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Formed from the ashes of Rema-Rema and Mass in the early ‘80s, The Wolfgang Press were originally a trio of bassist and vocalist Michael Allen, keyboardist Mark Cox and guitarist Andrew Gray. They were one of 4AD’s longest-running acts, and shifted from pitch-black, industrial-tinged post-punk in their early years to funky, hip-hop-inspired avant-dance as they stepped into the ‘90s. But since ‘94’s ‘Funky Little Demons’ they’ve been relatively quiet. There was a compilation of unreleased career-spanning material mostly penned by Allen and Gray released in 2020, but ‘A 2nd Shape’ is the first all-new gear from the duo in almost 30 years, with Gray’s brother Stephen replacing Cox on keys. It’s a fitting move for Downwards too; not only do The Wolfgang Press neatly straddle the label’s musical poles, but the band’s ‘88 high point ‘Bird Wood Cage’ is an enduring favourite of Karl O’Connor.
‘A 2nd Shape’ reflects The Wolfgang Press’s output up to and including that touchstone - the soulful, sampledelic mood of ‘Queer’ (and it’s popular single ‘A Girl Like You’) is nowhere to be found. Allen’s signature dubbed-out basslines are front and centre on ‘The Garden of Eden’, booming over gnarled synths and a blitzed, slo-mo drum machine - the bleakness of ‘The Burden of Mules’ is latent, but sliced into bits by discordant feedback and dissociated FX. The band have always been hyper aware of contemporary musical developments, and it sounds as if they’re offering a corrective here in a landscape pocked by post-punk pretenders. On ‘21st Century’, Allen snarls knowingly over menacing oscillations: “The 21st century can tell you who you are, can tell you what you’re thinking.” The music’s not a remnant of the past, but a way for The Wolfgang Press to acknowledge their tenure while peering into tomorrow.
‘Take It Backwards’ is the album’s most direct post-punk stomper, it’s got all the hallmarks you’d expect to find - reverberating guitars, resonant bass, ice-cold synths - but sounds as if it’s been infected with modern paranoia. If the trio’s early run was marked by inky depression, their new material sounds just as umbral, but far more self-assured. “The future has been set to one side,” Allen deadpans on ‘Rest Your Mind’, slurring over horizontal drums and fuzzy clouds of electronics. They might have lost their appetite for funk, but The Wolfgang Press’s claws have never sounded so razor sharp - ‘A 2nd Shape’ is the rarest of comeback albums, one that captures the OG magic without a shred of pastiche or a trace of repetition.

Soul Jazz Records" new collection, "Electro Throwdown - Sci-Fi Inter-Planetary Electro Attack on Planet Earth 1982-89", is a journey into the outer reaches of electro, a galactic roller-coaster ride of turbo-charged sci-fi grooveology.The album is comprised of mainly private-press and independent label electro jams of the highest calibre (with some as rare as space ships landing on Mars) all created in the 1980s, at a time when a vocoder, a Roland TR-808 drum machine and a groove was all that was needed to get the party started.With a few notable exceptions (Michael Jonzun"s Jonzun Crew and The Packman) the album features mainly under-the-radar killer tracks from a host of one-off artists and back-room electronic pioneers - including Pretty Tony, Planet Detroit (James McCauley, aka Maggotron) and Rich Cason - who together helped shape the sound of electro across the USA from Miami to New York, Los Angeles and beyond during the 1980s.

Civilistjävel! returns with »Brödföda«, the successor to 2022’s »Järnnätter« and his fourth release for Felt. The record features collaborations with Laila Sakini, Mayssa Jallad, Thommy Wahlström, Eldon, and Withdrawn.

Tomas Bodén is a revered figure of the aural murk, known primarily for his work as Civilistjävel. It’s an alias that has spawned a catalogue of self-released peculiarities, featuring music that scorns traditional form, instead opting for unfussed symphonies of ice-hued minimalism; soft murmurs that emanate from his studio in the High Coast of Sweden.

On »Brödföda«, his latest album for Fergus Jones’s Felt imprint, subtle new developments in mood prevail. Across its 75 minutes, Civilistjävel! unveils a breadth of emotions that on previous releases seemed distant. He also invites collaborators on record for the first time: Beirut-based singer Mayssa Jallad mournfully croons on »iv«, »viii« hosts Coldlight’s Eldon & Withdrawn for an abstracted session of dub-hop murk, Laila Sakini offers a hallucinogenic monologue amidst melodica, sticks & bells playing on »ix« and Thommy Wahlström floats scant acid dub stylings on »vi«. These additions and developments bring a forlorn intimacy to the music, and suggest an ambition that few artists of his ilk strive for.

