Legendary electro producer Carl Finlow makes his return to Science Cult with a 2×12 LP on white vinyl. From start to finish “Plasmoids” delivers with expertly crafted electro. Mr Finlow’s production skills are present across a variety of styles from the cyber funk inspired “Trimonogogo” to the retro-styled “Relic”. This is an album not just for fans of Carl Finlow’s work, but a showcase of electro at its finest.
For the penultimate volume in Science Cult’s space exploration-inspired Astra Spectra series, label boss Syrte has served up an EP from arguably Britain’s most decorated electro producer, Carl Finlow. The veteran studio buff delivers a quartet of stargazing excursions, where deep space electronics and sci-fi bleeps ride black hole chords, supernova bass and crunchy electro drums. Including a remix by label co-founder Syrte.
Carl Finlow remains a prolific producer more than a quarter of a century on from his emergence. Still averaging several records a year across a variety of aliases, recent times have seen Finlow forge particularly strong links with the Central Processing Unit label. Now, after a run of EPs for the Sheffield imprint which began with 2018’s ‘Projections’, Finlow’s Silicon Scally project offers up CPU’s first drop of 2022 in the form of the ‘Field Lines’ LP. Silicon Scally productions have long been marked out by how they combine piston-precise beat programming with more textured synth play. ‘Field Lines’ runs with this formula to deliver some of Finlow’s most atmospheric material to date. At once shadowy and expansive, listening to ‘Field Lines’ is the aural equivalent of taking a night-time drive around some futuristic metropolis.
Cinema’ is a brilliant snapshot of both artists working together in unison, with Fabrice Lig providing his trademark ‘high tech funk & soul’ sound alongside Wolfgang Flür’s keen, tried and tested ability to fuse clever pop inspirations and catchy vocals through the use of robotic mechanics. Perfect music which balances the headphones and dancefloors on the horizon. Five versions are on hand with the EP, including the original version of ‘Cinema,’ a French version of the original, as well as a remixes from Detroit’s Ectomorph, UK Electro kingpin Carl Finlow, and Dutch synthesis maestro Versalife aka Conforce.
EPM continue their 20th birthday celebrations with an ep dedicated to electro featuring The Advent, Carl Finlow, Detroits Filthiest and Freddy Fresh. As all good electro-heads will know, The Advent (Cisco Ferreira) is as renowned for electro as he is for techno. On ‘Strangeform’ he works alongside his son and rising talent, Zein to turn in pure electro-funk that’s blistering to the last beat. Another absolute master of the scene is Carl Finlow who brings deep bass notes, carefully crafted melody and his meticulous production skills to ‘Optogenetic’. Detroit’s Filthiest has been wowing listeners with his work for labels like Casa Voyager, Bass Agenda, Philthtrax and his own MCEC. His track ‘Werewolf’ is the electro monster the title suggests – dark and tough Detroit-electro book-ended with a playful vocal. The EP closes with the legendary, Freddie Fresh who after three decades is a genuine virtuoso. Under his Modulator guise he layers beautiful retro synth stylings and sci-fi atmospherics on ‘ProMars’. The third EP featuring four house tracks will follow in July, with the ‘EPM20’ compilation after the summer.
Carl Finlow makes his full debut on Avoidant Records with the clinical Engines Of Creation EP. Easily one of the most highly respected producers to come out of the UK, Carl has a discography going back over 20 years and spanning multiple genres. After his first outing the label as part of the ”Defend Your Planet” compilation, Carl drops 4 classic, superbly produced cuts of hi techno electro funk. Title track “Engines Of Creation” opens in true Finlow style with robotic beats and flexing, otherworldly synths. “Dead Centre” bangs hard with it’s disruptive, fast paced percussion but leads down darker paths with ominous, spacial FX and atmospheres. The frenetic sounds of “Sonic Six” continue Finlow’s innovative and funked up trajectory before closing out with the interstellar trip of “Reckless”, that bounds through the the cosmos, radiating it’s high energy output.
Roi returns with his second EP for Fanzine Records, featuring two original tracks and two remixes from Carl Finlow and The Exaltics.
The Exit Planet Earth vinyl series continues onto it’s 5th edition with a finely balanced release of electro, techno and breakbeat cuts. Carl Finlow – ‘The Oberth Effect’ kicks off the record with a mind bending trip to the dark side of electro, delivering a masterclass in multi-layered synth sound design, rolling bass lines and Finlow’s expert production. A fellow electro master, Plant43 delivers his debut release for 20/20 Vision – ‘Forcefield Deactivation’. The flip side features a collaboration between Hong Kong based producers Mr. Ho & Xiaolin (Klasse Wrecks). ‘No Change To How I Feel’ is a unique sign of the times. A deep techno track served with a heavy 4/4 kick, perpetually evolving arpeggios, quick fire hats and a haunting vocal. Leeds based producer Alfred completes the release with a sound forged from intricate drum sequencing and strong chords and melodies. Alfred is an exciting new talent that manages to connect the dots between breakbeat and electro.
With part 4 of the Astra Spectra series, Science Cult invites BinaryFunction showcasing three intense and dark electro cuts. The iconic Carl Finlow delivers a remix of “We Will Destroy”.
