Over his two decades in the game, Philipp Lauer’s work always manages to mix the best of steely German engineering with deep emotion; industrial-strength beats with the warmth of an old sweater. On his new LP “Answers 2 Trouble” out on Permanent Vacation), the Frankfurt-based musician once again delivers the goods: nine tracks stuffed with elite beat making and delicious, 80s-influenced songcraft, drawn together by clever arrangements and expert pacing.
The NE-21 return to She Lost Kontrol after their first pitch-perfect 80s dark wave release in 2016. After releasing a collaboration with Donato Dozzy with the project ‘Men with Secrets’ at the beginning of the year, the duo lands on the label with their new work “In The Realm of Electricity”. The album is a collection of 8 tracks composed and recorded between 2012 and 2020 at the Sy6 studio in Boscoreale. The outcome is a perfect blend of synth pop and minimal wave, filled with icy synths, shuddering bass, and anthemic vocals, ranging from mumbled vocoder to arch talk-singing. While diverse in atmospheric scope, swells of ghostly synths circle the driving beat throughout, producing a haunting totality drenched in an ethereal midnight trance; the submerge of cold, spectral vocals sing within the darkest depths of a starry soundscape – the gloomy romanticism of low, distant vocals bursting with post-punk melancholia. The album in essence sounds unashamedly distinctive, unique and charming. Whether you fall in love with the whole act or you’re just stunned by the bizarreness of it all, one thing’s for sure – you’ll be compelled and gripped right to the infectiously smutty end.
Mannequin Records is welcoming back Le Syndicat Électronique with a collection of lost tracks raised up from the deepest vaults of the French synth-electro pioneer. Over a period spanning almost twenty years, ”Rebuts” (the French word for ”thrown away”, ”forgotten”) is bringing back to life 8 titles that have been put aside during the different moments of creation of Le Syndicat Électronique. Founder of the seminal Invasion Planète Recordings, the first French minimal electro/wave/experimental label founded in late 1998, and heavily influenced by the work of masters like Kraftwerk/John Carpenter/Front 242, AA// is responsible for many others dark electronic / industrial / neofolk projects – to name a few: Bruta Non Calculant, Swesor Brother, La Séduction Des Innocents, It & My Computer.
WRWTFWW Records reissue Swiss cult band Grauzone’s self-titled album in an expanded 40 Years Anniversary Edition packed with the original 1981 album plus 9 extra songs, as well as extensive liner notes by Swiss music historian Lurker Grand. The pioneering band from Bern (Switzerland) had a short-lived but highly-regarded career which birthed a cult discography that still fascinates and resonates today. Consisting of core members Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher, and Marco Repetto, and on-and-off participants Christian GT Trüssel, Claudine Chirac, and Ingrid Berney, the elusive group broke new grounds in the early 80s, experimenting with punk and industrial music, early techno sounds, minimalism, new wave, pop, and various electronics. With an innovative and polished approach to design, visuals, performance, and all around style and philosophy on top of their superb music, the constantly transforming unit developed a whole experience – the Grauzone experience: wild and unpredictable, yet sophisticated and cohesive, or as Swiss music historian Lurker Grand would call it, “an Art band with a Punk attitude”. Completely rejecting the music industry rules and refusing to play the game of promotion, touring, release schedules, and TV appearances even though they had a multi-platinum international hit with the song “Eisbär”, the band quickly disintegrated in full convention-defying glory, leaving behind an inspiring music legacy for the world to discover and discover again, one generation after the other. This extended version of their debut (and only) album beautifully crystallizes the Grauzone miracle/accident – where pop and youthful experimentation meet at (new/cold/no) wave and industrial crossroads.
For their first collaboration on an original audio-visual artefact, Ali M. Demirel and Anthony Linell have developed a stunning and unsettling work that studies the Icelandic landscape as a motor of mythology, a snare that binds us in contradiction. Far from being an acoustic summation of the collaboration, this release is a snapshot of Linell’s musical contribution at a moment of reflection in the project’s evolution.
