Fortuna Records return with an exceptional reissue of a mid-80s early electronica LP by keyboardist Raviv Gazit. The album was composed entirely on the Synclavier synthesizer in the basement of the Tel-Aviv University in 1985. Gazit was ahead of his time composing cold yet blissful electronic music for film and theatre which he later released as an album. An unexpected yet extremely welcome addition to Fortuna’s killer catalog.
Following the death of his one-time Chi Factory partner J. Derwort in February 2019, Hanyo van Oosterom went back to Patmos, the magical island where they once recorded their most famous works, armed with some of the artefacts and hand-built instruments they’d collected together. While there, he made the field recordings and musical sketches that form the backbone of “Travel In Peace”, Oosterorm’s emotional final album as Chi Factory. Poignant, atmospheric, melancholic, dreamy and otherworldly with a genuine sense of time and place (you can almost smell the surrounding flora and fauna), the album’s two lengthy tracks – collages of interlinked sketches and recurring musical motifs – are fittingly fantastic. As curtain calls go, we can think of few better.
Pre Kraftwerk, Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter formed Organisation in 1968. Their music was a mixture of sounds, feedback and rhythm, with the line up being Fred Monicks on drums, Butch Hauf on bass, Basil Hammoudi on percussion, Florian Schneider on flute and violin and Ralf Hütter on organ. The original sales were poor but nowadays it is highly sought after, also because Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider later continued as Kraftwerk, and became one of the most important electronic music formations ever.
‘Radar’ by Parisian DJ and producer NiKiT is Electronic Emergencies’ first release in 2020. Two years after his debut, NiKiT has once again delivered a stunning mini-album. His idiosyncratic and particular style within the realm of techno flirts with electro, and sometimes even has a dubby touch. Compared to his debut ‘Arcanes’, NiKiT’s sound has expanded and is more spacey, while staying powerful and very danceable.
Poland, early 80’s. Lieutenant Miosz Szwajcer is assigned to the young student’s murder case. Struggling with his personal life and unclear releationship with recently murdered young woman, he tirelessly chases the psychopathic killer. Things are darker than they seem. Strange things soon begin to occur. He must decipher the reality from his delusions, phantoms and supernatural phenomenons. Pieces of the puzzle indicate that the new violent crime is being planned. The race against time is on. Original score from obscure Polish movie ‘Kontury’ (1984), directed by Lucjan Kut. Remastered from the original tapes.
Carl Finlow returns with a double vinyl 8 track album on 20/20 Vision. ‘Apparatus’ is a forward thinking album that reflects Finlow’s return to live touring with many tracks hitting harder and darker, pushing his electro sound into new directions and soundscapes. The album means business from the start, kicking off with the title track, ‘Apparatus’, a no-nonsense assault on the system with fast tight drum programming, heavily vocoded vocals and powerful synths. The pace continues on the record with ‘Bind’ and ‘Carbon Deposits’, Structure’ but there are also pure electro cuts like ‘Differential’ and moody grooves in ‘Ampere’ and ‘Viroids’.
The first Be With foray into the archives of revered German library institution Selected Sound is the super in-demand Japan from Victor Cavini, originally released in 1983. Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that never turn up. With Daibutsu the giant Buddha of Kamakura’s presence gracing the hefty front cover, this is a record bursting with dope samples for adventurous producers: it’s koto-funk madness. Victor Cavini was the library music pseudonym of prolific German composer and musician Gerhard Trede. He was known for exploring instruments and styles from around the world (he played over 50 different instruments himself) and Japan is his collection of 14 musical sketches painted with traditional Japanese wind and string instruments. These are the sounds of traditional Japanese folk music re-interpreted through Western ears, with the occasional contemporary twist. Contemporary for 1983, of course.
