Electro CD 45 Items

2022 repress

Hot as lava! Broken English Club delivers the 4th chapter of Jealous God! Comes as usual with a Mix CD.

Total turns 21 this year, and Kompakt’s venerable compilation series couldn’t have asked for a more auspicious coming-of-age collection. If Total 20 was consolidation against the odds, the Kompakt crew producing for a dreamt-of dancefloor in an uncertain future, then Total 21 feels abuzz and alive with possibilities. Significantly, it’s the first Total in some time that’s streamlined down to a single disc; this makes Total 21 even punchier than usual, a joyous, reflective, and always thrilling 75-minute audio scan of the world according to Kompakt.

As with every instalment of Total, there’s a deft balancing here of Kompakt regulars and new blood. Of the latter, there’s a first appearance by Kollmorgen, remixed by Patrice Bäumel into an astral torch song; Amsterdam’s Nicky Elisabeth, offering up Roman FLÜGEL’s pulsating, arpeggiated remix of “Celeste”; and Captain Mustache swoops down into view, Play Paul in tow, with the dream-like electro lift-off that is “Everything”. Jonathan Kaspar also drops by with a new track, “Von Draussen”, a stealthy and lethal floor-hugger with prowling bass.

Elsewhere, there’s the lead track to Michael Mayer’s astonishing recent EP, “Brainwave Technology”, which not-so-gently spears the tech-futurist babble of AI, transhumanism and posthumanism, soundtracked by one of Mayer’s typically lush, glimmering soundscapes. John Tejada reaches back to the heyday of glitch and dub techno with the gorgeous “Spectral Progressions”, while the brothers Voigt & Voigt, on “Nicht Mein Job”, seem reinvigorated by the interwoven patterns and funky minimalism of the Profan days. Not to be outdone, Jürgen Paape kicks Total 21 with “La Guittara Romantica”, a chiming and lilting lullaby for woozy late-night reflection.

Throughout, it feels as though Kompakt are taking a moment to both breathe in the dust of the past and look forward to a bright future. Perhaps that’s why, on “Fasson”, Sascha Funke seems so confident, with pinprick melodies bouncing around a hall of audio mirrors, or why THE Bionaut returns with “Blue Sky Motor Lodge”, a song so moistly melancholy, so enduringly lovely, it’ll make you weep tears of joy. Robag Wruhme gets a little delirious on the ticking, twisting “No”, and then GUI Boratto mops everything up with the bubbling, bumping glam-stomp “Wake Up”.

That’s not all – spring for the digital and/or vinyl edition and you’ll get a new cut, “Happy”, from Michael Mayer, and Marc Romboy & C.A.R.’s “I Am A Dancer”. But however you choose to play it, now Total’s turned 21, it’s your duty to throw it the celebration to end all celebrations. Let the party begin, and don’t forget to bring a party favo

First missive on new label from Simon Gabriel, late of 2 Bridges NYC, and Georgia’s Justin Tripp. Disarming and timely cornucopia of stateless, off-kilter tendencies. Cryptic puzzle of pop, tech, noise, bangers and outsiders. Nu-digital folklore, disembodied voices, Midi caprices. Through-line of vital currency. Designed to confound and excite. Early ‘00s slimline mixtape packaging, built for repeat plays.

Sought-after Belgian minimal synth finally reissued.

They were interesting times, the early eighties. Against a backdrop of cold war and economic crises, the DIY attitude of the earlier punk movement had spawned near countless new genres where artists and bands broke the three-chord guitar mould and experimented with new content matter, singular song structures and – in many cases – new instruments. Synthesizers became affordable and were no longer the sole privilege of rock millionaires. All around the globe, musical creativity boomed as never before, and Belgium was no exception: Digital Dance, Snowy Red, The Names, Pseudocode, Marine, 1000 Ohm, De Kommeniste, M.Bryo & D.M.T., De Brassers, Struggler, Siglo XX are but a few legendary names of bands and artists who started making a name for themselves.

In Leuven, things were happening as well. Until then, the music scene in this rather provincial town had been dominated by straightforward rock and blues acts. Not for much longer, though: in places like Arno'z and (later) The Gladhouse, where young budding artists met with kindred spirits, bands were often formed on the spot and, more importantly, started to make ripples.

