Malka Tuti presents the solo debut EP by Andrei Rusu, one half of Khidja. Ahead of a full LP planned on MT for later this year, Rusu is presenting us with 2 fresh new tracks. The A-side is a 120bpm dirty and distorted super- trippy banger for the biggest floors and the darkest rooms. On the B-side Rusu collaborates with an artist known to the followers of the label – Decha, who contributes her signature expressive vocals on this half time industrial dub track. This time however, the vocals run through the hands of Rusu who soaks them with distortion and even more punk attitude. Comes with proper tripped out remixes from Philipp Otterbach and Black Merlin.
In 1994, UK ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate recorded their landmark Equator album. To mark the 30th anniversary of this musical milestone, many of the same personnel – Roger Horberry (co-founder of O Yuki Conjugate), Dan Mudford (ex-Sons of Silence and co-creator of the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack), Joe Lamb (ex-Sons of Silence) and Malcolm McGeorge – came together to make New Meridian, reflecting the range of influences they’ve picked up over the intervening years. Generously described as “almost like normal music”, the eight tracks of New Meridian feature instrumentation ranging from classic analogue to actual wooden logs. The result takes you on a rain-drenched, open-top ride from Electronica Avenue to the drone caverns of Uranus, with various Fourth World ambi-dub diversions along the way.
Viernulvier Records presents its new LP release ‘Quadric Surfaces’ by iconic electronic producer Hieroglyphic Being aka Jamal R Moss. It collects the soundtracks Moss wrote for ‘Parallel Spheres’ & ‘Figures in Mynd’, two parts of an abstract animation film by visual artist Gabriela González Rondon. The film premiered in October 2023 during Videodroom / Film Festival Ghent.
Munich label Ilian Tape has another entry in its fine ITX Series here called ‘Biospore Farmers’ from Fields of Mist, describing it as “Sunrise Beams Through Orbital Mist.” In less abstract terms, it is a gorgeously hazy and lo-fi electro-exploration. The first two cuts are slow, doleful and reflective with grainy pads and deep space ambiance swirling around nice rough-edged broken beats. The B-side picks up the pace with the brilliantly kinetic bounce of ‘Astral Projection Spores’ and then the skittish and celestial trip that is ‘Orbital Mist’.
Sahrawi singer-songwriter activist Aziza Brahim’s fifth album Mawja (Wave in Hassaniya Arabic) is fashioned from a simple but powerful foundational palette: Saharan and Iberian percussion entwining with stately guitars and warm, enveloping bass. The album is co-produced by Brahim with long-time collaborator Guillem Aguilar.
The Debut Album “Latin Freaks” by Funkool Orchestra is finally out. Get ready for another dose of Neapolitan Funky Disco Boogie madness with a Latin touch. The Long Playing is a mixture of Rare Grooves, Napoli Sound, Disco Boogie, Latin Soul and Boogaloo, ideal for a trip to Nueva York and back to Naples just to say hello to your Puertorican uncle Manolito “Gennaro” Marròn.
Island style electronic dub from the Mad Professor. Originally released in 1985 on the same Ariwa imprint. True D.I.Y. business from this UK dub pioneer.
This Dutch music project was created in the late 1980s by two graphic designers, Edwin Van Der Laag and Huib Shippers, who were in love with electronic music. Their debut album is divided into two parts, the first with Edwin’s music and the second with Huib’s. Obviously Van Der Laag’s songs are inspired by Laserdance, for which Van Der Laag also designed album covers, however Shippers’ part is slightly different, less aggressive, trance-inducing. This is the first part of the album and is the first vinyl reissue of this album since its first appearance.
In addition to Eluard’s LP ‘Dirty Hall’ Slow Motion Label head, Fabrizio Mammarella and Napoli-based Altieri bring their revered sounds to remixes of ‘Comic Bad’ and ‘Phonemes’.
Klasse Wrecks continues its expedition through the wilderness of early 2024 with with a unique 4 tracker from Bufo Bufo. Distilling all styles and influences into one record, ‘Beelzebufo’ sees the producer capture rare species of electro, breakbeat and mangled rave together…resulting in a supernatural sonic hybrid. Play with caution…the sounds you hear maybe devastating to your ear.
Steve Bug reunites with frequent collaborator Cle for the three-track ‘It Just Happened EP’ on Nu Groove. ”It Just Happened” features breathy synths and acidic loops that harken back to an era of underground house, immediately nostalgic yet forward thinking in its technique.
The second part of Boo Williams’ double release on Sushitech’s sub label Pariter, ‘Day Rise’, is definitely more upbeat of the two but it’s a subtle distinction – it’s certainly not full of 4AM bangers designed to keep you awake until the busses start running again. ‘Talley Up’ is a very straight forward affair, circling around a two note synth riff and gradually building percussion. ‘The Take Over’ is similarly spritely, another builder with crashing cymbals, jazzy chords and drum machine tumbles steadily building an insurmountable wall of funkiness. Breezy, bumping closer ‘Teleport’ completes the set, meaning three ultra-handy, raw but sophisticated tunes that house and techno DJs alike will find slipping into their sets with a natural ease.