Felt’s (un)reliable cast of audio ghouls routinely summon the odd, with Civilistjävel! often its primary culprit; »Brödföda« gently modifies this path to pursue some of his and the label’s most quaintly beautiful music yet.

Proxima proudly presents the reissue of the highly sought-after "Chasing Golden Planet" EP by Stockholm-based producer Peter Benisch, known by his alias Harmon Eyes. This rare record, first released in 1994, sounded way ahead of its time, blending dreamy floating acid with techno and trance, captivating listeners with its innovative soundscapes. Featuring remastered tracks and a fresh new remix by Audrey Danza, this release is a sublime roller and an essential addition for any electronic music enthusiast.

Bastian Benjamin's second solo album takes you on a journey through a dream-like landscape inspired by his grandfather's paintings. 'Elixir' is a collection of breakbeat and jungle-inspired tracks with hints of ambient and esoteric sounds.

Substrata was the third studio album by the Norwegian electronic artist Biosphere, released 25 years ago by All Saints Records in London. In 2016, Pitchfork ranked it at number 38 on its list of the 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time. Here are ten alternative versions picked from the Substrata recordings sessions that took place between 1995 and 1996.
David Stubbs´review of the original album in Melody Maker ,July 12th 1997.
Biosphere, aka Norwegian Geir Jenssen, is transmitting from a cold, polar outpost of the imagination. "Substrata" is the best ambient album I've heard in an ice age, an album of terrifying, desolate and all-enveloping beauty, the music of a man who's stared too long and too hard at the Northern lights, a music of distant rumbles, tremors underfoot, stray radio signals, yawning chasms and indistinct, grainy images in the half-light when the mind begins to play tricks. "Poa Alpina" reminds me of recent, frightening TV footage of vast chunks of iceberg cracking and falling away into the sea under the duress of global warming. As for "The Things I Tell You", imagine what Oasis would have sounded like had they been born Eskimos. "Sphere Of No Form" is shot through with a frantic peal like the Mayday song of the world's last whale and, best of all, "Kobresia" looms with a vast, mournful, symphonic motif, like the ghost of the Titanic. Chill out has never been this chilling.

They say: "Contemporary synthesizer sounds illustrating wide open space activities, environment and research." We say: Panoramic proto-techno underwater-electro library dynamite. One of the hardest pulls on the seminal Coloursound, Open Space Motion (Underscores) isn't just regarded as one of the best releases from library-funk overlord Klaus Weiss. It's one of the very best library records ever. As cult as it gets when it comes to library music, the Klaus Weiss sound was built on top of sometimes funky, sometimes frenetic, but always hard-hitting drums. AND YET! Open Space Motion departs from his drum-heavy approach by being completely...BEATLESS! That's right, the virtuoso beat smith, Mr "drumcrazy of Deutschland", a man known for snapping necks at will, crafted one of the most horizontally sumptuous, elegantly sweeping electronic masterpieces, sans-drums, a good decade before chill-out rooms became a thing. It features organic instruments married to pulsing synth bass atop brilliantly subdued yet irresistibly funky percussion. Possessing a very special vibe, that's at once futuristic yet cinematic, it overflows with atmosphere. The highlights - unsurprisingly - are many. The very first track - the unstoppable "Wide Open Space Motion" - is a sinister, string-fried electro bomb that rides an unrelenting bass loop. "Incessant Efforts" is more reflective, with pastoral yet probing flutes atop strutting synth chords and head-nod percussion that really swings. The heavenly, uber-kosmiche "Pink Sails" hovers over swirling neon-synthy-strings and yet more unobtrusive percussion. The beautiful "Transiency" is a dramatic piano-led underscore, its creeping unease created by patient strings, unhurried percussion and some wonderfully strident keys. "Driving Sequences" is perhaps the key tune here, and if the Detroit crew weren't listening to this staggering piece then, well, imagine if they *were*. The bubbling rhythms of "Southern Mentality", at first ominous, give way to a more optimistic vibe as the movement progresses. The lush, gorgeous "Bows" is deep-sea slow-motion magic whilst the bright-eyed "Outset" feels as fresh as the dawn, and no less beautiful. How these tracks haven't been gobbled up by sample-driven producers is beyond us. Equally calming is the sweeping majesty of "Constellation", again conjuring images of being at one with and fully beguiled by the wonders of nature, of space, of underwater worlds. "Changing Directions" is another fidgety, propulsive non-Detroit beatless bomb. As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Open Space Motion comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

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.

