Tony Price returns to Telephone Explosion Records with the new “Hit Piece” LP. The album is his first full-length since his 2022 release, “IBM CONTRA,” on L.I.E.S. Records, and the follow-up to the “Bail Bonds” EP on his Maximum Exposure imprint in May 2023. There are no lofty intentions or concepts here; this is music about action and movement. Eschewing the narrative-driven structures of his previous albums, Tony shifts his focus to the groove, reducing dance music to its rawest textures and core principles. With this project, he unites jackin’ house rhythms, early hiphop bombast, and the hydraulic drive of Motor City funk with a punk rock immediacy and abrasiveness that recalls pre-robot Daft Punk, Todd Terry, Dance Mania, and his L.I.E.S. label mate Delroy Edwards.
Undersound Recordings presents the first album ever released on vinyl by the Wedding Acid Group (Galactic Jackson, J. Mono & Saint Leidal The 2nd). This musical odyssey consists of 8 meticulously crafted tracks, created between 2010 and 2021, representing over a decade of evolution and growth. Each song showcases a unique facet of the trio’s musical prowess, with tempos ranging from 100 to 150 bpm.
What if Kraftwerk’s “Computer World” had a more dystopian message? Then you would get this album: “Control Paradox” by T/Error. This double 12 inch vinyl is filled with Kraftworkian moments, but is more updated to our current times. Today computers, smart phones, AI and algorithms have taken over our daily lives. This release features 9 original tunes and 3 remixes by none other than: Cygnol, Lloyd Stellar and Heinrich Dressel.
Words and Actions new album “Some gods just want to watch the world burn” released on Detriti Records, featuring eight classic darkwave / gothic rock songs.
Italian House Music producer, Fabio Monesi, delivers a smoking 8 track double LP of old school bombs for L.I.E.S. Records. You’d be forgiven for thinking these were produced in the ’80s as all the classic and authentic elements are intact; catchy Yamaha DX basslines, crunchy TR-707 and Juno strings. Eight cuts all primed for the disco tech and nights of pure hedonism. These tracks go right back to the essence, hitting the full spectrum with stripped back classic New York and Chicago House cuts that wouldn’t seem out of place in a BMX or WBLS mix from back in the day. Catchy dx basslines, slammin reverb drenched drum programming, and deep strings are on order for this one.
Drexciya presents Grava 4. Earth has finally discovered Utopia. (Drexciya Home Universe) Earth scientist discovered the home planet of Drexciya on 2-14-2002. Within moments Dr. Blowfin was given the orders to initiate the seven dimensional cloaking-spheres to hide the other three planets from earths view. The star chart is authentic; you will be able to find the star by using the coordinations on the star chart. The planet Drexciya can be found in the international star vault in Switzerland & recorded in the astronomical compendium. Updated artwork version for 2023, first limited run on translucent silver vinyl.
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is a theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian Drummer Tony Allen and Detroit Techno’s Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020. Recorded live during Nuits Sonores, Brussels, 2022.
Long before becoming an icon of funk, acid jazz, and R&B, Roy Ayers was a promising young jazz vibraphonist. Originally released in 1967, Virgo Vibes was Ayers’ second album, and his debut for Atlantic. With five cool, funky jazz tracks, the LP features talented musicians like Joe Henderson, Charles Tolliver, Bruno Carr, Jack Wilson and the mysterious pianist Ronnie Clark (Herbie Hancock playing under a pseudonym). A rare treasure infused with the relaxed, sunny vibe that defined Ayers’ stellar career, Virgo Vibes is now available again on vinyl.
Tresor Records is fortunate enough to be sitting on a catalogue of past releases that no other label in electronic music would turn down. One of the finest in this collection were contributed by Surgeon. His inimitable combination of Detroit techno and post-industrial sounds emanating from his British homeland found its fullest expression in these masterful trio of releases. Tresor Records have decided that its time to give ‘Balance’ another airing.
Tresor Records is fortunate enough to be sitting on a catalogue of past releases that no other label in electronic music would turn down. One of the finest in this collection were contributed by Surgeon. His inimitable combination of Detroit techno and post-industrial sounds emanating from his British homeland found its fullest expression in these masterful trio of releases. Tresor Records have decided that its time to give ‘Basictonalvocabulary’ another airing.
The Romanian duo Le Brouf presents “Pattern” a 11 songs LP released by Diffuse Reality’s sublabel Periphylla Records. The band goes through several musical genres and styles, from post punk to alternative rock with electro and industrial influences. Composed of Edward Nicoara and Mircea Floruț, Le Brouf was founded in 2017 in Oradea, Romania.
Timothy J. Fairplay presents a new 8 track album ‘I Lay Awake At Night Scheming’. This is to some extent a lost album, the bulk of the album was made for a project which never came to fruition, and there’s a few tracks which have been in Timothy’s live sets for a few years, but have never had a proper release. Raw emotional synth and rhythm tracks for late nights in the dungeon.
