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The first-ever LP box set gathering the entire 10 albums collection of Obscure Records produced by Brian Eno’s. Curated by Gavin Bryars Originally issued between 1975 and 1978, nearly 50 years on the output of Obscure remains radically forward-thinking - offering glimpses of a future yet to be fully seen - and amounts to one of the most important, influential, and creatively accomplished album series ever conceived. Co-curated by Eno and the composers Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman - issuing the recording debuts of Bryars, Nyman, John Adams, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, Max Eastley, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White - Obscure’s collective output is a groundbreaking landmark in the histories of Minimalism, modern composition, and Experimental music, and laid much of the groundwork for the soon to emerge movement of Ambient music. Illuminating the remarkable, and largely otherwise undocumented, creative ferment within and between the British and American scenes of experimental music during the mid to late 1970s, this collection - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire 10 album output of Obscure, the majority of which have been out of print for years, with a number having never received a CD reissue. Offering each of Obscure’s albums, completely remastered and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as a 80-page book (LP dimension) for Lp-box SET, filled with rare photos, archival material and texts by - among others - Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, and Tom Recchion, this historic collection marks the first time this seminal series has received a complete LP repress.

(6lp Box Set, 180gr vinyl, 4c print + Glossy varnish). Stephan Bodzin, Luna Semara, Solomun, Adriatique, Mind Against, Maceo Plex, Jupiter Jazz, Avnu, Fideles, Denis Horvat, Kevin de Vries, Ben Böhmer, Boris Brejcha, Roman Flügel, Agents Of Time, Patrice Baumel, Echonomist, Hernan Cattaneo, Soundexile, Dubfire, Anfisa Letyago, Anna, Wehbba, Reinier Zonneveld, Ameloar, Christopher Coe, Anii, Hannes Bieger, Meute, Innellea

Definitive career-spanning anthology
Includes previously unreleased tracks, inspired collaborations, and material from Leslie’s groundbreaking 1990 solo debut, Witch
Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave’s Karl Bonnie, Christophe Van Huffel, Jay Glass Dubs, Mari G. Mooney, and Diamond Version, amongst others
Newly remastered by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin
24-page booklet featuring a new, extensive interview with Leslie and liner notes by acclaimed author, critic and compilation co-producer Wyndham Wallace, along with an essay by award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei
Cover collage by renowned British artist Linder, featuring photography by Mondino, and design by designer Christopher Shannon
Picture shows a mock up. The actual records are unique and will differ.

“The definition of a hidden gem” – John Peel

“The world seems finally to be catching up to Leslie Winer, whose startling intelligence and singular vision shine through her copious recording life.” – Max Richter

“She might just be the coolest woman on the planet!” – Boy George

Light in the Attic is ecstatic to announce When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It: a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet, and author, Leslie Winer. When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It spans Winer’s three-decade-long musical career: from her groundbreaking solo work in the early ‘90s to her latest inspired projects. Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave’s Karl Bonnie, and others, the collection also spotlights Winer’s diverse collaborations, and unearths previously-unreleased recordings.

Newly remastered by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin, When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It will be available in multiple special 2xLP editions, on CD, and across digital platforms. The album includes a new interview with Winer, captured by the compilation’s co-producer, acclaimed author and critic Wyndham Wallace. Rounding out the package is an insightful essay by the award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei and an original cover collage by the renowned British photographer and artist, Linder, featuring photography by Mondino, and design by designer Christopher Shannon.

MORE ABOUT LESLIE WINER….

Musician, poet, iconoclast, model, artist, enigma. Leslie Winer is many things.

Born to a teenage mother and sold for $10,000 in a black market adoption when she was just hours old, Winer has always lived an uncommon life. She grew up in Boston with a voracious appetite for music and the written word and embraced the city’s lively jazz and folk scene in the ‘70s. Moving to New York for art school, she gravitated towards a vibrant crowd of intellectuals, artists, and radical thinkers—or perhaps they gravitated towards her.

There, Winer formed an unlikely friendship with writer and artist William S. Burroughs and lived on-and-off with Jean-Michel Basquiat. In London, where Winer began her musical ventures in earnest, she was a regular at Leigh Bowery’s underground club Taboo, where she met many of her collaborators, including filmmaker John Maybury, Kevin Mooney (of Adam and the Ants), and Boy George, who once declared that Winer “might just be the coolest woman on the planet!”

Winer’s striking looks also attracted fashion designers and photographers. Throughout the early ‘80s, she was an in-demand model—appearing in campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior, and Yohji Yamamoto, and serving as a muse for a young Jean-Paul Gaultier, who later dubbed Winer “the first androgynous model.” She posed for Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Pierre et Gilles, and graced the covers of The Face, French and Italian editions of Vogue, and Mademoiselle.

But music was Winer’s true passion and, at the turn of the ‘90s, she would unknowingly help invent the massively popular genre known today as trip-hop.

On her debut, Witch, Winer masterfully blended the uninhibited sampling of early hip-hop with dancehall basslines and programmed beats, while weaving mesmerizing—and coolly-detached—spoken-word vocals into her ambient tracks. It was unorthodox in the most delicious ways.

The album was a bold experiment by the self-taught artist, who enlisted a number of talented musicians in the sessions, including Culture Club’s Helen Terry, Karl Bonnie of Renegade Soundwave, former Public Image Ltd. bassist Jah Wobble, and Kevin Mooney, as well as Marco Pirroni and Matthew Ashman (both of Adam and the Ants, among other acts).

While Witch was finished in 1990, it wouldn’t be released for three years, due to the whims of Winer’s label. In the meantime, several tracks made their way out into the world as early as June 1990, thanks to BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who later referred to Witch as “the definition of a hidden gem.”

Opening with the laid-back dub beats and soft, sing-songy chorus of “He Was,” Witch features such highlights as the up-tempo “Skin,” the hypnotic, bass-heavy “The Boy Who Used 2 Whistle,” and the album’s closer, “Dream 1,” in which waves of reverb-soaked vocals bounce from one ear the other.

While sonically, Winer was breaking new ground, she was also bringing a fresh, incendiary take on what it means to be a woman in the music business, as embodied by her composition “N1 Ear,” in which she delivers a scorching, feminist manifesto, borrowed from the Women’s Liberation Broadsheet: “If I get raped it must be my fault / And if get bashed I must’ve provoked it / And if I raise my voice I’m a nagging bitch / And if I like fucking I’m a whore…And if I ask my doctor too many questions I’m neurotic and need pills / Because I still can’t get a safe birth control while some fucker’s roaming the moon.”

Winer had every right to vent her frustrations as a woman in music. Despite her fierce demeanor and steadfast focus, she was consistently disregarded and typecast by the industry. Many of her early collaborators failed to credit her work, while others simply overlooked her influence. Witch, for example, was so delayed that by the time the album saw the light of day (released under the pseudonym “©”), trip-hop was gaining mainstream traction via acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Madonna. Although Winer eventually gained wider acknowledgment (prompting the NME to give her the dubious distinction of “The Grandmother of Trip-Hop”), Witch initially went sorely unnoticed.

Following the disappearance of Witch, Winer continued to record, undeterred by the elusive nature of mainstream success in the modern music business. Her network of inspired collaborators continued to grow and expand, yet her influence remained largely a secret except to those in the know, such as Grace Jones and Sinead O’Connor, who would cover her songs.

Today, Winer stays busy on new musical projects in the French countryside, where she has spent the past two decades raising her five daughters. A prolific writer, she has also published two collections of poetry and oversees the literary estate of Herbert Huncke, a defining member of the Beat Generation.

In the modern era, one is hard-pressed to find an artist who continues to push the creative envelope as much as Winer does. And yet, three decades after her revolutionary debut, her work remains just as startling and fresh.

Winer’s influence might best be summed by the award-winning composer Max Richter, who offered the following thoughts to Wyndham Wallace for his extensive liner notes: “The world seems finally to be catching up to Leslie Winer, whose startling intelligence and singular vision shine through her copious recording life. A visionary commentator on the relationship between individuals and society in the mould of Blake or Woolf, Leslie Winer knows things that the culture at large just doesn’t understand yet, and she has never been afraid to let us know that.”

The Communards’ sophomore album ‘Red’ consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, The Communards straddled pop and the political, the album’s themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late 80s Britain. A global smash upon its release, this remastered and expanded 35Th Anniversary Edition features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary 80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Available on Deluxe Double CD , Collector White & Red Double Vinyl , Black Vinyl. All editions remastered , with new sleeve notes.

Why you'll love it...
When I Hit You — You'll Feel It is a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet and author, Leslie Winer. It spans Winer’s three-decade-long musical career: from her groundbreaking solo work in the early ’90s to her latest inspired projects. Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave’s Karl Bonnie and others, the collection also spotlights Winer’s diverse collaborations, and unearths previously-unreleased recordings. The album is newly remastered by the Grammy Award-winning engineer John Baldwin and includes a new interview with Winer, captured by the compilation’s co-producer, acclaimed author and journalist Wyndham Wallace. Rounding out the package is an insightful essay by the award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei and an original cover collage by the renowned British photographer and artist, Linder Sterling, and design by Christopher Shannon.

Today, Winer stays busy on new musical projects in the French countryside, where she has spent the past two decades raising her five daughters. A prolific writer, she has also published two collections of poetry and oversees the literary estate of Herbert Huncke, a defining member of the Beat Generation. In the modern era, one is hard-pressed to find an artist who continues to push the creative envelope as much as Winer does. And yet, three decades after her revolutionary debut, her work remains just as startling and fresh. Winer’s influence might best be summed by the award-winning composer Max Richter, who offered the following thoughts to Wyndham Wallace for his liner notes: “The world seems finally to be catching up to Leslie Winer, whose startling intelligence and singular vision shine through her copious recording life. A visionary commentator on the relationship between individuals and society in the mold of Blake or Woolf, Leslie Winer knows things that the culture at large just doesn’t understand yet, and she has never been afraid to let us know that.”

