New imprint Silver Triplet enters the world with a rocket of a collaborative album from two of electronic music’s most free-spirited mavericks. Combining the surrealist punk ethos of Scotch Rolex and the bass heavy psychedelia of Shackleton, Death by Tickling is ten tracks full of wild and unpredictable changes, incorporating odd time signatures, cosmic synth freak outs and dubbed out space vibrations. At times the album lulls the listener into a zoned out trance whilst at other times it startles with its ferocity, Death by Tickling has the whole range in its Helter Skelter approach.
Following the Lake Haze’s last Shall Not Fade release – a worldbuilding album that paid tribute to video game aesthetics – Pure Movements EP proves yet again his versatility. Whilst Henosis LP dabbled in ambient, his latest sees this direction take full form. Contemplative ambience invites us to melt into it, with reverb-drenched acid melodies adding enough unease to keep us on our toes. Add in some deep, off-kilter bass throbs and this one is a real treat to the ears. Lock in and drift away.
“Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether” is the second album by Chris & Cosey as Carter Tutti, following 2004’s Cabal. A haunting, gothic 11-tracker that revels more in cinematic beauty than abrasive sonic gristle, its standout pieces such as ‘Woven Clouds’ recalling the heartfelt studio masterpieces of This Mortal Coil or the mysterious blackgaze dissociations of Black Tape For A Blue Girl. Cosey’s voice appears in crystal clarity, against utmostly gut-wrenching string movements and synthetic choirs of angels.
Keeping up with the number of different aliases Legowelt has is as hard as keeping up with the number of personal beefs Prince Harry has, only far more worthy of your time. Here the prolific Dutch producer becomes Smackos and links up with Brightness Shallan Davar for a second of 10 proposed volumes of Whispers Of An Ancient World. Davar takes care of the first side, which offers four deeply atmospheric pieces of analogue ambient fuzz and cosmic imagery. Smackos steps up on the B-side with a more mystic ambient sound and plenty of his signature shapeshifting synth patterns that melt the mind and submerse you deep in an interplanetary world.
Cucina Povera and Ben Vince’s debut full-length collaboration deploys an engrossing suite of noirish nocturnes based around Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera’s muzzy vocal loops and Ben Vince’s accompaniments on saxophone, synth and piano. Born out of wonder, innocence and creative discovery, it’s the sound of two exploratory collaborators swimming into each other’s ideas, from Terry Riley-esque transcendence to late-night sax swirls shrouding Rossi’s distinctive voice in dimly lit psychedelic smoke.
Ma Spaventi is a wonderfully versatile artist. Over his decade-long career, the Italian musician has turned his capable hand to everything from ambient to techno. Once again, he is expanding his sound palette and challenging expectations with “Vicino Lontano”.
Cristiano Grim is back with the second number of his experimental zine/compilation , FAKE2-120AMERICA. Obsessed by the work of the cult poet Pierpaolo Pasolini and his seedy film “Salo or 120 Days of Sodom” , the original short story behind by Marquis De Sade and Dante’ s “Divine Comedy” structure which Pasolini mirrored during his screenwriting session with Sergio Citti, Cristiano Grim coded that “ anarchy of the power” in the contemporary North American society, through a desecrating prose and poignant portraits of a country drowned in 3 masochist “circles” : BLOOD, MANIAS and SHIT. Original film photography was taken in the streets and the underground scenes of New York, Memphis, Nashville, Durham, Virginia and South Carolina. Jonathan Castro nailed his second collaboration with Cristiano Grim , disrupting his photography with a spirited overexposed technique and metallic colors. Music by : Alessandro Adriani which featured the whole A side of the release with 3 tracks with the contribution of Cosimo Damiano and Riccardo Chiaretti, legendary IDM musician CEX, Italian psychedelic duo Mushrooms Project, Californian musician Aaron Coyes (1/2 Peaking Lights), italian ambient musician Alexia Robbio, Roman techno producer Ida Mandato, New York industrial band INTRZN, Riga’s sound artist Reinis Semevics, San Francisco’s video artist and musician YNV, mystery vocalist VETA DAY.
LIXTP, the collaboration between Love International Recordings and the Test Pressing website, yields its second release. This time it falls to Test Pressing founder Paul Byrne AKA Apiento to open 2023’s account with the simmering ‘Escape Reality’ EP, diving in deep across six tracks of esoteric electronica and transcendental dance.
Antipodean Anomalies 2 is Left Ear Records most ambitious project to date, a compilation that took over 4 years to license and includes 17 artists across a double LP. AA2 picks up where the first iteration left off, with co-compilers Chris Bonato & Bridget Small continuing to dig through the music of the geographically isolating and maverick landscapes of Australia & New Zealand. As with the first iteration, Left Ear continues to excavate the music from these vast micro-scenes that evolved out of a number of small community-focused domains creating their own unique reinterpretation of musical influences from near and far, spanning the years 1980 – 1992. The compilation scopes an overlooked epoch from Adelaide, presenting acts such as the DNA Lounge, TCH & Will Kuiper. A close-knit community of like-minded mates that made distinctive electronic music together throughout the 80’s, all of which remained unreleased until now.
