Review: Basel-based experimental labels Amenthia Recordings and A Walking Contradiction join forces for their first collaborative release here in the form of the Flash Crash/Hack Crash EP. Both labels are known for pushing boundaries within their close-knit creative circles and this one features Agonis' heavy stepper and Konduku's whirlpool of low frequencies on the Amenthia side, while Lemont continues the low-end, tripped-out vibe. Varuna represents A Walking Contradiction and delivers swampy, slow-motion sounds in their signature style. This release embodies both labels' commitment to daring, unconventional electronic sounds.
Nic Ford - "Cyberd" (Jonathan Kusuma Swamped mix) (6:32)
Nic Ford - "Cyberd" (Jonathan Kusuma Splinter mix) (6:37)
Khun Fluff - "Daw" (Konduku dub) (6:28)
Temple Rat - "Garden Of Earthly Delights" (Higher Intelligence Agency mix) (5:45)
Review: Siamese Twins Nic Ford, Khun Fluff, and Temple Rat team up with sonic reinterpreters Jonathan Kusuma, Konduku and Higher Intelligence Agency, for the Katha Remixes - adding to the recently popularised genre of amphibious techno. While the label Siamese Twins normally go for cassette, this neat precision V/A release is a yellow vinyl number. Like a noctile toad stalking the night, the tracks here range from dark organic chuggers to jumpy synaptors to melodic bloopers, all reflecting different facets of the amphibian master genome.
Review: Tamed Monsters EP is an inaugural release of the new record label Pandora. New imprint will focus on ambient sounds, music for home-listening and unique artwork. The VA includes works from german producer Benedikt Frey, russian producers Shine Grooves, Unbroken Dub, and an ambient group Kurvenschreiber. Each artist offers a different sound, which lets the music evolve like a story and makes a nice combination of dreamy ambience and mesmerizing repetitive beats.
Review: A record that explores deep, hypnotic rhythms with a strong tribal and mystical undercurrent, the latest Siamese Twins records pushes the boundaries of what is possibly in eastern influences underground techno. Side-1 opens with 'The Golden Triangle', an atmospheric introduction that feels cinematic, setting the stage with ambient textures before giving way to movement. 'Lens of Time' follows, locking into a deep, primal groove where rolling percussion and rich low-end create an entrancing effect. On Side-2 'Mekong' leans into tribal mysticism, blending ancient rhythmic patterns with a modern pulse. The production is detailed yet raw, drawing from rich percussive layers. 'Ruak' closes the EP with pulsating bass and deep, rolling rhythms, channeling Eastern influences into a hypnotic techno flow. A powerful release from Siamese Twins Records, driven by Sunju Hargun's distinct vision.
Review: REPRESS ALERT: Gravity Graffiti has been doing great things with its series of split 12"s already, but now the Italian label goes one better for its tenth release with this mighty double pack of heavy hitters. First up is the ever-untouchable Yoshinori Hayashi, who gets as straight up as he possibly could with the freaky house burner "Dissociative." Telephones is feeling particularly dubbed out and groovy on "Kalimbalimbo", while DB.Source and Riccardo Schiro take things strung out and textural on "Montevago". Dynamo Dreesen is in rave mode for the pepped up and delightfully weird "Reactivate", leaving the final side to Oyvind Morken & Kaman Leung's chugging "Tunnel Visjon" and the rubbery side swipes of Acidboychair's "The End (At Any Speed)".
Review: As part of the mandatory Record Store Day celebrations, Young Turks pull together productions from Jamie XX, Four Tet, Koreless, and John Talabot for a limited 7" release. The more attentive followers of Young Turks will know the music here originates from a commission by artists Sofi Mattioli and Rebecca Salvadori who enlisted the four to provide short compositions for their film Continuum. The two minute productions were available to download for free at the time, but Young Turks obviously felt there was an audience out there that would want the music in a more tangible, and collectible, format. Of the four, it's the rather epic "Horizon" from Koreless that hits the hardest.
