Electronic & Dance CD 405 Items

Mike Paradinas, veteran producer and Planet Mu label owner has written a new album called ‘Grush' and it's full of weird bangers that reclaim the 'dance' part of the woeful term IDM. A back-to-first-principles record, inspired in part by the group of artists IDM was coined for; melodic dance music that didn't come out of urban scenes, but interpreted them from a distance.

The tracks on ‘Grush’ are all road-tested live favorites developed with feedback from Mike's touring partner and visuals guy Mora (Jan Moravec). It's a detailed and energetic journey which replicates the flow of a live gig. A lot of the tracks have been made in hotel rooms in response to shows, ‘Imperial Crescent’ is named after a Japanese Hotel, as is ‘Belvedere’ in Prague, while some tracks such as ‘Hyper Daddy’ were created specifically to play live.

Drums are confidently at the fore here and the album feels like it traces Mike's musical history and interests neatly around his sweetly nostalgic melodies, with atmospheres and structures which twist and turn with a charming softness which contrasts with the tension in the drums. Take ‘Hyper Daddy’s’ spiralling notes and twinkling piano which remind one of early Black Dog or Omni Trio rushing alongside splashy jungle drums, or the aquatic acid footwork of the title track with its drums softly bubbling and kicking. Elsewhere there's territory which harks back to his Tusken Raiders pseudonym, like the heads down Drexciyan funk of ‘Windsor Safari Park,’ which transforms from moody electro into a sunny hardcore track midway. The album is interspersed with Reticulum A, B and C at the start middle and end of the album which suggest a theme which carries across the music in an effortless and joyful way. ‘Grush’ is a strong album that works both for listening and DJing and a great snapshot of where Mike Paradinas musical head is at in 2024.

With Lucifer, Kompakt presents an album of rare beauty from two masters of modern music. A family affair, it’s a collaboration between the Italian father-and-son duo of Luciano Michelini and Lorenzo Dada, whose combined histories bring to Lucifer a depth of experience alongside clarity of vision and a finely tuned, neatly developed combined compositional voice. A lovely, beguiling suite of music that combines the electronic and the acoustic, the urban and the pastoral, its gorgeous night-eye vision and tender melancholy sits neatly within the Kompakt universe, while offering the curious listener some rich new perspectives.

There is already plenty to know both artists by. Lorenzo Dada creates across multiple fields – a techno producer and DJ who has already worked with the likes of Jay Haze, Fete, Leo Benassi, and Der, he’s released a small clutch of stylish, smartly designed EPs, and a solo album, Second Life (2018). His complementary background in classical music and composition informs his ensemble project, Tears Of Blue (who appear on Lucifer), where Dada paints with neo-classical tones for a quartet of violin, viola, cello and grand piano, supplemented by electronics for live performance.

Luciano Michelini’s history is yet richer. He may be best known, to many, for his piece “Frolic”, the theme to Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm series; it was also sampled by Snoop Dogg for 2022’s “Crip Ya Enthusiasm”. But there’s much more to Michelini’s story. A successful soundtrack composer, Michelini both studied and taught at the Conservatoro di Santa Cecilia, and worked for RCA from the sixties to the eighties; his soundtracks from this period are gorgeous examples of the form, particularly his work for Il Decamerone Nero (1972), L’Isola Degli Uomini Pesce (1979), and the devastatingly gorgeous Dimensione Donna (1977).

In the eighties, Michelini and his wife Anna Gutling founded the Electronic Music Division studio and academy in Rome, which is where the majority of Lucifer was recorded. Dada reflects on the experience: “We never worked together before, so it was all new for both of us,” with Michelini adding, “I truly love this experience with my son. He’s a talented pianist and composer. I am not very familiar with electronic music nowadays, but we did it fluently.” There’s certainly a familial energy at play through Lucifer, and you can hear how Dada and Michelini, through exploration and experiment, find a shared language, balancing Dada’s tendency toward minimalism, and Michelini’s composerly voice.