Miasmah Recordings presents the posthumous release of this double album of the final work by experimental composer Marcus Fjellström, titled The Last Sunset of the Year. Collected by Marcus' friends and colleagues Erik K. Skodvin and Dave Kajganich, this release brings together music written and produced during Marcus' tenure as composer for the first season of the AMC anthology series The Terror, which told the story of the doomed 1845 Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

That said, The Last Sunset of the Year is, by design, not a soundtrack to the show. Dave Kajganich writes in the album’s liner notes: “Some of the pieces will be familiar to those who know The Terror (though in some cases in different forms), but many other pieces are being made available here for the first time. The selected pieces have a unity unto themselves, and we feel strongly that this release should be taken not as a companion to the show, but as Marcus Fjellström's final album, on its own terms. We’ve presented these pieces without titles, except for titling the four movements of the journey they suggest. It is a journey that evokes the mystery, grandeur, and desolation of the Arctic, and articulates the spiritual and existential implications of traveling there. In many ways, The Last Sunset of the Year goes further, and deeper, than the show ever could, presenting a remarkable sonic line from contented exploration, to staggering decline, to death—and even to a final vista beyond death.”

Kajganich reached out to begin discussing the idea of this release with Skodvin, back in 2017, after Marcus’ death, but before the series had premiered. In the years since, Dave and Erik have Zoomed and emailed back and forth hundreds of times, studying all seventy-five of the pieces Marcus wrote for the show in all their forms (as many as six or seven versions to a piece), to winnow down a final list of pieces to include. The most difficult phase of the process, Kajganich reveals in the notes, was understanding the best way to sequence the tracks. It required listening to many different track orders and paying close attention to how each order created a slightly different identity for the album through their specific juxtapositions and dynamics. “In a way I can’t fully articulate, it was very much as though Erik and I were having a final, deeply felt and joyous conversation with Marcus himself about the interior lives of these pieces,” Kajganich says.

The album’s title comes from a moment in the show when a group of Victorian sailors who are trapped in winter pack ice, suffering dwindling psychological resources and supplies, stand on the deck of one of the doomed ships to watch the sun rise above the horizon for a moment, and then immediately set in the last sunset of the year before six weeks of darkness, an event which, even through the lens of their inevitable coming losses, could still be viewed as something astonishing and beautiful. None of those men could know, nor can we, what waits for us across the line of death, but in The Last Sunset of the Year, Marcus seems to have had a notion.

After marking their return following 15 years on ice, Out of Practice Volume 2 is an unflinching exposition of the duo’s omnivorous tastes and mettle for white hot psychedelia. In a typical style they assume versions of their early selves, circa roles in Portland’s burgeoning noise scene, around the turn of the millennium, when they would collapse myriad influences - noise, industrial, drone, hardcore, dub, free improv and modern composition - into a blistering maelstrom, and record an almost innumerable slew of releases until disbanding in 2008. Since their cheerio, Pete Swanson has issued occasional solo works and helped Jed Bindeman build the Freedom to Spend label into a notable showcase of their sprawling tastes, whilst Gabe has carved a solid path of drone works under his own name for the likes of Shelter Press and Miasmah. Reunited, they now remind us to the thrill of USA’s noise nexus in the ‘00s, when everyone from Wolf Eyes to Bill Kouligas and 0PN would emerge with wildly differing styles that could still be placed on the same page, and which felt like a big fuck off to preceding eras. That formative buzz fuels the YS cuts here, which both started out with playback samples of their respective influences, mutated and masticated by their overdriven onslaught. In ‘Oblivion Access 6-16-23’, recorded live in Austin on their first show in 15 years, they chew the hell out of 13th Floor Elevators - the psychedelic rock analog to their psych noise - murking a tape loop for nearly 10 minutes of pounding bass and wall-of-noise distortion, before the original sample is revealed in the vinegar strokes. Better yet, the B-side sees them rinse out Suicide into coruscating clouds of greyscale noise bliss that short circuits distinctions of late stage The Caretaker and Alberich, and almost feels like it could have come out via V/Vm Test Records’ in its heyday.

