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It was quite unexpected to see the very prolific and talended Pieter Kock featuring on Macadam Mambo - which is usualy used to new-comers - as he has released a lot in the past 2 years on very nice labels like RIO, Meakusma or Moonwalk X. But, the demos that he sent were so good that there was no question about doing something. And with a lot of possibilities, to prepare a double album that is now composed of 15 quality tracks for 1h20 of music... What vibes are in here! It’s heavy, loudy, loopy, mental, smokey, and always surprising. Pieter has is very own universe, and is without doubt one of the most interesting electronic musician at the moment.

Should we ask you to give chance to this opus, and tell you you won’t regret it ? We don’t think we need to do so... J

“Heroes Of The East“, a story about love, pride and rivalry is re-written by Belgian producer Placid One who’s style perfectly fits to the Shaw Cuts trademark sound. The story begins with an arranged marriage between Chinese Kung Fu student Ho Tao and Japanese Yumiko Koda who is highly-trained in Karate. They live together happily until one day, they decide to practice together. „Morse“, its blazing pads, energetic percussion and powerful rhythm weaves and chimes in sync with their intense and raw training duel. Relentless arguing about which martial style and philosophy is better leads Koda to become offended, so she returns to Japan. “Foothills“ is a bright, sonic forcefield and its pulsating drums set the tone for a voyage of mixed emotions and self-doubt. Marital and cultural misunderstandings lead Koda’s former school in Japan to send seven of their strongest students to fight Ho Tao and prove which country has superior fighting styles. Spurred on by radiant pads, chasing percussions and the heavy kickdrum of „Melopée“, Ho Tao wins all battles, two by trickery. He even begins to admire and learn about Japanese culture and martial prowess. But there is one more duel. Takeno, Koda’s master, challenges Ho Tao to a clash of styles. Darts, needles and shurikens catapult through the air, swords and spears collide, and crab style takes on fujian white crane. Armed with sharp chords, colossal drum jabs and menacing soundscapes, Lazarus supports the titan duel with his remix version of „Foothills“. No victor, no bloodshed, just respect and peace among all.

Four more lively, lovely electro offerings from Plant 43, the second in a limited edition series of EPs focussed on tracks written over the course of the winter of 2022/23. Opener 'Submolecular Shifting' is bright and bubbly, joining the dots between Kraftwerk and Model 500, while 'Eccentric Elliptical Orbit' follows on slower and more grandiose, echoing early New Order's icy cool synth sounds. 'Encased' has a more otherworldly Aphex-like feel, although the juddering, on-off bass keeps it plugged into the dancefloor. 'The Forgotten Storm' closes proceedings, more low key again and graced with ethereal, adding angelic choirs. Energised enough and streamlined enough to be good dancefloor gear, but expertly executed and, as ever, brimming with enough personality to be a decent home listen as well.

Slightly more than one year has passed since we debuted the Cardiff-based duo Plastic Estate’s first single This Place and we all know what happened meanwhile. But if you thought the global pandemic discouraged the Welsh boys from pursuing their research for an evolution of pop music from the past, think again. Quite on the contrary, it seems that these past months of forced isolation and necessary restrictions only empowered the ability of the band led by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres to compose great songs perfectly in balance between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings. Or maybe their love for the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Ian McCulloch, Bryan Ferry is just too tough to die. However that may be, Plastic Estate have masterfully used this year to write their first full-length album and we at Avant! couldn’t be happier to bring it to you on 4 February 2022. Ten new songs that shine a light on the duo’s impressive skills to juggle between the heritage of lost golden era and the pressing presence of the here and now, as well as electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments, ending up sounding classic and contemporary at once. Not an easy task, if you ask me. Check out Out of Reach and its crystal clear synth-pop radiance, or one whirlwind dancefloor filler such as There Must Be More Than This, juxtaposed with the romantic intimacy of Berlin or Divinely Impaired’s elegant sombreness. Dive into the imaginary mémoires of a Sophisti-pop era with Antique Days and then resurface nowadays with the hypnagogic club notes of The Difference. We can even feel some Stone Roses-like vibe in the album’s last track Change Your Mind but maybe it’s just us. What’s for sure is that if you liked their 7-inch single you will love their album. If you don’t know this group yet but you righteously adore the artists above, do yourself a favour and take a good listen now and you will not be disappointed. Not in the least, as it is this rare to stand in the exact spot where you have a full view of the days behind you and the complete control of the moment you are in.

You learned that there are genres. Everything separated into categories with their own canon and rules: Major, minor, 4/4, 6/8, highs, lows, high head, butt end. Techno here, Disco there. You learned that art and music are two different things. Visually auditory, audio-visual, optically acoustic, not to mention the surface feel. Listen to me, look at me, touch me. But everything in that order please! You have learned that understanding takes you further. Night / life, rhythm / dancing, substance / excess, water / holding out, sleep / rest, headache / not good. But what would it be if all of that wasn't just right? If all of our knowledge is based on the mistake of having to put everything in relation? To classify it, to make it responsive. What do we do with something that doesn't follow the rules of this logic? That is not based on 0 and 1 and therefore not bound to our binary systems? Is this all at once? After all, what if the whole thing has no limits?

'Lothian Buses' is an EP of genre collisions with Proc Fiskal amalgamating his twinkling, caffeinated grime sound with the rhythms and sounds of other genres, without ever overthinking it. To kick off, `Thurs Jung Yout' is a kind of shoegaze drill with strings and gentle tones swelling and dissipating against busy drill beats. `Baguettes' is a more classic Proc sound, a galloping rhythm against a sparse melody that was a quick fix up for a show that turned out well. `Choco Frito (Calamari)' was influenced by the good life, DJing in Portugal in the sunshine and hearing Kuduro played out. The latticing drum patterns nod to the style, dropping into a sunny accordion chorus with a plucked guitar line. `Scarab Aloph' is Proc's style compressed, full of micro-glitches, tight drum fills and incidental drop-outs across a pretty melody, while `HopeTak2' is his percussive, breezy take on funky house with smiley melodic stabs. Finally, `Mullit Madollock' takes the sonics of airy Bukem-style atmospheric jungle, an instantly recognisable inspiration that's not been as foregrounded in Proc's work before, refitted and updated with grime-inspired melodic bass kicks.

RIP Swirl “Hope U Are Well” Having finished the announcement for RIP Swirls first EP that was out late last year on Public Pos-session, titled “9Teen90”, with the words: “A better life starts here”… we now find ourselves in a situa-tion where we might have given a slightly off prognosis. Despite whatever happened out in the real world, Rip Swirls music was a good & constant companion in the last couple of month. On his new EP he picks up where he has left off in terms of mood, subtly introducing more silhouet-tes of his broad musical tastes. As icing on the cake the record includes features by “Catnapp” and “Sofie”. Wherever you may be - we “Hope U Are Well”. Enjoy the music.

Roberto Auser / Melting Dogmas – Melting Dogmas / Roberto Auser (12″ EP, edition of 200 copies, risograph printed artwork: 50 x pink on Kraft paper, 50 x red on Kraft paper, 50 x purple on Kraft paper, 50 x black on recycle paper) – This two sided split record between Roberto Auser and Melting Dogmas is a showcase of two sides of contemporary elektro… on one side there is the music of electro veteran Roberto Auser… his modular synth sounds are minimal electronics and 80’s inspired… but these two tracks are a bit different then the beat driven music he released mostly these past few years… despite his recognizable sound these two tracks deliver something new to his repertoire… less beat driven but still very much rhythmic… some industrial and pulsating sounds keep these tracks going and even suitable for the dancefloor late at night or early in the morning… I wish for more of this from Herr Auser! Melting Dogmas is 4Cantons together with Numèric… if you are familiar with the debut EP by 4Cantons then you will recognize his dark elektro sound… but these two debut tracks of Melting Dogmas are a bit more complex… without losing their club minded attitude… the sounds of Melting Dogmas is idm driven with elektro and techno elements all there in a perfect mix and maybe even making these tracks punchier as the music by 4Cantons… and at the same time also a bit more daring… the structure is less straight forward with a good balance between building up the tension and full out beat parts… just like 4Cantons I cannot recommend enough to keep an eye out for Melting Dogmas… it is very hopeful to have musicians like this around with such good and daring sounds…

"Emotional Response celebrates its 50th release with a special limited-edition from label stalwart Roy Of The Ravers. Following 2019’s magnum opus White Sunrise II is the accompanying “Soliel”, where our nom dee plume delves further into his archives of recently rediscovered disks to present an 8-track double pack, cut loud for DJ play.

