The Gamelatron is many things; one could call it a sculpture, a multimodal installation, an instrument, a robot, a feat of engineering, a vision -- and it is all of these things. More importantly, though, it is a concept sustained by Aaron Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17, whose Gamelatrons are "sound producing kinetic sculptures" designed to create an immersive, visceral experience for the listener. Not a small feat, and yet the ambitions of Zemi17 are absolutely realized in this long-standing project, culminating now in his third release for The Bunker NY: Gamelatron Bidadari. The Gamelatron Bidadari is not just a name -- it is one of seventy-plus musical sculptures that Zemi17 has conceptualized, designed, and fabricated. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to think of this release as simply a series of arrangements composed in a finite period of time. Rather, it's a window into a project and a process that is much larger than any single album can encapsulate. Gamelatron Bidardi is the culmination of more than a decade of work, and is central to Zemi17's evolution, not only as a musician but as an artist. Having studied gamelan for many years in Indonesian villages and at the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta, Kuffner is a musician, an artist, technologist, and craftsman. The gongs in his sculptures are co-created with master Indonesian artisans. Each Gamelatron composition is site-responsive, meaning its sounds are composed for the acoustics and intentions of the space it inhabits, whether it's an art gallery, a wooded landscape, or the inner temple of Burning Man. The Gamelatron does not stand alone: it is in constant co-creation with its physical environment, and in dialogue with gamelan's long-standing history. Originally exhibited at the Smithsonian Renwick as part of a show entitled, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, the Gamelatron Bidadari produces sounds that are delicate yet strong, and deeply hypnotic. Textured chiming creates intricate polyrhythmic patterns that are both complex and simple, or in a word, elegant. On Gamelan Bidadari, Zemi17 refrains from adhering to the strict musical structures; his approach to composition is free flowing. The music conjures up natural wonder, and the four sculptures that make up the Gamelatron Bidadari, in fact, resemble trees. They are four independent, yet connected entities each with a large gong situated at their structural base -- the sonic "roots" of the sculpture -- while smaller gongs branch off of a golden, trunk-like spine. The Gamelatron Bidadari is as physically stunning as it is mesmerizing to the ear.

WRWTFWW Records announce the official vinyl reissue of the highly sought-after Haruomi Hosono-produced Interior self-titled debut, originally released in 1982 on legendary label Yen Records. Interior is Daisuke Hinata, Eiki Nonaka, Mitsuru Sawamura, and Tsukasa Betto. Their classic 1982 debut, produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono, is one of a kind -- a very rare breed of feel-good ambient music blending instrumental synth-pop, soft electronic minimalism, and cozy sound design in the most heartwarming ways. It evokes the intimate pleasures of daydreaming in a hotel lobby, holding hands in a museum, or napping by the pool. It depicts the urban landscape as a caring environment, where simplicity and repetition is mind-soothing and smile-inducing. Interior takes you into an alternate reality, where nostalgic modernism makes the present time feel like the fondest memories. The unique sound of Interior caught the attention of William Ackerman and Anne Robinson who rereleased the album in 1985 on their famed label Windham Hill Records (with a slightly different track listing) and then proceeded to put out their follow-up, Design, in 1987. After that, members of the group continued their careers separately, Daisuke Hinata notably recording an overlooked but absolutely amazing solo album, Tarzanland, in 1988.

Remastered vinyl reissue of this 1990 Bill Laswell/Richard Horowitz production of local Gnawa musicians, recorded in the Medina of Marrakesh. According to AllMusic it is "a must for fans of both African and Middle Eastern music" and voted one of the "10 essential Gnawa albums" by Songlines. The Gnawa are an ethnic minority in today's Morocco, descendants of slaves from West Africa who were brought to Morocco in the 16th century and who (although they quickly converted to Islam) nevertheless brought with them remnants of their animistic practices. The Gnawa perform a complex ceremony (called lila or derdeba) that over the duration of several hours recreates the genesis of the universe by the evocation of the seven main manifestations of the divine, represented by seven colors. Those ceremonies, led by a master or "maleem", are still taking place today privately while Gnawa music in general has clearly been modernizing and thus become more profane, but witnessing a performance is still an astonishing experience. With the exception of a handful of recordings by Paul Bowles and Philip Schuyler (more ethnographic documents in a field recordings style), Gnawa music was barely heard outside of Morocco before 1990 -- one of the first westerners to come and record the music was Bill Laswell, back then running his Axiom label that portrayed a wide range of ethnic music and musicians like The Master Musicians Of Jajouka or Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, to name just two. Night Spirit Masters, recorded in the Medina of Marrakech, delivers soulful tracks of lead and group singers in call-and-response mode, fired by sentirs, drums, hand clapping, and qrakechs, while others are drum features or sentir/vocal pieces. Over 30 years after its initial release, this essential Gnawa album is finally available again. Gnawa, bottom heavy trance music of North Africa. Repetitive bass lines, generated by the gimbri or sintir with metal clappers, hand drums and voice. Seven trances, seven colors, seven scents, Gnawa not only moves, it can remove. 180 gram vinyl; includes download card.

Montreal composer and cellist Justin Wright's sophomore album is an ode to the creative process, intricately stitched together from cassette loops, string improvisations, modular synthesizer patches, field recordings, and orchestral arrangements. While the cello remains a central engine behind many of the tracks, A Really Good Spot is a drastic departure from Justin's previous records. The transparent result, mixed by Pietro Amato (Bell Orchestre, The Luyas), intimately and honestly embraces the beautiful spontaneous moments, tribulations, and studio edits. A Really Good Spot is a celebration of process. Justin met Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw as he was experimenting with cassette loops during a residency at the Banff Centre. Shaw pushed him to apply for Princeton University's highly selective PhD program in composition with her recommendation, where he was accepted despite having no formal music education. At Princeton, Justin completed the album with instruction from composers such as Donnacha Dennehy, Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, and Juri Seo. Over the winter of 2021, Justin was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer (prognosis: likely OK), adding another layer to the story of this album and leading to an earlier-than-expected release. Stemming from an eventful five years, A Really Good Spot presents an abstract exploration and appreciation for the processes of artistic and personal evolution, pushing boundaries while still maintaining an emotional and evocative sound. Co-release with First Terrace Records.

