Intuitive analog Electronix by the by the talented Alberta Balsam, one of Rotterdams upcoming talents.
Alberta Balsam – 15 Billion Elektrovolt [DUB050]
album
Levon Vincent – Work In Progress [NS-47]
Levon Vincent returns with his fifth studio album, titled Work In Progress, the follow up to 2022’s Silent Cities cassette release. Progress sees the dub techno and NY house auteur throw away any overarching concept, apart from the idea that it must move you. Work In Progress is a collection of club ready jams that form the latest productions from Levon’s incredibly prolific run of 12”s he’s pressed on his own label Novel Sounds, directly for the next weekend’s sets. Rather than his previous albums presenting a finished story, his fifth presents a diarist’s work in progress, his latest club constructions, many raising the BPM to 140 to reflect the faster pace of his latest DJ sets.
Dolphins – 40G [PBD22]
Pinkman’s resurrection of its Broken Dreams series is marked by a release of Dolphins – Benedikt Frey’s project with Markus Woernle and Nadia D’Alo. 40G evokes landscapes of doom, disorienting pleasure, and the surreal visions that occupy a sleepless night; the soundtrack to a Lynchian fantasy about the creatures that haunt the murky waters of the modern mind. It’s an album for finding yourself on a stranger’s couch, tearing at the fraying edges of another endless night, wrapped beneath a blanket of drugged-out kraut.
Khidja – Transmissions Part 1 [MTLP0012a]
MTLP0012 ‘Transmissions’ will be divided into two separate releases – Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1, presented here, is released in June, while Part 2 will be released in the 2nd half of September 2023. The album was written and produced by Khidja over the last several years. Part 1 consists of 5 gems showcasing the diversity in the Romanian duo’s production – from shuffle to slow mow, to ‘chugging’ to new age 4th world…
MGUN – From Time To Time [HMR-001]
Hold Me Recordings is Manuel Gonzales and Ryan Spencer and their objective is to maintain a constant flow of releases from local artists from Detroit. The first release comes from Manuel Gonzales under his MGUN guise. “From Time To Time” is an album with eight techno-electro tracks.
Teslasonic – Foundation LP [MR033]
Foundation is set in the future when the world is barely remembered and humans have colonized the galaxy. The record introduces Donnie Ozone, a brilliant visionary rapper and psychohistorian whose job is to use lyrics and rhymes to predict the future. It is divided into six chapters, each showing a part of the bigger picture portrayed on the outstanding cover by Infidel. Teslasonic gathers together the galaxy’s top scientists and artists on a bleak outer planet and sets out to preserve the accumulated knowledge of humankind and begin a new human galactic empire based on Art, Science and Technology. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation and designs it to withstand a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that he predicts will last for a long time.
Wladimir M – 2023 [DSR/EEVO009]
‘2023’ is the rather unexpected new project of the Dutch cult hero Wladimir Manshanden. 32 years ago, in 1991, Wladimir M founded together with techno icon Stefan Robbers, one of the first Dutch techno labels: Eevo Lute Muzique. While Robbers (as Terrace and Acid Junkies) pursued an international techno career in the years that followed, Manshanden preferred to remain in the shadows. His discography is as small as it is peculiar. But his track ‘Evil’ is an undisputed classic. On ‘2023’ he disassembles the eighties pop hits of his youth into sober, futuristic spoken-word techno. On the one hand, he does not shy away from some cringe (Dire Straits, Simple Minds, Tina Turner). On the other, he pays tribute to some genuine electronic heroes like Kraftwerk, New Order or Master C&J. The path to the bare essentials leads through a futuristic labyrinth. Along the way, you get hints of monotone voices, cipher codes and wondrous Dutch titles like ‘Privé Onderzoek.’ The outcome is alienating and magical at the same time.
Alchemulator – A Lonely Larper on LARPA net [NW035] [FREE DOWNLOAD]
This is the follow up the 2021 Alchemulator – “Larping At Fairsnake Hamlet” album that was released on Hunger! records. The sound goes in a bit of a different direction, the cheap digital FM homekeyboard is replaced with simple FM synths, old “obsolete’ samplers and some other stuff. There are a lot of vocals and experiments with them. I would describe them as synthesizer ballads…or hauntological hypnogogic synthesizer folk songs….a bit of a devotional psychedelic spacejazz influence. Instruments used: AKAI X7000, S900, Yamaha DX100, Yamaha DX21, Arturia Microfreak, Korg Microstation, Yamaha PSR373, Alesis Quadraverb, Alesis Midiverb II ZOOM mS70CdR, zILog Vocoder, Soundcraft Mixing desk, computer running Ableton Live.
