too bad either.

Alleged Witches debut album breaks down centuries of human labour into an eight-part instruction manual for company best practice, stock control and tips for the optimum commute. The final break from nature, it's Pagan funeral marches, insect rhythms and doomed ambience for one last trip up the river. Artwork from Bill Connors.

Some things are just not meant to be, but that doesn’t stop them happening anyway, such is the case with Mexican/Canadian punk-techno duo ALI X x XIMENA who unwittingly crossed streams in 2016. In just the past two years the inspired and experienced duo have unleashed a relentless barrage of funky and skewed audio/video bricolage. Their first session together, along with compatriot Theo Magus, produced the single “Let’s Get Naked” for Tiga’s Turbo label, and what followed was an orgy of remixes for labels Nein and Roam, Bottom Forty, Wonder Stories, Phisica and Shara, and reworks and collabs with artists of weird like-minds Nark, Tkuz, Fausto, Shit, and others both esoteric and mainstream.
ALI X is no stranger to the impenetrable darks and blinding lights having taken his former band Azari & III from the streets to the limelight, and his own extensive back catalog excessively demonstrates this, while XIMENA’s vague history only intensifies the strange murk that enshrouds her, at once both fiercely hermetic and violently sociable, her internalized poetic meanderings clash nicely with her gushing DJ performances. When combined, the couple’s punky ‘screw-it’ attitude juxtaposed with a funky troubled lovers vibe provides for challenging encounters rewarded by unexpected leaps of freedom.
The Welcome To My World EP shows the journeys Ali X x Ximena can take you on, from slugging bouts of confusion and disorder to the heart pounding grit of dark and cavernous dance floors, each track on the album from original to remix shows off the cool and independent techno style of Mexico perfectly.

Skin is the debut album on Omena by Aleksandir. Both musically and conceptually it's his most ambitious work to date, and maybe the first project that feels like a true piece of himself. Half of the tracks are uplifting, while the other half dark, with a more serious tone than we've seen from Aleksandir before. For the first time, the artist has included his own vocals on tracks, adding framework to the album.

For this fourth vinyl release, the team at Coqueto Records has put together their first split, featuring Alejo from Uruguay on the A-side and Rupert Marnie from Germany on the B-side. As always, they're delivering music filled with deep basslines and immersive, mental atmospheres.

Introducing Risorsa Elettronica 002, featuring the exceptional talent of Agostino Casillo, a distinguished music producer and our esteemed friend. This EP showcases a fusion of diverse styles, ranging from techno and electro to progressive and breakbeat. Limited to just 300 copies, each track promises a captivating journey.

In the summer of 1989, when Trevor Miller’s Trip City book was first released with a five-track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. For 2021, Trip City came back and the original soundtrack by A Guy Called Gerald was also reissued on vinyl for the first time as part of a bundle with the book. Now the vinyl is available to buy on its own.

American blackened electro-industrial Act 6TH Circle is back with new LP The Idle Construct, another masterful forty-minute crucible of insurgent post-industrial darkness laced with haunting atmospheres and seismic, disorienting beats. Officially licensed from Sonic Groove Records, The Idle Construct is 6th Circle's most tenebrous and atmospheric release to date, seeing its first ever proper release on a physical format worldwide via Sentient Ruin as a limited edition black vinyl pressing, after its initial and so far digital-only release in 2021. The Idle Construct sees 6th Circle further evolve and deconstruct its dark sonic canvas, pushing its foreboding atmospheres and anachronistic grooves deeper into lightless realms, and taking the listener further into a dark future dystopia of bitter disillusionment and grim alienation. The dark flame of defining acts like Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and :Wumpscut:, burns more vigorously than ever within these ten caustic tracks of industrial insurrection, but what defines 6th Circle's unrivaled approach to the craft is not so much its masterful evocation of an unrivaled past glory, rather the fearless exploration of its still unaccomplished and uncharted possibilities in the