Electronic

Laurence Pike continues in a rich creative vein with the release of Prophecy, his third solo album in as many years. Inspired to write and record in response to the devastating wild fires in his native Australia, the percussionist, composer and producer has created a work for our times. Adopting the working formula of 'one take' studio performances for drum kit and sampler; channelling the moment through Pike's singular, organic use of electronics, and intuitively constructed arrangements. There is an instinctive and emotional resonance here, driven by his reaction to the climate emergency.

digipak

Digipak

Mika Vainio about Tetra album: "This is how it sounds when bacteria sours milk to acid".

Berlin-based Swedish saxophonist Otis Sandsjö returns with the eagerly-awaited sequel to "Y-OTIS". On "Y-OTIS 2", released by Helsinki's We Jazz Records on July 24, Sandsjö and his close associate, bassist/producer Petter Eldh (of Koma Saxo), deepen their vision of genre-bending, forward-looking "liquid jazz" of tomorrow. The core group also includes Dan Nicholls on keys and Tilo Weber on drums, and also featured on the album are Swedish jazz greats Jonas Kullhammar (of Koma Saxo) and Per "Texas" Johansson, cellist Lucy Railton and trumpeter Ruhi-Deniz Erdogan. Diving deeper into "Y-OTIS 2", you'll find details and ideas galore. The album is an inviting and inspiring audio mosaic, which links back into the previous Sandsjö/Eldh collaborations, namely "Y-OTIS" and "Koma Saxo". The result is a balanced album which quenches your thirst while making you more thirsty in the process. In other words, the many micro moods and sonic levels herein invite repeated listening, while the underlying rhythmic approach is informed as much by hip hop and electronica as by jazz, making the music approachable in a very natural way. It seems unnecessary to pull the album apart by name-checking individual tracks but just for the sake of easy introduction, the single cuts "tremendoce", "ity bity" and "abysmal" offer one idea of signposts along which to navigate. "tremendoce" brings in Swedish jazz great Jonas Kullhammar (of Koma Saxo) and Per "Texas" Johansson, introducing an infectious flute loop integrating into the Y-OTIS sound, making it organic to the bone. "ity bity" could be built on a new wave synth sample (but it's not) and "abysmal" brings more serene, even ambient-sounding sonic pathways onto the map. It all belongs together, and makes for a sound that is instantly recognisable and constantly fresh. This is "Mauerpark liquid jazz" for the new decade. "Y-OTIS 2" will be released by We Jazz Records on vinyl, CD and digitally. The vinyl comes in two versions: standard black edition in a heavy-duty tip-on sleeve and a special "PSYCORE edition" on glow in the dark green vinyl in a heavy-duty tip-on sleeve. The CD comes in a cardboard digisleeve

It took a shade under thirty months for Pure Progressive to rock past its one-hundredth release. That was time enough for the label to bring music from near enough every prog operator of note through its doors and onto floors. Penner, Barone, O’Glue, Saint-Jules, Schossow, Driftmoon, label honch Solarstone (naturally) - you name ‘em, they’ve all received their P.P. pin. If there was any surprise to be had it was that Pure Progressive’s resisted a full-blown compilation until now. Time is time though and July 2020 sees Solarstone’s progressive progeny emphatically score that notch. At the wheelhouse of its mix/disc-deuce is none other than that flying Fin, Orkidea - a genre prognosticator himself who’s recorded for the label many a time. Notably perhaps it was ‘One Man’s Dream’ - their hundredth release, as well as his longstanding Solar-association - that saw him earmarked to mix-helm ‘PP Vol. 1’. Either way he’s seized both opportunity and reins to deliver a stupendously mixed first edition - and one that brings the best of his and the label’s artistic cohort to your ears. Amongst them - well an embarrassment of progressive riches abounds. Genre forefathers like Way Out West rub shoulders with scene-starters like Oakenfold, whilst a host of respected outfits from its dawn - Deepsky, Sunscreem, Desert, Slusnik Luna, Pink Bomb and others - see their works remix-reimagined. Orkidea’s split his edition clean down the middle, dividing it into “Artist” and “DJ” mixes. The former of which offers a major spyglass into what his album follow-up to 2015’s ‘Harmonia’ beholds. In-mixed-form it features no less than 12 tracks, including premieres for new cuts like ‘Rebel Time’ and his Sunscreem team-up ‘Perfect Motion’, as well as the just-out-there ‘That Feeling’. The latter meanwhile comes flush with many an edge-cutter from 2020’s prog class. Yotto, Grum, Paul Thomas, gardenstate, Forerunners, Allende and a horde of others pack out the second disc’s tracklist. Collectively ‘Pure Progressive Vol. 1’ serves the clearest possible vision of what’s-currently-what in the world of prog.

