“As a direct response to Russia’s diabolic invasion of Ukraine, Northern Electronics assembles a sonic charity collection in order to raise funds for UNICEF, helping the children and families who’s suffering under the rage of their occupier.
All proceeds will go to UNICEF Ukraine.”
AI-28 arrives as a double-12” reissue of an album titled “Lucid Dreams”. Formerly released in 1996 as a CD on the now defunct UK imprint em:t, the album now becomes available for the first time on vinyl. Produced collaboratively by Chris Allen, David Thompson (both co-founders of em:t), plus label affiliates Tom Smyth and Will Joss, the record features outlier academic and philosopher Celia Green narrating passages of her classic book “Lucid Dreams” (published in 1968), seamlessly embellished with atmospheric soundscapes throughout. Brooding amorphously on the cusp of the unknown, the music captures the quintessentially mysterious quality of dreams and dreaming. Layer by layer, the listener is submerged deep into the subconscious stream. The record curls and unwinds with bewildering influence whilst exploring key themes of Green’s studies, with topics covering hallucinatory states, apparitions, out of body experiences, and extrasensory perception. The collaborative handling of samples and sound material comes together powerfully to create a piece that is both artistically theatrical in flavour and sumptuously immersive – a true documentary for the ears and imagination.
First vinyl edition of these homemade electronic tracks, recorded in a primitive bedroom studio between 1993 and 1994 by Mark Crumby, a British born fan of synths and drum machines. A surprising crossover, as it alternates between the soft balearic sound heat and the urban indu-electro rigour. Now living in Vienna, Mark is currently a member of experimental/industrial project Konstruktivists, minimal synth pop acts mitra mitra and Oppenheimer MkII. He releases experimental techno under the names Codex Empire and antechamber.
After first appearing on MRG010, Czech artist Exhausted Modern is back on Marguerite Records with a solo EP called “Deform | Reform”. A side opens up with the dreamy electro-ish “Giving form to chaos”, followed by the high tension ambient-techno cut “The self unselving”; A3 is a trippy oddball slow-tempo jams called “Old disguises”. B side unwraps with “De creatura” and “Riddles of creation”, respectively on B1 and B2: the Endless Illusion boss crafted two ambient cuts characterized by haunting soundscapes, weird voices cut ups and deep basslines. The title track ”Deform _ Reform” closes the EP in a Sabres of Paradise-esque manner with a communion of dub and industrial rhythmics and patterns.
Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP is a reissue of the 2 tracks released by 30D Records from the Detroit artist Arpanet back in 2018 (cat# 30D-006), now presented together in a special limited edition single sided 12″ vinyl. The EP includes the original tracks Supernova Remnant and Main Sequence Star, being the only two tracks produced by Arpanet since 2006. Presented with a new artwork, designed by Arpanet himself, and this time on 30D Records sub label ExoPlanets, Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP becomes an instant collectors must have, especially after the quick sell out that followed the 2018 release and the numerous reissue requests received since then.
Somewhere in Berlin during a cold and foggy winter: Hyboid is recording his album “Sequencing the Apocalypse” directly to a 2-track recorder, using analog synthesizers and a couple of old effects units. Raw and no-frills. Influenced by the great French and German pioneers of the 70s, this is a soundtrack for dystopian minds in dystopian times.
The first release of the year brings back into the murky worlds of Vertical67. Thomas Pahl returns with a 5 track digital EP titled Abandoned Places. Only available through brokntoys bandcamp page.
The latest issue of “Internets most controversial underground e-zine” the Shadow Wolf Cyberzine issue#10 is out now on Nightwind Records. A 19 track ‘cover tape’ compilation with various artists. The term ‘cover tape’ stems from when magazines came with a cassette tape full of music or software on the cover back in the 1980s/1990s.
Confused Machines presents the second instalment in the ongoing EnDM (electronic non-dance music) compilation series. On this collection of immersive recordings, created across multiple time zones and countries, by label members, friends and up-comers, we keep exploring the other side of Confused Machines. The side that is dedicated to different sonically aesthetics – from ambient passages to deep drone, manipulated radio transmissions, hypnotic soundscapes to obscured soundtracks, post-punk dub and kosmische. Tracks by Mise en Scene (chronica), Testkard 225 (Confused Machines), Rapha (Chateau Royal, Schrödinger’s Box), Max Schreiber (Confused Machines), Ian Martin (Bunker, Pinkman), Sacrestia Del Santissimo Sangue (charlios), Swiss arrow, OPTN (Confused Machines), Asaf Yahel, Nimrod Gershoni, Fabrikent (Confused Machines)
Following the arrival of their debut album ‘Alterazione’, LF58 (F.Scorcucchi and G.Tillieci) are back on Astral Industries with a special trove of outer-space explorations. Recorded one evening back in April 2019 as a live performance at Rome’s Brancaleone, the eponymously titled album offers a sprawling journey across the pan-dimensional ether. Spread across six sides of vinyl, the performance includes fully improvised material as well as choice selections from Simone Giudice, Jonas Kopp, Nuel, Birds of Prey, Rapoon, Steve Roach and Adham Shaikh. There is no doubt that the unique energy and circumstances of the evening contribute to a certain atmosphere present in the music.
