Five years on since their last joint outing in Stroboscopic Artefacts Monad series, Speedy J and Lucy team up again as Zeitgeber on ‘Seventeen Zero Four’, a new three-tracker descending deep into the filthy, tenebrous outskirts of club music.
Mozhgan b2b Solar @ Ambient Goodbye 25.10.2019
VA – Air Texture Vol.7 [AIR007LP]
Since launching in 2011, James Healy’s Air Texture label and compilation series has become something of an institution within the ambient scene. As with its predecessors, the seventh volume in the series has been jointly compiled by two artists with an existing musical relationship, in this case Rrose and Silent Servant. Their selections are on point, drowsily drifting between academic ambient compositions (see Rrose and James Fei’s “For Bass Clarinet 8.97 (Rrose Version)”, uncomfortable electronic explorations (Ron Morelli, Anthony Child), modular movements (Not Waving), jazz-flecked deep space soundscapes (Luke Slater), horror-influenced throb-jobs (Phase Fatale, June & An-i) and 1990s style ambient electronica (Octa Octa, Function).
Fotoplastikon – Kontury [ENDILLP01]
Poland, early 80’s. Lieutenant Miosz Szwajcer is assigned to the young student’s murder case. Struggling with his personal life and unclear releationship with recently murdered young woman, he tirelessly chases the psychopathic killer. Things are darker than they seem. Strange things soon begin to occur. He must decipher the reality from his delusions, phantoms and supernatural phenomenons. Pieces of the puzzle indicate that the new violent crime is being planned. The race against time is on. Original score from obscure Polish movie ‘Kontury’ (1984), directed by Lucjan Kut. Remastered from the original tapes.
Traxx – Studio Insert 4: Sanctuary
Carl Finlow – Apparatus [VIS317]
Carl Finlow returns with a double vinyl 8 track album on 20/20 Vision. ‘Apparatus’ is a forward thinking album that reflects Finlow’s return to live touring with many tracks hitting harder and darker, pushing his electro sound into new directions and soundscapes. The album means business from the start, kicking off with the title track, ‘Apparatus’, a no-nonsense assault on the system with fast tight drum programming, heavily vocoded vocals and powerful synths. The pace continues on the record with ‘Bind’ and ‘Carbon Deposits’, Structure’ but there are also pure electro cuts like ‘Differential’ and moody grooves in ‘Ampere’ and ‘Viroids’.
214 – Si View EP [CE034]
214 back on Cultivated Electronics with his first full release for the label. 4 tracks of heavy hitting electro delivered with the style on finesse this bastion of the scene is known for.
Versalife – Cosmic Language [TRUST037]
TRUST returns with four cutting-edge transmissions by Versalife (aka Delsin’s Conforce). Classic and experimental electro meet high-impact techno for a hefty dose of panglossian optimism.
Paris – I Can Feel It [OMAGGIO-011]
From ”Tomorrow” and back to plus thirty years, more precisely in 1987, a teenager named Thomas Barnett released the track ”I Can Feel It” mixed by Juan Atkins, one of the first mix by who became the main DJ and producer from Thomas’s hometown, Detroit. Today ”I Can Feel It” is a very hard to find record that finally will be available for an official reissue via Omaggio.
Fear-E – Grey Skies In A Dear Green Place [DE271]
Fear-E makes his Dark Entries debut with ‘Grey Skies In A Dear Green Place’. Fear-E is the moniker of Scott McKay a Glasgow based DJ and producer. ‘Grey Skies In A Dear Green Place’ contains six club-ready tracks to “smash sound systems and illuminate sweaty warehouses.” The title is a reference to a nickname that Glasgow has, coming from Cumbric, means ‘green hollow’ or (dear) ‘green place’. Layering cut-up vocals with warm thumping beats, Scott creates a stripped-back yet deeply jackin’ vibe.
