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When House and Techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was transformed not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second ‘Summer of Love’ in 1988, millions of young people would experience the life-changing ups of a new world but with it of course came the downs; enter the concept of a ‘Chill-out’ room. Whilst early Chill-out rooms lacked a specific sound and were often sound-tracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young Techno and House producers themselves became increasingly interested in developing a futuristic ‘Ambient’ soundtrack to a world beyond the thud of the main room.

‘Ambient’ in this new age now though had sharper teeth than in Brian Eno's key text for ‘Music for Airports’, instead here the sounds were the mode of transport rather than the backdrop. While the melodies were pretty, the soundscapes steered away from the pastoral, often dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up transformative new dimensions. Much like in the first Summer of Love; the musicians were again exploring psychedelic, mind-altering and transcendental possibilities of music. And also, much as in the first Summer of Love, a psychedelic visual language would accompany the music. Now though the tracks would be accompanied by music videos, often utilising early CGI techniques, and they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopia. These were the Virtual Dreams of a new world.

From Ambient and early Chill-out classics, to lesser known one-off projects, as well as Ambient deviations by some of House and Techno’s leading producers, Volume One of Virtual Dreams features tracks by Bedouin Ascent, David Moufang, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more. – Music From Memory

The Jakarta-based venture explores Indonesian identities through deconstructed tribal sounds... Divisi62 artists are constantly reinterpreting and reinventing Indonesia's cultural traditions: a worthy initiative in a county where widespread ethnic diversity has complicated national identity. - Nisa Kreems | Bandcamp

DIVISI62 is a sound and visual arts label aiming to reach new heights in the continual construction of the Indonesian identity. Emphasizing the cross-wiring of world heritage, DIVISI62 is initiating homegrown narratives into global consciousness. Singular and plural - The Attic

Foward moving, Futuristic, Rooted in the ancient. Definitely a must checkout for all electronic music lovers! C30 super-ferric cassette tape with hand-numbered cases and screen printed sleeves. Includes download card.

Tom Jenkinson returns to the vintage hardware used in his early '90s works on ‘Be Up A Hello’ – his first project as Squarepusher following a 5-year hiatus. – Warp Records 

At the record’s best, tracks pelt off the starting blocks and hit top speed without ever looking back. Lead single Vortrack’s eerie, submerged acid is all blots and splatter like octopus ink, fathoms deep. Susurrous hi-hats slowly creep, disguising the imminent jetstream of drum breaks, cymbal crashes and screaming synths. There’s the thrilling toxicity of freaky acid cut Speedcrank, while Nervelevers, a glitch and breaks romp that never stops rolling with the punches, proves an album highlight. The opening tunes’ hooky melodics feel almost uncomfortably reminiscent of chiptune, and elsewhere there are pretty but unmemorable beatless passages, stretching the stylistic range of the record. Ultimately Be Up a Hello is a fun albeit bumpy ride through future-retroism, best felt in the moment itself. – The Guardian

Mere months after dropping Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006 on Planet \xB5, Aaron Funk strikes again with this little slice of audio lobotomy. Released under the moniker Vsnares, 2370894 is, in many ways, an homage to the prevailing sounds of British experimental electronic music (which could mean a whole shitload of things, really-- I'm thinking Skam, v/vm, Rephlex, etc). The album is comprised of tracks both unreleased and left over from the sessions for other Venetian Snares releases, and is a slight detour from Aaron's usual speedbreaks assault. The dark atmospherics and menace of Printf or Doll Doll Doll has been traded for a more playful, loose vibe, but despite this being an odds-and-sods sort of album, it's amazingly cohesive, and far from your standard tossed-off amalgam of half-baked leftovers. - Pitchfork

Tobias. returns to Ostgut Ton with his third full length Eyes In The Center and expands the musical narrative laid out by his Helium Sessions EP (O-TON, 2016). The Berghain resident keeps exploring the vast modular synth-driven Techno, Experimental and Ambient territories on a journey in-between genres. 

In early 2008, age 18, Space Dimension Controller (R&S, Clone, Royal Oak) made his first album in his bedroom in Belfast, now set for a release on 27th May 2016 via Ninja Tune. Crunchy, tattered and enjoyably odd - “Orange Melamine” is a lovingly produced and deeply personal album that laces supernatural sounds and translucent synths with a sense of overflowing harmony. Washed in reverb and draped in hiss, the album draws influence from the old VHS tapes handed down to Space Dimension Controller from his older brother and cousins, as well as artists like Boards of Canada, Brian Eno and William Basinski.

