Search "tally hall" 77 Items

Trick or Treat was composed like a game, made up of samples and personal musical stories, twisted in all directions, and spat out monstrously in the imaginary world of Halloween. A trip into a world where the familiar becomes strange.
Trick or Treat' is available in two versions, with two different covers.. A turquoise EP limited to 100 copies and a black EP limited to 400 copies.

London based label Natural Selection present their forthcoming release in the form of a 4-track 12" EP, courtesy of Annie Hall, entitled "Atomic 20", ft. remixes from label affiliates Plant43 & Kodah. Mastered by Dadub Studios, Berlin and cut by Simon at The Exchange Vinyl.

Born in Madrid, Annie Hall has been heavily active on the Electronica, IDM and Detroit circuits since 2007 and has seen her music released by the most highly esteemed of Electro labels such as Central Processing Unit, Delsin Records, 20/20 Vision, Detroit Underground, Semantica & more. She returns to Natural Selection, after releasing on 3 previous occasions since the label's inaugural release in 2021. Her track 'Panax Ginseng' (ns001) gained support from some of the most respected DJ's and producers worldwide, inc. Dave Clarke, The Advent, Nullptr & more.

Atomic 20 is a beautifully crafted Electro release that maintains venomous aggression, amidst breathtaking textures and ambience. Hypnotic pads spiral into the ether, contrasted alongside heavy kicks, deep bass and meticulously programmed percussion patterns. Annie's eclectic and uniquely experimental style is fully evident throughout, taking the listener on an unpredictable, emotional journey, whether at home or on the dance floor.

The B side of the release features 2 well-placed, club-focussed remixes of each original A side tracks; B1 courtesy of Electro legend Plant43, with his immaculate remix of 'Goji Berry'. B2 courtesy of Natural Selection label head Kodah, with his power driven remix of 'Atomic 20'.

For its landmark 20th anniversary, Apnea Records proudly presents XX, a double 12" compilation that chronicles the label's journey from its inception to its current cutting-edge form. Featuring both original innovators and fresh talents from its recent relaunch, this release is a sonic time capsule and a forward-looking statement. Spanning from deep techno to Detroit-infused house, Jamal Moss's abstract house, electro, and E.R.P.'s signature machine funk, XX dives into the label's broad sonic spectrum. With contributions from Alex Under, Damian Schwartz, Jamal Moss, E.R.P., Dopplereffekt, Thomas Brinkmann, and Kyle Hall & Kero, this collection serves as both a reflection of Apnea's past and a bold vision for the future.

Dekmantel Festival in box. 7x12” vinyl box with download code. Limited Edition.

"Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12" boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isn't rigid — some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages — but like a Möbius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, it's not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control.

At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists — including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann — who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loop's disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa.

Widen the lens and you'll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick León, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more).

All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, it's that union which lends the core festival its strength.

Baraka returns with a fresh Rock infused EP named Psycho. Six new songs blending big beat, drum’n bass and trance with their touch of madness. A powerful piece shaped for the live with a nameless energy from start to finish. Psycho dives the duo into a new sonic and visual universe in which they reveal their alter egos. A more sharpened and distorted sound that would transform a concert hall into a dance floor or build up a club's energy to the level of a punk show. The first single going by the same name is supported by a bonus digital remix from acclaimed dj and producer Roza Terenzi. A way for the duo to push the boundaries of their music and give it a real club aspect, trademark of the band.

When forty, I was still wearing miniskirts, extravagant patterns, pink, fluorescent colours, star shaped earrings. I walked around with my leopardskin hat, my fluffy bag, my floral outfit, until the gaze of others made me feel like it was not age appropriate anymore. Although I am still the same person I was at 16. It's the others I see changing." There's no better way to describe ageing than through the gap that arises and continues to grow between physical reality and the specular image of the self : one deteriorates over time, exposed to the cruel laws of gravity and oxydation, while the other never ages, remaining intact and unaltered… frozen in a moment of blissfulness. The more time goes by the more the gap becomes a separate entity (ou “world” pour etre plus prosaïque). It can become so painful that many try to escape it, using and abusing every trickery. “Youth looks so good on you” is a sonic ballad which bizarrely explores the world that lies between reality and self-fantasy, a world where the aesthetic cult of youth becomes sovereign to the people. This piece was produced in 2022 as part of the Festival « Les Heures Sauvages - Nef des Marges dans l'ombre des certitudes », at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris. After "A Story of a Global Disease" in 2022, "Youth looks so good on you" is the second piece of music by Naomie Klaus released on moli del tro records.

Barbatus D. is a new label directed by Solar Punk from Quinoa Experience, that follows a legend about a great pirate - Captain Barbatus D. Wreckords and the storms he’s been through.

The adventures and revelations in The New World are musically translated by a Liverpool pirate whom sailors call Brent. The sea shanties are composed with elements inspired by the 80’s electro, seasoned with dramatic synths, melodic baselines, and ghostly vocals.
This musical odyssey was pressed on vinyl and is on its way to your local record stores. Be sure not to miss the written story of Captain’s adventures on a note that is hidden in the record’s sleeve, written by Jim Hall himself.

In 2022, Thilo Dietrich and Veda Park founded Castella, a crossover label merging music and design. Their debut release, "Return of Lemmiwinks," a split 12-inch by Cedric Dekowski and Thilo Dietrich, showcases their innovative blend of print, press, and audio.