The music too is more expansive, with the ambient and techno signatures matched with touches of jazz keys, Balearic sampledelica and even acoustic outtakes, all with that Ravers humour included.

The opening cinematic symphonies of The Smell Of Orange Peel and Kliszewicz Klopcic Klim highlight again a side not seen on his more acid / club cuts found on various labels. However, it’s the B side that compounds expectations with the deep house meets techno melodics of City Limits, before the ever-expanding feel-good vibrations of center piece Feathers hooks all. Sometimes a simple groove and catchy vocal sample is all you need to create a classic.

The second half then glides with 14 minutes of house dramatics via Versace 101624, a master of arrangement and beats, preempting the interlude of Clock House’s return. To close, EL-9400’s intense scatter percussion melds with anthemic acid undertones before its 2nd half melts to a choral ambience, leading to the closing acoustic jam dub curiosity My Brother And His Mate and the curtain for another stage in the Roy sagas. "

"Ayin" by San Pedro is a techno electronic music EP consisting of six tracks, recorded with analog synthesizers and samplers during a week of inspiration in the mountains in August 2023. The EP offers an engaging sonic experience, with intricate melodies and hypnotic rhythms that transport the listener through evolving soundscapes. San Pedro's combination of technological innovation and artistic sensitivity is reflected in each track, offering an exciting journey into the world of electronic music.

The first release of the Apolo records label marks the grand debut of the Scienza X duo composed by Portuguese talents Nuno Carneiro and Rowan. First word of advice: don’t be fooled by the debut stamp, Rowan is a celebrated producer and Nuno has been doing the rounds behind the wheels of steel from Europe to Latin America for a long, long time, and this is clear from the outset. Both “Evil Laugh” and “17” have their distinct identities. The first track harnesses an energy not far from the sounds of Uruguay made popular by artists like Z@P, Nicholas Lutz and DJ Koolt. As for 17, it’s certainly no filler, either a reflective opener or a closer to entwine the audience (this is a dance record!) on their way out of an early morning in Café Barges or Ibiza. The mixes are a blessing overall for the record, each adding layers and use cases that make this a something of a buy-on-sight tool. From Dan Ghenacia’s full on dancefloor-driven interpretation of 17 to Snad’s thumping version of Evil Laugh to Wareika’s… well… how do you describe his sound? If you know, you know. This debut on the label named after his first son was conceived with a lot of work, lets just hope that if he’s going to father any more projects in the future, they sound this good.

It seems like a long time since we last heard anything from the talented Secret Circuit aka Eddie Ruscha! Truth is he's been more prolific than ever...just not with his Secret Circuit alias.

For those of you unfamiliar with his work Secret Circuit is audiovisual artist and L.A. native Edward Ruscha V (yes indeed, son of Thee Ed Ruscha, legendary pop artist) who’s been on the music scene since time immemorial. He has been a member of innumerable bands and projects over the years including Medicine, Maids Of Gravity, Radar Bros and punk-dub outfit Future Pigeon to name a few as well as managing to squeeze in time for his equally multifarious and highly productive solo ventures. In just the last few years he's released a string of records under his own E Ruscha V moniker for labels such as Beats In Space, Good Morning Tapes and Fourth Sounds as well as finding time for several collaborations including Doctor Fluorescent (Crammed Discs), The Parels (Lal Lal Lal) and Xlnt (dfa). You could say he's prolific!

So it's definitely a long overdue and most welcome return for Secret Circuit. The "Green Mirror" album is a double LP comprised of 21 new pieces (80+ minutes of music) recorded between 2020 and 2022. It captures that spacey otherworldly quality Secret Circuit is known for, but the music also veers towards the warmer, ambient textural territories that his recent E Ruscha V and Only Thingz projects explored...an altogether softer sensibility.

Yet nevertheless this album is very much "Secret Circuit". Invisible Inc wanted to explore a side of Ruscha's that hadn't been captured so clearly before, focussing on his more emotive yet at the same time experimental side (is that a paradox?). Very rarely do we hear musicians using modular synths to create something so human sounding, and when juxtaposed alongside slide guitars, live bass and vocodered vocals, we have something very special indeed.

Then there's the artwork...all lovingly drawn by the bubbling mind and deft fingers of Eddie himself. The package is made complete with a double-sided colour insert with liner notes (which happen to be written in reverse, naturally, so you'll need a mirror to read them) and another of Eddie's mind-warping doodles. This is not like anything else you will hear...it's true art and you'll definitely need a very open mind to reap the rewards of this beautiful piece of work. A future weirdo classic in the making

The tree of good and evil knows no morality in this garden. You took a bite of the forbidden fruit -- but nothing happened. But you do feel the taste of the apple on your tongue, an abundance of amazing and fresh flavor. You look around the garden and see others partaking in whatever pursuit their heart desires. Joy, pain, love, wonder and death. Everywhere you look is a new presence, a new moment of bliss, dystopia and truth. You realize that this garden is your playground, and your destiny can be shaped like clay. Play in the garden, laugh in the garden, fight, die and love in the garden.

Serenace, a mysterious duo based in Chicago and Berlin joins the Shaw Cuts squad with “The Flying Guillotine“ – a weapon shaped like a hat with a blade rim and chain attached.

Normally records that take a long time to make can sound fractious, convoluted self-absorbed. This is not the case with Sorry! WE DID Something Wrong, the debut from Moscow’s Simple Symmetry, which despite taking three years to create, is a total gas to listen to. Simple Symmetry — aka the Lipsky brothers (Sasha and Sergey) — haven’t really looked to reinvent any wheel, rather they have managed to collate a vast amount of good vibes and well-loved sonic conceits and breathe new life and colour into them. Temporarily ditching the electrifying dance music they are famous for in favour of a universal pop sound — replete with flutes, cello, “all kinds of percussion” and synths, sitar and guitars — the brothers have made an upbeat and incredibly accessible record; a tonic for these uncertain times. At first glance, some of the titles: ‘End of Days’, ‘I Must Not Fear’, ‘Oh Lord’, and ‘Out Of Body Experience’ don’t suggest the expansive and very danceable soundtracks we get to hear. But with the aforementioned tracks and rug cutters like ‘Che Che’, Simple Symmetry re explore those moments in the early-to-mid 1990s when artists like David Holmes, St Etienne, Andrew Weatherall and Death in Vegas looked to plunder the grooves and licks of the 1960s and early 1970s. The bell rings, flutes, harpsichord and vocal harmonies in ‘End of Days’, for instance, suggest the Beach Boys at their most laid back and sunkissed. Or The Monkees when they chowed down with Zappa and made Head. Even the countdown makes direct reference to the 60’s Space Race. Sometimes, the Lipsky’s reappropriations of these kinds of moments in popular music’s history are so brazen it’s best just to laugh at the sheer cheek of it all. Whilst shaking your hips, of course. Life-affirming, comforting even, Sorry! WE DID Something Wrong shows that old tricks can still be magical if used with the right spirit. This record is also the sound of coming together. Literally, as well as metaphorically. Simple Symmetry confirms that “there were many collaborations with artists we love and admire from all over the world, from Russia, Israel, Germany, UK, Brazil and the USA.” Including a guest vocal by their good friend Petr Chinavat on the beautiful, hippy-dippy technicolour paean to one of the ocean’s most mysterious creatures, ‘Octopus’. After a while it’s impossible to think too critically about the whys and hows, especially when confronted by floorfillers like ‘I Must Not Fear’ or the marvellous, gonzoid ‘Koko the Gorilla’ which stomps its way through the simplest, sugariest of melody lines and throwing out kooky vocal samples and comic roars for good measure… Koko turns up on the album cover, courtesy of Athens artist Dimitris Rocos. In a way the beast is a spirit animal for this release: in your face and brazen but (to steal a lyric from Julian Cope) kinda cute. For those needing some respite from all the high jinks, there is plenty of space to sink into a pleasant reverie, courtesy of the Gong-like comedown that goes by the name of ‘What A Relief’ and the Glide-tastic ‘Rounded with a Sleep’; both of which allow the gentlest of comedowns in your favourite seat at the Korova Milk Bar.

