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Still in my arms: a compilation by Bayu and Moopie featuring Abfahrt Hinwil, Bauri, Boc Scadet, Gimmik, Lackluster, MD, Multiplex, Num Num, Plod and Proem.

Interview:

Where was your favourite place to go as a child?

Frans Enmark: “When recording our music back in the 90s to early 2000s (so, practically as children) we often set up the studio in a clearing in the woods. In northern Sweden, it never gets dark during summertime so we would just stay up all night writing and recording. Most of our first album was written in that clearing whose natural sounds most definitely can be heard in the album. The acoustic element of our music from that time was actually the nature.”

How did you meet your best friend?

Martin Abrahamsson: “I'm not sure. There have been a bunch. Lots of my best friends moved away when I was a kid.”

Were there any particular items in your house that you remember?

Martin Haidinger: “My first tape recorder, a little mono device with a built-in microphone. Our next door neighbour had a massive stereo in his loft—he played the latest singles every night loud enough for me to hear. I liked one song so much that I wanted to know what it was, but I didn’t have the guts to ask him. So, I taped it with my little tape recorder through my open window. The next day, I took the tape to a record shop to listen to it. When they played it, the only things we could hear were hiss, the occasional car passing by and a few birds. In the background there was an unidentifiable noise. Years later I found out the song was ‘I Feel Love’.”

What do you like daydreaming about?

Lawrence Grover: “The places that I used to go to, but can't find anymore.”

Who were your heroes when you were young?

Esa Ruoho: “When I was young, my hero was this guy that was—I guess you'd call people of his ilk—a polymath, excelling in graphics, design, programming and especially music. He was also a mentor, graciously showing me things about music and sampling, sharing his songs so I could study their files, pattern and composition and giving me feedback on my stuff. He'd show me apps after having studied them at great detail, showing me tricks that I still use to this day. We even tried collaborating at points. He also told me that I could do things I thought I couldn’t, such as grasping and comprehending scripting to create meaningful snippets of code—things that I also still use to this day. So, in essence, he believed in my capabilities when I didn't know I had them, never put what I was doing down and was overall just a really inspiring guy to hang around: always looking at something new, testing this or that, building new patches, advancing his craft. You guessed it, I am—of course—talking about Brothomstates, also known as Lassi Nikko.”

What were your favourite games and hobbies?

Richard Bailey: “I still have favourite hobbies and games. They are pretty much the same ones I’ve always had: music, art and Metroid.”

What was your favourite book or movie growing up?

Roland Dormon: “The Little Red Hen and The Red Balloon.”

- Bandcamp

Désaccord Majeur is the alter ego of French journeyman Jérôme Mauduit, a curious seeker and sustaining presence in Europe's post-industrial underground. Beginning his musical activities in the mid-1980s, Mauduit committed his first recordings to tape in 1989, self-releasing La Théorie Du Chaos on his eponymous label home to fellow travellers Internal Fusion, Largo and Moments Présents. It continued to act as a base for his own endeavours and before discontinuation in 1994, culminated in the release of Ophir, an important document propagating the earthy, ritualistic spores of Ah Cama Sotz, Hybryds, Nightmare Lodge and Muslimgauze - the alias of Bryn Jones who would later become his label mate at Staalplaat.

Treading sensitively through a humid urban decay left by Jorge Reyes and Luis Delgado, Manduit inhabits a strange, sticky world shared by O Yuki Conjugate, Z'EV and Nocturnal Emissions: woodlike percussion, melancholic drift and unclean ambience his markers of identification. Alluding to the atmospheric qualities of mid-90s world-weary electronica and the digitised undulations generated by Paul Schütze, Aubrite-era Thomas Köner and early Microstoria, it's perhaps no surprise that the tactility of Manduit's work has gained pertinence and resonated with a new generation of listeners - in fact, it was Vladimir Ivkovic who first introduced it to us in 2019.

Sourced from a productive period which climaxed in an appearance on Rotorelief's Coilectif - In Memory Ov John Balance and Homage to Coil compilation (2006), the tracks on Sunquake reveal the workings of an idiosyncratic, otherworldly artist drifting through dreams.

