Akkana Peck has written a very thorough introduction to the GIMP. In fact, I'd call it more of a definitive guide than just an introduction. This book is great for the completely new user, but even the seasoned veteran can learn quite a bit from 'Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional'. GIMP is the most popular open source image manipulation and digital drawing program in the world, running on Windows, Mac, GIMP is the most popular open source image manipulation and digital drawing program in the world, running on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and Beginning GIMP's third edition is the definitive resource for those working. GIMP has been quite popular for a long time in search engine results compared to the use of the word “gimp”. So we think we are on the right track to make a positive change and make “gimp” something people actually feel good about.
Review: Back in 2016, legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen approached techno pioneer Jeff Mills with the idea of working together. A series of live gigs and off-the-radar studio sessions followed, with the first fruits of their joint efforts finally appearing on this must-have 10'. As you'd expect, the duo's collaborative work combines Allen's traditional Nigerian polyrhythms, traditional Afrobeat instrumentation, and the far-sighted, sci-fi inspired electronic futurism that has always marked out Mills' work. The result is a quartet of cuts that could arguably be described as retro-futurist Afro-tech - all delay-laden beats, basslines and organs subtly sparring with gentle acid lines, Motor City electronics, beguiling deep space textures and shimmering, 31st century motifs.
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It's arguably Allen's stylistic contributions that dominate, but that's no bad thing. Review: Clifford White is the kind of 80s curio that Emotional Rescue love so dearly - a bedroom keyboard warrior who happened to catapult to professional studio environs in the blink of an eye.
The two tracks pressed up here previously appeared on a 1989 LP in an abridged version - White has returned to both tracks and stretched them out to enhance their playability in the dance. Both 'Lifestream' and 'Rain Trek' aren't your typical party starters though - rather they're lilting, uplifting synth expressions strapped to a mixable beat. That's exactly why they've been hot property on the Balearic scene for a long time, and now they're available in loud-cut, blissfully extended form for the modern heads to get dreamy to. Review: Emotional Rescue did the diggers another great service by gathering up the recorded material from Bordeaux synth-pop outliers Takenoko, and now they're sweetening the deal even further with this EP of wild style mixes from Dresden maverick Sneaker DJ.
Picking three of the strongest tracks from the L'Amour Est Mon Arme collection, he comes up with three drastically diverse end results to suit the most adventurous selectors. The 'Maquette' mix of 'Lee Harvey Oswald' has a wonderfully lo-fi finish that accentuates the DIY new wave angles of Takenoko, while the 'Traaans' mix of 'Trans Amor Express' becomes a trippy, brittle beat excursion that should appeal to lovers of oddball 80s dub mixes. The 'Dynamic' version of 'John Wayne' finishes the record off in bombastic fashion, all boxy beats and powerful synth lines punching out underneath the quintessential wavey vocals. Review: Efficient Space's latest essential release sees Andras and Instant Peterson take a trawl through the darker, lesser-visited corners of Australian electronic music. According to the label, the pair lifted material from 'local 12' singles, CD-Rs and the archives of community radio station 3RRR FM'.
Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the acid-flecked, 'Nude Photo' style Detroit fun of FSOM's 'Resist The Beat' and chiming, trumpet-laden bliss of Ian Eccles-Smith's 'The Slaughtering Eye', to the jaunty, mid-90s New York style bounce of Blimp's 'Yellowgold' and the ultra-deep ambient techno pulse of Tetrphnm's 'Track 11'. Check, too, the enveloping dreaminess of Screensaver's drifting ambient closer, and the jazzy dancefloor depth of Inner Harmomy's 'Da Lub Club'. Review: Horishi Yoshimura was something of a pioneer of Japanese electronic music, particularly ambient. He came to create his first masterpiece, 1982 debut album Music For Nine Postcards, following a near 10-year spell exploring the early potential of computer music. The album has long been considered a 'must-have' for ambient collectors, despite high second-hand prices and very limited stock. Thrillingly, Empire of Signs has decided to reissue it on vinyl for the first time.
Entirely performed and produced by Yoshimura, it features a series of impeccable compositions rich in slowly unfurling electric piano motifs, spacey synthesizer chords, delicate organ lines and, on rare occasions, the musician's own voice routed through all manner of outboard effects. Simply stunning. Review: When it comes to compilation making there's probably no two safer names in the art than Strut Records and Optimo's JD Twitch (and maybe the one Trevor Jackson too). This time around though, surprise surprise, Twitch collides a choice selection of oddball rarities and mythical classics from Germany's original post-punk and DIY scene, and in the process gives the behemoth Vinyl-on-demand label a dashing run for its money. There's a staggering amount of music to be discovered here that will send your mind running down one of Berlin's dank strasses or a Dresden ditch, but after hearing tracks like 'Your Turn To Run' by Malaria! Or Twitch's own edit of Christiane F 'Wunderbar' you may be left wondering why you've been listening to Talking Heads and 'Eisbear' this whole time.
Review: First released on vinyl earlier in the year and now available on CD for the first time, 'Uneven Paths' sees the admirable diggers behind the Music From Memory label mine the eccentric, often inspired but rarely visited fringes of Europe's 1980s electronic pop scene. The duo behind the set, Jamie Tiller and Raphael Top-Secret, describe the collected material as 'deviant pop' - melodious, left-of-centre obscurities that some may consider 'Balearic'.