Good news, kids: Now you can play a different Kitjen record every day of the week, because just as last summer, we have some hot Dutch jams coming your way for Kitjen 007: Utrecht’s own Stijn Sadée, who has been making moves in the Dutch scene for a while and runs the infamous Club Sauvage night, brings us three mystically exotic joints that showcase his manifold sources of inspiration and will bang your gong this summer. None other than Hessen’s love doctor Gerd Janson stops by to seal the deal by turning “Affetto“ into a 12 minute dancefloor journey.

In the gutter lie sun dried leaves, scraps of paper, burnt matches and cigarette butts. It is early morning; the sun rises with warm grace. you've come to the right party... you see, the body of a young man sitting by a pool, nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of "b" pictures to his credit. He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, but let's go back some time and find the day when it all started in “Hollywood,” the place where they pay a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Three years after he celebrated “Sketch of Japan” EP, Superpitcher returns to Mule Musiq, bringing an epic super-pitched 40 minutes trip named “Hollywood”, that perfectly works as the score for the above remixed opening scene of a famous movie on the trances of Hollywood, the cage, that catch our dreams. It’s a slow grower, incorporating some of core elements of the city of celluloid dreams: action, drama, romance - all epic noir and yet so flooded by light. As ever the producer and DJ from Paris garnished his long building up and going down voyage with se-ducing melodies, glamorous pop, and psychic rhythms, creating the hippy dance ambiences he is famed for. Even though the twelve inch comes in accustomed a/b chapters, “Hollywood” should be perceived in one go to feel the depth of Superpitcher’s tropical leaning story arc, that stretches the idea of a track into a dream of satin teardrops on flickering velvet lights. It paints sonic celluloid pictures of ghostly creatures, while a female/male voice is the music’s constant melodic companion, injection Janus-faced longing dream pop spheres on the overall tripping house melancholy. A heroic electronic drama, elegant as Tamara de Lempicka painting. It asks for endless rides on the Hollywood freeways. in the back the sun – a big orange ball – sinking slowly below the horizon.

You've come to the right party... you see, the body of a young man sitting by a pool, in the back a long, graceful bar, bathed in soft light, filled with elegant customers. There's nothing else, just us and the music and those wonderful people out there in the dark, ready for a divine dance in closeup.

"To make this concept a cohesive whole, Hybrids took a couple of years to compile. It reflects a certain shift in my sound, where I've try to maintain a constant balance between experimentation and efficiency - surprise, technique and playability... It's a highly functional object crafted from a subversive standpoint, breaking the rules while following them all. Auto-referential musical artifacts blend into composite shapes, and ultimately manifests into five exercises in style, trespassing traditional boundaries of genre, tempo, and (good) taste. While this record probably expresses an inner conflict at the intersection of hypermodernity and conservatism, I hope it accomplishes, at least, its primitive function-to put the body in motion." Tenebre

Club music culture necessarily shifted gears in many ways during and after the course of the pandemic. Older participants found their way into other interests and younger participants took new reigns to orient spaces they felt good inside of. The agenda for the music, and the cultural industry surrounding it at large, took a more frivolous and “fun” turn. Clubs needed to recoup lost money, people needed more refreshing catharsis for their nightlife escape, and in some pockets scattered around the globe a newer and younger cadre of producers/promoters/DJ’s pulled optical cues from a scattering of “darker” influences to give an alternate aesthetic to the aforementioned “vibes” culture. In the midst of this, a large polarization of conceptual energy shifted within the compositional and utilitarian machinations of the club music culture leaving behind the brooding and cerebral placeholders for different kind of enjoyable hedonism. Terrestrial Paradise’ “Artificial Hell” harkens to another prescient time before that shift occurred. “Artificial Hell’ might just be an illustration of what all of this fun escapism encapsulates.

Terrestrial Paradise is the latest moniker from Montreal come Los Angeles based producer Jaclyn Kendal. Having developed and cemented her sonic positionality with releases on North American labels like Ascetic House and Summer isle over the years, as well as a series of monolithic live sets, Bank is pleased to announce Kendal’s Terrestrial Paradise first full length album “Artificial Hell”. Over the course of nine recordings, “Artificial Hell” gives a master class in pressurized industrial techno of the slower variety. Fitting with the legacy of Bank’s output since it’s inception, Terrestrial Paradise’s aesthetic sensibilities sit within the canon of a certain tinge of club music imbued with a sense of natural grit, sans pretense.

“Artificial Hell” nods to artists like Scorn, Regis, and 400 PPM while maintaining it’s own territory in the landscape of cerebral and brooding rhythmic techno. Ominous, mechanistic drones sit above succinctly exacted percussion composition and sound design. Throughout “Artificial Hell”, Kendal shows her proficiency with the push and pull of building and releasing tension. On tracks like “Salvation” and “Relativity” she melds her synth wash wallscapes with driving percussion, serving as both a hint and counterpoint to the the entirety of the latter part of the album taking on spartan ambient compositions as a way to keep the listener in a subdued stasis. This album is a statement piece from a long time participant in the North American underground music sectors. It reminds the listener through perilous, considered rhythms and darker drone impositions to cement themselves back into a place where not everything is always a good time.

Optimo Music don’t generally do limited edition releases but when The Golden Filter did these extra mixes of “End Of Times”, the A1 track off their recent EP we thought they were too good to remain in the digital domain so have pressed up a small run of 12” singles aimed specifically at DJs. The original single version is a future synth classic. These new dub versions take it to the dancefloor and have been tried and tested around the world over the last few months. They are considerably extended, dubbed out and add extra dynamics & ecstatic synth power with hints of the original vocal. There is a slo mo version at 103 bpm and a faster version at 118bpm which means the track should work any time from warm up to peak set. There is also a Drone-Apella version included too.

The Return of 'The Nightstalker', a Childhood Intelligence endeavor written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich (2022). The second album «Genetic Constitution» is the sequel of «The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World» (2020), in which the Nightstalker continues to manifest its mystic dystopian electronic prophecies. Full of haunted melodies, cinematic compositions and passages of hope and despair.

«In a damned world dystopian and mad we create our own sound of the positive apocalypse

with bizarre characters we feel connected with the outsiders, strangers and forgotten

in the darkest hour the crazy sounds arise standing on the edge a delight for the senses

when all are gone we have stayed in the endless desert good and evil at the same time

for us it is true always to nail down when everyone can have it we do not want it»

Following the success of Special Touch - Garden of Life, Heels & Souls Recordings kick off their 12” reissue series with an EP of digger delights from Frankfurt’s under-the-radar production trio of Manfred Holz, Michael Buchner and Jürgen Blömke. One side contains the instantly absorbing, late '80s electro nugget, 'Steal It An' Deal It', from the aptly named The Soundstealers. Cruisin the slow lane at 100bpm, an idiosyncratic blend of samples, sound effects and percussive flourishes, underpinned by chest rumbling bassweight, guarantees dancefloor bedlam whether drawing for the dance or dub mix. On the flip, you’re treated to obscure acid chugger ‘Amazonia’. Originally created for the opening credits of a ‘90s German nature documentary ‘Wunder Wildnis’ (seriously), the breakbeat-driven dance mix stomps through the undergrowth, acidic arps and pan flutes fizzing across the forest canopy. Heels & Souls pass the baton to London’s Good Block for the home stretch, the tropical twosome reworking the bassline and sprinkling some synth wizardry for a remix that grooves off over the horizon. These hard-to-find, pricey gems have been fully licensed from the trio, with weighty remasters courtesy of Cicely Balston. 20% of profits from Heels & Souls Recordings and Prime Direct Distribution will be donated to Papyrus, a UK charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide.

