Mannequin Records present a trilogy of reissues from the avantgarde Italian-born producer Doris Norton, ”Norton Computer For Peace” (1983), ”Personal Computer” (1984), ”Artificial Intellingence” (1985). Apple’s first music ”endorsement” and Roland affiliate, Doris Norton is one of the most important women pioneer in the use of synths and in the early electro / computer music.
Mannequin Records present a trilogy of reissues from the avantgarde Italian-born producer Doris Norton, ”Norton Computer For Peace” (1983), ”Personal Computer” (1984), ”Artificial Intellingence” (1985). Apple’s first music ”endorsement” and Roland affiliate, Doris Norton is one of the most important women pioneer in the use of synths and in the early electro / computer music.
‘Flowers From The Ashes’ is the latest multi-artist project to bear the acclaimed Stroboscopic Artefacts imprimatur. There is a sensibility of decadence and corroded grandeur etched within its four album sides, reminding us that historically ‘decadent’ times have nonetheless resulted in some of the boldest acts of individual and collective creativity. Like the ‘floral’ theme that has remained a consistent feature of S.A.’s graphic presentation, the music here equally presents fragility and intensity in a way that really drives home this visual metaphor for good, while still holding out the promise that similar creations will be seeded in the near future. Though many of the artists involved have set of residence outside of their native Italy, all contribute here to make a captivating portrait of a shared spirit and cultural memory. Tracks from Silvia Kastel, Andrea Belfi, Marco Shuttle, Ninos Du Brasil, Alessandro Adriani, Chevel, Lucy, Lory D, Caterina Barbieri and Neel.
Loch Ness was originally composed as a soundtrack for a – never finished – 2012 Commodore 64 Loch Ness ‘Spotter Simulator’ videogame. An adventure / simulator / RPG in which the player takes the role of a cryptozoologist trying to proof the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. The sounds on this soundtrack come from the mighty Commodore 64 itself. This computer, released in 1982, came with a state of the art soundchip – the MOS technologies SID. Far ahead of its competition it sported advanced functions like waveforms with Pulse Width Modulation, envelope generators and a filter. With this chip the commodore 64 had a real 3 voice synthesizer build in – lightyears removed from the spartan primitive unmusical blips and beeps of the Ataris or Apple II’s. The cassette version of the Loch Ness videogame remastered soundtrack comes with new artwork and extra unreleased tracks.
Digital re-issue coinciding with the tape release of this 2007 Strange Life CDR DX7 drenched cult spywave album. Very much influenced by real locations in the vicinity of the The Hague dune studio where this was recorded – this imaginary soundtrack scores a hypothetical story of a Cold War animal parapsychologist living in an abandoned zoo.
Lena Willikens is the kind of artist who’s only capable of following one path – her own. In many ways, she’s the archetypal selector, an unpredictable DJ who often eschews all notions of genre in favor of what she describes as “different temperatures, different time zones, different moods and a healthy portion of chaos.” Although her methods have certainly proven effective on the dancefloor, Willikens also refuses to be bound by its traditional limitations.
XOR Gate is the brainchild of Heinrich Mueller, one half of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt. In linguistic or electronic logic, the XOR Gate designates a device, digital or grammatical, which outputs a value only when two di ering inputs are fed into it. This can be summed up with the formula ‘one or the other but not neither, nor both.’ A conic section is a shape created as a plane intersects a cone. This can result in di erent figures such as a circle, an ellipse, a parabola or a hyperbola. Conic Sections is here composed of eight themes, or shapes, over which waveform and synthesis entirely merge with human emotions. The line is blurred. These eight themes are intertwined, forming one long musical string. The line is forever blurred.
Les Editions Japonais, is a new label to showcase Japanese artists new and old, the first release is by Tokyo based band Kufuki. Kufuki, was formed in 2010 by Ryuichiro Konno (electronics), Motomasa Saito (electronics), Tosimasa Matsumoto (vocals), and Yudai Nobunaga Kogawa (vocals,VJ, electronics), hailing from various musical genres, ranging from techno, rock, blues and hip-hop. Tired of formulaic club music, they set out to create their own electronic ethnic music, firstly taking influences from places they had travelled, but more recently concentrating on electrifying minyo, or traditional Japanese folk music.
