Linkwood returns to AOTN in 2022 with Stereo, the follow up and part two, to his killer and hyper focussed LP Mono, which turned heads in 2021. All recorded live at the AOTN studio, he’s kept the essence of the first LP which worked so well, but moved it on in a much deeper direction. Fusing many of his influences, Boogie, Detroit and early 80’s synth joints to name a few, stereo has its own identity and showcases Linkwoods ability to write and produce on the fly but maintain that warm, fuzzy and intricate sound we all love him for.
The elusive SW. returns to Avenue 66 with okALGORYTHM. His third LP for the label is a semi-opaque wandering through the shadowy byways of memory, driven by tough-yet-supple production and his unmistakable, unerringly original voice. Inspired by all night electronic radio shows of the ‘90s, okALGORYTHM pulses with rich imagination and a sense of purposeful meandering. Speaking in cryptic fragments, the artist hints at elusive reminiscences “back then on the autobahn, to Berlin, with friends” while also noting that some recollections are “of things that didn’t happen that way.”
“Moonlight Serenade” was originally released on Axis Records. ear 3036, the Third Empire of Human spans hundreds of star systems, only accessible by a faster-than-light spaceship. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Ursea, an isolated star system in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched. After a search that lasted thousands of years, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. The mission’s objective: learn everything there is to know about the extraterrestrial intelligence.
MANASYt vs Sam Lowry. A clash, mashup and/ or battle between two minds yet one and the same face. Hailing from the twilight zone, Bulgaria. The currently Xiamen, China, based Petar Tassev has joined the forces of his alter ego’s on this 9 tracker. A side 4 celestial and daring Electro tracks followed by the more eerie B side. An experimental, future horror movie-like sound.
Nearly 10 years on since his last solo LP, Berlin techno icon Marcel Dettmann arrives on Dekmantel with an expansive album captured in a flash of inspiration. In many ways Fear Of Programming is a reflection on the artistic process – the critical hurdles one has to overcome, the constant strive for originality, the ability to capture inspiration in its pure moment of inception. Bar the closing title track (and we all know Marcel loves a surprise closing), these 13 tracks came together during a period in which our hirsute host was able to immerse himself in studio practice and set the intention to record an album’s worth of material every single day. From the resulting mass of work there were many options to choose from, and Fear Of Programming stood out as one of the most complete statements on Dettmann’s approach in the here and now.
John Shima has proven himself to be a natural disciple for the kind of emotive techno sound B12 were pioneering in the early 90s, and so it makes sense to see him working closely with Steven Rutter’s FireScope label now. More than meeting a pre-meditated formula, the focus here is on expression through the machines, and Shima is a dab hand at getting his synths and sequences to sing. After 2019’s The Lonely Machine, he’s back with The Empty Lands, an engrossing long player which journeys through enchanting, interwoven synth lines and delicate drum machine patter that will keep you invigorated and inspired for aeons.
”Controlled Impulses” presents Jeroen Search’s first solo debut on KEY Vinyl. Known for his bleepy mind-bending sound signature, the Dutch artist once again proves his mastery in the art of production. With this album, Search exposes his creative versatility by delving into an exquisitely dreamy reality. Rather than a dance floor oriented selection, ”Controlled Impulses” contains a more cinematic, melodic inclination- an ode to the capacity of music to transport the listener to other worldly dimensions.
Strut present the first ever compilation of Balka Sound, bringing together their influential 1980s recordings. Hailing from Congo-Brazzaville and led by revered vocalist and ngonfi player, Nkibi “Lusialala” Albert, Balka Sound created their own unique musical world, re imagining traditional Congolese Balka rhythms with electric guitars, electric bass and drums, alongside the traditional 5-string ngonfi.
South Sudan’s undisputed ‘King of Music’, the Juba-via-Melbourne eccentric outsider Gordon Koang, returns with his second full-length of original material since emigrating to Australia, the masterly titled follow-up, Community. Eight tracks recorded in Melbourne with a cast of the city’s finest musical minds, including Zak Olsen, Jesse Williams, David “Daff” Gravolin and Jack Kong, the record draws upon Gordon’s pitch-perfect pop sensibility and compulsion for composing irresistibly catchy melodies. Add to this brew the extensive creditienals of his collaborators, who are known for their work with Trafik Island, ORB, Leah Senior and more, and you have yourself a perfect blend of East African pop and vintage psychedelia that is surely one of the most interesting records of the year, outstripping it’s Australian counterparts both in songwriting, production value and downright good energy.
Dark Entries has a surprise delivery! Malebox brings us six previously unreleased funk-fueled jams from the archives of the cybernetic disco titan himself, Patrick Cowley. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to uncover the singular artist’s lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for gay pornographic films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. But Malebox gives us more of the Cowley we know and love: churning disco-funk and hi-NRG tracks that are spacey and sleazy, gritty and sublime. Recorded from 1979-1981, these six tracks illuminate what was one of Patrick’s most creatively exciting periods. “If You Feel It” and “Love Me Hot” were both early Paul Parker demos; the former is a peak hour hi-NRG bomb, while the latter dips into Cowley’s zoned-out space disco sound. Jeanie Tracy’s soulful vocals feature on the demo version of “Low Down Dirty Rhythm”, which was later re-recorded by Sarah Dash. The slower, less-varnished rendition here hits with a wild psychedelic edge. Meanwhile, Patrick’s gifts for careful orchestration and infectious melodies shine on “Floating” and “Love and Passion”, which were likely demo tracks for Loverde. The songs on Malebox display the vitality and inventiveness of a brilliant composer taken from us too soon.
