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12"
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2MR 044EP
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This "Like A Prayer" edit has been a secret weapon in Mike Simonetti's DJ sets for almost three years, and has been one of his most requested tracks. The fact that it has amassed over 15,000 downloads on SoundCloud before being taken down by Madonna's people has only added to the mystique of this particular rework. The b-side is the polar opposite -- yet equally as effective -- rework of krautrock legend Faust. Here, Mike takes a meandering kraut masterpiece, and in a more classic edit style, turns it into an 11-minute dancefloor journey with bigger drums, faster BPMs and buildups/breakdowns. Where the Madonna edit is sparse and bare, the Faust edit is lush and ecstatic.
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12"
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AFS 040EP
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Obed Ngobeni and his backing singers the Kurhula Sisters were among the originators of Shangaan Disco, a genre that helped shape South Africa's bubblegum sound of the '80s. The group emerged in 1983 with "Kuhluvukile Ka Zete," a hit that later gained international recognition as "Kazet." In 1984 Ngobeni followed this with the album Gazankulu, which included the irresistibly catchy "Ta Duma," pioneering in its fusion of traditional and electronic -- a sign of things to come. Heads Music boss Emil Dean Zoghby also cooked up a disco version of the track with producer Peter Moticoe and engineer Phil Audoire for release as a 12" (with a dub, of course), replacing the original version's guitars with another layer of stinging synths and a proto-house beat to drive the song's emphatic call-and-response chorus. Ta Duma, the latest release on DJ Okapi's Afrosynth Records, brings together all three versions of this massive track for the first time -- a tribute to the roots of bubblegum. On the B-side, "Xikhobva" offers a more traditional bass and guitar-driven groove over simmering drums. This one's hard!
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2CD
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SIDO 020-21CD
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The Early Years collection has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the music-theater company, Operating Theatre, by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouere. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to 2008. This double-CD set celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theatre company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records.
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12"
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ATMV 071EP
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"A work of searching, and in many moments, finding" Maggie Thornton as Sky Civilian is set to release her second EP via Atomnation: At the Seams. It's a stepping stone, from the lyrical, gentle, genre-agnostic electronica of Open Door (ATMV 065LP), to Maggie's own rounded and angelic take on acid-house. Maggie's cinematic, synth-heavy style emerged after a decade of orchestral French horn playing and classical studies. She combines this brass-inspired, synth-forward approach with her weightless, almost-whispered vocals, and dancefloor ready beats. The melding of influences present in her work make Maggie a fresh and promising new artist in the electronic music scene, an artist we hope to hear more from for many years to come.
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CD
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AU 1017CD
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"Over the past decade, the visionary musician Arthur Russell has entered something close to the mainstream. Sampled and referenced by contemporary musicians, his papers now open to visitors at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in New York, and his name synonymous with a certain strain of tenderness, Russell is as widely known as he's ever been. Thanks to Russell's partner Tom Lee and to Steve Knutson of Audika Records, who have forged several records from Russell's vast archive of unreleased material, the world now hears many versions of Arthur Russell. There's the Iowa boy, the disco mystic, the singer-songwriter and composer, and the fierce perfectionist deep in a world of echo. While all of these elements of Russell are individually true, none alone define him. Now, after ten years of work inside the Russell library, Lee and Knutson bring us Iowa Dream, yet another bright star in Russell's dazzling constellation. Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell's utterly distinct songwriting. And although Russell could be inscrutably single-minded, he was never totally solitary. Collaborating here is a stacked roster of downtown New York musicians, including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Henry Flynt, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Steven Hall, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Saltzman, and David Van Tieghem. Musician Peter Broderick makes a contemporary addition to this list: more than forty years after Russell recorded several nearly finished songs, Broderick worked diligently with Audika to complete them, and performed audio restoration and additional mixing. Several tracks on Iowa Dream Russell originally recorded as demos, in two early examples of his repeated brushes with potential popular success -- first in 1974, with Paul Nelson of Mercury Records, and then in 1975, with the legendary John Hammond of Columbia Records. For different reasons, neither session amounted to a record deal. Russell kept working nearly up until his death in 1992 from complications of HIV-AIDS. At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell's most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s. For Russell, Iowa was never very far away. 