Monolake – Hongkong [FIELD35]
Field Records presents the first complete vinyl edition of Monolake’s seminal excursion into experimental dub techno, Hongkong. Originally released on the now-classic Chain Reaction label in 1997, this collection of early singles by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles has gone on to become a vital listening experience in its own right, a genre classic.
Move D – Solitaire [MULE285]
Mule Musiq dives into the archives of humanoid Ambient music history, bringing the vinyl premiere of a classic work by German DJ, producer, and musician David Moufang, globally known as Move D. Released in 1995 on Pete Namlook’s fabled Fax +49-69/450464 label, the album marks his only output as Solitaire, featuring heroic, supple ambient scenes, that some people call one of the best works by Move D.
DJ Surgeles – Triglav [TECH-UM313003]
The exploration craft Isis001, a spaceship sent by humanity, has crashed into the unknown world of Triglav, with one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of humans fight an armed group of outsiders and the entire hostile planet to protect the secret – the fate of the Triglavs, the legendary first species to show wisdom in the stars. Over time, the group of astronauts begins to understand what is going on on the planet,and begins to understand Triglav’s secret, but will they be able to return to our planet and share the secret about Triglav? Triglav’s heads were believed to represent Sky, Earth and the Underworld. It was believed that Triglav has three heads because he ruled these three kingdoms and had a golden binding over his eyes and lips so he could not see people’s sins nor speak about them.
Robotic AF – Psychotic Rave Tapes [PM11]
Deep in the vaults of AM Records this album was rediscovered. When recorded back in the days, this album felt too doomy and depressing for the light hearted era in which everybody was on the unifying love drug ecstacy. But for this moment in time, with an increasing popularity of the anesthetic ketamine and introspective psychedelics, the album feels more appropriate. Has togetherness or collectiveness lost out to individualistic painkilling, or are we healing?
Nakibembe Embaire Group – Nakibembe Embaire Group [NNT045]
In Nakibembe, a small village in Uganda’s Busoga kingdom (one of the country’s four remaining constitutional monarchies), locals have long reserved a communal area for musical performances and social events. In the middle of this space lies a deep pit that serves a single purpose: to amplify the embaire, an immense xylophone made up of between 15 and 25 wooden keys that stretches across the trench. Log xylophones are common throughout East Africa, but the way the music is played by the Basoga – an Eastern Bantu ethnic group – is specific and unique, with its own tuning, dances and supplemental instrumentation. Up to eight players can surround the embaire and play simultaneously, overlaying hypnotic polyrhythms while additional members of the ensemble add vocals or play shakers and drums. Nakibembe Xylophone Group are one of the last remaining groups that perform with the embaire, and as anyone who’s caught their live performances will know, they create a complex and layered wall of sound that’s completely transfixing wherever it’s presented. The band are a regular fixture at Nyege Nyege festival, and in 2020 appeared in Berlin at the legendary Berghain nightclub alongside Jakarta-based vanguards Gabber Modus Operandi and Harsya Wahono. On the group’s debut album, they present five tracks as an ensemble and three tracks in collaboration with Indonesian trio. Heard together the music demonstrates not only the remarkable sound of Nakibembe’s own kinetic interaction, but sonic ripples that correlate with more distant forms, from Indonesia’s metallophone-led gamelan music to the heady digital processes of the sound art sphere.
Nu Genea – Bar Mediterraneo [NG005LP]
Four years after Nuova Napoli, Nu Genea are back with Bar Mediterraneo, a new album and journey, which projects the sounds of the Neapolitan duo formed by Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina even further. Nu Genea’s Bar Mediterraneo is an idea of a shared place where people meet and fuse together; a space that leaves its doors open to travellers and their lives, always exposed to the whims of fate. Some of this can be experienced through the multitude of sounds that come together in the tracks, layers of different acoustic instruments, voices and synthesizers merging in a unique musical blend. Opening up to the voices of many different people, separated by languages but united by the sea and the music, Nu Genea’s hometown, Napoli, becomes a true place of encounter.