It's pop music from the outer limits, with the duo offering up tracks that variously draw influence from spoken word, global rhythms, post-punk fusion, new age ambient and kosmiche. Their selections are spot on throughout with genuine surprises around every corner. Review: Anniversary compilations tend to fall into one of two camps, with labels either offering up a straight retrospective or a collection of previously unheard material.
'Brainfeeder X', the tenth anniversary set from Flying Lotus' eclectic and experimental imprint, delivers the best of both worlds. Disc one tells the story so far, joining the dots between ambient, jazz, instrumental hip-hop, distorted techno and wonky house via cuts by the likes of Martyn, Daedelus, Taylor McFerrin, Thundercat and DJ Paypal. Disc two, meanwhile, showcases exclusive, unheard material, with highlights including the dream-time soul of Thundercat and BADBADNOTGOOD's 'King of the Hill', the sunrise-ready deep house of Ross From Friends, the madcap IDM rush of Dorian Concept and the high-octane jazz-rap madness of Flying Lotus and Busdriver's 'Ain't No Coming Back'.
Review: Having previously reissued Mkwaju Ensemble's inspired 1981 debut 'Ki-Motion', WRWTFWW now turns its attention to their equally impressive follow-up from the same year, 'Mkwaju'. Beginning with a breezy chunk of Marimba-driven four-to-the-floor bliss, the album sees the Japanese trio - whose members included legendary percussionist and ambient artist Midori Takada - shuffle between hypnotic, Steve Reich-influenced minimalism ('Shak Shak'), melodious fusions of new age electronica and modern American classical ('Tira-Rin'), and glacial ambient soundscapes ('Pulse In The Mind'). Best of all, though, is 'Flash-Back', a dense and intoxicating percussion workout that stretches out over 13 mind-bending minutes. Review: Tucked away in a shed in Portland, Kevin Palmer continues to cultivate an unmistakable sound, grown around a seemingly untiring exploration of the machines that he works with.
He has previously alluded to doing much of his production work in the small hours when his family are asleep. After over a dozen full length releases thus far, his newest one comes courtesy of Glasgow's 12th Isle and sees the Working Nights boss explore more introverted expressions in afterhours soul reflection on Enginetics & Plasmalterations. Mind the baffling titles, these jams are totally hot: from spooked-out minimal house jams like 'Nick & Kev Set Controls For The Waning Moon' that treads the same territory as Lowtec or STL, to his idiosyncratic version of dub techno as heard on 'Orbitiara or 'Unfathomed Fathoms'. Elsewhere there's noisy soundscapes, sublime ambience to knackered house - this one will cerianly to appeal to the insomniacs and loners out there and it's tremendous. Review: Geneva's WRWTFWW Records reissue the cult album Lingua Franca-1 by groundbreaking Kyoto band EP-4.
Originally released in 1983, it was first named Death To The Emperor Showa - which led to its censorship and subsequent renaming as Lingua Franca-1. It is best described by the label themselves as 'a seamless voyage of spellbinding mutant funk grooves, joyful post-punk explorations, synth fantasies, sexy distortions, and fluid cool-no-sweat vocals.' All in all, it is a freaky cross between PiL, Liquid Liquid, Bowie and Yello.
Review: My Neighbour Totoro is a 1988 critically acclaimed Japanese animated fantasy film, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli and Tokuma Shoten. The soundtrack, which has stood the test of time, is one of the contributing factors which makes the film so magical. Created by longtime Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi who is one of Japan's most prolific and celebrated composers, this soundtrack is one of the lightest in mood with the 20 tracks running in chronological order. Stunning, raw and powerful. Review: Given his innate ability to craft intensely atmospheric and often fundamentally unsettling music, it seems apt that Thom Yorke has finally got around to producing a film soundtrack.
It's fitting, too, that said soundtrack is for Luca Guadagnino's weirdo remake of 1977 Italian horror flick 'Suspiria'. Yorke nails the brief, delivering a string of chilling, otherworldly instrumentals that not only draw on his well-established love of dark ambient and gruesome electronica, but also foreboding neo-classical movements and sparse, wide-eyed arrangements. There are a smattering of superb vocal moments, too, with recent single 'Suspirio' - described by one broadsheet reviewer as 'the saddest waltz you'll ever here' - standing out. Review: O Yuki Conjugate hailed from Leeds, where through the 80s they explored the limits of haunting, DIY atmospherics with a pulse. Following the previous reissue of the group's earliest material, Emotional Rescue are back with another meticulous document of this deep-cover curio, charting their progression from lo-fi post-punk tinkerers to ambient soothsayers. The contrast between the disheveled new wave thrum of 'Infiltration' and the chilling chime patterns of 'Anima' is striking, but listened to as a whole this thoughtful reissue demonstrates the depth and beauty embedded in O Yuki Conjugate's all-too overlooked legacy.