Confused Machines welcomes one of the most eclectic artists around, Ian Martin. As an artist he is without genre or style, an open source of creativity. He is the host of SEER Radio on Intergalactic FM and also an amazing DJ, whether it’s experimental or dancefloor madness. Martin has released his music on acclaimed labels such as: Bunker Records , Pinkman, New York Haunted, Bio Rhythm to name a few. His 9 track “Grey Theatre” album for Confused Machines is a deep dive and playful exercise with his synthesizers. An emotional and mysterious listening experience. A portal to his soul. Melancholic at times, it flows like water and lurks from the shadows of reality.
+/-, a modern version of the yin/yang symbol, is the title of the debut album by Avé Eva 369. It’s a nine track journey, seen through the eyes of a spirit who has landed on planet earth and makes a labyrinthine trip through its dualistic nature. Worlds of sound arise from subtle electronic textures, transitions and rhythms. Vocals overlay these worlds creating dreamscapes. The songs examine the balance and friction between opposites like heaven/hell or male/female. Avé Eva 369 embodies archetypical and mythical figures, like Eve (from Adam) and the Greek goddess Aphrodite. It’s as if these Goddesses are channeling their ancient wisdom to the artist as a form of coping with modern life. As the album gradually comes to an end, a balance between opposites is found and a long lost paradise becomes visible.
Night Defined Recordings welcomes Roger 23 for his first solo album in seven years. The enigmatic producer, DJ and record digger is now back at NDR with an album, which showcases the versatile musical interest of the cheerful Saarländer. Self-imposed highest demands on sound quality, complete openness to give place to various musical influences and the experience of many years of a music inhaling individual make ‘Bounds Of A Moral Principle And Established Standard Behavior‘ an album complete in itself.
Max Loderbauer’s career in music spans the last 3 decades and now in 2022, the seasoned mind voyager, is back with Petrichor. Petrichor distills the elements of Loderbauer’s work that are fundamental to the initiation of the label. With his Buchla, modular synth, and Haken fingerboard, Loderbauer’s improvised studio maneuvers dilate into imagined journeys from glacial peaks into the exosphere. This is Maxi at his most exhilarating state, morphing through bittersweet and optimistic soundscapes to bleak moments of throbbing unease – all while maintaining a sense of grace and elegance. Petrichor is a reflection of Loderbauer’s impactful trips to the mountains, and returning from these summits with an electrifying urge to paint this mighty perspective. The harmonies and melodies on the tracks simulate emotional peaks and valleys, with vibration and rhythm rooted in the foundation of the sound, as though it’s woven into the fabric of the fauna and flora.
The Observatory is one of those last few bands that can change and become your life. Stuck in Singapore, the wilful outlier of Southeast Asia, this ever-shifting group stubbornly evolves past its roots, most recently in an more improvisational, instrumental, and noise-adjacent territories in an EP with collaborator Haino Keiji. In “Demon State”, Dharma and Cheryl Ong plus Yuen Chee Wai continue The Observatory’s bold partnerships, this time with electronic musician Koichi Shimizu. Together, they finally reach this long-gestating, total (yet I’m sure temporary), and rhythm-focused, electronic reinvention of The Obs—while briefly nodding to their past. The road is long; “Demon State” is one pit stop in glorious hell. Partly stemming from a casual, improv studio session with Koichi in early 2020, the eight tracks on “Demon State” – their first release on the Midnight Shift label – were formed from a gradual accumulation of sonic layers; they were foraged, recycled, and pieced together remotely also from solo bedroom recordings, a historical sample, nonhuman beats and effects, as well as journals and junk.
Artificial Dance founder Interstellar Funk releases Live At The Rest Is Noise – Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Limited to 150 cassettes, the recording documents Interstellar Funk’s performance at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw concert hall in October 2021. The 45-minute set ebbs and pulses, leaving behind Interstellar Funk’s penchant for hardwearing club sounds in favour of melody and texture. Some passages mirror elements from the studio album Into The Echo (Dekmantel, 2022), but the live setting allows Interstellar Funk to expand and explore richly detailed sonic spaces that highlight his skills as a composer-performer.
WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) announce a new full length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada (Through The Looking Glass), in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. “You Who are Leaving to Nirvana” is a majestic work combining a suite of six Buddhist liturgical chants and a musical creation by Midori Takada. After supervising the recording of the Buddhist chants, Midori Takada added her own compositions, with subtle layers of percussion and the melodies of her beloved marimba, giving full life to the sacred texts.
Levon Vincent returns with his fourth full-length studio album “Silent Cities” a striking departure from his previous records. This, his first release experimenting with the cassette format, Silent Cities is a kind of mixtape through more private moods and personal pitches (literally given Levon’s non-standard tunings). While Levon has always produced dance floor jams with the intention of raising people’s heart rates, Silent Cities began with 72 bpm: his average resting heart rate, and the concept of tuning the music he was making to his own body rather than increasing anything. This brought the tempos down to 72 bpm or even half of that, at 36bpm. Programming the record during the empty cityscape of Berlin lockdowns, this is the first time Levon’s created an album for the home stereo or for headphone listening whilst navigating through a city. A mixtape specialist in his youth; he was always wanted to play with the cassette format. The results are sure to delight any listener, with the ever-present ambient, krautrock, shoegaze, hip-hop and electro influences coming to the foreground on this work.
The Hipodrome Of Music 