Electroacoustic duo Jesse and their extended collective is making a comeback of some sorts. Having been integral part of Finnish electronic music community for 15 years now, they are releasing a new album called Descend. Produced by the band together with Berliner DJ Sotofett, the record is a voyage to the depths of microcosmos of our minds. Warm and fuzzy grooves bending into a mindmelting buzz of swampy ambient. Jesse has always been a group that is musically on a constant search and mutation, Descend is a record that once more defines their edge and can be seen as a follow up to their 2017 record Twotinos (released on Keys Of Life).

New edition of this Soul Jazz Records out-of-print classic album available now as a new limited-edition one-off pressing triple yellow vinyl album (plus download code), and limited-edition one-off pressing special yellow CD edition. Soul Jazz Records" Space, Energy and Light is a collection of music by early electronic and synthesizer pioneers (from the 1960s through the 1970s), mid-1970s proto-new age gurus and 1980s guerrilla D-i-y cassette-era electronic artists, spanning in total over a near 30-year time frame. All of these artists used electronic advancements in music technology as a means of exploring not only space and the idea of the future, but also of looking inwards to the soul and of creating music in harmony with the natural world.

Limited to 400 copies.

»Keskipäivän hetken sumea vaillinaisuus« collects new dark ambient & industrial leaning tracks by Finnish producer Ilpo Väisänen (Pan Sonic).

Kübler-Ross is a minimal synth/wave/industrial three-piece from Glasgow, Scotland, featuring Craig Clark, Katie Shannon, and veteran electronic producer and remixer Dave Clark, best-known for his Sparky moniker, and as one-half of the production/remix team Optimo (Espacio). First emerging in 2015 with a couple of compilation appearances, Kübler-Ross released their debut, self-titled album in 2020. Originally released as a limited-edition cassette on the Glasgow label Akashic Records, the album — now resequenced and released on vinyl via Suction Records’ minimal synth sublabel Ice Machine — is a collection of tracks recorded over a three year period in a variety of studios, rehearsal rooms, and gigs, documenting the musical variety and ferocity of their incendiary live performances. The Akashic tape, despite being low-key, under-the-radar, and released in limited quantity, managed to earn them a Long List nomination for SAY (Scottish Album of the Year) for 2020. Standout cut “Bridges”, first released in 2015, is synthpop perfection — sitting comfortably alongside classics from the first wave of UK electronic classics by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, John Foxx, and even early Depeche Mode. It’s not the only synthpop track on the record, but the album is dominated by a more tough, raw, and punk spirit, featuring aggressive female vocals, live drums + bass guitar, and judicious use of crude analog synthesizers and tape delay fx. Think Liaisons Dangereuses meets Suicide, and you’re beginning to get close

Geier aus Stahl is one of the many artistic guises of Leonard Prochazka. No superfluous elements take away from the core experience of his sound. Somewhere a statement from David Byrne crossed our path, able to highlight something of the essence of Leonard's art: “No matter how alienated the subject or the singer might appear, the groove and its connection to the body would provide solace and grounding. But the edgy, uncomfortable stuff was still on the foreground”. The debut album 'Strapazen und Genesung' takes us to an exciting world that twists, squeaks and creaks, yet is grounded by an unmistakable groove.

When Isa Gordon sent the demo of this album to me I knew I wanted to release it before I had got half way through it. I had previously released her super good Resili collaborative project but I wasn’t quite prepared for how good this was going to be. Isa is patently a once in a blue moon talent and I feel honoured to help get her unique, visionary sounds out into the world. This is next level programming & sound design but always with soul, and musicality. Sui generis. Isa says “For you only came about in the lockdown winter in 2020. I started seeing a lot of beats and motifs that I’d been working on working together as a collection and spent a few months compiling, completing, mixing and weaving together the tracks into a coherent album. It was many nights tucked away entering the wormholes of making music and trying to honour the emotion contained in each song by expanding the sentiments within them into complete pieces, chasing down the journey in each one. It was a very personal, solitary exploration of how I interpret and compose instrumentals, with the rare global situation inhibiting outsider contact and influence. I include a mix of tempos, styles and freely combine digital and live instruments in order to serve whatever intention or feeling needs to be heard”. Isa is an Ayrshire bred, Glasgow based producer and singer. Impressed upon by myriad styles; Singing folk music since a youngster, Playing guitar since a teen, Producing electronic music thereafter. Now freely cherry-picking whatever sounds, instruments, words and methods serve the feeling. Exploring solitary beat making as Isa Gordon and Singing and writing heartfelt lyrical ditties with her band Fantasy Land.

