Robert Hood presents the return of his Monobox alias with an album featuring seven tracks. For the return of Monobox, Hood has envisaged that the vessel has been lying dormant for 40 or 50 years and is now beginning to rise up again, or regenerate. The new Monobox album, ‘Regenerate’ creates an all-enveloping story from its opening chapter and the atmospheric ‘Rise’. Stripped-back tribalism ensues with ‘Blackwater Canal’ before the ominous ‘Wargames’, while ‘Angel City’ brings a lighter, sparkling touch. Disc two delivers the gritty ‘Exoplanet’ running at over nine minutes as it gradually draws you in, then flip over for the sweeping grooves of ‘Drydock’. The album closes on the album’s title track where vintage melodies sit alongside techno futurism.
Record Kicks presents “Origin of Forms” the vibrant debut album by Moscow funk band The Diasonics, a mix of cinematic funk, instrumental hip-hop and soviet psychedelia or “hussar funk”, how The Diasonics call their music.
‘Space 1.8’ is Nala Sinephro’s debut album; each contributing piece is part of a connected, collaborative and deeply personal body of music. Performed and recorded at Pink Bird Recordings in Wanstead and in the comfort of Sinephro’s bedroom, tracks one through eight allow experimentation to breathe and borrow from jazz, electronic and folk influences. On the LP, Sinephro invites a host of talented musicians to enjoy its confines, providing a quiet place to dissolve the edges of London from the senses.
89s† is the obscure electronic music project of Berlin-based Carlos Grabstein whom has collaborated with the multi-faceted Petra Flurr to create the German industrial-album of the year. Clearly influenced majorly by the rudimentary early industrial of DAF and Suicide it includes as well more modern approaches to the genre that evokes to Nitzer Ebb because of the exploding energy of their chants and the tribalist power of their drums sections.
In 2021 the album “Footsteps” introduced listeners to the individual style of Human Figures. Daniel Lewis aka Daniel Holt, The Recluse or Death Posture merged raw strings with primal percussion to forge a sound of his very own. He now returns to Frigio with “Tabula Rasa¨. Here we have instrumental machine freak outs and bitter dark-wave, guitar and bass riffs that try to sound more like they arise from listening to mystical 60’s eastern inspirations. Tabula Rasa is a deep and often wistful journey into the world of Daniel Holt’s project Human Figures. Transitive and ethereal, these eight tracks effortlessly fuse elements of cold wave, post-punk, and minimal electronics culminating in a pensive opus awash in faded dreams. Another classic from the visionary artist at his finest.
Mannequin Records presents a 2xLP compilation of System 01, the legendary techno project of Johnny Klimek & Paul Browse. Moving from acid basslines, 808/909 minimalistic reminiscences and hidden movie samples, the core of the compilation is covering Johnny and Paul whole activity as System 01, spanning from their 1990 debut EP “From Psychodelics To Cybernetics” on Interfisch with Timothy Leary, father of the LSD generation, to 1994, with the release of their most acclaimed album “Drugs Work” on Tresor, naturally placing them in the “Der Klang Der Familie”.
Adam X returns to L.I.E.S. under his slowbeat industrial guise as ADMX-71.Through this nine track 2xLP we get a master class in hi-def bleep infused psychedelic industrial. Made for urban terrain, this is the definition of cyber war gear grinding street techno…head directly for the absolutely tense rhythmic noise track “Catch Me If You Can” and have your head explode. More end of the world anthems from a master on this long player.
AI-28 arrives as a double-12” reissue of an album titled “Lucid Dreams”. Formerly released in 1996 as a CD on the now defunct UK imprint em:t, the album now becomes available for the first time on vinyl. Produced collaboratively by Chris Allen, David Thompson (both co-founders of em:t), plus label affiliates Tom Smyth and Will Joss, the record features outlier academic and philosopher Celia Green narrating passages of her classic book “Lucid Dreams” (published in 1968), seamlessly embellished with atmospheric soundscapes throughout. Brooding amorphously on the cusp of the unknown, the music captures the quintessentially mysterious quality of dreams and dreaming. Layer by layer, the listener is submerged deep into the subconscious stream. The record curls and unwinds with bewildering influence whilst exploring key themes of Green’s studies, with topics covering hallucinatory states, apparitions, out of body experiences, and extrasensory perception. The collaborative handling of samples and sound material comes together powerfully to create a piece that is both artistically theatrical in flavour and sumptuously immersive – a true documentary for the ears and imagination.
First vinyl edition of these homemade electronic tracks, recorded in a primitive bedroom studio between 1993 and 1994 by Mark Crumby, a British born fan of synths and drum machines. A surprising crossover, as it alternates between the soft balearic sound heat and the urban indu-electro rigour. Now living in Vienna, Mark is currently a member of experimental/industrial project Konstruktivists, minimal synth pop acts mitra mitra and Oppenheimer MkII. He releases experimental techno under the names Codex Empire and antechamber.
Sudi Wachspress returns to Tartelet Records with Dance Planet, a third LP of emotionally-charged house music to welcome us back to the dancefloor. The spirit of true house runs deep in the sound of Space Ghost. Oakland native Sudi Wachspress is intuitively plugged into the romantic, mystical energy of 4/4 club music as a unifying force of empowerment and liberation.