Argentinian producer Thissperso has been living in Barcelona for a good season while producing music that reflects what he experiences in his day to day life. His productions are harsh and violent, but they have a quality and energy that makes them contagious and addictive. This work, edited by NNY Records, compiles some old songs that have been revisited and remastered, which coexist with new compositions that continue to explore the most visceral and dark side of electronics. This is the work of a producer who is not tied to any style and who enjoys setting the dancefloor on fire when one of his songs is played. Producers like Parris Smith have already been able to verify it in the first person with a couple of songs from this new EP in which we find Electro mixed with Industrial, EBM, Acid and a punk and nonconformist attitude.

The term 'tourbillon' has two meanings - it is the French word for "whirlwind" and also a device used in watchmaking to improve the accuracy of a timepiece. Both definitions feel apt when listening to Tourbillon, the latest release on Central Processing Unit from Australian producer Tim Koch. Following on from Koch's CPU debut Spinifex back in 2018 - an album that initially emerged via minidisc - Tourbillon is a four-track EP which dazzles with its perpetual-motion post-IDM productions.
These tracks draw you into their webs by forming dense interlocking sonic patterns over the course of several minutes. While the rhythmic programming and lattice of alien percussion tones can appear discombobulating at first, Koch also bewitches the listener with the slyly melodic synth work that he laces throughout Tourbillon.
Opening track 'Estranger' is a fine example of this combination. The first section here is a blend of blown-out drum sounds which comes off like an industrial electro tune run through a meat grinder. However, the track soon blossoms with the introduction of some amazingly atmospheric synth pads, and the two contrasting elements come together for a strange and rather beautiful whole.
'Estranger' finds a mirror-image in Tourbillon's final cut 'Hankert', a track in which more of those gurgling percussive tones play off the rich chord progressions that chirrup away in the background. Between 'Estranger' and 'Hankert' we get two propulsive grooves in the form of 'Disfugue' and 'Dreitark'.
How, then, to contextualize such unique material? Calum Gunn's recent outing for CPU is a good point of comparison, and the electronics here bang and whirr in a manner which nods to the post-IDM innovations of artists like μ-Ziq. One can also see Tourbillon as descended from acts like Cabaret Voltaire, the industrial electronics innovators from CPU's home city of Sheffield. However, Tourbillon is ultimately an EP which exists in its own lane, an open-minded and open-hearted set which runs with the futurist spirit of CPU and Koch's previous home of Merck Records.
Australian producer Tim Koch returns to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with Tourbillon, an EP of otherworldly post-IDM productions.
Riyl: μ-Ziq, Calum Gunn, Proswell, Modeselektor

The good thing, if we talk about real artists is: their music never gets old.

Titonton Duvante presents another essential record on his new Classic Series.
This time it's the "Furity EP" which came out on the legendary Multiplex label 1998.
All tracks are re-mastered and the music couldn't sound fresher than today!

white label copy. Writing on label sticker.

HHV and Too Good are happy to present this exclusive color run of 1000 red copies of Tommy Guerreros 2014 album "No Mans Land". Back in print for the first time. Only at HHV. As a special treat you can pick up the poster with the artwork of this album in our bonus section.

Red Vinyl.

Record is close to NM.
Upper edge with beginning seamsplit, otherwise VG+.

If the name of this collection of traxxx offends you, move on — there’s no hope for you here. If, on the other hand, Toribio’s salacious fun-pun cracked your cool exterior, here’s an introduction to a set of bangers that helps exemplify New York’s increasingly exuberant dancefloor, and what producer/DJ Cesar Toribio brings to it. His is a ribald, rhythmic take on dance music, neither for the weak of musical character (purists need not apply) nor for the weak of ass (-shaking). In fact, the proof is right there, in Toribio’s label’s and monthly party’s name: Bring Dat Ass. This command is not optional, but *the* key ingredient for a good time.

The five songs Toribio has created for “Tongue In Cheeks,” BDA’s first release, comprise a horny melting pot of tribal house and Linn-drum plug-ins, minimalist synth textures and basslines, hi-hats reminiscent of electro and freestyle classics, some of which are infused with New York’s Latin club history and futures. The lead-off track, “No Pare,” is based on the producer’s 808-driven reinvention of the call-and-response hook from Proyecto Uno’s 1993 merengue-house smash “El Tiburón,” marking the first time the group has ever cleared a sample of this Nuyodominican classic. We predict that “No Pare” will be a Fall 2023 monster.

Guest vocal appearances by The Illustrious Blacks and Maluca, cornerstones of different dance-floor scenes in a city currently hitting peak-energy levels, show the breadth of Toribio’s regard for community: There is a lot of crossover to how the punky Dominicana MC from Washington Heights chooses to slang-tastically “Werk It Out,” and how the Neo-Afro-Futuristic-Psychedelic-Surrealistic-Hippys Monstah Black and Manchildblack infuse a dollop of booty into “Work Dat Shit.” And the two different metallic beats point at seemingly separate parts of Toribio’s musical heritage uniting. There’s no formula, but if there was, it would be: Make it sexy. Make it (consensually) grindy. Make it funny to the point of ridiculous but so funky that the laughter becomes more fuel to the joyous momentum propelling the movement. Then make it home — or try to.

Cesar Toribio’s home is, originally Tampa — and the DR, where he’d spend summers with family. He was a drum-corps prodigy who went to Berklee to become a jazz drummer and be like Gil Evans. He idolized Miles’ orchestral arranger’s work as much as Dilla’s beats, but then discovered house music, so it was a wrap. The 2021 band album Toribio made under the name Conclave — which included his sister Sharin and musicians from such great projects as Standing On the Corner, No Regular Play and Irreversible Entanglements — unearthed the work of a singer-songwriter-arranger-producer of immeasurably nuanced, soulful jazz-house music. But when Toribio started DJing more and more, he decided to listen to the devil on his shoulder who told him to Bring Dat Ass. As Cesar damn-well knows, it’s the devil who has the better jokes and holds the better parties, so his ears perked up. “Tongue in Cheeks” is the music Toribio says he made to play at these parties, because he can’t find it anywhere else. It’s hard to disagree.

Wrwtfww Records is very happy to announce the release of the new album from legendary Deee-Lite member Towa Tei, celebrating the 30th year of his career. It is available on (orange) vinyl for the first time outside of Japan. The album, simply titled LP features Japanese music icons Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra), Yasuaki Shimizu (Kakashi), fellow Metafive colleagues Tomohiko Gondo and Yoshinori Sunahara, Hana, Wataru Iga, Shunji Mori, Hidefumi Ino and more. It was mixed by famed engineer Goh Hotoda and the artwork comes from painter Tomoo Gokita. Poppy, catchy, dancy, and very funky, Towa Tei’s 10th solo album is 100% delirious ride and a testament to the Deee-Lite member’s ever-expanding creativity, combining simplicity and experimentalism in the most feel-good ways. Indoor, outdoor, and every day of the year, this one will make you dance and smile! This release is a collaboration between legendary Japanese label Nippon Columbia/Better Days and Wrwtfww Records.

So Gerd and Philipp were due to play XOYO one saturday night and the club is 6 minutes from my studio so I suggested we go there first to make tunes for a few hours. We made 2 songs that night and one of them is ‘reach out’. Gerd did the drums on my 808, Philipp wrote the beautiful lead part on my OBXa and I did the bass in my cs80. I added the words a couple of weeks later, they are inspired by Leonard Cohen’s letter to his muse Marianne Ihlen on her deathbed. (Joe Goddard) Including fantastic remixes by Erol Alkan and Osborne.