Review: In line with the timely reappraisal of all things R&S related, the resurgent Apollo have seen the opportunity to bring one of their most celebrated records back for another round. Aphex Twin's ambient recordings mature magnificently with age, sounding ever richer and more emotive as the rest of electronic music continues to play catch up all around. From the gentle breakbeats of 'Xtal' to the aquatic techno lure of 'Tha', the airy rave of 'Pulsewidth' to the heartwrenching composition of 'Ageispolis', every track is a perennial example of how far ambient techno could reach even back then. It's just that no-one quite had the arm-span of Richard D. Review: Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label plunges once more into the grimy underworld of electro and wave music, this time guided by dungeon dweller Morah who debuted on the label in 2015 and has since gone on to great things via Lux Rec, Berceuse Heroique, brokntoys and more. 'I Saw, Strained Her Eyes Peering Into The Gloom' is a bittersweet dance with distortion as disheveled as it is catchy, while 'Dance When Lights Off' pushes even further into the red with scintillating results. 'Against Your Beloved' sounds positively shimmering by comparison, even if on its own it's still a truly dirty slice of jacked up electro.
'One Shade The Less, One Ray The More' is a strong closing bout that draws from a similar sound bank and applies it to a more techno-minded structure. Review: It seems that Slam boys Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle are mellowing with age. Their latest studio album - the long-serving Glaswegian duo's sixth in total - dispels with the raging rhythms and full-throttle peak-time anthems in total, instead serving up a range of cuts that all hover around the 101 BPM mark. It's a successful switch, too, with the pair mining their love of deep techno, the sci-fi fuelled melodious futurism of early Motor City techno, and the beat box-powered punch of electro. Throw in some ambient techno headiness and nods towards turn-of-the-90s IDM and you have a sparkling set that suits serious home listening much more than their previous, dancefloor-centric LPs. Review: Following up the closure of his respected Jealous God imprint, former Sandwell District accomplice Juan Mendez returns to Hospital Productions to follow up 2011's bold outing Negative Fascination - presenting these modern EBM mutations in the same vein.
Mendez captures the zeitgeist of classic early '80s industrial dance on the rusty rattle of 'Harm In Hand', followed by more driving body music of the steelier persuasion on 'Damage' and the pitch-black technoid riot 'Death Of Decadence'. Review: Originally released in 1989, Retinae was the third album by experimental pop outfit Dip In The Pool. The duo was formed in 1983 by Tatsuji Kimura and Miyako Koda, who soon earned a reputation in their native Japan and in 1985 debuted in the U.K. On Rough Trade.
More recently, their work gained a newfound interest after Amsterdam's Music From Memory reissued lead single 'On Retinae' (West version) in 2016 as well as a collaboration on Visible Cloaks' acclaimed Reassemblage LP on RVNG Intl. This is a collection of 10 gorgeously neon-lit pop ditties well worth a reissue. Review: Mancunian sonic sorcerers Demdike Stare return to Modern Love for their seventh full length entitled Passion.
Sean Canty and Miles Whitaker present an asymmetric reimagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax ('Know Where To Start'), shortwave jungle ('At It Again'), pinging dance hall and clipped, post-punk riddims ('Caps Have Gone'/'Pile Up')' on what is also described as the pair's most 'direct and fucked-up record to date'. The cover artwork is taken from the duo's live shows with visual artist Michael England - which premiered at last year's Berlin Atonal festival. Review: It's been two years since Thomas Berg's 'Versions' stable initiated the Mystic Versions project, which delivers untitled chunks of cosmic techno goodness from un-credited artists.
There's plenty to excite on this delayed second instalment, from the creepy, dub techno-in-the-rainforest flex of 'Track 2' and wildly wonky, reggae-tinged heaviness of 'Track 3', to the swirling, rising and falling melodies of dense dancefloor techno roller 'Track 5' and the ambient techno style early morning psychedelia of 'Track 7'. Those hankering after some dense and intense peak-time techno should check out the ballsy drum assault that is 'Track 6'. Review: Given his innate ability to craft intensely atmospheric and often fundamentally unsettling music, it seems apt that Thom Yorke has finally got around to producing a film soundtrack. It's fitting, too, that said soundtrack is for Luca Guadagnino's weirdo remake of 1977 Italian horror flick 'Suspiria'. Yorke nails the brief, delivering a string of chilling, otherworldly instrumentals that not only draw on his well-established love of dark ambient and gruesome electronica, but also foreboding neo-classical movements and sparse, wide-eyed arrangements.
There are a smattering of superb vocal moments, too, with recent single 'Suspirio' - described by one broadsheet reviewer as 'the saddest waltz you'll ever here' - standing out. Review:. REPRESS ALERT. Timeless electro by UK stalwart Edward Upton, on this much deserved reissue of his 1998 LP Nu Romantix. Permanent Vacation have made the album available for the first time on a loud and sharp double 12' that has been carefully remastered by Lopazz for maximum pleasure. All the tracks you know and love from the orginal are here, such as his spooky Dopplereffekt tribute 'You're Not There' featuring his terrific deadpan vocal delivery, the wonderfully creepy 'Mouse' with its minimalist vibe and the cheeky vocoder antics of 'End Of The Night' channelling some good ol' fashioned Italo vibes. Including the instrumental of 'Come To Me' as a bonus track.