After building up a head of steam on labels such as Craigie Knowes and Rotterdam Electronix in the past couple of years, Larionov debuts on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with the Space Threat EP. Larionov's previous releases have shown off a musical sensibility which is both schooled in classic electro stylings and also able to reach for leftfield sonics in a way which sets the producer apart from the pack. It's a vibe that continues into this record, a quartet of busy electro joints which are characterised by a brooding, neurotic energy.
The opening title-track is precisely the sort of thing which would soundtrack a voyage to the outer-edges of the solar system. 'Space Threat' is a nervy, restless bit of machine-funk, the track moving forward at a midtempo which manages to be at once steady and slightly fidgety. The beat skitters and swerves, a perpetual-motion machine of minor-key bass, strange modular flutters and thwacking snares. All of this is draped in icy washes of keyboard - think Drexciya if they blasted into outer space rather than delving deep down in the ocean.
'Asteroid Attack' works from the same blueprint for 'Space Threat' but ratchets up the intensity a little to take the track to another galaxy. It's still powered by a livewire neurosis, all piston-sharp drums and whirligig synth percussion. However, an increased tempo, strangely poignant keyboard lines and little snatches of vocoder-drenched vocals turn 'Asteroid Attack' in the direction of modern practitioners like Cardopusher and CPU homie Silicon Scally.
Opening up the EP's B-side, 'Flying High' finds a midpoint between its predecessors, returning to the steadier pace and twitchy vibe of 'Space Threat' but maintaining 'Asteroid Attack's single-note counter-melodies and digified vocals - although here the ghostly treatment on the voice makes for a hugely eerie atmosphere. Around the four-minute mark, the track peels back the veil of synth pads and wobbling keys stabs to turn the attention wholly to the rhythm section, a choice which feels like taking a stiff drink in order to redouble your energy for the next part of the night.
'Vimana Ride' runs with 'Flying High's approach to see Space Threat out in style. There's something to the digital vocal sighs that make up the melody of this cut which gives things a really uncanny quality - it's the kind of sonic choice that Sadboys producers like Yung Gud and Yung Sherman would make, but applied wholly to the service of crafting body-popping, acid-tinged electro.
Larionov arrives on Central Processing Unit with an EP of anxiously excellent electro experiments.
Riyl: Cardopusher, Silicon Scally, Annie Hall, Cygnus

Off the back of their long-standing radio show and guest mix series, Tiella Sound launched in 2023 with a self-titled LP from Perugian artist Vaisa, setting the scene perfectly with its lo-fi maelstrom of field recordings, obscure rhythms and tribal textures. Livio Improta follows suit with ‘Fondamentalismi’, a 10-track exploration of broken, slow-motion rhythms coated in vinyl crackle and layers of atmospheric dust. Livio Improta has landed on Bosconi Records and Rawax, had his tunes included on Fabric 71 mixed by Cassy, and explored ethnomusicology and experimentation under the name Baldovino. From Neapolitan wave to world music, Italo-disco to house, disco and funk, his sound is rich, unpredictable and varied, as he proves here with ‘Fondamentalismi’.

Lust Pattern slithers its way to Dark Entries with four tracks of deviant electro-wave on Stand, Scatter. Ryan Armbridge has graced Dark Entries several times via his project Linea Aspera, a revered coldwave revivalist duo with Zoe Zanias. As Lust Pattern, Armbridge draws hypnotic paths through the reverb-laden halls of post-punk and electro-funk, coursing in a gait uniquely his own. Built up from improvised jams, the four cuts on Stand, Scatter defy neat categorization while spanning a wide breadth of genres. Opener “Forming Lines” features Drexciyan squelch, silky guitar, and bursts of live drumming; this sounds like a lot, but it coheres into a perfectly simmering stew of funk. “Choreography” preserves the aquatic vibes but bumps the tempo up into space disco territory, complete with laser bleeps and Moroder-esque pads. It’s a mark of Armbridge’s craft that closing track “No Floor” - a searing motorik synth punk jam that recalls Suicide at their finest - sounds not at all out of place, but rather serves as a logical conclusion to this illogical picture. Stand, Scatter drifts across genres but never loses its focus on the unorthodox groove.

Next up on Rocky Hill is a limited edition, vinyl only white label, featuring 2 edits licensed from Terrestrial Funk and Darone Sassounian's compilation from 2021, and two original tracks from LA - based DJ and producer, Lara Sarkissian. The A side (Silk Road Side), features two previous exclusives from Darone's compilation on Terrestrial Funk titled, 'Silk Road: Journey of the Armenian Diaspora (1971 - 1982)'. The two edits on the A side were only available digitally, on CD, and Cassette formats. A1 features an edit of Marten Yorgantz's "Ammenain Serdov [De Tout Coeur]" from NY-based DJ duo, Fundido. A2 features an edit of Jozeph Sefian's "Karoun E Yegel" from Darone Sassounian. The B Side (Lara Sarkissian Side), features two original tracks sampling duduk (Armenian woodwind), songs - named as Lezginka Dance Scene and Ojakhum Nightmare. The tracks are reworks of the originals from 2016 - 2017, when Sarkissian began the creation of her own unique process of synthesizing duduk as percussion, bass and voice. Both tracks have been used in her early live sets from 2017 - 2018. They're finally available now only on vinyl. This is Rocky Hill.

Jauzas THE Shining - Mechatronica, Brokntoys, Shipwrec , Specimen

Jauzas the Shining was known as Adjust before taking that new alias - which is a salute to Kubrick's movie and the telepathy of his young character. Since 2001, he's one of the most active electro producers in France, with several solid EPs released on Shipwrec, Last Known Trajectory, Transient Force, New Flesh, Minimum Syndicat, Mechatronica or Brokntoys and collaborate with iconic artists like Heinrich Mueller, Orgue Electronique, Ekman, Shemale, Faceless Mind, Specimen, and Ultradyne. He shared the decks with the hall of fame of electro music.

From the 90s IDM influences, Jauzas The Shining is a deep odyssey into the cold groove of electro sounds, using his sickness on skyzophrenic beats from his electronic dark side.