"This is a tiny yet remarkable entrance into Désaccord Majeur’s world of beautiful introvert electronics. Delicate yet powerful music that sounds like it was never made to please anyone beyond the place it was made. Never overstated but always inviting for anyone who wants to go for a hike through inner spaces."
—Vladimir Ivkovic, June 2020 (via A Colourful Storm)

The Australian group’s ambitious third album overflows with ideas, samples, guests, and sheer stimuli. In their sparkling music, every sound feels like a treasured memory.

life, death, and the cosmos set the boundaries of the Avalanches’ ambitious third album, We Will Always Love You. The record begins with a farewell voicemail—a final communication, we are led to believe, from a young woman who has passed away—and it ends with the Morse code-like bleeping of the Arecibo Message, an interstellar transmission carrying information on the human species into the infinite beyond. In between those poles, the Australian group continues doing what it has always done: spinning the sounds of disco, soul, easy listening, and other nostalgic staples into luminous, ludic shapes, turning musical collage into a sparkling, four-dimensional fantasyland. - Pitchfork

“In today’s world, it’s harder than ever to let go & find sleep. So kick back and let this pastel soundscape from the NYC synth rocker, TM™ ♪ drift you off to dreamland like it was 1984...” -Tommy Mandel

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"New York synth magician Tommy Mandel has an astonishing career as a composer, sideman, and electronic pop artist. Since the late 1970s, he has toured or recorded with a laundry list of talents including Todd Rundgren, The Clash, The B-52s, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, and countless others. Yet it is Mandel’s solo pioneering keyboard work that has captured the attention of Invisible City, first documented on the Mello Magic compilation of his largely unreleased new wave explorations. Now, the label follows it up with an even more scarcely heard project, working in cooperation with Mandel to reissue his 1984 private press cassette, Music For Insomniacs. Recorded on four-track, each of the album’s eight songs is inspired by a wave of sleep from Alpha to Theta. Its playfully psychedelic sound features shimmering synths, baked electronics, soft drum machines, and various vocal treatments guiding listeners into a peaceful slumber. Yet Mandel can’t resist adding traces of abstracted boogie-funk with propulsive rhythms that will keep you dancing through your dreams. Fans of Mort Garson, Woo, Brian Bennett, Angelo Badalamenti, Klaus Schonning and Bruce Haack will rejoice at their new sleepy time soundtrack." - Jesse Locke - Bandcamp

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive 'Down On The Road By The Beach' is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett's transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

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A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

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In 1982, representatives from Tokyo's Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliott Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

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Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan's most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, 'Down On The Road By The Beach' also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny's 'Sleep Walk' and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit 'Never Found A Girl'. – Bandcamp

In the process of relocating to Den Bosch's Willem Twee Studios, The Transcendence Orchestra let love slip deftly out of its gate and reverberate around the walls of the studio's main hall, a high ceilinged former synagogue in the city's old town. Working intensively to capture its echoes, they coaxed it to appear in pipes and strings, directed it through resonant circuits and shepherded it round the room with beaters, horns and rattles. Having returned home with the recordings, a purpose began to emerge. Through a process of extensive reconfiguration and testing it became clear that the love contained within could transform perception. Under the right circumstances, and accompanied by appropriate technology, it could serve as a map for navigating beginnings and endings. Like some distant mesmerising chant or a psychedelic folk song, it could connect us and reassure us that we can pass through the boundaries and survive. Perhaps not intact but at least whole. Here is that map, love soaked diligently into its lines, ready to guide those at a loss or reassure those willing to explore. – Bandcamp

Acid bass, slow funk and cosmic energy make for a mind expanding trip in the Liquid Canoe.

Load up on edibles, make it a macro-dose and let the music lead the way.

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Whether you’re hard at work on a Hamburg allotment, basking in the heat of a Balinese beach or enjoying the cool waters of the Salish Sea, remember that the same sky stretches over all of us. And if you forget your finger for a minute and soak in the heavenly beauty instead, you might just catch the cosmic vibrations of Liquid Canoe, the latest members of the Growing Bin family.

