Silent Servant – Shadows Of Death & Desire [HOS613]

December 12, 2018March 1, 2022 hipodromealbum, hospital productions, industrial, juan mendez, silent servant, technoLeave a comment

Now-legendary producer, DJ, and art director Juan Mendez arguably reset techno at least twice. Once with his surreal and Europe-by-way-of-LA ’80s surrealist apocalypse culture aesthetics for Sandwell District, and again–as Silent Servant–with his “Jealous God” imprint that captured the youth-driven mutation of crossover electronics and dark parties churning in the American underground, which followed directly in the wake of his game-changing modern classic, Negative Fascination. Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks on Silent Servant’s equally vital follow-up, Shadows of Death and Desire. While many would stall after the success of a now contemporary cult classic, Mendez took his time to deliver a more raw–yet refined–brutalism in his second album.

FRAK – Project Digitalis [DP20]

December 11, 2018October 24, 2024 hipodromeacid, album, börft records, bjorn isgren, electro, frak, jan svensson, johan sturesson, technoLeave a comment

FRAK are back on track with this dreamy album with deep dark hypnotic slow rhythmic tracks. This is experimental analog and haunting dancemusic at slow BPMs which gives you a glimpse of Swedish smalltown dystopia in all its glory. The A1 track might give the impression that this is a romantic record and the A side in general will make big city people feel the urge to move to small towns again, but on the B-side it just gets darker and weirder (the smalltown kinda reveals its ugly underbelly) and it all ends with a track that would make the taped nipples fake fetishists in techno city shiver. I could say you need a mask to play this out, but lets not take it that far.

Heinrich Dressel – Lost in the Woodland LP [BAP127]

December 9, 2018October 18, 2023 hipodromealbum, ambient, bordello a parigi, electro, heinrich dressel, valerio lombardozziLeave a comment

DRESSEL, Heinrich - Lost In The Woodland

From the whimsical resonance of the title piece, a sonic pathway through a verdant soundscape is laid. Gentle melodies caress and embrace before the road bends into shadows filled with dramatic twists and unseen dangers. Romantic moments are juxtaposed by triumphal chords and daring drums signalling immediate panic or outright victory. This is a woodland of divergent emotions, one where sounds give way to feelings and where Heinrich Dressel is the piper leading his followers through what can only be described as an unforgettable journey.

Ligovskoï – Esam [FIELD028]

December 9, 2018May 26, 2023 hipodromealbum, ambient, field records, ligovskoi, nikolai azonov, valerio seligLeave a comment

French duo Ligovskoï are to release Esam, their second artist album and first on Field Records. It features eight expertly crafted tracks that take the listener on a spacey and hypnotic journey towards inner bliss. Formed by Nikolaï Azonov and Valerio Selig in 2010, Ligovskoï once again draw on a sound palette that includes samples, synths, vocals, feedback, guitar and field recordings that merge in a painterly and romantic form of music. It recalls vast landscapes, abstract patterns and poetic movement. The title ‘Esam’ refers to a small, isolated mountain located on the moon, and the album is a journey to a similarly otherworldly landscape absent of human life. It features free improvisations, repetitive patterns and experimental materials that convey a wide range of emotions and styles from weightless shiny atmospheres to dark, heavy and swarming textures, leading the listener to deep contemplation. Esam is a transportive, thoughtful album that takes you deep into a unique musical world.

Jeroen Search – Monism [FIGURELP03]

December 8, 2018December 15, 2022 hipodromealbum, figure, jeroen search, minimal techno, technoLeave a comment

All things come from and return to the same source – such is the theory of Monism; an ancient philosophy, but also accounting for the music of Jeroen Search. Dictated by an ethos of exclusively recording live takes and the only ever editing happening while a tune is being created, each finished track is imbued with that unique magic of the moment. Such too is the nature of Monism, Search’s first LP in over two decades of electronic explorations and personal as well as artistic growth. As with any of his music that has been released so far, the tracks on here hold a timeless quality, existing within their own frame of reference than – that is their immediate experience. Across a carefully arranged course, the album naturally unravels its many ideas, ranging from moments of pensive ambient pieces to thick washes of dub echo and layers of modulated synths, all while providing an endless array of hypnotizing bare-bone grooves in the process. A true Figure mainstay, Jeroen Search upholds his artistic relevancy without any reinventing or switching up the formula – rather by simply keeping true to his accomplished craft.