"When I first started writing tracks for A Really Good Spot, I didn't have much in mind other than wanting cello, wanting synthesizers, and feeling like I was long overdue for writing new material. But once I got started, I was having so much fun coming up with new methods for writing that I wondered: what if 'procedurality' could appear on a spectrum, just like dynamics or tempo? Why is process something we try to cover up? There is something that feels so dishonest about a pristine, polished album that fits together a little too perfectly, as if all the tribulations leading up to it are swept aside in the name of presentability. Of course, time is an enemy of simplicity, and what began as an attempt to bring process to the foreground turned into what the album is today: a surrealist spectrum of methodology, where the techniques showcased may or may not be real, where the orchestration confidently reinforces the most haphazard nonsense elements, and where the playfulness occasionally steps aside for moments of somber clarity." --Justin Wright

What could possibly happen when two ultimate masters of soprano saxophone square off for their only recording of duets? Chirps is the only place to find out. Steve Lacy -- the one who planted the flag for soprano saxophone in the ground of modern jazz, who established its iconic status, who devoted himself to the axe with monkish devotion, who brought shakuhachi breath and stairstep melody into its upper-register antics. Evan Parker -- arguably the one who pushed the instrument the furthest post-Coltrane, the technical marvel, the polyphonist, the one willing to immerse in the instrument's harshest environs and find things of radiant beauty. Performed in Berlin at the Haus am Waldsee in July, 1985, it was every bit the chamber concert -- super intimate and interactive, gorgeously recorded by FMP's Jost Gebers in an ideal acoustic room. Rather than alternate between one and the other, Lacy and Parker explore middle-terrain the whole time, perhaps skewing a tad more Lacy's funky-tuneful direction, becoming a single soprano entity made of fragments of sound sometimes accreting into perfectly imperfect lines. Two long tracks, "Full Scale" and "Relations," are completed by a final four-minute coda aptly titled "Twittering." Indeed, the whole program has the joyous interactivity of Paul Klee's painting "Twittering Machine," birds aligned on a line, proposing and picking up lines, nothing cruel or mean-spirited, free play all a graceful twitter. This CD reissue restores the original Tomas Schmit design from the initial release on SAJ Records. Licensed directly from FMP. Edition of 500.

The Air's Chrysalis Chime is the second LP from Old Million Eye, primarily a solo project of Brian Lucas. This beautifully transcendent and deeply explorational album sees Lucas widening his spectral and woozy palette to include musical contributions from Gayle Brogan (Pefkin/Burd Ellen), Steven R. Smith, Sheila Bosco (Dire Wolves), and Jeff Jefferson (3 Moons/The Lodestones). The album's darker more drifting songs, "Ruby River" and "Tales from Copperopolis" feature the vibrational voice of Georgia Carbone, erstwhile vocalist of Dire Wolves. Lucas and Carbone's eerie vocal duet on the lengthy "Ruby River" is stunningly haunting and unexpected. This mysteriously anomalous album utilizes such elements as tape collage, improv jazz type drumming, clarinet, Brogan's melodica, intertwining basses, piano, treated violin, and Lucas's Scenes from the South Island-like plaintive skeletal guitar playing that is sure to tickle the ear into quiet hysterics, if not downright rearranging the ear to accommodate a new form of hearing. The listener should expect the usually oddly crafted and layered sound combinations as evidenced on previous OME releases. These sonic elements are a vehicle for Lucas's softly placid tenor, but with added dimensions his purely solo work only alludes to. This album isn't "psychedelic" in the sense of spacey, wah-wah riffs: it's far more subtle, detailed, and delicate in terms of its transcendent properties, but the invitation is there to climb into the chrysalis and be transformed.

In March 1969, the Velvets (with Doug Yule now on bass) embarked on a nationwide tour. One of these included a stint at the "End Of Cole Avenue" club in Dallas -- one of the Velvets' few live performances where a professional sound engineer was actually on hand to record the sets. Some of the songs recorded over those few nights showed up in 1974 on their 1969: Velvet Underground Live album, but the sound quality was not great due to the use of third or fourth generation tapes. However, the first-generation tapes have since resurfaced, and the difference in sound quality (heard here) is a welcome one.

2022 repress; black vinyl. Flux is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Until recently, Turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic NON project with Boyd Rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as Z.O. Voider. In the summer of 1981, Turman decided he would take a drastic turn from the noisy/electronic/industrial work of his compatriots, and began work on what is now the classic Flux cassette. Flux was originally self-released in extremely limited numbers. Weary of the noisescapes of old, he set out to create long-form minimalism utilizing kalimba, piano, "Mini-Pops Jr." drum machine, and tape loops to create a complex bed of interweaving micro-stasis. The results of these new experiments were as beautiful as they were perplexing. A curious, dusty fidelity carries these classic tracks across four sides of vinyl, including all of the original Flux content. These compositions glow with a sprawling, slow-motion haze that's light years ahead of its time. Flux reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed-down, syrupy exotica. Turman had complex ideas in his mind, yet only the simple technologies of the day were at hand. Hear the click of the stopping and starting Tascam 3340 open-reel tape machine as one hand presses the "record" and "play" buttons and the other plays piano phrases. While there are similarities in style to classical minimalism, Turman's sound and vision is his own and is exclusive to his limited discography. Released in a limited edition 2xLP set. Lovingly remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering from the original C-60 cassette master. Original cassette artwork and scans provided by Aaron Dilloway.