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A loose ensemble, Liquid Canoe is the brainchild of Wolfgang Matthes, a lost Angelino who’s swapped the rush and push of a mega city for the space of the Pacific Northwest - and listening to this eight track offering, you’ll realise that space is the place. Armed with an array of vintage synths and programmed rhythms, Wolfgang sketched out a slew of inter dimensional transmissions, inspired by the commune electronics and space rock of 70s Germany and inhabited by the spirit of the boogie. Inviting friends to drop by and lend their own instrumental skill, Wolfgang quickly turned Liquid Canoe into a true collaboration. Finalised in a converted stable on Galiano Island, the LP is a perfect marriage of the electronic and organic, shimmering arps and spheric synth bass intertwined with American primitive guitar, nuanced hand percussion and glassy chimes. As this mind expanding collection stretches out towards infinity, you’ll hear Floyd-ian funk, cosmic dub, tangerine daydreams and micro-dosed ambience, all imbued with the memories of New York lofts, Bay Area warehouses, skyscraping pines or the world wide web of fungi. Liquid Canoe taking you on an oarsome trip.

(Patrick Ryder)– Bandcamp

This fall sees the release of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, an album that brings together styles and approaches from across his catalogue into a single package. Oddly, for a record that comes so late in an artist’s discography, it’s an excellent place to start for those unfamiliar with his work. It features contributions from the Weeknd, Caroline Polachek, and Arca and it’s oddly accessible, but it maintains Lopatin’s affectionate, inquisitive, and subversive relationship to pop. He’s still out there, and still innovating. – Bandcamp daily

Now that Cenizas is here, the timings perhaps make sense. From Jaar's early releases on Wolf + Lamb, to Space Is Only Noise, the album that made his name, right through to 2017 - 2019, the contrast and relationship between seemingly opposing sounds has been a constant in his work. Could this also apply to two full-lengths realised under different names? Cenizas is truly an antithesis of 2017 - 2019. The chain of ideas that led me to knowing-jesus.com was inspired by how slow, solemn, devotional and choral Cenizas often is. "Vanish" sets this tone as the opening track, where what could be a pipe organ precedes Jaar's choir-like vocal. There's also the album's acoustics, with recordings seemingly made in chambers or churches. Jaar could be haunting a crypt on "Cenizas." His voice meets cold, damp air and expands in reverb, an electric piano his only friend in the dark.

We haven't had a full-length this sedate since the alternate soundtrack Jaar recorded for Sergei Parajanov's 1969 film The Colour Of Pomegranates, but it's important to note that Cenizas includes some of the strangest sound design he's produced. The question often seems to be: "How can I soothe and unsettle you?" A noise artist would have been stoked to generate a tone as bizarre as that of "Menysid," although it's assuaged by steady drones and voice. "Gocce" means "drops" in Italian, which is as close as you might come to describing the noise that heavily features on the track. The guitar remains calm but the piano can't help but catch the vibe of the drops thingy, expressing itself through erratic glissandos. A similar interplay between instruments known and unknown is at the heart of "Xerox," as piano mingles with spindly sonics. Jaar chants ritualistically over enveloping drones, one of the few times Cenizas appears dramatic and fully animated.

I wouldn't necessarily say Cenizas is challenging, but listeners accustomed to Jaar's more smooth and structured early work may need to persevere as he leads them through this freeform landscape. There are points along the way, however, that will seem more familiar or traditional—perhaps a mood reminiscent of a past album or a more upfront vocal performance. "In the words of a prophet, sunder," Jaar says on "Sunder," one of the only times lyrical content can be discerned. His spoken verses on blood, sin, saints and revenge are at odds with one of the album's most inviting melodies, a line that could have featured on the recent FKA Twigs album, MAGDALENE, which Jaar principally produced. The deeply psychedelic "Mud" along with "Faith Made Of Silk," which sounds like it was made by Nigel Godrich for Radiohead, are the only instances of drums leading the way. Both are superb and temporarily ground an album that for most of its 54 minutes is suspended in atmospheres rich with portent and potentiality.

Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music. It's therefore perhaps natural to reflect on how it might be processed and understood in this moment of global anxiety. We may currently turn to culture to reassure us or offer us simplifications of reality, and in these respects Cenizas provides more questions than answers. My personal feeling is that's exactly why it's equal to Jaar's best work (Sirens, Space Is Only Noise), a set of artistic decisions that—while very different—are as ambitious and fully realised as those of 2017 - 2019; others, however, may find the energy needed to engage with its mystery less appealing. To those people: perhaps begin with "Garden" and go from there. This has to be the prettiest piece Jaar has ever written, and it consists of little more than a sanguine piano phrase. It's here that the enigma of Cenizas and thoughts of the future may soften, as the sublimity of the present moment rushes in. – Resident Advisor

Emotional ambient, soft focus synthesis and pastoral programming from German duo Cass. & Gianni Brezzo on Hamburg‘s Growing Bin. Hopeless romantic with GSOH seeks open minded audiophile for lifelong companionship.