Die Form – Some Experiences With Shock [DE232]

December 6, 2018July 17, 2024 hipodromealbum, dark entries records, die form, electro, experimental, minimal synth, philippe fichot, re-release, reissue, synth waveLeave a comment

Die Form is a French post-industrial and electronic band formed in 1977 as the primary project of electronic musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began by recording a number of experimental cassette releases in the late 1970s and formed the Bain Total label to release these early cassettes, as well as various side projects such as Krylon Hertz, Camera Obscura, Eva-Johanna Reichstag, Hurt and Fine Automatic. With ‘Some Experiences with Shock’, originally issued in 1984, Die Form return to sadistic pleasures. The album is a rare example of medical music, horribly sordid moreover, adding a more extreme dimension to their work. The first side, “Survival & Determination”, contains 7 tracks recorded in studio with analog equipment are the direct realization of previous works. In contrast the second side, “Lacerations & Immolation”, contains 5 songs improvised in the fever of paramedical oppression, with aggressive sonorities from new digital synthesizers. Devoted to the madness (the phantom of Antonin Artaud is not far) and handling the machines with instinct, Die Form advance on the way of industrial electronic creation, without concession.

Rings Around Saturn – Rings Around Saturn [BT30]

December 3, 2018March 7, 2022 hipodromealbum, brokntoys, dan white, electro, rings around saturn, rory mcpikeLeave a comment

For the first album on brokntoys, Rory McPike (Rings Around Saturn, Bleekman, 2200, Pickleman) puts the hammer down with a double pack of abstract and dancefloor excursions. Oozing style, the Melbourne producer showcases a singular talent over 11 tracks, bridging frazzled new wave & pulsating techno via claustrophobic electronics. Equally at home dragging bodies on to the floor (classy IDM-nodder ‘Automatic Memory’) as keeping them throbbing till sunrise (early-morning highlight ‘Pulp Tech’), BT30 deftly connects the varied threads laid out by McPike over his previous EPs for Forbidden Planet, Unthank & Analogue Attic.

Jan Schulte – Sorry For The Delay: Wolf Müller’s Most Whimsical Remixes [ST010-LP]

December 2, 2018October 17, 2023 hipodromeafricaine 808, album, bufiman, disco, experimental, jan schulte, jose padilla, mungolian jet set, outernational, safe trip, soundspecies, telespazio, tolouse low trax, wolf mullerLeave a comment

Over the course of his seven-year recording career, Jan Schulte has delivered countless revolutionary remixes under the now familiar Wolf Müller alias. Now, Safe Trip has gathered together some of his most celebrated and hard-to-find reworks on Sorry For The Delay: Wolf Müller’s Most Whimsical Remixes.

Massimiliano Pagliara – Feel Live [PLAYRJC053]

December 1, 2018June 18, 2024 hipodromealbum, disco, fort romeau, house, kim anh, live at robert johnson, massimiliano pagliara, peaking lights, private agendaLeave a comment

Besides his busy DJ schedule and far from the usual club circuit routines, Massimilano dedicated himself to intense travelling and exploring the world anew. “I felt like I have lived more than ever,” he states. “Getting to discover all these beautiful places around the world and meeting so many lovely interesting people, has inspired me in many different ways. I feel enriched.” The result of these experiences is Feel Live, Massimiliano’s third full-length endeavour. It was recorded in several intimate, sometimes improvised studio settings between Los Angeles, Portland, and Massimiliano’s homebase in Berlin as well as at airports and on intercontinental flights high up in the sky. Featuring vocals by Private Agenda, Peaking Lights, Kim Anh and instrumental contributions by Fort Romeau, Tim K, and Jules Etienne, Feel Live is Massimilano’s most playful and imaginative work to date. It’s as emotional as sensual, as vibrant as the first ray of light after a thunderstorm has cleared the air.

Ruins – New Record LP [RUINS001]

November 30, 2018October 5, 2021 hipodromealbum, alessandro pizzin, experimental, minimal synth, mothball record, piergiuseppe ciranna, ruins, synth popLeave a comment

RUINS - New Record

Mothball Record presents a lost album from legendary Italian wave band: Ruins. Hailing from Venice, Ruins are one of the pioneering artists of the Italian new wave scene beginning in the late seventies: an explosion of new and exciting art, music and film. The tracks on ‘New Record’ were taken from the self-distributed, tape only release from 1983 ‘Side Roads’. This album was timed directly before their most well-known releases in contemporary times, the ‘Fire / Crime’ 12′ and the eponymous 4 track EP on Black Square. Taken from the original master tapes and selected by Ruins themselves, the album should be listened as a whole to gain the full experience, but immediate ‘must-hear’ tracks are ‘I Don’t Know’, ‘I Love You’ and ‘Last Night DJ Killed My Wife’ featuring early use of Roland TB303. At times unsettling, beautiful, violent, harmonious, these songs will finally get the audience and exposure they deserve 35 years later.