2022 repress. October Language is the debut album by New Orleans based duo Belong, comprised of Turk Dietrich and Mike Jones. Since its release in early 2006, Belongs debut masterpiece has accumulated a dedicated cult following, with comparisons to the work of Christian Fennesz and Gas, with some claims that it plays like My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (1991) sans the songs. While these comparisons are useful for filing this album into a particular bin in the record shop, time has proven that October Language is a unique album which remains unmatched by its contemporaries. Despite the warm and welcome accolades of the albums arrival, there was no vinyl pressing until 2009, of which a limited one-time pressing vanished immediately. Spectrum Spools present a pristine vinyl cut to go with reimagined album art for the definitive edition of this legendary classic. Includes download card with three extra tracks from the impossibly rare Tour EP from the same era (2006). These tracks are exclusive to the vinyl purchase and are not available through digital outlets.

Reissue, originally released on Vertigo in 1975. Another thrilling, funky-prog jazzy-rock fusion beauty from Ian Carr's Nucleus. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. Alleycat was the last Nucleus album recorded for the Vertigo label. It was again meticulously produced by Jon Hiseman and is every bit as sinuous as anything else the group had recorded. As far as riff-laden accidental cop-funk goes, there's so much energy coursing through the music that at times it sounds like a live recording. It's pretty unbeatable. Up-tempo opener "Phaideaux Corner" is a funk-flavored opus with a groove that simply swaggers. This trademark Roger Sutton piece benefits from Trevor Tomkins's percussive expertise and some excellent sax and keyboard soloing. Check out Geoff Castle on squelchy, stabbing Moog duties. Ian Carr's elegantly laidback title track is a lengthy suite of magisterial themes. Typically complex, it still gets you hooked and is just riddled with the funk. Carr builds up his initially "straight" trumpet solo with later use of echo to mesmeric effect. And there's some excellent wah-wah guitar shredding by Ken Shaw too. The second side opens with the killer "Splat" and finds Nucleus really ripping it up. A fat, funky bass guitar riff introduces us to the track and stays with us until the end. The often-mangled bass groove is pushed along by rattling drums and percussion, dropping out for some restful moments of spacey calm, and along the way picking up some lengthy keyboard noodling by Castle. "You Can't Be Sure" is a gentle jam with Shaw on 12-string acoustic guitar, together with Carr's muted trumpet and some marvelous fretless work from Sutton. The album closes with Bob Bertles's galloping "Nosegay", written perhaps as a response to some of the faster Mahavishnu Orchestra pieces. It's an example of well-crafted jazz-rock that doesn't compromise any of its jazziness, yet it still very definitely rocks. Remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes. Mastered by Simon Francis. Cut by Pete Norman.

North London-by-way-of-Suffolk soundsmith Gerry Read delivers his first release for Circus Company with the Lean on Something EP. After countless examples of his bold production moves on many of our brother and sister labels including Herbert's Accidental Jr to more recently on Koze's Pampa Records, Read has always displayed a kindred spirit mindset to ours in his adventurous musical angles, and we are very happy to present this particular set of rock-solid and uniquely diverse pieces. The title track "Lean on Something" starts things off in fine and classic Read form, with knocking found-sound percussion, fizzing textures and slick use of chopped and disorienting vocal sample bits, as the track layers unfold into a whimsical and wondrous melodic stargazing anthem. "Wooer at the Well" then follows and picks up the tempo with those fly live acoustic drum lines that gives Gerry's tracks that special beyond-electronic feeling, while once again the deft layering of such a rich sound palette builds and builds giving other mavericks like Four Tet a sincere run for their money. The mood then brilliantly shifts on the next track "Paramol", where Read treats us to an almost Robotnik-era Italo sprinkling amidst his otherwise forward-thinking club floor-filling tendencies, with an amazing array of synth sections and an arrangement that should satisfy even the neo-purists out there amongst us. Finally, "Risotto" wraps up the proceedings with a warm, jazzy bouncer reminiscent of both Read's as well as the Circus Company catalog's charming early offerings, and a kind of landing-at-home-base sensation with smoky cubist funk feelings and an equal parts rough-yet-undeniably cool effervescent groove.

Back in 2011, Markus Guentner and Heiko Badje formed Stareaway to follow their vision of creating both enchanting and haunting music from melodies and drones. Combining Guentner's complex wall of electronic sound and Badje's ethereal androgyn voice and multi-faceted guitar play, they indeed produced some epic works between ambient, pop, and shoegaze, strangely shimmering and profoundly mysterious. Now, Stareaway's fantastic (and back then maybe a little overlooked) album No Life In This Ghost Town (NT 001LP, 2013) sees its rerelease and is, for celebrational purposes, accompanied by this EP of four stunning remixes by stunning artists Rafael Anton Irisarri (who also did the mastering), Simon Scott (Slowdive), Thomas Fehlmann, and David Westlake (ex-Sneaker Pimps). Rafael Anton Irisarri's magical take on "O Suomi" sparkles bright, still with melancholia always present. David Westlake emphasizes the pop aspect of "Appointments", adding lush synth melodies and light-filled grooves while Thomas Fehlmann lets "All Over You" spiral into pop ambients most majestic heights. Finally, Simon Scott builds a "Kathedrale aus Klang" on "Dreams May Never". Amazing remixes of amazing originals.

