Alastair Galbraith – Seconds Mark III [ACOLOUR028]

Alastair Galbraith is considered nothing less than a genius around these parts. A New Zealand underground legend active since the ’80s, his solo works have seen release on Siltbreeze, MIE, Emperor Jones and Grapefruit Records while his own labels, Xpressway and Next Best Way have released the likes of The Dead C and Damo Suzuki. His list of collaborators reads like a who’s who of freeform musicianship: Peter Jefferies, Bruce Russell, Robert Scott (The Clean; Flying Nun) and Maxine Funke to name but a few. Seconds Mark III is Galbraith’s first solo album since Mass (2010) and is a collage of pensive, longing and almost forgotten pieces stitched in his inimitable style. A thrilling addition to A Colourful Storm’s ever-expansive catalogue. 21-track LP

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Alastair Galbraith – Seconds Mark III [ACOLOUR028]

Anna vs June – Prosper Easter [YALANCHI003]

Anna Vs June is the alias of Anna Papaioannou a contemporary music composer from Greece. She captures the perfect balance between electronic and traditional sounds, representing her western and eastern musical influences. Having traveled extensively in rural areas around Greece, she has gathered diverse singing practices from a wide range of areas stretching from the island of Crete to the North East edges of Epirus. In the third release of the newcomer Yalanchi, Anna comes into the picture to share her musical interpretation of growing up in a country that is constantly experiencing an identity crisis. Encompassing her aforementioned research, all tracks on the record are based on traditional music from different parts of Greece, featuring the voices of Anna herself, in addition to guest performances by Stephanos Theodoropoulos from Nea Kios, Nikos Mais-Zogos from Lefkada and Alexis Voutouris with a violin performance.

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Anna vs June – Prosper Easter [YALANCHI003]

Nordvest – Grøndal [SUCTION051]

Suction Records welcomes Roger Semsroth back to the label – having previously released 2 full-length albums with us under his retired electro-pop alias, Skanfrom. “Grøndal” is the debut vinyl release under a new alias, Nordvest. These days, Semsroth is best-known for his stark and minimalist techno project, Sleeparchive. The material on Grøndal – icy, melodic, and mostly beatless – is comprised of tracks that were originally released digitally as Sleeparchive, via Bandcamp. The releases were met with general disinterest from Sleeparchive fans, prompting Semsroth to re-brand them as Nordvest, before removing them from Bandcamp altogether. We’ve chosen 11 highlights from 3 of those digital albums, “Rooftops & Chaotic Streets”, “Scribbles”, and “Sleepless”, for a cohesive 11-track LP of austere, synthetic ambiance.

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Nordvest – Grøndal [SUCTION051]

Crossed Wires – Crossed Wires [LSD032]

Light Sounds Dark present ‘Crossed Wires’ an eponymous collection of music salvaged from a dusty cassette in the depths of the archives from the productions of an 80s psyche-experimentalist. Expect raw, unheard, previously unreleased music,. about as authentic as it gets.

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Crossed Wires – Crossed Wires [LSD032]

Peter Graf York – Expedition Bahn [SONLP03]

Welcome to the curious world of Peter Graf York: a world full of city centre safaris and epic train journeys, Soviet cosmonauts and Oakland rappers, filtered synths and plucked mbiras. It’s a wild ride inspired as much by Jamaican dub sorcery as by playful minimalism outta the Pacific Northwest. Many of these tracks were composed on the hoof – literally en route across sections of the ever-reliable Deutsche Bahn network. As such, there’s a certain travellin-without-moving dynamic across this collection, capturing that cinematic feel of window frames flickering past graffiti’d signal exchanges, morphing into rolling hills and green forests. Expedition Bahn is the sound of ideas being set in motion, each track heralding the arrival of an uncanny destination. Blazed beats give way to acid-fuelled electro, and dub rhythms step aside for 4th world meditations as readily as sleepers on a train track. We can leave the last word to heroic USSR cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who spent the final moments of his fateful re-entry giving the administration an earful of righteous proportions (regarding the technical failures of the spacecraft). Taking his place as the first martyr of space travel, Komarov accepted the Soyuz mission despite safety concerns, in order to protect the other cosmonauts. It’s an attitude that echoes throughout PGY’s sonic universe – make the most of the trip you’re on… ‘cause you never know just which way it will go.

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Peter Graf York – Expedition Bahn [SONLP03]

Ulla – Tumbling Towards A Wall [ULLA001]

Immersively sensual, diaristic entries by cult US ambient avatar Ulla (aka Ulla Straus), the first release on Experiences Ltd. For solitary reflection or post-party couch slump with friends, Ulla’s first mononymous release is a gorgeous record that mellows and balances any physical or mental space it comes into contact with.

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Ulla – Tumbling Towards A Wall [ULLA001]

Ben Bondy – Sibling [BONDY01]

Ben Bondy blesses Special Guest DJ’s Experiences Ltd with a near-fathomless solo debut of sensual, low key electronics and intimate nocturnes. ’Sibling’ sees Bondy return to a seductively gauzy midground sound that over the course of 15 tracks lulls and lists with a minimalist patience, allowing forms to emerge and evaporate in constantly shifty transitions and weathered plays of light according to an immersive eco-logic. Those liminal traces of sound and influence are almost imperceptible, pulling you into a protective amniotic sound-world thats evocative and comforting.