Silicon Scally is the most prolific of Finlow’s alias projects, and on Dormant, the third Silicon Scally release for Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit, Finlow constructs four pieces of thrillingly futuristic broken-beat electro. These tracks never stand still, their little cells of synth and percussion always evolving. When combined with some stomping drum programming, the final result is an EP which has that rare balance of endless danceability and genuinely innovative production. It’s the sound of a master creator letting loose while also managing to keep everything in the pocket, a marvel of moving parts.
The second release in the Exit Planet Earth compilation vinyl series features four exclusive tracks designed for space travel, including the first ever collaboration between Keith Tucker of Aux 88 and Carl Finlow. The resulting track ‘Coder’ is an electro masterpiece. The more established electro pairing of Jensen Interceptor and Assembler Code hit heavy with ‘Red Cell’ while Voigtmann brings the bass to space with ‘Subtopia’. The record is rounded off beautifully by Cignol with Detroit infused string sections and harmonies on his ’51D’ track.
“The international electro and techno producer community has come together to raise money for two charities doing vital health work during the Covid-19 crisis – NHS Charities Together and Médecins Sans Frontières. The project began in April this year. The resulting release is an essential compendium of techno and electro featuring some of the most respected creators working in the genre including The Hacker, Radioactive Man, Anthony Rother, Delta Funktionen, John Selway, Carl Finlow, Kronos Device, and more than 120 more!”
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’.
Silicon Scally is one of many monikers used by Carl A. Finlow. In this record he has turned up the crazyness with this special Electro EP where the daintiness and the aggressiveness are mixed making an unique work of this artist. Dramatic melodies and blasts of energy, sometimes faster as usual but with his impeccable style. Telephasycx! is an experimental electronic duo. They completed this album with 2 heavy tracks with an electro aesthetics. Distorted and robotic voices sometimes making a social protest. Splintered breaks, sharp sounds and dissonances make up the main musical spectrum of this work. “Cymatics Operator” meets the expectation of the most demanding Electro lovers who like to explore outside of the usual territory.
Touchin Bass is backfilling missing catalog number TB036 with the multitalented guitarist and drummer, mathematician and multidisciplinary improviser Maria Gamboa Perez. Under the NonZero! moniker, Perez brings ‘Matrix Equation’ to the fore; a heavy 8 track EP with electro aesthetics from none other than Carl Finlow. Perez combines elements of rage, chaos, tension and anguish to form a visceral style. Her musical terrain and talent is shaped by dissonance and NO art. Splintered beats and a foreboding sense of tension give way to a more DJ friendly logic of instinctive introductions and codas of gradual builds and breakdowns as Finlow further reworks the results to great effect.
Fundamental Records presents a limited to 250 copies 7×12″ vinyl record box, that includes: 4×12” with tracks by Carl Finlow, 2×12” with remixes by Radioactive Man, The Exaltics, Cygnus, Jensen Interceptor, Morphology & Sync 24, Mr. Velcro Fastener, Hardfloor, ADJ and an extra 12” from the remix contest with a selection by Carl Finlow of his favorite remixes by Brice Kelly, Relaxant, Varaz, Dibu-Z and N-Ter. Also in the box is a high quality black T-Shirt silkscreen printed: ”Electro Music There Is Only One Truth”, info-sheet about the project, silkscreen printed in white over a black paper, personally signed by Carl Finlow, and direct access to midi data, including Ableton Live project files and individual samples. All packed in a really nice stackable wooden box. Please note that because there are so many tracks on this release, our soundclips only represent a small portion of all tracks available.
20/20 Vision starts the new year with a testament to true talent that Carl Finlow shows with such explosive, forward thinking music. The title track ‘Electronic’ delivers trademark Finlow vocoder work over hard hitting electro beats and immaculate synths. ‘Side Effects’ is a no holes barred journey into the dark side of EBM while ‘Vortices’ creates a trip for the dance floor. The EP is finished with ‘Flaw’ complete with beats that would make the late great Prince proud while firmly rooted with layers of electronic trickery.
Carl Finlow’s Beckoned EP was the first EP on Craigie Knowes back in 2016, since then he’s seen a string of releases under various guises on some of the world’s most prolific electro labels. The Boolean EP is stacked with 5 UK electro tracks that embody a lifetime dedication the genre, untouchable technicality and superior sound design. This record is a trip through clouds of stellar dust with the power to rumble any dancefloor exposed to its radiation.
The German label Dominance Electricity presents Phase 4 of the Global Surveyor various artist album series (launched in 1998). Featuring heavy-weights of the international Electro genre such as Anthony Rother, Hardfloor, Silicon Scally aka Carl Finlow and Heliopause (a project of Germany’s Dynamik Bass System & Detroit’s Keith Tucker of AUX 88) and many more, this carefully selected collection includes a total of 24 productions out of 13 countries / 5 continents ranging between clubbish acid power, deep space cruiser, playful kraftwerkesk melodic downtempo and ambient synth magic.
Classic late 90’s hi-tech electro tracks from Morphology and Silicon Scally aka Carl Finlow on the new Croatian Innerspace label.
The Hipodrome Of Music 