The style might change, but the quality remains the same in the Growing Bin. For this autumnal edition, the Hamburg label looks South West to Osnabrück and Cologne, home to Cass. and Gianni Brezzo respectively. Sharing an appreciation for emotive tonality and expansive texture, the two musicians make the perfect partnership on ‚Masala Kiss‘, Brezzo‘s timeless melodies only serving to intensify the signature sensuality of the Cass. sound. Despite the occasional polyrhythms, you‘re hearing two hearts beat as one... 

Insistent and expressive, well travelled opener ‚Jaybo‘ joins the ethnic and esoteric with a new age optimism before giving way to the detailed ambience and good nature of ‚Umberella‘, a brief pitstop on the road to the meditative ‚Imence Sense‘. Alive with layered guitars, this opiated raga dances like hashish smoke in the evening sky, and then its up into the cloud forms of ‚Instabubu‘ and ‚Autoscooter Love‘, celestial serenades both off and on beat. Cass. and Brezzo set controls for the heart of the sun with the Froesean ‚Out Of Mind‘, a cinematic exercise in precision sequencing and frequency control then start the journey home with the dewy bells and delicate waveforms of ‚Koli‘. If you‘re in need of a little new age funk for your poolside playtime ‚Helge‘ and ‚Der Däne‘ are on hand with the chunky bass and languid grooves, while a last minute interlude provides a prenatal comfort and womblike warmth. I always cry at endings, and ‚Paterson‘ provides pure emotional release in utterly Balearic fashion. Pensive guitar and euphoric synths meet on the waterfront as you stare over the ocean with all the people you love. – Growing Bin | Soundcloud

Following reissues of Japanese fusionist Yuji Toriyama and Italian new age visionary Il Guardiano Del Faro, the third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003. – Time Capsule

Growing Bin burst into 2018 with a bang, crash and symbol splash, uniting a premier pair of percussion obsessives for a supernatural mission into the heart of the rhythm.

Dressed in the pitch black of Dusseldorf stands Wolf Mueller, master of the tropical drums and seven time Salon Des Amateur breakdance champion. Repping Cologne and Berlin is Niklas Wandt, Germany’s funkiest drummer and a mixed musical artist as adept in experimental jazz as demented Eurodance. Standing toe to toe in a no holds barred, no drum unstruck groove contest, these two titans will make you swing your pants like a Crash Bandicoot victory dance... so stretch out and step into ‚Instrumentalmusik von der Mitte der World‘. – Growing Bin | Bandcamp

Taking to their task with the joyful abandon of two big kids getting creative with the Kindergarten music tray, Müller & Wandt marry dripping electronics, Froesean pads and rubber-limbed basslines with tribal polyrhythms, C2 claps and Indonesian shakers - and that‘s only on the A1. Comprising of three trance-inducing epics, a handful of medium-sized movers and a couple of freeform interludes, this dynamic double pack could almost pass as a lost Library masterpiece; but our mind guides go Furthur, fusing esoteric funk and free-jazz freak-out a truly transportive experience. Prepare to enter a world of techno totems and neon skulls, shades of Yello and excellent birds. Within these grooves lies a transdimensional pathway between the Temple of Doom, the Twilight Zone and De Palma‘s Paradise, brought to life in a shamanic rite. Forget the healing frequencies of Growing Bin‘s ambient outings, this time we‘re dancing for mental health. – Growing Bin

Machu Picchu is one of the more intimate projects by Tangerine Dream – not planned for a release during the composing and recording process. It is an homage to a man who – like no other person in the business – had ‘created’ TD´s career from a distance many years ago, believing in their talent and extraordinary skills. His name was John Peel. The background story and atmospheric influence of this one-piece, 42-minute composition came to life after this music-driven character and long-time BBC progressive pioneer passed away in October 2004, in the city of Cusco (Peru) close to the sacred Inca site Machu Picchu.  Originally not made available until 2012, and then only on CD/Digital, Machu Picchu will be released exclusively for Record Store Day 2019 on yellow vinyl. Edgar also wrote about John and their 1974 encounter in London in his autobiography ‘Force Majeure’; the chapter in question (‘The John Peel Files’) reprinted in a booklet within this package. Tangerine Dream owe John their international career. Edgar wanted to say thank you with this album, composed especially for John. – Record Store Day

On her first new release in almost 20 years, Japanese composer Midori Takada joins London-based musician Lafawndah on a short but fascinating multimedia project with mythical overtones.

