recommendations 
Thursday, 11 April
12" // £7.99*The legendary 4th Burial Mix release, now pressed up on 12" - as unmissable as they come...*
**Hand-stamped white label - new on Skudge** Industrial, acidic, technoid Breaks from a new player presented by Skudge. Outta nowhere, Koehler sets up a robust trio rangingfromt he rusty snare pivots and grumbling subbass undertow of 'Technicolour', thru more Detroit/UK-flavoured breakbeat techno on 'Kiss Me Deadly' and the EP's piece de resistance, a hardcore tinged 2-step techno bomb called 'Water Palace'.
TWICE A MAN / LARS FALK / COSMIC OVERDOSE
Xenophone International 1979-1985
Vinyl On Demand
Deluxe 3LP Box // £49.99
Cat. Number: VOD113
**Triple LP housed in rigid, glossy printed boxset with insert notes by the band. 31 tracks total. Edition of 500 includes individually numbered certificate of ownership** "This Box-Set compiles the early stage (1979-85) of the swedish Label Xenophone International founded by Dan Söderqvist and Karl Gasleben in late 70’s which is well known for their own projects and tape-releases by Cosmic Overdose (Final Koka, 1980) & Twice a Man (A Goat in a Room, 1983“) as well as the 1983-release „Through“ by the previous Twice a Man-member Lars Falk. Now, … Read more
**Features guest contributions by C. Spencer Yeh, Andrea Belfi, Stafano Pilia, Attila Faravelli** "David Grubbs is one of the most influential musicians of his generation, with a musical CV that includes such bands as Squirrel Bait, Bastro and Gastr del Sol. Moving forward eccentrically from the straight-ahead hardcore punk of Squirrel Bait, David increasingly infused his songcraft with an experimental strain, culminating in the discography of Gastr del Sol, who drew widespread interest with the ways in which they combined so-called 'songs' with experimental music. Parti… Read more
Thursday, 04 April
**Initial copies on translucent green vinyl - an exceptional album of treated field recordings and tape treatments, cut at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin** Geoff Mullen's 'Filtered Water' is an augmented mono recording documenting a multi-channel sound installation in the backwoods of Hudson Valley. Following ongoing experiments with champion and spar, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and the excellent 'Accidental Guitars' for regular collaborator Eli Keszler's R.E.L. Records, it's a subtly beguiling follow-up to his 'Bongo Closet' LP, released three years ago on Type. Leaving the guitar at home… Read more
CLAIR OBSCUR
C.O.I.T 1981-1988: NOIR (Vinyl Edition)
Vinyl On Demand
2LP + 2CD + 7" // £32.99
Cat. Number: VOD41
**Double white vinyl (edition of 200) housed in debossed gatefold jacket with bonus 7" plus expanded CD, selection of art inserts and liner notes** This amazing archival collection from Vinyl on Demand brings together 28 tracks of kinetic, dark and unusual French wave and industrial aces by Clair Obscur. Many of them formerly appeared on the 'A Collection Of Isolated Tracks' CD, but this compilation adds 13 previously unpublished gems bundled with the first ever vinyl issue of their 1982 tape, 'La Cassette Noir', and a double CD not included in V-O-D's first, 2007 ed… Read more
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 waves… Read more
**Embossed boxset holds four LPs, one double gatefold jacket and two individual jackets plus DVD and certificate of ownership. Individually numbered edition of 500. All faithfully restored from original tapes by Anders Peterson** From the untrodden annals of Industrial history, V-O-D pulls out the seminal 'Tape-Works 1981-1982' of Melbourne's Laughing Hands and The Invisible College. Centred around Paul Schütze (who would go on to release classic dark ambient, drone and experimental records thru the '90s) along with Gordon Harvey, Paul Widdicombe and Ian Russell, the group operate… Read more
**Includes download code redeemable from the label** Kahn presents his eponymous opus starring vocals from Flowdan, Rider Shafique and Jabu. A dangerously talented producer with a feel for arrangement and ideas beyond his years, the Bristol-bassed