Umwelt allies with Midnight Shift for the release of the mini-LP Superior Life Forms, featuring six devastating tracks on the vinyl release. Limited edition marbled vinyl with full printed pencil-drawn artwork on thick cover. Artwork by Aeropalmics
album
Sokratis Votskos Quartet – Sketching the Unknown [JMANLP116]
Linking the ancient and the modern across time and space, the Sokratis Votskos Quartet presents ‘Sketching the Unknown’ – a modern jazz journey into the folk and modal music of ancient Greece. Playing rich original compositions, the Quartet draw freely on Greek and Balkan folk sources, jazz idioms, and the classical makams of the near East. Returning to ancient Greek modes such as Dorian, Phrygian and Lydian, a fresh perspective is brought to the modal style. ‘Sketching the Unknown’ links today’s jazz back to the ancient modes and microtonal folk music of Greece and the Near East. Deep modal jazz sounds from an ancient source.
Surprise Chef – All News Is Good News [COK004]
Surprise Chef is a 4-piece instrumental jazz-funk group from Melbourne, Australia. ‘The College Of Knowledge’ is their self-run label and ‘All News Is Good News’ album was recorded straight to tape in the band’s home studio.
MinaeMinae – Variante [HP015]
Stuttgart, Germany based multimedia artist and producer MinaeMinae delivers his debut release of cosmic polyrhythmic explorations with Variante. Whether beamed in from the future or uncovered from the past, Variante calls to mind a place and time far from here and now. Synthetic mallets and anti-guitars comprise the record’s gritty foundation, while interlocking melodics and where’s-the-one rhythms tessellate a kaleidoscopic patchwork.
Giraffe – Desert Haze [MARIONETTE012]
Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on ‘Desert Haze’, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). They have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally. On Desert Haze, they’ve created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock.
Rrose – Hymn to Moisture [EAUX1391]
“Hymn to Moisture” is Rrose’s first solo album, and it unfolds with the scrupulous care and patience that defines all of Rrose’s auditory experiments. The album explores embodiment in natural phenomena by playing with microtonal and unstable tunings, shifting overtones, and integrated modulations that make it difficult to separate tone from noise. Evoking wind, water, rock, and flesh, the album occupies multiple spaces simultaneously: abrasive and tranquil, propulsive and meditative, familiar and alien.
Orlando Voorn – Diligence Pt.2 [ABPLP002]
Dutch Techno master Orlando Voorn has opened up his archive for the first of what will be an ongoing artist focused series brought to you by new imprint Above Board Projects. The compilation will be spread across 2 double 12″ volumes and will feature tracks from many of Voorn’s pseudonyms including; Fix, Baruka, The Ghetto Brothers, Mute & many more. Part 2 opens with the minimalistic bladerunner Techno of Voorn & Juan Atkins’ Infiniti classic ‘Game One’, a true modern classic, also featured is the rolling, paranoia inducing late night groove of ‘Dream World’ from one of Voorn’s more obscure projects Complex, all showcasing a wide variety of styles and sounds. Flawless selections from the early 90’s sitting alongside later productions only go to show how diverse and talented an artist Voorn is and how fresh and vital his music still is today. An essential collection for any serious techno lover.
Solitary Dancer – Rites Of Passage [PPLP01]
‘Rites Of Passage’ traditionally refer to rituals distinguishing movements from one period of life to the next. Solitary Dancer’s debut LP evokes a retrospective of these experiences, organized into four acts: coming into being, detachment, liminality, and re-incorporation of the self. This narrative calls for a self-exploration of moral corruption, loss of innocence, social rebellion, and societal disillusionment.
Conforce – Dawn Chorus [140DSR]
Boris Bunnik aka Conforce returns to Delsin for his fifth album on the label. Across eight tracks he delivers a wide range of styles yet keeps the ethereal and textural aesthetic of his sound recognizable at all points. His atmospheric approach combined with razor sharp percussion and intricately programmed synths make “Dawn Chorus” one of his most adventurous albums to date. Flirting with his Versalife moniker at times, this album leans to his experimental works, strongly optimized for dance floors using his unique sounddesign skills and unstoppable drift to reinvent himself.
Planetary Assault Systems – Plantae [OSTGUT123]
As Planetary Assault Systems, Luke Slater is an innovator of psychedelic mindfuck techno. Across a lengthy catalogue that stretches back into the 90s, the music’s bleepy, polyrhythmic loops are as recognizable as they are genre-defining. Plantae is Slater’s first release as PAS on Ostgut Ton since Arc Angel (2016) and covers the spectrum of PAS’s different strains while remaining grounded in Slater’s uncanny funk and knack for developing oblique melodies and rhythms over longer stretches. Deepness and hypnosis come as much through duration as sound design. For Slater, Plantae is made for Berghain, where he is a long-standing resident. In his own words: “I’m sure it’s no surprise that when it comes to putting together a release on Ostgut Ton, PAS takes on its more mind-altering, otherworldly quality by natural cause, quietly reflecting the dark sweaty nights and days at the club; at the point, the common neural coupling, of us all together. PAS has been part of Berghain and Berghain part of PAS for a long time.