Over the last decade the work of Cosmin Nicolae has been a cresting force of forward thinking electronic music. His TRG alias formed the inaugurate release on the peerless Hessle Audio. In essence he forms an important part of the story of the cross pollination of UK bass’ music with techno and his hard work and craft has seen him maintain his fixture as a sought after talent, both producing and as a DJ. One element which always amplified his work beyond that of many other peers is Cosmin’s dedication to crafting interesting sound from scratch, a process which precedes his production and has it roots in home-brewed experimentation with instruments, electro-acoustic process and improvisation. With this debut release under his actual name, Opal Tapes has provided a space for Cosmin to have free reign to display another, looser and more experimental side of his repertoire. In many ways, an impossible album to classify, it feels as if it’s creating itself a points. The ideas therein are the genesis of so many fully functional’ songs but hearing them like this brings us so much closer to someone else’s mind and fingertips.
Vakulism – here’s Vakula in the continuation of his metaphorical ideas embodied in a new alter ego and unifying combination of different genres which makes Vakula as always unique.
Oscar Mulero presents: ‘Perfect Peace’. Don’t expect dancefloor burners here, this time the spanish techno master goes deep and low, exploring sonic textures, low BPM grooves and the intelligent side of electronic music. Melodies, pads, drones and grooves collide in this soulful collection, conceived to be listened as a soundtrack. Oscar is not new to this sounds, in his Grey Fades To Green or Muscle and Mind albums he showcased his abilities in this field as well as with his Av projects Biolive and Monochrome. A new step in Oscar Mulero’s ever growing career, showing his studio skills and music taste, far beyond his role as a fundamental techno dj.
DsorDNE (pronounced Disordine) is a project from Torino, Italy that evolved as group out of the electronic experimental post punk project Novostj in 1987. At the core of DsorDNE is Marco Milanesio, musical engineer and co-founder of the HAX record label, joined by a revolving cast of musicians. Their spectrum ranged from experimental to structured electro-poetry and Soundtrack like instrumental electronic music. In 1987 they released their first track on a split-single with The Legendary Pink Dots. Between 1987 and 1994 they released 6 full length albums, 3 split-EPs and appeared on various cassette compilations. Ã Un Sole (Itâs a Sun) was the groupâs only vinyl full length originally released in 1990 on HAX. Itâs 8 tracks of electro-beat poetry and experimentation recorded between July 1989 and January 1990 by Marco Milanesio (music) and Roberta Ongaro (vocals) with guests Claudio Burdese (guitar), Danilo Beltrame (guitar) and Cristiana Bauducco (vocals). The album is broken up into two distinct halves. Side A contains four chunks of hard hitting, percussive patterns and rushing bass sequences. Dark, moody female vocals force their monologues through the machinery in their native Italian tongue. The traditional song structure is carefully avoided by giving lyrics equal opportunities be they recited, half-sung, whispered or spoken. Side B displays moodier moments, less savage attacks and subtler sensuality, veering towards the more melodic and existential.
Andrea Noce aka Eva Geist is back with his second album to date, and what clearly makes for a magical companion to 2016’s comparatively murkier Aquator System cassette. Noce returns via Sascha Mambo’s Macadam Mambo imprint, unleashing a flurry of outsider sonics and no-wave vibes thanks to this new Desfan LP. The nine tracks glide with pace and style, ranging form the docile bleeps and pseudo beats of tunes like “Electronic Tribalism” to relatively more ‘dance-friendly’ tunes like “Prologo” or “Nigredo”. It’s hard to put our finger on what makes Noce’s music so singular, but it must have something to do with the artist’s fascination with the Levant – a distant yet perceptible vibe that seeps through all of these tunes.
“Eux sont de ceux qui trament en accordant desseins sur dessins.” MinimalRome is back with the second volume of Trame compilation. A full lenght 2xLP release gathering Legowelt (as Phalangius), Heinrich Dressel, Alessandro Adriani, Ian Martin, Teslasonic, Polysick, C-34, Iron Blue and David Kristian among others. Traveling through these eighteen ambient cosmic tracks from true heirs of library music, you’ll expand the surrounding space.
Original Soundtrack to ‘Summer’s Over’ (2017).
For the first time since 2016, Jamal Moss has pitched up on Soul Jazz with a typically eccentric and mind-altering full-length excursion. As you’d expect, The Red Room is another triumph – an inspirational collection of otherworldly and melodious cuts that effortlessly combine elements from Moss’s many major inspirations. One minute, you’re wigging out to his jacking, piano-heavy fusion of gospel house and synth-jazz (“The Seduction Syndrome”), the next he’s laying down a chunk of deep space ambient with Terry Riley synthesizer cycles (“Awake and Energize”).
Gavin Rayna Russom palms out a loose and wiry jag for Barcelona’s Modern Obscure Music, leaning heavily on a knackered acid bent (and seemingly many of the buttons in her keyboard at once) for the soundtrack to a self-made film about transition in a broader context of capitalism and death.
The Hipodrome Of Music 