Review: The partnership of Kassem Mosse and Beatrice Dillon; Dillon Wendel is a place for the two respected artists to explore soundscapes, aesthetics and synthesis in pastures aeons away from the dancefloors they're most familiar with. Both compositions weighing in over 15 minutes, they're experiences which challenge form and convention; "Pulse" ripples with its namesake, a texture that buzzes and drones in endless waves while "High" mutates a warmer, grainer tone with dizzying effect.
Review: Gaia Tones continue on the path of righteousness, or at least a path of numbered releases spawned from the GT universe. Number six, comprising two tracks, is a prime example of just how much can be done with low end sound, opening on the appropriately-titled 'Deep'. A strange, hypnotic, tribal number with a bassline that rumbles along beneath lumbering, loose percussion, the result feels as though you're being taken further into a thick jungle or forested landscape.
Once there, '808' does its best to guide you through the dense foliage. Again, less is more; in this case that means an offbeat drum-first workout that's somewhere between dub wise and shamanic. Earworm material of the highest order, while the tracks feel subtle, heard at the right volume in the right situation both will be pretty inescapable.
Review: The very first live stream on 9128.live broadcast from the studio of Rafael Anton Irisarri, as he and Thomas Meluch (Benoit Pioulard) pieced together a completely live improvisation, christening the newly created 9128 airwaves and setting the bar for many more live takeovers. With one album between them as Gailes, and profound work individually (also together as Orcas), Rafael and Thomas are masters of the ambient craft, combining intricate field recordings, guitar, pedals, vocals and heady reverb across a 40-minute non-stop immersive listen, split into two 20-minute sides for the inaugural 9128 vinyl release. The 9128 label aims to document significant live performances by artists that previously performed on the 9128.live platform. With recordings initially created for a singular collective listening moment, and often as part of a festival or takeover weekend, label recordings will re-present this music for further listening across various formats that best suit each release. Gailes - Session Two, will be available as a digital download and 12", printed in a reverse-board die-cut sleeve, black vinyl.
Review: For the uninitiated, Galax was formed in 2005 by Hiroshi Hasegawa and Mandog's Keiichi Miyashita as an outlet to explore the trippiest reaches of extended and improvised electronics and were later joined by Acid Mothers Temple's Hiroyuki Higashi - sort of a Japanese precursor to Magic Mountain High if you will. Galax only ever put out one release, a limited CDr in 2006 called Never Ending Space Trackin' which featured three extended excursions into delay laden noise. One of it's highlights was the 26 minute "Mysterious Smile of a Buddhist Image" which has been licensed by Japanese label Room Full Of Records for this limited 12" reissue that also features a pared down remix from Tokyo based producer Numb which sinks the track into murky, nervous techno territory.
Review: French electronic icon Laurent Garnier returns with the FABRICLG4 EP to celebrate the 25th anniversary of London's legendary club. This release showcases Garnier's signature range and opens with 'Playing with the Low-End,' a fierce 2-step track that nods to the heritage of UK club sounds. The journey then shifts to techno with 'Resonances from the D' barrelling along with great force and then on the flip side, 'Odyssee Maison' features deep house grooves with Dan Diamond and last but not least 'On the Way Home' rounds out the experience with ambient sounds. This one comes with "augmented reality artwork" by Atelier 14 and is another doozy from the already untouchable Garnier.