The Aloof formed in 1990 and forged a reputation as one of the hardest working bands around. While other acts incorporated an electronica into a general rock sound in the early ‘90s, The Aloof were always a pioneering electronic act. Touring alongside the likes of Massive Attack and Leftfield, they released three albums with Warner’s EastWest label: Cover The Crime (1994), Sinking (1996) and Seeking Pleasure (1998). After parting ways with Warner, they were in charge of their own destiny, and formed their own ‘Screaming Target’ label as they set about making a new record.

The resultant album ‘This Constant Chase For Thrills’ has established a reputation as a cult classic, but internal struggles and the wider pressure of the industry meant it didn’t get the coverage it deserved. Despite this, ‘So Good’ became a radio hit after featuring on the US version of Queer As Folk, and remains a fan-favourite. In anticipation of the release, it has finally issued as a single, setting the tone for the full reissue of the LP on Acid Jazz Records.

Defined by a positive DIY spirit as the band moved on their own, This Constant Chase For Thrills, has an Ibiza and Balearic feel, alongside its dark, moody and atmospheric moments. Aside from ‘So Good’ – described as ‘a dark cloud being lifted’ by founding member Dean Thatcher – there is the late night intensity of ‘Doing It For Money’, describing the need to make ends meet in difficult circumstances, which gained attraction when first released. Meanwhile, closing tune ‘Painted Face’ is arguably the album’s standout, infused with wide-eyed psychadelia and open adventure.

“I think ‘Constant Chase For Thrills’ was a return to form for The Aloof and I’m really chuffed this album is going to see the light of day properly and finally get the exposure it deserves” - Dean Thatcher, The Aloof.

Lndfk (aka Linda Feki) presents her ground-breaking debut album, 'Kuni' on Brooklyn-based Bastard Jazz Recordings. Undeniably on the rise after her 2019 breakout performance at Primavera Sound, Lndfk has already caught the attention of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Clash Magazine, Noisey, and Brooklyn Vegan (among many others) while being championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft, and Jamz Supernova & landing spots on tastemaker playlists like Spotify's 'Pollen' and 'Fresh Finds.' 'Kuni' is a spellbinding exploration of dichotomies: Love & Death (Eros & Thanatos), Flower & Fire, Delicacy & Violence, Poetry & Realism, Purification & Destruction. These opposites are reified in the 10-track LPs multifarious and multifaceted sounds, elegantly meandering through a variety of styles and genres, spearheaded by Linda and features the production wizardry of Darrio Bassolino who co-wrote the album. Lndfk is a singer and songwriter, born of two cultures ' an Italian mother and Arab father. She grew up in Naples, away from her father, the Sahara, her homeland and traditions, which has helped nourish the desire to rediscover ' through art ' an engagement to her roots. Her music melts with jazz, neo-soul and hip-hop influences, filtered through her experiences and sensibility. Her first EP, "Lust Blue," was composed with the artistic production of Dario Bass and released by Feelin' Music; after that she released several singles that saw international radio support (bbc, NTS, Wordwide FM) and gained a massive audience on digital platforms. Together with her band, she toured around Europe, performing alongside such notable artists as Kamasi Washington and Mndsgn, among others. Most recently she toured Italy, and performed at Primavera Sound Festival 2019 in Barcelona. 'Kuni,' is due out on NYC label Bastard Jazz Recordings in February, 2022, while the vinyl LP will follow shortly after.

LP with revised yellow sleeve artwork „Erratics & Unconformities“ is the first album by Craven Faults. Long-form analogue electronic journeys across decades and continents, and swathes of post-industrial northern Britain. The journey on „Erratics & Unconformities“ picks up where Netherfield Works left off. We take the canal towpath out of the city. We fork north shortly afterwards. Is this where it started? The terrain gradually becomes more rugged. Familiar. Wild. Evidence of human activity is less immediate in this glacial landscape. It's there if you seek it. But easy to ignore. If you listen carefully, you can still hear the weight of the ice-sheet carving its way through the rock. Everything in its own time. The output from the old textile mill Craven Faults calls home is no longer as linear as it once was. There was no clear start point for the project, rather simply rediscovering the joy in experimentation with no material goals. Some of the recordings that make up Erratics & Unconformities go back almost seven years. Tracks have come and gone in that time. They don't leave until they've undertaken a stringent quality control process. It started slowly, but has picked up momentum in the last eighteen months. Recorded and re-recorded to the correct level of imperfection, and then left to breathe. Mixed and re-mixed. Carefully compiled when the time was right. The journey is just as important as the destination.