2022 restock. Le Tres Jazz Club present a reissue of Marion Brown's Le Temps Fou (Musique du film de Marcel Camus), originally released in 1969. Marion Brown, who moved to Europe two years earlier than 1969, and records, in the legendary Parisian studio Davout, the soundtrack of the movie by Marcel Camus entitled Le Temps Fou. The movie starred Nino Ferrer was out in 1970 under the title Un été sauvage. Fallen into oblivion, Le Temps Fou was printed in very few copies and is almost impossible to find in its original pressing. Personnel: Marion Brown - alto sax, bells; Gunter Hampel - vibes, bass clarinet, tree bells; Ambrose Jackson - trumpet cow bells, tambour; Barre Phillips - contra basse, castanetes, whistle; Steve McCall - drums, triangle, tambour; Alain Corneau - claves, cow bells.

Double-LP version. Silver vinyl. The musical vortexes of Caterina Barbieri rewire time and space. Listening to the Italian composer and modular synth virtuoso has felt like traveling at light-speed and slow-motion all at once since 2017's breakthrough Patterns Of Consciousness. 2019's acclaimed Ecstatic Computation pushed even further with the lead single "Fantas". Far beyond any new age trope or modern synth trend, her music stands alone in its ecstatic intensity and cataclysmic emotional impact. Marking the debut album on her new label light-years, Barbieri now delivers her most profound work yet -- a journey through inner-space as vast as a universe and as intimate as a heartbeat. Spirit Exit is Caterina Barbieri's time machine, primarily composed with a modular synth rig she thinks of more like a mechanical fortune teller. Whereas previous releases were constructed on lengthy tours, capturing only snapshots of continually evolving works, Spirit Exit represents the producer's first album fully written and recorded in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It was during this extended isolation she found inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time, but united in their strength at cultivating vast internal worlds. St. Teresa D'Avila's foundational 16th century mystical text The Interior Castle, philosopher Rosi Braidotti's posthuman theories and the metaphysical poetry of Emily Dickinson act as thematic anchors throughout Spirit Exit. Spirit Exit crystallizes Barbieri's densely layered, blindingly bright synth arrangements while introducing stunning new elements that feel as if they've always belonged. Strings and guitar flawlessly thread into the composer's web of modular patches, while her revelatory singing voice often cuts right through them. Melodies remain Barbieri's great passion and obsession and on Spirit Exit they grow as large as planets before cracking into atoms. The sweeping "At Your Gamut" perfects the producer's dramatic, slow-burning openers, but in her first ever use of sampling, it later gets crushed, accelerated and unrecognizably transformed into the ghostly hook surging through "Terminal Clock". As the album closes on "The Landscape Listens" -- a song that approaches death with all the gentle grace of Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)".

Far out explorations by Ottber and Felix Hk.

2022 restock. Turkish band Bunalim (Turkish for "Depression") is a true legend: They were the absolute wildest and crudest band from the Anatolian rock scene. Under the wing of Cem Karaça, who was their manager and producer, they released a few singles which are all collected here. Fierce Turkish folk-flavored psychedelic fuzz-rock circa 1970-1972. Remastered sound, including an insert with liner notes and pictures.

"DeForrest Brown, Jr.'s Assembling a Black Counter Culture presents a comprehensive account of techno with a focus on the history of Black experiences in industrialized labor systems -- repositioning the genre as a unique form of Black musical and cultural production. Brown traces the genealogy and current developments in techno, locating its origins in the 1980s in the historically emblematic city of Detroit and the broader landscape of Black musical forms. Reaching back from the transatlantic slave trade to Emancipation, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Migration from the rural South to the industrialized North, Brown details an extended history of techno rooted in the transformation of urban centers and the new forms of industrial capitalism that gave rise to the African American working class. Following the groundbreaking work of key early players like The Belleville Three, the multimedia output of Underground Resistance and the mythscience of Drexciya, Brown illuminates the networks of collaboration, production, and circulation of techno from Detroit to other cities around the world. Assembling a Black Counter Culture reframes techno from a Black theoretical perspective distinct from its cultural assimilation within predominantly white, European electronic music contexts and discourse. With references to Theodore Roszak's Making of a Counter Culture, writings by African American autoworker and political activist James Boggs, and the 'techno rebels' of Alvin Toffler's Third Wave, among others, Brown draws parallels between movements in Black electronic music and Afrofuturist, speculative, and Afrodiasporic practices to imagine a world-building sonic fiction and futurity embodied in techno. DeForrest Brown, Jr. is an Alabama-raised rhythm analyst, writer, and representative of the Make Techno Black Again campaign. As Speaker Music, he channels the African American modernist tradition of rhythm and soul music as an intellectual site and sound of generational trauma. On Juneteenth of 2020, he released the album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry on Planet Mu. His written work explores the links between the Black experience in industrialized labor systems and Black innovation in electronic music, and has appeared in Artforum, Triple Canopy, NPR, CTM Festival, Mixmag, among many others. He has performed or presented work at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Camden Arts Centre, UK; Unsound Festival, Krakow; Sónar, Barcelona; Issue Project Room, New York; and elsewhere. Assembling a Black Counter Culture is Brown's debut book."

Welcome to Anthony Naples's first outing for Running Back. Swerve sees the New York resident putting his dancing shoes back on and taking a pause from his admittedly brilliant other side. A development that 2021's Club Pez on ANS already foreshadowed. While his music is at times ethereal and cerebral, but also engaging and compelling, Naples manages to fill the gap between finesse and function with idiosyncratic abilities. Starting with the title track that builds a bridge between a beehive and Joey Beltram's hoover sound, it's clear that Naples has something unique in case of temperature and tempo. Swerve flows around an addictive bass line, adds a splash of piano and manages to feel big without the usual cheap tricks. Played by Four Tet and Pete Tong. If bangers-not-bangers would be a genre, Naples would have created one of its prime examples. The rest follows lead: "Here With You" uses skippy beats underneath a TB-303, "Right As The Sun Goes" extracts elements of its two predecessors, but mirrors them with delightful mellowness and finally, "Be To" feels like the continuation of the sprawling hypnotism of the mid-nineties. One EP to get your swerve on. High quality artwork by Gasius.