Ultraflex’s new album ‘Infinite Wellness’ is naughty. Are you really allowed to combine a horny saxophone solo with a relentless eurodance beat, steel drums and shameless moaning? No, that is not ok. Neither is putting a melodramatic Spanish guitar solo in an excessively erotic power ballad, nor ending a whole album on a loud gong. Which is precisely why they’ve done it. Ultraflex aren’t interested in being good girls, but rather to explore what they can get away with - relying on faux innocence and devious charm. And they do get away with it all thanks to the immaculately pristine production that drapes the whole thing in glossy sophistication.

‘Infinite Wellness’ is a mashup of disco, R&B, 80’s synth pop, Italian 70’s film music and eurodance, with some references to jazz and classical music. Sources of inspiration include Estonian synth-funk producer Uku Kuut, International Music System, Master C & J and Alice Deejay on the dashing singles ‘Baby’, ‘Mi Vuoi’ and ‘Under The Spell’; Enrique Iglesias, Spice Girls and author Carmen Maria Machado on their power ballad ‘Melting Away’; while also drawing inspiration from Alessandro Alessandroni and Snoop Dog on the sensual ‘Ultrasex’.

The high note of the album is the evident friendship behind the music – you can vividly imagine the pair grinning in the studio while whispering a sensual Norwegian quote or adding secretly recorded party conversations. Their exhilarating playfulness welcomes you into their intimacy and lets you in on their secrets while inviting you to dance!

Artwork: Gréta Þorkels

Unhuman & Petra Flurr is the collaborative synthpunk-technoid project of Bite label stalwart, Berlin-based Greek artist Unhuman and legendary queer wave figure Petra Flurr. 'Mala Vida' is their debut album on Bite that further evolves their sound beyond genre borders. The duo deliver an 8-track LP consisting of punk body music exhibiting the team's mastery on production, their androgynous vision and diverse influences. Petra Flurr's staggered, often effected, vocals cruise over pounding beats, bold iconic hooks and psychedelic atmospheres. His lyrics reference the seedy underbelly of Berlin's sex underground. Meanwhile, Unhuman's productions broadly range from the post-punk references of 'Labyrinth' to the new beat grooves of 'Short Life' featuring Ukrainian duo Garden Krist to the melodic orchestrations of 'Rush'. All this is reinterpreted by techno duo New Frames on a digital remix of 'Unzivilisiert'. 'Mala Vida' is a direct inspiration from their debut performance at Berghain for last year's Bite label night. After which, they swiftly retreated to the studio to compose, still in their platform heels. The two paint a coat of neon red over their preexisting batcave of sound. While the artwork by Liam Noonan compliments the gender fluidness of the album, distorting and digitally manipulating images of the creators themselves. Using heavy rhythmics, wavy mandates, an androgynous stare and unavoidable sexuality, Unhuman & Petra Flurr introduce us to their culled brand of queer death techno. Always with a wink.

Spanish producer Univac returns to 30D Records with his second outing on the leading Spanish techno imprint. This time he appears on the ExoPlanets sub, the more futuristic branch of the label. Univac follows this vision and delivers four excellent cuts of forward thinking electro on his MagnetFunk EP. It's an exciting pack reaching high energy levels from dark and dooming vocal chopped new-wave to razor sharp elektroid jams. An excellent collection of spacious and punchy electro goodness.

Detroit a city of great contrasts. Feats of engineering that spurred the world forward. For a few decades wealth and prosperity. Hi-tech dreams seemed achieved. But with the dream also comes nightmares…..Traffic Jams, Predatory Insurance Companies prey on municipalities with no mass transporation, freeways built specifically to ruin minority prosperity & to build walls between people. Beautiful countries all over the world wrecked at war over the thirst for oil, entire neighborhoods decimated when the corporate greed for profit forces engineers to build throw away cars that are quickly replaced by better built foreign competition. Even Worse……Climate change. Detroit the city that knows the best NO Corporations Should Dictate City Function the people should……listen to the sound and learn from it……or deal with the Lo-tech reality that Corporate greed actually is so good at building. UR the future UR the change……

Four tracks from '20 Years Of Phonica' on limited 12" vinyl!

We start off with a collaboration from Paramida & E-Talking. Paramida is the well-respected head of the Love on the Rocks label whilst E-Talking is the pseudonym of Emmanuel Corre, one half of Nummer who have given us stunning releases over the year on their own label, Ad93 and Going Good. ‘Read My Lips’ strikes the perfect balance of old-school warehouse acid and early morning Berlin dance floors.

Next up, Dauwd’s bass-heavy monster ‘Slam’. The US born, Berlin residing DJ & producer Dauwd has been pushing his sound through various styles and genres since the early 2010s. From dub-steppy and tech-house beginnings to his most recent house and dub-techno Psssh imprint outputs he has been driving record collectors crazy for his 12’s for over a decade!

On the flip, Daniel Avery's ‘Bell’ finds the Phantasy and Mute artist at his most contemplative and melodic; it’s streamlined stylings reminiscent of UK Artificial Intelligence 90s techno and Kompakt’s golden era.

Finally, Mancunian producer Willow’s ‘Willbush’ shows why she has been a leading name in the underground house scene for over a decade now, including releases on the renowned Workshop label.

I had five pupils. Now, the first pupil: His name was Zhang Yiaotian. He practiced the Centipede style. He was known as the Centipede. In fact, the speed he moved was as fast as a Centipede.

Emotional Response returns with a second volume of its All Trades compilation which is named after its own NTS show. It is just as vast both in terms of style but also the eras it spans with a mix of dub, new wave, slow motion electronics and plenty in between. Tolouse Low Trax kicks off with the filthy dirty and seriously heavy dub glitch of 'Ossia' to provide an early highlight before the likes of Al Wootton get percussive and tribal with 'Altai' and Hlm38 channels some African Head Charge on another devastating dub cut. Later on, London's Good Block brings a little more light and sunshine with their lovely 'Strong Relax.'

Label cover. Price tag.