The album is also steeped in audio and visual references from 80’s and 90’s sci-fi films and animations; from The Guyver, Short Circuit, The Gobots, and Ghostbusters through to The Fifth Element, Escape from New York and Power Rangers - also reflected in the album's visual identity created by Jacob Chabeaux. - Bandcamp

“"Live shows and clubs and festivals, for me, have taken on an entirely different meaning the more the world has changed over the past 18 months," Matthew Barnes said around the time of his last album, Compassion. "It can feel a lot more like a shared and beautiful experience." A year later, the producer's DJ-Kicks mix also reflects obliquely on the power of live music experiences. It's inspired by DIY nights he went to when he was younger: events driven by the urge "just to share music between people", where "DJ etiquette" was ignored and artists instead seemed to be "cook[ing] up their personal mixtape in front of you."

Forest Swords' first licensed mix is his own personal mixtape. A patchwork of sounds and moods with a few of Barnes's own "voice note" field recordings thrown in, it's casually and playfully eclectic, hinting at influences and nodding to his peers. There's only one Forest Swords track, the scratch-itching exclusive "Crow." But with its sombre mystical mood, clever combos of acoustic and electronic sounds, and the odd bright shot of pop, the mix as a whole has many of the qualities that define Barnes's own music.” – Resident Advisor

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“Challenge Me Foolish is the third compendium of "lost" µ-Ziq material to surface on Planet Mu in the last three years—the fourth if we're including Expert Knob Twiddlers, the reissue of Paradinas' collaborative album with Aphex Twin. It compiles music written between 1998 and '99, and serves as a retrospective primer for the orchestral pop leanings of Royal Astronomy, Paradinas' fifth µ-Ziq album.

Both Royal Astronomy and Challenge Me Foolish feature tracks with the Japanese vocalist Kazumi. "Goodbye, Goodbye" was the former album's sentimental closer, while the twee pop of "The Fear" gave Royal Astronomy its gooey centre. On Challenge Me Foolish we are, perhaps, treated to the ones that didn't make the cut. The tracks range from the saccharine drum & bass of "Sad Inlay" to the naff kookiness of "Durian," neither of which have aged particularly well. The album's breezy title track is the best of these, though it would've been even better without the carnivalesque melody lines in the second half. Without these whimsical flourishes, though, it wouldn't be µ-Ziq. Unlike his more somber IDM peers, Paradinas was never afraid to sound cheerful.” - Resident Advisor

“After smooth, swaying synths of "Inclement" get things rolling for Foolish, groundwork is prepared for decidedly less laid-back material on "Undone", a track that doesn't quite live up to its sad and chaotic title. The title track is the first of five to feature Japanese vocalist Kazumi. "Challenge Me Foolish" could be Moby in stealth, but tracks like "Durian" and "Lexicon" throw shadings of psychedelia and jungle into the mix respectively. "Bassbins" stalks you from behind, eager to agitate. Hit the skip button, and the mood shifts to old-school computer game music with "Robin Hood Gate", completely free of percussion. Selections like "Perhaps" and "Perframe" also enjoy the pulse-free environment, though it would be a stretch to label them as ambient.

Challenge Me Foolish ends with a stunner, though not before the listener is teased with the (nearly) relentlessly playful "Peek Freans", a sunny slice of major-key dopiness that could be disguised as a synthesizer demo. Kazumi's vocals are then heavily sampled for the lyrically nonsensical yet heavily compelling "DoDaDu". It's somehow both slightly goofy and very lovely.” - Pop Matters

“Age Of, the tenth studio album from the electronic artist Daniel Lopatin, spills over many of the formal and conceptual boundaries set by previous OPN records. After working with Anohni on her debut solo album Hopelessness, Lopatin found himself drawn to the process of collaborating with other artists, a stark contrast to the cerebral solo labor that had driven his work to date. Instead of going it alone again, Lopatin looped in James Blake to co-produce and mix the album. Anohni and noise artist Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient) lent vocals to several tracks, while Eli Keszler supplied live drums and multi-instrumentalist Kelsey Lu played keyboards. Strikingly, Lopatin sings lead on four songs, threading his distorted voice through jagged electronics for the first time since 2010’s Returnal.” – Pitchfork

"Moments of heightened cacophony on “We’ll Take It” overwhelm as sampled voices crash into a fractured, slumbering beat and stilted keys. A slippery dynamic builds on “Still Stuff That Doesn’t Happen” as romantic keyboards offset a dragging jazz beat on the drums while multiple variations of Anohni crooning “release me” are layered on top of each other as a discordant plea with her operatic vibrato. The combination of these dissonant elements make for a truly haunting yet enveloping listen.” - Consequence of Sound

"Flitting through soundtrack-style pieces, pop songs and dense instrumentals spanning from post-kosmische to neo-baroque, it's a dizzying trip meant to shore up Lopatin's status as an avant-garde auteur while aiding his forays into mainstream pop culture. It'd be easy to see this album-as-prospectus approach as cynical. But whatever his motives, Lopatin has successfully broadened his scope. Age Of is the sound of an internet addict sifting through the digital ruins, part of a culture jamming legacy for future generations, should they exist." - Resident Advisor 

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