Berlin-based synthoholic and Watergate resident Biesmans steps up for the sixth installment of Running Back's Super Sound Singles series. Taking inspiration from Confetti's 1988 new beat smash "This Is The Sound Of C", Biesmans revisits his Belgian roots and reimagines three gems from Belgium's rich '80s music scene. Firstly, Biesmans gets to grips with synth pop stalwarts Schmutz and their '80s breakthrough "Love Games", polishing the track up with a motorik disco sheen and chunky bass arpeggios. The remix swaps the new romantic vibe of the original for 8-bit arcade game energy, and calls to mind robotic dance moves and freeze frame video. It's a reboot of a long-lost classic that sounds even better the second time round, and will transport dancers young and old alike onto a timeless dancefloor. Next up for reinterpretation is Luc van Acker and Anna Domino's quirky woodblock and piano-led song "Zanna". Biesmans transforms it from a melancholic anthem to lost love, and into a darkly uplifting discotheque burner, as icy melodies, synth pads and guitar licks create the perfect bed for Anna Domino's plaintive vocals to float on top. As per the other versions, the instrumental dub version follows, and highlights just how Biesmans has built each of these remixes from the ground up, existing as standalone tracks in their own right. Rounding off the 12" Biesmans turns his attention to new wave rock band Scooter and their ode to self-reliance "You", slowing it down slightly to a heavier beat, with hi hat triplets and a touch of Radiophonic Workshop atmosphere. By condensing the original to its essential vocal and synth melodies, Biesmans reconstructs a pumping 130bpm monster, certified to supercharge ravers all through the night. It rounds off a neatly balanced EP that sees Biesmans take the emotional core of influential tracks from his upbringing and put them in a different context, reworking them to share with a whole new generation.

2022 repress. LP version. "For five decades, Harold Budd stood on the forefront of the West Coast avant-garde. Born in Los Angeles, he studied with Schoenberg-pupil Gerald Strang and began teaching at CalArts in 1970. While searching for his own voice, he was influenced as much by abstract expressionist painters as by John Cage and Morton Feldman. In his work, Budd brought delicate, slowing-moving melodies to the foreground -- creating a new musical language based on 'eternally pretty music' and smooth surfaces. In the early '70s, Budd started an extended cycle of compositions that would comprise The Pavilion Of Dreams. For Budd, the album was a signpost for a new direction in thinking about music: 'The Pavilion Of Dreams erased my past. I consider that to be the birth of myself as a serious artist. It was like my Magna Carta.' Produced by Brian Eno in 1978, The Pavilion Of Dreams stands toe-to-toe with another minimalist masterpiece also released that year, Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians. Budd's gorgeous pieces reveal a lightness of touch that draws the listener in, while sublime voices float in and out as if in a recurring dream. Featuring saxophonist Marion Brown and multi-instrumentalists Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman, The Pavilion Of Dreams remains a master class in exquisite timbre and shimmering texture. The Pavilion Of Dreams was both the final release on Eno's Obscure imprint and a transition point towards his seminal ambient series. This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jon Hassell and Mark Hollis."

"Greensleeves Gold is the ultimate Greensleeves selection. Ten monster hits loaded up with chart number ones. The biggest stars with their biggest hits. Launched in 1977, the iconic London reggae label is celebrating 45 years of being in the business of being the business." Features Reggae Regulars, Dr. Alimantado, Wailing Souls & Ranking Trevor, Augustus Pablo, Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Michael Prophet, Clint Eastwood & General Saint, Eek-A-Mouse, and Yellowman.

LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1973. There's something perversely fabulous about the thought of this warped masterwork wandering into 60,000 unsuspecting British homes in 1973. Faust's second-and-a-half album hit the shops to celebrate their signing to the nascent Virgin Records, who were looking to take advantage of the zeitgeist for German music at that time. Undeterred by the fact the band's unwillingness to engage with the commercial landscape had seen them dropped from Polydor, Branson and co. cooked up a suitably spectacular marketing strategy, selling the LP for 49p, the bargain price of a single. What was lurking within the grooves was a condensed collage of outtakes, oddities, sketches and samples previously known to the band's nearest and dearest as The Faust Party Tapes -- and how you wish you'd been to those parties. Cacophonous keys and roaring drones splinter into a deranged hybrid of tumbling toms and yelping vocals; committed experimentalism which in no way prepares you for the beautiful ballad which follows. Armed with acoustic guitar, playful piano and panning vocals, Faust fashion a pastoral idyll imbued with the most profound yearning. "Flashback Caruso" brims with Byrds-ian jangle and Syd's psychedelia, its non-sensical English lending the piece a Confucian lyricism perfect for expanded minds. Sliced and spliced between TV snippets, dissonant trumpet and the sound of someone pissing, the utterly freaky fuzz-rock of "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" sounds positively radio-friendly, far less far out than if it were encountered alone. Compared to the non-musical madness beside it, this thrash-jazz trance dance makes perfect sense, as does the corrosive breakbeat of "Two Drums, Bass, Organ", a mutant funk workout which rivals Can in an all-German dance off. The progressive and symphonic "Dr. Schwitters", dissected by fragments of dissonant process music, haunted vocal takes and the proto-industrial grind of "Elerimomuvid", charts a course for the dark side of the moon more suited to the serious cosmonauts of the world. Then the record freefalls into disorienting drum workouts, mixing desk experiments and a wicked premonition of no-wave jazz ("Hermann's Lament") before taking slight respite in the beauty of "Rudolf Der Pianist" and "I've Heard That One Before". The particles of prepared piano, power tools and tape echo continue to cascade through the soundspace, gradually building into the final trilogy of "Stretch Out Time", "Der Baum" and "Chère Chambre", which return to conventional song structure, albeit in the group's typically twisted style. Once again though, in comparison to the wonderfully weird pieces which precede them, these three tracks are entirely accessible, and in this lies the brilliance of the album.