Veyl presents an experimental sonic experience from Llimbs, the project of Hagen Ebejer. He began making music in the early 2000’s and started Llimbs in 2016 and now he arrives on Veyl with “Midnight Amber”, an 8-track album which fully realizes the Llimbs sound and vision. Inspired by dark and experimental sounds, “Midnight Amber” is a tour de force of genre-bending compositions, conjured using downtempo and dreamlike sounds which explore both the organic and digital. The result is an undefinable affair which is both haunting and infectious at once.
Known previously for his contributions of deep and hypnotic techno, Toki Fuko presents on Astral Industries a further development of his sound in this long-form work. A two-part sojourn into vibrant organic soundscapes and liminal sonic archaeologies, ”Spirit Medicine” is an ethereal yet human-centric venture into the realms of consciousness. Soft chimes mark the opening, making way for expansive pads and the emergence of a bristling jungle panorama. Solitary flute melodies call out to the valley, riding over a bed of drones and earthy rhythms. Later juxtaposed with broadcasted voice samples, the natural fabric ruptures with exposed layers spilling through, only to fade back into the ether. Perhaps a memory, or the momentary glimpse of a parallel reality. Part Two adopts an equally atmospheric flavour, substituting fauna and flora for deconstructed, psycho-somatic mysteria. Overall darker in tone, broken beats combine with avant garde adornments, underpinned by a subtle existential narrative. Wading through a wilderness of eerie remembrances, their starkness is counterbalanced with a peaceful return – a form of clarity and reconciliation that the listener is offered in the final act.
“Ambient Trip Commander” is a hand drawn/painted feature animation film made by Danny Wolfers. The film premiered on 28th of May 2022 at the EYE film Museum in Amsterdam Holland with a live soundtrack on synths by Legowelt. This is the soundtrack album of my 2022 Ambient Trip Commander animation film on cassette tape and digital.
Levon Vincent released on Novel Sound bandcamp a follow up of his cassette album “Silent Cities”. “Silent Cities II” is a perfect extension is Levon’s private moods and states.
The new LP by Krefeld-born, Berlin-based artist Philipp Otterbach entitled ‘The Dahlem Diaries’. Recorded in a little-visited corner of the German capital, ‘The Dahlem Diaries’ is a convergence of ideas, sketches and tracks, both old and new, most of which were produced between 2020-2022. Whilst eerie atmospheres, electronics and drums have played a pivotal role in Philipp’s earlier releases, his latest is a rather more introspective affair, in which the guitar takes a leading role. A role Otterbach uses to quietly bring light and hope to his music. Combined with a strong use of effects and field recordings, ‘The Dahlem Diaries’ feels somewhat like a scene or fragment from a story, in which the narrative remains undefined. It is a playful album that is something of a blurred underwater adventure, sounding as bright as it is hazy, even psychedelic at times, yet with an almost melancholic positivity.
Close your eyes and merge into Benedikt Frey’s ‘Fastlane’. Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat of a an automobile, one with exceptional horsepower and torque, as you stare out the windshield at the red light, warping in fata-morgana a mile down the road. It’s a straight-away, a black top with two lanes, and against your better judgment you decide to floor the gas. No hesitation in your muscle, your ankle or the ball of your foot, which you now realize is some kind of universal pivot, the first point of contact fusing your body with the will of machine. In this moment you’re in awe that you, a human, an animal, grew from pond scum into something so advanced as to engineer this thing, a mechanical beast capable of overwhelming power and exhilaration. But you also feel a seductive dread, an outside force diverting you from caution toward a dangling carrot of curiosity, asking yourself, ‘How far can I take this thing?’ The dread, now a constant, is numbed, equalized by an adverse intoxicating gratification. You feel both sensations in real time, however, rather than take responsibility for yourself, friends, family and innocent bystanders, you cement your foot to the floor and lean your head back. Noise around you fades to mute. Smell the benzene-scented air, feel the wind on your face, the menacing vibration of the vessel you control beneath you and every grain of asphalt under its tires. This mile has now lasted an eternity and you’ve left your body for some objective view, as if watching climax of a film. Past the point of no return, you embrace abandon and lean into fate. The film becomes slow motion, a crawling pace so mesmerizing you convince yourself of an option to eject yourself from this madness, but as you finally let go of your last morsel of fear, you run the red light head-on into the nucleus of a fantastic glistening sculpture of torn metal, glass, oil, broken dreams and heartache. ‘Fastlane’ may be just drum machines and synthesizers if you’re timid, but listen harder and know the catastrophic reality of existence, a wreckage so gruesome we dare not rubberneck, but afterall it is our nature to stare.
The Hipodrome Of Music 