'I see, I see it all,' sings Russell on the title track: red houses, fields, the town mayor (his father) streaming by as he dream-bicycles through his hometown. Russell's childhood home and family echo, too, through 'Just Regular People,' 'I Wish I Had a Brother,' 'Wonder Boy,' 'The Dogs Outside are Barking,' 'Sharper Eyes,' and 'I Felt.' Meanwhile, songs like 'I Kissed the Girl From Outer Space,' 'I Still Love You,' 'List of Boys,' and 'Barefoot in New York' fizz with pop and dance grooves, gesturing at Russell's devotion to New York's avant-garde and disco scenes. Finally, the long-awaited 'You Did it Yourself,' until now heard only in a brief heart-stopping black-and-white clip in Matt Wolf's documentary Wild Combination, awards us a new take with a driving funk rhythm and Russell's extraordinary voice soaring at the height of its powers. On Iowa Dream, you can hear a country kid meeting the rest of the world -- and with this record, the world continues to meet a totally singular artist."
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LP
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BFE 055LP
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B.F.E. Records present a reissue of the fantastic debut LP from France's pioneer avant-electronic unit, Art & Technique. Clima-X was originally released in 1981 by Hi-Tech Records. Haunting obscure minimal electronic sounds, ambient and atmospheric ventures, minimal wave with some ethnic elements. And excellent use of rhythm boxes, sound generators and strange vocals, reminiscent of 23 Skidoo's "7 Songs", early Muslimgauze or O Yuki Conjugate's sound. Remastered by former member Bernard Filipetti. Edition of 300.
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12"
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BSUN 001EP
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"Four freshly dare-to-be different cuts of bass-driven techno, electro/IDM grooves, atmospheric dub chords, weird percussions and odd-uneven rhythms. There's a subtle sense of tension and restlessness in the guts of this music but also a lot of space, both colliding in the powerful dubby synth-solo closing track."
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LP
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BEWITH 020LP
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2019 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of The Ahmad Jamal Trio's The Awakening, originally released in 1970. Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. The landmark deep trio session -- recorded in NYC and released on Impulse! in 1970 -- is an essential album and perennially sought-after on vinyl. Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. As a "Zen master of jazz piano" and one of its greatest innovators, Jamal evolved his elegant sound with this adventurous record. The Awakening showcased his fast, richly melodic chops in remarkable variation. A consummate orchestrator of his own complex arrangements, Jamal was emboldened here by his potent sidemen. Backed by the exquisite timing of bassist Jamil Nasser and the precision of Frank Gant's drumming, he was liberated by the reliability of the trio setup. Free to juggle rhythmic dexterity with harmonic intricacy, Jamal brilliantly performed groove-oriented compositions written by himself, alongside wonderful renditions of tracks by Herbie Hancock, Oliver Nelson, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. It is impossible to discuss The Awakening without acknowledging its indelible mark on golden age rap. A defining album of hip-hop culture, producers of the highest caliber have famously sampled elements of this timeless record to lace all-timers with a foundation for their most legendary tracks. Indeed, both the experimental "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration" and Shadez Of Brooklyn's seminal "Change" utilized Jamal's sparse title-track to stunning effect. A melancholy motif from "I Love Music" was employed by Pete Rock for Nas's crucial "The World Is Yours" whilst, over a more abstract refrain from the same track, Jeru memorably delivered his "Me Or The Papes" ultimatum. Over in Chicago, No I.D. elevated Common's peerless "Resurrection" by lifting a precise riff from Jamal's plaintive rendition of "Dolphin Dance" whilst the head-nod quality of All Natural's hypnotic "Renaissance" owes it all to the looped keys of Jamal's take on "You're My Everything". With bold beauty and unhurried grace, Ahmad Jamal plays piano differently from everyone else. He was a huge inspiration to Miles Davis and influential to how Wynton Kelly performed across Kind of Blue (1959). Presented in a gatefold sleeve adorned with the original eye-catching artwork throughout, along with the original sleeve notes. Mastered by Simon Francis and pressed for the first time on 180 gram vinyl.