Originally released on CD in 1999, Astral Industries present a first vinyl issue of Monolake’s much-loved ‘Gobi’, licensed from Imbalance Computer Music. Set to the backdrop of the Gobi desert in eastern Asia, two shimmering vistas plunge the listener into a vast and deeply hypnotic nocturnal soundscape. The perennial hiss and rattle of insects float along the fresh night air in soft waves. The desert thrives with quiet activity as a westerly wind skitters across moonlit dunes, granulated folds dancing like sheets of thin silk. Tectonic plates murmur beneath the shower of stars overhead, their millennial cycles whispering of aeons past. Vividly textured and enticingly synthetic in its sound design, Gobi succeeds as a stunning piece of minimalism.
Valentino Mora returns to Spazio Disponibile with his first full-length ‘Underwater’. A mesmerizing listening trip over the course of eight tracks taking you into his deep sea world of dark minimalism and eerie drone rhythm structures.
Far Out Recordings presents Mora!, and for the first time ever on vinyl Mora! II. Mexican-American percussionist and former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Francisco Mora Catlett originally recorded and released his debut solo LP as a private press in 1987, but the sequel he recorded over the course of the next few years with an expanded Detroit jazz brass section was shelved for decades to follow. A pan-American melting pot of hypnotic afro-cuban rhythms, frenetic batucadas and fiery sambas, Mora I & II are holy grails of latin jazz, masterminded by an unsung hero of the genre.
Kumasi, New Orleans’ own 14-piece Afrobeat orchestra, is back with their third LP and first live record. After two private-press releases, Kumasi is presenting Live at Marigny Studios to an international audience for the first time via Hiatt dB’s New Orleans-based Mystery Zone Records. Live at Marigny Studios, features 4 original compositions: jazz-centric interpretations of Fela’s classic form that incorporate rhythms and sentiments from New Orleans and the surrounding Afro-diaspora, namely Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil. It’s a bold effort that perfectly captures the infectious mix of heavy rhythms, spontaneous, improvisatory musicianship, and inclusive, participatory style that characterize Kumasi as a group, as well as Afrobeat as a whole.
”Think Again is about reviewing the plan. It’s about taking inventory, reorganizing, restocking, doing away with and adding what’s needed. It’s a project about transition – in body and soul” – Millsart
With an Arturo Micro brute synthesizer put through psychedelic effects, Modern Ruin keeps the flame of Andrew Weatherall and Suicide burning through times of isolation and disarray. This Synth Wave/New Wave experience of an album, released on LP on Höga Nord Rekords, sums up 2020 with its dark and cold sound. The title speaks for itself: “Unemployment Disco Line” reflects the desperation in the sound and the reverb-drenched vocals in the back of the soundscape comes from deep within the Covid hole. Drawing influences from masters like the legends above, Rowland S. Howard, Johan Balance + Peter Christopherson et cetera, this debut album by Modern Ruin sums up four decades of underground club music and no matter how long this pandemic goes on we are in “Nothing Blues” until the dance floors open again.
Ratsnake aka Gesloten Cirkel presents “Just A Genesis” on the Place No Blame label. An conscious, meditative presentation of single take recordings from recent years. A sequence showcasing the development of techniques and styles that have been touched on and explored through other projects and releases. For the artist and label, this collection of songs represent a timeline of actions and reactions, transforming dusty old memories into perceptible realities in their own right. At its core, this album explores the confines between society and alchemy, and they form part of an ongoing research into the science of idea generation and external reflection.
By the late 1960s, drummer Roy Porter had already worked with some of jazz’s true greats (Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie included), spent time in prison and weened himself off heavy drugs. It was at this point that he founded Roy Porter Sound Machine, a heavyweight jazz-funk combo with a penchant for raw rhythm and blues. The band’s 1971 debut LP, Jessica, is one of the most magnificent sets in his vast discography. Featuring sweaty, floor-ready rhythms from Porter, beefy bass, wild electric piano licks, fuzzy guitars and some fine brass arrangements, the album is as good a collection of jazz-funk/funk fusion tracks as you’re ever likely to hear.
A new 6-track mini album from a musician with a long list of credits including South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela, afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen and Ethiopian jazz originator Mulatu Astatke as well as many Brit-jazz and other international roots artists. “It’s Time” blends Afro-jazz groove, free improv, spoken poetry and other-worldly atmosphere, with lyrics and titles hinting at unorthodox takes on reality and the times we live in.