Débuts’ is France-via-Brussels duo, Nikitch & Kuna Maze’s aka Nicolas Morant & Edouard Gilbert first full length album. Building on their collaborative EP “Mush”, ‘Débuts’ continues to explore the melting point between jazz and club culture, interspersed with the signature sounds of broken beat, Chicago footwork, UK garage, Detroit house, and underpinned by their road-tested new live format. ‘Débuts’ see’s the band push their musical and creative development even further, a result of touring extensively around Europe with a live drummer, from high-brow jazz festivals to sweaty basement clubs. “We would be lying if we said our gig experience didn’t influence us on this record” Edouard explains. “We discovered new aspects to songs such as “Bruk” and managed to push forward the energy side of the music from the rawness of the live shows. This energy empowered to produce and compose new material in the same vein”.

Nick Kamen was without doubt, one of the most famous faces of the ‘80s, both as a model, and a pop star. After scoring his first top 5 hit, ‘Each Time You Break My Heart’, Nick went on to have major success across Europe with 4 albums and several number one singles. Now, for the first time, we’re delighted to present a collection of his entire recorded output during the ‘80s and ‘90s on a 6 CD set

Dancers can always be sure of one thing with Chen Moscovici–a.k.a Moscoman–a certain unpredictability and energy will always define the music he serves up. As well as having a background in indie and rock, he plays house, acid, techno, dark disco, synth, all from a more alternative angle. For that reason, he is a regular at wide-ranging but iconic places like Space in Miami, Berghain’s Panorama Bar, Glastonbury and Pacha Ibiza.2020 will see the release of Moscoman’s long awaited second LP. Time Slips Away will be released on June 19th on Moshi Moshi. Moscoman gave us a taste of the album when he shared the track “Back And Again” earlier this month, and to celebrate the announcement the Berlin-based producer shares brand new single “What Do We Care” featuring Tom Sanders (Teleman)

