deep and dark electronic sounds and sound collages on cassette

there’s a good reason new age music has been soaring back to the forefront of the media’s cultural agenda and the population’s consciousness: this planet is a stressful ball of confusion at the best of times, and seeking refuge from reality’s shitstorm has become mandatory for us to regain a semblance of sanity. new age music is an effective coping mechanism in this regard. st. louis-based heavy breathing is one of america’s foremost proponents for the cause, proven here through his meditative “escalators in space” mixtape.

almost otherworldly in its vastness and serene beauty, many musicians have drawn from the well of inspiration that is arizona’s sonoran desert, but few are quite as accomplished or prolific as steve roach. an ambient pathfinder and electronic innovator, his back catalogue as vast as those breathtaking vistas – sonic renderings of arid landscapes littered with saguaro cacti are found in good company alongside didgeridoo-focused experiments and ethereal drifts that navigate the event horizon, between the brilliance of space and a black abyss.
reminiscent of philip glass’ minimalism and the kosmische stylings of tangerine dream, ‘skeleton keys’ seemed to fall somewhere between the two. conjuring expansive meditations amongst the impossible tangle of wires that dangle from his apparatus, roach opens portals from the grand canyon state into a cluster of newborn stars with intricate, intelligent sequencing and modular synthesis.
recorded between 2005 and 2015 from roach’s famed timeroom and timehouse studios, the album was fully realized through advancements in technology, specifically, synthesizers.com’s large format analog modular sequencer. organic, fluid and intuitively kneaded into his spooling soundscapes, it’s now to be committed to cassette for the first time, bridging the synaptic gap with a new ‘expanded’ version that elongates the original 74-minute duration.

abstract reality presents you an album by french artist leonard lampion. it gathers a one hour selection of cuts that explores several different musical landscapes. harsh industrial tracks share the tape alongside dark drone ambient, tribal sounds and downtempo emo feelings. side a is the more dancefloor oriented side, while side b explores more experimental paths.

"many electronic producers make music that sounds like the future. alavux is making the future and has carved himself a millennium head start. whilst many of his peers maintain a course along the kraftwerk or drexciyan trajectory alavux is committed to creating his own path; still drawing on the inspiration these great pioneers gave to so many, but choosing to adopt their pioneering spirit and innovation rather than their sound and track structures.
many a conversation has taken place about whether alavux is a maker of techno or electro. his discography tells you that he can pull off both very well and octagon shows you that both can be combined with explosive results. the sheer power and intensity of his grooves make each track a force to be reckoned with.
supported by dave clarke, billy nasty, igloo magazine, thomas h green (the arts desk), dj stingray umwelt and more."

fresh water is the debut work by london based musician and visual artist, jake marshall. across eight tracks marshall twirls and bends his sound palette around motifs of emergency and crisis, “i was interested in distress sounds, sirens, flares etc”. the many sonic limitations in fresh water demonstrate marshall’s uniqueness. all kinds of plastic, caustic sounds, german ambulance sirens, bleeps rattling off unknown morse code, the highly synthetic strings emerging from the silence, it creates a somehow organic yet inhumane, but addictive turbulence.

“homoheterogeneity”, originally released in january 2015, is the debut album from raccoglimento parziale, the duo formed by andrea giachetti and stefano meucci (the clover, silent people). in eight dense tracks, the album builds piece by piece an arcane language, made up of electromechanical beats, powerful basses, digitized guitars and broken samples, assembled in a liquid and fluctuating atmosphere. “homoheterogeneity” is a microscope’s view, a revealing blow-up over a cloud of microsounds, sometimes digital, sometimes organic. it’s a discovery of new life forms, homo/heterogeneous to our eyes - and to our ears. delivered on vinyl 33 rpm and mastered by frank merritt at the carvery in london, the album boasts on the cover the experimental photographic work of sandro crisafi, who visually recreated in the darkroom the chemistry that connects these fluctuating sounds.

the first vinyl version of the upcoming cd album with some magical works of unit moebius. this first 12inch contains some of their hottest tracks including the legendary >world goes around<, an evil cover of a classic chicagohouse track by cool mccool. the flip side contains the more deeper side from their first releases. for those who were there in those years 91/92/93, at the famous parties in the hague and rotterdam, this is a walk down memory lane, for those to young or living in other parts of the world... imagine these tracks in a dark, very dark sweaty basement with only strobe light and smoke machines, camouflage nets, and jacking acid and techno sounds for more then 10 ours. djs such as i-f, serge, schmerzlabor, peter ptau ptau and live acts such as unit moebius played the hottest and freshest music all night long until you lost your sense of time and place and ended in a total mind trip. the pure essence of house and techno! the golden years :-)

bxl003 is the third release of the artist-run brussels based label bxl. this third release by simon halsberghe features a collaboration with sagat (real name wiet lengeler), who previously released on the brussels’ label vlek and had his music included in the fabric mixes of both ben klock and joris voorn. the track is called the set-up and is a relentless sawtooth rave tune that finds it’s balance between the heydays of belgian techno and more contemporary ‘hi-fi’ attitudes towards functional yet idiosyncratic dance tracks. on the b-side space tom sounds is a deeper and more hypnotic trip with lush broad pads that provide a space for the mind as well as sonic pressure on the body. the last track, snared, takes things into breakbeat territory. with razor sharp snares and a pulsating baseline this track lives somewhere in the venn diagram overlap between rave, front 242 and an air raid siren going off.

urban/soul/blues/r&b/gospel

solo instr. without orchestra

punk

regular pressing on black vinyl.

limited pressing on clear vinyl.

jazz