Le Renard Bleu is something different: a series of collaborations in both content and form. Sonically, Takada has joined forces with the London-based singer/producer Lafawndah, best known for her 2016 pan-global (or even post-global) pop EP Tan. Visually, the pair took up with filmmakers and artistic directors Partel Oliva for an accompanying film, of interest mainly as a chance to see how Takada creates her sounds, and a one-sided 12" with a flip etched by Parisian illustrator Neila Czermak. Logistically, the crew found funding and distribution from cult fashion house KENZO, whose runway shows Lafawndah has soundtracked. - Pitchfork

This album is a result of Cantu-Ledesma finding himself at a sort of crossroads. When his marriage ended, he moved in with filmmaker Paul Clipson at the Headlands Center For The Arts near San Francisco. The experience let Cantu-Ledesma devote himself to these compositions in a very organic but time-intensive way. Recorded on reel-to-reel tape, the album uses synthesizer, drum machines, field recordings and electric guitar. The results, while not so far from Love Is A Stream, exude a confidence of composition and simple songwriting that's sometimes been missing in Cantu-Ledesma's past work. Stringing together dream pop touches, wall-of-sound shoegaze and poignant noise and drone passages, The Year with 13 Moons might best be described as an ambient pop album, one whose passages are knotted with keenly-crafted melodies.

With its cozy LinnDrum pattern and buzzing blurts of noise, "The Twins/Shadows" is the musical equivalent of staring at a cloud-hidden moon. "Pale Flower" and "Disappear" both use a similar drum pattern, curling electronic sounds and a slow, ascending guitar to create a strange and beautiful blur of sound. Opener "The Last Time I Saw Your Face" is blissful, droning guitar left to echo for over eight minutes. "Agate Beach" opens with the kind of grainy, wind-blast noise that Yellow Swans used to make before rippling into another of the album's distant guitar melodies. And yet for the melodic songcraft that dominates The Year with 13 Moons, Cantu-Ledesma closes the record on the wind-howl sounds and explosive, scattered noises of "Remains"—a clamorous finale for an album that finds Cantu-Ledesma orchestrating perhaps the most gorgeous ambience of his career so far. – Resident Advisor

One of the most fascinating and peculiar works from the golden era of Japanese ambient, #Notes of Forestry was initially released in 1988 by Newsic, the cult label started by Tokyo’s Wacoal Art Center (also known as Spiral), home, notably, of Yoshio Ojima who co-produced the album. Conceived by Jazz bassist turned experimentalist Motohiko Hamase, the magnum opus offers an enchanting mix of free-form pastoral electronics, otherworldly percussions by Yasunori Yamaguchi, and delightfully allusive piano played by none other than Satsuki Shibano (Sound Process’ Wave Notation 3). Vibrant, sometimes eerie, and absolutely captivating, #Forestry captures Hamase’s quest for musical freedom, he explains:

"Inside the body of a musician, music is always transcendentally resonating. More than language, music reigns. When creating music overlaps with the moment my body performs, I strive to be as close as possible to the feeling of musical freedom. I feel that this notion lies at the foundation of this album".

Musical freedom, here, provides an essential escape, extending the path uncovered by pivotal releases such as Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way, and Yutaka Hirose’s Nova. – Bandcamp | WRWTFWW

A seamless mix of the organic and inorganic, the recent past and distant future, and the possible and impossible, Japanese multi-media artist Masumi Hara’s sophomore album arrived like a fish on the moon in 1984. An album filled with contradiction and purpose, 4 X A Dream is both balearic acid folk and damaged steel drum dub, hi-tech new wave balladry and ambient synth pop. Classical and neoimpressionist vibes haunt and entrance. Quite possibly the most unique LP you’ll ever add to your collection. – Numero Group

Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru’s fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance…), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early 80s’ Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore sounds in the comfort of their home, free from studio time pressure and major label rules.