The Ring Orchestra is an eight-person effort, a collective coming together to tackle opera and one of the genre’s controversial poster boys. 18 compositions, the artists Born in Flamez, Gil Schneider, Simonne Jones, Leo Luchini, Legion Seven, P.A. Hülsenbeck, Isa GT, and Ixa create a collaborative musical score that uses Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen as the point of departure. Originally, the music was created for a staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen at Schauspielhaus Zürich, directed by Christopher Rüping and written by Necati Öziri. Far from being an affirmative tribute, the orchestra sets out to deconstruct and break down what Wagner and his opus magnum represent: collaboration over singularity and openness instead of conservative rigidity. The resulting score doesn’t shy away from ambivalence by decentralizing authorship and encompassing everything from ambient to pop, reggaeton, and a wider variety of non-western musical influences.

Freestyle Records drop an unmissable LP of foundational UK dance music made between 1982 to 1984, in the form of the collected output of Contact-U - aka Rick de Jongh and Andy Sojka's stripped-back electro boogie project.

At the turn of the 1980s Challenge Records was founded on North London's Holloway Road - formed by Andy Sojka & Rick de Jongh to act as a sister-label to Sojka's seminal soul & boogie-focused Elite imprint. Initially releasing a smattering of lovers rock singles, Challenge would quickly begin to focus-in on the emerging sounds of Hi-NRG & electro - with Contact-U, an alias for Rick & Andy's own stripped-back productions, becoming Challenge's first act in this vein.

Recording the sublimely wonky spaceage funk of 'Inside You' in November of 1982, de Jongh & Sojka followed this up over the next 2 years with three 12" releases for Challenge before hanging up the moniker. Providing infectious synth-based melodies & basslines with killer drum-machines & minimal but effective live percussion - and in a couple of instances (see "Inca Sacrifice" and "Breaking Point') crucial dub re-versions on their B-sides - these tracks are some of the strongest electro-funk records to come out of the UK during this period. Dig in!

Christopher 'Lav' Landin is a master of ambient sounds but it's been a while since we heard from him after 2017's collab with Purl on A Strangely Isolated Place. A New Landscape is a fresh album on Past Inside The Present that comes on limited and transparent orange vinyl. Contained within are a beguiling bunch of tunes with soul stirring pads, gently propulsive rhythms and gorgeous sound designs that call to mind various different references from deepest space to a warm spring day. It is an accomplished album design for mental escape.

Project: Mooncircle, as the name reveals, has been on a journey to the moon since day one, exploring the frontiers of music and art, always looking for new discoveries and giving a different perspective to look at the earth. In it’s 10 year history the label has published roughly 100 releases by equally as many artists from all corners of this globe and, therefore, the selection of sounds on this compilation represents the development of the label from the past, present and going into the future.

Some of the artists featured on this compilation have been a part of the label from its very beginning, like CYNE, Manuvers and Jahbitat, whose song will be the last one he produced and published under this moniker, while others, like Robot Koch, fLako and Long Arm, are outstanding examples of its growing popularity and success. Furthermore, the box also features an exceptional selection of close musical friends and inspirational artists like Jehst, Dday One, Kwala and Ichiro_, just to name a few.

The logo and artwork represent someone who was very close to the label, especially in the early years but unfortunately passed on and whom this box is dedicated to. Featured on the compilation are artists such as Mike Slott x Diane Badié, CYNE, Sweatson Klank aka Take, Jahbitat, Robot Koch, fLako, Jehst, Beat Butcha, Long Arm, Kelpe, Pavel Dovgal, Blossom, Daisuke Tanabe, Dday One, Inner Science, Substantial, Arts The Beatdoctor, Rain Dog, Kidkanevil + Microkorg by Dorian Concept, John Robinson, Sorrow, Rumpistol, The Red Baron, Christoph El’ Truento, 40 Winks, Sina., 1000Names, DZA, Ichiro_, EAN, Tom Dicicco, Headshotboyz, Graciela Maria, Gards From KC, Sekuoia of Kilimanjaro, Sense of The Q4, Sneaky, I.V.A., Empt, John LaMonica, Mike Gao, Bambooman, Manuvers, Krts, Kwala, Soosh, Memotone, Sun Glitters, Called Understandable Souls & Szenario.
The limited box includes 2 white & 2 black vinyl LP’s with 32 tracks, 13 additional digital bonus tracks, a T-shirt (only at HHV) and a poster (with digital download code) all in a specially designed box that features a special light-reflecting varnish, which makes this truly a collectors and music lovers item.

Berlin-based label Project: Mooncircle and it’s two sublabels Project Squared and Finest Ego is an official label from HHV. It was founded in 2002 and is specializing in the conjunction between electronic and organic music. The label, at first envisaged as a compilation project only, soon released the first instrumental and vocal solo releases by such artists as The Q4, CYNE, Mr Cooper, Robot Koch, fLako, 40 Winks, John Robinson & MF Doom, DZA, Krts, Sina., Graciela Maria, Manuvers, Lambent, Lewis Parker, Non of Shadowhuntaz, Strand, Ta-Ku, Mika Gao, Onra, Obba Supa, Asusu, Furesshu, AnD. Kowton or Glen Porter. The work of illustrators and graphic designers such as Bioniq, Dan May, Iain McArthur, Ima One, LNY, Gordon, 44 Flavours, La Mano Fria, and The Binh create images that accompany the acoustic spaces.
Project: Mooncircle with its various producers & vocalist shall be an interesting experience for anyone looking for the extraordinary.

A&R: Laurent Fintoni, Jinna Morocha, Karolina Kaczor, Gordon Gieseking and Malte Tarnow. Mastering by Sven Friederichs. Artwork and original paintings by Gordon, LNY & Bioniq. Webdesign 2006 – 2012 by Thimo Hörster & Hendrik Stein. Animation trailer by Sebastian Muñoz.

Release date: March, 23rd.

10th Anniversary Showcase with Mike Slott, Robot Koch, fLako, Long Arm, Jehst, Arts The Beatdoctor, Sekuoia of Kilimanjaro, & Graciela Maria @ Club Gretchen in Berlin, Kreuzberg – March, 17th!

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the cannon of disco music, Patrick Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined "The San Francisco Sound." This very special LP features a compilation of restored Cowley productions unearthed in the garage of vintage gay porn company Fox Studio. Spanning nearly 90 minutes, the 11 tracks (originally recorded between 1973 and 1981), epitomize Cowley's forward thinking and his affinity for mixing elements of varying styles of music. Simply put, Cowley was a musical trailblazer ahead of his time. His credits as a producer include SYLVESTER's "Do You Wanna Funk,” PAUL PARKER’s "Right on Target" and collaborations with JORGE SOCCARAS of INDOOR LIFE—this is just the tip of the iceberg. An early victim of AIDS, Cowley passed away at the age of 32; these recordings shine a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon from us. Featuring over 80 minutes of music, this compilation contains soundtrack music from two Fox Studio films, Muscle Up and School Daze, never before released on vinyl. The tapes were restored and transferred using the same speed and pitch settings, then remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl comes housed in a glossy dual pocket gatefold featuring classic gay porn imagery from the Fox Studio vaults plus an essay from Indoor Life vocalist, JORGE SOCCARRAS. For Patrick's 63rd birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem present a glimpse into the instrumental world of a young genius. These recordings shine a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

Flying high for the tenth anniversary of "Blackbird" album, we"re pleased to announce the brand new Blackbird Returns remix album descending on the breeze. Friends from around the world, Nightmares on Wax, Jazzanova, Kings, Syrup D, Christoph El Truento & Lucky Lane, DJ Philippa, Feiertag, Marcus Worgull, The Kcbs, Yarni feat. Liv East, Dub Pistols vs Freestylers and Kid Fonque have remixed their favourite Blackbird tracks.

Wayfinding is Christopher Bissonnette’s sixth solo studio release and his first, of hopefully many, for 12k. The album embodies an evolution of Bissonnette’s work, moving from an exclusively synth-based series of explorations to an amalgam of electronics and acoustic methods. Each track seeks to find grandeur on a diminutive scale. Bissonnette’s focus has shifted from sweeping pastoral drones to introspective passages with delicate melody and elusive harmonies interlaced with studio and field recordings. This minute scale is also reflected in a photographic series that studies the domestic landscape of home. The sequence of images transforms the banality and insignificance of the familial interior into expansive vistas and bucolic panoramas. Wayfinding is Bissonnette’s most intimate and gauzy work to date and executed with beautiful restraint.

Recorded by Daniel Hartl, Vienna 2019-2021. All Tracks written and produced by Daniel Hartl, except: B2 Daniel Hartl & Julian Derkits. Mixed with Christopher Schweiger at Tongues TNG Studios Vienna (Yamaha NS10s + Soundcraft Mixing Desk). Mastered by Tim Xavier at Manmade Mastering Studios Berlin. Design by: Team. Special thanks to: Christopher Schweiger, Julian Derkits, Sasa Strauß, Felipe Duque, Matthias Haas. All rights of the producer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.

Deep and beautiful ambient experimentalism from two true masters. “Roedelius / Hausswolff II”is this duo’s second album. The two met in Vienna in 2016 when Carl Michael invited Hans-Joachim to participate in the collective sound-installation and concert””freq_out ”. Since H-J had been, and still is, organizing the festival “More Ohr Les“ in his home town Baden just outside Vienna it has been natural for him to invite CM to collaborate and perform here. As a result of this iDEAL Recording released the CD “Zurufe“ in 2021 where H-J and CM collaborated with American Tim Story and Brit/Swiss Christopher Chaplin. Like the duo’s first album - ”Nordlicht” (released in the USA in 2017) - this new one follows the path where a dark ambient drone style reveals several epic landscapes and formulas.

Limited to 100 copies.

Dumbo Tracks returns with a second album Move With Intention – the anticipated follow up to 2022's eponymous debut. Philipp Janzen and collaborators deliver a varied collection of nine zoned-out grooves direct from Dumbo Studio in Cologne, with vocal contributions from Portable, Ada, Marker Starling, Rubee Fegan and nothhingspecial.

