Intergalactic Gary & Pasiphae / SILF – DDS03 [DDS03]

INTERGALACTIC GARY/PASIPHAE/SILF - DDS 03

Third number in the DDS split series sees Budapest duo SILF (alias Farbwechsel chief-operators Alpar & S Olbricht) and Den Haag-based pair Intergalactic Gary and Pasiphae join forces on a quartet of elusive, unpigeonholeable power moves. I-G and Pasiphae are back at it with two left-of-centre hybrids of futuristic techno on a whirring electro-industrial tip. An off-kilter jam percolating fine hints of spiritual elation and post-apocalyptic anxiety, “Microwaves” gets the ball rolling on a dichotomous note. To slo-scudding flocks of loud, bouncy kicks supersede skeins of brittle chimes and rattling drums, all woven together by subtle tectonic shifts of moody pads. A further hi-intensity affair, “Indistinct Chatter” drives that essential heavenly/nightmarish duplicity to higher spheres of consciousness. Fusing lighthearted, daydreaming tonalities with brooding, cavernous onslaughts from the depths, the track has us navigating in a zone of its own, deftly oscillating betwixt moments of mystique-imbued euphoria and darkling introspection. A choice exponent of the Hague-based dyad’s capacity at busting antiquated patterns and limitations. Having slept in the label’s vaults for a few seasons, the two tracks composing the B-side emerge from their slumber in all their time-proof bravura. An in-your-face trampler, the ten-minute long “Mono Miner” takes no byway to get its point across, all set to smash basements and warehouses by the dozen with its electrifying compound of 909-emulated gut churn and spinning synth arpeggios circling like birds of prey over your sore, rhythm-enslaved carcass. Closing the journey on a much softer, hazier vibe, “Aces” steers us towards a realm of ambient wonder, where slo-drip cascades of tapping percussions and elegiac synth waters flow into warm, glimmering summer beds. A most contrasting, tranquillising finale to an EP defined by its propensity to change colours and intensity throughout.

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Intergalactic Gary & Pasiphae / SILF – DDS03 [DDS03]

VA – Hallucinating Heights [OND02]

The second release on Ondes HXCX brings together a selection of emerging, as well as more established artists from Romania. The tape presents a collage of all the tracks brought together via an array of sound-pieces which act as binding interludes.

VA – Hallucinating Heights [OND02]

Koraal – La Casa del Volcán [NOUSLP004]

KORAAL - La Casa Del Volcan

Nous’klaer Audio presents the new concept album by Koraal. ‘La Casa del Volcán’ is a sonic trip that echoes the spectacular landscape of Lanzarote, going from moist caves to deserted planes of volcanic rock, from a secluded palmtree to a fertile oases. Intense, spacial atmospheres and reverberating drums combined with dark textures and dubby rhythms. All written and produced in chronological order in November 2019 by Oriol Riverola aka John Talabot, in a three-night session on the island.

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Koraal – La Casa del Volcán [NOUSLP004]

The Nation Presents: A Black United Front (part 3) Ascension

the 3rd segment from our new series focusing on rare vinyl from the basement/vaults, cd and music material from the headquarters and recording studio of Nation..

The Nation Presents: A Black United Front (part 3) Ascension

VA – Music For Dance & Theatre Vol. 2 [MFM049]

KUPKA, Craig/RAY LYNCH/SCAN LINES - Music For Dance & Theatre: Volume Two

‘Music For Theatre And Dance – Volume Two’ is the second in a small series of EPs that will focus on music which was initially created for or inspired by dance and performance. Created as a dialogue with the avant-garde and highly experimental work in dance, theatre and art evolving at the time, the music was in turn at times greatly innovative. That it was created for a dance or performance though means that such music was also often highly rhythmic and a number of pieces from this time stand out and seem greatly deserving of a new context. Whether it’s more ambient or atmospheric works or whether it’s in the more rhythmic or percussive pieces, Music From Memory brings together another selection of tracks that aims to highlight this highly innovative direction in music.

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VA – Music For Dance & Theatre Vol. 2 [MFM049]

DsorDNE – Lontano Da Dove? [DTLSND010]

DSORDNE - Lontano Da Dove?