Lucifer flows as a suite that interweaves electronic music with acoustic instruments: the lonely sigh of saxophone; Michelini’s lush, verdant piano; the weeping strings of Tears Of Blue (recorded at the studio of Michelini’s friend, the late Maestro, Ennio Morricone). These multiple voices are located within the electronic sighs and swarms from Dada’s kit; there are moments of propulsion, and passages of lambent drift, where the album revels in its tonal sweetness. If it flows so effortlessly, that’s because Lucifer was designed that way, as a suite or a sonata of sorts.

And the title? Dada reflects, “Lucifer was an angel who decided not to be one anymore. The miracle of life is that we can decide what we want to be, even if we are born as angels or vice versa.” This feels somehow apposite: there’s certainly something of the transformative, and the transportive, in Lucifer, a unique family collaboration of rare poetry and sensitivity, where two generations meet in the modern crucible that is the electronic music studio.

Hazy, gentle almost euphoric explorations and improvisations made in Leeds and Manchester throughout 2019 and 2020. Sam and Chris understand, lean in to, and translate those wonderful relationships and historic personal moments that smudge in to your DNA forever. Their language is of classic genre playing and hardware samplers, and they’ve made a record about low down personal shit; our deep trauma, beautiful platonic love, isolation, connection, it's all there; Blunches look and listen to the world around them and have created their own version of it. It’s like those summers watching skate videos, feeling upset all the time, getting into bed at 4am, being with your mates, just getting through it. This record doesn’t have a lyric in it, yet it speaks to me as a kid from a grey-ass town as clear as any pop song ever has. I dare you to play this and not feel it.

The Best Omar S, newest album simply reflects the singer, songwriter/producer's brilliant career-always vogue, forever moving forward, yet transcending trend to find its place among the classics. The 11 selections gracing album, produced by Omar S is just what you never expect from a modern entertainment LEGEND!!!!
(The Best) strides into action with "Time MO 1"(Mix by Norm Talley) before moving into the romantic "Ah'Revolution", a sultry ballad that sounds as if it was written especially for Amp Fidler's caressing lead vocal. Even so Omar S contributes five songs of instrumentals the snappy upbeat "Chama Piru's", "Bugging Out", "Bitch,,,,,I'll Buy Another one", "You Silk Suit Wearing MuLaFuuk'ka". If you are into melodic keys "Smash" features the classic solos from O B Ignitt and Kyle Hall. “Take Ya Pik Nik” is an easy listening track. The "Seen Was Set" and its funky up rhythm sample mixed by Norm Talley and legendary Big Strick on shout outs. The Best has time and time again shown his versatility with collaborations from across the pond “Bugging Out” with Tom Buggs. If you are looking to be inspired, "On Your Way" featuring Divinity on lead vocals, the lyrics serve as a reminder for fellow artists to keep in mind their responsibility in leading the world's youth. The international hit "Heard Chew Single" with John FM on lead vocals will take this album to the #1 spot for Resident Advisors Album of the year.
Reviewed by O.G. Bobby Johnson

Producer Pieter Kock, active also as a DJ under his DJ Peacock guise, is known for being one of the people behind the legendary O Tannenbaum bar and club, a haven of sorts in Berlin nightlife for years, and the newly opened second O Tannenbaum called Schankwirtschafft O Tannenbaum. He has released some of his own music on labels such as Musikii, RIO, Full Body Massage, Fantasy Fiction Records, Moonwalk X, and Invisible Inc, and has extensively collaborated with people and projects such as Meeuw and De Fabriek.

His new Bright Bars From The Stars album on Meakusma is a dizzying amalgam of moods and influences. From ghostly and contemplative tracks to spaced-out and dubbed-out dark dancefloor psychedelia infused with melodics, phrasing, and percussive patterns reminiscent of pop and avant-garde alike, Bright Bars From The Stars features a full album on vinyl, with an extra CD included. Kock is a versatile chronicler of the night, capturing the beauty, loneliness, and endless possibilities of wide avenues pining for neon lights, futuristic descents into past moods and modes, and all.