Hidden in the shadow of this room, Jauzas looks himself in a broken mirror but he doesn't recognise himself, he doesn't remember..the only thing he knowns is that he's now on board the nautilus ship, deeper and deeper is an ocean of sounds ...Artificial lights, mechanical noise and metallic walls..He starts hearing these voices but he doesn't know who they belong to? Utilising his sickness on skyzophrenic beats and abstract electronic dark side, he became "Jauzas the shining" The mysterious and miraculous journey of Jauzas who spent his nights and days on Formentera. Here he conjures up a concoction of deep ocean meanderings and spellbound nights, underneath the shooting stars and radiant waters. Images of the past merged with future, becoming a collage of voices across projected shapes which make presence in their ghostlike form. This is another outing which explores the surreal and the abstract, which expressed though Jauzas's electro-musicalities with Specimen.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

It was maybe only a matter of time before DJs Luca Lozano and Dawl collaborated on a record, the two artists have been circling each other in orbit for years now. 'Cybernetik Synergy' plays on the virtual space created between the two producers while working online, the tracks on the EP were sketched out, passed back and forth in folders until they were finished...meaning the artists never actually met in person. The result is both bleepy and breaky, its a rave record that takes in the duo's influences and love of old classic dance hits. The theme of technocractic collaboration is developed further by the final (vinyl-only) track, a collection of separate stems from the A1 that enable the listeners to be able remix the tracks themselves and then send in to the label via the QR code on the sleeve.

Annie Hall returns to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit label with an EP entitledMemories That Never Happened. This record represents the producer's third time on CPU after 2016'sTenured Positionsand 2020'sFum, and it is also the latest release in a busy couple of years for Annie Hall which have also seen her drop EPs on 20:20 Vision, Orson Records and Random Island. The momentum Annie Hall has built up in recent times carries through to a dynamic collection of productions which bring enough heft in the beats to keep the dancefloor happy while also including all manner of details in the production.
Memories That Never Happenedbegins with the title-track, a twitchy yet wistful cut which perfectly matches its name. There's bite to the broken-beat electro pulse, growling bass and robotic declamations of "it's Annie", but the makeup of the track is simultaneously rather rose-tinted, particularly when some chemtrails of a synth lead enter later on. The overall effect is as thoughtful as it is stimulating, akin to the halcyon productions of Daniel Avery.
If 'Memories That Never Happened' is somewhat plaintive, following jam 'Problematic Tape Recorder' has the bit between its teeth from the get-go. The beat crashes and snaps, and when played off shimmering stabs of synth it all adds up to aWip3outrush that nods to both the old Rephlex Records sound as well as contemporary practitioners like Nightwave. Once again the synth lead is used lightly here, more an augmentation to the beat than the centrepiece - another demonstration of Annie Hall's ability to write with focus even when the overall intent is to move bodies in the club.
The energy of 'Problematic Tape Recorder' is spun in an unusual direction on 'Subsequent Experiments', the first track ofMemories That Never Happened's B-side. This cut may be the quickest on the record, but this does not mean it shouts the loudest. Indeed, 'Subsequent Experiments' may be the most ornate production here, full of shadowy sonics and a deconstructed beat running at D&B speed. A kind of shadowrealm version of Planet Mu's early drill & bass explorations crossed with UVB-76's darkside post-Metalheadz excursions, this one is an eerie thrill.
After the busy 'Subsequent Experiments', Annie Hall slows down to take the EP's home straight at mid-tempo. On 'Unparalleled Comfort', keyboard stabs slide over a rhythm that's at once driving enough for the dancefloor and nuanced enough to allow little half-melodies of synth to flit around above. It's a fitting closer for this EP, almost playing like an amalgamation of the elements which made the rest ofMemories That Never Happenedso appealing.
Annie Hall returns to Central Processing Unit withMemories That Never Happened, an EP of masterful productions which will delight both clubbers and home-listeners.
RIYL:µ-Ziq, Pessimist, Nightwave, Mark, Drexciya

Modern Power electronics...TIP!!

Philipp Matalla lives and works in the triangle of Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, in Germany. He has previously released music on labels such as Optimo Music, Kann and Kashual Plastik. His new album on Meakusma delves into some of the themes that have so far defined his work, this time increasing the tension between moments of musical harshness and flickers of introspection, ease and downright beauty. Matalla aims not for perfection, instead deploying the listener's sense of imagination. His work toys with the notion of abstraction in electronic music, often going as far cutting short melodic and other ideas, making for a confrontational stance unafraid of leaving his material in a state of difficult to define rawness, based on versatile ingredients equally rooted in rural and urban territory. Stakes is a gorgeous and gorgeously far out album, integrating elements of psychedelic rock and dub, blending in melodic ideas that are at times abstracted, at times soothing. It is pastoral music for the digital age, where raw bursts of noise and energy dislocate and set the record straight. There is even a croonerish feel to some of its tracks, croonerish from a distorted future that is. Stakes is an experience in eclecticism and musical logic. It dissolves structures and ideas and turns musically recognisable elements on their head.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

Xuntanza is a Galician word that means: The action of gathering a group of people to discuss an issue or have fun. And this is what it is the second volume of this Vvaa series. A meeting point for great artists discussing and having fun around Electro music. For this is the second chapter, we have brought four great artists from the Spanish electro scene to the table. Annie Hall, Boris Divider, Dark Vektor and Lefrenk are the artists in charge of this new release.

/dl/ms/ debuts on Mechatronica with a radiant blend of forward-thinking electro cuts and futuristic bass music.

The perfect chill out record from a once off collaboration between Drum Club’s Charlie Hall and Subsurfing’s Obi. It threads a fine line between balearic and drum n’ bass creating something remarkably unique. Originally released as an extremely limited run on Japanese label Paratone.