France, 1990. Fun Radio, NRJ, Skyrock set a new pace, and their crushing hegemony irrevocably marks the end of the free radio utopia. The giants become vital in the hit industry and carry on fuelling France’s greatest invention: la variété. A quintessentially French version of British dance pop with a very specific tang to it, too coy to emulate trendy clubs’ and rave parties’ music, europop cautiously tests the waters of what will soon turn into a tsunami : house music. Is house the soundtrack of the 90s? In Europe, it gave steam to comeback bands just as much as to the most memorable formations of the decade, while in France it paved the way for the global success of French Touch. “Real” house music emerges in early 80’s Chicago (where the Warehouse club, which allegedly gave its name to the genre, closes down in 1983). England’s acid house and Belgium’s new beat, its European offshoots, fed the cravings of tabloids in 1988 and 1989. The house music we’re interested in though, the type bound to soon overwhelm European charts, is already pretty far away from the afro-american music born in Chicago. So far away it inherited a new name: dance music. Just like it had been the case with disco a few years back, house and techno aren’t exactly in the good books – acid house and new beat even less so. And it’s precisely the genre’s mainstream iteration this compilation focuses on; the house en français, which strives to get on board the running train in 1990. The house which sports the all-over jean look, bandana, cap, chewing gum, peugeot 205 complete with snazzy beats on the radio. The big deal big fuss type, miles away from the original, underground house. It might not have been born in the nineties, but that’s clearly when house music became mainstream. What underpins house music might even be what is to define the decade to come: jingles and pin’s, megaclubs and clips. That and the hits. Very soon house is everywhere: on the air of the big radio stations and on TV, creeping in as far as kids’ programs. The French may not even notice, but they’re all listening to it. Meanwhile, music producers smell the gravy and, willy-nilly with the earnest, enlightened amateurs, propose their very own club versions, cross breeding French variété and house. The result: a chart and club ready ersatz that is to quickly seduce young audiences. Hits, that’s what we want – or tubes for the French, like in House Tube, one of the landmarks of this compilation. The tracklist, like the soundtrack to a club night that never happened, fictitiously reconstructs the fleeting moment when house made its arrival in France, bridging the gap between variété and eurodance. House quiproquo House music barges in like a UFO on European land. With the arrival of this repetitive, yet transgressive music, tabloids freak out, while widespread incomprehension over the genre inspires dubious misconceptions. The media are happy to suckle on the music’s popularity, though well hidden behind the veil of decorum: NRJ airs a remake of a famous new beat track, Rock To The Beat, in which, however, “ecstasy” is swapped for “fantasy”. Dechavanne, thoughtful as usual, calls fans junkies and nazis on his tv show, Ciel Mon Mardi – though the show’s theme song is nothing else than a house track. The footage became a classic, and the comments, sampled by producers, provided the vocals for a flagship new beat track (Dr. Smiley – L’Echo Dechavanne). The Dechavanne episode is representative of the general confusion surrounding this barbarian music; skepticism remained high, even (if not more so?) in the musical world. In fact, it’s the subject of the unequivocal House Tube: “House tube, bouse tube ; on n’aime pas vraiment le house tube House soupe, bouse soupe ; on n’aime pas vraiment le house soupe” That is: “House hits, house shit; we don’t really dig house hits House soup, shit soup; we don’t really dig house soup” The success of house music inspired many exasperated reactions, just like House Tube (the B-side of a deodorant ad’s theme). Laurent Castellvi, surprised that the joke-track he composed at the time still sparked interest, told us: “At the beginning of the nineties, house was all over the radio. It annoyed me a little that most tracks were based on the same two chords. House Tube is a joke, it’s me sitting at the piano playing two chords. And that’s what the lyrics say.” On the other hand and following up with the next track, Fred de Fred was clearly in the know. The Frenchman had moved to the epicentre of the English commotion, Sheffield, a few years prior to the arrival of house. That’s where Warp (Autechre, Aphex Twin) originated – and at the time Warp still went by the name FON, Fred already hung around in their studios. Robert Gordon, Fred’s pal and co-founder of the label, signs the remix of one of his 1989 tracks, Sous Sous. In 1991, he composes a record of songs, and when it comes to pairing a suitable club remix single, Fred knows what’s up. Je T’Aime En Amour, sleek rock, mutates into a syncretism of french chanson and nearly rave breakbeat (here provided in its “2020” version). Fred de Fred is exemplary of the variété-club crossover driving this record; his career started within the collective ZNR, he crossed paths with the likes of Alain Bashung and then the Stone Roses, was close to Warp, and ended up signing a record on Barclay. Studio sharks Electronic musicians are often referred to as “producers”. This emanates from the delimitation of roles in the making of recorded music, traditionally assigned as singer, songwriter and producer. The latter takes care of the recording per se; that is, he manages the project, rents the studio, hires the musicians (known as requins de studio – studio sharks – for accumulating studio sessions) and cashes in at the end. The artist in electronic music is the producer alone, who essentially combines all roles at once: totally autonomous in his home studio, he can do without musicians or singers. The moment we’re interested in is this transitory period in which the two types of producers coexist. On the one hand, the new producers, like Fred Rister with Everybody Dancing, who recorded in a shack on a 4-track recorder, according to the sound engineer. On the other, the revival of old brigade producers, always on the lookout for a hot deal. The producer behind Près De Toi is of the latter type – pursuing a long musical career though quick to forget Claire-An (and so did posterity). New beat’s heritage isn’t negligible : its pioneers fashioned the “new generation” producer formula, a one-man-band in his machine-filled home studio. They’re also the first to churn out major hits, hitting the floor of a few Belgian clubs and eventually making it to the European top 50. What seems like mad creative abundance (hundreds of tracks between 1987 and 1989) is in fact the work of a handful of Belgian producers, barely ten, hidden behind multiple aliases. Among them, Marc Neuttiens, Jack Mauer and Fabian Van Messen, who often work as a trio and produce some of the genre’s most iconic tracks. In the midst of which On Se Calme, produced under the name Bassline Boys, sampling none other than Christophe Dechavanne. It’s no coincidence then that Anne Zamberlan should knock on their door with in mind the idea of an antidrug track. She wants to make noise, they know how to make a hit. And the track has it all: proto-acid gimmicks, big beat, house piano, verses rapped with a hiphouse flow… It might have been great, but even a Virgin Megastore ad she appeared in two years later got her more success. À la folie, je danse This tale is also the one of the pioneers who brought house music to France, first on the radio, well before rave parties or Laurent Garnier’s nights in Paris. As soon as the early eighties, Robert Levy Provençal plays the edits of the young Dimitri from Paris on the airwaves of Radio 7. At the time they’re unusual: like one would use samples in hip hop, Dimitri loops soul, funk and disco tracks, creating extended mixes. He breaks down tracks, reducing them to a gimmick or a bass line, thus creating easy-to-mix tools for DJs and bringing them closer to the sounds of house and techno music. He soon becomes resident DJ on NRJ and hosts the popular show Hot Mix. Like his colleague RLP, Dimitri proposes a trailblazing selection, blending together French news and the odd new sound from the States. At the turn of the nineties, when europop wants in at the club, only these influencers master the dance side of things. There’s RLP, Bibi Fricotin, Dom T… And Dimitri, who becomes the assigned variété remixer, adapting dozens of songs that were never meant to make it into a club. The general tendency however is less to official remixes than to bootlegs: a “pirate”, unauthorised and often private remix – just like Jacques Dutronc’s Opium, stretched out into a nearly 7-minute-long mix. The nineties also set the stage for the first TV stars, the ones who become famous without anyone really knowing why. Take, say, Jordy, four years old. The kid, in his diapers, sings along a New York style, house piano production and somehow makes it to the top 50’s number 1. For years, Jordy plays out the role of the child star and demonstrates that dance music is a perfectly profitable affair: it fuels the radios turned juggernauts, and lands on TV, seeping through music programs… In 1989, Vincent Lagaf (a famous french TV host) dives in with Bo Le Lavabo. The pitch is simple: the TV host adapts a track well known overseas, Lil Louis’ French Kiss (without any direct reference), simply adding lyrics taken from a sketch. He’s rather clear on his intentions (“Well, that’s just how you make it to the top 50”) and has no mercy for a musical genre he clearly understands nothing about (“See? Easy.”). Single night stars The club is a democratic place where anyone can be a star for a night (a nineties remix of Andy Warhol’s famous saying, meaning to imply: never has fame been so near, yet so far). The ghost of stardom haunts all of these forgotten tracks… This is particularly true in the case of Techno 90, Fred Rister’s first band. The DJ hailing from Northern France takes part in the short-lived though seminal Maxximum radio and mixes everywhere on both sides of the Belgian border, quickly becoming a local celebrity. At the turn of the century, he starts collaborating with David Guetta – another DJ, slightly better known than Rister and a rising star of the Parisian club scene. Together they eventually co-sign a few global hits: Love Is Gone, When Love Takes Over, I Gotta Feeling. This tale is the story of French variété’s unforeseen encounter with the avant-garde, of DJs who rose to the status of pop stars and others who descended deep into the rave party scene. It’s all of these oddities our compilation seeks to recount, like a wacky TV show featuring anonymous stars, forgotten ghosts of a decade bygone (Jacques Dutronc, Jean-Francois Maurice) or yet to come (David Guetta), inspired though unlucky blokes plus a girl band. And somewhere in the shambles, the tracklist of our compilation, the B-side of dance music’s official story – what could have been France’s alternative hit machine.