14 tracks in total, Bright Bars From The Stars is a cosmic, at times gentle, at times confrontational affair that brims with ideas and influences. Combining sounds, rhythms, melodies, and textures from a wide variety of sources and meanings, Pieter Kock brings all of his influences together, intent on finding new paths of thinking and feeling. His pictures printed in the CD booklet give some kind of indication of his artistic process, without ever wanting to push things in any kind of direction. Cocktail bars of a dystopian future, unite! Bright Bars From The Stars is the soundtrack to a very encompassing and transformative night out.

All compositions by Pieter Kock except Bright Bars From The Stars by Pieter Kock and Dominik Peacho Noé Mastering & Cut by Rashad Becker Art by Pieter Kock and Meeuw

Producer Pieter Kock, active also as a DJ under his DJ Peacock guise, is known for being one of the people behind the legendary O Tannenbaum bar and club, a haven of sorts in Berlin nightlife for years, and the newly opened second O Tannenbaum called Schankwirtschafft O Tannenbaum. He has released some of his own music on labels such as Musikii, RIO, Full Body Massage, Fantasy Fiction Records, Moonwalk X, and Invisible Inc, and has extensively collaborated with people and projects such as Meeuw and De Fabriek.

His new Bright Bars From The Stars album on Meakusma is a dizzying amalgam of moods and influences. From ghostly and contemplative tracks to spaced-out and dubbed-out dark dancefloor psychedelia infused with melodics, phrasing, and percussive patterns reminiscent of pop and avant-garde alike, Bright Bars From The Stars features a full album on vinyl, with an extra CD included. Kock is a versatile chronicler of the night, capturing the beauty, loneliness, and endless possibilities of wide avenues pining for neon lights, futuristic descents into past moods and modes, and all.

14 tracks in total, Bright Bars From The Stars is a cosmic, at times gentle, at times confrontational affair that brims with ideas and influences. Combining sounds, rhythms, melodies, and textures from a wide variety of sources and meanings, Pieter Kock brings all of his influences together, intent on finding new paths of thinking and feeling. His pictures printed in the CD booklet give some kind of indication of his artistic process, without ever wanting to push things in any kind of direction. Cocktail bars of a dystopian future, unite! Bright Bars From The Stars is the soundtrack to a very encompassing and transformative night out.

All compositions by Pieter Kock except Bright Bars From The Stars by Pieter Kock and Dominik Peacho Noé Mastering & Cut by Rashad Becker Art by Pieter Kock and Meeuw

Jlin’s third album ‘Akoma’ s features guest appearances from Björk, Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet.

Jlin’s detailed and meticulous exploration of rhythm’s inner and outer reaches has made her one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices within both the electronic and classical music worlds. Her compositions are consistently appealing and have an accessibility to them, yet often defy expectations. She exists within her own locus solus - no matter the collaborator, no matter where sounds ultimately lead her. Whatever the situation – from composing the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted ‘Perspective’ for Third Coast Percussion, to ‘Godmother’ her AI-powered collaboration with Holly Herndon, Jlin always expresses her outlook to the fullest. Her new album ‘Akoma’ sets a new benchmark in her personal road map, not only since the album features guest appearances from Björk, Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet but for her continued sonic persistence and resistance. Jlin does what Jlin does and it’s beloved across genres, across scenes and across generations. ‘Akoma’ is a new entry point into her sound and a new approach for both those who have been following diligently and those who are just now entering her world.