Looking back to his musical upbringing, Philipp Janzen switched up the recording process from the first record to incorporate more of a live band element. The result is a more eclectic sound which allowed more freedom to experiment, while keeping the collaborative spirit that is a vital Dumbo Tracks trademark.

The genesis of the record began in Italy, where Philipp and co-producer Julian Stetter traveled to jam out ideas on modular synths over the course of a few days. These ideas served as the basis for more instrumental tracks back at Dumbo Studio, where Philipp invited friends to develop the tracks further within a live dynamic. For the final phase of the record, Philipp enlisted the artistry of five vocalists: spoken word frontwoman Rubee Fegan, Canadian singer songwriter Marker Starling, house romantic Portable, Bonn-based haunted pop artist nothhingspecial and Hamburg's techno visionary Ada.

Rubee Fegan contributes her anecdotal observations to four songs, not least on the opening track "Daughter Of Flood" with her poetic remark "sip on the wave of her." It's a vocal style that Philipp had been looking for for ages, and finally found after hearing Rubee's band Smile. Long-time collaborator Christopher Cummings aka Marker Starling lends his lilting tenor to "Slow Despair", an uplifting drum machine and organ workout. Track three "What If" shifts the goal posts, as an acid bassline rises over a swung groove that wouldn't sound out of place in a Manchester warehouse, before we emerge into a clearing of heartbreak and expectation, courtesy of singer producer nothhingspecial.

The title track sees Philipp and crew slow the tempo down to a molasses dreamscape, a beatdown groove that's joined by Paris-residing artist Portable. Portable's emotive voice is the perfect foil for the tracks' invocation to mindfulness, aided by filtered hi-hats and widescreen sequencers. "Mica" takes the synths and drum machines out to the countryside, and finds producer and singer Ada supplying the most sensitive of vocals and flutes to a song that carries the kosmisch torch. Organs spill over rolling drums and dub reverb, underneath Rubee's cosmic voiceover on "A Naked Star", and the album concludes with "My Eyes Won't Close" a chromatic modular descent into despair, vividly described by nothhingspecial.

It all makes for a gloriously eclectic album, an anarchic pop record that follows its own rules. Move With Intention is both electronic yet alive, motorik and pastoral, filled with dancefloor grooves and a krautrock swagger. In this sense the intention is clear: to respectfully rip up the rule book and keep moving forward.

tapetopia 004 The Leipzig band Neu Rot represented a singular phenomenon within the alternative music reservoir of the GDR. As with so many bands that cultivated a more sophisticated sound in the late 80s, Neu Rot’s beginnings had been in punk rock. But, with a remarkable rigour against itself, the band steadily worked its way towards post-rock. This thorough process came to fruition in 1988 with the production of the tape “Halt An”. It had been preceded by the band’s struggle for its very own means and their technical feasibility. Neu Rot’s pilgrimage to its own centre was not unimpeded. The band’s name was perceived by the GDR’s cultural watchdogs as an erratic chain of associations between the suspicious word “Neu” and the ideological signal colour red. The band was legal, but its lyrics were deemed illegal. The edition of “Halt An” was somewhere between over fifty and under one hundred copies. Jörg Stein (voc, g, casio sk-1, yamaha ps-2) Karsten Maaß (bg, voc) Anke Mehlhorn (vl, casio sk-1) Henrik Eiler (dr, voc, casio sk-1) Produced by Mike Stolle & Jörg Stein Lyrics by Jörg Stein, except „Sometimes“ and for „Die Schlange“ by Christoph Wielepp Tape artwork by Daniel Schörnig Tape cover photos by Daniel Schörnig Published by Henryk Gericke Liner notes by Henryk Gericke Remastered by Black Flag Mastering/ Friedemann Kootz © Music by Neu Rot except „Sometimes“ (traditional) recorded Oktober 1988, Leipzig Thanks to: Mike Stolle, Adrian Neumann, Nikolaus Michael, Horst Pfaff, Andreas Berger, Christoph Wielepp, Daniel Schörnig and to the unknown roommate Lachmund Christian Andersen, Michael Barthel, Sarah Baumann, Ralph Gabriel, Ronald Galenza, Jakob Geisler, Ulrike Geisler, Gerd Gericke, Elke Grabinski, Gabriele Herzog, Egmont Hesse, Sabine Jansen, Siegfried Männer, Bettina Matten-Gericke, Christian Morin, Frank Siewert, Philipp Strobel, Christoph Tannert, Stefan Widdess, Margarete Wohlan In memory of Michael Pfaff.

You Can Can is an echoed affirmation, an album which traces song forms around silence, field recordings, and degraded analog memories. This is folk music transmogrified and mutated, as if recorded and reconstructed in Pierre Schaffer’s GRM studio.

Not your typical Mariposa folk duo, the group is comprised of Toronto avant-music scene stalwarts, vocalist Felicity Williams (Bernice, Bahamas) and bricolage artist and synthesist Andrew Zukerman (Fleshtone Aura, Badge Epoch). The album feels like a somnambulant conversation, fragmented and half-remembered with Williams’ vocals traveling through a landscape of field recordings and Zukerman’s saturated concrète topographies. It is an electro-acoustic assemblage, both analog and digital, comprised of air, electricity, minerals, wood, and water. Although the album nods towards traditional forms of folk and musique concrète (if at this point it can be called a traditional form), it is outwardly and inwardly contemporary; non-linear, citational, opaque, and sui generis. In a way it feels like a sonic index of the narrative experiments found on the infamous Language school-related publisher The Figures, in the work of Lyn Hejinian, Clark Coolidge, and Lydia Davis. In the musical continuum, the album picks up where Linda Perhacs left off in the early 70’s—explored by Gastr Del Sol in the ‘90s—a convergence of rural acoustic idioms and urban avant-electronics. This is country music for the discerning cosmopolitan citizen of the 21st Century.

Riyl: Luc Ferrari, Brannten Schnüre, William Basinski, Oval, Eric Chenaux, Emmanuelle Parrenin About Everything In Time and Failure Figures, Felicity Williams says:

Everything In Time is indebted to the language of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (as translated by Alison Entrekin). Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, we trace the roots of melancholy to render them available to consciousness; words from the ghostly realm of the transpersonal filter through dreams and shine a beam of light onto a lone trillium in a forest at night. Other influences include the experience of not knowing, of being subject to a gestation outside of one’s control. This is an ode to the power of naming to obliterate, to set free.

Failure Figures is a meditation on the radical contingency of reality and the vicissitudes of the will. With Slavoj Zizek as my guide (think: “Hegel for dummies” - I’m the dummy in this scenario), I wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and take heart. The last verse refers to an experience I had recording at a studio in Brussels. I was singing in French, with which I have some fluency, and the producer was complaining to the artist whose song it was that my delivery was not convincing. Thinking I was out of ear shot, he said in French, “c’est comme elle n'est pas là”; I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I failed to express anything. So what or whom is responsible for conveying meaning, if not the form of the word itself? And if the connection between meaning and form is broken, how do we fix it?

Gratitude to Thom Gill (guitar) and Daniel Fortin (bass) who joined us on the recording of Failure Figures. Thanks as well to my old roommate Christopher Willes, who unwittingly left behind his hand bells deep in the hall closet. We unearthed them by accident, and the bells became an important sound element. Thanks to other past roomies Robin Dann and Claire Harvie, whose childhood piano and guitar respectively still reside with us, and were used in the recording. Field recordings were made in Toronto, Canada and Celestún, Mexico in 2020.

Project: Mooncircle, as the name reveals, has been on a journey to the moon since day one, exploring the frontiers of music and art, always looking for new discoveries and giving a different perspective to look at the earth. In it’s 10 year history the label has published roughly 100 releases by equally as many artists from all corners of this globe and, therefore, the selection of sounds on this compilation represents the development of the label from the past, present and going into the future.

Some of the artists featured on this compilation have been a part of the label from its very beginning, like CYNE, Manuvers and Jahbitat, whose song will be the last one he produced and published under this moniker, while others, like Robot Koch, fLako and Long Arm, are outstanding examples of its growing popularity and success. Furthermore, the box also features an exceptional selection of close musical friends and inspirational artists like Jehst, Dday One, Kwala and Ichiro_, just to name a few.

The logo and artwork represent someone who was very close to the label, especially in the early years but unfortunately passed on and whom this box is dedicated to. Featured on the compilation are artists such as Mike Slott x Diane Badié, CYNE, Sweatson Klank aka Take, Jahbitat, Robot Koch, fLako, Jehst, Beat Butcha, Long Arm, Kelpe, Pavel Dovgal, Blossom, Daisuke Tanabe, Dday One, Inner Science, Substantial, Arts The Beatdoctor, Rain Dog, Kidkanevil + Microkorg by Dorian Concept, John Robinson, Sorrow, Rumpistol, The Red Baron, Christoph El’ Truento, 40 Winks, Sina., 1000Names, DZA, Ichiro_, EAN, Tom Dicicco, Headshotboyz, Graciela Maria, Gards From KC, Sekuoia of Kilimanjaro, Sense of The Q4, Sneaky, I.V.A., Empt, John LaMonica, Mike Gao, Bambooman, Manuvers, Krts, Kwala, Soosh, Memotone, Sun Glitters, Called Understandable Souls & Szenario.
The limited box includes 4 white vinyls LP’s with 32 tracks, 13 additional digital bonus tracks, and a poster (with digital download code) all in a specially designed box that features a special light-reflecting varnish, which makes this truly a collectors and music lovers item.

Berlin-based label Project: Mooncircle and it’s two sublabels Project Squared and Finest Ego is an official label from HHV. It was founded in 2002 and is specializing in the conjunction between electronic and organic music. The label, at first envisaged as a compilation project only, soon released the first instrumental and vocal solo releases by such artists as The Q4, CYNE, Mr Cooper, Robot Koch, fLako, 40 Winks, John Robinson & MF Doom, DZA, Krts, Sina., Graciela Maria, Manuvers, Lambent, Lewis Parker, Non of Shadowhuntaz, Strand, Ta-Ku, Mika Gao, Onra, Obba Supa, Asusu, Furesshu, AnD. Kowton or Glen Porter. The work of illustrators and graphic designers such as Bioniq, Dan May, Iain McArthur, Ima One, LNY, Gordon, 44 Flavours, La Mano Fria, and The Binh create images that accompany the acoustic spaces.
Project: Mooncircle with its various producers & vocalist shall be an interesting experience for anyone looking for the extraordinary.