It feels like an almost indecent amount of time since Mark Sherry served us a Prism collection… On second thoughts, there’s no “almost” about it – it is! To be fair to Captain Outburst though he’s spent the interim DJing, A&Ring, label running, producing, remixing and mastering his way around the known dance universe. Cast an eye over its third volume (dropping July 24) though and you’ll get a sense of recompense for ‘Prism’s absence.‘3’ by name, three by its nature, for this edition Mark’s expanded his mix-comp to a third disc, meaning (no calculators needed!) it’s got two co-mixers attached. Scene legend Scot Project (not Scottish) and David Forbes (like Mr. Sherry, 100% Scot!) have jumped aboard, bringing heaps of the fiery stuff along-with. Collectively the trio deliver an awe/ear inspiring 60+ tracks to a release that’s less a music compilation, more a force of sonic nature!In various forms, incarnations & guises, the productions of Corsten, Picotto, O’Callaghan, Durand, Genix, Sneijder, Vini Vici, Shapov, NERVO, Three Drives, Lostly, Shugz and manifold others run riot. As is its established, the third ‘Prism’ reserves plenty of track-space to newer creators and recently-arriving talent too, with young heel-snappers like Richard Tanselli, Systembreaker, Jardin and others work passing through this ‘Prism’. The mixes are naturally triple stacked with a mass of its protagonists’ own and pooled aliases like Gentech and Thick As Thieves. Premieres, exclusives, new collabs and first-hears abound, as Prism’s force multiplying Pt.3 turns hard into a science!Mark’s mix commences in the calm, some might even say graceful waters of… Nah, just kidding - it starts exactly as it continues - with the insanely powerful teeth-rattling tranceterrordome that is his KETNO collab, ‘Space Monkey’. From there comes a track-triple from Thick As Thieves (Sherry & Forbes), before he releases Will Rees’ ‘Candy Jack’, ’Perseverance’ from Richard Durand and his remake on Pulp Victim’s ‘The World’ out into the wild. Richard Tanselli’s max-out of Picotto’s ‘Like This Like That’ and BIG CMV’s Ariel/‘A9’ renovation set it on course for the big finish. All of which allows Joint Operations Centre’s (John O’Callaghan) ‘Meraxes’ and ‘Change Your Heart’ from Sherry/Scot Project paring Gentech to mop up the stragglers!Conversely, Scot Project’s disc does start in the beatific - specifically with Genix’s padparadising ‘Rave’ and his Golden Girls’ ‘Kinetic’ rework. From there though - and with all the subtlety of a meat tenderizer - Scot Project engages the ‘crank’ lever and opens the throttle. Fuelled by some of his own musical moonshine, he locks his mix into a ferocious groove. In their original forms ‘M [Metropolis]’ & ‘H [Hypnotize]’ surface, swiftly followed by rewires of ‘FM [Feeling Me]’ and ‘S [Outer Space]’. The German legend then barrel rolls into a hot-run of other artists’ gear, with Adrenaline Dept, Renegade System, Zatox, Vini Vici vs Shapov vs NERVO all contributing to its heads-down charge. ‘Prism 3’s less-than-holy trinity is completed by David Forbes, who commences his mix with the toughest, taughtest, techiest retell of ‘Greece 2000’ you’re ever gonna hear. Its techno themes continue with David’s own Sebrof & DMCK ‘Phenomenon’, before Thick As Thieves check back in for some ‘Brain Control’. From there Mr. Forbes gets on a big solo roll, sending in quick succession ‘The Music’, ‘Hold Me’ and ‘Evolution Of Dance Music’ down the cables. ‘La Bomba’ from Shugz eyes the mix apex, while its accent continues with Sneijder’s ‘Chuck Norris’, summiting with Forbes’ own ‘TimeWarp’.Cake on top of a cake, burger on top of pizza - when it comes to hard trance, this is what indulgence looks like!

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The early 80s were prolific for Hideki Matsutake. As the go-to keyboard programmer for the Tokyo music scene, he worked on Akiko Yano's Gohan Ga Dekitayo, YMO's BGM, Ryuichi Sakamoto's B-2 Unit, Mkwaju Ensemble's Mkwaju and found time to record two Logic System albums in 1981. While the first album, Logic had a harder techno feel, the second one Venus was different affair. Recorded in Los Angeles at the new state of the art Yamaha Studio, it was loosely themed on the Greek goddess Venus and had a funkier more organic sound. For the album Matsutake had asked a handful of American musicians to provide songs he would then add his synth magic touch to. Michael Boddicker, Don Grusin, Nathan East and Roger Powell duly complied and also played on the album.The updated sound was achieved by switching from the Moog III to the E-mu modular System (which Matsutake brought over to LA) and other synths like the Prophet 5, the Roland MC-8 and TR 808 and the Yamaha GS-1, a forerunner of the DX7.The result is an amazing futuristic mix of electronic music and early 80s funk, announcing many genres to come, from techno and house to French electro and Vaporwave. From the breezy ambient synth of I Love You to the city pop edge of Be Yourself (originally written by Nathan East for Debra Laws) and the vocoder-led Daft Punk-ish Take A Chance, Venus is a fascinating album that both pushes the boundaries of electronic music and is yet strangely accessible and beautiful.The other key elements of Venus is the artwork designed by Japanese legendary illustrator Pater Sato. Sato had started in Japan in the early 70s doing many album covers for Japanese artists including Tatsuro Yamashita's cult Spacy LP before moving to New York in 1979 to pursue a career in fashion and advertising. His airbrush style became hugely influential over the years and in 2018, Stella McCartney dedicated a whole Men’s collection based on his Venus. Star make up artist Pat McGrath also regularly posts his artwork to her 3 million fans on her instagram.The original album came with a beautiful 8-panel insert illustrated by Sato which Wewantsounds has reproduced on this deluxe reissue also featuring remastered sound, OBI strip and a second insert featuring credits and line up plus liner notes by Hashim Bharoocha. The notes feature an exclusive interview with Hideki Matsutake reminiscing about the making of this visionary album which Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue.

