recommendations 
Thursday, 09 May
Dan Lopatin and Joel Ford’s Software Recording Co. present a full-length album from Matt Papich, the follow up to his noted 2011 NNA Tapes side Daydream Repeater. Made in the kitchen of his Baltimore home, with assistance from Joe Williams on programming and synths, it builds on the bubblegum psychedelia of its predecessor to arrive at a dense, sample-happy and expressionistic electronic sound that is 2013 to a tee, yet resists easy pigeonholing. It’s also largely beat-driven, whether it's plasmic dancehall (‘Melter’s Delight’), colliding the bamboo ambience of Ryuichi Sakamoto with clucking foo… Read more
CHRIS CARTER
Conspiracy International
MP3 Download // £4.99
FLAC Download // £5.99
Cat. Number: CTIDD012
First ever digital issue of Chris Carter's solo follow-up to the legendary 'Spaces Between' Originally issued on LP in 1985, 'Mondo Beat' stars one of the Throbbing Gristle lynchpin's most recognisable solo tracks, the proto-New Beat and Industrial classic, 'Moonlight', plus five further tracks of highly advanced productions, taking in the flash stabs and body-contorting beats of 'Real Life', the extra-tropical electro elan of 'Noevil', experimental cut-ups on 'Nobadhairdo', and the noisy, psychosexual EBM tripper 'Beyond Temptation'. We need say no more; this is a total must-have for all wave psychonauts and techno dancers!
BOBBY KALPHAT & THE SUNSHOT ALL STARS
Pressure Sounds
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £7.99
Cat. Number: PS79
Review to follow shortly…
Wiggly swing moves fresh outta Belfast. Bicep's 2nd 12" for Aus Music catches the lads Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar in four grooves primed for that eye-fluttering, lip-smacking time of night, from the escalating, arms-in-the-air arpeggios and slinky bass of 'Stash', to the twinkling melodies and ass bumping subs of 'Courtside Drama', whilst 'Rise' boosts the energy levels with driving dub chords and trancey builds for 'The Game' to clock out on a romantic tip.
ALEXANDER LEWIS
BLACKEST EVER BLACK
MP3 Download // £4.99FLAC Download // £5.99
Cat. Number: BLACKEST014
Hard on the heels of that incredible Prurient side, Blackest Ever Black introduce Alexander Lewis to the fold with this maiden LP of bitter industrial electronics and "S-M Techno". Recorded in one take with minimal computer processing or post-production, its blinkerdly linear construction, billowing feedback clouds and glazed stare instantly and strongly reminds of Hospital Productions' criminally underrated Kris Lapke aka Alberich, which is high praise indeed. A paucity of elements are optimised to effect, using only microphone, synth and pedals to create the arpeggiated tunnel w… Read more
Massive remix collection for French producer, 123MRK's trap-wise electronics. Our highlights have to be Deft's whirring halfstep footwork version of 'Invisible Colors'; the flash funk of Obey City's 'Pleasure' overhaul; a forlorn slow-boogie remix of 'Unrest' by Troy Gunner.
Monday, 29 April
SSALIVA / WANDA GROUP
Svetlana Industries
MP3 Download // £3.05FLAC Download // £3.50
Cat. Number: WOE001
*Ssaliva returns with chiming '80s new age bliss, plus a 13-minute excursion from Wanda Group...* Ssaliva proves a perfect new addition to Svetlana Industries workforce with the chiming '80s new age bliss and ambient disco bump of 'Birth Body'. Hailing from Liege, Belgium, Ssaliva meshes a certain flatlands American sensibility with an intrinsically mittel-European mood. This is music for autobahns and dead-straight highways, from the gorgeous wide-open sky synths of 'Fantasy 33' thru the dawning after-hours bump of 'Arcadia', sounding like the stuff you'd imagine Fat Ronnie to pla… Read more
'Gone Feral' is the deliciously discordant and frayed new glimpse of (James) Holden's upcoming album 'The Inheritors' for Border Community. Leaving the lite-fingered trance a mirage in the past, he appears to have mutated into a far more intriguing beast with a taste for visceral dissonance. The melodies could be from an aquapiezo symphony recorded in a Chernobyl pond while the rhythm is daringly primitive yet elegant, like new Wolf Eyes attempting a waltz, and luckily enough you get them both included as separate 'Drumtool' and 'Synthtool'. Very cool beans.