Dark night creatures creep through the tunnels and chambers in the abandoned sites of the former dwarven industry. Greenish-black energy flows through the empty halls as skeletons of the dead rise to dance, accompanied by the shaking of skulls, and the rattling of bones. Be warned, this spectacle is not for the faint of heart. Necromancy is an impressive school of magic, but also a dangerous one – it is better not to mess with necromancers.

K.O.P. 32, a studied alchemist of sound prepared this mythical and enchanting debut 12-inch filled with fast-paced tribal rhythm sorcery, psyish texture spells and mushroom spore acid.

Mana Abundance assumes no responsibility for zombifications, mummifications, or paralyzations. All claims for due compensation in silver are entirely excluded, including (but not limited to) shapeshifting processes such as converting into a werewolf or changeling. Under no circumstances should students of magic under the age of 18 attend the ceremony! Additionally, house elves and other magical creatures are to be kept away from this record.

Born and raised in the heart of the French Alps, and now residing in Paris, DJ Physical's sound is one of a harsh romance. Perhaps it was the beauty and serenity of the snow-covered mountain tops and the ferocious nature of French techno moulding together that spawned his 'Raw Poetry' aesthetic; an emotive blend of dark and light that feels like it could belong in concert halls and theatres as well as underground sex clubs.

Following an outing on Lobster Theremin's recent various artist fundraiser for Ukraine, and appearances on Rinse France and Running Out Of Steam, the Parisian local serves up five deadly cuts of brooding electro and techno. 'Not So Human' delivers the influence of trance on the contemporary techno soundscape, but doesn't over-do it. Trance-licked, not dominated, the uncompromising cut of wave-driven techno is the perfect accompaniment for when you want to take things up a notch. 'Sex Club' maintains DJ Physicals' fascination with 'Raw Poetry' - brimming with breaks-driven breakdowns, spinetingling atmospherics and low-pressure basslines that highlight the variety of influence the emerging producer brings to the table.

Acid synth-lines and lively trance-inspo create an altogether lighter mood as we flip the record on 'Mortal Dance', before 'Easy Dancer' changes its tune altogether with a pounding cut of progressive, freaky electronica.

Closing the release is 'Go Further' - misty electro, Southern-trap samples and those distinctive, high-culture ambient interludes creating a sense of emotive mystery. A well-rounded release with plenty of left-turns, this is DJ Physical's 'Raw Poetry' at its finest.

Damian Schwartz makes a welcome return to Pulp for his third full-length album, La Sal De Tu Especie. The 11 track record was written over the last three years as a way of coping with some tough experiences and features remixes from K15 and Gifted & Blessed. It once again finds the Madrid producer serving up the sort of richly musical house that has always stood him apart.

Schwartz has been away for a while but emerged in the early 2000s with an artful take on house music. As a student of jazz, composition and bass, his intricate grooves have always been embellished with real melodic craftsmanship. In the past, they have come on this label, Esperanza and A Harmless Deed which he co-runs with Jose Cabrera. He has put out two albums before now and also works under the Epiphany alias as a producer and live act. He is a real master of his analog machinery and someone who never fails to bring fresh ideas. This superbly adventurous and widescreen new album proves that once again and shows off diverse influences such as 90s broken beat by acts like Hanna and 4 Hero, the early IDM of LFO and Aphex Twin and the Detroit house and electro styles of greats such as Juan Atkins, Teknotika, Marcellus Pittman and Kyle Hall.

We’d spent our whole life in a dance of fear. And when we examine that, we realise that very often the thing we were frightened of wasn’t nearly as frightening as the fear.

Eira Haul returns to Edition Akasha to launch us into the ether by way of the “Star Vertigo” EP. Moving across a luminous range of otherworldly atmospheres, five tantalising original cuts strike a spellbinding balance between body-shaking euphoria and meditative mind-healing.

On the A-side, the garage shuffle and ultra-deep bass wobbles of “Ceramics” corrode beneath its hypnotic strings, while the fast-paced acid lines of “Anthracite” bubble and squeak over a choir of fallen angles. “Memory Rush” captures a similar tension as the engulfing dub chords at its centre ebb and flow on-top a muscular four-to-the-floor pulse to illuminate the darkest of nights.

The B-side is equally captivating: Like a gravitational collapse, the stellar melodies of “Incense Trip” break down into a void of razor-sharp percussion only to shine again in full effect thereafter. Lastly, Eira Haul sheds the black holes to ascend to catharsis with “Star Vertigo”: “We wanted to try to understand what the fear is [...] and whether that energy is something we can transform – is it our friend, is it our foe?” muses the voice on-top the tender bounce of the title-track’s lush framework, leaving us with a lofty sense of hope transcending this exceptional sophomore EP.

A1 Somber ambience and dark drones pair well with small, silent melodies and form this perfect teaser track by Ninze & Niju. A2 With their well-known ear for details, Ninze & Niju deliver the soundtrack for riding your skateboard through deserted downtown past midnight. A3 Another signature tune by genre-defining NInze & Niju, bringing together hushed drum patterns and filtered organs to this mind-boggling brain bender. B1 Not much time is wasted when rhythmic layers, driving arpeggios and moving percussion slowly unite to this hypnotic peak time beast to be unleashed by Ninze & Niju. B2 This pretty straightforward, yet hard-to-grasp track unfolds in too many layers to leave you calm - another twisted tune for bare feet in morning dew.