Review: REPRESS ALERT: Emotional Rescue and Woo once again come together, this time to reissue their masterpiece, the previously cassette-only album Into The Heart Of Love. A joyous, uplifting ode to love in all it's forms, the trials and tribulations and ultimately the triumphs are all encapsulated in Woo's unique soundscapes. Of all the myriad of released and unreleased Woo recordings, Into The Heart Of Love is without a doubt their most complete and cohesive body of work.
Full of Woo's quirky analogue dub electronics, there is also a very English sense of folk. With more vocals then their other albums, the structure and softness of mood quintessentially comes from the Mother Isle. Review: Influenced by her time in the French countryside after a bout of touring exhaustion, the latest release by Caroline Herve is the most spiritual release yet from the artist more widely known as (Miss) Kittin. The electroclash pioneer and techno veteran gives up past formulas on the Cosmos LP, although there is a familiar sound on the moody electro-pop opener 'Cosmic Address'. Elsewhere, she proves there's variety in her sonic arsenal such as on the precision IDM of 'Question Everything' or 'Last Day On Earth', to the deep and introspective dub techno on 'Multiverse' and the remainder of the album's expressions in organic, leftfield electronica.
Review: Minimal Wave present a reissue of Yoshifumi Niinuma's 1980 self-titled debut album, having already released his Automaticism and Plastic Love EP's previously. Produced in his Tokyo living room, Niinuma built his own synthesizers and speakers from scratch to create these 'intense proto-techno soundscapes.' A zeitgeist of early pioneering electronics, it runs the gamut from minimal synth ('A Worm'/'Automatic Type'), noisy industrial beats such as on 'Temprament' or early electro sounds as heard on 'Quick Starttype'. Review: Helena Hauff's label is back, this time presenting a various artists 12' that heralds the start of the No Return series. The release starts on a mystical bent with the Eastern-tinged death electro of 'El Carmel', sounding ripe for a Hague-friendly warm-up session. Neud Photo then take over with a dystopian trip through rich synth tones coloured in dark hues for the bleakest of robotic fantasies. Antoni Maiovvi fills the B-side with the slow grinding bombast of 'The Dig', bleeding out a noirish take on coldwave for the darkest hearts to swoon to.
Review: Released as a companion to Shawn Lee's superb documentary on the pioneers of Library Music - the simply titled 'The Library Music Film' - this killer compilation draws together pieces selected by some of the many DJs and producers who contributed to the movie. With lots of decidedly obscure tracks plucked from the catalogue of such legendary music libraries as KPM, Music De Wolffe, Bosworth and Tele Music. Highlights are plentiful, from the 'Taxi' theme style slow burning jazz-funk of Tonio Rubio's 'Bass In Action No.
1' and the skittish Blaxploitation-goes-easy listening bustle of Nick Ingman's 'Tense Preparation', to the Moog-laden space funk insanity of Peter Thomas' 'Coordinates Meeting'. Notes: Some of the best music ever written and it was never made available to the public. Library Music was composed and recorded specifically as an 'off the shelf' option for use in Film, Broadcasts and Advertising. It was cheaper than commissioning a composer to score a soundtrack and music was written to cover every genre, every instrument and every atmosphere.
The Golden Era of Library Music is generally deemed to have been from the late sixties to the mid-eighties with thousands of albums produced during this time. It was a time when the World's greatest composers had access to full orchestras in the best recording studios with the very best engineers and recording equipment. Today this music has a loyal and growing following of DJs, Tastemakers, Record Producers and Beatmakers, Journalists and Vinyl enthusiasts around the World. Sections of Library Music tracks have been sampled to form the backbone to some of the biggest, chart topping singles by contemporary artists.
Travelling across the World, finding some of the most original music ever recorded, coupled with some of the funniest anecdotes, fronted by the electric and crazy enthusiasm of Shawn Lee, this film not only reveals this record industry parallel universe, it also provides a lot of laughter along the way. Review: Next up on Macadam Mambo, label boss Sacha has a special treat for you. As Longitude is the Berlin based synthesist and composer Eva Geist joined by Ondula, which started to make its place on the new electronic scene after brilliant releases last year on Mark Knekelhuis' imprint and an appearance on Ein Welt. Check out the tripped-out and low slung oddball groove of 'That's When The Animals Turned Into Humans' on the A before flipping over to the hypnotic, brass-laden 'Na Numbers' and venture further down the rabbit hole on the psyched-out vibe of 'I Thought It Was Summer'. This will appeal to fans of indie dance by the likes of Superpitcher, Moscoman or Red Axes. Review: After the starry-eyed delights of the Club Mondo 2000 mini album last year, Lamusa II returns to Gravity Graffiti with further explorations on the outer reaches of cosmic jazz, experimental library music and much more besides. This is music to stimulate your cerebellum and transport you to hitherto unknown regions, certainly relevant if you've been digging the previous output on Gravity Graffiti from the likes of Yoshinori Hayashi.
Particular highlights include the fluttering tapestry of keys, chimes, rhythmic ripples and zippy effects on 'Variatio Ad Absurdum,' the intense vibrations of 'Caos E Dialogo' and the mellow patterns and trills of 'Dalle Alle.' Review: Sweden's Bauri Martin Abrahamsson returns to B12's FireScope imprint for the second part in the Vinkelvolten series.