Turquoise Days – Further Strategies [MW072]
Minimal Wave presents a full length double album entitled “Further Strategies” by synthpop band Turquoise Days. Hailing from Jersey, Channel Islands, Turquoise Days was formed in 1981 by Luciano Brambilla and David Le Breton shortly after meeting at a nightclub in St Ouens called Waves. They used Roland synthesizers and drum machines, as well Yamaha synthesizers and Fender guitars along with tape effects and vocals. Throughout the 1980s, they self-released many cassettes, as well as the renowned masterpiece Grey Skies / Blurred 7” single. They were selected for the Radio Luxembourg song contest in 1985 and received press for their releases and appearance there. Their music can be described as melodic, emotive new wave. The music featured here includes the songs from the long sold out Alternative Strategies release from 2009, remastered, along with a a collection of previously unreleased material.
Boy Harsher – Country Girl Uncut LP [NUDE012LP]
Self-styled “minimal synth duo” Boy Harsher has released some fine music over the last few years, though little quite as on-point and majestic as 2018’s “Country Girl” EP. Here they offer up a new-look “uncut” edition of the stylish set, which expands the original four-track set via a quartet of previously unreleased recordings from the same period. You’ll find the original EP – complete with the throbbing but picturesque “Motion” and dreamy “Country Girl” – on side A, with the bonus material on the flip. Of these, we’re particularly enjoying the gentle pulse of “Underwater”, and the “Please” era Pet Shop Boys flex of “Send Me A Vision” and “Westerners”.
Photonz – Nuit [DE257]
Photonz is the alias of Marco Rodrigues a DJ, producer and driving force of Lisbon’s underground scene. For little over a decade now, he’s been crafting his own deeply personal style of Portuguese house and techno. As a DJ, Photonz grew a reputation for deep crates and intensely euphoric sets and in 2017, together with Violet (co-founder at his Radio Quantica) and Lisbon’s own Rabbit Hole collective, he started the now infamous Mina parties – a monthly, sex-positive, queer and intersectional-feminist techno party aimed at using the dissociative potential of intense raving to create a temporary space of suspension away from patriarchal expectations. ‘Nuit’ is Photonz’s debut album and a simultaneous reference the Egyptian Goddess of the Stars or Night. Marco was really swept away by the concept of ‘freedom of form under the night sky’, the accepting embrace of Nuit. Ancestral, but also socially advanced and utopian; a deification of the night time. These ideas manifest themselves as eleven songs spread across two LPs that wax and wane like the moon. Photonz channels early techno, Drexciyan rhythms, balearic & atmospheric house; layering sounds, creating moments.
Ruins – Marea / Tide: Sound & Image Research Volume One [MFM043]
Music From Memory’s latest release is a reissue of the lost Art record ‘Marea / Tide’ from Italian Wave duo Alessandro Pizzin and Piergiuseppe Ciranna also know as ‘Ruins’. Made to accompany and as a response to the works of painter ‘Luigi Viola’ the record was released limited to a run of 600 with original artworks by the painter included in the first 200 copies. A number of special showcases were performed at various galleries by the duo alongside Viola’s work, with records being available solely at those events. Due to poor management and disagreements with the label who produced the record, 300 copies were held for many years in storage and then in fact later even destroyed, the record disappearing almost without a trace. Finally now available again and with a bonus 7” including four beautiful unreleased tracks, the release is printed in colors true to the original work of Luigi Viola with insert.
Orlando Voorn – Diligence Pt.1 [ABPLP001]
Dutch Techno master Orlando Voorn has opened up his archive for the first of what will be an ongoing artist focused series brought to you by new imprint Above Board Projects. The compilation will be spread across 2 double 12″ volumes and will feature tracks from many of Voorn’s pseudonyms including; Fix, Baruka, The Ghetto Brothers, Mute & many more. This is the first of a 2-part archival collection entitled ‘Diligence’. Each track featured on the compilation has been carefully selected and programmed in conjunction with Orlando Voorn and the Above Board Projects team. Voorn has an extremely long and storied career in making music and is severely underrated as a producer. His DJ skills are, of course, legendary, with him winning the prestigious DMC mixing championships in 1986 in his native Holland and making a career as one of the country’s leading Hip-Hop DJ’s. As a producer he has long been linked to numerous legendary producers and releases, counting labels such as Fragile, Metroplex and more as homes for his output. His association and collaborations with Detroit have been the stuff of legend since day one and some of the music contained within these compilations celebrate that while showcasing some of the more overlooked tracks from the man’s more than extensive catalogue. Part 1 includes some serious rarities and some straight up, futurist Techno heat, take the majestic technoid melodies of comp opener ‘Diligent’ from one of Voorn’s most well loved alias’ FIX for example, completely worlds apart from the jacking and sparse Funk of Baruka’s killer ‘Technision’. Flawless selections from the early 90’s sitting alongside later productions only go to show how diverse and talented an artist Voorn is and how fresh and vital his music still is today. An essential collection for any serious techno lover.