The 2 Smooth World Vol. 1 album broadcasts a highly addictive tale of electronic frequencies. A whole universe of musical explorations, ranging from twisted electro to more dubby compositions, beatless ambient ballads, classic house nostalgia – naturally flowing into oceans of acid & bass.
Somewhere in Berlin during a cold and foggy winter: Hyboid is recording his album “Sequencing the Apocalypse” directly to a 2-track recorder, using analog synthesizers and a couple of old effects units. Raw and no-frills. Influenced by the great French and German pioneers of the 70s, this is a soundtrack for dystopian minds in dystopian times.
In 1977, in the midst of a period of political turmoil and social unrest that went down in Italian history as “years of lead”, screenwriter and director Massimo Pirri made a film no one else had the courage to make: Italia: ultimo atto? (Could It Happen Here?). Here, Pirri explores the controversial (and, in the 70s, very current) topic of left-wing armed struggle. He does so through a storyline that is almost prophetic: in the film, a mysterious ultra-leftwing armed group plans and executes the killing of the Ministry of the Interior; in 1978 Christian Democrat leader and former premier Aldo Moro was kidnapped and killed by the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades). The violence of Pirri’s storyline is fully captured by the score composed by Lallo Gori, who uses obscure synths, analog keyboards, and dry-sounding acoustic drums to create an extremely tense and frenzied soundscape of electronic textures. The result is an album that combines dark, haunting jazz-funk with ambient atmospheres and suspenseful electronic sounds, and which ends up sounding like an instrumental proto-hip hop record where Moog synths take the lead together with drums. At the time, this must have seemed like a low-budget, ramshackle soundtrack – essentially, a B-movie soundtrack. Indeed, the extensive use of electronic sounds was meant to compensate for the lack of acoustic instruments, such as the bass or (alas!) brass, which were replaced by keyboards and MiniMoog synths. Today, however, Lallo Gori’s odd and minimalistic style of arranging makes this score sound unexpected, avant-garde, and innovative. In short, modern and contemporary. Previously unreleased in any format, all tracks have been remastered from the original master tapes.
Planet E Communications releases ‘Electric Worlds’ LP by Francisco Mora-Catlett, marking Francisco’s first electronic album in celebration of 30 Years of Planet E. Francisco Mora-Catlett’s career spans decades, genres and astral realms, perpetually defined by the quest for survival and being free. The Mexican-American percussionist, composer, and producer makes his solo debut on Carl Craig’s renowned Planet E Communications with his first electronic music album, ‘Electric Worlds’. Whether pushing the limits of free jazz with the Sun Ra Arkestra in the 70’s, studying at Berklee College of Music and touring with Max Roach in the 80’s, or playing in Carl Craig’s “The Innerzone Orchestra” in the 90’s, Francisco’s passion has always been for the capacity that the music created by black and brown people has to free the human spirit.
Ourra makes his lucky number 7th appearance for Planet Star Creature. Coming off a 6-peat, it’s only fitting to tee up a swan song crown jewel of a heavy weight double LP full length extended off the richter black hole eclipse total density squared and cubed. A masterful journey through an acidic lens of future retro synth funk explosiveness. Where the deep house, synthwave and modern funk trifecta triangular apex penetrate boundaries of language, space, time and love to give us a joyful explosion of aural pleasure through our brain functions.
From the long overdue debut albums of LeRon Carson and Steve Summers, to the revelation of An Anomaly, from the roughness of Filmmaker and Ratsnake to the meditative music of Les Filles de Illighadad, from the established Greek artist June to the very limited synthwave album of the unknown Greek artist Tatat, here are our favorite albums from 2021, compiled in chronological order.
DEKATRON is the new album of electro veteran Anthony Rother. The album features 11 tracks and is released on Rother’s bandcamp as a name-your-price download.
In honor of the December full moon 2021, Luigi Tozzi invites us to another emotional journey, down into the depths of the Deep Blue. We float in emotional currents and floods of driving waves.
‘Portals’ coming by Brooklyn based Zeta Sect (AKA Heidi Sabertooth & R Gamble) which features 70 minutes of blistering vintage drum machines contrasted against a haze of synthesis. Zeta Sect invites the listener to experience a fresh perspective with the insurgency of beautifully composed synth-wave and synth pop treads into new and unique territory for your body and soul. The deadpan delivery of spoken word passages in conjunction with the intricate use of delay blends the world of synth inspired genres with a distinct tinge of 1980’s industrial flavour. Recorded 2018-2021 in Sag Harbor, Black River, & Brooklyn, NY.
Blinding double pack of heavily old school influenced bleep, direct from the depths of England by prolific young producer, Tom Carruthers. These are heavily sample based MPC productions that harken to the carefree days when the pills were pure and the music was fresh and never stopped. When house was techno and techno was house, this long player takes the best elements from say Chill Records, early-Warp and the best Nu-Groove creating timeless dance tracks made for the warehouse dj.
The Hipodrome Of Music 