A&R: Laurent Fintoni, Jinna Morocha, Karolina Kaczor, Gordon Gieseking and Malte Tarnow. Mastering by Sven Friederichs. Artwork and original paintings by Gordon, LNY & Bioniq. Webdesign 2006 – 2012 by Thimo Hörster & Hendrik Stein. Animation trailer by Sebastian Muñoz.

Release date: March, 23rd.

10th Anniversary Showcase with Mike Slott, Robot Koch, fLako, Long Arm, Jehst, Arts The Beatdoctor, Sekuoia of Kilimanjaro, & Graciela Maria @ Club Gretchen in Berlin, Kreuzberg – March, 17th!

T4T LUV NRG presents “Name It”, the latest album by Oakland’s Bored Lord, aka DJ Daria. The internationally beloved producer and DJ has created a truly stunning album of impeccably produced and mixed work, each song an enticing chapter in a complexly woven story about love. This album of uninhibited, hook-laden tracks conveys a narrative of love that is not only romantic and personal, but also communal and familial— a love that refuses to limit itself to just two people, but instead spills forth into the world, embracing everyone open to its power. With her emotive, tenacious album, Bored Lord reminds us that to truly allow yourself to be enveloped in desire, you have to endure the pain that comes alongside it. You have to adapt and stretch yourself in order to experience the immense growth love has to offer. You have to believe there's more to this world than suffering and isolation. You have to look within and accept whatever you find, even if it is ugly or difficult. Love is the peace you find amidst the chaos of living, and it doesn't just fall into your lap. You have to want it. You have to be ready for it. And if you are ready, you have to name it.

As a producer known in no small part for her edits, Bored Lord presents “Name It” as a work undeniable in its artistry, completely authentic in its messaging, and absent of the industrial notion of production. The songs on “Name It” have instant hooks and each is deeply inspired by the genres Bored Lord loves—broken beat, drum n’ bass, jungle, UK bass, Florida breaks and house among them—but rather than simply reproducing, these tracks expand each genre beautifully. Daria’s technique is decidedly hardcore, with samplers, romplers and a bone dry aesthetic, each song and sound all her own. In the artist's own words “I want the industry people to be confused while the ravers understand the very moment they press play. I want to challenge everyone to name it.” And we expect that indeed they will, play after play after play. Now, close your eyes and believe there is more, more, more….

South Carolina singer and producer Niecy Blues describes her songwriting process like an undertow: “I feel a strange pull, and let it carry me, following swirling leaves... whole days roll by, forgetting about the body.” Their full-length debut, Exit Simulation, captures this sense of deep-rooted divination, cycling between simmering ballads, ghosted R&B, downtempo gospel, and looped vocal improvisations – often within the same track. The title is taken from a science fiction novel she read during the purgatory of the pandemic, alluding to a dimensional ideation of departure – “the permission to imagine leaving.”

Recorded in her current home of Charleston, she characterizes the album’s mood in terms both reflective and raw: an exploration of things suppressed, foundations beginning to crack, “talking myself off a ledge.”

The music of Niecy Blues transposes reverie and reckoning into emotive devotionals of keys, guitar, bass, synth, and bewitched voice, steeped in sacred atmospheres gleaned from a youth spent in a religious Oklahoma household: “My first experience with ambient music was church – slow songs of worship, with delay on the guitar... even if you don’t believe, you feel something.”

The Communards’ sophomore album ‘Red’ consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, The Communards straddled pop and the political, the album’s themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late 80s Britain. A global smash upon its release, this remastered and expanded 35Th Anniversary Edition features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary 80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Available on Deluxe Double CD , Collector White & Red Double Vinyl , Black Vinyl. All editions remastered , with new sleeve notes.

After her stunning collaboration with Jim O’Rourke (Le Piano Englouti, Bt055), Brunhild Ferrari returns to Black Truffle with Stürmische Ruhe, her first duo with Christoph Heemann. A legendary figure in underground music, Heemann has quietly produced a unique body of work since his beginnings with the absurdist cutups of H.N.A.S. in the mid-1980, including collaborations with Merzbow, Organum and Nurse With Wound, the eerie psychedelia of Mirror (with Andrew Chalk), In Camera (with Timo van Lujik) and Plastic Palace People (with Jim O’Rourke), and the precise cinema pour l’oreille constructions of his solo works. Created together in Ferrari’s Parisian studio (once shared with Luc) between 2011 and 2014, Stürmische Ruhe is a single half-hour piece that folds rain and storm recordings into a intricately woven fabric of haunted electronics, unexpected edits and disorienting processing. Banging with the jarring thump of a slamming door (an element that will reappear periodically throughout the piece as a kind of punctuation mark), it is immediately obvious that concrete sound is used here in a free, poetic way outside of the strict confines of documentary field recording. The wind captured by Ferrari’s microphone roars and whistles, accompanied by thick clusters of wavering tones whose unpredictable rises and falls in volumes are synchronised with the bumping and thudding of windows and doors. At some points the microphone sound melts into a wavering low-bit digital smear before fanning out into broad, atmospheric depths. The cinema for the ear constructed here suggests not linear narrative or documentary, but an organic flow of cross-fades, double-exposures and abrupt cuts, a free-associative dream in which wind and water take on mythical characteristics. Throughout the piece's second half, layers of synthetic floating tones and pinging upward glissandi negotiate a constantly shifting balance with wind-borne whispers and rustles, at times dropping to silence, at others rising up with elemental force. As Ferrari explains in her liner notes, Stürmische Ruhe is a meeting of ‘completely opposite sound worlds’ in which ‘almost-violence’ is joined with a ‘reconciling harmony’. Reaffirming the infinite possibilities of the musique concrète tradition while avoiding its academic tropes, Stürmische Ruhe is accompanied by tri-lingual liner notes from Brunhild Ferrari and arrives in a sleeve graced with the beautiful art informel paintings of her father, Wolfgang Meyer Tomin. Cut at 45rpm for maximum fidelity.

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, “The San Francisco Sound.” Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.


By the mid-70’s, Patrick’s synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco Heat” and “Stars.” This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12″ singles, like “Menergy” and “Megatron Man”. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, “Menergy”. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, “Do You Wanna Funk” for Sylvester, and “Right On Target” for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album “Mind Warp”. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.


In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick’s songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections “Muscle Up” and “School Daze” released in 1979 and 1980. “Afternooners” is the third collection of Cowley’s instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we’ve used the titles from Fox Studio’s 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick’s time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on “Afternooners” reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.


Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick’s 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

Kindred spirits Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land embody the essence of play - charting a new chapter and reinvigorating the environmental music and electronic landscape.

Passepartout Duo is formed of Nicoletta Favari (IT) and Christopher Salvito (IT/US), who since 2015 have been on a continuous journey travelling the world's corners, engaged in a creative process they term "slow music". Having been guests of many notable artist residencies and with live performances in cultural spaces and institutions, their evocative music escapes categorisation. With no fixed abode their musical pilgrimage brought them to Japan first in 2019, which prompted a deep connection to Kanky? Ongaku 'environmental music', a genre in which Inoyama Land is often associated with, soundtracking the duo's first immersive experience. In 2023 the duo revisited Japan and set out to reconnect in particular with the music of Inoyama Land, performed by Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita. The highly revered album 'Danzindan-Pojidon' (1983) produced by Haruomi Hosono amongst other well publicized and acclaimed reissues (Light in The Attic Records' Grammy-nominated compilation 'Kanky? Ongaku'), produced a global resurgence and admiration of the environmental music movement. Nicoletta took the lead to seek out Inoyama Land and in making contact successfully their intrigue and eagerness to meet was warmly reciprocated, and the group scheduled to meet in the form of a spontaneous improvisation session. "We're deeply concerned with what it means to be a duo, and what it means for people to connect through music."

Radio Yugawara is a unique one-off transmission from a specific place and point in time, unlikely to ever occur again. The respective duo's approach can really be described as "tuning in", a tuning into each other, to themselves, and to the surrounding nature of Yugawara. Like waves that travel off-world, sounds travel through the universe and can be lost forever if we don't seek them out. In finding a harmonic affinity within their instruments and a spiritual kinship in their interwoven performance, Radio Yugawara at its core is an interpretation of feeling, of close human interaction and the true essence of discovery.

"The album is both a transmission from a location, but also a tuning into the surroundings and to each other. Music in this kind of ephemeral moment is much less about active creation and more about discovering something which is already there in the air."

Rapping at the window / Crying through the lock / Bells and running water / Influence on dusk.

Re-release of Blue Chemise's debut LP, which originally appeared in 2017 as a limited private release of 105 copies. Baadm make this much sought-after record available again on both physical and digital format, with remastered sound by Christophe Albertijn and updated artwork, all true to the original intentions of, and in close collaboration with, the artist.

‘Influence On Dusk’ forms an idiosyncratic cycle of fourteen mysterious, sometimes uncanny electroacoustic compositions, a personal and subdued eruption of 'melancholy of the healthy kind’, suddenly here and suddenly gone…

This is the second release on B.A.A.D.M. by the Australian artist Mark Gomes, following his equally atmospheric but more romantic 'Flower Studies' from 2021.

Dumbo Tracks returns with a second album Move With Intention – the anticipated follow up to 2022's eponymous debut. Philipp Janzen and collaborators deliver a varied collection of nine zoned-out grooves direct from Dumbo Studio in Cologne, with vocal contributions from Portable, Ada, Marker Starling, Rubee Fegan and nothhingspecial.

Looking back to his musical upbringing, Philipp Janzen switched up the recording process from the first record to incorporate more of a live band element. The result is a more eclectic sound which allowed more freedom to experiment, while keeping the collaborative spirit that is a vital Dumbo Tracks trademark.