Review: Ghost Dubs aka. Michael Fiedler returns to pile on the Pressure. Following recent acclaim-gatherer Damaged, this extension of the LP further serves to distend the dub, surveying and excavating fossil-rich terrains of soiled bass and coarse texture. Six reconstructed dub reformations, only two tracks, ';Chemical Version' and 'Wired Version', were previously available digitally; both introduce the record as warped yet unassuming undercuts, ripe for the meditating-to. 'Thin Dub' dissolves the mood into an echo-drenched texture; the track is marked by an up-down, contradistinct set of tuned impacts. 'Dub Craft', meanwhile, snatches the crown for most subby tune of the year.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Dub Regulator (4:44)
Wired Version (4:14)
Thin Dub (5:51)
Chemical (version) (5:52)
Dub Craft (2:25)
Lobotomy (version) (5:10)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
Ghost Dubs aka. Michael Fiedler returns to pile on the Pressure. Following recent acclaim-gatherer Damaged, this extension of the LP further serves to distend the dub, surveying and excavating fossil-rich terrains of soiled bass and coarse texture. Six reconstructed dub reformations, only two tracks, ';Chemical Version' and 'Wired Version', were previously available digitally; both introduce the record as warped yet unassuming undercuts, ripe for the meditating-to. 'Thin Dub' dissolves the mood into an echo-drenched texture; the track is marked by an up-down, contradistinct set of tuned impacts. 'Dub Craft', meanwhile, snatches the crown for most subby tune of the year.
Review: Trip-hop meets modern digital ambience on Gi Gi's latest for INDEX:Records. Nothing but the music meets the ear here, plunging us into ricochety sonic hotwirings from the jump. Allusions to dancehall ('Maiolica'), dub ('Palm Slick') and illbient ('Lilted Song') ring true here, while a vocal feature on the track 'Sinews' - from fellow mic-caresser and expert moniker-coiner Hysterical Love Project - yields a sound that recalls something like the combined sonics of HTRK and 3XL. A not-to-miss EP for anyone who loves it textural.
Review: Gidge has been at the heart of the Atomnation sound for a while and now the duo reinforces that status with a new EP that again explores the bratty of bittersweet musical landscapes. 'Gausta' kicks off with some plaintive, heartbreaking chords and heavy rhythms and organic touches, while 'Grit' has acoustic strings and moody chords. 'The Fells' picks up the mood a little with a subtle sense of hope in the drums and sensitivity in the strings. 'Bleak' has another brilliantly forlorn vibe with indie and electronica meeting somewhere in the middle and last of all is the painterly synth mastery of 'Whiteout'.
Review: Much to the surprise of many house enthusiasts, Joe Claussel's Sacred Rhythm imprint delves into plenty of different genres and styles, all of them bound together by a recurring thread of percussive delight. Paul David Gillman debuts here, coming through with three gloriously loose slices of kinetic ambient fuzz, with the terms 'new age' and 'balearic' coming through vividly. The opening "Red Earth" is a supremely jazzy whirlpool of sonics and harmonic delight, which evaporates neatly into the much vaster planes of "Installation III". "Winter's Moon (excerpt)" washes away all the fury and energy of the previous two tracks to end up somewhere desolate and calming, offering a beautiful piece of soundscaping for the ambient fans. Recommended.
Review: Nimbes is the soundtrack to a 15-minute audio visual piece of the same name by filmmaker Joanie Lemercier and Emptyset's James Ginzburg. The music itself is a collaboration between Ginzburg and Yair Elazar Glotman, a Berlin-based sound artist who recently released an album on the Italian ambient label Glacial Movements. Subtle Emptyset snarls lurk in the background of the title-track, with rumbling double bass, cellos, plucked strings and dramatic drums taking up the foreground in a cinematic piece of sound design. Glotman provides his own version of "Nimbes" that's devoid of much bass, instead overcast atmospheres and blustery orchestral movements dominate. Eric Holm, who earlier this year released his debut album on Subtext, delivers a clanking, industrial remix, somehow adding even more tension to a record best described as foreboding.
Review: New experimental clique Gluvs debut with a stunning piece of noisy drone for the neonate Random Sevens imprint - and just like that, we have our leftfield EP of the week. The young, mysterious outfit have put together a wonderfully crestfallen pool of instruments and electronic distortion in "Sunday Breakfast", a totally surreal piece of music that could easily be enjoyed by any record aficionado. The same goes for the more glacial tones of "New Year", and the playful peaks and troths on "Poka", because what Gluvs do best is transform a genre that is largely appreciated by music nerds into something more concrete, less demanding on the ears and utterly sublime to zone out to. TIP!