LA BREICHE (“the witch”) features YAN AREXIS (Stille Volk / Sus Scrofa / Common Eider, King Eider / Coume Ouarnède), and PATRICK LAFFORGUE (Stille Volk / Sus Scrofa / Hantaoma). The two musicians are also the creators of the cult festival Lhomme Sauvage, held in Midi-Pyrenees each year. After their 2017 debut “Le Mal des Ardents” (Cold Spring), “Le Rite” opens a new door, with post-folk sounds close to post-rock, influenced by ancient music, with folk used in a modernist way. Dark, ambient and yet mystical… deep with grandiose landscapes. The sound of La Breiche is situated at the crossroads of early music and dark ambient; ambient music, industrial music with a strong ritual dimension. Their electro-acoustic is music based on old instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy, mixed with analogue synths, field recordings, and ritual objects, taking a mystified look at nature, archaic societies, rites, beliefs and lores, animism.

“Listen as if you were being told a secret” - Federico FelliniA companion piece to 2018’s Listening To Pictures, this second volume in the pentimento series presents eight new tracks by the music visionary, continuing his lifelong exploration of the possibilities of recombination and musical gene-splicing. Pentimento is defined as the “reappearance in a painting of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over” and this is evident in the innovative production style that ‘paints with sound’ using overlapping nuances to create an undefinable and intoxicating new palette.In classic Hassell fashion, the title can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, but perhaps the most pertinent at the moment is the human instinct to sing and play through a rain of difficulties. A future blues of indeterminate and ever-shifting shape. The album is buffered by two 8-minute plus epics at the beginning and the end - the hypnotic “Fearless” with it’s metronomic, almost Can-like rhythm, and blurry, noir-ish texture of sound emerging like car headlights from the fog; mirrored at the end of the record by the beautiful sci-fi lullaby of “Timeless”, a track with a gaseous, billowing quality as electronic clicks and bubbles float over a landscape of shimmering, glacially paced complexity. The bridge between those two worlds is no less compelling, from the frantic, spidery IDM sketch of “Reykjavik” to the collapsed-time ballad of “Unknown Wish”. Whilst containing seeds of classic ‘fourth world’ fusion, this record finds the artist still questing to create new forms and mutations of music, a thrilling window into what music could sound like in a world to come.

Japan, Live in Japan! This set was recorded at The Budokan, Tokyo in December 1982 and was their fifth from last show on that tour. The band had become friends with Yellow Magic Orchestra who joined them on some of the performances here – “Bamboo Music” is a duet featuring Akiko Yano, and “Taking Islands In Africa” features Yukihiro Takahashi. Ryuichi Sakamoto also plays on those tracks.

RY X and Frank Wiedemann reunite as Howling to present ‘Colure’ the sophomore full-length record from their joint musical enterprise released via Counter Records on 24th July. RY X, solo alternative artist and member of The Acid, and Frank, one half of Âme, bring fans a bigger, sharper follow-up to their debut, ‘Sacred Ground.’ On ‘Colure’, the Berlin-based Wiedemann and Los Angeles-based RY X conjure transcendent creations out of their contrasting musical backgrounds and environments. The album is assuredly dualistic: electronic and acoustic sounds sit comfortably side-by-side, and big melodic hooks are laced into hypnotic club productions.

In the icy twilight of 2018 a demo fell from the otherwise frozen and still German sky, severely interrupting the stagnant German black metal underground. Calling themselves Hexenbrett, theirs was a raucous, heavy metal-hearted, yet woodsy and deeply foreboding kind of black metal. Now Hexenbrett once again emerge from their benighted whereabouts bearing a twisted cornucopia of first wave black metal and blackened heavy metal wonders—plus a Townes Van Zandt cover! On their debut album Zweite Beschwörung: Ein Kind zu Töten, Hexenbrett sound at once like the past and the future of black metal hysteria.