‘Lontano Da Dove?’ by DsorDNE is a four-track LP written and recorded between 1996 and 1999 – at Acqualuce studio in Alpignano, Torino – by the mind of Marco Milanesio and Luciano Gelormino. Additional guitars were provided by Danilo Beltrame on piano zeroquattro (extended) and vocals by Snowdonia founder Cinzia La Fauci. It was conceived to be released at the time but only a few promo copies were distributed. After about 20 years, the original recordings, which were considered lost, were found by Marco, who remastered them in his O.F.F studio and brought it back to life. The all album is an organic work, who mash spoken ethereal voices and dubby basslines with tr-909 beats, borrowing elements from trip hop, techno and industrial.

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DsorDNE – Lontano Da Dove? [DTLSND010]

Actress – Karma & Desire [ZEN271]

ACTRESS - Karma & Desire

Actress drops his new album Karma & Desire. It’s his most accessible yet complex album to date with featured artists including: Mercury Prize winner Sampha, singer and songwriter Zsela, Aura T-09 (co-runs Evar Records with John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers & Trickfinger), Italian pianist and conductor Vanessa Benelli Mosell and Copenhagen based vocalist Rebekah Christel. The album started with a surprise 49min audio file from Actress entitled “88” and will be accompanied by ‘a broken romance espionage ethereal short film‘ by creative director and performance artist Lee Nachum aka Bootee.

vinyl / CD

Actress – Karma & Desire [ZEN271]

Colored Music – Heartbeat [RHSTOREJPN7]

COLORED MUSIC - Heart Beat

12inch release of highly sought after Colored Music edits by Tokyo’s, Chee Shimizu (Organic Music). The two cuts originally featured on the the bands seminal self titled album (from 1981) that remained a cult DJ secret weapon, for many years, all over the world. This heavy EP includes an alternative version of ‘Heartbeat’ that featured on the Japan only “Individual Beauty” LP of 2018 (also compiled by Shimizu).

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Colored Music – Heartbeat [RHSTOREJPN7]

Vril & Rødhåd – Out Of Place Artefacs [WSNWG005]

VRIL/RODHAD - Out Of Place Artefacs

Strange anomalies are scattered throughout the world. Things that could not possibly belong to the time period or place in which they were found. These so called out of place artifacts baffle historians & archaeologists up until today and have inspired producers Vril & Rødhåd to write a collaborative concept album. As a result the two producers got together in the studio with the idea to subvert the expectations of their previous work. They experimented over two sessions in 2018 and 2019, resulting in a record showcasing a different palette of sounds and tempo. The album is suited for deep listening and exploring aforementioned concepts or introspection in general. A mystic tone is set from the start, and grips the listener throughout the whole run time. Each track encapsulates this notion in its own unique form, blending sonic ambience and complex beats that reaches spectral heights. Both producer’s styles shine individually, but the collaboration achieves something greater than the sum of its parts.

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Vril & Rødhåd – Out Of Place Artefacs [WSNWG005]

Euan Dalgarno – Nfutures [MOM027]

Euan Dalgarno follows up his debut on Modern Obscure Music with Nfutures. The Scottish producer presents an album that has been inspired by modern-day classical music, but also informed by forward-thinking electronic music. Nfutures builds on Dalgarno’s previous release on the label, but also enters previously uncharted waters. It is an eleven-track album of mainly probing strings and piano-led compositions. Hel is a real standout with its calming keys and taut strings. Earhorns (for 3 Pianos) is an exciting composition, where the stars really are those pianos. The title track, Nfutures, ends proceedings beautifully with an epic piece that features levitating strings, bright-eyed keys and synthetic waves.

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Euan Dalgarno – Nfutures [MOM027]

Paradise Cinema – Paradise Cinema [GONDLP040TG]