Perugia producer, synth collector and linchpin of the underground scene Feel Fly pokes his head above the trenches to deliver a consummate four track EP Mediterranean Dreams - Part 1. Onironauta rolls up all the best bits of spaced-out disco and italo house into an expansive dancefloor soundtrack that would sound equally at home in a Den Haag squat as by an Ibizan hillside pool. Sounding in turns both futuristic and nostalgic, it sets the tone for the dream-like timezone in which this EP resides. Meanwhile slowed-down 303 chugger Grace In Space sounds perfect for Room 2 - that is, if the room is on an orbiting space station and someone adjusted the gravity settings. The track concludes the side with timeless balearic drift and a dash of kosmiche afro percussion sprinkled on top. Flip the 12” over and the title track Mediterranean Dreams seeps through, with more than a slight nod to the summer of ‘88, like a faded photograph. The revolving chord progression and melodic synth phrases that weave through the groove fit together sweeter than the cogs in a swiss watch. EP closer Becalmed rounds proceedings out in fine cosmic disco style, firing more 16th note lasers through the dry ice than Kitt, as melancholic pads float over the rhythm section like a négligée. It’s a stylish way to sign off a collection of tracks that are equal parts fond memory, hopeful optimism, and hazy dance-fuelled hedonism.

From its humble beginnings in 2001, the Brooklyn label Bastard Jazz Recordings has trailblazed a unique path in the world of independent record labels. Appealing to both DJs and music fans from all walks of life, BJR has become known for its eclectic sound & community of global artists from Mumbai to Napoli, New York to Kinshasha, who touch on everything from funk to hip-hop, house music to forward thinking beats, soul to jazz and international sounds, along with its unrelenting commitment to the vinyl medium. This November, the label will be celebrating 20 years of operation in various incarnations and are releasing a special compilation and a DJ friendly 4xLP titled '20 Years of Bastard Jazz' filled with brand new cuts from its current roster, plus a selection of catalog material, some of it classic, some of it overlooked, and some of it unpressed.

We Jazz Records is delighted to share the first edition of our new series of reworks with you . Our aim is to invite some of our favourite artists to take a fresh look at our album releases with the interval of 10 full length album releases. In other words, the invited artist has complete freedom to choose (or not to choose) any sample material from their allocated range of ten We Jazz Records albums, and there are no artistic boundaries of what they should do with the material. Each artist will then create a new musical piece based on the sample material and whatever instrumentation they wish to add to it.

As our first guest, we have the great Finnish producer Timo Kaukolampi who goes by his last name only when creating deep and mobile soundscapes, that never fail to evoke emotions and thoughts in the listener. We have long been fans of his work, released under Kaukolampi, Kaukolampi & Puranen (a duo with Tuomo Puranen), and on the vast discography of kraut-informed space rockers K-X-P.

As this is the first of our new series, Kaukolampi's task at hand is to dive deep into the first 10 We Jazz LPs, ranging from WJLP01 Bowman Trio released in 2016 to the 2018 release WJLP10 Alder Ego "II".

With the initial edition of any series comes the freedom and necessity of defining a new direction. We trusted Kaukolampi would be the right person to show us what the idea will be, and we were right. He premiered this piece at the We Jazz Festival back in 2018 and developed his ideas further during several studio sessions later on. The finished product opens things up with a bang and shows the value in going deep. Kaukolampi manages to distill new music from the source material, twisted and strecthed into dimensions beyond what is usually there. "Ambient Dub"? Perhaps at times. "Drone"? Maybe also. And then some.

To complete the idea, we invited the visionary graphic designer (and K-X-P drummer) Tomi Leppänen to "rework" the graphics of the source albums to construct the base of the design, which you see envelop the LP sleeve.

When David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated from LA to continental Europe, taking trains to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, they would have come across new music that was very different to the burgeoning disco scene they left behind. “Cafe Exil” – named after one of Bowie’s favourite Berlin haunts – imagines the soundtrack that would have informed “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. It’s an awesome mix of electronica, Krautrock and experimental treats.