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12"
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BH 060EP
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"Logos leaves the weightless sound for a minute and cooks up a stew with ingredients as tasty as the Bloom era Aardvarck white labels, Shed as Panamax Project and Wormhole era Ed Rush & Optical sound design. Ossia delivers one of the heaviest remixes of the year, taking the ice-cold grime sensibilities of Eska and infusing them with the militant sound of early Aba Shanti I on that Jah Lightning album. Soundsystem music at its best."
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12"
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BH 062EP
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"The third part of our 'Ode To The Soundsystem' is here and the abstract sound of the last Ossia album is no longer evident. The influence of the early Disciples 12"s shows up for the first time, with a Drexciyan connection happening on the b-side, creating one of the most lethal and militant 12"s that we have ever released. Ossia is back on Berceuse Heroique and we are very happy about it."
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7"
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BEST 000EP
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Beyond Space And Time is the new record label from Japanese music festival Rainbow Disco Club (RDC). RDC has been welcoming music-loving people to Japan for over a decade. Throughout the festival's history, the organizers have been fortunate to collaborate with amazing performers and DJs who've provided a beautiful dance floor year in, year out. These relationships have lead RDC to start their own label, and they are now given the opportunity to reveal one of the best-kept secrets: what is in a DJ's record bag? This time around, festival regular DJ Nobu kindly opens up his collection, and shares the music he loves with us all. On visual duty we welcome Senekt -- his representational yet contemporary drawing illustrates the emotion one feels from DJ Nobu. DJ Nobu selects Pan Sonic's epic "Lähetys/Transmission," for this limited one-sided 7". It is the first time this track has been released on vinyl. The release is meant as a preview to the forthcoming compilation from DJ Nobu -- a voyage that navigates much of his musical background, and includes his all-time favorites. DJ Nobu describes the track this way: "electronic music has existed for decades, and if you are to choose some of the best from all scattered & hidden pieces, Pan Sonic's 'Lähetys/Transmission' must be considered. The track emerges beautifully -- breaking structures and transcending the past. Every layer of the piece is produced with such delicacy and care, that as a whole it magically drags you into the world of the unknown."
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LP
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BS 040LP
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2019 repress. First of all, Bengt Berger -- a pioneer of the Swedish underground of the '70s and historical member of bands such as Archimedes Badkar and Arbete Och Fritid -- is a versatile drummer-percussionist and well-educated ethnomusicologist with several research sojourns in India and Ghana. Deeply influenced by Hindustani, Carnatic, and West Africa music, he founded the Bitter Funeral Beer Band in 1980, an ensemble of 12 elements, basing his ideas on the traditional funeral music of the people of LoBirifor, in the northern region of Ghana. The sound material reinterprets the spirit of the funeral ritual, when the dance and its songs become a moment of catharsis, releasing a sense of joy in the trance for the liberation from pain. The marriage between this Afro-polyrhythmic roots, with the spiritual jazz of the eternal Don Cherry, and the Ondian sarod of K. Sridhar, it is in the direction to a pan-internationalism of profound spirituality, which blends different geographical traditions in a single contemplative gaze. It is the convergence towards a music without boundaries, where every instrumental voice shines and is well fermented and integrated.