Under the alias Bauri, Abrahamsson has been creating various shades of techno over the last two decades for labels as diverse as Sloboda, Random Island and Drumcode. More evocative sonic tales await you on this fine EP, from chilled and beat driven daydream fantasies such as 'Hertsi' or 'Cocoon' through to the sombre glacial minimalism of 'Wobbly Rhodes' or captivating IDM journeys like 'Tuesday Dreaming' reminiscent of Boards Of Canada.
Review: Belgian reissue imprint Stroom are back with more retro obscurities, this time in the form of 48 Cameras: the brainchild and life project of self-proclaimed non-musician Jean-Marie Mathoul. After hearing an album of William S.
Burroughs reciting poetry, Mathoul decided to put poems and spoken word to music. He was a poet in his own right, having already published a book of poems. At a literary event in Liege, he met UK-based writer Paul Buck (author of the novel The Honeymoon Killers) and the two of them decided to collaborate - and thus formed 48C. Mathoul was said to have built the album in his mind, long before starting the recording process, which involved something of a 'non-band'. The musicians and collaborators never actually recorded together, and to this day some haven't even met each other. Jean-Marie Mathoul sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 66.
Review: Yves Tumor is undoubtedly an artist with a unique musical perspective. That was evident from his 2016 PAN debut, 'Serpent's Head', an album of impossible-to-pigeonhole brilliance that drew on a dizzyingly disparate array of styles. Now operating on Warp Records, he continues to mix and match genre boundaries to suit his will on hotly anticipated follow-up 'Safe In The Hands of Love'. It's another doozy, with the Turin-based artist offering a thrill-a-minute sound soup that flits from pastoral folktronica, experimental IDM and mangled R&B futurism, to wall-of-sound indie-pop, doom-laden orchestral ambient and blissful, hallucinatory dream-pop. While putting Tumor (real name Sean Bowie) in a stylistic box is impossible, we can safely say that he'll soon be joining the top tier of maverick pop experimentalists. Review: California based husband and wife duo Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis are Peaking Lights - who present their tenth long player on Amsterdam's Dekmantel.
The acclaimed live act deliver yet more of their trademark blend of electronic freakouts here with Dunis' outstanding vocal style throughout. From the stylish electro-pop noir heard on numbers like 'Blind Corner' or 'I Can Read Your Mind', the cosmo-psychedelic dub of 'Hypnotized' through to the lo-slung punk-funk of 'Shift Your Mind' and the blazed ambient chill-out of the title track.
Review: Having turfed up Boytronic classic Brylliant late last year, Dark Entries plunge once more into the darkest recesses of Hamburg's Reeperbahn district with a crucial 12' presentation of Wolfsheim's breakout hit. Formed of musician Markus Reinhardt and vocalist Peter Heppner, Wolfsheim emerged in early '90s Hamburg with The Sparrows and the Nightingales 12' on local label Strange Ways and remained active until 2009. Dark Entries focus on their synth pop sound in its most nascent form, gleefully remastering 'The Sparrows & The Nightingales' and pairing it with a thunderous EBM-laced rework from crack remix specialist Ancient Methods. Review: We were a little surprised when Lovefingers announced that German techno veteran Roman Flugel would be releasing an album on ESP Institute, but in hindsight we shouldn't have been. Flugel has always been more than a mere producer of forthright dancefloor fare, with a deep discography that includes experimental works and a keen interest in ambient soundscapes. It's the latter strand that he mostly explores on 'Themes', a 13-track cut whose fluid, bubbly and ear-catching cuts variously doff a cap towards Japanese new-age business ('Theme II'), Broadcast style IDM ('Theme III'), Kraftwerk style modular electro-pop (the exotic 'Theme IV'), chiming bliss ('Theme VI'), deep space creepiness ('Theme X'), Jonny Nash-esque sunset vibes ('Theme XII') and hushed, mid-tempo horror-techno ('Theme VII').
Review: We never quite know what to expect from leftfield explorer Jon Hopkins, but we know it will be worth a listen. Immunity, his fourth solo album (he's recorded two others, one with Brian Eno and another with King Creosote), doesn't disappoint. Rooted in shuffling, forthright and occasionally off-kilter rhythms, it melds hazy, late night atmospherics and subtle melodies with intense, droning chords, woozy electronics and all manner of inventive noises.
It's a blend that repeatedly pays dividends, from the mournful pianos and jumpy rhythms of 'Breathe This Air', to the crystalline, soundscape ambience of 'Abandon Window', and glitchy wonkiness of 'Form By Firelight'. Review: The music Venezuelan artist Alejandro Ghersi makes as Arca first came to the fore via UNO, the New York label who issued a trio of compelling releases in 2012.
Arca's brand of glossy, high grade beat experimentation has seen him go on to work with Kanye West and FKA Twigs as well as release on venerated US indie Hippos In Tanks. An album deal with Mute may seem unexpected yet the UK label have a long and proud tradition of challenging conventions.