Review: Golden Ivy's new transcendent single marks a celebrated return to the label after time spent with other imprints. Rooted in a sample from Sinnenas Dans by Scanian folk legend Ale Moller, the track evolves into a fourth-world masterpiece that layers in flute melodies with synthesised explorations and rather industrial leaning motorik rhythms. With Moller's blessing, the result is both meditative and grand and on the flip, you will find Philipp Otterbach's post-punk dub reinterpretation. it's rich in deep, sculptural and contrasting soundscapes and invites mindful, low-tempo dances that will resonate on all manner of diverse 'floors.
Review: Scale and Scope is a set of four 7" and one-sided coloured flexidisc records where each one contains "an instantiation of an individual microtonal designer scale" all developed by Stefan Goldmann. These experimental sounds pair wispy fragments of melody, the hiss of static electricity, twisted drones and only just audible details that add a range of moods from psychedelic introspection to cosmic wonder. 'Series Y (Gamma)' sounds like the internal thoughts of R2D2, while 'Series D (Delta)' is a futuristic symphony of melody and harmony.
Review: Gonno is one of the artists right at the heart of the current Japanese house and techno scene. He now lands on the Taiwanese label Jin with the sort of stylish sounds that have earned him that reputation. He opens ups with sophisticated house of 'Energy Flash' with its drum loops gently rocking you back and forth with diffuse pads bring the soul. The Voiski remix is a more melancholic cut with bittersweet synths riding ups and down the scale and warped bass propping it up from below. Things take a turn towards twisted and textural techno on 'Final Hate' (original mix) then into a world of ambient beauty on 'Arabica' to send you home feeling soothed.
Review: Based in Bristol, UK, experimental musician and vocalist Lucy Gooch is certainly a name to keep an eye on right now. While boasting little by way of discography, this being her debut EP which follows the self released 2018 record, 'Sun', she has all the hallmarks of an established synth-y siren. You heard it here first (possibly). Compris-ing five sumptuous tracks that are pared back but, upon closer inspection, incredibly deep and immersive, elements of Bjork and Imogen Heap are audible in the songs here. Warm notes, sensitive, ethereal vocals and a sense of real passion behind the work itself. The likes of 'Rushing' comes close to a sombre choral mood at times, 'There Is A Space In Between' could stand with the best ambient work, while 'Stalag-mites & Helictites' is a hypnotic journey into the inner mind. Or somewhere near.
Review: It takes about a minute to fall head over heels for 'My Lights Kiss Your Thoughts Every Moment', the first track on Rushing, a collection of compelling and utterly spellbinding work by Bristol-based singer, sonic artist, and general visionary Lucy Gooch. A sublime concoction of ambient refrains, deep, moody, muffled keys, and perhaps the most spectacular voice we have heard this decade, creating something serene but powerfully emotive.
It sets a real precedent, but what follows proves every bit the match. The title track looks to focus more on production trickery, taking those sweet vocal tones and developing them into loops and layers while still ensuring the original words take centre stage, a backdrop of strings adding the sense of build and expectation. Throw in the almost church-like feeling of 'Sun', cosmic rays of melody that make up 'There Is A Space In Between' and we're sold. Well, we already were.
Irreell(hand-numbered white vinyl 12" in spray-painted sleeve limited to 200 copies (comes in different coloured sleeve we cannot guarantee which one you will receive))
Review: There's much to enjoy about the output of the Kimochi label, not least the bespoke, spray-painted sleeves and their habit of releasing only the deepest, most hypnotic electronic music. Their latest must-have release is another super-limited affair that drifts lazily between ultra-deep cuts shot through with dub-wise rhythms, atmospheric shoegaze motifs, echoing ambient chords and beats straight out of the early '90s ambient techno playbook. It's utterly gorgeous and deliciously hazy, with slow-burn melodies and undulating electronics slowly rising above reverb-laden chords, warm basslines and occasionally skittish rhythms. There's something particularly special about the locked-in drums and hypnotic bassline of "Elljus", but the ambient soundscapes "Heden" and "Inland" are also superb.
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