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2LP
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BT 048LP
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Repressed. Black Truffle present the first ever vinyl reissue of David Rosenboom's legendary Brainwave Music, originally released on A.R.C. Records in 1975. This is an expanded double-LP edition with over 40 minutes of additional contemporaneous material. Pioneer of live electronics, innovator in music education, collaborator with artists as diverse as Jon Hassell, Jacqueline Humbert, Terry Riley, and Anthony Braxton, Rosenboom is renowned for his ground-breaking experiments with the use of brain biofeedback to control live electronic systems. Each of the three pieces that make up the original Brainwave Music LP integrates biofeedback with musical technology in different ways. In the side-long "Portable Gold and Philosophers' Stones", four performers have electrodes and monitoring devices attached to their bodies to receive information about brainwaves, temperature, and galvanic skin response. This information is analyzed and fed into a complex set of frequency dividers and filters, manned by Rosenboom, but essentially played by each of the performers through their psychophysiological responses. The result is a slowly unfolding web of filtered electronic tones over a tanpura-esque fundamental, possessing the unhurried, stately grandeur of an electronic raga. In "Chilean Drought", three different variations of a text about a drought in Chile, read by a different voice in a different style, are associated with the beta, alpha, and theta brainwave bands. Alongside an insistent piano accompaniment, three constantly shifting vocal recordings are controlled by the relative preponderance of each of the brainwave bands in the soloist. "Piano Etude I (Alpha)", the earliest piece included here, is based on research into the link between alpha brain wave production and the execution of repetitive motor tasks. As Rosenboom plays a very rapid, incessantly repeated pattern in both hands, two filters controlled by monitoring his brainwaves process the piano sound, moving gradually higher in frequency as the average alpha amplitude increases. For this reissue, the original LP is supplemented with an additional LP containing an unreleased 1977 live recording of Rosenboom's "On Being Invisible", in which the composer himself performs on an array of electronics that are fed information from his brainwaves. Stretching out over 40 minutes, the piece begins in similar territory to "Portable Gold and Philosophers' Stones" but eventually becomes far wilder, building up to pointillistic bleeps and dense layers of electronic fizz that unexpectedly cut to near-silence. As Rosenboom explains, the piece creates a situation in which the "performer's active imaginative listening became one of the ways to play their instrument, as well as an active agent in how self-organizing musical forms might emerge." Includes archival images and new notes from the composer. Gatefold sleeve design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by David Rosenboom from the original analog tape masters. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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Cassette
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BGMERR 001CS
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"Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their D.I.Y. cassette debut, Renaldo & The Loaf revisit Play Struvé & Sneff with a very special deluxe run of only 200 copies! For the first time since 1979 this very rare release is faithfully recreated, right down to the photocopied images and typewritten cassette labels! In addition, the cassette is included within a beautiful custom retail box alongside a signed/numbered 'RATL & A Stranger' promo card and a 36 page booklet telling the complete story of how Struvé & Sneff came about way back when! So just who are Renaldo & The Loaf? Two British guys, Brian Poole and David Janssen, who met in 1970 and self-taught themselves to play their instruments in their own very individual way. Always recording their own material in a bedroom studio, over time they developed an increasingly strange yet very British repertoire of oddly accessible songs. Spurred on by the D.I.Y. ethic of the late 70s, in 1979, they compiled their first album as Renaldo & The Loaf, a hand-made cassette that was sold locally and thru mail order. Only about 250 copies were ever made. In late 1979 that cassette was brought to the attention of The Residents and it directly lead to the band signing to Ralph Records in San Francisco. They went on to release five albums on the label including a unique collaboration project with The Residents themselves. Original copies of the cassette album are now a prized collector's item and with its 40th anniversary in September 2019, a special re-issue will be an exciting prospect for their loyal fanbase."
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2LP
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BREDD 781LP
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"1982 was a decisive year for The Fall. Their critically acclaimed album Hex Enduction Hour was released in March on Kamera Records, closely followed by Room To Live in September. This double LP includes the classic album (Room To Live) plus live recordings in Manchester, London, New Zealand, Netherlands and Canada. This release is a double vinyl on coloured marble effect vinyl."