producer has established a fearsome rep with diverse drops on Deep Medi, Punch Drunk and Hotline, including the awesome radio collage 'Gorgon Grime' and veering from fluoro steppers to badman specials all within his own soundworld. This keenly cohesive five track collection puts all that experience to work, booting *that* Bristol sound to the future in a way t… Read more
**one-sided 180g pressing with etching on the flipside** Boutique imprint, Sleeperhold Publications, present Chicago's Disappears on two new demos and an exclusive versions of 'Love Drug' from their 'Pre-Language' album for Kranky. Revolving around 90 Day Men's Brian Case, alongside Jonathan van Herik, Damon Carruesco and Noah Leger, the group here employ a drum computer instead of Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley - as on their previous LP - to brilliant effect, stripping their sound down to reveal a raw, unpolished version of their muggy melancholy at its most evocative. The starknes… Read more
Dub Mechz debut on Deep Medi with a pair of precise, pressurised halfstep variants. Hailing from the birthplace of dubstep, south of the river, they've hatched a proper insider's take on the sound with the lip-bitingly tight rufige of A-side Broken LFO' and its hardcore, off-kilter bass growls lashed to bleeping, mercurial drums coming off like Zomby's 'ard cousin. 'Change Of Direction' switches tack to a rolling gangsta boogie sound 'pon the flip, oscillating to the deeper side of that Anti Social Ents patent.
Strong debut from San Fran-based Brooklynite Nico Jacobsen aka Hound Scales for the freshly minted Fifth Wall label. Like an American cousin of SLO or Blawan, 'Case (Nabis)' cycles thru five variations on an industrial house theme, from the pistoning push of the title track to the grinding rhythms of 'Stasi Flex'. Ghosts On Tape provides a cooler counterpoint with the simmering swing 'n jack of his remix, while Isolated Lines comes off like one of the Perc Trax lot with his roguish industrial techno take on 'Stasi Flex'. TIPPED!
Extraordinary re-interpretations of two of Jacob Kirkegaard's back-catalogue pieces by Danish classical ensemble Scenatet. The original 'Church' (from 2006's 4 Rooms) was wrought out of ambient recordings of an abandoned church inside the radioactive zone at Chernobyl; 'Labyrinthitis' (2008), meanwhile, was composed from "oto-acoustic" tones generated by Kirkegaard's own ears. Hearing these sounds transcribed into the realm of Music with a capital 'M' - and performed on clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, percussion - does nothing to diminish their abstract power. If anything, it enhances… Read more
**Silver vinyl** DJ Sprinkles, Bicep and Rick Wade weigh out three classy deep house tracks. Naturally our attentions head first to DJ Sprinkles' B-side 'Kissing Costs Extra', a lushly sub-loaded and laidback shuffler with a certain parlour-like atmosphere and worth the cost of admission alone. On the flip Bicep turn out a low-slung and organ-simmering Jersey swinger, 'Feel It', whilst Rick Wade gets loose and frisky in the polyrhythmic lather of 'Free'.
The 1st Release on Untold's new Pennyroyal label is a searing dose of fresh techno from the hotly tipped, London-based producer, J Tijn. Already marked up by the likes of Happa and Jon Convex as one to watch, he takes the skin off it with an alarming A-side bruiser fulla ruthless kicks and screaming sirens, whilst the B-side flexes out on staggered kick drums, spectral noise and rusted gear-clanking rhythms. Girder-strength business for fans of Blawan and Pariah, Surgeon, Happa, all that!
Panorama Bar's Virginia Högl plays out four classy deep house grooves with a sweeter D-troit-meets-Berlin touch. Her 'Neurosis' nods to classic KMS moments with elastic b-line and streaking synth stabs revolving her own cut-up vocal, and 'Shifter' winks to classic, early Carl Craig. She's at her lushest with the rolling, In Sync-styled romance, 'Loch & Hill', and gives some room for those yearning vocals against the warm chords and lithe bass shift of 'Tangish'. RIYl Steffi, Basic Soul Unit, Xosar.