The Blackploid resurgence of recent years continues to gather steam. After laying dormant for some time, Martin Matiske's project roared back into life in 2021 with a pair of EPs for Central Processing Unit. It doesn't look like he'll be taking his foot off the gas any time soon - not only does the new Blackploid collectionPlanetary Sciencecomplete Matiske's hat-trick for the Sheffield label, but it also serves as a prelude to the full-length album which Blackploid will deliver on CPU in 2023.
If that LP is as good as the tracks we get here, then it's safe to say that we're on to a winner. This EP contains a quartet of top-tier machine-funk productions, the kind of crisp post-Drexciya joints we've come to know and love Blackploid for. Each track onPlanetary Sciencemakes good on the record's title by delivering club tackle flecked with FX which sound distinctly like spaceships blasting off into the cosmos.
There is also progression acrossPlanetary Science. While it still aims for the dancefloor,Planetary Scienceis a somewhat more textured listen than eitherStrange StarsorCosmic Traveler, Blackploid's previous CPU drops. Most notable is the increased use of synth pads, with Matiske draping chord progressions over all of these tracks in order to give his music a newfound depth.
Blackploid's subtle evolution is clear from the opening track. 'Dimension Unknown' may begin with a precision-engineered groove reminiscent of an early Legowelt joint, but things soon soften with the introduction of some rich keyboard chords. A few well-chosen bleeps and bloops flit in and out of the mix, but whereas some would use these to scuff up the track further here they are warm and playful.
The more confrontational stance of following cut 'Magnetron' makes it a yin to 'Dimension Unknown's yang. Blackploid works with similar tools here - machine-gun beat programming, chords playing off boinging bass - but there is a tension and buzz to the track which isn't apparent on its predecessor. The synths have a slight Eighties deep space thriller vibe about them, and the FX cut through the mix with more bite.
'Magnetron's energy carries through to 'Wire', the first track on thePlanetary ScienceB-side. Here a big, brutish bassline takes centre stage from the off, a chunk squarewave equal-parts Dopplereffekt and early Eskibeat. Around this swirls a queasy brew of synthesised tones, with the component parts all arranged in order to channel 'Magnetron's sense of unease.
Planetary Sciencecloses out with 'Neurotransmitter'. On this cut, Blackploid returns somewhat to where we started off, finding a midpoint between 'Dimension Unknown's more spacious feel and the livewire flavour of 'Magnetron' and 'Wire'. Tension remains, particularly when Matiske serves up one of the EP's snakiest basslines, but there's also a deftness to the synth pads here which makes 'Neurotransmitter' a little softer around the edges.
Blackploid limbers up for a forthcoming full-length on Central Processing Unit withPlanetary Science, an EP of stargazing electro joints that quietly expand the project's sonic world.
RIYL:Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, DMX Krew, I-F, Annie Hall

With a long time passion for music and a love of experimenting with new sounds Annie isn’t constrained by the same boundaries as others. Producing since 2005, she has released on labels such as Tresor (with ´Daughter Produkt´ proyect along Gerald Donald), 2020 Vision, Detroit Underground, CPU records, Delsin Records and now she continues the journey with Orson and we are over the moon.

Deka is the name under which we celebrate the tenth album released in the last six years of Sin Hilo. This time in vinyl format and with a compilation of the styles that unite us most: IDM, electro and rhythms taken directly from the dancefloor.

Seven unique tracks from some of our most special artists. Sölna, Atico Corp., Sound Synthesis, Not On Earth and Frank Jhonson join our family with sounds ranging from the smoothest electro to the most "macarras" beats. And once again, Promising Youngster and Jailed Jamie (aka Skygaze) are with us with their signature IDM.

Please welcome Barış Karademir, Istanbul's edit master, DJ, and musician with Insanlar on Live At Robert Johnson!

If you're a person that likes to get up late, Barış's first track »Noon« is the one for you. It sort of sets the mood for the whole EP with a groove that is deep and hypnotic and above all psychedelic. There's tremolo en masse plus these in and out fading voices that suck you into Mr. K's world - all kept together by this steady forward marching Barış beat. Pleasure, joy, and happiness - all in on groove - and not only effective at noon.

»La Dame Noir«'s most prominent feature is a mean bass line - plus more of those otherworldly sounds that Barış manages to pull out of his magician's hat while creating a superb shuffling riddim for all you dancers to shuffle along to, throwing in that oh so subtle triangle now and then.

With the last track »Valhalla«, Barış enters the mythological place of Asgard, where Valhalla, Odin's hall of the slain can be found in his Glaðsheimr castle. That kinda sounds a bit archaic and dark but don't be afraid: where there is shadow there is also light - light which can be heard in the first opening lines, lines that do sound a bit like played by our favorite shoegazer band "My Bloody Valentine". To get to Valhalla, Barış accelerates the tempo by a couple of beats, yet throws in all trademark ingredients to cook up a tune for peak time dancing in Valhalla … erm … I mean in the club.

So yes, please let us invite you to Barış K's wonderful world of sound - you won't regret it.

The perfect chill out record from a once off collaboration between Drum Club’s Charlie Hall and Subsurfing’s Obi. It threads a fine line between balearic and drum n’ bass creating something remarkably unique. Originally released as an extremely limited run on Japanese label Paratone.

"Every 4,044 years comet Calanhi enters the inner solar system, returning from its long and silent voyage through the Oort cloud. As it approaches perihelion, billions on Earth gaze into the night sky, transfixed by the celestial spectacle of their lifetime. While solar winds tear at the comet's surface, deep inside the glowing ball of ice, ancient machinery springs to life..." Over the past five years Daniel Lodig and Martin Sovinz aka /dl/ms/ have been continually commuting through the electro singularity, constructing their unique brand of fragile bass music from extradimensional sound salvage, and spreading their frequency patterns via the subspace channels of Frustrated Funk, Pomelo, and Trust. 'Calanhi' is the Viennese duo's debut album - 12 tracks that combine the eternally fresh aesthetics of Detroit-style electro with a relentless curiosity for rhythmic and harmonic experimentation. Seismic club thumpers like 'Invisible Bits', 'Mountains', and 'Trusted Funk' alternate with moody ambient interludes, boldly constructed beat inventions, and blissfully melodic acid breaks. Two collaborations further switch up the flow: Nigerian artist G.Rizo (Hezekina Pollutina, Deejay Gigolo) drops her cryptic rhymes on 'Divide & Conquer', and Spanish singer Xx Isis xX provides vocals for 'Accelerated Frequency'. Mastered by Keith Tenniswood aka Radiocative Man. Sleeves designed by dextro_org. Vinyl version ships with postcard and Bandcamp download code.