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CW 002LP
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Erik "Keysie" Ritfeld and Arp Frique's Improvised Suites For Analog Machines celebrates the most influential analog synthesizers of the '70s and '80s. Each track is uniquely dedicated to a different synth, experimenting with the variety of sounds each is capable of producing while telling a story of the past. The whole album is a mesmerizing improvisation demonstrating what each instrument can do, while maintaining a wonderful fusion of old and new. Performed and composed by Erik "Keysie" Ritfeld and Arp Frique.
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2LP
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COMP 453LP
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2019 repress. Double LP version, featuring the vinyl-only track "Tonight" by Chroma Keys. Slo-mo house in its best deep shape, including the rare, sought-after Maurice Fulton remix of Alice Smith's "Love Endeavour." Compiled by Rainer Trueby. We live in hectic, turbulent times. It seems seasonable and reasonable to slow things down a bit. In fact: slow house down to what they're calling now, SLOUSE, implying down-to-earth club music, with a foot tapping under 116 beats per minute. House music and its many sliding genres have ruled the clubs and charts, and a special focus on slo-mo house is well-deserved. Rainer Trueby has become a guarantee for vanguard soulful dance music and club tunes with a special vibe. He has gained approval not only as a DJ but also with successful compilations such as Glucklich, Maiden Voyage on Compost, DJ-Kicks (K7) and compilations for Nuphonic, King Street, Talkin' Loud, and other labels. Rainer Trueby is an artist who spreads love like in the good old days, and he has selected here some of the best tunes on the planet -- some rare and sought-after such as the rare Maurice Fulton remix of Alison Smith's "Love Endeavor," as well as in-demand tunes like S3A's "Deep Mood Act2," or Ron Deacon's "Untitled." There are also amazing discoveries like the Moonstarr tune, and the Laid Back remix by M.ono, as well as a few underrated tracks. All the tunes here are worth the grab and will get played again and again. It's a full palette of slo-mo house flavors and moods as Rainer Trueby takes us on a magical trip into his imagination of Slouse. The result is a future-classic compilation with melodic and groovy masterpieces, made for your home, garden, car, etc. Other artists include: The Blaxploited Orchestra, Good Guy Mikesh & Filburt, Fetsum, Paskal & Urban, Sello, Egyptian Nipples, Session Victim, Bambooman and Eckoclick.
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12"
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CR 120013EP
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Here comes the time of another stepper release, after releasing one of the first vinyl of Digid Cubiculo Records team up again and bring on board Dubbing, Bukkha, and Ras Addis for the label's 13th release. A spatial journey through the cosmic stepper sounds, blending heavy synthesizer sounds, ruff drums patterns, and heavy bass lines. On the A side there is the well-known duo Digid and Dubbing Sun, hailing from Belgium and Austria, and also Ras Addis on the vocals, the B side features a heavy remix from the American, Bukkha.
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CD
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DAMGOOD 523CD
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"Debut studio album from retro Italian powerpop band Zac! Features members of Giuda."
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LP
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DAMGOOD 523LP
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LP version. "Debut studio album from retro Italian powerpop band Zac! Features members of Giuda."
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12"
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DFC 5523EP
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A cult of house music reprinted on its thirty-year anniversary. Includes Derrick May "Illusion First Mix". "Sueño Latino," one of the most famous Ibiza summer anthems and a house music classic, encountered licensing difficulties upon its initial release due to an unauthorized and uncredited sample from Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4. Now, thirty years after its 1989 release, and long after the Paradise original went out of print, Dance Floor Corporation and Göttsching have decided to release this unique tune once again.
