the late steve reid, veteran jazz drummer and percussionist, and kieran hebden (four tet), the british electronic musician/producer young enough to be his grandson, present the fifth and final installment of their momentous synergy. the music on this double cd was recorded in concert on 20 june 2009 in the foyer of the queen elizabeth hall at london s southbank centre, as part of the meltdown festival curated by free jazz legend ornette coleman. for this marathon workout, reid and hebden were joined by swedish power saxophonist mats gustafsson, whose fiery blowing style had inspired kieran to seek out a drummer like steve to work with in the first place. live at the south bank stands as a memorial to a thrilling and productive partnership sadly cut off in its prime.

2011 release, the follow up to 2010s successful first volume of bangs & works. the carefully curated compilation showcases chicago footwork, one of the most forward-looking, innovative new styles of electronic music on the planet. footwork is beginning to spread outside of chicago, influencing productions around the world. bangs & works vol. 2 brings the focus back onto chicagos own producers, showing where the real innovation still lies. while its predecessor sticks mainly to the more hallucinatory and left-field elements, this one has a wider remit, ranging from mad techno-style tracks to those that sound like musique concrete gone footwork.

paul rose, aka scuba, the mastermind behind the incredibly well curated hotflush label, has been enlisted to create his own dj-kicks mix. featuring a healthy helping of exclusives from his camp including new music from addison groove & boddika, the mix treads the line between the uk bass music scene in which scuba came up, and the techno sounds dominant in his current home of berlin, creating a new sound in the process.

pop ambient returns. kompakts beloved series. this is our other arena of bliss, always curated and carefully compiled by label co-owner wolfgang voigt (aka gas). somber times call for more introspective sound scapes - >pop ambient 2011< continues its mission to slowly persuade its signature sound introduced over a decade ago. this year we see the series leaning towards a slightly darker complexion than its predecessors.

newcomers may ask - so what is pop ambient? a genre? possibly. a statement of musical mindset? absolutely! pop ambient was conceived by kompakt co-owner and producer wolfgang voigt and remains a collection selected and curated by voigt. pop ambient 2010 features a great selection of ambient tracks by wolfgang voigt, dj koze, jŸrgen paape, mikkel metal, thomas fehlmann, the orb, marsen jules, bvdub, dettinger, popnoname, andrew thomas & triola