No Smoke – International Smoke Signals [WAFLP3]

November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 hipodromealbum, house, no smoke, the mali singers, warriors danceLeave a comment

Tony ‘Addis’, the man behind the Warriors Dance label and No Smoke project (amongst many other things) is undeniably one of British dance music’s unsung heroes. That much is proved by this re-mastered reissue of 1990 LP “International Smoke Signal”, an album so ahead of the game at the time of its release that it still sounds like the future. Most will know acid house anthem “Koro Koro” (here in altered, slightly more downtempo form), but it’s the quality of the lesser-known cuts – the sub-heavy, UK steppas-influenced Afro-house of “East of Eden”, the bleep-meets-Dream II Science deep house bliss of “OAU In Music”, acid-fired “Anti Galactic Devotion” and “Pacific State” style E-rush of “Oh Yes (Freedom)” – that makes it such an impressive and essential set.

Hieroglyphic Being & The Truth Theory Trio – Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light [HVNX-700]

November 26, 2018December 9, 2021 hipodromealbum, chicago, experimental, hieroglyphic being, hivern discs, house, jamal moss, techno, the truth theory trioLeave a comment

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING/THE TRUTH THEORY TRIO - Journey Through The Outer Darkness From The Inner Light

When asked about the story behind the tracks of ‘Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light’, Jamal Moss answered with a laconic “No story. No dogma. No Hype”. After all, his despise of extra-musical paraphernalia is proportional to his productiveness in the studio. But there’s always a story. On April 9, 2016, Hieroglyphic Being played a live show in La Casa Encendida of Madrid within the festival Electronica en Abril. Some days later, the recording of the full set was uploaded to YouTube. When we watched it, we were totally captivated. Those eighty minutes of music had the raw power of all of Jamal’s body of work, but with a heightened sense of transcendence. Cosmic, spiritual and intensely beautiful, it sounded like a lysergic reinterpretation of Detroit techno transmitted from a galaxy yet to be discovered. As most of the material was unreleased, we reached Jamal in order to try to press it into vinyl. The result is ‘Journey Through The Outer Darkness from the Inner Light’, a 12″ that reunites eight of the individual tracks that conformed that Madrid performance. When inquired about AUM, the sacred sound all the tracks are labeled after, Jamal referred us to a book by author and naturalist Joseph Bharat Cornell. A book that the author himself presents with these words: ‘The sound of the Cosmic Vibration is AUM, and listening to it brings the greatest bliss imaginable. AUM is the Omnipotent Force that propels each soul toward Spirit. It’s the sacred, inner fire. As you approach the cosmic blaze, you feel at first its radiant, soothing comfort; then, as you come closer – AUM’s liberating flames consume you – and bring you to God”. There might be “no story and no dogma”, but, suddenly, it all makes sense.

Posthuman – Mutant City Acid [BV29]

November 26, 2018September 29, 2023 hipodromeacid house, album, balkan vinyl, josh doherty, posthuman, richard bevan, technoLeave a comment

First full length from Posthuman in eight years. Named from, and created as a companion piece to the (completely sold out) Mutant City Acid series on Balkan Vinyl. Inspired by classic computer games such as ‘Syndicate’, ‘Flashback’ and ‘Beneath A Steel Sky’, it is written as the soundtrack to a journey through a near-future dystopian city, awash in the glow of neon skyscrapers. Digging into the weirder side of acid techno and electro, this is still an album for the dancefloor but with one eye on the darker corners of the room. Pressed on completely random coloured vinyl – red, green, yellow, blue -.some marbled, some faded, some solid, some translucent – the first time this has ever been done. The entire pressing process was video livestreamed from the plant with engineers answering questions in the chat (again, a first). Comes in a full colour gatefold sleeve adorned with retro pixel art.

Giuliano Sorgini – Africa Oscura [FLIES33]

November 25, 2018November 19, 2021 hipodromealbum, experimental, four flies records, giuliano sorgini, soundtrackLeave a comment