Entitled Xen, Mute have described the 15 track set as full of 'mercurial forms, fluxing unpredictably from smooth to spiked to sweet' and you wont get much of an idea from the soundclips. If you were charmed by the FKA Twigs set this is an album that will get your serotonins bubbling. Review: In 2015, long-serving Slovenian experimentalists Laibach became the first Western band to perform in North Korea, including a number of songs from 'The Sound of Music' - a favourite in the DPRK since the 1960s - alongside their own material. Three years on, and with the assistance of Silence's Boris Benko and vocalist Marina Martensson, they've finally delivered their interpretation of the musical film's familiar soundtrack. Swaying between rock balladry, experimental synth-pop, darker tones and industrial style fuzziness, the band's covers are both revolutionary and revelatory, as staples such as 'The Lonely Goatherd', 'My Favorite Things' and 'Do-Re-Mi' are given radical makeovers. As they did at the concert that inspired the set, they also give their interpretation of some traditional North Korean folk songs. Review: Optimo Music present the debut of mysterious American producer Stranded with Celine's Dilemma.
Despite hailing from country music capital Nashville, they have a longing appreciation for more 'dance centric' cities throughout the world, whether it be Detroit, Manchester or Berlin - hence the moniker. Alienation, romantic rendezvous, 9 to 5 unease and an apprehension of the future are just a few of the topics that surface on the EP. Sweeping and droning synths, jagged guitars, rolling bass, yearning vocals and disco beats propel the music and ideas showcased in the project - while using a backdrop of post punk, disco, and synth-pop.
Review: Music From Memory's last epic compilation, 2017's Outro Tempo, did a terrific job in uncovering the dusty, rarely visited corners of Brazilian electronic music. Uneven Paths offers a similar service to those interested in the eccentric, often inspired fringes of European pop music. Of course, compilers Jamie Tiller and Raphael Top-Secret are not interested in run-of-the-mill or commercial synth-pop, but rather 'deviant pop' - melodious, left-of-centre curiosities that some may describe as 'Balearic'. This is pop music from the outer limits, where tracks variously draw influence from spoken word, global rhythms, post-punk fusion, jazz, new age ambient and kosmiche. It goes without saying that the crate-digging duo's selections are spot on throughout, with genuine surprises around every corner. Review: REPRESS ALERT: Etwas stirs in die Ostlich.
Edits and verks of twist sounds. Synth pop, cold wave, neu wave, minimal wave, industrial, neu beat, soundtracks and a selbst Balearen. Als erstes is hero of old Cybernetic Broadcast (CBS) and (Intergalatic FM) radio.
Jonny 5 and his verstorbenen Blindsign blog and mixes were a steigen'n'steigen to rescue us from boring neu disco. Schieben his search and discovery for harder, but musical soundscapes.
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4 edits is a geschmack. Start brave on the floor feel with the Neu Beut Euro Pop thumper Kaka Kaka. Geschleift, verdreht thoughts. Black Hole is hours spent in Eastern Bloc basements graben in the search for drahts. Stoned indeed, immaculate synth electronic battle cruiser, hart percussion, cut gesang and break. Ready for the percussive finale in Horizon's Change.
Was Auch Immer. Review: For fans of minimal wave and DIY electronic pop, Oppenheimer Analysis's self-released 1982 debut cassette, New Mexico - little more than an extended demo cassette - has become something of a collector's item. While it has been reissued digitally since, it never received a vinyl release. In tribute to Martin Lloyd (the other half of the duo, alongside Andy Oppenheimer), who passed away recently, Minimal Wave has decided to make New Mexico available on wax for the first time. While the sound quality is appropriately dusty (it was badly recorded in the first place, of course), the music remains magical - bubbling, evocative, left-of-centre leftfield pop created with home-made synthesizers, modular hardware and little else. It's no wonder many consider it a classic album (even if was never officially released first time round). Review: Celebrating 35 years since their debut single 'Into Battle With Art Of Noise', one of the most influential electronic acts of all time present the ultimate best of set across two CDs.
Crammed with their most well known and gamechanging moments ('Close (To The Edit)', 'Love Beat', 'Beat Box') and the slightly lesser spotted but still just as vital tracks such as the Rakim-meets-Debussy banger 'Metaphor On The Floor', Way Out West's breakbeat charm on 'Dream In Colour' and the outright daft Max Headroom collab 'Paranoimia', this is a detailed and enduring collection that celebrates the band's legacy and influence. Review: It would be fair to say that White Material co-founder DJ Richard's latest full-length excursion is an album of two halves (to mangle a football cliche). Stick on the first slab of wax, and you'll be confronted with a string of dark and moody treats, from creepy ambient interludes to grumpy electro, to mind-altering dark-Italo (see standout 'Vanguard') and pulsating, off-kilter electronica (the restless acid pulse, off-kilter drums and paranoid chords of 'Tunnel Stalker'). Whack on the second disc, though, and you'll be comforted and calmed by a series of intensely blissful, occasional melancholic compositions that are much lighter and dreamier in tone. Of these, it's the sublime 'Final Mercy' and 'Ex Aere' that stand out. Review: Perth legends Clouds are back with their idiosyncratic style of noisy techno shenanigans on Electric Deluxe. Heavy The Eclipse tells the story of a dystopian future in Glasgow, after numerous waves of social collapse which has run to waste in lawless ruin.