Ludo Camberlin and Karel 'Bam' Saelemaekers already had a certain track record in Leuven's burgeoning music microcosm. But what they shared would become the cornerstone of A Blaze Colour (Against The Dark Trees Beyond): a fascination for new forms and instruments, a penchant for sonic adventure and a profound love for gripping songs. The full band name, by the way, was inspired by a phrase from the Irish-American novelist J.P. Donleavy, a writer who belongs in the definitely-worth-checking-out section.

For Omen Wapta's third release, Loek Frey explores the far reaches of mechanic and organic spaciousness. His first album 'Decipher' contains eleven electronic scapes, some more than others are intensified by layers of clashing atmospheres. Letting go of direction, the irregular complex rhythms still provide a clear and minimalistic approach to sound design, with a sense of progression.

Paving the way for independent artists with songs about love, loss and life, Low Island release their highly anticipated sophomore album, Life In Miniature, promising more ‘delicious alt pop’ (Clash) as the group follow in the footsteps of fellow ‘Oxford bands Glass Animals, Radiohead and Foals’ (Rolling Stone Germany).

It comes fresh off the back of their debut album, If You Could Have It All Again, which placed #17 in the Official UK Album Sales Chart and won them plaudits from Gigwise (‘truly engrossing’), Line of Best Fit (‘arena ready’), Double J, Kcrw, Radio1, 6music and Zane Lowe, who described the bands ‘intellectual, soulful creativity.’ Their second album, Life In Miniature, sees Low Island continue to broaden the scope of their ambition, with a record that exquisitely balances stirring electronics, euphoric indie and infectious pop. It’s a record described by the band as a ‘timecapsule, a sonic photo album that captures three years of accelerated change that felt like a lifetime. Leaving home, falling in love, losing loved ones, trying to capture full complexity of emotion that all of those experiences engender.’

Setting that heartfelt lyricism against such a diverse range of sonic backdrops is something that Low Island have been devotedly fine-tuning over the years, firmly rooted in an independence that extends to everything from managing themselves and releasing their music on their own label, Emotional Interference. Its lead to an electrifying live show, which has seen them play festivals from Glastonbury to Lollapalooza Berlin, support synthpop legends Hot Chip and pack out their own shows everywhere from London to Berlin, Prague and Paris, prompting 6music’s Tom Robinson to prophesise that ‘we’ll have them rocking the Pyramid Stage yet, mark my words’.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”

But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

Horrorfilm 'The Johnsons' was one of the biggest productions of 1992 in The Netherlands. The film won international acclaim and became a cult classic in the U.S. and Japan, yet failed to make an impact on the Dutch cultural landscape. Or so it was thought... 25 years later, the celebrated documentary 'xangadix Lives!' (Bram Roza & Yfke van Berckelaer, 2017), shines a new light on the untold story behind the film's troubled production and the legacy it left behind...

Xangadix Lives! the original motion picture soundtrack, is composed by award winning producer and Deformer initiator, Mike Redman. This acclaimed soundtrack was previously released on vinyl and is now available as limited edition CD for the first time.

Tresor Records is proud to announce forthcoming special editions of its entire catalogue of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalogue. These editions will be released sequentially, bimonthly, starting early-September 2022. Three months after the album release of 'Neptune's Lair' in September and its companion 12" 'Hydro Doorways' being released in October, 'Harnessed The Storm' and 'Digital Tsunami' are coming on November 11. They are followed by the release of Transllusion in February 2023. The series is completed by the long-awaited re-release of 'Shifted Phases – The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope' - at the end of March. These records, individually and as a catalogue, represent some of the most crucial moments in the Tresor label history, with the sound and mythic world of Drexciya undoubtedly inspiring generations.

It's by some strange inversion that since his untimely death in 1999 Bryn Jones' Muslimgauze project has become evermore enigmatic as his publicly available recordings have become evermore vast. The Mancunian artist's sudden passing at the age of 37 prematurely resolved a body of work that remains as experimental as it is diffuse, with an informal archive that was left spread between favoured labels and confidantes. And though this monadic project never abided by genre specifications, it all feels as if it is taking the critical pulses of its time and rendering them into something other than the sum of its obscure compulsions. Jones' double album 'Veiled Sisters' from 1993 is no exception, and it persists as a magnificent outlier in his singular and bewildering discography.