The genesis of the record began in Italy, where Philipp and co-producer Julian Stetter traveled to jam out ideas on modular synths over the course of a few days. These ideas served as the basis for more instrumental tracks back at Dumbo Studio, where Philipp invited friends to develop the tracks further within a live dynamic. For the final phase of the record, Philipp enlisted the artistry of five vocalists: spoken word frontwoman Rubee Fegan, Canadian singer songwriter Marker Starling, house romantic Portable, Bonn-based haunted pop artist nothhingspecial and Hamburg's techno visionary Ada.

Rubee Fegan contributes her anecdotal observations to four songs, not least on the opening track "Daughter Of Flood" with her poetic remark "sip on the wave of her." It's a vocal style that Philipp had been looking for for ages, and finally found after hearing Rubee's band Smile. Long-time collaborator Christopher Cummings aka Marker Starling lends his lilting tenor to "Slow Despair", an uplifting drum machine and organ workout. Track three "What If" shifts the goal posts, as an acid bassline rises over a swung groove that wouldn't sound out of place in a Manchester warehouse, before we emerge into a clearing of heartbreak and expectation, courtesy of singer producer nothhingspecial.

The title track sees Philipp and crew slow the tempo down to a molasses dreamscape, a beatdown groove that's joined by Paris-residing artist Portable. Portable's emotive voice is the perfect foil for the tracks' invocation to mindfulness, aided by filtered hi-hats and widescreen sequencers. "Mica" takes the synths and drum machines out to the countryside, and finds producer and singer Ada supplying the most sensitive of vocals and flutes to a song that carries the kosmisch torch. Organs spill over rolling drums and dub reverb, underneath Rubee's cosmic voiceover on "A Naked Star", and the album concludes with "My Eyes Won't Close" a chromatic modular descent into despair, vividly described by nothhingspecial.

It all makes for a gloriously eclectic album, an anarchic pop record that follows its own rules. Move With Intention is both electronic yet alive, motorik and pastoral, filled with dancefloor grooves and a krautrock swagger. In this sense the intention is clear: to respectfully rip up the rule book and keep moving forward.

Smallville purveyor of the deep Christopher Rau with his third longplayer for the label, „Better Times“. Timeless crispy house music to stay forever.

All tracks written, produced and mixed by Christopher Rau Vibraphone on C2 by Taiko Saito Mastering by Helmut Erler, Vinyl Cut by Lathesville Artwork and Typography by Stefan Marx Distributed by Wordandsound

If you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for plants. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back to the dawn of time, but apparently, they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.
Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytum comosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”
But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed.
“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.
Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia's new renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

At only 19 years old, Dar Es Salaam's DJ Travella represents a new wave of singeli producers who are driving Tanzania's breakneck dance sound into fresh, innovative spaces. Unaffiliated with any of the well-known studios like Sisso and Pamoja, Hamadi Hassani's music points singeli's fusion of taraab and techno towards the stars, locating a cyber-singeli style that's dense, kinetic and unashamedly sexy.Hassani started producing at 15, and a few years later his debut is a jagged set of hi-nrg dance music that pulls influence from across the globe, folding together elements of dembow, rave, R&B, and trap. But nothing's straightforward: opening track 'Crazy Beat Music Umeme 2' juxtaposes grinding 200bpm rhythmic intensity with urgent plucked strings, sounding like Timbaland conjuring a Thunderdome soundtrack for a Tanzanian street party.'Crazy Beat Music Umeme 4' is even more barbed, with neon rave synths and hand-jammed percussion that's one part 808 Mafia and one part DJ Diaki. On 'London Bandcamp', Travella meshes hi-speed singeli backbeats with downtempo dembow kicks, squeezing out unexpected sleaze in the process, while on 'London Uwoteeee' there's an almost romantic sparkle, with ethereal vocals draped across woodblock cracks and whistles.But Travella sounds most nimble when giving the nod to Atlanta, and his merging of earworm synth hooks and neck-snapping East African rhythms on tracks like 'London Jomon Beat' will leave no doubt that the young producer is capable of bending singeli completely to his will.

Built around the successes of his soundtracks and songs for the movies of Christophe Honoré, Alex Beaupain’s profile in the ‘chanson française’ landscape is quite unique. Beaupain alternates between soundtracks, songs he writes for others (mainly great French actresses) and his own solo albums. In march 2021, Beaupain paid tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg for the 30th anniversary of his passing during a special live on air event where he covered in full, with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Gainsbourg’s penultimate shocking album from 1984 : Love On The Beat. This experience led him directly in the studio with Saint DX as producer, the French American duet Faux Real singing backing vocals and a full string section to re-record this cult album with a 2021 twist. He had also dreamed of covering that particular album that had so much impact on him, musically and lyrically, when he first discovered it. The 80s funky sound of the record, produced by Billy Rush, was a new start for Gainsbourg and at the time, the lyrics schocked everyone but achieved to avoid any censorship.

Abstracke presents Cristov's debut LP. The Hamburg-based artist and designer Christoph Lohse delivers an amazing record inspired by technology and dystopia. German futuristic electronics, mechanical synths, primal rhythms ... a cold, sometimes industrial sound, balanced with the jazzy acoustic drums and percussions performed by Manuel Chittka. Influenced by Ike yard, Craig Leon, Monoton, Kreidler, Die Wilde Jagd, Tolouse Low Trax and others.

Cybernetic disco maestro Patrick Cowley returns to Dark Entries with From Behind, a collection of grooving and ecstatic covers of 60s garage and soul cuts. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to Aids-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to uncover the singular artist’s lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. From Behind reveals yet another facet of Cowley’s myriad influences; garage and soul. As a tripped-out teenage music freak who arrived in 60’s San Francisco, it should come as no surprise that these psychedelic sounds, both heady and visceral, infuse Cowley’s oeuvre. Recorded during Cowley’s most productive period, ‘80-’82, these tracks show the master flexing his virtuosity while paying loving tribute to the songs that shaped him. A rough draft of Loverde’s “Iko Iko” contorts the jaunty Dixie Cups classic into a slithering, monstrous bathhouse groover, the song’s signature claps draped in cavernous reverb. An unexpected hi-NRG cover of The Doors’ “20th Century Fox” has Paul Parker on vocals, ironically twisting the original’s overt heterosexuality. Via Cowley’s vocoder, The Who’s “Shakin’ All Over” is transformed into a haunting meditation on the loss of bodily autonomy that Aids inflicts, while the Moody Blues’ “Ride My See Saw” appears in instrumental, amped up and synthesized for dancefloor impact. We’re also graced with instrumental demo versions of The Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard” and The Electric Prunes’ “Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” which later appeared on Paul Parker releases. Things close out with a swinging version of the Four Tops’ Motown classic “Baby I Need Your Loving”, Cowley later reimagined for R&B artist Carl Carlton. The record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes an insert with photos and liner notes written by Louis Niebur. Arriving on October 19th in celebration of what would have been Cowley’s 74th birthday, From Behind gives us yet another glimpse into Cowley’s world: iconic, erotic, and more than a little cheeky.

limpe fuchs' first solo record came about by accident. initially, christoph heemann invited the famous anima duo to do a studio record, but paul fuchs decided not to join in, so limpe went on her own - and the recording sessions taking place in late 1986 and early 1987 turned out to become "via", limpe's first solo-record and the (visible) starting point of her ongoing exceptional career as an internationally performing, independent female improviser.

Hand numbered and stamped white label.

Four years and one pandemic after his latest Dreams Of A Dark Building EP, the herald of dungeon synth pop is finally back from his shallow grave.

Life has not been gentle with Seattle-based solo producer Parker Lautenschlager over the past few years, imposing its unpredictability and forcing him to channel all the feelings that come with it into Profit Prison’s music.

It’s no surprise that his first full-length album Gilt marks one futher step towards the dark corners of italo / hi-nrg body music. Typical Profit Prison’s vocals and melodies, reminiscent of OG synth masters Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, are still here, buried in the mix and waiting to haunt the listeners and drag them down in one sulfurous dancing spiral.

Lead single Sophia juxtaposes some weirdly camouflaged vocals with one heavenly chorus that seems willing to revive your fortunes while instead it literally sings “But I lost it all”. A Matter Of Tact displays pop escapism over some throbbing minimal synth tension, Seven Words sounds like a throwback to 70’s italo filtered through the eyes of a 21st century punk rocker. Katalina has a rampant synth à la Carpenter climbing over a story of loss and Katalina, An Ascetic is a solo ramble reaching for the inner light on a carpet of cold keys.

What’s more, tracks got longer in Parker’s recent songwriting, with most of the songs being now five minute long and reaching peaks of seven minutes with the closing, almost progressive disco jam of A.R.P. (Amphetamine Research Project), nothing short of a lucid dream on the floor of Studio 54.

Last but not least, the artwork by French artist Robin Roche delivers medieval-yet-punk graphic vibes to match just perfectly the sounds on this record.

Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album »From Tokyo to Naiagara« by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist’s career and personal life: While she was preparing to leave Japan behind, she succinctly connected the dots between her experiments in pop music and her interest for more abstract sounds. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks’n’cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect. Tujiko fondly remembers the time when she made the album. »I had a lot of time for myself back then and I didn’t even feel like I was very busy,« she says today. She describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as »quite Tokyo and very local.« They explored parts of the city that they hadn’t yet been to for a photography project (finding, among other things, a coin laundry called Naiagara—a transliteration of Niagara). This left its mark on a record that mixes melancholia with joy. The driving opener »Narita Made,« named after one of Tokyo’s airports, already makes this clear: Tujiko’s wistful vocals and lyrics like »I miss you terribly« emphasises the sense of bittersweetness that forms the common thread for a sonically diverse and stylistically open-ended album—this music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. »I have so much more to do and not enough time for that,« she muses, before quickly adding: »But I also feel less alone having that album again.« Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, »From Tokyo to Naiagara« is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.