Epm20 – EP 2’ turns the spotlight on electro. For this special EP, we’ve gathered brand new tracks by The Advent & Zein Ferreira, Carl Finlow, Detroit’s Filthiest and Modulator a.k.a. Freddie Fresh. As all good electro-heads will know, The Advent (Cisco Ferreira) is as renowned for electro as he is for techno. On ‘Strangeform’ he works alongside his son and rising talent, Zein to turn in pure electro-funk that’s blistering to the last beat. Another absolute master of the scene is Carl Finlow who brings deep bass notes, carefully crafted melody and his meticulous production skills to ‘Optogenetic’. Detroit’s Filthiest has been wowing listeners with his work for labels like Casa Voyager, Bass Agenda, Philthtrax and his own Mcec. His track ‘Werewolf’ is the electro monster the title suggests – dark and tough Detroit-electro book-ended with a playful vocal. The EP closes with the legendary, Freddie Fresh who after three decades is a genuine virtuoso. Under his Modulator guise he layers beautiful retro synth stylings and sci-fi atmospherics on ‘ProMars’. The third EP featuring four house tracks will follow in July, with the ‘Epm20’ compilation after the summer.

4 Tracks made in the 305. Featuring beats from a mysterious crew from the margins of the Miami underground. Good times, jams, machines, and lots of fatties. Don't sleep!

Not on Earth, no more words. 002 by Philipp Boss, Griezman, Martyné & Bodin We follow good sound.

Ever since he made his first trip to Japan to DJ, Optimo Music founder JD Twitch has been bewitched by Japanese music, and particularly the vibrant, imaginative, and often far-sighted sounds which emerged from the island nation during the 1980s. Now he’s put years of digging in Japanese record shops to good use on Polyphonic Cosmos, the latest release on his compilation-focused Cease & Desist imprint.

Subtitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Japan In The ‘80s’, the collection offers a personal selection of Japanese gems recorded and released between 1981 and ’86 – a period when advances in recording and musical technology offered the nation’s artists and producers a whole new tool kit to employ. When combined with the unique musical culture of Japan, where local traditions are frequently fused with Western styles to create timeless, off-kilter aural fusions, this embrace of locally pioneered music technology had spectacular, often unusual results.

Eight years in the making, Polyphonic Cosmos provides an endlessly entertaining musical snapshot of Japanese music of the early-to-mid ‘80s with all of the open-minded eclecticism and sonic twists that you would expect from the Glasgow-based DJ.

Compare and contrast, for example, the gently breezy, morning-fresh folk-plus-electronics bliss of ‘ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota)’ by World Standard – the most familiar alias of long-serving musician/producer Sohichiro Suzuki – and the hallucinatory, slow-motion tribal rhythms, post-punk rhythms and tape delay-laden electronics of Imitation’s ‘Exotic Dance’. Or, for that matter, the tipsy mid-‘80s electronic reggae of Pecker’s ‘Sha La La’, the grungy but melodic post-punk strut of ‘You Go On Natural’ by Earthling (a track Twitch accurately describes as “sheer unrelenting groove”), and the unearthly, swirling sonics, new age instrumentation and flotation tank vocals of prolific (and seemingly mysterious) act Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s ‘Rimme Kohkyogaku Meiki’.

It’s a credit to JD Twitch’s curatorial skills that the quality never dips, and sonic surprises lurk around every corner. Consider for a moment the hard to describe, far-sighted audio immersion of D-Day’s ‘Ki-Ra’ – all languid post-pop guitar, enveloping chords, spoken word vocals, shuffling 808 beats and marimba melodies – and the two contributions from video games soundtrack specialist (and driving instrumental synth-pop specialist) Hiroyuki Namba.

The collection naturally includes some selections that have long been favourites in Twitch’s DJ sets – see Masumi Hara’s ‘Your Dream’ – as well as a handful of tracks from artists who may be more recognisable to those with only rudimentary knowledge of Japanese musical culture. The great Yasuaki Shimizu, whose work as Mariah has become far better known in recent years thanks to reissues of some of his most magical albums, is represented via ‘The Crow’, a picturesque chunk of horizontal, hard-to-define jazz-not-jazz smokiness, while the collection fittingly concludes with a sublimely funky, oddball electronic workout from Yellow Magic Orchestra legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (the frankly incredible ‘Wongga Dance Song’).

Finally Vol 10 , is here !!! Along with the Usuals Dawl and The He-Men, we bring you two new artists plus a new collaboration of previous artists. First Track comes from the one and only Dawl, The TDO co head honcho comes at cha with a techy, bleepy, detroity atmospheric stomper, This man is unstoppable with releases all the over place on so many labels, showing another side to his many musical talents, no breaks or electro but good solid techno bleeps , cracking first track. Next we have Escape Earth, this is the collaboration of bufo bufo and corporeal face. A duo to look out for. This is a real breakbeat stomper with great little samples and a killer bass line. taking it real dark and strong, get any floor moving, lovely melodic strings and pads really move this track, Love the pads in the breakdown of this really kicks. Track 3 welcomes new edition to the TDO family Kiddmisha, all the way from Kiev in the Ukraine. He has had many releases on latels such as Batti Batti , Fox Trax , Noneside and houseonwax. He also DJ’s all over the Ukraine. He brings us a quality little groove of a track, a great tool, that will keep any floor moving, kicks off with a lovely little break beat , then boom, in comes the bass, a real booty shaker, that will appeal to many different genres. We now have the B side , First track is from the Other head honcho of TDO Sween in his guise as The He-Men alongside good friend Danny Beck. This is a great dance floor workout track, kicking off with an electro break , with the usual stabs of FX that the He-Men love so much, them comes the big bass hook, a real electro feel, accompanied with the bleeps and explosions and vocal, this is a great atmospheric, floorfiller . Finally we a very exciting new edition to the TDO family . 22 year old Marino from Nantes in France. He is the co founder of Hyperfrequence records and party collective and also linked wit the 44tours record shop,label and parties. this man is a real talent for the future. His track is full on high energy Rave, starting with a killer break and time stretched vocal, he’s a real record digger and this shows in his track, As it kicks in massively with a real driving bass line and alarm bleep going throughout the track and that great familiar time stretched vocal, Breaks into some lovely deep strings before kicking back in with that driving pulsating bass line, a real great edition to TDO and Vol 10.

In this edition we welcome back Samuel Padden and Xotr, and also see first collaboration release on tone dropout from label head honcho Sween and good friend Alphonse , and of course save the best to last a absolute banger from firm dropout fave Kostas G.

That side kicks off with a melodic uplifting breakbeat smasher called Downfall(epic mix), from Sween and Alphonse , lots of stabs and synths and pianos a real gradual classic, then we welcome Xotr- with Oddessey , an absolute stonker of a warehouse banger , real big deep sounds with a real old warehouse and trance feel, sounds great on the dance floor , this side starts with Samuel padden and a great four four bleep bass track called teslas still alive, then finally kostas G tears it up with an absolute breakbeat classic , beats bass and bleeps all make a dance floor filler and round off this quality selection of dance floor trax from the tone dropout crew .

Hello 24! Nice to have you here. 23 is so yesterday, so over the top, really. Well, we’ve been dancing the following dances recently. What about you?

The opening honours go to Hamburg’s bundle of joy, Ada who remixed her dear friend Heiko Voss. We feel that the outcome is clearly one of the most emotive, heartwarming pieces of music you’ll hear this year.

When Rhenish cheerfulness meets holiday anticipation, the result is something like this Hawaiian shirt turned music called “Chee-Caruso” by JÜRGEN PAAPE. No animals were tortured for this piece, even if it sounds like it.

Next up is one of this year’s Kompakt debutantes, a truly glamorous bird of paradise called DEER JADE. “Jukurpa” is a highly original, frolicsome house tune that has been moving crowds all over the planet.

As an integral part of the family, JONATHAN KASPAR is of course not to be missed. “Are You” celebrates the kind of early morning rapture that is commonplace at his new DJ venue, the brand new Cologne superclub FI. Everything is so colourful here.