The Black Dog – The Grey Album [DUSTV113]
The Black Dog exploring the old ways… ”We pushed further by adopting old practices, working with one synth per person and limiting the use of our computers. We only stopped short of putting everything on beer crates. It seems like madness these days, but there is raw creativity within these confines.”
Josef Tumari – MAQOL98
Josef Tumari is an artist from the Sublimation collective from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He produces a mix of breaks, electro and techno with oriental influences at times. MAQOL98 is his most substantial work up to now.
Dissemblance – Centauresse LP [LIES195]
After her debut on Mannequin in 2019, Dissemblance now arrives on L.I.E.S. with her second full length of somber, cold wave and emotional bedroom pop infused songs. This time around we hear the Parisian artist add a new arsenal of instrumentation to her repertoire, incorporating live drumming and a wide array of synthetic instrumentation on top of her drum computers providing a backdrop to showcase her stark vocal performances throughout the album. Meticulously constructed, this record displays the full range of Dissemblance’s musical dynamics as she pulls the listener into her universe where dreams and reality tread a thin line, one blurring into the next with no beginning nor end. She expertly brings together a diverse group of styles and sounds from different areas of the electronic spectrum making them her own. An extremely unique and strong display of modern minimal synth pop that pulls equally from the past whilst propelling towards the future.
Blind Delon – La Métamorphose LP [VEYL038]
Veyl welcomes Blind Delon to the label with a new album, La Métamorphose. Founded in 2016 by Mathis Kolkoz, the band currently consists of Mathis Kolkoz (Vocals, Guitars), Coco Thiburs (Bass) and Thom Mayor (Synths, Guitars). Fueled by cold bass lines and synthesizers of yesteryear, French post-punk and black romanticism, Blind Delon shatters genres and styles to create an evolved strain of synthpunk that wears its influences proudly while mutating into something totally new. La Métamorphose represents a fresh direction – a heavy, post-metal sound that’s full of emotion and raw intensity. ‘Le Crépuscule’ opens the album with a hard hitting piece that commences the experience perfectly. Next up, the group kicks things into high gear with the speedy, heavy-synth play of ‘La Violence’ featuring vocals by Fivequestionmarks, followed by ‘La Mort’, a blackened post-punk cut featuring Curses. Label head Maenad Veyl makes a guest appearance on the fourth track, ‘L’Homme’, which drifts into deep experimental melancholy with a cinematic feel. Keeping with this mood is the powerful ‘L’Affront’ featuring The KVB, which descends further into darkness before resurrecting with the immense feelings of ‘Le Sarcasme’. Track seven, ‘La Noyade’, drills into the skull with growling vocals and menacing synths which bleed nicely into ‘La Foule’, slowing things back down with a subtle yet lingering sense of dread. French project Poison Point arrive on ‘L’Envie’ which moves guitars back to the forefront for a raucous ballad that sets up the final piece and title track, ‘La Métamorphose’, the glorious grand finale of an album teeming with emotion and begging to be played again and again.
Yvgoslavia – Vertebra [OR_DUB01]
Yugoslavia is a raw cold minimalist band from Murcia, Spain, and “Vertebra” is their debut on Catalan label Oráculo Records.
Ron Morelli – Heart Stopper [LIES200]
L.I.E.S. Records founder, Ron Morelli, makes a rare appearance on his own label with his eagerly anticipated double LP, “Heart Stopper”. Heart Stopper is undoubtedly the “dance” record that reaches back to the early days of his L.I.E.S. Records label where artists such as Delroy Edwards, Steve Summers, Traxx, and Svengalisghost all came together digging into the primitive, foundational sounds of original Chicago, New York, and Detroit House music putting it through a contemporary lens. Recorded between 2019-2022, this LP is the culmination of many years of Morelli honing his craft, from digging and studying old records, to focusing and sharpening his production techniques, the L.I.E.S. boss has delivered an album that is a testament of his true love and obsession of the genre, with “Heart Stopper” being the record to cement the now iconic L.I.E.S. legacy even further. In the often shapeshifting world of modern dance music, “Heart Stopper” is what a House record should be. Full of passion and unfiltered emotion, uplifting at moments, pensive at others; with raw, jakin’ drum programming, big basslines, and anthemic synths driving the release throughout.
The Hipodrome Of Music 