Review: Unsettled Scores Records presents the long-overdue release of the soundtrack to The New York Graffiti Experience 1976, a seminal documentary by Fenton Lawless. One of the earliest films to document NYC's graffiti culture, the project began in 1974-75 as a slideshow created by Lawless and producer Justine DiIanni and featured original photos as well as the track 'French Fry 97.' That song, along with other recordings from 1974 by Lawless and his band, now appear on this official soundtrack, which is previously unreleased. The music captures the raw thrill and creativity of a pivotal moment in underground culture so this is a vital piece of NYC history.
Review: Details - for now, anyway - about Respite remain shrouded in mystery, but this is the second release on their own label. It's a quietly profound exploration of minimal to kick off with as 'Track 1' layers up subterranean kicks with wispy melodic curlicues that get you in a dream state. 'Track 2' flips the script with bulky kicks that are in your face and softened by more swirling ambient pads. 'Track 3' is pure late night sub submersion coated in vocals crackle, dust and static that feels somehow intense despite being such a sparse sound. 'Track 4' allows some more light-emitting and radiant synths to cut through the murky atmospheres and it has a moving, uplifting effect.
Review: Back by popular demand comes this four track revisitation of the famous 80s synthpop classic, which emerged in December 2024 with the kind of slightly Euro twist in the vocal department you might expect from the Netherlands-based Random Vinyl stable. The Master Mix is perhaos the most poignant, given that its airy, lush pads were put together by the late producer Marc Hartman who very sadly passed away in August 2024 at the far too young age of 58. But all four show due reverence to this monolithic moment in electronic music history, without resisting the temptation to add a little new. Grey-t stuff.
Review: The rather enigmatic Tonearm is back with a new transmission that is clearly inspired by the ambient innovations of AFX. Innocent synth modulations, naive keys and thinking patterns all bring futuristic AI visions of peaceful utopia to life on 'Minerva', which is a beatless delight. 'Luminance' has a deeply buried rhythm and sustained chords that hum up top, then 'Isko' has cascading melodic rain and hurried rhythm suggestions way off in the distance. 'Ilthat' allows a moment of hope and joy with its brighter synth colours deftly looped and ever shape shifting. A quiet, impressive future sound full of nostalgia.
Review: Jakarta's Uwalmassa refine their singular language once again, deepening their reconstruction of Indonesian musical heritage with four stark, ritualistic pieces. 'Untitled 11' spirals through halting, dust-coated percussion loops, its groove collapsing in and out of time like a broken ceremony. 'Untitled 12' stretches further into abstraction, its dry, rattling timbres evoking brittle reeds and scorched earth. On the flip, 'Untitled 13' locks into a hypnotic, gamelan-inflected rhythm that sounds hand-played but digitally deconstructed, while 'Untitled 14' closes with detuned melodies and a low-slung bassline that suggests ancient dance music refracted through modernist minimalism. Each track seems built to evoke memory without nostalgiaideeply rooted yet future-facing. Their approach continues to resist both club functionality and ethnographic cliche, landing instead in a realm entirely of their own.
Review: With a title inspired by the utterances of The Oracle of Delphi, a cult of female priestesses who reportedly "changed the course of civilisation" by inhaling volcanic vapours, it's clear that Lee Burtucci and Olivia Block's first collaborative album is rooted in paganistic visions and experimental mysticism. It's comprised of two lengthy tracks, each accompanied by edited 'excerpts', and combines Burtucci's experimental synth sounds and tape loops with Block's processed vocalisations and hazy field recordings. Dark and suspenseful, with each extended composition delivering a mixture of mind-mangling electronics, creepy ambience and musical elements doused in trippy effects, it sits somewhere between the charred "illbient" of DJ Spooky and the deep space soundscapes of the late Pete Namlook.
Review: Best known for his involvement in the Braen's Machine project alongside fellow film scorers Piero Umiliani and Alessandro Alessandroni - not to mention his work under the name Awake and Gisteri - maverick producer Rino De Filippi took a darker, introspective turn on the 1972 Flower Recs bloomer Condizione Umani. Jazz-pincered vignettes are heard piercing the fragile complexities of the mind, across a record whose shapeshifting veneer crosses streams of tension and revelation with an arachnid sleight of foot. With 'Crivellamento' standing out as a key marrying point of ritualistic percussion and avant-garde looseness, we're left spasmodic. Reissued again on standard and purple vinyl as part of the Sounds From The Screen series, we've an historic contribution on our ears from the Italian studio maestro.
Review: Oskaa-born but truly otherworldly producer Daichi Furukawa, aka Ground, is back with a new album that is here to bend your mind and distort your reality with his fourth world follow-up to 2018's cult favourite Sunizm. This experimental odyssey truly defies genre, logic, and linearity as it assembles a chaotic yet mesmerising fusion of organic samples, synthetic textures, tribal rhythms and cosmic noise that are fantastic and freaky. Yaoyorozoo is one of those records that feels both ancient and futuristic as it taps into beautiful and unsettling, inviting and disorienting rhythms and sample sources. Across 73 minutes, it mutates like a dream-always shifting, never settling, so it makes for a cerebral collage for wide-open minds and ears only.
Review: What a gem this is to follow up the much-loved 2024 stop-motion animated Netflix classic directed by series creator Nick Park. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl earned critical acclaim, winning two BAFTA awards and receiving an Academy Award nomination in the process. The story follows Gromit as he tries to save Wallace, whose new "smart" gnome invention seems to have a mind of its own and may be linked to a vengeful figure from the past. The film's score was crafted by Emmy-nominated Lorne Balfe and BAFTA-nominated Julian Nott and adds depth to the adventure with theme tunes, dramatic operatic moments, more tender interludes and plenty of great musical narratives. The release includes a four-page booklet with an exclusive Nick Park drawing.
Review: Japanese artists Yumiko Morioka and Takashi Kokubo unite for a journey through blended piano, atmospheric synth and nighttime field recording. Both Morioka and Kokubo are pioneers of Japanese new age import, with the former lyricist, pianist and composer trailblazing with her sole 1987 album Resonance and the latter composer and musical environmentalist responsible for a string of geometrically-charged, fantastical LPs from 1980 onwards. Morioka herself makes a welcome return to music after taking a staunch step back to raise her family in the late 80s; her music has since been quietly cherished, and now Gaiaphilia evidences her not-lost ivorian flair, with her piano melding blissfully with pop-out sea- and soundscapes.
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