The land passed into the hands of new owners; a German-speaking conglomerate, who incorporated it into a new civic entity: Neurealm. Think ravaged and warped breakbeats haunted by wailing euphoric noise, vivid and graphic reflections of fractured post-industrial hardcore and moments of poetry flashing within a thick impending fog. Review: Enrico Mantini and Pepe Villalba already made a sterling start with the Purism label, and now it's time for Retro Activity to step up with some striking diversions from the standard minimal house template. Drums are the order of the day on 'SK-1', and what drums they are - loose, limber, expressive rhythms in a funked up, breakbeat style but certainly not any of the over-familiar breaks you're used to. 'Venera 8' is a cosmic trip laden with spaced out FX wobbles and a rubbery bassline, and 'Astrovibe' takes things in a stellar techno direction with sumptuous arpeggios and classic Detroit-flavoured drum machine flair. Review: For this third release on Los Angeles based imprint Dais, dark ambient maestro Drew McDowall reaches into concept, ritual and immersion in an exercise of unravelling the DNA of hallucination. The Third Helix is a churning descent into emotion, provoking thought and reflection while carving out haunting space only to fill it with baffling and wondrous structures of layered sound.
McDowall solidifies himself as an architect who transforms otherworldly materials into something fascinating and challenging in the process. Unnerving, trance-like anthems for nervous meditation and anxious relaxation. Fans of Coil will immediately connect and immerse, while the complex compositions welcome listen for drone and ambient enthusiasts.
Review: Experienced experimentalists William Basinski and Lawrence English have long been friends, growing closer over the last half-decade thanks to a string of chance encounters in cities around the globe. Finally, they've joined forces on their first collaborative set, an album that was reputedly 'simultaneously recorded in Brisbane and Los Angeles'. It's a thing of beauty, with both of the long, poignant and slowly shifting ambient cuts being tinged by melancholy brought on by the loss of their mutual friend, experimental filmmaker Paul Clipson.
Like 'Selva Obscura', Clipson's work celebrated the act of getting lost in experiences that lie beyond everyday understanding. Review: Datawave is the project of Brussels based Gaetan Votion, who returns to Natural Sciences for the first time since 2017's 'Submersion' - which was featured on their V/A Future Works Vol 3 compilation. Taking up where he left off last time, Votion explores the dark and dystopian realms of electro bass on this self-titled EP, taking the best of the genre's classic aesthetic, while delivering a stylish and contemporary edge.
From the A side's introverted and futuristic thriller 'Hidden Outpost', through to the high energy workout of 'Stellar Wind' on the flip, this certainly proves to be one of the week's highlights in our electro releases. Review: American composer Mary Jane Leach is a composer/performer who works with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. She has played an instrumental role in NYC's pioneering Downtown avant-garde community since the 70s, working alongside peers including Arthur Russell, Ellen Fullman, Peter Zummo, Philip Corner and Arnold Dreyblatt. The four recordings featured here on her fourth album entitled (f)lute songs feature Italian flautist Manuel Zurria, and spans a period of over 30 years inspired by her fascination with sound and performance. Review: Laurel Halo's latest release was apparently inspired by her recent film score work for Amsterdam-based arts collective Metahaven. Certainly, it's a largely becalmed and beguiling collection, experimental in ethos but also cinematic in tone. It contains a sextet of instrumental pieces that vary in style and tone from the loopy, otherworldly creepiness of 'The Sick Mind' and droning 'Supine', where ambient chords and manipulated cello notes combine to create a druggy soundscape, to the slowly unfurling, widescreen epics that open and close the mini-album.
These, particularly 'Raw Silk Uncut Wood' are intensely picturesque and beautiful, with Halo subtly shifting between epic ambient passages and the kind of sweeping, string-laden musical movements that mark out the finest cinematic compositions. Review: Icelandic techno veteran Yagya enjoys a release on X/OZ that celebrates both new and old material.
The tempo is noticeably ramped up on 'One Weak Light' but never at the expense of that dark and mysterious Icelandic hue. 'Existence Is Weird' is no slouch either, but Yagya shapes out his atmospheres with such a refined touch that you barely notice how quick the tracks are running.
'A Very Long Daydream' is a gorgeous ambient track dug out of the archives, while 'Getting Closer To An Unknown Goal' sees the re-release of a track Yagya released as Rhythm Of Snow back in 1999. Review: Niagara has always been an intriguing proposition. The trio's music is often brilliant, but frequently thrillingly difficult to pigeonhole.
They're at it again on 'Apologia', a debut album that's as trippy and otherworldly as it is beautiful, inventive and intoxicating. Over the course of the set's nine tracks, you can expect to hear oddball samples, bright tropical melodies, 'Blade Runner'-influenced synthesizer work, sticky Portuguese rhythms, ambient electronics, glitchy electronics, lo-fi drum machine hits, rainforest-ready songs, bustling hand percussion and horizontal aural humidity. In other words, it's a brilliant musical melting pot the likes of which you've never heard before.
Akane Peck Gimp For Mac Mac
Review: Blundar is a label shrouded in mystery, although it seems aligned with artists like Lowtec and those orbiting crews like Smallville. The latest transmission on the dusty house imprint comes from STL, whose disheveled sounds is a natural fit for what has come before on Blundar. 'Track 1' peers through a thick haze of smoke, exhaling pads and drones and keeping the bass pulsing throughout.