Kode 9 returns with his first single in two years, would you believe. We’re a long way from the UKF-inflected house manoeuvres the Hyperdub skipper was making on 2011’s Black Sun; instead lead cut ‘Xingfu Lu’, which fans will know has existed for at least a year, firmly channels footwork through Memories Of The Future's haunted dancehall. Spend even a minute with ‘Xinfu Lu’, though, and you’ll see it’s no ordinary juke pastiche: it’s properly dubwise, its sickened, weasly synthesizer lines and chopped-to-f**k drums seem designed less to mobilise your feet than to stir up the voices in your h… Read more
Another crucial side on Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ, prised from some putrid cave deep under the underground. This time it’s a double-vinyl edition of Wold’s Freermasonry, the first time on wax for a work originally issued by Profound Lore Records on CD in 2011. The Saskatchewan troupe, led by one Fortress Crookedjaw, take no prisoners and sure as hell don’t meet you in the middle - rather they offload a barrage of putrid, zero-fidelity, utterly addictive black metal-flavoured noise, anchored by vocals that have to count among the most flesh-creeping and downright unpleasant we’ve heard … Read more
ENSEMBLE SKALECTRIK (EKOPLEKZ)
Editions Mego
MP3 Download // £5.99FLAC Download // £6.99
Cat. Number: EMEGO169
Nick Edwards metamorphs and diffuses from Ekoplekz into Ensemble Skalectrix to issue the riveting plunderphonic turntablism of 'Trainwrekz' on Editions Mego. Now armed with a stack of dusty wax and two turntables alongside his matrix of pedals and "sound-shaping devices", Ensemble Skalectrix resulted from three experimental sessions recorded in november 2012 and lands somewhere between Jeff Keen's blatz-techno and Maurizio Bianchi's phosphorous synth noise sludge, crystallising in six tracks equally informed by free improvisation, aleatoric strategy, musique concrète, haun… Read more
Imperious, vital doom from some of its most dedicated and decorated practitioners. Stephen O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar formed Gravetemple as a more abstract, exploratory adjunct to Sunn O))) in 2006, and when they reconvened for live actions in 2008 they were joined by Aussie drummer Matt ‘Skitz’ Sanders. Interestingly Ambient/Ruin, originally made available as a self-released CD-R in ‘08 and now presented in a sumptuous vinyl edition on SOMA’s own Ideologic Organ imprint, isn’t a live document but a studio-sutured creation - made up of parts recorded separately in Japan, F… Read more
**Excellent debut from the mysterious Joane Skyler - keep a close eye on this one** At a blindspot intersection of the hardcore continuum and bedroom electronica, Joane Skyler creates the magical world of 'Orz', her debut release for ones-to-watch, Reckno. Lucidly colourful, freakishly twisted and packed with swagger, it's like a demented distant cousin of HYpe Williams, Irdial or the Skam crew doing it for the freaky kids. Her breakbeat edits are skewed but fearsomely tight and funky, while melodies zip and unravel, keen and swoon with a beautifully assured sleight of hand, knotting and splitti… Read more
KAREEM
Porto Ronco (Original Version)
The Death Of Rave
MP3 Download // £4.99FLAC Download // £5.99
Cat. Number: RAVE003
Following on from a vinyl issue of Mark Leckey's "Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore" and an EP by Powell, The Death of Rave presents the first longform, beat-less composition by Patrick Stottrop aka Kareem. Since 1996 the Berlin-based artist has produced nearly 20 singles and albums for both his Zhark Recordings and Ramadan labels, Kanzelramt’s K2 0 subprint, and Paris’s Fondation Sonore, forging a strong identity split between uncompromising industrial techno and RZA-like instrumental hip hop, all with a blackened streak of gothic finesse. Following a hiatus during the late ‘00s, in… Read more
Trippier, kinkier deep house plays by Canada's Kevin McPhee. His A-side 'Version One' borrows vibes from classic Relief and Boo Williams styles to a bumpty outcome; B-side 'It's What She Wants' kneads in some swinging Afro-beat drums and kalimba-like timbres to come off like older Kassem Mosse or Workshop grooves, and 'P1:P2' slackens the line for a screwed beatdown wiggle.
'Rites' is the chilling solo debut proper by Sri Lanka-born, Bristol-based composer and sound designer, Paul Jebanasam. It arrives via his own Subtext label - home to a series of bracing recent releases by Emptyset and Roly Porter - to deliver a payload of gothic electro-acoustic composition blending neo-classical, black metal and electronic drone traits with an insoluble, elemental alchemy. It should come as little surprise that he's also been known to handle sound design for film, but 'Rites' is concerned with far loftier, artful ideas as the label's press expounds; "Rites brings together … Read more
KEIJI HAINO / JIM O'ROURKE / OREN AMBARCHI
Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery
BLACK TRUFFLE
MP3 Download // £5.99FLAC Download // £6.99
Cat. Number: BLACKTRUFFLE09
The rarely paralleled trio reconvene for an engrossing fourth album: six recordings made at their yearly concert at SuperDeluxe, Tokyo, January , 2012. Joined by esteemed company, Charlemagne Palestine and Eiko Ishibashi, the core trio spread out further and more succinctly than ever before, oscillating assuredly between ghostly minimalism, feathered jazz fusion and gnarled "cave-man rock". The album opens with Palestine stirring spectral tones from wine glasses, soon joined by the floating vocal presence of Haino and… Read more