The UK’s cosmic, psychedelic-funk ensemble issue their first album on maverick producer Madlib’s label, Madlib Invazion. The Heliocentrics’ albums are all confounding pieces of work. Drawing equally from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone, the sublime fusion of David Axelrod, Pierre Henry’s turned-on musique concrète, and Can’s beat-heavy Krautrock, they have – regardless of the label on which they’ve released their music – pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia, one that could only come from a band of accomplished musicians who were also obsessive music fans. Drummer Malcolm Catto and bassist Jake Ferguson are the Heliocentrics’ masterminds and producers, and they are obsessive weirdos in today’s musical climate, searching, progressive humans who are often out-of-time with current trends. They have been playing together for nearly two decades and their collective drive is to find an individual voice. The Heliocentrics search for it in an alternate galaxy where the orbits of funk, jazz, psychedelic, electronic, avant-garde and “ethnic” music all revolve around “The One.” With Madilb’s label Madlib Invazion for Infinity of Now, the Heliocentrics have returned to develop their epic vision of psychedelic funk, while exploring the possibilities created by their myriad influences, Latin, African, and more.
Delroy Edwards keeps the old school fire burning, returning to L.I.E.S. with a new 8 track lp titled “Slap Happy”. Once again this is back to basics, no punches pulled Chicago House worship, hitting all ends of the dance specturm. Sparse beat tracks, 80s synth stabs, 727 latin percussion…the elements are all there and put together in perfect form…many try but few can execute the vintage sound like this. What may even be Edward’s most mature release, it comes in a time when the roots of dance music have been forgotten to the grotesque trends of the day. This is a reminder of why we were drawn to this music in the first place and what it can sound like.
Release number 3 for the techno side of Where We Met, Spaziotempo. The Italian crew invites an iconic duo, Elisa and Gary aka Station Rose from Vienna. The mini LP starts with 3 avant-garde bangers restored from the past. Gunafa 2000 merges early ’90ies techno with psy elements and irresistible grooves, then Telepresence kicks in with its trance ish melodies and tunneling grooves. The third one on the side is Moto Tataete, a pure acid banger. The B side contains 4 new tracks that marks the evolution of Station Rose. Tacke is an hypnotic techno tool, followed by the mesmerizing dub grooves of Alto. The trip continues with 809, that takes your mind to further places, and ends with OTreggae, an electro ride that brings you back to planet earth.
The ever prolific Legowelt AKA Dutch electronic musician Danny Wolfers is back with another album, “Secrets After Dreams”. The enchanting LP is released by his long time acquaintance Mystic & Quantum records, the first one of a new series called SpellWeaver. 7 ethereal compositions gleaming with poetic synthesis. Artwork by Danny Wolfers himself.
Ian Martin’s Neo Modernist is an exercise in introspection, where things aren’t always rosy. Confronting your anxieties and fears may not be pleasant but sometimes necessary to escape deterioration. Ian Martin’s music channels these feelings, and gives beauty to something that expressed in words can seem depressing. One of Rotterdam’s best kept secrets comes through with maximum emotion and prowess. Take notice.
Daniel Holt is one of the most prolific and talented producers out there right now, with a slew of releases on labels like Frigio, L.I.E.S., Mechatronica or Aperitif de la Mort. He also runs his own labels Atrophy Records and Ardetha Records out of his Tennessee homeland. The Black Lodge presents a full 10 track cassette album of all new and original material from Daniel that is suited for both deep listening and dancefloor mayhem. “After the Deluge” is an emotional. mythical, and spiritual journey into one of the many extradimensional portals of The Black Lodge and the deeper darker recesses of the mind – a journey of pitfalls, wonder, victories, ecstasy, losses, revelation, death, rebirth and release. Join us as we travels to parts unknown. The cassette includes full dj mix “Before the Deluge” on other side.
Multicast Dynamics returns with a sixth studio album that marks something of a new chapter. Ancient Circuits is an advancement from previous works on Denovali and one that stands the project aside as a powerful electronic act that tells stories while also serving up heavy hitting soundscapes that are persuasive, unexpected and disturbing. Each of the four 25-minute pieces of Ancient Circuits are clearly demarcated yet sequential sci-fi stories that introduce new characters and are drawn out of long and complex studio experiments. They are collages of sound that glimmer, disturb, shine, dive deep and explore new realms and make for ambient so arresting that it pulls you deep inside. Once again here, Multicast Dynamics draws together cinematic sound design and conceptual intergalactic fiction to come up with a work that is a multi-sensory exploration that puts you as the central character in an expressive musical world.