**Gatefold jacket with full-size booklets** "Proper Brit Pop" from London a long time ago, collecting 19 calypsos from Lord Kitchener, Buddy Pipp's Highlifers, Mighty Terror, and many more. The fifth edition in Honest Jon's evergreen series returns to a shuffling fifties & sixties young Black London from the perspective of its recent Caribbean and West African inhabitants, sharing their tales on everything from the devaluation of the pound to the sexual allure of English dibble fe… Read more
**Gatefold jacket with full-size booklets** The evergreen compilations return with twenty mento, calypso, jazz & highlife aces from fifties & sixties young Black London. Stars of the series such as Mighty Terror, Ambrose Campbell's West African Rhythm Brothers, Lord Kitchener and Buddy Pipp reliably turn up tried and tested highlights alongside lesser known but no less brilliant bits also taken from HMV's GV label, an imprint intended for export to younger record buyers in Africa.… Read more
MUKUNGUNI
New Recordings from Coast Province, Kenya
Honest Jon's Records
2x10" + CD // £14.99
Cat. Number: HJRLP068
**Double 10" gatefold jacket includes full CD copy** Terrific field recordings of the Mijikenda tribes of Kenya, crisply recorded, mixed and produced by Sven Kacriek and To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider for an Honest Jon's & Goethe-Institut co-operation. Focussed around Mukunguni village, these 14 songs capture Sengenya percussive traditions fit for varying purpose, from healing to celebration, replete with a rich spirit of the place in the recordings' atmosphere and natural, unforced feel. The most literal example of this is their recording of a spontaneous Swahili… Read more
**Includes digital download voucher redeemable from the label** Bona Dish were a scratchy pop punk group from Hertfordshire villages, brought together by their love of the Velvets, Supremes and each other. They were cool, handsome and gorgeous. The songs are simple but at the same time complex. The two girls, two boy’s line-up added a tension that was both sexual and musically fragile. You felt it might all fall apart any second but it rarely did. After their "cassette in a tube" ploy worked for John Peel play, the band released a cassette on InPhaze and disbanded not long aft… Read more
Houndstooth's foreboding theme music lands on wax backed with a furtive footwork remix by Fracture, marking up the 2nd issue on Fabric's new spawnling. House Of Black Lanterns is a front for Dylan Richards' (fka King Cannibal) new forays into the nether region between neurotic D&B, Chi-town mutations and noirish electronics; a proper London night music evoking images of pleasured grimace, evasive/invasive dancefloor actions and the ting/tang of good/bad drugs. The lead cut's got a real demonic swagger about it, while 'Like A Warrior' cuts in on dread space previously staked out by … Read more
Thursday, 28 March
+ Free MP3
**140g vinyl mastered and cut by Rashad at D&M. Packaged in pro-press colour jacket which itself is housed in a silkscreened PVC sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas** PAN's 2nd issue of 2013 is a deep moving, funereal suite of drone compositions by Mohammad. Based in Greece, the chamber music trio features previous PAN contributor Ilios (oscillators) alongside Coti K (contrabass) and Nikos Veliotis (cello) and has previously issued two albums on the Antifrost label prior to writing this abyssal, viscerally affective opus. Their 'Som Sakrifis' works to principles of inter-modu… Read more
Very welcome return for Robert Hampson with the first Main album in seven years, new on eMego. Hampson founded Main with Scott Dawson upon disbanding Loop in '94, and while their initial releases still bore traces of their space-rock origins, the goal was always total ecstatic abstraction, and by the time of the Hz series, completed in '96, they'd pretty much achieved it. Main's music has been called many things: industrial, noise, isolationist electronica, dub, drone; the truth it, it's all and none of those things, especially now. For Ablation, Hampson - whose long-standing interest in musique concre… Read more
Numbers present Deadboy's first new gear since 2011 - the 'Blaquewerk EP'. It's a darker, leaner grip of typically adroit bass grooves carving between garage, house and jungle with a deep, yearning sense of London night music, reprising that elusive vibe which made his early aces, 'If U Want Me', and 'Wish U Were Here' such timeless anthems. From the top he hits a deeply melancholy stride with a fine blend of '80s electro-soul and Chi-house in 'On Your Mind', all flash stabs, martial snares and his own, gutted vocals put to great use, while 'Geek'd Up' blazes KMS chords on a belly-tucked and rugge… Read more
**Limited edition in silk-screened 4-panel, heavy card wrap-around jacket** Wickedly crude and compelling industrialisms from Ninni Morgia and Silvia Kastel's Control Unit. On their 2nd full length since last years acclaimed 'The Fugutives' LP, they warm up a vintage array of synths, beat boxes, fuzz machines and tape echo to coldest, arcane effect, following an intuitive path through viscous bubbling basslines, wretched atmospheres and almost dangerously blank-eyed vocals. Imagine Tropic Of Cancer with a seriously bad drug habit and a thing for Maurizio Bianchi and you're within touching distance of their clammy, psychotic sound.