Entirely imagined and brought to life by an inspired Yukio Fujimoto, the 6-track opus was conceived with a Korg MS-20, a Korg SQ-10, a Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55, and…a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell! It’s elegantly minimalist, honest and witty, very playful, cleverly pop, and downright fascinating. The a-side captures the fun side of avant-garde electronica, lo-fi wave, proto-glitch, and IDM, a joyful ride beautifully interrupted by the cinematic mood switch of the b-side - a 20 minute ambient piece flirting with sci-fi, melancholy, and hints of metallic darkness. Unclassifiable and marvelous! – Bandcamp

More from the label We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records 

From the first glimpses of Henry Laufer's work as Shlohmo, it was clear that the LA native and visual artist turned self-taught musician was onto something. With an effortless grasp on sound design, Laufer combines deceptively simple and emotive melodies, subtle bass drops and swinging slow motion drums. His early work has placed him at the forefront of a new wave of rising talent amongst West Coast producers...
Inspired by the desire to write songs and create a release of full-range instrumentation and vocals all his own, Laufer promptly began home-recording Bad Vibes, his proper full-length debut album for the Friends of Friends label. Some might say the songs on Bad Vibes represent the spawn of a new "rhythm and blues" - one that swings and sways under the backbone of Henry's own take on modern electronic music. Augmented with delicate slide guitar playing, homemade synth sounds and lilting, tuneful melodies, Shlohmo's latest output is one that will take you places - specifically the un-paralleled vibes swirling through this young man's head. – Bandcamp

 The trumpeter and composer’s 1977 solo debut, reissued on remastered vinyl, retains its uncanny narcotic power and elemental beauty decades on. 

Hassell’s trumpet is at the center of everything, as bent out of recognition as everything else. His elaborate effects chains create speech-like sounds, and his tone often becomes overwhelmed by the sound of his breath. On heavily processed tracks like “Hex” and “Viva Shona,” ping-ponging electronic dots and dashes nearly crowd him out of the mix. However, both “Blues Nile” and the album’s main event—the 21-minute long title track—distill Hassell’s artistry to its most fundamental elements: percussion, drone, and trumpet. He embellishes one or two notes insistently, creating tiny, detuned flutters that evoke a call to prayer for a non-existent religion. The simplicity and intimacy of these compositions is unusual in Hassell’s catalog. - Pitchfork

Johnny Jewel just dropped one hell of a surprise in the form of unreleased material from Chromatics. Running From the Sun contains eight songs off the Kill For Love sessions, recorded between November 2009 and December 2011. – Consequence of Sound

Perte d'identité, which translates to “loss of identity,” is the debut LP by composer, singer and poet Marie Davidson, one of the finest artists rising from the electronic dark-synth scene in Montreal. Her voice is a stark half-spoken monotone which will tell you stories from which you can’t escape unchanged. With this release, she refines her storytelling with suffocating tales that are both intimate and melancholic. Meanwhile, her miraculously human electronic rhythms are as frantic and hypnotic as an intense stare. In her premier full length album, she invites you to take a look in the peephole, revealing a fascinating cinematic picture. What you will be shown are the parts of yourself which you're scared and ashamed of, but also the ones that reveal a haunting and glamorous sensuality. Not only will she spin you a tale, but her music will immerse your soul in images of sweet anxiety. "This album is about romance and a quest for meaning." - Bandcamp

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electronic music and music technology, as well as its popular scores for programs such as Doctor Who and Quatermass and the Pit during the 1950s and 1960s. The original Radiophonic Workshop was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London. The Workshop was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. Its members have included Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, David Cain, John Baker, Paddy Kingsland, Glynis Jones and Richard Yeoman-Clark. - Wiki

O$VMV$M do one very specific thing: loops. After releasing a motley collection of tapes and EPs, where they typically lock samples into elegant slow-mo repetition, they stick to this humble remit on their follow-up EP. Despite its simplicity, O$VMV$M's straightforward sound lends itself to a surprising variety of moods, packing in abundance with the bluest after-hours Bristol vibes.

An experiential listen throughout - cinematic and majestic with its lush synth sounds and a strong focus on sound design. 180g Vinyl, mastered by Rashad @ Dubplates & Mastering Berlin. Cited by Boomkat as the most important release on the Bedouin Label. Highly recommended