Originally released by the label Soleilmoon, an early and lifelong supporter of Jones' work along with Staalplaat, the album is a notable example of the uniquely recombinant fragility and fervour of Jones' work. This 3LP edition marks the album's first appearance on vinyl. Like much of the Muslimgauze catalogue, 'Veiled Sisters' is dedicated to the Palestine Liberation Organization, with its two halves—Sister One and Sister Two—calling on the history and conflicts of the modern Islamic world through opaque titles and snatches of musical oration.

Forgoing the raucous timbre and abrasion that Jones could occasionally employ, this album balances a medley of shrill instrumental bursts with a complex patterning of ambient atmospheres. 'Veiled Sisters' moves with a hypnotic gait across its extended runtime with a dynamic ensemble of electronics grounded in a pulsing yet evasive combination of low-slung kicks and dub-soaked bass. The hissy wash of drums, both played and machined, decorate a restless patina all over, and the cacophony of samples send impressions scattershot into Jones' idiosyncratic yet readymade psychedelia. With a quiet intensity that is not often captured this succinctly in the Muslimgauze catalogue, this new edition of 'Veiled Sisters' is a reminder of the haunting wonder that Jones was capable of manifesting.

Nous'klaer Audio presents the official debut album by Mathilde Nobel: Founds on Land. Eleven magnificent dark experimental pop tracks written, produced and performed by Mathilde Nobel. Today I woke up with a vague memory of yesterday. It's not the first time that I've encountered clouded memories. From where I lay I can see there are fresh cuts on my arms and feet and legs next to scarred over wounds. I turn my head and see that there are a few drops of blood dried on the white bathroom tile next to caked on red stains turned brown. I've reached the point where I stopped asking "why"? In fairness, I stopped asking "what?", too. I stand out of bed into a relatively organized room. There's no headache, no hangover, no shaking, no blurred vision. There's no nausea, no instability. One foot smoothly walks in front of the other. I trace my fingers along the white walls as I cross the threshold into the bright kitchen. Through the windows I see the city, its skyscrapers glowing in the cold winter morning sun. Beyond them I can make out the snowy mountains and the cold black ocean. As I dress in silence, my mind is empty and clear. My day is not purposeless, I'm not directionless. I have a calling and it's guiding hand leads me outside. As I step outside I turn left down the road one foot smoothly in front of the other, I'm not directionless; I walk in silence. Mixed by Remco de Jong at Phako Studio. Mastered by Neel at Enisslab. Words by Gregory Markus.

Das italienische Duo Agents Of Time war in den letzten Jahren unglaublich fleißig, von der Veröffentlichung einer Reihe klassischer Singles - darunter ihre jüngster Beitrag für Afterlife, "The Mirage", der mehr als fünf Millionen Aufrufe auf Instagram erhielt - bis hin zum Remix von The Weeknds "Take My Breath", der auf dessen aktuellen Album “Dawn FM (Alternative World)” erschien. Aber die bahnbrechendeste Neuigkeit ist erst jetzt endlich da - ihr zweites Album "Universo" ist fertig! “Universo" verbindet ihr Markenzeichen, melodischen Techno, mit einer besonderen Pop-Haltung und findet nach der EP "Music Made Paradise 2020" sein ideales Zuhause bei Kompakt. Eine Seelenverwandtschaft, die absolut Sinn macht.

Andrea Di Ceglie und Luigi Tutolo, die beiden Mitglieder von Agents Of Time, nutzten die Zeit während der Pandemie, um an "Universo" zu arbeiten, einem Album, das lose um ihr "persönliches Universum" herum konzipiert ist, eine Manifestation der Welt, die Di Ceglie und Tutolo in und um ihr Studio herum aufgebaut haben. Das macht den besonderen Glanz und die strahlende Helligkeit von "Universo" aus - es strotzt nur so von Persönlichkeit, Elan und Kraft, das Duo experimentiert mit Musik und erkundet auch noch deren entfernteste Ecken. Wer bei "Universo" nur ein weiteres Album mit melodischem Techno erwartet, wird angenehm überrascht sein - hier ist viel mehr los, und alles ist gleichermaßen spannend.