For more than a decade now, Fleck E.S.C. has marked himself out as one of the most playful and prolific producers in the electro game. Across dozens of releases for labels including Bass Agenda and Science Cult, the France-born, Japan-based artist has made his name through a production style which balances limber beats with exploratory textural work.
Fleck E.S.C. debuted on Central Processing Unit in 2018 with the Discrete Opinion EP. Now, after stopping by the Sheffield label last year on a Silicon Scally remix job, Fleck E.S.C. delivers his second EP for CPU in the form of Rough Silk. The record's intriguing title proves an apt introduction to this four-track affair. These cuts are at once sleek and abrasive, anchored by robotechnic machine-funk grooves yet also full of strange, shifting shapes.
The opening title-track expertly sets out Rough Silk's stall. Heralded by gurgling synths and all manner of whirring percussive tones, 'Rough Silk' blossoms around the minute mark with the introduction of a wickedly buoyant lead synth. This is music at once visceral and full of mystery, the sound of wending through the back alleys, and the feeling carries through to the following cut 'Hat in the Cat' - as the synth pads spool out overhead, the machine-funk snap of the beat has an almost aquatic quality that links it back to Drexciya.
Much like 'Rough Silk', the record's first B-side 'Faking Sweet' also shifts gears. The opening strains of the track seem to be preparing for another insistent, expansive broken-beat pulse, but it stiffens its neck around ninety seconds in. Programmed drums whirr around a jittery machine-gun bass while discordant synths pull at the edges of the track, all of which brings a strong dystopian energy that increases further as the percussion sounds become increasingly bug-eyed.
After so much excitement, 'Digger Play' closes out the EP with a softer touch. There's still plenty of low-slung bounce to the beat, but the track runs a little slower, and there's a warm wistfulness in the synths which gives 'Digger Play' a painterly, almost poetic feel. However, while it may take its foot off the gas, the production here is as deft as it is everywhere else on Rough Silk.
With new EP Rough Silk, electro whizz Fleck E.S.C. brings the sort of casual mastery to proceedings that has characterised his career to date.
Riyl: Silicon Scally, Jensen Interceptor, Annie Hall

With the success of The Vendetta Suite’s critically acclaimed debut album ‘The Kempe Stone Portal’ - Hell Yeah Recordings proudly present the remixes, featuring long-time friends and collaborators David Holmes and Timmy Stewart. The 90s in Belfast spawned friendships and connections made across the barricades; a time credited with some of the most important and significant cultural moments in the history of the city. Club-nights including the Art college, regularly played by David Holmes and Iain McCready helped to spawn a new generation of musicians and DJs looking to make their mark; Including both Gary Irwin (The Vendetta Suite) & Timmy Stewart.

There seems to be something in the water down in Hastings as a veritable hive of electronic music artists have been busy making beats in ever growing numbers down there - including Kim Cosmik. Kim's debut on 20/20 Vision is an impressive and highly original mix of techno, electro, broken beats and industrial sounds, destined to destroy the long-anticipated dance floor revival. Although overall the record is abrasive, hard-hitting and takes no prisoners - beneath the surface, in tracks like 'Drifting' we also find nuances of emotional musicality that shed vast streams of light on the proceedings. The record does indeed kick off with intent though with 'Night Flight' - a blistering techno workout that would resonate magnificently in the mighty Berghain hall. There's no holding back the menacing bass line, fortified tough jacking groove on this one as strong synth lines and strings embellish and complete the soundscape.Over to 'Ore' which cranks up the gears into an industrial techno slammer packed with abstract outer-planet sound design finished off with pounding overdriven drums programmed with military precision. On the flip side is a gem called 'Nocturnal'- this is the cut that first really caught our attention at 20/20 Vision, with it's merciless industrial dubstep kick drums and brutal precision. It's a simple, stripped back workout held in place beautifully by a discordant string - there's just no escaping this fierce ruling diva. Not for the faint-hearted but those who dare will be rewarded. Kim's final track 'Drifting' is the jewel in the crown that provides the light after the storm. It's a blissful, cosmic, jazz fused musical tapestry driven by break beats, while compassionate strings infused with Kim's own vocal harmonies and subtle piano motifs glisten and glide over the track adding soothing layers of harmonious quality. Drifting is the perfect close to a truly stunning debut EP.

Total turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If Total 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then Total 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first Total in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes Total 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of Total, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by Kollmorgen, remixed by Patrice Bäumel into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s Nicky Elisabeth, offering up Roman FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and Captain Mustache swoops down into view, Play Paul in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. Jonathan Kaspar also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to Michael Mayer’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. John Tejada reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers Voigt & Voigt, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, Jürgen Paape kicks Total 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, Sascha Funke seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE Bionaut returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. Robag Wruhme gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI Boratto mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from Michael Mayer, and Marc Romboy & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now Total’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favo

Total turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If Total 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then Total 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first Total in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes Total 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of Total, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by Kollmorgen, remixed by Patrice Bäumel into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s Nicky Elisabeth, offering up Roman FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and Captain Mustache swoops down into view, Play Paul in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. Jonathan Kaspar also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to Michael Mayer’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. John Tejada reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers Voigt & Voigt, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, Jürgen Paape kicks Total 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, Sascha Funke seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE Bionaut returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. Robag Wruhme gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI Boratto mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from Michael Mayer, and Marc Romboy & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now Total’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favo

(printed cardboard inner sleeve) Repress of “Politics” including Sébastien's masterpiece, the melody that everybody knows, "La Ritournelle". It features prominent drumming provided by Tony Allen.