Palmbomen II’s new album ‘Make A Film’ can be viewed as a faux crash course in film making plus the soundtrack to score your first movie. This beautiful double vinyl album comes with an extended step-by-step course on writing, directing and shooting your first film. To make it easy, Palmbomen II included twenty four tracks that set the right mood for different scenes, from “Medium Melancholy” to “Slightly Dark”. Everybody could ‘Make A Film’.
28 years ago Chris Mann and Paul Darking released their debut EP on Andrew Weatherall’s (RIP) Sabres Of Paradise. A year later another EP came out on the same imprint, followed by two albums on Weatherall’s label Emissions Audio Output and a bunch of EP’s on Emissions’ sub- labels. Two more albums saw the light of day on Iris Light Records, but the start of the new millennium brought a stop to the creative output of the production duo known as Blue.
Improvisation on Four Sequences was performed live in quadraphonic sound on the Buchla 200e and the Animoog at Festival Antigel in Geneva, Switzerland on January 25th, 2020. This record is specially encoded to be played back in quadraphonic sound and is also stereo compatible. This is the first release in 25 years on Suzanne Ciani’s Atmospheric label, which focuses on her live electronic music.
Free Summer compilation from the brokntoys basecamp. Insidia is a taster of things to come and features music from Mayo, KÆ, SMPL SMPL, Atsushi Izumi, Serge Geyzel, Sinitsin & The Droid, KafkaCtrl and Steifl.
Aural Medium has handpicked six tracks for this special new release which spans the last decade. As such, Transitional Being shows off another side to the production palette of XVARR. These are tracks that are steeped in ritualistic dance heritage but also enslaved to technology. They are often built around taught drum patterns and sequenced basslines, with twinkling synths up top and more than a slight trace of comic energy in the mould of Weatherall or Baldelli. Tracks lure you into a state of trance and on the more club orientated tracks presented here there is nowhere you would rather be.
Compilation of all new productions from a wealth of international talent, put together by Knekelhuis.
Label Text “This is a story of friendship, about how it grows stronger through the years. But it’s just as much about fledgling togetherness and shared art in times of crisis. The result is an introspective document of contemporary music, in spirit of Eno and Hassell. A space where we embrace our differences and speak the language of collectivity together, where we reflect, adapt and value each artist’s contribution equally. To witness a multitude of cultural backgrounds that speak one like-minded language. Soothing and illuminating. And felt like…”
The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah. ‘PRSNT’ is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21 st century. The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing. Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno’s famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest. ‘PRSNT’ acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution or “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners’ busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.
In the beginning, there was just a box of tapes and “Fate’s Gentle Hand.” It was the autumn of 2010, and an anonymous figure known only as the Head Technician, an employee of Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services (“Magnetically aligning ferrous particles since 1970”), found himself at an auction in the village of Coldred, pop. 110. He was on the hunt for tobacco pipes when he chanced across a trio of boxes listed in the auction catalog, which described their contents only as “archived magnetic recordings.” The sole bidder, he won the lot, and upon receipt of his purchase took possession of an unspecified number of mouldering cassettes and ¼” reel-to-reel tapes. The collection contained no identifying information save for a single phrase scrawled on each box: “Black Mill Sessions.” And so, armed with razors, eyedroppers, and a bevy of solid-state circuitry, the Head Technician sat down at his machines and got to work. Now, Lapsus presents Black Mill Tapes Volume 5: The Lost Tapes. The musical landscape has changed considerably in the past decade, but what is remarkable about the Black Mills Tapes material is that it hasn’t aged a day; its retro-futurist transmissions sound just as mysteriously compelling as they did the first time around. While they purport to faithfully transcribe the sound of yesterday’s technology, they end up being something more: a record of what we wish the past sounded like—a rickety tape transfer of desire itself, spooled and boxed, just awaiting discovery.
Platform 23 presents “It Was”, a collection of tracks from Colin Potter, chosen from his 1989 cassettes Recent History Volumes 1 & 2. After a burst of activity, mainly on his ICR label, from 1980 – 82, the tapes were the first released music in seven years and highlighted the intervening period. While much of his earlier recordings have now been reissued by Dark Entries, Deep Distance and Sacred Summits, It Was covers the period where Potter recordings were limited while working as an engineer at his IC Studio, and pre-date his work with Nurse With Wound. The ambience and guitar of The French Polisher leads to Diary Of A Nobody, an embodiment of Potter, sequencers and guitar against submerged, metallic percussion rising. Dense, claustrophobia follows in Solidarity At Wujeck Colliery towards the guitar refrains of Persistence. Side two starts with Green Fields, where plucked guitars are surrounded and consumed by arpeggios. Propulsion without percussion, the layers of arps shift and redefine before the scatter of Saw with reversed synths and guitar acting as counterbalance. Nine Months, a possible centerpiece, has an autumnal atmosphere; crashing cymbals and ambulant guitar, leading to the closing Ships That Pass In The Night, a hazy drift of slowly sequenced synths & primitive voice samples.