A1. Sueno Latino (Paradise Version) (10:35)
A2. Sueno Latino (Acappella) (1:28)
B1. Sueno Latino (Derrick May Illusion First Mix) (11:15)
B2. Sueno Latino (Winter Version) (9:45)
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CD
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DKMNTL 070CD
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Freedom Engine's A Box Full Of Magic is experimental work from Mathew Jonson. Worthwhile albums tend to be as much about the process of making them as they are about the end products themselves. One can almost hear formal, technical, even philosophical questions being asked and answered on them in order to arrive at something personally and politically new for the artist. A Box Full Of Magic is at once sprawling, cosmic, and psychedelic in the best of ways, follows in this album-making tradition. It is a record steeped in off-kilter percussive time, live recording, occasionally summer cloud-paced tempos, and lush, emotional, melodic instrumentation. "A Sunrise On the Front," the final track of the record (and a composition crushing in its beauty), encapsulates much of this: recorded live on a Rhodes, the melody gives voice to the paradoxical sense of hope even during the pathology of war. Such conceptual ambition fits perfectly well within the capacious vision of Jonson's Freedom Engine, a project whose name explores the conceptual paradox and complexity of approaching freedom through the engine of technology. In a fundamental sense, this tension between freedom and machine informs much of the album. Desiring to break out of his old ways of production, the album abounds with fresh fascinations in things like the sound of mathematical equations, quirky time signatures, and experimental phrasing through intuitive timings. There is likewise an interest in the liberating potential of deconstructing old sounds to make new ones, as Jonson applies techniques like innovative noise gating on classic drum samples to create space-age percussion. At other moments, air itself is sampled in field recordings to create unnatural percussive patterns. An encyclopedia of machines and synths are employed in the making of A Box Full Of Magic but what is perhaps new here, and in keeping with the dialectic he traces between freedom/engine, is a non-mechanistic, spontaneous impulse. While it is not a live album, it has an at-times spiritual and organic inclination despite or perhaps because of the way his panoply of gear attempts to capture dream-like tonalities that reach poetic heights on a track like "Sunrise" or morph into an almost diabolical, Lynchian dimension on "An Evil Charm (Where Is the Forest)." A Box Full Of Magic helps to expand the sonic vocabulary of contemporary dance music.
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2LP
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DKMNTL 070LP
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Double LP version. Freedom Engine's A Box Full Of Magic is experimental work from Mathew Jonson. Worthwhile albums tend to be as much about the process of making them as they are about the end products themselves. One can almost hear formal, technical, even philosophical questions being asked and answered on them in order to arrive at something personally and politically new for the artist. A Box Full Of Magic is at once sprawling, cosmic, and psychedelic in the best of ways, follows in this album-making tradition. It is a record steeped in off-kilter percussive time, live recording, occasionally summer cloud-paced tempos, and lush, emotional, melodic instrumentation. "A Sunrise On the Front," the final track of the record (and a composition crushing in its beauty), encapsulates much of this: recorded live on a Rhodes, the melody gives voice to the paradoxical sense of hope even during the pathology of war. Such conceptual ambition fits perfectly well within the capacious vision of Jonson's Freedom Engine, a project whose name explores the conceptual paradox and complexity of approaching freedom through the engine of technology. In a fundamental sense, this tension between freedom and machine informs much of the album. Desiring to break out of his old ways of production, the album abounds with fresh fascinations in things like the sound of mathematical equations, quirky time signatures, and experimental phrasing through intuitive timings. There is likewise an interest in the liberating potential of deconstructing old sounds to make new ones, as Jonson applies techniques like innovative noise gating on classic drum samples to create space-age percussion. At other moments, air itself is sampled in field recordings to create unnatural percussive patterns. An encyclopedia of machines and synths are employed in the making of A Box Full Of Magic but what is perhaps new here, and in keeping with the dialectic he traces between freedom/engine, is a non-mechanistic, spontaneous impulse. While it is not a live album, it has an at-times spiritual and organic inclination despite or perhaps because of the way his panoply of gear attempts to capture dream-like tonalities that reach poetic heights on a track like "Sunrise" or morph into an almost diabolical, Lynchian dimension on "An Evil Charm (Where Is the Forest)." A Box Full Of Magic helps to expand the sonic vocabulary of contemporary dance music.
