Back catalogue: All genres

Review: For the second release on New York City's Peace Anthem Records, Annie Garlid
Aka UCC Harlo - a viola player and singer from Connecticut, living in Berlin - joins NY Graffiti for what the label so eloquently described itself as 'Ketamine-paced grooves, baroque miniatures, hazy-humid sonics, and dub inflections'. On the A side, you've got UCC Harlo serving up the minimal atmospherics of 'Let's See' awash in shimmering FM synth aesthetics, followed over on the flip by the evocative breaks of 'UN' by NY Graffiti, not to mention each of them delivering a remix of the other's track.

Review: Throughout is a new and exciting label out of Kyoto that impresses once more here with a brilliantly cool new collaboration between Jungle Brothers' Sensational and the producer Unbuilt. The former has laid down endless amounts of interesting sounds over the years and Poiesis now joins those hallowed ranks. It is aptly described as "a paranoid party-starter cast against a menacing greyscale backdrop of impressive dystopian grandeur." The production from Sensational is on point and a mix of basted and dubbed out while the bars remind of early underground rap greats - like Def Jux rewired through a more contemporary sound.

Review: Uboa's Impossible Light represents a profound evolution from the dark, ambitious sound of The Origin of My Depression. Xandra Metcalfe's latest work melds inhuman textures with visceral human emotions, creating a unique blend of dark intensity and raw beauty. The album opens with 'Phthalates', a track that combines haunting vocal samples with jittery percussion, setting a controlled yet expansive tone. 'Endocrine Disruptor' features a striking contrast of serene arpeggios and explosive beats, highlighting Uboa's ability to juxtapose beauty with darkness. Lyrically, the album reflects a heightened urgency, addressing themes of trans experiences and societal othering with a stark, direct approach. 'The Puzzle' delves into oppressive, heavy synths and percussive blasts, while 'Gordian Worm' evolves from harsh noise to a more structured electro-industrial sound. Tracks like 'Pattern Screamers' are dynamic with a strong vocal performance amid corrupted, mechanical noise. 'Jawline' and 'Weaponised Dysphoria' flow seamlessly, with 'Jawline' transitioning from choral elements to harsh electronics, and 'Weaponised Dysphoria' reversing this progression. 'Sleep Hygiene' contrasts intense noise with reflective breaks, portraying the struggle with illness and recovery. Overall, Uboa's capacity for blending darkness with hope, making it a poignant and essential listen. This version comes on coloured vinyl.

Review: Uboa's Impossible Light marks a significant shift from the ambitious darkness of previous work. Xandra Metcalfe's latest release merges otherworldly sounds with raw human emotion, creating a captivating blend of intense darkness and poignant beauty. Throughout Impossible Light, Uboa explores a heightened sense of urgency and directness, particularly in addressing themes of trans experiences and societal marginalisation. Tracks like 'Endocrine Disruptor' contrast serene melodies with explosive beats, while 'The Puzzle' immerses listeners in heavy synths and impactful percussion. 'Gordian Worm' transitions from harsh noise to a more structured electro-industrial sound and 'Pattern Screamers' delivers a powerful vocal performance amid distorted, mechanical noise. The seamless flow between 'Jawline' and 'Weaponised Dysphoria', alongside the emotional depth of 'Sleep Hygiene', underscores Uboa's skillful talent at balancing it all.

Review: You don't often see a clavichord credited on the list instruments used on an album. The stringed, rectangular keyboard found favour in the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras, and while commonplace during the Middle Ages is, today, pretty obscure. That is, unless you're a musician with a penchant for recreating those historical periods in sound, or someone like Tori Amos or Bjork, both of who are among the

Review: Modern glassy ambient forefronters Motion Ward present their latest masterpiece from two standout centre-stagers on their roster, Ulla Strauss and Ultrafog. Having not collaborated on a full-length record before, the one is billed simply as 'two individuals from faraway (journeying) the world together'. "(They) were given many tiny gifts from the surroundings. Then the music came out as a matter of course, as if a thing was being put in its right place." Sonically, this translates to a pristine, sampledelic blissout, verging on the nascent road-trippy electronic-shoegaze motifs that Motion Ward have found themselves exploring as of late; and echoing the kind of alien ambient guitar-dubs that could recall Fennesz or Bibio, lest they weren't also mixed up with the kind of contemporary vocal chopups and glassy, aerated refractions that continue to carve out this extended crew's current noble standing. Our highlights; 'Lame Mart', 'Kind Zo'.

Review: Unchained is the longstanding solo project of Nathaniel Davis. Gabbeh is his latest offering to the world, a suite of blissfully introspective tracks that envelop the soul in a blanket of soft, delicate moods, their sole purpose to comfort aching heads. Remarkably, dedicated fans will know you can trace the artist's lineage to noise mix tapes on CD-R, although more recent excursions into Bossa nova influenced tones perhaps help bridge the gap between then and now. Recorded at home over a three year period, from 2020 to 2023, Grenoble, Switzerland, played a big part in end results here. "I think certain songs reflect, in ways, Grenoble's natural surroundings. 'Drac' is named after the river that flows from the mountains down to the city - 'Dru' is the name of a well-known peak near Chamonix," Davis has explained. That as may be, nevertheless there's something more transportive than that here - songs feel as though they would be at home anywhere green, slow and thoughtful.

Review: User.Exp's first release on Greyscale Recordings provides a thoughtful sonic exploration, made up of field recordings, contact and hydrophone mic sessions and shortwave transmissions (either generated from scratch or really recorded). Artist and label are met with serendipity and ease here; though many releases have hit the Greyscale stocks - all working well within their trademark sonic and visual monochrome - User.Exp's latest is an especially congruent record, bringing crackly burrs and earthen movements to an album that feels large in scope and difficult to pigeonhole, yet intuitively felt. As if to describe a set of 12 different microbiomes - all besieged by a black-and-white, ecosystemic blight - the likes of 'Pollution', 'Erosion' and 'Wind' provide indications enough as to the set of ideas going in here. A deeply calming release, full of textural intricacies and yet not without a creeping sense of unbalance too.

Review: Black Truffle presents a formerly unheard live album by rudra veena master Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, recorded in the North Indian city of Vrindavan at the Druhpad Samaroh festival in 1982. Dagar was a nineteenth-generation descendant of the musical Dagar family, famed for their meditative approach to the tradition of Hindustani court music. The rudra veena is a large and low-pitched string instrument amplified by two huge, hollowed-out gourds, and Dagar became the first modern dhrupad musician to perform with it as an instrumental soloist. True to form, in this recording of Dagar, in which he performs the night raga 'Yaman Kalyan', we hear all manner of frozen tanpura stasis; twisting, hovering drones; gracefully bent notes. Dagar weaves a complex web, bringing the recording to a fitting, measured conclusion, in contrast to the unrestrained virtuosity rounding off most performances by his contemporaries. This edition is adorned with beautiful archival photographs of Dagar taken by Swedish percussion legend Bengt Berger and accompanied by detailed notes from Bradford Bailey.

Review: This sophomore album from Istanbul-born, Berlin-based electronic composer and sound artist Huma Utku explores psychological phenomena through a series of sonic essays. Drawing on her background in Psychology, Utku combines her academic and artistic practices in this ambitious release and includes recordings from her Elektronmusikstudion residency in 2020. The album also features synth intrigue, electroacoustic, experimental techno, industrial and spoken word all brought to life with piano, strings and vocals. Utku creates a dramatic, unsettling soundworld here while exploring themes of grief, consciousness, dream analysis and psychological symbolism. It's a truly intimate exploration of the human condition.