If you’re ever in London and you need a great tune, we recommend calling HARDT ANTOINE. He’s firing from all cylinders lately and he’s god damn good at it. “I Will” holds the record of being the most played Kompakt track of the season. We salute you, Antoine! SASCHA FUNKE takes a bow to one of the greats of German showbiz with the trippy electro smasher “The Heck”. Born – like DJ Koze and Barnt – in Flensburg, died in Berlin in 2018 and wore glasses. More will not be revealed.

What takes a long time usually turns out well. Having admired TEE MANGO from afar for many years, our A&R Michael Mayer took heart and invited him to this year’s TOTAL. “So In Love” is in the best tradition of the KOMPAKT minimal funk of the early years. We are delighted to have this lovely Englishman on board!

Brazilian come Austrian come Berliner JOYCE MUNIZ has certainly become a household name with her intoxicating brand of uplifting pop house. Fittingly, she has joined our ranks and we’re happy to give you this collaboration with Sara Blum, “Beats & Lines”.

More Brazilian feel good vibes come in the form of GUI BORATTO’s “The Shell” which he conceived together with the former Underworld producer and legend in his own right, DARREN EMERSON.

We turn our attention to the realm of fauna, to London’s award-winning pedigree dog REX THE DOG. “Laika” is a heart-warming ode to the mongrel dog of the same name, who was the first living creature to make it from the streets of Moscow into space. She would have loved that bleep.

A little-known fact about MICHAEL MAYER is that he is one of the fastest crossword puzzle foxes on the left bank of the Rhine, always in a relentless rivalry with Wolfgang Voigt, who thinks he is even faster. The big battle is yet to come. Uninvited guest with five letters? “Urian”.

RAXON – these five letters mean business. Taken from his recent Speicher release “Beskar” showcases the Egyptian lover’s fascination for all things Starwars and his undeniable ability to churn out monster tracks.

DAVID HASERT & NICONÉ’s “Wasting My Time With You” is surely one of the most beloved Kompakt releases of 2024, so it can’t be missed on this compilation.

REINHARD VOIGT has always placed great emphasis on loving animals. On this track with the unsurprising title “Der, der mit dem Gummiball sang (Orange)”, he lets whole hordes of different four-legged friends and poultry on the microphone. Hopefully the stench will dissipate from the studio.

More emotion, more love, more sing-along factor? Si, claro! ARGIA’s “Love Keeps You Running” masterfully combines groove and pop – a blend that sounds very familiar to us. She may be at home in Madrid, but there’s Cologne DNA in her somewhere. We’re sure of it.

Let’s meet the legends, the veterans! JÖRG BURGER is still in a psychedelic mood in 2024. That suits him, that’s where he needs to be, that’s where we want him to be. A parallel universe is conceivable in which such music is affectionately called Goa.

Before going to bed, the WASSERMANN reads us a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights. At the same time, we focus on a point between everything, but really everything, and absolute, stark naked nothingness. 3, 2, 1… Let go.

If you don't yet know, Flexi is a record store and music label based in Italy and run by Simone and Lorenzo. Over the years, Flexi have gained both the respect and recognition of the music scene, earned by almost forty years of experience in the world of music and with the support of many DJs, artists and fans Finally Flexi Cuts returns with a brand new release pressed on a “raw transparent" vinyl called “Velvet Series” no 2 – six quality tracks from six superb artists for an electronic journey that makes you fly over “velvet”. Selection of the works wasn't easy; the tracks were chosen tryin' to maintain a high quality level, such as the oldest (v. series part 1) which have been so appreciated out there. The A side opening is by Bologna-based Brine, with “YR Body” that provides a Juno-ish bassline with a catchy vocal and a jazzy mood. Then we have “Benerice" from Daughters and Sons (aka the master Luca Fronza) who throws us into a beautiful Detroit-inspired analog jam. This side ends with our very own Sicily man Manuold with fresh Italo-House vibes absolutely made for the dance floor. On the B side, welcome back the veterans Tengrams (formerly the Piatto brothers from N.O.I.A Records) with the outstanding "Rapid Eye Movement"… travelling across retro-future influences and 808 patterns… under a dystopian-sci-fi movie theme. B2 track is by the Calma duo who plays with a few elements to build a neverending techno climax...did you recognise the sample? The last track is a sort of relaxing downtempo sunset closure complete with bells, from the California producer Gloved Hands, a name that speaks for itself.

Xenochrony is a various, literally everything : artists, styles, spaces and times.
It consists of four new tunes deftly produced between 1999 and today, and you’ll definitely find your cup of tee among.

The opening cut “ Juno ” says it all, a classy House beat rich of riffs and Fx from the good old 106. Following, “ Lost In Schiller, its percussions sit over a hammering bass line making it feel like the early Minimal. We then flip the side to enjoy “ Ufo” , what a progressive Techno beauty ! The Ep is closed by the delicious “ Annaeric ”, an emotional standard D&B, containing all that Nostalgia and bringing back the past.

Beautiful seductive modern electronix alert!!! Vector Lovers has remained a firm favourite of the underground electronic music scene and holds a coveted place among the most hallowed of record shelves, and with good reason. Since the early 2000s Martin Wheeler has explored a sparse audio wasteland in order to develop a new sonic palette that looks outward to electro, IDM and ambient. After self-releasing a handful of his own productions on the Iwari label, Wheeler's career defining album was signed by British label Soma in 2005, leading to the first great revival of 90s IDM. Capsule for One' was an unrivalled masterpiece that perfectly synthesised the heritage of the Hardcore Continuum with renewed airs and degree of clarity that ushered in a new millennia and sound. It arrived as a worthy successor to the venerated Warp artists of the time, while embracing new panoramas and technologies. Capsule for One' is a melancholic album, with an almost cosmic spirituality that provokes daydreaming. From its opening track 'City Lights From a Train' it welcomes the listener onto an infinite journey at the speed of light, connecting the past, present and future, folding time and space and painting neon cities populated by cyborgs. The album reaches its zenith with 'Melodies and Memory', featuring Wheeler's very own voice, which has arguably become one of this century's greatest electronic ballads to date. In fact, the impact of 'Capsule for One' was such that Tracey Thorn commissioned him to produce her song 'Easy', from the album 'Out of the Woods' [Virgin, 2007]. For its forthcoming release on Lapsus Records, Martin Wheeler has remixed each and every song on 'Capsule for One', as well as adding two previously unreleased tracks 'A Simulation' and 'Perfect Score', both produced around the same epoch. This extra special release, with artwork redesigned by Josep Basora, features a double marbled vinyl and a limited edition insert print. TIP!!

Darkhan Music is proud to present Vector Seven's latest darksynth album "Electric Blood"! "Electric Blood" is a homage to horror movies from the 70's, 80's and 90's. Musically this electronic gem is a fine blend of different genres such as Synthwave, Rock, Metal, French House and 80's movie soundtracks. Now, for the first time ever on vinyl & CD. Vector Seven is a well respected synthwave, darksynth and cyberpunk artist from Germany. He is famous for his unique production style combining dark and heavy synthesizer sounds, with punchy drum patterns and a good bit of retro nostalgia. He has proven more than once how versatile he is as a music producer with his distinctive sound design skills.

Vector Seven, the virtuoso of the cyberpunk genre serves you the virtual album "Modified". Previously only available on the digital format, now available on limited vinyl interface which you can jack in, and experience the retrofuturistic net personally at your own residence. With the hit track “Trauma Team” clocking in at 2.5 million streams on Spotify alone, this creation will not disappoint any online netrunners. "Modified" includes bonus tracks like the grit punched "Hydraulic", Yautja advanced "Camouflage", and a upgraded version of the original "Trauma Team" track. Let the scanning of datapackage commence.... Vector Seven is a well respected synthwave, darksynth and cyberpunk artist from Germany. He is famous for his unique production style combining dark and heavy synthesizer sounds, with punchy drum patterns and a good bit of retro nostalgia. He has proven more than once how versatile he is as a music producer with his distinctive sound design skills.