Fresh off a few top-of-the-range hors d'oeuvres to whet our appetite, Tal Fussman resurfaces on his dedicated imprint Survival Tactics with his longed-for debut album, 'The Fine Line In Between'. Right on the brink of even bigger things, as attested by the inclusion of his track 'It Was Misunderstood' on Dixon's seminal Innervisions mixing series, 'Secret Weapons 14', a contribution to the label's compilation 'Secret Weapons Part 15' a few months ago, and making it into Frankey & Sandrino's BBC 1 Essential Mix back in 2022, it's safe to say the Tel-Aviv-born, Berlin-based producer has been on a roll as of late, and 'The Fine Line In Between' is the fruit of all these years spent honing his skills and vision through some of the finest labels and stages out there. Kit up for a fascinating ride across Fussman's hypnotic headspace, the ideal liaison between hi-NRG floor potential and proper funky mischief.
Collated from beats recorded about a year ago, the idea for 'The Fine Line In Between' was, in Fussman's own words, to unfold as a "rollercoaster of emotions, happy, sad, angry, hopeful". Soaked in the Prophet 6's extra-terrestrial envelopes, the opening track 'No Return' is a highly cinematic escape from our earthly here and now, and a most meditation-compatible asset at that. Injecting some breaksy rhythm into its mechanisms, the title-track serves up a masterly built and deployed piece of floor-ready abstraction, suited for either after-daydreaming in the backroom or soundtracking your next sunset whirl on the autobahn. Back to a more hip-swaying, Latin-infused techno vibe, 'A Subtle Change' blends in the suave funk of dubbed-out Chicagoan classics with that of a samba-like chugging tempo, easing us into its warm and sensuous world in the most languid fashion. Making dazzling use of the Moog Sub Phatty's analogue grit and all-around incisiveness, 'Move Your Hips' draws a flock of oh-so-buoyant Rhodes stabs and has them flinging in all directions as a hi-intensity jack ensures maximal traction from the dancers. Hard-boiled boogie, set to no-surrender mode.
Lacking no oomph nor swing, 'Get By' goes from deep the dub techno spectrum's lower end, up sample-heavy disco house's most exhilarating heights, perfect for when the DJ needs that energetic offload but also requires some fiery syncopations to ignite the dance floor. More in the Moroder-esque vein of EBM you'd see being played over images of Ryan Gosling going pedal to the metal in Drive, 'Talk To Me' fires off an avalanche of sizzling arpeggios and menacing vocals, cooking the crowd up until a midway drop that shall obliterate any remnants of inhibition amongst the ravers. Birdsongs and tribal drums are on the menu of 'Back Up', a proper smashing bit of Afro-funk assault, flush with the blazing conga lines, chopped-up vox and that unrelenting bassy earworm going wild. A cannibal rite turned electrokinetic Rave-God worshipping. Thunderous and built for big-room get down, 'Cycler' finds Fussman at his most corrosive and combative, whereas 'Funktown' explores the more squelchy, unabashedly acid-friendly facet of the Israeli producer's all-embracing approach. Note, that second half of the track is bespoke gym workout material. Stretch your body and feel the gain.
A compelling mix of faux-organic lushness and surgical whoosh-step, 'Unconditional' melds high-voltage UK bass and garage alongside near-abstract electronica escapology, beautifully mingling the potent nature of intricate drum programming and ethereal flights of its endless textured pads. Pure peak-time business, 'I Will' is atomic energy stacked in a marble-sized core, highly volatile and bound to devastate any outdoor rave or club basement it may come into contact with. 'The Chamber (Outro)' rounds off the journey as it started, moving upstream onto the path of serenity, like the calm after and before the storm. Glimmering harps and warped chords entangle in a moving symphony of sorts, melancholic yet evocative of a spaciousness and freedom Fussman holds onto as its magnetic North.

Daniel Ögren is one of the key artists in Sweden’s contemporary, underground music scene. He has already accrued quite the back catalogue, both as a member of the sensational quartet Dina Ögon and also as a solo artist with eight albums already under his belt. ‘Fastingen-92’ was originally released as a limited-edition vinyl pressing in 2020 on the independent label Sing A Song Fighter Records (the same label that first introduced us to Dina Ögon's music). The album came to our attention after hearing Daniels' solo band performing live at the Stockholm Jazz Club, Fasching. The band featured Love Örsan and Christopher Cantillo of Dina Ögon fame (who also records with the incredible Sven Wunder), and their sensational genre-busting set blew us away. It convinced us that this now out-of-print album needed to reach a wider audience.
‘Fastingen-92’ doesn't sit in one genre, it draws from Daniels's love of South American folk music, soul, Nordic folk music and film soundtracks, resulting in something unique, dreamlike and transformational.

It features 'Idag’, an epic, beautiful, cinematic song that introduces the ethereal vocalist Anna Ahnlund. ‘Idag’ has gained a cult following and Daniel has stated that it was the spark that started the Dina Ögon project. Tracks like 'Annalena' and 'Kristinehamn by Night (for Christopher)' sound like a new club sound that hasn't yet been invented (which Nicola Cruz would spin in his DJ sets), mysterious, hypnotic, and engaging. Other songs like 'Maj (for Tintin)' and 'Picasso' venture into blissed-out Scando-Balearic realms. Daniel's love of nature and the inspiration he draws from the geographic environment of the Swedish countryside can be felt in these tracks, they take you to other places and times and are simultaneously familiar, ancient and alien.

Alongside the collaborations with Anna and Christoper, the album features Josefin Runsteen playing the drums on 'Idag' and Swedish musicians Edvin Nahlin and Ulrik Ordin. The majority of the album was played, recorded and mixed by Daniel. For the Mr Bongo edition, we have added the bonus track 'April’, which was previously only available digitally. ‘Fastingen - 92’ is a truly remarkable record that gets into your soul, so please delve in!

If you've been in the club scene for many years like David Dorad, you will one day face the big, essential, serious questions that each of us will ask ourselves sooner or later:

Are marmots pack animals? Can marmots sign language? Do marmots plan their lives according to European or Chinese zodiac signs? Do marmots need a special passport, after all they don't have a thumb to turn the pages? What happens when a marmot eats Coke and Mentos at the same time?

And with all those questions whistling, hissing and muttering in his head, David grabbed piano, baton and BioBassline to crochet his new EP. This is called "Marble" and offers 6 different approaches to solve these big questions. As a source of ideas, he has competent partners at his side in Roman Flügel, Mira, Christopher Schwarzwälder, Canson and Sascha Cawa.

An empty page is before us. Inner silence takes over our mind. A silence louder than our anticipation of what's coming. With each of our cells, we just do one thing: wait. Then, we hear the whispers of the page turning. The next chapter is about to start. ---- Introducing Gnork's new album: Inner Ride. Influenced by the cosmic and psychedelic sound of the 70's, from Pink Floyd to Herbie Hancock, with a twist of the synths of the Berlin school. The tracks were made between 2017, and 2022, though it's are not a collection of random jams. Inner ride is a conceptual, full-length musical work with 10 songs. A classic album that was designed to put on to your record player and to get lost in it.

The independent label Six Nine Records Ltd. UK, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, proudly presents their first ever 12” release which contains the stunning Christopher Williams tune “Fine As Gold”! This release is definitely worth its weight in gold, the Bronx (New York) native Christopher Williams delivers an amazing tune and most certainly lives up to the nickname “The modern Teddy Pendergrass”. The track is penned and produced by Stone Paxton and on the flip we are spoiled with an exquisite remix by genius Yuki “T-Groove” Takahashi. Definitely not to be missed as it is a very limited UK press with full colour printed picture cover!

One mere year after their previous pitch-black sounding album Krypt, LA outfit Male Tears is back with a new full-length and – oh boy – everything is changed. The used-to-be duo is now a four piece with James Edward as the sole founding member remaining and apparently this new line-up helped the original vocalist to shapeshift again. Remember their very first debut album from 2021 and those dark synthpop sounds? With their upcoming fourth album (in only three years), this American electronic-pop act from Southern California doubles the stakes once again and where Krypt was all about being goth and gloomy and disturbingly paroxysmal, Paradisco is somehow quite the opposite. Eight new tracks of pure italo disco, hi-NRG and freestyle bliss that pick up where the band left off three years ago to pursue much darker realms. Now that the quest for darkness is done, it is time to polish our nails and dress up for the night-out cause there’s more in life than feeling sorry for yourself. Yes you will need to cut out the deadwood but there is no change in stillness. So join Male Tears and their new arsenal of bangers and floor fillers with assertive titles such as Out of my Life, Regret 4 Nothing and Leave it Alone. Get yourself wrapped up in one warm cover of delicate nostalgia and reborn romanticism, driven by sounds that pay homage equally to Miko Mission and Ken Laszlo, Lisa Lisa and Exposé and, well yeah, even The Smiths because say what you wanna say but you simply cannot not love The Smiths. Embrace the vintage vibes that organically propagate from this new record’s grooves and get in the mood for this new course in full-on 1980’s Pop.

After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene. The blinding lights of Death Rave point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno. It’s their first for the Berlin label (founded by Gabber Eleganza) following 2021’s EP Principle of Light Speed Variance. Full description VMO aka Violent Magic Orchestra break through the darkness and herald a spectacular mould-melting sound on their forthcoming album Death Rave.

After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene. The blinding lights of Death Rave point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno. It’s their first for the Berlin label (founded by Gabber Eleganza) following 2021’s EP Principle of Light Speed Variance.

Ahead of the release VMO have brought their digital harcore to festivals around the globe, including Roadburn Festival, Bang Face Weekender, Brutal Assault extreme music festival, Le Guess Who?, CTM Berlin and Dark Mofo. Their performance is the ultimate extreme visual music project in which techno, black metal, and industrial unite to create a ritual from the near future, 2099. All visual art and stage setting is provided by non-touring member, artist and programmer Kezzardrix (who has been visual director for millennium parade and Babymetal previously).The power consumption of a VMO show is equivalent to 56 guitar amplifiers, 5000w, a mind-expanding supreme noise and light experience.