Nach einer poetischen Eröffnungsgeste - dem wirbelnden, synästhetischen, selbstbetitelten Intro-Track - werden mit dem 2-Step-Pop von “Fallin” alle Erwartungen sofort über den Haufen geworfen. Mit sanfter Klarheit von Gastsängerin Audrey Janssens gesungen, ist “Fallin” ein Traum von einem Song, der an die großen Zeiten von UK-Garage in den frühen 00er Jahre erinnert. "Interstellar Cowboy" ist ein selbstbewusstes, geschmeidig über den Laufsteg stolzierender Disco-Track; das sanfte Moll-Klavier von "Liquid Fantasy" entwickelt sich zu einem wunderbar melancholischen Techno-Pop-Epos, mit Vicky Who?’s Stimme voller Sehnsucht . Danach taucht auch Janssens Gesang auf dem Elektro-Wirbel von "Poison" wieder auf; "Dream Vision" greift die Single "The Mirage" auf, sanft und mit schwungvollen Streichern, voller Dramatik; "Part Of Life" dagegen ist ein echter Schaffel-Stomp.

All der Abwechslungsreichtum lässt eher tanzflächenorientierte Tracks wie "Ciao" noch deutlicher hervortreten - sie wirken noch entschlossener, stromlinienförmiger und dennoch reich an Details, pluckernde, Moroder-eske Bässe treffen auf stroboskopisch blitzende Synths, von denen aus die Melodien ins Firmament schießen. “Universo” fühlt sich textlich dicht an, aber es atmet trotzdem, seine Klänge sind so greifbar, dass man sie anfassen möchte, seine Melodien so verführerisch, dass man sie nicht mehr aus dem Kopf bekommt. “Universo” ist ein wunderschönes, mutiges Album, ein perfekter Treffpunkt von Pop-Melodien und stilvollem Techno: Agents Of Time in excelsis.

Pioneers in their own musical approaches, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, began their exploration of sound in the evocatively titled V.I.R.U.S series in 2002. After more than a decade from the release of the collection's final installment with "Summvs" in 2011, Noton reissues all the five albums between June and October 2022.

With its impressionistic atmosphere, in this collaborative project two generations met and shared the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures. Over a series of five albums, Vrioon (2002),Insen (2005), Revep (2006), utp_ (2008), and summvs (2011), the duo have explored blending electronic and acoustic sounds into a meditative whole that is at once expressive, breathing and precision-engineered.

Remastered in collaboration with Calyx Mastering, the recordings of Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_, and Summvs are made available on vinyl and CD under the title 'reMASTER, accompanied by exclusive, unreleased compositions and housed in a beautifully designed sleeve with original cover art by Carsten Nicolai.

On his sophomore album “itsame” on Film, Brainwaltzera navigates the turbulent waters of personal crossroads with cautious optimism for an uncertain future. Drawing comparisons with his debut full-length "Poly-Ana", an equally introspective album that explores broader conceptual themes, the artist hesitantly describes the new record as a very personal affair. Acting as a kind of “journal” of the last four years of his life, each of the 17 tracks directly relate to events and experiences that transpired during their composition.

Limited to 100 copies. These funds will be used to cover a bed for residence at the orphanage, food and water for the child, educational classes for the year, medicine and psychiatric support, clothing, stationary and transport to the orphanage. The remaining funds will be directed towards Olive Kids’ ‘Gaza Emergency Appeal’, a project seeking to purchase 6000 hygiene packages, 600 food packages, 2,000 Covid-19 tests and fuel for hospital generators. Includes unlimited streaming of Palestine via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, Flac and more.

The psychedelic garage duo The Liminanas and French techno pioneer DJ/producer Laurent Garnier have now produced together “De Pelicula”. The result is neither a Limiñanas techno record nor a Laurent Garnier rock album . It is a record that feels like a walk on the wild side, one straight out of a film noir that was spawned from the need to write music that tells a story and rattles all traditional patterns in a (super)sonic trance. A heated road-trip spent chasing Juliette and Saul, two teenage rascals straight out of a ‘60s classic - think “Breathless” (original title: A bout de Souffle) meets Sailor and Lula - balancing on the southern border with Spain, knocked out by the heat and cheap liquor.