Though the hallowed halls of Berlin’s nightlife excess now sit cold, the sounds that once haunted their depths beat ever onward, and colder still. Birthed in these hushed plaguelands, XTR HUMAN’s new full-length G.O.L.D evokes the frozen melancholy of a post-pandemic city, driven ever onward by the impetus of night’s primary currencies: sweat, release and change. The latest full-length from Johannes Stabel, G.O.L.D finds the German producer evolving as much as the rest of the world has had to. Taking his political and socially conscious lyrics into his native tongue brings a deeper and more powerful thrust to their weight—particularly at a time when Germany is weighing its own social consciousness after years of being seen as a leading world figure. Across G.O.L.D’s ten tracks, Stable brings our zeitgeist into a new realm, where the anger and frustration at our current existence is refined into the energy that fuels our engines, that primal desire always amplified during times of social upheaval—the desire to move your body. Many of the songs delve into Stabel’s own experiences as a German, from explorations of the Deutsch mentality of persistent fear to tackling the fake news, jingoism, racists and coronavirus deniers on hypnotic bangers ‘Dark Germany’ and ‘Dieser Klang’; issues just as prevalent in Germany as in the USA and UK. Yet each song carries just as much weight on to the dance floor, melding driving EBM bass with soaring synthlines and coldwave atmospheres that dispel the tenseness that such heavy topics imbue, in favor of intensity and beauty. Influenced by the pop hooks of Austrian New Wave legend Falco, G.O.L.D never neglects its danceability and HD club accessibility, no matter how heady the lyricism. ‘Starker Junge’, a dissection of toxic masculinity, drops down onto the listener with sparkling synths and razor-sharp guitar, while capitalist critique ‘Fleisch’ is a pogo synthpop anthem that could send any floor into a twirling frenzy. Wrapped in darkened beats and political ideals, G.O.L.D can’t hide the light that emanates from within its glistening, imminently catchy hooks and groove-laden rhythms. In a time where the dance floor sometimes seems like a distant memory, it’s the perfect philosopher’s metal to transmogrify your existence. All songs written and recorded by Johannes Stabel Mixing by Andrew Wiseman Arwork by Nicolas Zupfer Mastering at Dadub Studio Distributed by ReadyMade Distribution Braid Records 2021

Strange Echoes 95 - 99 is music that woke up yesterday bearing a message for tomorrow. Excavated from the late-90s and largely rematerialising for the first time on vinyl, the album carries a selection of sonic diamonds by bona fide sound experimenter Xingu Hill (John Sellekaers). The fully remastered tracks pull the curtain back two decades to offer a snapshot of a prolific five-year period in Sellekaers' expansive soundverse, which runs the gamut from brain-bending, emotive ambient outings to driving, acerbic industrial experiments. Timeless music for keeps in the age of disposables; a reference to early rave and trip-hop aesthetics that could just as very well be one music clairvoyant's nostalgia-inspired preview of things to come.

A download code is included. 9ms is the duo of Simon Popp and Florian König. On their wide ranging debut album ‚Pleats’ the tech-savvy drummers offer grooves from the dubbier realms of World Music and Krautrock - some meditative and light, some thick as wall and steady as a clock. The album was recorded live in a large wooden hall in the Bavarian Alps with only three microphones. Using various infrared and magnetic field sensors, Popp and König were able to translate their movements into control voltage, which they then used to trigger and tweak synthesizers and a myriad of effects. A way for two humans to become one with their mystic machinery.

Annie Hall once again proves why she is one of the most interesting producers right now, continuing to carve her own niche of future machine funk right in between techno, electro and IDM. Overturn delivers a razor sharp remix with plenty of attention to detail, while Inter Gritty closes the EP with some serious old school vibes.

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

Transparent yellow Colored Vinyl, 300gr mat cover, 150gr glossy under-cover, outer deluxe plastic printed sleeve with flap and a sticker to close. On the cult star’s sixth studio album, his first in five years, Tellier explores this topic in typically dreamy, lo-fi fashion. An airy, electronic adventure full of eclecticism and eccentricism, Domesticated is the French national treasure at his delightful best.

A download code is included. Slow, excruciating, hard techno cuts by a mysterious group of 3, called GLMG.

Still in shrink, but opened, with hype sticker

FaltyDL debuts on Unknown To The Unknown with 4 elektroid-freak-out jams for the headz. From tear-out drum work outs to IDM infused downtempo crackers. These show off Drew Lustman's very experienced but still fresh take on the production game.

Late Night Approach show their diversity by launching their side project simply called LNA. their love for IDM, broken beat and jungle comes full circle on this powerful EP. 4 UK influenced slamming steppers for all the dedicated ravers out there!

MUSCLES & HATE is an unnamed artist from Russia producing raw, pulsating EBM-inclined rhythmic techno. His second white label release on bore hole in 2018 was quickly sold out and is now getting a limited repress.

After more than a decade of deep, expansive productions on labels such as Detroit Underground and CPU, Annie Hall arrives on MUSAR for a record typically rich in texture and understated grooves. Indebted to vintage electro and IDM, Hall's music is no throwback, always looking forward and moving dancefloors in the most unexpected ways.

Deep space techno electro on TRUST celebrating the label's year XX. /DL/MS/ is the viennese duo behind recent Frustrated Funk outing, 'Omakuda', last year's TRUST29, 'Rogue Intent', as well as one of the most-played electro tracks of 2017 - their remix of Second Storey's 'Attack Of The Modlings'. 'Exit Ghosts' takes the /DL/MS/ sound far into haunted new orbits, trading some of its earthy rumble for more ethereal emanations. stark and sombre bass signals return, but find themselves enveloped in delicately threaded string anomalies, copious amounts of melodic ectoplasm, and spirit-like liquid funk dilutions. Vinyl 12" contains three locked grooves and ships in new TRUST XX color sleeves.