LP version. Poltergeist has that strange power of attraction that these personalities with their icy, mysterious aura hold. As soon as Ari Girard (aka Poltergeist) appears, something happens, he catches the light and strikes the spirits. Kämpfer is a ghost story where Poltergeist invites Joy Division, New Order, Talking Heads, The Cure, Can, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, or Jeff Mills for its first album. At the Poltergeist banquet, the crows of cold wave and the barbarians of krautrock, the metallers of indus rock and the freaks of techno meet. The epicenter is Berlin, the Wall, Lou Reed's Gotham, the Bowie/Eno trilogy and the toxic nights of underground clubs... Kämpfer, Poltergeist's first album, reveals its dark and disturbing universe. Marked by a heavy, deep and majestic atmosphere, this project evokes, without ever saying it openly, the climatic urgency, the ineluctable destiny, the human obsession to be first, to leave a trace of its passage and the nightmares which agitate the nocturnal spirits. Between frenetic synths, bewitching waves and marked foot, this implacable album marks the beginning of the Poltergeist era. Scratching synths, a dark and heavy universe: we can understand Vitalic's crush, who decided to sign the project at the first listening on his label Clivage Music. Poster included.

2022 repress. Faitiche presents a long-lost vinyl album. Since 2003, Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, originally released in 2001 on ~scape, existed only as a download. Now the album is available again on vinyl, as a double LP with two bonus tracks, "Moiré (Guitar & Horns)" and "Poren", B-sides from Tendency EP (2000).

"Don't be misled by the title, though for there isn't a finger-snapping rhythm bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm." --Alternative Press

"The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people's arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas." --ATM

"Jelinek's sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards." --RPM

"Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub techno framework. . . . Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player's hissing intake of breath - it would have been 'jazz' enough for his purposes." --The Wire

"It's a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm." --Pitchfork

"All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs . . . are warm, paradisiacal creations." --NME

"Listen carefully and you'll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you've not fallen asleep of course." --iDJ

"At times, it's all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness" --DJ

"Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along." --Boomkat

2022 repress. Originally released in 2010. "Listening to this remarkable album for the first time you'll surely be struck first by the deep, soul-piercing voice of that great Brazilian singer, Seu Jorge. Yes: he's a singer first and foremost. Many may know him as an actor for his screen-stealing performances in the likes of Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic and Fernando Meirelles' City Of God but Seu has known since he was a child that we was destined to sing. He's a Brazilian singer who speaks the truth through samba, to paraphrase a well-known Seu Jorge quote. But this project is about a band: Almaz. Drummer Pupillo and guitarist Lucio Maia from the stalwart Nação Zumbi; bassist and composer Antonio Pinto from the soundstages of movies starring Seu Jorge. They came together naturally to record a song for a Walter Salles film; they enjoyed the experience so much that they recorded an entire album of music that inspired them. Songs famous within the Brazilian diaspora (Tim Maia, Jorge Ben) mesh with classic American (Roy Ayers, Michael Jackson) and European (Kraftwerk, Cane and Abel) soul songs begging for a bit of psychedelic samba. They enlisted producer and fellow Brazileiro Mario C. (Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson) to put the finishing touches on the project. Their album is both warm and dark; psychedelic and yet grounded, uplifting but at times somber. To listen to it is to join them in the studio, where the only bandleader is the music and the only agenda is to follow your heart."

Austudy Records present its debut release Burning It Up: Australian Reggae 1979-1986. A compilation surveying the influence of reggae on Australia's preoccupation with rock, pop and new wave between the years of 1979-1986. This selection of eight obscure tracks originally issued on 7" records represent some of the earliest examples of reggae sounds in Australian recorded music. Features Nights In Shining, Wide Boy Youth, Delaney Venn, Time Lords Inc., Lifesavers, Janie Conway, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, and The Agents. 12-page booklet; edition of 500.

LP version. The musician Kurt Dahlke is not only a member of the bands Der Plan and Fehlfarben, founding member of the group DAF and co-founder of the label Ata Tak, he has also released a stellar line of solo works under the name Pyrolator for which he enjoys great critical acclaim. What began in 1979 with the first release Inland continues its lineal thread with new work Niemandsland -- the sixth album within the Land series. It was 1979, some 43 years ago, when Pyrolator released Inland, an instrumental protest album, as he liked to think of it. Autumnal protests against nuclear weapon stations, against the entire structures of the war generation, but without the pathos of the rebellious songs which soundtracked the 1968 movement. Apart from a few samples, there were no words at all. Now, more than four decades later, Kurt Dahlke alias Pyrolator returns to his origins. But not, this time, in protest: "The clock already stands at ten past midnight and we have arrived in no man's land. Neither the student movement nor the rejectionist stance of punk changed anything. Avarice has emerged victorious and no future is nothing more than an empty cliché. This is what global reality looks like. The principle of cause and effect." This is also a back to the roots story for Pyrolator in the musical sense. Niemandsland was created exclusively with modular synthesizers, the computer merely a recording device. All of the tracks were played live and direct -- neither storable nor replicable. The sixth album in Pyrolator's Land series is more than just a bridge to the past and the music to be found there. It has a formal language all of its own, meandering between the beauty of crystal-clear melodies and restrained ambient moments on the one hand and rugged, dystopian brittleness on the other. A cycle revolving between the hope of a revolution for humanity and arrival in no man's land.