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Ben Bondy – Sibling [BONDY01]

Ireen Amnes – In The Land Of Silence [SGXLP002]

Debut by Ireen Amnes. “In The Land of Silence” is the first full length album by experimental artist Ireen Amnes. The founder of the London based collective Under My Feet debuts on Sonic Groove with an immaterial journey contemplating suffering, liberation, the importance of affection and unity. This ambient album reveals a hidden connection between these human emotions. From anger and rejection, to love and unity, the sounds explored by the artist represent a recent journey within. Recollections of distant memories are expressed with nostalgic sounds; by contrast, darker tracks are symbolic of those moments when it is more dif ficult to accept reality for what it is. Ireen expresses in this album that there wouldn’t be any joy without suffering.

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Ireen Amnes – In The Land Of Silence [SGXLP002]

Soviet Space Research Institute – ARPA Spatial Industries Commercial [LE004]

Soviet Space Research Institute (SSRI) is a musical scheme led by Vladimiros Peilivanidis under the moniker Heinz Kammler. Similar to other HK by-products such as ITPDWIP (Instant Teleportation Process Detected While In Progress), SSRI is influenced by early Soviet and Western electronix of the likes of Detroit, Bristol, Munich, and St. Petersburg. ARPA Spatial Industries is a fictional exotic tech R&D firm operating from 2036. The SSR Institute is exploring the cosmic endeavours of ARPA S.I. as presented through a series of public commercials.

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Soviet Space Research Institute – ARPA Spatial Industries Commercial [LE004]

Ghost Horse – Trojan [MRI107]

Sprouting from a rich humus of Latin and African polyrhythms, Ghost Horse creates a fusion of free jazz, hip hop, blues & loop music. The result is fascinating but quietly menacing, pulsing & breathing with the visceral force of nature reclaiming abandoned structures.

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Ghost Horse – Trojan [MRI107]

Manos Brujas ‎- Sangre De Oro [PNK-DL2]

Manos Brujas is a project by Julian Vasquez, a Colombian artist who draws his inspiration from the lost tribes and shamanism. With his first album Sangre de Oro on our Pinkman Digi Lab series, Manos tells about a legend of a magic totem hidden far in the jungle and a tribe man’s quest to find it, driven by his desire to gain shamanic power. Replete with ritual-like drum beats, rumbling melodies and echoes of animal chatter, the sonic narrative of the album follows the tribe man’s journey, dragging the listener from the remote depths of the jungle to the psychedelic realms of dreams and rituals, until the man realises that the real power was within him. The album is a cinematic and intricate trip made to alters minds.

Manos Brujas ‎- Sangre De Oro [PNK-DL2]

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi & Burnt Friedman – YEK 2 [NON52]

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (Tombak) & Burnt Friedman (electronics, synth.) release their second EP “YEK 2”. Equipped with one drum only and laser-pattern–electronics, Mortazavi and Friedman produce delicate, yet archaic, trance–inducing, transnational dance music with… hints of dust and grain… They move hands and faders according to odd cyclical rhythms with incredible accuracy. The extreme dynamic range and rhythmic congruency of drum and electronics merge both, Mortazavi`s and Friedman’s repertoire entirely.

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Mohammad Reza Mortazavi & Burnt Friedman – YEK 2 [NON52]

Undermedvetenheten – Undermedvetenheten [KR36]

UNDERMEDVETENHETEN is a simple, science fantasy game for 1-12 players, with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling and player cooperation – perfect for newcomers to live action role playing. It takes 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 30 minutes, and no two games are ever the same. Players take on the roles of humans aboard a vessel on an endless journey into the depths of space. They are not lost, but all hope is, as they hurtle stricken into the void. Your only access to the universe outside is through the ship’s altruistic artificial intelligence, Mima. As immersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, players must interact with Mima in order to shed light on the universe around them, indulge in fantasies of worlds past, or attempt to right the ship’s blighted trajectory. Can you make sense of the abyss? UNDERMEDVETENHETEN comes complete with a soundtrack composed by John B McKenna.

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Undermedvetenheten – Undermedvetenheten [KR36]

DYL+ DB1 – Ecou [RE25]

DYL+ DB1 successfully fuses experimental D&B, half-step and techno tropes. Here they re-establish their occasional studio partnership with a first collaborative full-length. It’s a pleasingly atmospheric and imaginative affair, with the pair offering up tracks that variously mix and match elements of unearthly ambient, off-kilter drum and bass, broken techno, murky post-dubstep rhythms, experimental electronica, the metallic clonk of industrial and the hazy hypnotism of dub techno. Musically it’s hard to pin down due to the wide variety of interestingly programmed rhythms, though the album’s uniformly paranoid sense of impending darkness, coupled with occasional glimpses of musical positivity, ensures a coherent aural vision.

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DYL+ DB1 – Ecou [RE25]

Regis – Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss [DNLP028]

Regis lets his rhythmic noise opus out into the world, a bruising and hauntingly absorbing album – his first since 2001 – dispatched on his pivotal label; Downwards. On a masterful twenty-year followup to ‘Penetration’, Karl O’Connor yields a definitive solo LP that distills his passions for sonic brutalism and bastardised Chicago tracks with syncopated UK swagger and reverberating warehouse ballistics. Its lip-bitingly gripping effect is testament to a resounding reputation as one of Industrial music’s most influential producers, and sees the artist bring his own influences – from Test Department to Jeff Mills – into line with his potent palette of narcotised tones. Recorded in Berlin with Einstürzende Neubauten’s producer/engineer Boris Wilsdorf, the album’s supple, spartan, and rhythmic gymnastics notably benefit from acres of icy room to roll around and lash out. Snagged around muscular bassline revs, and caressed with keys and vocals by postpunk catalyst Annie Hogan (whose recent turn for Downwards was a total revelation), the 9 tracks portray Regis at his leanest and most mesmerising, which is all the more impressive coming from an artist who’s deliberately held his line through club music’s mutations for more than 30 years.

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Regis – Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss [DNLP028]