The band members all go by the names of classic black metal bands rendered in the Japanese katakana script; “ダークスローン”; “メイヘム”, and “エンペラー”. Their new LP is the first to feature lead vocalist ザスター. The record features guest vocals from extreme metal icon Attila Csihar, known for singing with Mayhem and Sunn O))). Other featured artists include Dylan Walker, singer of Full of Hell, punk-techno artist Infinity Division (aka Ash Luk), Icelandic darkwavers Kælan Mikla and Ican Harem of Gabber Modus Operandi.

The result is a leap forward from their 2016 debut, where they have found a singularity where death metal meets Kraftwerk, or Rephlex goes black. Dressed in corpse paint and other hell-raising looks, onstage they are like “Shinigami (death gods) from the Death Note manga”. Singles Venom, Supergaze and Martello Mosh Pit featuring Gabber Eleganza have been released in the lead up to the record and have been shocking techno dance floors too with their hi-NRG-symphonic doom-gaze. They have shared their video for Planet Helvetech (here), created by Berlin-based Patrick Defasten. Helvetech combines the Norwegian word for hell (hevlete) with techno and is a reference to the infamous black metal shop founded by Mayhem’s Euronymous. It’s a song that imagines time travel from 2099 on the planet Helvetech (where VMO comes from) to 1990s Oslo. In 2023, they performed at the CTM festival in Berlin, as well as at Berghain, receiving rave reviews. At Sydney’s leading multi-sensory Soft Center festival they drove the crowd into a frenzy on the 17 metre X 30 metre jumbo screen. They have also collaborated with artists, performing at the two day installation by the trailblazing Tianzhuo Chen - The Shepherd - at the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival in 2021 here. At Sónar 2023, VMO provided the music for Taiwanese visual artist Yuen Hsieh’s work about virtual life after death Digital Afterlife Agency here. VMO will tour the world again for the new record, with appearances at Roskilde and media art and music fest Sónar 2024 announced so far and the Death Rave experience getting bigger and bigger.

Daniel Ögren is one of the key artists in Sweden’s contemporary, underground music scene. He has already accrued quite the back catalogue, both as a member of the sensational quartet Dina Ögon and also as a solo artist with eight albums already under his belt. ‘Fastingen-92’ was originally released as a limited-edition vinyl pressing in 2020 on the independent label Sing A Song Fighter Records (the same label that first introduced us to Dina Ögon's music). The album came to our attention after hearing Daniels' solo band performing live at the Stockholm Jazz Club, Fasching. The band featured Love Örsan and Christopher Cantillo of Dina Ögon fame (who also records with the incredible Sven Wunder), and their sensational genre-busting set blew us away. It convinced us that this now out-of-print album needed to reach a wider audience.
‘Fastingen-92’ doesn't sit in one genre, it draws from Daniels's love of South American folk music, soul, Nordic folk music and film soundtracks, resulting in something unique, dreamlike and transformational.

It features 'Idag’, an epic, beautiful, cinematic song that introduces the ethereal vocalist Anna Ahnlund. ‘Idag’ has gained a cult following and Daniel has stated that it was the spark that started the Dina Ögon project. Tracks like 'Annalena' and 'Kristinehamn by Night (for Christopher)' sound like a new club sound that hasn't yet been invented (which Nicola Cruz would spin in his DJ sets), mysterious, hypnotic, and engaging. Other songs like 'Maj (for Tintin)' and 'Picasso' venture into blissed-out Scando-Balearic realms. Daniel's love of nature and the inspiration he draws from the geographic environment of the Swedish countryside can be felt in these tracks, they take you to other places and times and are simultaneously familiar, ancient and alien.

Alongside the collaborations with Anna and Christoper, the album features Josefin Runsteen playing the drums on 'Idag' and Swedish musicians Edvin Nahlin and Ulrik Ordin. The majority of the album was played, recorded and mixed by Daniel. For the Mr Bongo edition, we have added the bonus track 'April’, which was previously only available digitally. ‘Fastingen - 92’ is a truly remarkable record that gets into your soul, so please delve in!

Marc Richter aka Black To Comm released his debut record 20 years ago. In 2023 he is still busy releasing music under various disguises and is currently signed to the Thrill Jockey label. To celebrate this anniversary his own Cellule 75 label is re-releasing some classic out-of-print vinyl albums that originally came out on the defunct Type and De Stijl labels. The LP will feature a full-colour lyric sheet / poster exclusive to this edition. After releasing the critically acclaimed Alphabet 1968 on the seminal Type label (Grouper, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Yellow Swans), Richter chose De Stijl for this 2012 album, an American label that had just put out future classics by the likes of Circuit Des Yeux, Hype Williams and Wolf Eyes. Earth is a 2009 silent film by Ho Tzu Nyen, one of Singapore's foremost visual artists. After hearing Black To Comm's Alphabet 1968 Ho Tzu Nyen invited Richter to accompany the film at Berlin's Asian Film Festival, Unsound in Krakow and several other art biennals and music festivals around the world. In his own words: "Most of the music was composed under the influence of heavy pain killers while recovering from a broken leg (the recordings literally took place in bed). The music (like the film) is about slowness and decay, states of unconsciousness, sleeping and waking up, dying and being reborn. The film is a post-apocalyptic collage based on paintings by classical European painters (Caravaggio, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Gericault) -- the music translates this concept employing corresponding collage-based sampling techniques using loops made from vintage vinyl and shellac records combined with acoustic and electronic instrumentation and voice." From the original De Stijl one-sheet: "Richter’s already formidable expressive power stretches over all of Earth. Reflecting the countless cyclical forces that make up, oh, more or less everything we know and are, the music on Earth is bracing, lovely, bustling and still, and at times bittersweet, a commingling of sensations and emotions that can’t be neatly separated from one another. (Earth is complex, as you know.) Guests on Earth include David Aird, a.k.a Vindicatrix (on the Mordant Music label), contributing startling vocal work; Renate Nikolaus on an array of instruments and noise devices; Rutger Zuydervelt (singing bowls); and Christopher Kline (singing saw). Earth is Black to Comm’s seventh album and his debut for De Stijl, following the acclaimed Alphabet 1968 (on Type) and last year’s vinyl-only collaboration with Mike Kelley of Destroy All Monsters (on the En/Of label)." Alex Neilson in The Wire: "The most marked aspect of Earth is the voice of David Aird, aka Vindicatrix. Imperious and dolorous, he has the gravity of post-Climate Of Hunter Scott Walker, David Sylvain or Klaus Nomi stripped of the pathetic ritz. This is something that's easy to do badly, but Aird pulls it off with aplomb. On "The Children" he breaks into a morose yodel, rolling the words around his palate and colouring each syllable black before gifting them to the air. The meaning isn't understood verbally as much as viscerally. Beneath Aird's ululations, Richter casts handfuls of angelic debris from keyboards and digital devices, generating a celestial electronic tapestry reminiscent of Japanese musician Nobukazu Takemura. Sounds vie and twist at frequencies you can't so much hear as feel in the bridge of your nose, and the variety and full-bloodedness of the accompaniment is what prevents Aird's vocal from occassionally lapsing into shtick."

Sixth album by Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk. Four years after we got Lost in Spice we reached the point of Arrival. An altar on the surface of the water is burning with flames. Behind it you can see a half of the Earth's globe, and on it there’s a bright throne. A pale, translucent ruler wearing a crown sits in the throne. The globe is surrounded by a ball of shadows on which sits a larger dark ruler on a dark throne. Behind the globe are mountain peaks, and all of it is reflected in the water. Above the mountains are clouds which merge into rivers and end in a curved horizon on which forests stand, and the sun rises between them. Above this horizon is another sky with lunar crescents and comets. Above this sky are rows of angels bent over, above which the stars shine. The sun shines in the top left corner and the crescent moon in the right.

After more than ten years on the techno scene, hosting Vienna?s infamous Meat Market parties, playing DJ gigs in some of the best clubs around the globe and releasing four solo EPs on his very own label Meat Recordings, it is time to take his profile as a producer to the next level. And this is exactly what Snacks will do for Gerald. Besides delivering some of his typical techno bangers (push, Waste OF Good Cereal, Winning Streak, Every ME) and a breaky roller in the legacy of his hit Otto Wagner Green (fever), he has taken some considerable risk by showing a completely new side of his production in the studio: Wash ME and Sail Away are coops with Viennese singers, that could quite plausibly be described as pop songs. GAY DAD offers some Rammsteiny vibes along with some provocative, yet sexy lyrics. Snacks also features two amazing remixes by Christoph Faust and Projekt Gestalten. The double 12? vinyl comes in a precious gatefold cover with a breathtaking 3D rendered artwork by Jesus Florez (Bogota, Colombia), which is, in effect, a work of art for itself.

Law of pinch conscious; think hard, look up, surge - reach over for balance. The next chapter predicts new fragrance, hidden logic, harmony. All will be well, it’s meant to feel like slipping. The law is told from the top ledge. Links woven from grass, becoming thick columns and then chains. The law is held by the mouth, speaking blankly whilst meaning shifts. What balance. What deep understanding.

Leitstrahl were raised on a strict diet of electronic music. Electro pop. Italo Disco. Synth movie scores. This was the bread and butter of this three man Austrian outfit. With more than fifteen years of band history, the trio of Stoff, Paul Raal and Boogaloo Steve are as proud as punch to announce their debut album: Chromium Dioxide. For their thirteen tracks the triumvirate have pooled their enthusiasm and experience, calling on a string of friends to give their selection a unique energy and emotion. Jon Jon, aka John Foster, of Bronski Beat fame, offers his vocals for the rollercoaster ride of “Europa Supersaw.” Nicole Jaey’s mellifluous voice soars in the blazing “Chevrolée,” Christina Mirabilis lends her sweet lyrics for the fiery “Girotti” with Jimmy Baker voicing the pop heartbreak of “White Tail.” Synthlines sparkle across the collection, magical melodies pirouetting in a haze of deep Summer sun. Coursing through the entire album is passion, a passion crystallised in addictive hooks, laserdance rhythms and fledgling romance, a passion that combines Hi-NRG intensity with the reflection of wave and the optimism of italo. Inspired by the 1980s, simply inspirational today.