John Foxx And The Maths return with a new line-up on their 5th studio album, Howl. Former Ultravox guitarist Robin Simon joins Foxx, Benge (Ben Edwards) and Hannah Peel after previously guesting with The Maths at their debut Roundhouse show in 2010. 'For years, I'd wanted to work with Robin Simon again,' says Foxx. 'There's something central about what he does - and I always miss it, no matter who I work with. It's what Rob can do with a song, and with the sheer power of sound.' Work on the album began back in April 2019 at Benge's Memetune studios in Cornwall with Rob Simon involved right from the start, his contributions instantly mutating the original ideas into something new. 'Give him a song and he'll give you three takes - all utterly different incarnations,' enthuses Foxx who first worked with Simon on Ultravox's Systems Of Romance album in 1978. 'And it will all be much better. Demolition intercision is what he does and when you get used to the violence he can wreak, it's a true delight.' Foxx and Benge originally got together back in 2010, playing a headline show at the Roundhouse in London as the first ever John Foxx And The Maths show before they'd even finished their debut album, Interplay, which came out a few months later in 2011. Forward-looking, intuitive and risk taking from the start (Critic Mark Fisher summed them up as 'a glimpse into another world in which rock 'n' roll was invented on Moogs') their passion for the strange sounds and atmospheres they seduce and rip from the machines in Benge's studio has inspired a series of fiercely personal electronic records - the Shape Of Things (2012), Evidence (2013) and The Machine (2017), an eerie instrumental score for the theatre production of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. Along the way they've collaborated with The Soft Moon, Gazelle Twin, ADULT., Xeno & Oaklander, Gary Numan, Matthew Dear and many more, but at the core of everything is Foxx and the Cornish-based artist/producer. 'Benge is this generation's Conny Plank', grins Foxx. 'Original thinker, open mind, eager conspirator in insanity and the desire to push everything beyond its limits and record it all perfectly - but holding no daft prejudices. In other words, the kind of captain you always want at the helm of the Enterprise.' Hannah Peel joined the line-up on the Interplay tour in 2011 and has played every show since, while also adding violin to Evidence and of course, Howl. 'Hannah did a few star turns on the album,' says Foxx, referring to the vicious noises that she conjured up as textures on a few songs. However on the electro-psychedelic 'Everything Is Happening At The Same Time', the complex interplay of the 'The Dance' and the romantic longing of 'Strange Beauty', Foxx describes her string-led contributions as 'luscious, expansive and eloquent.' The Maths have created an album of dark, writhing glamour. Opener 'My Ghost' sounds like haunted static in a cold wind, the title track is a twisted glam-punk celebration of 'the outsider' who leaves the fringes to make himself visible, while Foxx switches to a sinister Ferry-esque croon on 'Tarzan And Jane Regained'.'New York Times' is a report back from the city of the 1970s, with Foxx's vocals gently coaxing out the vulnerability of its street characters and Factory stars, while 'Last Time I Saw You' revels in an ice-cool narrative illuminated by neon-lit transformations and flickering revelations - this song is built for streets and strobes. The album ends with 'Strange Beauty', where Foxx sounds like an echo from the 1950s - a voice that is still searching across all these years for something just out of reach

Funk, soul, dance & electronic: the many sides of Fabien (Claudio Magnani) with music & co-production by Alberto Benati! With a solid background in performing/singing (Fabien) and music production (Alberto Benati) for the dance market – especially the Japanese “eurobeat” scene, but also in other areas (Alberto has been part of soul/funk band Ridillo for a long time) the people behind “Understatement”, originally released in 2011 by Greater London Records, surely know how to put together an album, showcasing different styles: a mix of funk and soul – some of the tracks are newly arranged versions of compositions made for a previous project called SeptemberGroove – with dance and electronic elements. Kutmusic – after striking a deal with the Benati & Magnani team in 2017 – proudly re-introduces this album to a new audience!

It was time Enisum cleaned out their closet. When they finally decided to open it, a pile of material dating back to their early days turned up: those were the days when Enisum was still the solo, studio project of guitarist, singer and composer Lys. Here is everything Lys ever composed and recorded prior to the proper debut, Samoht Nara.