VARIOUS / SOUL JAZZ
Acid : Mysterons Invade The Jackin' Zone Chicago Acid and Experimental House 1986-1993 (PART A)
Soul Jazz Records
2LP // £19.99
Cat. Number: SJRLP266-1
**All remastered classics pressed to 180g 2LP housed in deluxe gatefold jacket with graphic novel. Includes download code redeemable from the label** Soul Jazz take us back to Chicago 1986-1993 with a wealth of classic acid from Phuture, Mr. Fingers, Risque Rhythm Team, Virgo, Cool McCool and more, accompanied by a graphic novel in swish package. Delving deeper into the scene that jack built, this is the natural successor to their definitive 'Acid - Can You Jack?' compilation from 2005, now neatly incorporati… Read more
VARIOUS / SOUL JAZZ
Acid : Mysterons Invade The Jackin' Zone Chicago Acid and Experimental House 1986-1993 (PART B)
Soul Jazz Records
2LP // £19.99
Cat. Number: SJRLP266-2
**All remastered classics pressed to 180g 2LP housed in deluxe gatefold jacket with graphic novel. Includes download code redeemable from the label** Soul Jazz take us back to Chicago 1986-1993 with a wealth of classic acid from Phuture, Mr. Fingers, Risque Rhythm Team, Virgo, Cool McCool and more, accompanied by a graphic novel in swish package. Delving deeper into the scene that jack built, this is the natural successor to their definitive 'Acid - Can You Jack?' compilation from 2005, now neatly incorporat… Read more
Butterz land a special, one-sided '20,000 Miles Later Mix' of Swindle's 'Air Miles' ruckus. Built for instant effect, it dangerously swings between signature sweet boogie and almost Bad Company-style madness with a wild-eyed and deranged effect. Hyper-boogie grime madness!
Frothiest Balearic dancepop kisses from the Sunless '97 trio, backed with Luke Soloman remix. As an ode to post-club phosphorescence, "the "euphoric vibes of walking home after a night of dancing, feeling content, at peace and not 'lonely' even though you are walking home alone", 'Aurora I' hits the mark nicely with lyrics and loose, effervescent grooves hinting at classic Arthur Russell, a feeling shared in the shuffling Afro-pop-gone-baggy lilt of 'Aurora II'. Remixing, F.E.A.R's Brothers & Sisters '97 remix gives it a John Talabot-like house chug and Luke Solomon takes to the 'floor with a dub-frayed and strident psych-house version. Tip!
Mark Ernestus and Jeri-Jeri have us by the hips again with the 4th Ndagga release. Starring Mbene Diatta Seck, Ale & Khadim Mboup, the original 'Bamba' shake-down is another shoulder-droppin', swingeingly tight Mbalax ace with that signature drum cadence and tightest guitar chops eased off with lushly dubbed out vocals. There's also a version for those not into the vocals or wanting to extend the groove, plus a pair of shorter, percussive instrumentals to practise your moves with.