So how did she get here? Here’s a rundown for those looking for the facts. She was both a math nerd and a steel factory worker. She got inspired by Footwork and started making tracks with mentorship assistance from RP Boo and DJ Rashad, but her music was far from typical for footwork from the get-go. In 2011, she released her first track ‘Erotic Heat’ on the Planet Mu anthology ‘Bangs & Works Vol.2.’ Fashion designer Rick Owens heard it and invited her to soundtrack his Paris Fashion Week show. Already before an EP or an album Jlin was in new cutting-edge territory. And it hasn’t stopped since. Everyday Jlin wakes up early and clocks into her home studio working hard on new music. Her discipline and craft-like approach means that those who would try to copy her sound simply can’t get to the level she is at. Since ‘Erotic Heat’ she has released two bold albums, 2015’s ‘Dark Energy’ and 2017’s ‘Black Origami.’ She has also released her soundtrack to Company Wayne McGregor’s dance piece ‘Autobiography’ (2018) and most recently (2023) the mini-album ‘Perspective.’ She’s remixed µ-Ziq, Factory Floor, Ben Frost, Max Richter, Björk, Martin Gore and others. She’s collaborated with Holly Herndon and the late Sophie. She’s worked with visual artists Kevin Beasley and Nick Cave. She composed a string quartet for Kronos Quartet and performed with them live in a tribute to Philip Glass. She also recently completed a tribute to Sun Ra with Kronos. ‘Perspective’, her very well received percussion work for Third Coast Percussion has further opened doors for her in classical music. She’s even thinking of one day writing an opera. She had a residency at MassMoca Museum earlier this year (2023). She’s performed live at Pitchfork Festival, Unsound Festival and too many others to mention. She’s also worked with Indian dancers, Company Wayne McGregor and renowned choreographer/MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham. There’s more but you get the picture - she’s working in contexts and in ways that few of her peers are able to.

‘Akoma’ is the next step - all these paths have led to this. We encourage you to tune in.

Written and produced by Kieran Hebden. Photography by Jason Evans. Design by Jason Evans and Matthew Cooper.

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.

16 nice tracks feat. Bajka and others ... made in Berlin!

Nach dem Welt-Erfolg der mittlerweile zum Klassiker avancierten Compilation Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats hat sich Daniel Haaksman noch einmal auf die Suche nach dem Funk aus Rio gemacht. Rio Baile Funk ist der Sound der Strassen von Rio de Janeiro's Favelas. Kickende Booty Beats mit portugiesischen Raps, Electro Breaks und ein nonchalantes, kreatives Spiel mit Samples, die jeden Rechtsanwalt um den Verstand bringen würden sind die charakteristischen Merkmale dieser aufregenden Musik. Baile Funk spiegelt Brasilien wieder, den großen Schmelztiegel, eine Musik, die Funk, Miami Bass, Electro, HipHop, Freestyle und Bastardpop mit einander verbindet.

The memorable debut album "unrest", the origin of the Harakami sound, has been reissued!! It was once reissued in 2015 with a new jacket design, featuring an illustration by tomokochin-pro, a well-known illustrator of Rei Harakami's works. This album shows how the Harakami sound was established from the debut album.

The CD reissue of Rei Harakami's 4th album "lust", which includes the classic songs "joy" and "owari no kisetsu"!! The reissue includes new liner notes by Carlos Nino, who has collaborated with Rei Harakami. Four years after his third album "red curb," this album includes "joy," one of Rei Harakami's best-known songs, and "owari no kisetsu," a cover of Haruomi Hosono's song, in which he takes on the challenge of singing vocals for the first time.

Japan's world-famous masterpiece by the late Rei Harakami has been revived! The long-awaited reissue of the CD written by Rei Harakami for "Colors of the Dark", the contents of the planetarium projector Megastar-ii cosmos at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), is now available!! "I created this album for a planetarium project, with the idea of sustaining the atmosphere for over 30 minutes so that you may fall asleep. Ikuko Harada from Clammbon reads the poem by Shuntaro Tanigawa. I really don't mind you falling asleep while listening." - Rei Harakami

Ruby is back only 6 month after her last Album “UPP” she is delivering another amazing full length titled “Yummy”. Currently putting extra focus on her productions she is keeping busy (already working on another follow up = ))
Dive into her sonic world that is getting more & more refined. You can hear it’s Nice Girl: the playfulness, the humour, the melodies and the omnipresent fun vocal bits all make her sound stand out. As usual Yummy is a wild mix of fast, driving, uptempo songs and more relaxed, dreamy bits that can be filed under “lounge” in the best possible way. Dig it!

The Black Dog's highly regarded album, Radio Scarecrow, is now remastered and re-issued on Dust Science, 15 years after its original release on Soma Records.

Two years of constant development culminated in a masterpiece that flows delightfully and hits hard. Marking a true progression from the band's previous album, Silenced, the trio are keen to note:

"The beats are faster and the bass is much heavier - so much so, that it was making us ill, working with the low frequencies for hours on end. We could only do 3 hours at a time on some parts."