Chicago second generation house hero Boo Williams joining the roster with a two-part release for Sushitech’s sub label Pariter. The first part, ‘Night Fall’, features three tracks, all of which fit the mold of early evening classics. ‘Acid Matrix’ has an early Detroit feel to its raw machine handclap snares and panther-like, stalking bassline, while ‘Deep Tech’ might be geographically closer to late 80s, early 90s Yorkshire, a compulsive funkiness emerging from its bleepcentric soundscape. ‘Service Chamber’ is sleeker and more mellow, telephone dial tones spiralling off into the ether while tinkling, xylophone-sounded keys play hypnotically. Choice, quality material that will help any DJ to subtly pick the pace up as the sun falls.
Goettingen’s long standing dub techno servant XDB takes us to Chicago At Midnight with this new 12″ on Pariter. ‘Fenders’ is one and is a deliciously elastic rhythm with rolling kick drums setting a hypnotic groove as the bubbly synths rise up through the mix. ‘Cagomi’, more edgy and amped up with gritty hits and swaying bass, gets a new lease of life after first surfacing on XDB’s Metrolux Music back in 2009. The same cut gets a remix from Delano Smith that’s more rooted to the floor in the Detroit man’s usual textbook style.
DirtybLends edition is another 3 track release combining 3 different ideas together from heavy Jakbeat to old school slower style tracks of the label: Chicago Underground to early 80s proto-house instrumentals of Boyd Jarvis. The A siDe kicKz oFF wit the return of kincaid presenting a daRk n meNaciNg composition played n created wit bLood n sweat behind the vintage music boxes to come with this 12 minute riPPer of beauty entitled: Circuit Collapse. The 1st production on the B-side comes from new member of The Klan of The Beatheadz: Cliff Solomon on this production the caT honors the timeless work of the originator Boyd Jarvis & Timmy Regisford from 1985 on next plateau. Developing drum and bassline ideas with elevated drama and deepest respect for the true pioneers of the underground. The final tune on Dirtyblends 11 on the B side is a collaboration from The Jak and Lex Lathan recorded at Nation HQ presenting their idea to keep the spirit of the early releases on Chicago Underground that were produced more slower in style entitled: The CaLL {oN tHe EdgE}
DirtybLends edition 10 is a Chicago slab of ruff business. The A-side comes from new member of The Klan of The Beatheadz, Grizzly Knuckles with ‘Caviar’ an influential continuation concept from the early days of trax records for 1 of the nastiest productions to come from The Sensuous Man & Woman Goes Disco laying on top of a drum machine rhythm that gets to the heart of the cut and the message. The B-side comes from the leader of The Klan of The Beatheadz: The Jak himself re-creating the drum rhythm of Jesse Saunders with his Kpr machine from scratch, then applying influential sounds from his keyboard to sound like DJ Rush from his proto release on relief records by creating a new blueprint for Jakbeat CHICAGO style of slam dance and mosh pit chaos that happened at The Reactor or Medusa’s (for those who remember)
Since 2019, Amsterdam-based curator Pieter Jansen has used his yeyeh label as a vehicle for carefully considered (and sometimes unlikely) ‘first time’ collaborations between different experimental and avant-garde artists. The idea of getting saxophonist/composer/producer Jerzy Maczyński in the studio with Chicagoan DJ/producer Hieroglyphic Being was the genesis of this record, the debut album by Universal Harmonies & Frequencies. In June 2022, Hieroglyphic Being flew to Amsterdam to spend five days improvising with Maczyński in a rented studio beneath Volkshotel, under the watchful eye of recording and mix engineer Rein De Sauvage Nolting, better known in electronic music circles for his work as RDS. During those sessions, 26 long, improvised compositions were recorded, with Maczyński contributing saxophones and electronic tools, and Hieroglyphic Being laying down synthesizer parts and vocals. These sessions were captured on film by VLF (Katarzyna Debska), who later created the artwork and visual language for this record release. Some days after the recording sessions, Sauvage Nolting – who had delivered artistic input during the improvisations – sat down with Jansen to select 13 pieces to put forward for the album and a loose conceptual framework. It was then that the hard work began. While a decision was taken to present some improvisations in full, most of what you will hear on Tune IN, as the album is titled, is based on fragments of improvisation. The resultant pieces were reconfigured, re-worked and re-produced by Maczyński and Sauvage Nolting over many months, and in discussion with Hieroglyphic Being. Maczyński added more layers of instrumentation, creating a “whole digital band of reed instruments” – a method he previously utilized on Sariani. What you hear when you play the record defies categorization. It is rooted in a specific moment in time and the spontaneity of musical improvisation – both Maczyński and Hieroglyphic Being are experienced improvisers, albeit with different musical instruments and tools – but also the product of extensive post-production and reflective re-shaping. It is not free-jazz, ambient, electronica, rhythmic cubism (as Hieroglyphic Being’s distinctive sound has previously been called), or avant-garde experimentalism, but something that combines all these musical approaches and more, with a sprinkling of far-sighted futurism mixed in. It is a magical and mystical meeting of musical minds that will pass the test of time in decades to come.
Larry Manteca’s Zombie Mandingo album arrived back in 2013 and in the danced plus has only ever been available digitally. Now it makes its debut on wax and remains a bold listen that was devised as a soundtrack to a non-existent exploitation film. It fuses funk, jazz, and Afrobeat influences with plenty of niche cinematic references such as the zombies in Lucio Fulci’s horrors and Umberto Lenzi’s cannibalistic adventures. The resulting mash up is beguiling to say the least with horror-tinged exotica next to Fela Kuti rhythms and elements of Italian Library music and colourful psychedelia. A boundary pushing work to say the least.
The Hipodrome Of Music 