Cosmin TRG further refines his house and techno tastes on 'Gordian' two years on from his debut album, 'Simulat'. Packaged in the sort of grown-up tip-on gatefold slipcase you'd more expect from Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ imprint, both the titular, conceptual inference to ancient myth and the sleekly developed brand of techno within imply a carefully considered development of the Berlin-based Romanian producer's ideas. Proceeding to jettison any tangible connection with rave and dubstep in favour of a buttoned-up, earnestly focussed conservatism, Cosmin Nicolae offers, "The title refer… Read more
Over ten years since its original release, Deadbeat hauls up his debut album for re-appraisal on his still young Blkrtz label. Originally appearing in 2001 it was evidently indebted to the (then) recently established legacy of Basic Channel/Maurizio, yet as with the likes of his future collaborator Robert Henke aka Monolake, or Detroit's Echospace, he stamped his own subtle watermark on the stripped down and purist dub techno style thanks to a taste for gloaming drones and a serious fascination with rugged bass weight. And it's exactly that fact that makes it stand head high in crowded… Read more
It’s a long time since the phrase “punk-funk” was used in anything but a pejorative sense, but the battle-hardened band that embodied it it in the mid-2000s show no signs of repenting, and bless them for it. They’ve called this album Thr!!!er because they reckon, like Jacko’s Thriller, that it’s their defining statement: certainly they’re fonkier (as Craig Charles would put it) than ever before, a groove machine that’s well-oiled but not outright slick, and still packs a bit of grit. Spoon drummer Jim Eno took the production reins for this LP and has helped !!! streamline and focus their soun… Read more
Refined continental dread from Erik K. Skodvin, with his first offering as Svarte Greiner since 2011's Twin. With its distressed cello parts, plunging doom guitar chords and chasmic reverbs, the title track can't help but call to mind Raime's Quarter Turns LP, but of course Skodvin is no neophyte, he's been honing this sound over many years, and his execution of it here is exemplary - it's 20 minutes go by in a flash, testament to the consummate depth and character of a music that seems so sparse and forbidding at surface-level. 'White Noise' is a more electronic, drone-oriented piece, t… Read more
Eugene Hector, the man behind Dro Carey, dropped this grimy avant-acid session on the wicked Reckno label in 2012. Predating his Opal Tapes issue and emerging after the run of bassspectrum-obsessed Dro Carey gear, this stuff feels in flux, veering to a stripped down, bugged-out house and techno style. Most of the tracks are short, grubby sketches, all whirring rhythms and textured motifs suspended in fields of digital detritus and ranging from the desiccated electro-house of 'Clobber' the squirm-bot funk of 'Maler' and one swaggering sci-fi ace 'Wedlock', but there are two sli… Read more
Austin, TX-based Survive render their instantly sold-out, self-released debut tape 'HD009' to the post-new age digital faithful. Sonically situated between the soundtrack to an alien abduction and aloe-scented peace suite meditation that goes very wrong, it comprises an extended demo version of the four-piece's 'Deserted Skies' blurring into over forty minutes of mind-fusing melancholic synth drift getting progressively darker and more stranded as the session unfolds. It's certainly not as sappy as so many of the nu kosmiche brigade tend towards, whether that's pseudo sacred references or che… Read more
YATHA BHUTA JAZZ COMBO (ONRA)
All City
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £7.99
Cat. Number: ACYBLPx1
"12 track spiritual, deep jazz LP from Parisian producer Onra and friend - fellow producer, composer and arranger - Buddy Sativa. Combining as the Yatha Bhuta Jazz Combo this LP may be a surprise to followers of Onra, while Buddy Sativa will be known to some via his own 2011 jazz leaning LP "Deus Ex Machina" on Favorite Records. There they collaborated on their first jazz track - "Indica". Pleased with the results they carried on, keeping it simple and adhering to straightforward play-more-jazz stylings they have crafted this LP over sessions sandwiched between … Read more
Review to follow shortly…
Review to follow shortly…
MP3 Download // £1.70
FLAC Download // £2.10Review to follow shortly…
Various Production route back to 2006 circa their debut album 'The World Is Gone', to reclaim and rework this ghostly missive which missed the final cut. For all intents and purposes, the unnamed vocalist may well be a ghost as far as we know, flitting in the hollows of VP's expanding and contracting matrix of fuzz loops, jagged dubstep etchings and dusty atmosphere like the document of an EVP occurrence in a corrupted hard drive. RIYL Evian Christ, o0o00, Seefeel.
VARIOUS / SOUNDWAY
Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s
Soundway Records
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £7.99
Cat. Number: 5060091552852
"Soundway Records present Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s - a treasure-trove of rare and unusual recordings from East Africa. It follows on from Soundway’s much acclaimed African ‘Special’ series that to date has focused on the highlife and afrobeat output from 1970s Nigeria and Ghana. Kenya Special is a collection of 32 recordings (most of which were only ever released on small-run 45rpm 7" singles) that stand out as being different or unique as well as some classic genre standards. From Kiku… Read more
Timelessly modern deep house updates from Hamburg's Smallville sect. Four effortlessly smooth and grooving cuts ranging from Iron Curtis's emotional square bass and pads move, 'Daniel' to Detroit-dedicated beatdown filter business in Moomin's 'I Whisper A Prayer' and a really classy late night shake down from RVDS & Rau entitled 'Umbé Data'.