“Rone & Friends” has the musical colour of Rone’s friendships, of his crushes for a few additional less expected guest voices, but also inevitably of his own personality. With a strange year 2020 where borders and concert venues have closed, Rone felt the need to come closer to his artist friends and to reshuffle his creations with their voices as the new beating heart. The new collaborative album includes voices by Georgia, Yael Naim, Casper Clausen (Efterklang), Flavien Berger, Jenny Beth, Dominique A and many others. On the surface, Rone’s latest album, ‘Room With A View’ seemed to mark his return to solitary, contemplative instrumental electronica productions akin to his debut album ‘Spanish Breakfast’. In reality, the show of the same name, which took place over a week in the prestigious Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, is the result of a permanent collaboration with fifteen dancers of the Ballet de Marseille and the avant-garde dance collective “La Horde", which fed into all the decisions made around the album campaign. The albums’ artwork is unequivocal in this regard. The health crisis in March 2020 forced the closure of the theatre and paralysed the development of this unique show at the crossroads of disciplines, which, up until then, was met with both critical and commercial success.

Klasse Wrecks with their very first CD release offering a special release!! In the early 90s, Joi Lau was working as a comic assistant when he got signed by a record label in Hong Kong. Under the moniker Joey Lau, his debut album went gold and sold over 25000 copies. Fast forward to 2021 and you'd be forgiven for scratching your head at the transformation Joi has undergone. Joi's album served as his only release up until he met Klasse Wrecks' Mr. Ho 30 years later in a nightclub in downtown Hong Kong. At 8 tracks '3 UR Mind' is only a micro-selection of Joi's immense back catalogue of work, a body of songs that is impossible to locate within a normal field of genres and classification. At times tribal and at times progressive, Joi's music is a patchwork of modern and sharp percussion, sinister bass and traditional eastern motifs, resulting in a style that sounds like a representation of life in busy and hectic Hong Kong. Although his pop star days are behind him, Joi has never stopped making music. With close to one hundred tracks waiting to see the light of day, we can only look forward to another exciting chapter to the intriguing story of Joi Lau.

On his fourth album proper, Now Here No Where, Danish producer Kölsch (aka Rune Reilly Kölsch) is charting new terrain. Fans of his ‘years trilogy’ – 1977, 1983 and 1989, released on Kompakt over the past decade – were privy to a kind of sonic diary, an autobiography, tracking the artist’s early years through three albums of superior, meticulously rendered techno. Calling in collaborators where needed – most notably, the strings of Gregor Schwellenbach – there was still something deeply personal going down, not quite hermetic, but internally focused; the albums proved not only Kölsch’s mastery of his chosen form, but also his capacity to make techno personal, individual, and to trace histories of the self through music. But on Now Here No Where, Kölsch finds his feet firmly planted in the present. Reflecting on his new album, he notes, “It is fascinating to write about memories and feelings that have had years to manifest and develop, but how would I approach current emotions?” It’s a good question: our past coheres through the narratives we build around memories, but the moment we’re in, the newness of the now-ness, is harder to navigate; this story is as yet untold. For Kölsch, this makes Nowhere Now Here “an album about life in the year 2020.

Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.
A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.
The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.
As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.
Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.
If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

On his third album as Trickfinger, John Frusciante makes the jump from Acid Test to its leftfield sub-label, Avenue 66, to unleash the full scope of his vision. On She Smiles Because She Presses The Button, the legendary, LA-based cult figure, presents his most diverse yet cohesive album to date. Frusciante has the melodic and programming chops to jump from style to style while sounding only like himself. “Amb” is the welcome middle-ground between Balearic and IDM while “Brise” with its quick syncopations and rhythmic groove provide a contrasting fabric. Elsewhere, JF caroms through electro and pastoral, “intelligent” ambient. The common thread through this quixotic journey are his trademark, timeless melodies. For years now, Frusciante has immersed himself in machines, learning tracker programs, synths and drum machines inside and out, applying the same, tireless approach he’s exhibited through-out his career. On She Smiles Because She Presses The Button, this period of intense study leads intense creative liberation.