The "Sula Bassana" project marks the fusion of two distinct but complementary musical worlds: that of 20syl, electro-hip hop producer and DJ, and that of Christophe Panzani, versatile jazz musician. The album is an ode to contemplation, an immobile voyage embodied by the Gannet, the symbol of their creativity as they fly across styles and soundscapes.

The duo affirm their complicity with the eponymous track "Sula Bassana", where 20syl's sophisticated electro production blends with Christophe Panzani's melodious instruments. The track was accompanied on its release by a remarkable interactive video that poetically retraces the journey of a gannet.

The album also features a number of enriching collaborations. On "Dreams", they invite Yael Naim with her haunting voice and poignant harmonies. "Nuevo Mundo" invites La Chica to take us into a vibrant and eclectic atmosphere, fusing electro rhythms with Latin influences. Finally, "Playtime" features jazz pianist Eric Legnini, whose subtle chords and virtuoso improvisation infuse the album with a refined energy.

"Sula Bassana" is a space where the duo asserts itself with confidence, a rich and varied musical exploration, transcending the boundaries of genres to offer a unique and captivating sonic experience.

After a devastating opening salvo of 19 modernist rave mutations on a double tape pack for Sneaker Social Club, Minder lands on Hypercolour with another 19 cybernetic fever dreams still reeling from the open season NRG of hardcore.

If you need to understand where Minder wants to take you, strap in for the labyrinth narrative of ‘Knotted’, a smudged, 15-minute breakbeat suite barrelling through lurid dystopian street scenes with only a blown-out bass sprite as a guide. Throughout Sanctuary, bass is the constant when all else is chaos. It comes in thick, warped Reese tones on ‘Simulated Hunt’, gets twisted out through angry filters on ‘Popcorn Lover’, comes on wobbly in true 2-step style underneath grimey garage anti-anthem ‘Ard’.

There’s a lot to take in across the spread of Sanctuary. It’s the sound of every rave genre slowly digested over 30-plus years, until the lactic acid metabolises every snare rush, every searing lead line, every chipmunk vocal lick, and everything gets mashed up and spat back out into a gnarly signal chain at the flash point of inspiration. The time taken is key – this is the sound of a life in front of the speaker stack manifesting in something too wild and weird to be derivative. You’ll hear snatches of familiarity thrown into unfamiliar contexts, but for all the detectable lineage, Minder’s sound is unsettling in its originality.

Dislodged ragga jungle techno, muffled hardcore nightmares, hard n’ haggard acid trance, junked up jump up – you could write an essay on the sounds you can spot and the way they’ve been twisted. Aside from the omnipresent low-end, it’s the unflinching honesty of Korron’s repeat appearances on the mic throughout which bring Minder’s disturbing patchwork into focus. For all the futurism attached to these sounds, it’s also caked in a very human filth which can only come from this earth. The roots run deep, and the fruit is rotten, and isn’t that how it should be?

Razen is the collective consciousness of core members Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour, who since 2010 have realized themselves through virtuoistic and highly expressive improvisations with lesser-heard instruments. Experimenting with repetition of tones through controlled breathing and phrasing, Razen arrive at a synesthetic playground of auditory textures and colorful imagery.

The ensemble is carefully orchestrated for every occasion with the intent and desire to escape to environments unbeknownst to them, taking shelter in the fleeting ego-dissolving moments that arise, whether divine or disturbing. While the formula of instrumentation and like-minded peers may appear mundane on paper, it’s Brecht and Kim’s outlook and imagination beyond musical references that’s the immeasurable catalyst to their peculiar pursuits. Conversations about paintings, books, or films ultimately manifest themselves into live performances or album recordings - with the philosophy of embracing playfulness and exploration through the lens of a child’s eye.

Only six collaborators have been invited to their inner circle to date. This is mainly attributed to the rarity of finding spiritual counterparts that are seeking freedom outside the confines of written musical scores. Trading notes and rhythms for strokes and color, the band embodies emotive and meditative drones that demand a deep listening state. Joined by Will Guthrie and Paul Garriau, Razen venture into their vision of Arcadia through Regression, proudly presented by Marionette. On this album, Brecht Ameel turns to his trusty prepared harmonium and celesta, while Kim Delcour controls air and breath on various wind and reed instruments. Featuring Will Guthrie on tuned and melodic percussion (timpani, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone), the recordings have a distinct flow and fluid movement when compared to some of Razen’s previous works where rhythm is taking a backseat. Hurdy-gurdy specialist, Paul Garriau, plays accompanying melodies and drones on Moon, Aether and Nebula.

The album's earthly elements deal with survival, timelessness, and simplicity; such as the life affirming rewards of finding refuge and the wonders of observing the interstellar. The unearthly elements pitch this narrative into the realm of mythology and superstition, in the hopes of trying to understand our primeval universe and thrive in the unknown. Regression also addresses Razen’s fascination with inhospitable places and how to adapt to the sorrows that come with this sort of brutalism. The resulting destination is a mind and time bending zone - one that can be reached by riding sound waves that transcend the past, future, and present.'

Razen on this occasion is: Brecht Ameel: harmonium, celesta Kim Delcour: winds, reeds Will Guthrie: percussion Paul Garriau: hurdy-gurdy on Moon, Aether, and Nebula

Mastered and cut by Noel Summerville Artwork by Scott Daniel Ellison Recorded July 2020 in two days at two locations Wood, River, Trout, and Sleep: recorded by Christophe Albertijn Moon, Aether, and Nebula: recorded by Niels Latomme

“Maestro melodist Christophe Petchanatz (aka Klimperei) and all around music fanatic David Fenech engage remotely in a repetitive exchange of recordings and overdubs on their debut album titled ‘Rainbow de Nuit’, sporadically spanning over the last decade. Evocations of experimental and improvised jazz, chansonesque songs, bluesy folk, and outsider music undulate harmoniously across the record. From music boxes and walkie-talkies down to plastic straws, plucking various stringed instruments such as the charrango and banjo, kazoos and snake-charmer ocarina and flutes, all the way through the sweet accordion and melodica, found and traditional tuned percussion - there is far from a shortage of sound sources on this freakishly inviting record. What germinates as an imaginative and emotional chord progression played by Klimperei, evolves with Fenech layering additional recordings, which would then find their way back home to Klimperei yet again, and so on, and so forth. This recursive compositional and improvisational loop, combined with Fenech’s musique-concrete-like mixing and editing techniques, transforms the acoustic recordings by way of compression, saturation, and reverberation or simple pitch changes - resulting in the duo’s recordings seemingly sound like they may very well be an octet in real time. While the majority of the recordings have been ping-ponged remotely, David and Christophe unite under one roof to record the closing track of the album.

The pieces presented on ‘Rainbow de Nuit’ treat the ears to a carousel ride waltzing through a multiverse made up of surrealist puppet theaters, dramatic film noir act changes, and a mosaic of polyphonic instruments and toys alike. In other words, a score to a fable brought to life with haunting yet charming melodies and occasional hallucinatory voices reminiscent of laughter and infantile epiphanies which we hear on Tarzan en Tasmanie and Madrigal for Lola. This is taken a step further by Fenech, to a brief libretto of incomprehensible tongues on Pocarina. Amid the mysterious and dark (Septième Ciel and Rugit Le Coeur) also lies tender and simple compositions (Rainbow de Nuit and Chevalier Gambette), murky suspenseful melancholy (Levy Attend and Eno Ennio), and casually slipping into pensive psychedelic backdrops (Un Cercueil à Deux Places) - forming a colorful blend of sounds. A world of echoes. A tale of tales. One persistent earworm that you’ll likely be whistling and humming along to on a first listen.”

Four years and one pandemic after his latest Dreams Of A Dark Building EP, the herald of dungeon synth pop is finally back from his shallow grave.

Life has not been gentle with Seattle-based solo producer Parker Lautenschlager over the past few years, imposing its unpredictability and forcing him to channel all the feelings that come with it into Profit Prison’s music.

It’s no surprise that his first full-length album Gilt marks one futher step towards the dark corners of italo / hi-nrg body music. Typical Profit Prison’s vocals and melodies, reminiscent of OG synth masters Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, are still here, buried in the mix and waiting to haunt the listeners and drag them down in one sulfurous dancing spiral.

Lead single Sophia juxtaposes some weirdly camouflaged vocals with one heavenly chorus that seems willing to revive your fortunes while instead it literally sings “But I lost it all”. A Matter Of Tact displays pop escapism over some throbbing minimal synth tension, Seven Words sounds like a throwback to 70’s italo filtered through the eyes of a 21st century punk rocker. Katalina has a rampant synth à la Carpenter climbing over a story of loss and Katalina, An Ascetic is a solo ramble reaching for the inner light on a carpet of cold keys.

What’s more, tracks got longer in Parker’s recent songwriting, with most of the songs being now five minute long and reaching peaks of seven minutes with the closing, almost progressive disco jam of A.R.P. (Amphetamine Research Project), nothing short of a lucid dream on the floor of Studio 54.

Last but not least, the artwork by French artist Robin Roche delivers medieval-yet-punk graphic vibes to match just perfectly the sounds on this record.

Chicago underground legend Mark Grusane presents "Take Me" on his own Disctechno imprint, a proper 12" single featuring vocals from DJ Saucy Lady, the "Beantown Disco Queen." The lead single uses a driving bassline, infectious synth fills and filtered arps and pads to build up an electrified disco heater with sweat-soaked NRG. Saucy Lady's seductive, dubbed out vocals bounce off the walls with a repeating mantra of "just take me" and spoken words from a creature of the night, backed by her harmonizing ooh's and aah's. This combination sounds something like Bobby O locked in a Chicago basement during a heatwave with nothing but a fog machine and broken A/C for company. On the B-Side, disco wizard Rahaan reworks the lead single with a "Psychedelic Dub" that layers the sounds of machine funk synth sweeps and disorienting tweaks for a mesmerizing take on the lead single. On either side of the record are also the Dub Instrumental and Accappella versions - versatile tools for freaking out any dancefloor.