Soft Crash is the collaborative project of two Italo Body Music trailblazers: BITE founder – Phase Fatale, and one of the label’s protagonists – Pablo Bozzi. United by a mutual passion for a particular melancholic yet sensual approach, and a sound that combines influences of synthwave, EBM, Italo and techno, the two have proved themselves to be a perfect match with ‘Spritzkrieg’ (2020) – their first EP on BITE. This time, Soft Crash present their first long player ‘Your Last Everything’. The album further expands the Italo Body Music palette into electro, acid house, bleep, hi-nrg, and IDM. Each of the eight tracks on the LP sounds layered and intricate, with a variety of interactions between different technical elements and intertwining melodies that reference high production methods from the 80s and 90s turned contemporary. The album centers itself around themes of dystopian cyberpunk and surreal cinematics. It looks to invoke emotion in cold and mechanical elements, making it feel like an organic new chapter in the duo’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between technology and the body.
Over the past decade, Vienna-based Florian Stöffelbauer – also known as Heap, has built a consistent reputation as a skilled DJ, producer and Neubau’s label head. Isla presents his latest effort “False Hope” which explores the intersections between industrial, electro and dark wave – all with a leftfield twist. As diverse as it is powerful, the 7 tracks featured here almost feel like nocturnal tales, chalking out Heap’s observations wandering through the streets of a silent city, with cigarette smoke permeating the air and sirens ringing in the distance.
Tresor Records announce forthcoming special editions of its entire catalogue of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor’s Drexciya-related catalogue. On November 11 are cominng ‘Harnessed The Storm’ and ‘Digital Tsunami’.
Following the epic dystopian LP ‘Manifold’ Versalife returns with his second album on 20/20 Vision ‘Chronoception’. The accomplished Dutch producer Boris Bunnik aka Conforce delves deep into the cosmic abyss with 8 auditory adventures laced with shadowy tones, deep base and robotic funk.
In the year 2022, two induvidual electronic entities have formed an alliance; Spacetime Records by Darren Nye and Childhood Intelligence by Venus News Network – morphed into Elusive Intelligence. Darren Nye has been devoted to deep machine-dreaming techno since the 90s, but he’s hit a particularly productive run in the last four years. On “Voyage Of Light” across nine tracks Nye weaves a spectrum of sci-fi tales with the textbook tools – warm, expressive synth lines and crisp, intricate drum machine patterns.
The return of The Nightstalker, a Childhood Intelligence endeavor written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich (2022). The second album “Genetic Constitution” is the sequel of “The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World” (2020), in which The Nightstalker continues to manifest its mystic dystopian electronic prophecies. Full of haunted melodies, cinematic compositions and passages of hope and despair.
Nuron makes a spectacular return on De:tuned with a compilation of hidden treasures. Nurmad Jusat aka Nuron / Fugue, one of the originators of the UK emotive techno sound, went on a quest for archived material and unearthed a handful of DAT tapes with previously unreleased music from the early to mid 90s. The tracks offer a deeply melodic and unique masterclass. Nuron combines a pulsing four-on-the-floor signature beat of the traditional techno sound with his characteristic rhythm and harmony elements. Classic Likemind-esque material that comes with an exclusive Stasis remix of ‘Contrapoint’.
Hot off his debut for L.I.E.S. young music prodigy Tom Carruthers delivers a new 6 track LP of total Transmat worship. Jam packed with huge DX basslines, slamming 909s, and catchy melodies – this LP is made for the floor and would be hard pressed not to be thought of as a lost relic from ’89. Where as his last LP channeled more bleep elements, this one goes right to Detroit and moves the crowd as it should be…anthem after anthem.
Hats off to Jamal Moss for the tongue-in-cheek title of his latest album as Hieroglyphic Being, which is naturally another pleasingly wild, freewheeling, imaginative and out-there excursion in his now trademark style. It sees him sprint between mutant electronic jazz (‘Circumploar’), out-there analogue techno (’21 Days’), organ-rich post-beatdown chuggers (‘Foreboding Self Pleasure’), reverb-laden ambient soundscapes (‘A Dream Within a Dream’, ‘Delta Opus L’), industrial-strength dancefloor weirdness (‘The Prograde Direction’), sub-heavy lo-fi deep house (‘Black Love On An Early Sunday Morning’), sparse electronic future funk (‘Future Shocked’), and jacking, sci-fi seeped brilliance (‘The Andromeda Strain’). In other words, it’s another excellent collection from one of dance music’s genuine geniuses.
“There is no Acid in this House” is Hieroglyphic Being’s third solo album on Soul Jazz Records, a resolute and powerful statement of Jamal Moss’s raw, vital, pioneering, Afro-Futurist electronic (dance) music. Moss once-again draws upon the vast scope of experimentation that has defined Chicago’s musical universe over the last half a century – from the birth of house music with the pioneers Ron Hardy, Marshall Jefferson, Lil Louis and others to the radical avant-garde jazz legacy of the city, The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra.
The Hipodrome Of Music 