The rest of the EP is given over to experimental and ambient tones, with the second track on Side B being an especially arresting piece loaded with melancholic contemplation. It's another strong addition to the Blundar repertoire, and another example of STL's skills and adaptability in the studio. Review: Mike Jefford's skillful expressions in modern industrial first came into darkness in Berlin, circa 2012 on Sigha's Our Circula Sound. He has since honed his craft on labels such as Leyla, Opal Tapes and Stroboscopic Artefacts, toured his acclaimed live set and launched his own imprint In Silent Series - which has presented work by SNTS, Chimess and Inner8.
Now based in Lisbon, Jefford presents his fourth full length via Geoff Presha's innovative Horo imprint. From seething slow-burners like 'Exhibit Structures', textural and abrasive haunters like 'Cold Seeps' to his idiosyncratic style of restrained sludgy techno as best exemplified on 'Sedentary Echo' or 'Manganese Scales' - this could be his finest work yet. Review: Hamid's HPLS label has been strangely quiet this year, so it's welcome news to see one of the most intriguing operators on the outer reaches of the minimal house scene back in action with a new talent to share with the world. DCHA-DCHA makes a bold arrival with a two-pronged release comprising of ten tracks in total.
On this first part of Opus Incertum, the title track makes a bold statement of intent with its low slung groove carrying all kinds of splaying, splashing and otherwise spaced out sonic trysts. There's a more discernible strut to 'Te Lubesc,' while 'The Age Of Solon' invites Planet X into the mix for a spaced out slice of machine boogie. With the abundance of ideas spilling out of part one, it promises a lot for part two to follow. Review: Greek noise explorers MMMD have a sizable body of work behind them already, having released on Pan as well as their own Antifrost label.
Now the continually interesting Athens-based label Modal Analysis is releasing its first album in the shape of a live recording of Nikos Veliotis and ILIOS performing their minimalist drone experiments live in St. Paul's Anglican Church in the Greek capital. It's a subtle sound for patient ears, but listen deeply and you'll find such a rich amount of detail and expression wrought out of the duo's combination of organic instrumentation and electronics.
Review: Bryn Jones' innovative and seminal works marked him down as a cult artist, politically motivated for the Arab-Palestinian cause and a seminal experimenter of the ethnical samples. Initially released by Staalplaat in 1999 (the same year of his passing away) as part of the Box Of Silk And Dogs it is very different from the exotic and ornamental processing of certain world music. 'Ingaza' is thematically and stylistically all over the place, sporting atmospheric instrumental loops and jarring, heavily barbed and distorted beats.
The only threads linking these tracks were made during Jones' grittier production/dub days during the last years of his life. Review: Since launching her Phobiza trilogy in 2016, RAMZi (AKA producer Phobe Guillemot) has become one of the most talked-about producers on Canada's distinctly blazed underground scene.
Here, she draws the curtain down on the series in predictably impressive fashion with a mini-album that looks further afield for inspiration. While every track offers a distinctive take on her now trademark hazy, colourful and undeniably horizontal sound soup - think chords, sound effects, melodies, field recordings, tape hiss and lots of toasty bass - it's the myriad of percussion sounds and rhythms that catches the ear.
As well as the usual stoned downtempo beats and blazed deep house grooves, you'll also find nods towards early drum and bass, IDM and African and South American polyrhythms. In short: a yearning, head-in-the-clouds treat.
Review: Following up some great tracks on Pinkman, Mannequin and Malka Tuti in recent times, British synth wizard George Thompson returns under the Black Merlin alias - delivering some bold EBM and electro-noir antics for Berlin imprint She's Lost Kontrol. The rusty grind of analogue arpeggios, with minimal rhythms awash in icy trails of reverb plus guttural howls through walls of distortion shall taunt you throughout the sonic contents of the Noi EP. While Thompson sure has a knack for nailing all the hallmarks of early industrial music, he still finds time for the same tribal meditative minimalism found on his Karamika project as heard on the riveting 'Noi 2' - one of the EP's highlights.
Review: The dissociative electronic designs of incognito American producer Topdown Dialectic originated as a set of software strategies, rather than compositions in the traditional sense. The recordings are captures and edits of various nonlinear sound-systems, shifting conditions, and reactions to internal changes. Despite such a conceptual basis the music is hyper-sensory, evocative, and emotive, meshing the impossible sonic geometries of early UK warehouse bleeps and IDM stutters with the gritty spatial abstraction of Basic Channel to chart dynamic and diaphanous electronic topographies, at once decentralized, parallel, and environmental. The eight identical-length tracks comprising this self-titled vinyl debut demonstrate the breadth of the Topdown sound world: shuddering, circuitous, textural, kinetic. Algorithmic arrhythmias phase and pulse and oscillate, chopped voice samples flutter within buffering static, peripheral melodic fragments glitch and glide in and out of time. It's an aesthetic both autonomous and expressive, impersonal and inscrutable, in keeping with artist's roots as a central operative in revered anonymous cassette collective, Aught.
This is compelling, composite music, instigated as much as created, like obscure machinations occurring deep in the labyrinth of a server somewhere.