PARADISE CINEMA - Paradise Cinema

The multi-instrumentalist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet/Szun Waves) presents his new project Paradise Cinema. It was recorded in Dakar, Senegal in collaboration with mbalax percussionists Khadim Mbaye (saba drums) and Tons Sambe (tama drums). The impressionistic and dream-like quality of ‘Paradise Cinema’ is a stunningly effective realisation of Wyllie’s experience, in ahypnagogic state of aural consciousness. Atmospherically ‘Paradise Cinema’ is vaporous and enigmatic, but also percussive; existing in a paradoxical sound-space that’s amorphous,yet still purposeful, serene, but propulsive and aesthetically sharp. Khadim Mbaye and Tons Sambe, provide the rhythmic backbone of the record. There are traditional elements of mbalax rhythm, but it is often deconstructed or played at tempos outside of the tradition, so while it hints at a location it occupies a space outside of any specific region. ‘Paradise Cinema’ is also informed by notions of hauntology – a philosophical concept originating in the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida– on possible futures that were never realised andhow directions taken in the past can haunt the present. On the album’s title Wyllie comments, ”there are a handful of old cinemas in Dakar – these big modernist buildings dotted around the city built around independence. They’re old and derelict now, but feel to me like monuments to that period, when the city was flooded with utopian ideas about its potential futures.” As such it sits closely to 4thworld music – situated in an imagined culture and time that never came to pass. And while it contains rhythmic references to Senegal it combines these elements with ambient and minimalist music to produce a sound that sits outside of any tradition.

vinyl / CD

Paradise Cinema – Paradise Cinema [GONDLP040TG]

The Heliocentrics – Telemetric Sounds [MMS039]

HELIOCENTRICS, The - Telemetric Sounds

The Heliocentrics, the UK’s cosmic, psychedelic-funk ensemble issue their second album on maverick producer Madlib’s label, Madlib Invazion. Drawing equally from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone, the sublime fusion of David Axelrod, Pierre Henry’s turned-on musique concrète, and Can’s beat-heavy Krautrock, they have – regardless of the label on which they’ve released their music – pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia, one that could only come from a band of accomplished musicians who were also obsessive music fans. It’s only six months since The Heliocentrics released their last album, ‘Infinity of Now’, but boy how the world has changed since then. To reflect that, this new collection of songs is more intense, dark, paranoid, uncertain and, well, angry. It makes for a typically out there record that pulls together disparate worlds and defies familiar conventions. There are moments of sweetness and light such as “Space Cake” but also pixelated realms of jazz complexity that glisten and glean. This is an album that will lead you to strange, thought provoking places, but will also greatly reward any time you spend there.

vinyl / CD

The Heliocentrics – Telemetric Sounds [MMS039]

NEP – Pop Not Pop (Songs For New Europe 1985-1989) [FOX005LP]

NEP - Pop Not Pop: Songs For New Europe 1985-1989

NEP was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 Zagreb, ex-Yugoslavia. The founder Dejan Krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. Heavily influenced by Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol in theory and Brian Eno and Kraftwerk in music, Krsic created NEP as an umbrella term (meaning Nova Evropa or New Europe) of diverse rule-breaking activities, covering graphic design, music, photography, video, news-media and theoretical work. Musically NEP focused on experiments in ambient and tape-music, self-released and hard to find compilation tapes like “The Cassette Played Poptones” (1988). Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic’s search for perfect pop music. For the first time Fox & His Friends team compiles best cuts from unreleased and rare NEP tapes, covering the period from 1985 to 1989 on POP NOT POP abum.

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NEP – Pop Not Pop (Songs For New Europe 1985-1989) [FOX005LP]

Free Range – Camry Horses [OE005]

FREE RANGE - Camry Horses

Free Range are back with their second outing for Osàre editions. ‘Camry Horses’ is a mesmerising dive into the brutal pop-tinged electronics of the duo, taking the mutant surrealism of their first release on the label a step further. Deliciously droning, Matt Weiner and Ernestas Sadau warp melancholic synth over a stomping-techno pulse in ‘Jet Lag is Calling.’ ‘Thunder God’ predicts transmogrifying weather patterns, while ‘Liquid Latex’ casts a touch of dominatrix energy, all powered by hypnotic dancefloor occultism.

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Free Range – Camry Horses [OE005]

Kraftwerk – Tour De France [0190295272104]

KRAFTWERK - Tour De France (Special Edition) (reissue)

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century.  Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop.

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Kraftwerk – Tour De France [0190295272104]

Kraftwerk – The Mix [0190295272128]

KRAFTWERK - The Mix (Special Edition) (reissue)

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop.

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Kraftwerk – The Mix [0190295272128]

Kraftwerk – Computer World [0190295272302]

KRAFTWERK - Computer World (reissue)

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop.

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Kraftwerk – Computer World [0190295272302]

Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine [0190295272333]

KRAFTWERK - The Man Machine (reissue)

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century.  Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop.

listen

Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine [0190295272333]