Review: On this fresh 7" from Columbia Records' Japanese division, we hear pressed to wax two key musical motifs (yes, there are two) from the TV anime Saint Seiya, 'Sentoshi Shinwa Soldier Dream', as well as its counterpart, 'Yume Tabibito'. With the anime concerning the travails and trials of a five-piece justice-league of Athenian intergalactic warriors - who each wear their own "Cloths", i.e. supernatural outfits that grant each protagonist special, demiurgic powers - you can expect each piece to be as rousing and galactic as that description suggests.
Ukukavshiri(hand-numbered clear mint vinyl 12" in spray-painted sleeve limited to 200 copies (comes in different coloured sleeve, we cannot guarantee which one you will receive))
Review: Kimochi Sound introduces a new artist for their 30th release. This debut record is all deep beats and breaks and it's full of the fuzzy feels and swollen atmospheres we've come to expect from the imprint. It's a bit of a mini album, moving from Ilian Tape techno influences to a closing number reminiscent of Ulrich Schnauss.
Review: Kalbata is a delightfully unpredictable fellow, one minute turning out slick tech house with Guy Gerber and the next starting a dancehall riot with Warrior Queen. His long and varied career continues following a recent spot on Optimo Trax with this first 12" on Brush & Broom, a new label that is housing some particularly straight up 4/4 jams from the prolific producer. "Obskuur" has a clue in the name, plying a trade in the kind of furtive deep techno that ekes tension out of the most ambivalent of crowds with its oh-so-slow but powerful sense of progression. "Rumoured" has a broader palette, letting undulating threads of melodic synth work slither around the subby, minimal percussion.
Review: The latest release from We Can Elude Control, the label run by Emptyset's Paul Purgas, sees more modular synth explorations, this time from the collaboration of New York sonic artist and filmmaker Rose Kallal, and Mark O Pilkington, founder of "cult esoterica" publishers Strange Attractor. Originally produced as the sound track to Kallal's 16mm film of the same name, "Implicate Explicate" is a hypnotic series of waves and pulses that undulate with all the out of focus texture of a warped negative. The accompanying remixes put their own spin on things; Ekoplekz delivers a surprisingly beat-centric version, which nevertheless is as odd as everything else his does, while TVO creates a hypnotic slice of techno whose broken dubbiness makes it almost sounds like a lost Livity Sound cut. Paul Purgas finishes things off with a suitably grizzled version that sands off the original's smoother edges.
Review: KANZ's artist alias, when reversed, becomes ZNAK, meaning "SIGN" in Bulgarian. He hails from Lyulin, a district known for breeding either crime or art, and thankfully Kaloyan embodies the latter. This outing on MELMAK is opened with '25% Personality (with Dickie)' which is deep and atmospheric dub techno. 'Low Orbit' is just as deep but more driving with some pad laced beauty up top, 'Trench Music' then brings frosty Berlin dub techno vibes, 'Dub Tool A' has conscious vocal mutterings and 'Splais' is a slow motion gem for late night contemplation. 'Kopriva (Opa Kanz Rerub)' is a spine-tingling closer with angelic vocals.
Review: Merrin Karras' 2020 foray into extended compositions combining his Berlin School tendencies and expansive ambient is finally pressed-up on cloudy transparent 12". Remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring revisited art by Noah M / Keep Adding.
Review: Still riding high from the success of his superb re-make of Manuel Gottsching on Test Pressing ('A Reference to E2-E4'), Alex Kassian returns to Pinchy & Friends - who released his similarly popular 2021 EP 'Leave Your Life' - after a three-year break. Beginning with the lusciously languid, Balearic, effects-laden and sonically layered title track ('Body Singer', where Jonny Nash style guitars and tumbling sax motifs rise above a sparse drum machine beat and shoegaze-esque aural textures), the Berlin-based producer offers up a loved-up mix of weightless ambient bliss (Kinship), kosmiche soundscapes (the sun-flecked 'Skinship'), revivalist Krautrock (the Can-after-several-spliffs headiness of 'Trippy Gas') and immersive, cinematic excusions (the gorgeous 'Mirror of the Heart').