Terrapin, The Modernist, Burger / Ink, The Novotones, Cologne Tape, Fantastic Twins, Rebolledo & The Novotones, Paulor, Xu Xu Fang, Sascha Funke & Cosmo Vitelli, Kenneth James Gibson. Velvet Desert Music Vol. 1 introduces a new compilation series on Kompakt, curated by one of Cologne’s leading figures in electronic music, Jörg Burger (aka The Modernist, The Bionaut, Burger/Ink and many more). Velvet Desert Music Vol. 1 combines elements of rock, folk, country, surf, krautrock and psychedelic in contemporary electronic music.

WRWTFWW Records is immensely happy to announce the reissue of impossible-to-find cult album Lady Maid by Japanese outfit Normal Brain.

Turning the mirror on herself, Marie Davidson arrives on Ninja Tune with Working Class Woman”, an album that is sure to be heralded as one of the most self-reflective recordings yet from the Montreal-based producer.

Building on the dancefloor-minded trajectory of her breakthrough LP Adieux Au Dancefloor, released via Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax imprint circa 2016. With “Working Class Woman”, Marie Davidson proves that once again that she can roll acidic new beat basslines and sleek, sexdrops tekno laced with sharp-edged vox like no one else. This super strong selection is sure to take pride of place within the collections and listening habits of anyone into DFA and Regis, Not Waving (with whom she recently collaborated) SOPHIE and GAIKA.

Working Class Woman reshapes Marie Davidson's sharp-edged Italo Disco, proto-industrial and electro influences into new modes of cyberpunk coldwave control, proof that looking inward can project a more expansive vision out into the world.

The CD comes in a digipak with a 4 page booklet. Poignant, aggressive, but yet serene sound track created by Jeff Mills for "And Then There Was Light" - a Japanese film directed by Tatsushi Omori based on the novel "Hikari" by Shion Miura.

After his successful debut album Super Vato (CÓMEME CD LP 01) from two thousand eleven, his highly praised mix CD Momento Drive (KOMPAKT CD 117) from two thousand fourteen, and all-around mayhem during his adventures as one half of the Pachanga Boys, Xalapa's finest Rebolledo returns with his second solo album Mondo Alterado: a recollection of moments and experiences from recent years, colorful mnemonics encompassing the brightest and the darkest.

Mexican Singer/Songwriter Graciela Maria has been singing since she was a little kid. Having livied in Mexico City for many years, she was part of the mexican electronic music scene and made music with local producers signal deluxe.

In 2009 she met berlin based producer Robot Koch in New York at his show at Coco66 in Brooklyn.
They started making music together and Grace was featured on Robot's album “Death Star Droid” as well as on the Ep “Listen To Them Fade”. 2009 marked the beginning of a journey both musically and geographically for Graciela, as she moved from Mexico City to Berlin and started playing shows wolrdwide with Robot Koch.
They played everywhere from the Sonar Festival in Barcelona to some obscure art festivals in Bulgaria and Tunesia.

With Many Places, Graciela Maria's stunning debut album, she steps into the light as more than just a featured vocalist on Koch's electronica and dubstep driven compositions: Her own music breathes the vibe of classic singer/songwriters like Tim Buckley and Elliot Smith, with the music and the production being even more organic and live sounding than on the previous Koch tracks. The songwriting took place all over the world, as Graciela traveled and lived in many places recently, accompanied by her little notebook and her digital camera, which she uses to record song ideas on all the time. The topics she deals with are both surreal and personal and leave it up to the listener to be interpretated.

Producer Robot Koch teamed up with friend and fellow musician Sneaky (Fingathing / Ninja Tune) to create this organic and retro futuristic sounding album, that incorporates Double Bass, Live Drums, Cello and other String instruments and well as a subtle touch of cutting edge electronic production which Robot Koch is know for. The track "Many Places" features a string arrangement by Fiora Cutler.

Graciela Maria is an artist to watch out for in the future as she proves to create timeless pieces of music that are appealing to Indie/pop listeners and lover's of electronic music alike.

Cover with punch hole

CD closer to VG+

CD with scuffs and hairlines

CD close to VG+