British Electro veteran Bass Junkie returns for his second vinyl outing on Bass Agenda Recordings, this time with a full-length album. As his last release, ”Low Frequency Fugitive” indicated, he has been working hard on developing his trademark sound and taking things forward; no mean feat for someone who has been ahead of his time since he began releasing Electro in the mid-nineties. He has succeeded though and everything he is loved and respected for is here, plus some advanced structures and elements – Bass Junkie evolved – a true Sub Sonic Survivor.
Dalmata Daniel presents the new album by Dutch West Coast mid-veteran Roberto Auser. Auser (born Derk Reneman) has been into cinematic (or b-videomatic) electro for more than a decade now, with releases on Viewlexx, Pinkman, Gooiland Electro/Enfant Terrible and more, ranging from atmospheric and hypnotic to tight and grim, but always loaded with a vision of a storyteller. In a Dutch way, for sure. Though “Second Sun” is, again, an audiovisual trip, that’s not the primary concept here – it’s probably the purest album-like experience of Robert Auser so far, presenting most of his characteristics and sounds, and also new elements, still, all are coherent and organic parts of Reneman’s projective language of electronics.
TPPM and AtB aka Mr fLooDs are turning on the research machine taking the listener on a extraordinary tripped out ecstatic journey through timespace where spirits of Liaisons Dangereuses Radio and the legendary Boccaccio are summoned with inspiration in order to find a New Beat Soul for the 21st Century. What was born and initially exploded in 1987, went supernova (in Belgium) in 1988, declared dead in 1989, was slow and initially all about atmosphere with industrial strength beats – the main form of rhythmic propulsion being the pounding kick and heavy snare. The sound was mainly instrumental and when there was lyrical content, it often became more about slogans and giving commands. On „Decadent Skies“ An Anomaly bring back the atmosphere, beats, the essence off the beaten commercial track, and combine it with the knowledge of tomorrow.
Cardinal & Nun returns to L.I.E.S. now with his debut LP, 8 songs of full on rotten stripped back, fuzzed out, synth punk mayhem. Straight to the head beautifully thrashing anthems, Cardinal & Nun goes in with catchy basslines, dissonant guitar chop ups, and vocals that creep from the shadows throughout the affair. Don’t gas out though, there are some somber cuts on the b-side’s ”Whats Goin On Tonite?”, ”Pandemonium” and ”Day After Day”. A true gem in the French scene, now get in the pit and slamjack.
E-MAN was the first project of Norwegian musician Geir Jenssen (electronics, well-known from being in Bel Canto and especially Biosphere) with guest vocalists Ragnar “Spiss” Larsen and Frank Jensen, and Per Martinsen on additional electronics. They only released one cassette on Likvider in 1984 (LIKV 4025) with tracks recorded in 1983/84.
Berlin studio nut CV Vision washes ashore, surfing on sine waves with his second offering of 2021 and the fifth Patience release, “Elemente”. Following on from his recently released debut LP Tropical (South Of North), CV Vision takes his library chops, psych rock skills and analogue artillery and spreads them over two quarter hour sides, to brain melting effect. “Elemente” soars from cosmic to kosmiche. A dizzying homage to the natural world, the two pieces pay tribute to those animals that glide (Gleiten) and those that float (Treiben). The A side Gleiten tears off on a gnarly, loping odyssey, embarking from the sand to faraway lands, stopping in at Beppe Loda’s Typhoon, Conny Plank’s studio, Bob Chance’s garage via the Transfer Station Blue. The B side Treiben is a more sublime animal, steadily cruising at 20,000 leagues, traversing a mostly calm sea of bubbling arpeggiated synthesis before beaching somewhere on the Med in the late 70s. CV Vision is Dennis Schulze, a DIY boffin originally from Bayreuth who enjoys tinkering with electronics and cold water plunges. He has several more projects on the way in 2021. Patience is an outlet for exploring further beyond the break than usual. Inspired by the music perpetually on rotation at HQ – with E2-E4 representing the format’s high tide mark – each release will be one artist’s deep dive down one inspirational wormhole spread across two sides of vinyl, or two side-long sojourns making full use of a round 12” piece of plastic.
The Hipodrome Of Music 