SORGINI, Giuliano - Africa Oscura: Afro Dark Electronic Percussions

The unreleased dark side of Zoo Folle! Recorded by composer and multi-instrumentalist Giuliano Sorgini between 1974 and 1976 in his studio in Prati district in Rome, a stone’s throw from Italian television offices, Africa Oscura is a set of tracks inspired by the wildest and most obscure secret s of those lands, intended to be the background of some TV documentaries. Some tracks were recorded during the same session of “Zoo Folle”, the album widely recognized as his masterpiece, celebrated today by the most influential connoisseurs from all over the world. Some others came right after, for a mysterious documentary whose title was supposed to be “I corsari della savana” (as stated by the credits written on the reels that we have found). All these tracks remained unbelievably unreleased until now, forgotten on some old and dusty ¼-inch reels, amazingly survived up today, then transferred and restored to compile this much-needed release. A sort of concept-album about darkest Africa, with a kind of eerie mood, nearly esoteric, to which Sorgini was very close in these years, working on horror and b-movies soundtracks or experimental libraries. All tracks are entirely played by composer himself, with drums, percussions and all sorts of analog synths overlaps, to create an afro-ambient soundscape, something halfway between electronic and minimalism, with a vibrant prog flavour. Among John Carpenter’s reminds, occultism, large prairies and Saharan landscapes, this amazing score truly reveals the creepy dark-side of “Zoo Folle”.

Atmosfear – En Trance [MRBLP180]

November 25, 2018March 11, 2021 hipodromealbum, atmosfear, disco, funk, jazz, mr bongo, re-release, reissueLeave a comment

Originally released in 1981 via Elite / MCA records, ‘En Trance’ is a joyous album that arguably represents the pinnacle of the Brit-funk sound. The band consisted of bassist, and keyboardist Lester J. Batchelor, drummer Ray Johnson, guitarist Andy Sojka, saxophonist Stewart Cawthorne, singer and guitarist Tony Antonio and producer Jerry Pike. The album captures the excitement of these exceptional players demonstrating utmost originality in the studio.

Night Force / The Tom Cats – Dance [AFS037]

November 21, 2018August 30, 2023 hipodromeafrican, afrosynth records, album, disco, house, night force, outernational, the tom catsLeave a comment

South African disco release. The title track ‘Dance’, written by Belgian composer Frank Degrijse, was released by Night Force and became a hit throughout Europe in 1980. In South Africa the song was released with permission at a slower tempo (the original 45rpm was ‘officially’ slowed down to 33rpm). Added to this are four tracks by Music Team’s in-house production team the Tom Cats – including dub reworkings of recent Afrosynth releases ‘Burnin Beat’ and ‘Searchin’, here released as ‘Hot Stuff’ and ‘Search For Love’ respectively. Synth-heavy oddities ‘You Are My Fire’ and ‘Shake Shake’ make up the rest of the tracklist.

Dan Piu – Tru Time And Ages [CHILDFIVE]

November 20, 2018November 3, 2022 hipodromealbum, childhood intelligence, dan piu, deep house, houseLeave a comment

Dan Piu is releasing his first full album with unreleased tracks since 1999. A collection of beautiful Chicago & Detroit sounding pieces that he created throughout the last centuries.

Adam X – Recon Mission [SGLP05]

November 19, 2018July 13, 2022 hipodromeadam mitchell, adam x, album, industrial, sonic groove, technoLeave a comment

Adam X returns to his imprint Sonic Groove with his first album in four years, a 56 minute excursion into EBM and Cyberdelic Industrial Techno titled “Recon Mission”. The mission begins with beat driven hypnotic electronics that invoke paranormal illusions of Easter island mythology and Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Climbing forward the album crosses the line into harder industrial territories, conjuring visions of New York City’s dystopian past and CIA shadow government experiments. Adam has survived the ups and downs of the industry while continually raising the bar for production value and sound design.

Black Merlin – Kosua [IOTG005]

November 18, 2018August 5, 2025 hipodromealbum, ambient, black merlin, experimental, george thompson, island of the godsLeave a comment

Back in 2015 George Thompson AKA Black Merlin started a deep love affair with the remote island of Papua New Guinea. After his first album ‘Hipnotik Tradisi’, released on Island Of The Gods; George was intrigued to find a place drenched in culture and untouched by the western world. In 2016 George planned his first solo expedition, venturing out to meet the Kosua Tribe. Over the course of the next two years George would record the sounds of the Kosua people. From their daily lives, ancient dance customs and wildlife. During one of these trips he spent 14 days alone in the jungle, getting in and out of the Mount Bosavi crater and further 3 days inside recording and filming his experience. These recordings and experiences formed the basis of his second album, Kosua.

Sone Urbia – Sone Urbia [LP16]

November 18, 2018November 16, 2018 hipodromealbum, ambient, drone, experimental, lower parts, sone urbiaLeave a comment

Sone Urbia is a collection of improvisations recorded live during the period of 2011-15. A grainy meditative voyage into layers of field recordings, old sampled records, synthesizers, acoustic and non acoustic instruments. This album works as a mixtape separated in two sides, two journeys; two soundscapes.