Number 2 of this 4 piece exclusive 12-inch series.

Bird Brains is a four song collection from Holy Fuck, recorded live at various studios over the past few years. They represent the ongoing creative process of a band whose members live in different cities (in both Canada and the US) yet insist their music should be a collaborative process. These four songs aim to capture the raw energy of four people, not apart as bedroom producers, but together as a spirited exchange of ideas, a dynamic interaction that comes from years of friendship. While Bird Brains was largely self-produced, a few very talented Engineers/Producers aided greatly in that process, including Shawn Everett (John Legend, Warpaint, Alabama Shakes), who recorded the song “Chains” at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and David Wrench (Caribou, FKA Twigs, The XX) who mixed the song “New Dang”. The cover image was designed by long time friend Seth Smith, visual artist, film maker, and musician from Nova Scotia. As the band describes, “the image is quite gross and beautiful, natural and artificial all at the same time, which we feel best represents how we hear our music.”

Don´t confuse radio silence with inactivity. The music might not have been flowing, but the plans were at Schrodinger´s Box HQ. And finally, after a shedload of work; we´re back to the music. Anton Maiovvi is well known in the right circles. This Bristol born soundtrack virtuoso, italo disco savant and all round electronic guru has travelled labels far and wide with his smorgasbord sound. And that variety is plain to hear on Will to Powder. From the epic opener of “Clocks”, Maiovvi leads you through his labyrinthine hall of shapes and sounds. Expect warming melodies, cold beats, shimmering synthwork, brazen experimentation, a decent dollop of slasher scores and a pinch new wave romance in this. Undoubtedly his most diverse album to date.

2022 repress

L'Aventura arose from the Brazilian heat and the French romanticism. This is the history of Sebastien Tellier’s fantasy childhood in Brazil, arranged by the local cult figure Arthur Verocai. A wild mixture of love, dreams, sun and landscapes.

"For this album I wanted to rewrite my childhood. I chose to place this adventure in Brazil, land of splendour and joy, with an eternal childish soul." Sebastien Tellier

The recording produced by the artist took place between Paris and Rio de Janeiro during the year 2013. These adventures brought him into Jean-Michel Jarre’s, Bernard Estardy’s, and Philippe Zdar’s (Cassius/Phoenix) studios.

L’Aventura is a record of shores stretching in an everlasting restart. Naive art carried by an openheart and childish vision of the creation, close to his classic Sexuality (2008).

Copy closer to NM

2022 Reissue of this split electro Mini-LP originally released on 2009.

Clear translucent editon. Unplayed and in opened shrink. Only opened to check colour.

2001’s »Anima« was the third album released by Sasu Ripatti under his Vladislav Delay moniker and marked a turning point in the stylistic development of the prolific producer. Clocking in at roughly 62 minutes, the single piece draws on dub aesthetics while working with Musique concrète-like methods through the liberal use of samples to create a dreamlike logic. Muffled voices, lush chords, subtle rhythms and indefinable sound events are not so much integrated into a composition with a predetermined outcome but rather engage with each other freely in a constant sonic flow, forming constellations in one moment before moving on to connect with other elements in the next one. »Anima« marked the first time Ripatti was using a DAW in his working process, creating a piece constantly in motion that subtly evolves over time. This vinyl reissue on the German Keplar label follows up on the 20th anniversary edition of 2000’s »Multila« and will be complemented by a ten-minute long version of the original piece, previously only available on the CD version released by the artist on his own Huume label in 2008.

After the release of his »Ele« and »Entain« albums in 1999 and 2000, respectively, Ripatti took the 1998 independent movie »Hurlyburly« as a conceptual starting point to experiment with different gear and production methods. »Until then I had worked with an old Msq-700 Midi sequencer and an Ensonic Eps16 sampler/sequencer that had one or two MB of sampling memory and mixed the music live on a Mackie, which was very limiting arrangement-wise,« says Ripatti. Loading a slightly shortened version of the film into his DAW however allowed him to play along to it with the DrumKAT Midi controller, triggering and playing all the sounds that can be heard on »Anima« while also contributing synths, bass and other sounds during repeated playthroughs before mixing a total of six stereo tracks together. »This way, after I had edited out most of the few parts that had music in them, I was in the movie; almost like an extra character playing music,« explains Ripatti. »This was certainly the most organic way in which I have ever made music, and I have never again approached another record like this.«

While »Anima« sounded like an unusual Vladislav Delay record at the time of its release, it also prefigured many of the developments Ripatti would go through in the course of his long career. Combining visceral immediacy with a sense of abstraction, it is far more than a mere missing link in his discography but rather a conceptually and musically outstanding piece of work that remains as engaging as it was 21 years ago.

Limited Edition.
Yellow Clear Vinyl.
Record is close to NM.

Axodry was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1983 , the founding members were Talla 2xlc and RaHen aka Ralf Henrich. The first release Feel It Right was a success (see also Sound of Frankfurt ). RaHen and Talla 2xlc composed and programmed the debut song in RaHen's home studio . The Westside label made the final production possible in Axel Henninger's Dynaton Studio. There RaHen later produced the songs Surrender and The Time Is Right as well as many other songs and bands for Westside with Axel Henninger . At times Kurt Ader and Alexander Maurus were part of the band. The Music Hall concert in Frankfurt am Main took place in this line-up.

Re-Issue, originally released in 1986. Limited edition! It also includes a secret insert!

Blue vinyl

Blue vinyl

Vinyl close to VG+