Patrick Cowley – Mechanical Fantasy Box [DE269LP]
Patrick Cowley was one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of electronic dance music. Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study electronic music at the City College of San Francisco. By the late ’70s, Patrick’s synthesizer techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco diva Sylvester, including #1 hit “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”. Cowley created his own brand of peak-time party music known as Hi-NRG, also dubbed “The San Francisco Sound.” By 1981 Patrick had released a string of his own dance 12″ singles, such as “Menergy” and “Megatron Man”. That year, he co-founded Megatone Records to release his debut album Megatron Man. Meanwhile, Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness, which would later be named AIDS. Recovering for a spell, in 1982 he composed two more #1 hits, “Do You Wanna Funk” for Sylvester, and “Right On Target” for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp. His life was cut short on November 12, 1982, when he passed away two weeks after his 32nd birthday from AIDS-related illness.
Mechanical Fantasy Box is a new collection of 13 unreleased songs recorded between 1973-80 released in tandem with Cowley’s homoerotic journal of the same title. What you hold in your hand is a collection of Cowley’s work from the years preceding his meteoric rise as a pioneer of Hi-NRG dance music. This was before drum machines. Before programmable, polyphonic digital synthesis, this is experimental music in every sense. Sounds flows from funk to kraut to psychedelic ambient electronics inspired by Tomita and Kraftwerk. As David Diebold stated in Tribal Rites, “Patrick Cowley parted the veil and entered a dark world of forbidden forces, wondrous musical panoramas and bold, strident, hopeful possibilities. Patrick brought the future to us and laid it at our feet.”
Proceeds from Mechanical Fantasy Box will be donated to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, who have been committed to ending the pandemic and human suffering caused by HIV since 1982.
Templebeat – Interzone LP [AHLP001]
Glad to rescue this authentic lost treasure from music genre. Templebeat, Italian group now extinct which moved between EBM and Industrial. The formation created in 1990, is part of the self-named second generation of EBM groups. Originally published on cassette in 1992 by label also Italian, Energeia.
Massimo Carozzi – Night Shift [YER036]
Massimo Carozzi is a sound recordist, sound designer and musician based in Bologna, Italy. Since 1994 he has looked into relations between sound and image, sound and script, sound and literature, sound and space. Massimo Carozzi has created sound design for theatre, documentaries, short films, installations. As a musician he collaborated both in studio and on stage with various musicians and sound artists such as Andrea Belfi, Stefano Pilia, Margareth Kammerer, Valerio Tricoli, Claudio Rocchetti, Luciano Maggiore, Sinistri, 3/4HadBeenEliminated, Starfuckers. In September 2000 he founded the group ZimmerFrei whose artistic practice ranges from video art to documentary films, sound and environmental installations, as well as photography, performances, workshops and public art projects
Peel Seamus – Susurro [138DSR]
Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen revives his Peel Seamus alias for a debut album proper. The leading Dutch techno label began in 1996 with a cassette-only Peel Seamus release, Publik Draft, which Van der Wielen primarily distributed through early online channels of communication. There was a small flurry of 12″ releases from the project around the turn of the century, but for a long time Peel Seamus has been quiet. Now Van der Wielen has gathered together tracks from his archives, mostly written and recorded circa 2000, to present the Peel Seamus debut album proper, Susurro. Rooted in the classic Detroit and European techno that Delsin’s identity is forged on, it’s a deep, rich listen laden with heart and soul to match the mechanics of Van der Wielen’s chosen tools – a masterclass in expressive electronics and a fascinating insight into the musical DNA behind one of the world’s finest techno labels.
Vortice Mortale – Memento Mori [W07]
Half of the dark synthwave duo The Hunt, Herbert West aka Jerome Lesterps is a French electronic producer heavily influenced by 70’s and 80’s horror soundtracks. This artist tends to use vintage, analog and modular synths. Vortice Mortale is his new project in which he mixes space disco and dark synth music. It is clear as water that Herbert West loves Italian horror movies and French disco music of the past decade considering that this work “Memento Mori” is perhaps a perfect combination of powerful beats, enigmatic passages and wicked catchy melodies.