LP version. Dieter Moebius is one of the most important protagonists of avant-garde electronic music in Germany. Alongside his bands Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, he participated in numerous collaborations (Brian Eno, Guru Guru). Seven years after Moebius passed away in July 2015, Asmus Tietchens, one of his musical companions, compiled this collection for Bureau B -- he concentrated on his solo works "as they offer the clearest insight into his personality and inventive potential."

"Together, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius were Cluster. Their influence on the development of electronic music in Germany since the early 1970s has been considerable. If we were to represent the two of them as woodcuts reflecting their musical characteristics, Roedelius would be the baroque version of Cluster and Moebius the motorik minimalist. Their solo releases make this all the more obvious, but the serendipitous combination of such divergent components is what makes the music of Cluster so wondrously magical. Aside from his many collaborations with a wide variety of musicians, there are just seven Moebius solo albums, one of which (Metropolis) was released posthumously in 2015. Moebius always wanted to create pop music and he actually thought of Cluster as pop. On the sleeve of the Cluster album Zuckerzeit he can be seen sporting a colorful Hawaiian shirt whilst sitting on Roedelius's knee. He found more than enough to astonish him in the here and now, so esoteric, transcendent, fantastical notions were alien to him. The names he gave to the tracks which populated his LPs and CDs categorically rejected any form of overindulgence. He may have thought he was making pop music, but his interest in the material, aural substance aligns him more closely with contemporary classical composers. The repetitive patterns he favored had less to do with baroque ornamentation and everything to do with minimal shifts in sound and rhythm, their rigor enhanced, time and again, by strange 'little' electronic noises and reverberating layers . . . Moebius rarely deviates from linear rhythms or tonal harmonies, yet is able to create a world of sound within this rhythmic/harmonic framework which is unmistakably his own. Never big on messages or statements, his focus has always been on feeling good about -- and in -- his music, a sensation he sought to share with his listeners. As far as I know, his listeners absolutely feel good in the presence of his music. For this collection, my fascination with his music as strong as ever, I have deliberately zeroed in on Moebius's solo works, as they offer the clearest insight into his personality and inventive potential..." --Asmus Tietchens, March 2022

Another year, another expertly curated compilation touches down courtesy of Cocoon Recordings. Veteran techno producer Stephen Brown makes it clear the compilation series is back with a bang, opening things up in epic fashion with the lucid dreamscape "Level Steps". Another heavy-weight hitter steps straight up in the form of Claude von Stroke, who adds his own unique swagger to proceedings with those trademark shuffling beats and freaky, hypnotic bleeps scuffling for dominance on "Moody Fuse". Denis Horvat then slows things down on "Monomono", with post-rave abstractions and disobedient synth-patches causing mayhem before the track finally unfolds in all its terrifying beauty. A very special appearance from Daniel Avery makes it all the more worthwhile amid a dense forest of chiming melodies and blistering electrical surges on "Your Future Looks Different In The Light", before Jeroen Search's aptly titled "Subversive Elements" lead you deeper and deeper, into the matrix. Marco Bailey then kicks off a triptych of trance with some massive filtered piano action on "Kanai". Revisiting the huge, ever-growing pulsating brain of planet Orb, Damiano van Erckert continues the loved-up vibe on the gorgeously titled "500 People 500 Hearts 1 Love", expertly complimenting the classic ambience with some slick 909 snare and cymbal interplay. The melodic pull of "Vision99" then signifies that the party is peaking at just the right moment as YOKTO concocts a glistening, psychedelic groove. Just when you think the acid sound is done and dusted, up pops a track like Jonathan Kaspar's "CCC" that somehow manages to offer an entirely new perspective. "The Art of Electronics" is, as the title suggests, another superlative example of pure analogue fire, served up by UK legend, Andrew Meecham aka The Emperor Machine. Electro overlord Carl Finlow, has come to define the UK take on the genre over the last couple of decades. Here, he makes his long overdue label debut, taking you into the closing straight with a nervous sliver of dystopian futurism, complete with molten basslines and a fuzzy logic that underpins the tight, laser-guided groove on "Surface Control". DeFeKT then draws this great adventure to a close with the deliciously dark robo-disco overtones of "Terraform" creating a dusky landscape that skillfully seduces the listener before the tension finally breaks in a wash of ecstatic chords. Includes download.

The overexcited young men at the Droid factory up the beats per minute and channel the spirit of other sensible chaps a la John Belushi, River Phoenix, and John "I chose the best exit" Entwhistle on Idjut Boys' latest audio laboratory assault. Less terminal, with careful use, perhaps, than a fat fully loaded speedball, they hope man and beast find some musical justice or bemusement in the latest hoedown on offer. Idjut Boys have various takes at various tempos, so bar mitzvah's, weddings and indeed acid house events should be covered for those game enough to get on the Droid bucking bronco.