Review: Test Pressing is a legendary and influential blog that documents dance music's most special moments past, present and future, all from a mature and in-the-know perspective. It makes sense that it is now branching out with an all-new label arm, and it makes sense that the first offering is a real doozy. Alex Kassian is the man in control and he serves up a 90s, trance-tinged new age techno adventure with 'Voices' which also comes as a blissed out ambient version, and punchy tribal sweat-athon. 'Lifestream' then douses you in a world of psychedelic and tropical synth laden Balearic brilliance.
Review: The Berlin-based artist occasionally known as Opal Sunn makes his debut on Utopia with this alluring six track EP. Laced with a touching, restrained and emotional feel throughout "Olson Waters" sets the tone with its beatless framework and gently cascading arrangements while "Hidden Tropics" adds a little momentum with soft rolling beats, drifting pipes and rising chords that sound reminiscent of Reduction era Art Of Noise. "Bells Of Ukyo", "Birds Of Bahia" and "Quiet Dawn" build on the ambient thread with Foly sound and deep meditative textures while a beatless take on "Hidden Tropics" closes the show with poignancy. Stunning.
Review: Delsin's Mantis series continues to dive into hidden corners of techno abstraction with this outstanding display from Italian producer Katatonic Silentio. Often found releasing albums on Ilian Tape, her approach to glitchy, exquisitely sculpted electronics translates perfectly to the immersive, dubby mode of the label, resulting in four elegant and original pieces that strike a balance between fragmentation and hypnotism. Whether it's the tense patience of 'To' or the loaded bass pressure of 'Hide' that draws you in, this is a record which will yield repeated discoveries whether you approach it as a passive listener or a curious selector.
Review: UK producer Inigo Kennedy - also known as Seducer, Tomito Satori and Helki Torsnum - comes up with a pair of techno tracks that positively glisten with luxuriant melody and a beautiful musicality that's rare to ape in this - or indeed any - scene. 'RackSpace 2' and 'Dewdrops' both glide with serene ease, the melodies weaving away in the back seat of the track but never threatening to overwhlelm the atmosphere. The latter is definitely operating in a spacier sphere, with the reverbs and delays working overtime, but both are nicely restrained takes on techno that nevertheless paint vivid sonic pictures.
Review: Khotin - or Canadian electronic musician Dylan Khotin-Foote if you prefer - returns with 'Peace Portal', a six-track suite gliding us through a tantric slow motion, threading gauzy textures through ambient, Balearic, and soft-focus downtempo. After a decade refining his palette across releases for labels like 1080p and Ghostly International, here he reserves some of his most intimate and glowing material for his own platform, Khotin Industries. Opener 'You Made My Weekend Wonderful' sets the tone with choir-like vapour trails and delicate piano, while 'HP 1' follows in a dream state of sub-bass eddies, flowing seamlessly into the playful skip of 'Druid Dance'. The B deepens the haze: 'Vacation (Spam Free Mix)' evokes luxury resort liminality with plush pads and sunkissed low-end, 'Oasis Bioreference' drips warped acid through a slow-motion filter. Each piece is a postcard from somewhere gently unreal.
Review: Blackest Ever Black have instinctively steered towards the industrio-noise domain over the last few years, but the Young Echo crew of Bristolians Vessel - a Juno HQ favourite - El Kid and Jabu team up for a raucous excursion into deeper, bassier territories. This isn't dub music per se; it's more an introspective into the powers of the low-end...All geared up for soundsystem destruction, of course. Seriously though, these are some heavy cuts which mark both the development of a fascinating collaboration and a welcomed breath of fresh air from a label which usually only likes to breathe noxious fumes.
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