Melanie Havens @ HÖR (Berlin) 26.02.2020
SΛRIN @ HÖR (Berlin) 06.02.2020
VA – Auricular Discipline II [BOUND003]
New York’s Bound presents the second compilation, Auricular Discipline II. All proceeds from the album go towards the Sex Workers Project, which provides resources and legal aid to sex workers. “We believe sex work is inherently intersectional, at the core of human rights, as well as one of the most limited, overlooked and vulnerable communities,” promoter and label Bound says in a statement. The compilation features new tracks from the likes of Black Meteoric Star, Dax J, Gavilán Rayna Russom, P.E.A.R.L., Terence Fixmer, Bound resident Katie Rex and more.
E-Bony – Digital Tsunami 175
Kris Baha @ HÖR (Berlin) 25.02.2020
VA – FAKE1-THE ABSENCE [FAKE#1]
The first release on FAKE imprint is a nice VA compilation of 10 wave, electronix and ambient tracks.
European Festivals in 2020
2020 is definitely not a good year for artists, clubs, festivals or arts in general. Because of the lock-down generated by the Covid-19 pandemic clubs are closed and festivals are canceled every week. Sadly, two of the most interesting electronic music festivals had last year their last edition, Nachtdigital near Leipnitz and Strange Sounds From Beyond in Amsterdam. But, here are the electronic music festivals that we recommend this year in Europe. Hopefully the lock-down will not close this summer and some of these festivals will go on.
VA – Uzelli Elektro Saz [13242/13243]
Uzelli Kaset was established in 1971 by Muammer and Yavuz Uzelli in Frankfurt, Germany. Their music resonated not only with the longing that Gastarbeiter (guest workers) felt for the homelands and families they had left behind and the melancholy brought by their difficult living and working conditions in Germany, but also with the joy that welled up at village weddings on their days off, and the long car or train journeys home. Reaching the remotest corners of Germany as well as Turkey, Uzelli Kaset was soon more than just a music company; it became a companion to Turkish workers living far from home.
Victor Cavini – Japan [BEWITH076LP]
The first Be With foray into the archives of revered German library institution Selected Sound is the super in-demand Japan from Victor Cavini, originally released in 1983. Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that never turn up. With Daibutsu the giant Buddha of Kamakura’s presence gracing the hefty front cover, this is a record bursting with dope samples for adventurous producers: it’s koto-funk madness. Victor Cavini was the library music pseudonym of prolific German composer and musician Gerhard Trede. He was known for exploring instruments and styles from around the world (he played over 50 different instruments himself) and Japan is his collection of 14 musical sketches painted with traditional Japanese wind and string instruments. These are the sounds of traditional Japanese folk music re-interpreted through Western ears, with the occasional contemporary twist. Contemporary for 1983, of course.
The Heliocentrics – Infinity Of Now [MMS037LP]
The UK’s cosmic, psychedelic-funk ensemble issue their first album on maverick producer Madlib’s label, Madlib Invazion. The Heliocentrics’ albums are all confounding pieces of work. Drawing equally from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone, the sublime fusion of David Axelrod, Pierre Henry’s turned-on musique concrète, and Can’s beat-heavy Krautrock, they have – regardless of the label on which they’ve released their music – pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia, one that could only come from a band of accomplished musicians who were also obsessive music fans. Drummer Malcolm Catto and bassist Jake Ferguson are the Heliocentrics’ masterminds and producers, and they are obsessive weirdos in today’s musical climate, searching, progressive humans who are often out-of-time with current trends. They have been playing together for nearly two decades and their collective drive is to find an individual voice. The Heliocentrics search for it in an alternate galaxy where the orbits of funk, jazz, psychedelic, electronic, avant-garde and “ethnic” music all revolve around “The One.” With Madilb’s label Madlib Invazion for Infinity of Now, the Heliocentrics have returned to develop their epic vision of psychedelic funk, while exploring the possibilities created by their myriad influences, Latin, African, and more.
The Hipodrome Of Music 