"I met Thomas Roussel in 2017 at a Pigalle fashion show in Paris. As always with Stéphane Ashpool, the designer of Pigalle, casting is perfect and the clothes are modern and groundbreaking. But my eyes and ears were intrigued by this retro-futuristic instrument next to me, the Cristal Baschet. French composer and conductor Thomas Roussel wrote the soundtrack of the show. He added this magnificent instrument in his "not very classical" orchestra, this is what I immediately loved with him. He invited us into his world of classical music with a fresh twist, simplicity and audacity. At the same time, I was scratching my head to find something different to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Ed Banger Records. For a long time, I had this idea of mixing both electronic and classical music together. Exactly like my heroes Metallica did in 1999 with the symphonic orchestra of San Francisco. Thomas Roussel seems the perfect man for this crazy idea. We did Ed Banger 15 together and we became friends. Thomas Roussel grew up in Dijon, spent his days at the conservatory and his nights at L'An-Fer, one of the most respected techno clubs in France. Probably the reason why he ended up working with Jeff Mills, on two projects mixing Jeff's 909 and a classical orchestra. By experimenting new ways of using an orchestra, by creating state-of-the-art scenography and producing more ambitious music he quickly became the man in charge of everything 'classica'. The list of his collaborations is too long and will ruin this little introduction. It could sounds like this: Chanel, Apple, Cartier, Kenzo, Nike, Dior... Performing from Paris to Macau, from Monte Carlo to Dubai and from New York to Beijing!"

One year after its original release, the Placid Angles album Touch The Earth (FIGURE 007LP, 2021) is being remixed by an impressive array of artists from the extended Figure family. With John Beltran being a distinct voice within the electronic music scene for over thirty years now, Figure is thrilled to reveal a whole album worth of reinterpretations, including a new work by the original artist himself. Opening up is Marcel Dettmann, who seamlessly has integrated the lush soundscapes of the original album into a beat-driven but equally serene journey. Picking up on the LP's underlying dark garage tropes, Planet Mu headmaster μ-Ziq infuses his rework with even more rolling drums and ethereal vocal chops. The also inherent IDM roots of Touch The Earth have been kept close by Warp-veterans Plaid who deliver a shuffling flurry full of horns, synths, and syncopated rhythms. More straightforward interpretations include Dauwd's dazzling piece of feathery, fast, atmospheric techno; a gorgeous melodic house remix by Baltra and Cassy who turns in a rigid UK stomper. Amidst all the reworks, John Beltran himself makes two appearances across the record. As Placid Angles he adds another heads-down percussive/ambient swirl, which represents exactly what the producer has been hailed for since more than three decades now. His own remix finishes the record on an epic note, with an organic drum track that celebrates life and the necessity for communal gathering in order to dance. Beltran's own additions to this LP are like the essential glue that makes it all bind together, forging the old and the new into something equally exciting as already intimately familiar.

LP version. O'o release their sublime debut album Touche. O'o singer Victoria Suter met her musical partner Mathieu Daubigné at college in Agen, South West France, when the pair were studying music theory in their teens. Victoria moved to Barcelona in 2010; Mathieu followed six years later. Their debut EP, Spells, appeared in 2018 a beautifully crafted patchwork of vocals and samples that is redolent of the uncanny vocalese of Laurie Anderson. The EP's sense of profound longing for something lost is carried over to Touche, as well as the same heightened sensory awareness of the world around them. What has developed in spades is the creative process. O'o have blossomed organically, augmenting their pop sensibilities. Avant-garde techniques have been brought to heel as the pair create off-kilter pop music that warms the heart and nourishes the brain. The catalyst that enabled this bold pop transformation came with the song "Touche" itself, a saucy chanson at the heart of the album. Suter's wry narrative about a botanical femme fatale is inserted into a lithe and skittish song with reggaeton beats and an inviting, balmy atmosphere. "Touche" reaches into hitherto unexplored areas of pop, while the rest of the album is accessible in the way that James Blake, Radiohead, or Kate Bush are accessible, and it always challenges, in a way that pop isn't supposed to. Suter writes playful, poignant, observational songs that tell stories as well as tell us something about ourselves. Songs like "Dorica Castra" are built upon the voice as an instrument, centrifugal and layered from its core. Complimentary to this method is Daubigné, who brings startling innovation with found sounds, samples, and clever vocal manipulations -- creating unique, otherworldly sonic flourishes. A guitar whirs like a musical spinning top on "Spin", created in Ableton; an Ondes Martenot appears to make a guest appearance on the title track, though it's the ingenuity of the Prophet 8 synthesizer.

Manchester's Balearic synth provocateur Ruf Dug teams up with Private Joy for a sizzling slice of laidback street soul -- if the streets were lined with palm trees, that is. Ruffy admits to not having any recollection of making the beat, which adds to the sundrenched, day-dream quality. Modulated pads evaporate in the heat haze, while a synth saxophone riff dances on the breeze, all setting the scene for a tropically-tinged marimba and a piano solo that respectfully nods to Vladimir Cosma's Sentimental Walk. When Gerd enquired about a possible vocal, Ruffy reached out to Private Joy, who sings like the fate of the track was entwined with her own, and it elevates the track to a whole other soulful level. In true '90s tradition, Ruffy delivers an alternate reggae mix for the flip, putting an off-beat bump to the track, while the instrumental versions shine a light on Ruffy's pitch-perfect production, and provide plenty of ammunition for acapellas of all sorts.

"J.J. Cale never recorded a full album until Eric Clapton scored a huge hit with Cale's 'After Midnight'. Encouraged by friend and producer Audie Ashworth, J.J. Cale recorded Naturally to capitalize on the success of his song. He released his debut album in 1972, not knowing this would be the beginning of the so-called Tulsa-sound. A lazy, rolling Boogie that contradicted all the commercial styles of boogie, blues, and country-rock that was popular at the time. This new sound became the blueprint for the adult-oriented roots rock of Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, among others. Naturally contains a new version of 'After Midnight' recorded by J.J. Cale as well as the hits 'Crazy Mama' and 'Call Me The Breeze', which was later covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Over the years J.J. Cale has written several hits for other musicians and recorded more than fifteen albums which makes him one of the most successful -- and lasting -- singer-songwriters of his generation."