There are key tracks from members of Can and Tangerine Dream, fascinating obscurities by German act Streetmark and Italian library maestro Piero Umiliani, the Herzog-soundtracking Popul Vuh, and highly collectible avant-strangeness by Annette Peacock. Czech-born Jan Hammer’s beautiful, light, atmospheric groove is among myriad surprises.

“Cafe Exil” has been put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Jason Wood, author of multiple books on cinema and programmer at Home in Manchester. It fits in with other recent Ace compilations such as “English Weather” and “76 In The Shade” – it creates a mood, a time and a place. You’re right there, sat next to Bowie, drinking his Pernod and black, in a darkly lit Berlin bar.

This 2LP set features a bonus track from Edgar Froese.

Downwards’ rum gang of industrial misfits mutate My Disco’s ‘Environment’ album in slow, brutal and hypnotic styles ranging from Karl O’Connor’s smudged gamelan rework as Cub, to a 16 minute stunner by Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement (Prurient & Low Jack). ‘Environment Remixes’ serves to tie up a 10 year loop since Karl O’Connor (Regis) first became rapt with My Disco’s 2010 single ‘Young/You’, which lead to him remixing the Aussie band’s song ‘My Decade’ in 2016, and eventually issue the reverberating clang of their ‘Environment’ LP on his Downwards label in 2019. For the remix suite, they’ve picked a gang of manacled producers to reanimate the album’s cranky mania and classic industrial spirit with suitably bruising results. The swingeing, stygian flow of Karl O’Connor’s Cub remix of ‘Equatorial Rainforest’ returns a big highlight, possibly the project’s very slowest and loaded square between the eyes of early ‘90s Coil and 23 Skidoo, while Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement’s 16 minute take on LP centrepiece ‘Act’ follows that humid line to a frighteningly strong scene of cicadas and crackling neon sleaze sloshed with martial kettle-drum rolls recalling Con Schnitzler’s ‘Conditions of The Gas Giant’, before slipping into the lushest ambient techno mode. Following the rush of his recent records, Sam Kerridge renders the doomy beckon of ‘Rival Colour’ more tentatively, stalked with spare drums and lugubrious bass, and Bristol’s Giant Swan follow a hunch for lurching halfstep on their reduction of ‘An Intimate Conflict’, for Oliver Ho to amp the phosphorus guitar burn of ‘1987’ as Slow White Fall with the sort of noisy conviction that also makes his new album such a zinger.

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.

Legowelt has been a key figure in the Dutch electronic music scene since the early nineties, steadily relea­sing timeless music that merges the pioneering sounds of Detroit and Chicago with idiosyncratic sci-fi fascinations. "Unconditional Contours" captures Legowelt's stint at the Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments (smem), after he was invited to be the first artist in residence at the institution's "Playroom" project. Legowelt visited Smem in Fribourg, Switzerland, in early 2019 to explore the collection and record music. Possessing an extensive collection of synthesizers himself, he used hand-picked synthesizers from the museum's archive: the rare Farfisa Synthorchestra, the Evs-1 Evolution, the "shittiest rompler ever made", amongst many others. The 10-track album "Unconditional Contours" is both a probe into the vast collection of Smem, and a display of Legowelt's well established composi­tional qualities. Leaving ample space for new sounds to unfold, Legowelt invokes gentle trips, brooding excursions, bleep heavy soundscapes, and reimagined elements of dance music classicism. Smem and -ous are launching the "smem+ous" series to document the "Playroom" residencies. A limited edition of this album was already sent out to early supporters of the "Playroom". Founded in 2016 and based on a collection of more than 5000 synthesizers, organs, drum machines and effects that had been collected over a 35 year period by Klemens Niklaus Trenkle, Smem offers residencies, studio sessions, talks and workshops.

Record Store Day 2020 Release.

Best remixes from the current Metronomy Forever campaign onto a 12” including Idles take on Wedding Bells, the Bristol band’s firstofficial remixcreated for another artist. A-side: Wedding Bells (idles ‘Til Dev do us Party Remix) / Insecurity (Michael Mayer What IZ Love Remix) III B-side: Salted Caramel Ice Cream (Anna Lann Remix) / Wedding Bells (Georgia Remix) / Lately (Gerd Janson & Shan Remix) (flourescent orange vinyl)