Tracks like Floods v3.9 and Beep are a testament to this. With throbbing basslines strong enough to make an impact on the Richter scale, these tracks are best played out on big sound systems.

Radio Scarecrow unfolds gracefully, barely skipping a beat between tracks. The act have created an album that demands to be listened to in its entirety. With elements blending between tracks (the same kick drum being used to very different means in Short Wave Lies and Siiiipher for example) and with constant references to conspiracy theories and the supernatural, The Black Dog present more than a collection of tracks. Influenced heavily by their interest in Magick, Numbers Stations and Electronic Voice Phenomenon (evp), the act have hidden examples of these within their work.

"These transmissions and recordings (and people's interpretations of them) had a strong influence on many of the final concepts and compositions, to the point where we've been embedding coded messages and curses deep inside the tracks".

NRW Records is proud to present another subversive album from Orax. After one year + wait, the main man is back with his sinister dark-synth injective sound. A must for all Darksynth and Cyberpunk enthusiasts!

Elbee Bad is another great underground house pioneer from the formative days of NYC house in the late eighties. The True Story Of House Music finally gets told!

•7" vinyl •Lyric insert •Blue and pink swirled 7" •Download card

CD Jewel Case With 8 pages Booklet, Pictures , Notes In anticipation of the 35th anniversary next year one of electronic music´s most influential recordings, the legendary E2-E4, from 12.12.1981 does get an official rerelease by Manuel Göttsching on his own Label MG.ART. Carefully overseen by the Master himself

Inspired by childhood fantasies of being invisible, Broadrick’s latest in a 40+ year line of recordings extinguishes any semblance of his ruder, rhythm-driven self, in favour of puristic tonal expression. He’s still there, albeit as a quietly incandescent presence, dematerialising detuned oscillators into elemental pressure and shadowplay.

In his own words: “The theme of this recording is the invisible world, and one's (my) need for it. It's necessary for me, this idea of the invisible world, if I am to function on a daily basis. I find comfort in knowing that this is all not just us here and now, that there's something else around us. That there's something within us, that isn't just this frail skin and bones and the immediate environments we drag ourselves around. I am sure since I was a child, that within me I am many, I am more than this. I surely can't be just this, so I am motivated by the fantasy and/or promise of more…”

Where too often work in this paradigm can fall into anodyne torpor or overbearing conceptualism, ‘What we Don’t See’ burns with a ferocity that swerves tired quiet/loud tropes, instead leaning into the spaces between solemnity, melancholy, and frailty with emotional nuance. Broadrick seems to always channel lived experience in a way that feels convincing rather than contrived, negotiating spiritual pluralities with an elemental grasp of ambiguity that guides his transition from the sustained glower of ‘Bodyless’ to the fugged resolution of ‘Behind Me’ via the stately sweep of ‘Only in Dreams’ and into the keening, microtonal, ‘Inbetween You’.

Powerful stuff from a bit of a living legend.

Fabrice Lig has melody running through his veins. On his quest to explore his deep love for the bitter-sweet yearning of Motor City techno, his tracks transcend trends. Over his three-decade spanning career he has refined his blend of soul-infused dance music to striking effect. His gift for a catchy hook is unmatched. His new studio album ''The Mental Bandwidth'' shows his musical range as a producer once again. On the album's twelve tracks, he effortlessly traverses, cosmic house, funkified techno and electronica, combining his trademark quirky melodies with playful songwriting and dance floor focused beats. The album format is giving Lig enough space to explore his musical ideas from different directions while staying true to the overall atmosphere. ''The idea for the album was to go back to the fundamentals of the original Detroit sound and to find new ways of expressing that soul in my music - as I've been doing for years'', explains Lig. With Ann Saunderson and the former Kraftwerk-member Wolfgang Flur, the album features two heavy-weight collaborations that connect the ''The Mental Bandwidth'' to Detroit's musical legacy, too. Slikk Tim aka Garry Grittness also has a cameo in the form of a funky bassline on ''Healing'', the pop-infused Ann Saunderson collaboration. The title of the album is inspired by Lig's lecture of Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir book ''Scarcity: Why Having So Little Means So Much'' which explores new approaches to reduce poverty. ''The authors discovered that the mental bandwidth of poor people is sometimes really low because of short term issues they are facing and are forced to solve'', explains Lig. Those issues are reducing the mental bandwidth for long term thinking capacities, which in turn has consequences for the decision making process. An example: before the quality of education of poor kids is increased, the quality of life they have must be increased. This increases the capacities of the kids to learn more than solely better educational programs.

