Transdisciplinary NYC artist Gavilán Rayna Russom beautifully comes into her own with a distinguished solo debut album statement including the voice of Cosey Fanni Tutti and brass arrangements by downtown legend Peter Zummo. After decades exploring her sonic personality in various projects inspired by her deep immersion in NYC’s club and avant-garde scenes, Rayna uses ‘The Envoy’ as a vessel to firm up and convey her personal conclusions on intersections of gender and electronic music.
Private Records is back with the archives of SONY Music and the library archive of Ambros Seelo. The German musician Ambros Seelos recorded this psychedelic Disco, Afro Funk and Jazz magic during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Following his debut 12” “Human”, Armonics teleports back to the Slow Motion mothership with his debut mini-album: Nuovi Orizzonti. Dreamy, lo-fi fuzz emanates from cassette tape and vintage circuit boards to synthetic travel music that will jettison you into outer space. Strap in. Tune out.
VARME003 switching tempos a bit with three powerful and mysterious tracks from Uruguayan rising star Cosmonaut aka Federico Jorcin. Varme is an electronic music label based in Bucharest, founded and curated by Paul Popa.
Since 2015 Reedale Rise’s refined strand of electro and techno has quickly established him as one of the most inventive artists operating in the current crop of machine manipulators coming out of the UK underground. Liverpool-based producer Simon Keat has released a prolific body of work under the alias in a short space of time, notching up appearances on crucial labels such as Frustrated Funk, Hizou, Where We Met and many more besides. With a sound indebted to the early wave of UK techno artists like B12, the electro experimentation of Silicon Scally as well as Detroit forefathers such as Drexciya and Model 500, it’s not hard to see why Reedale Rise makes perfect sense on Ornate. Technically astounding and emotionally charged, across all three tracks ORN027 marries shimmering, hi-def synth lines with crisp rhythms spanning 2-step shuffle, broken beats and understated techno propulsion.
Maaco from Detroit and Overdose from RotterHague had some time in the studio together and here’s what came out, somewhat old somewhat new somewhat slew. Grischer from Cologne takes all the girls home, and makes them program beats.
Under the E.R.P. alias, Gerard Hanson has been making some of the finest intergalactic electro known to humankind since the tail end of the 1990s. His catalogue is meaty and some of his older, out-of-press records are now frustratingly hard to find – hence this tidy double-pack from Frustrated Funk. It includes all three tracks from Hanson’s 2007 label debut, “Vox Automaton” – the body-popping brilliance of the title track, the Drexciya style underwater trip of “Nerve Play” and the deep electro lusciousness of “Parfume Persuasion” – as well as the trio of cuts originally released on the “Alsoran” from the same years. These are arguably even better, with the melodious, cinematic and futuristic title track, and wonderfully poignant “Irma” standing out.
We were very excited when, somewhere between July/August, we heard about Ombra festival and soon after we bought the tickets for the festival.
This was actually the first extended edition of the festival, since last year they just had a party in a club with 500 people, so we must consider ourselves really lucky for taking part in this.
Disco Morato and Gegen Mann are Moscow based DJs and sound producers. By playing their music they try to touch the darkest aspects of human emotion expressing an atmosphere of body-control. Apart from DJing they produce music and signed to UK-based NEIN Records. And as a collaboration, they founded imprint “Maxima Culpa Records” to develop their specific sound and vision of music. This release is also the result of their collaboration. There are 10 tracks created with total freedom to experiment with sound.
The second installment in the Gravitational Waves series, The Belligerents Vol. 2 puts the label’s experimental and always forward-thinking sound on display. This time, label head Dj Nephil and his slew of machines take to Side A, alongside the mysterious System Disorder, and Swordsmith who delivers us a slice of raw, industrial action in the form of Autorobo. Hannibal III makes his return to the label, sharing Side B with some exciting names – Diana Berti – the alias of Violet Poison, and Anna Funk Damage. Gravitational Waves is back with a vengeance.
Tel Aviv born, Berlin based duo TV.OUT make their Dark Entries debut with a 6-track EP titled ‘Dust Till Dawn’. Doron Mastey Charly & Ori Itshaki have made a name for themselves the past few years putting on impressive live sets, DJing around the world, and running Parallax Records releasing various strains of rugged, well informed electronic music.
The clouds pile up in the Dresden autumn sky, but Uncanny Valley still sees a little bit of blue on the horizon. And why not looking on the bright side of life for a change? It’s appropriate. At least if you have five killer tracks in your bag. Anyway, the collaboration with the Leipzig graphic designer Doppeldenk proved to be very fruitful and has now produced the fourth of seven children. So, after PINK, RED and ORANGE, here is BLUE. May life be good to you. The record opens with the aptly titled, Chicago-inspired ‘Mind Trip’ by Credit 00, the Aldous Huxley from your neighborhood. The Leipziger takes you on a journey on your own nerve pathway with occasional stops at the hottest spots in your body. Local buddy Gnista is piling up layer by layer for the UK meets Electro affair that is ‘Playtime Worktime’. It’s an atmospheric monster that needs to be climbed first. But as soon as this is done, a fresh breeze blows around your nose. In ‘Brecht Hat Er’, the mysterious Dresden underground formation AGB spreads wisdom in staccato mode, accompanied by Cold Wave-like music, which could also have been created in the shadows of the Berlin Wall. After a long time of hiatus, there is also a sign of life again from Uncanny Valley’s Break SL, who proves with ‘Bye Bye 627’ that he still masters the art of producing House music that is as edgy as it is catchy. In similar veines comes ‘In Treansit’ from Qnete who channels the ghosts in his machines into an emotional and powerful House track.
Jerome Hill, the man synonymous with the UK Underground for a couple of decades now arrives on DEXT with this 4 track EP and shows just why he is one of the country’s most underrated talents. The Super Rhythm Trax / Don’t Records boss really flexes his muscles on these heavyweight offerings – effortlessly blending super sharp drum programming with his signature “acidic bleeps and breaks” style, delivering 4 clever-yet-no-nonsense jams to make you move for a long time to come.
Undersound returns with a four tracker of restless acid sketches with one of our favourite contemporary Detroit producers, Jared Wilson. As the title “Roland Acid Again” suggests, the EP is a homage to the classic synthesizers that defined electronic music. The EP kicks off with “Always Something” and “Roland Acid Again”, where acidic lines are interlaced with signature Roland drums to convey different moods. Side B showcases a more reflective side of Wilson’s sound, with “Peanutbutter Halloween Saltmix” and the more direct “Nov 27” which closes the EP with its squelchy melodies.
Four sublime electronic cuts from Bokhari mainstay Stephen Lopkin and label newcomer Donarra spanning Techno, Electro and Ambient.
Form is Vision is a collection of music unified by the same vision but not by the same form. It’s the vision making the form, without being influenced by the form itself. Here, visionary electronic artists as Afrikan Sciences and Juju & Jordash meet cross over jazz bands like Hobby Horse and Where is Mr. R?!. The music was compiled by Autre & Two Thou, whose productions here form a bridge across different moods. The result is a synergistic leap away from genre-bound music.
The Hipodrome Of Music 