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12"
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DIRT 122EP
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It's been a busy eight months since Dampé's debut on Dirt Crew Recordings. That time has seen the producer hold down monthly slots on Rinse FM, contribute a downtempo electronica/jazz edit to the S3A Pages Remixes EP (DIRT 121EP) as well as open big rooms for the likes of Surgeon and Blawan. The intervening months have also seen the producer set up camp in the Rhythm Section studio in South East London, and the result of new access to studio gear can be heard all across Garden. Compared to the debut Peach Shuffle, this is a far more machine-led and darker listening experience. Snatches of acoustic instruments and space remain, but it's never long before the disembodied vocals and oversaturated classic drum kits return reminding you this is music best enjoyed in the club. "A Basement, 10 Years Ago" featuring C_YS started just there. A bass line dimly recalled from a long-lost 6am jam is sequenced on a weighty analogue keyboard, while syrupy R&B vocals dance around mbira and gangsa, all slowly building and building together. "727 and Arp Breaks" is a love letter to two of the producer's favorite instruments from the studio. A TR-727 and an Arp Odyssey collide across dubbed out stabs to form some very rolling breaks. "Sunday Night Machines" sees Dampé tame the box-of-physics that is the Arp Odyssey again with a sprawling meditation on two repeating arpeggios. "Garden" is the one for the dancers. Four variations play with the same melodic theme in distinct sections, with the second variation being the deepest and most floor-ready the whole record gets. "France" is a warped dub-come-hip hop beat that manages to conjure both Lil Jon and Yusef Lateef. Liverpool's finest, ASOK (Lobster Theremin, M>O>S Delsin), comes on for remix duties, closing out the record with a twisted bang. He turned in a propelling weapon that brings a whole new texture to the track listing. It's very '90s, very rave-y, and very raw, in a true IDM style.
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2LP
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DRONE 020LP
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A stunningly accomplished work, Deep Rave Memory is an insight into Richard Fearless's worlds --both metaphysical and geographical. Pulsating in unison with the heartbeat of a modern metropolis, it was recorded at the Metal Box -- his studio located on the peninsula of land where the River Lea meets the Thames. The haunting and wistful blue ambient "Vision of You" leads into the bracingly chilly "New Perspective", which evokes a heavy rush where perceptions are blurred and vision is freeze framed, via elements of techno-soul, Sheffield Bleep and Mika Vainio. A snarling beast of a track, the relentless machine funk of "Devil on Horseback" perfects the pure cathartic release of dark n' hot body music, whilst "Acid Angels" is a throbbing low-fi 303 requiem, which encapsulates that perfect dancefloor moment, when the first light breaks through the shutters. A future classic and the album's modus operandi, title track "Deep Rave Memory", features discordant filter passes sweeping across a hypnotic melody, communicating a deep sense of warm nostalgia and taking you on an epic journey -- stretching out a single riff over 12 minutes -- akin to the krautrock greats of which Fearless is so fond. "Atlas of Insanity" is big room techno with pounding kicks, death-whip metallic snares and head spinning, spiraling synth lines that drill into your core. This is raw, impulsive and frantic music that sizzles with electric effervescence. The Germanic kosmische idyll of "Driving with Roedelius" is a homage to one of Richards' heroes -- Hans-Joachim Roedelius -- and was inspired by his experience playing a set consisting solely of the electronic pioneer's music, at a festival celebrating his life and career. On the album's closer, Fearless recounts, "'Broken Beauty' is something I've always strived for in my art. It's inspired by Robert Frank, William Eggleston and the way they could take the most inane object a turn it into something of beauty. It's equally schooled by the aggressive simplicity of King Tubby's dubbing and the transcendence of Joy Division's 'Decades'. The sparse allure of the best dub and techno is something I'm always striving for; being able to conjure emotion with the fewest possible elements; to not fix what's broken, but to make it shine."
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