All tracks written, produced, mixed by AOS at the FXHE studio 1. Track 13 '1993' does not exist on CD version though is listed on the Tracklist on-back of CD cardboard case.

WRWTFWW Records is flying high as it announces the reissue of the 1997 ambient masterpiece Quiet Logic by electronic music visionaries Mixmaster Morris (The Irresistible Force), Jonah Sharp (Spacetime Continuum), and Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra). For the first time ever, this iconic album is available on vinyl as a double LP with a heavy 350gsm sleeve, as well as on digipack CD and digitally.
Quiet Logic invites listeners to embark on a captivating sonic odyssey, blending intricate rhythms and celestial environments that push the boundaries of electronic music. Co-crafted at Haruomi Hosono's Tokyo studio in 1997, this album represents a time of rapid transformation in the genre, with these three artists at the forefront of redefining soundscapes.
With its unique blend of influences from Hosono's immense contribution to electronic, pop, and experimental music to Morris' worldwide chill out DJ performances and Sharp's pioneering label, Reflective, Quiet Logic remains a timeless piece of ethereal electronica. It was originally only released in Japan in CD format on the Harry Hosono-curated Daisyworld Discs label.
Remastered for 2024, this reissue is a must-have for fans of Haruomi Hosono / YMO, The Irresistible Force, Spacetime Continuum, Dreamfish, Tetsu Inoue, FFWD, H.I.A., Fax +49-69/450464, and mind-expanding musics.
Immerse yourself now.

By public demand, legendary High Fashion Music label from Holland (est. 1982) relaunches “High Fashion Disco!”

35 years after the release of volume 1 and volume 2, it is now time for volume 3 and volume 4! And they doubled the playing-time and made both volume 3 and volume 4 a 2CD. To bring you the best of the last 5 years of High Fashion Music.

Featuring High Fashion 12 inch releases only, some of them even ‘upcoming’ and yet unreleased. Few of them featured with different (but only extended-) re-mixes, reason they made it a 2CD for each volume.

Compact Disco as it should be!

Volume 3 presents to you a.o. the High Fashion released (remixes) by T-Connection (Moplen), Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson (Ben Liebrand), SOS Band (Ben Liebrand and Michael Gray) , Tullio de Piscopo (Michael Gray), Blueboy (David Penn), Loose Change (Moplen), Donna Allen (Dr Packer), Ashford & Simpson (Joey Negro), Dance Reaction (Martin Boer) just to name a few.

When Peggy Gou released her debut EP ‘Art of War’ in
2016, she made a list of career goals. One of them was to
become the first South Korean DJ to play Berlin’s techno
institution Berghain, an objective she achieved only a few
months later. Another item on that list was to record an
instalment of !K7’s DJ-Kicks series. “It’s the premier
class of DJ mixes,” she says. “Some of my favourite
selectors have contributed to it.” Now Peggy Gou can
tick that off her list too as she proudly presents the 69th
edition of the mix series.
The Berliner-by-choice started working on the mix last year. It was a
busy time for the 28-year-old: she’d just scored her first Mixmag cover
and her single ‘It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)’ was receiving awards
and critical acclaim. Each month she would DJ in 20 nightclubs all over
the world. And yet, the goal for her mix was ambitious: instead of trying
to capture the energy of her DJ sets, she aimed to create a portrayal of
her own musical journey. An 18-track listening session that takes you
straight into Peggy Gou’s living room where she plays you the formative
tunes from her collection. No genre boundaries – she moves across
disco, house, techno and electro. No tempo limits – the mix ranges from
90 to 150 BPM. And no age restriction – the earliest tunes on the mix
are from 1983.