Smallville Records reissues Move D (David Moufang) and Benjamin Brunn’s 2006 collaborative album, “Let’s Call It A Day” released on BineMusic. This is a complete piece built from seven sections, each one is a microcosm of unique textures, depth, ambience, emotions, programming, looping and melodic rules; Together they are a homogenous creation, a symphony that culminate in dance music experiencing elevation. The way Moufang and Brunn fuse different genres together without committing to any musical doctrine, makes them appear prophetic. However, it is in no sense a retrospect feeling; even at the time it was clear that the perceptions, experience, vision, and delicacy of this album were outstanding.
This New Year, Jeff Mills is inviting us to look inward in the form of his Every Dog Has Its Day series. The last time we had an installment came 17 years ago, just enough time for a periodical cicada to emerge from theground, finished with its former life as a nymph. The sixth edition of this series is soon to follow in spring dressed in brown, continuing to deliver a spiritual and emotional raft for you to see that Every Dog Has Its Day. Mills himself has said, “You never figure out life, you just get used to it.” Reflected in this record is that sentiment, that life doesn’t present to you the answers because there are none. What is right and just for you, may not be for me, so how can I share with you any secrets. Electronic music can act as a guide, a catalyst of your headspace; it is not the map.
Donato Dozzy collaborates with Retina.it on a new dark and sleazy electro project, Men With Secrets. After Dozzy’s first project with Retina.it (aka Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono), under the moniker Le Officine Di Efesto on Spazio Disponibile, fresh ideas would fast unfold. “They quickly discovered a shared love of classic post-punk, wave, and synthpop, and not long after, Men With Secrets was born.” Drawing influence from the likes of Richard Bone, Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League, New Order, and even Dopplereffekt, the trio stamp out their own sound with ‘neither imitation nor rehash.’ Their debut thirteen track album, titled Psycho Romance and Other Spooky Ballads, will land on none other than The Bunker NY.
Dark Entries Records presents ‘Fortunate Isolation’ the sophomore album from Borusiade. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Borusiade aka Miruna Boruzescu started dj-ing in 2002 as one of the very few female DJs in the city’s emerging alternative clubbing scene. Influenced by a classical musical education, a bachelor in film direction and fascinated by raw electronic sounds, Borusiade first combined these universes in the construction of her DJ sets and starting 2005 also in her music production. A sound of her own has slowly crystallized, often dark with poignant bass lines, obsessive themes and by all means melodic. ‘Fortunate Isolation’ is perhaps Borusiade’s most personal release to date. Eight songs that capture a bystander witnessing the world as it undergoes drastic changes. We have disconnected ourselves from ecology, humanity, preservation, care for what surrounds us, for what is still alive. Borusiade adds, “| know that this place, our home has went through so many other extinctions, but | believe things will find their own way on this planet only once we are gone. Entropy creates a time-line but also a transformation – a new beginning.” The album’s sound is gloomy and powerful mixing sonic film sequences, rhythmic excursions and soothing yet obsessive vocals that touch one’s deepest senses. Lyrically the songs tackle themes of forgotten memories, spirituality, mortality, and destruction.
For its 3rd release Infoline showcases never heard compositions of Marco Repetto (former Grauzone). La Luna Sotto Il Ponte is a 2×12” compilation and a never used alias of Marco Repetto. The compilation features tracks written between 1983 – 1989. Some years after his break up with Grauzone (1981), Marco went on a darker and more industrial path, which was a common route for experimental composers at that time. Expect a solid mixture of unreleased Industrial/EBM cuts. The bonus EP replaces La Luna Sotto Il Pontes grim and dark compositions for a much more utopian mind-set and movement in its heyday. It’s 1988/1989 – Acid House is everywhere.
The long-awaited debut album from Jan Schulte’s more dancefloor-focused Bufiman project. He’s absolutely nailed it, offering up a vibrant 12-track selection that giddily joins the dots between freestyle, electro, dub disco, vintage deep house, skewed Balearic synth-pop, breakbeat, hip-house, kosmiche and the heavily percussive drum workouts that have long been Schulte’s stock-in-trade. The fact that each track offers multiple musical reference points whilst delivering something undeniably fresh – despite the undeniably retro-futurist feel present throughout – is undoubtedly the album’s strongest suit. To put it simply, “Albumsi” is a gloriously kaleidoscopic, thrill-a-minute concoction that counts as Schulte’s single greatest body of work to date.
