It seems like a long time since we last heard anything from the talented Secret Circuit aka Eddie Ruscha!
Truth is he's been more prolific than ever...just not with his Secret Circuit alias.

For those of you unfamiliar with his work Secret Circuit is audiovisual artist and L.A. native Edward Ruscha V (yes indeed, son of THEE Ed Ruscha, legendary pop artist) who’s been on the music scene since time immemorial. He has been a member of innumerable bands and projects over the years including Medicine, Maids Of Gravity, Radar Bros and punk-dub outfit Future Pigeon to name a few as well as managing to squeeze in time for his equally multifarious and highly productive solo ventures. In just the last few years he's released a string of records under his own E Ruscha V moniker for labels such as Beats In Space, Good Morning Tapes and Fourth Sounds as well as finding time for several collaborations including Doctor Fluorescent (Crammed Discs), The Parels (Lal Lal Lal) and XLNT (DFA). You could say he's prolific!

So it's definitely a long overdue and most welcome return for Secret Circuit. The "Green Mirror" album is a double LP comprised of 21 new pieces (80+ minutes of music) recorded between 2020 and 2022. It captures that spacey otherworldly quality Secret Circuit is known for, but the music also veers towards the warmer, ambient textural territories that his recent E Ruscha V and Only Thingz projects explored...an altogether softer sensibility.

Yet nevertheless this album is very much "Secret Circuit". Invisible Inc wanted to explore a side of Ruscha's that hadn't been captured so clearly before, focussing on his more emotive yet at the same time experimental side (is that a paradox?). Very rarely do we hear musicians using modular synths to create something so human sounding, and when juxtaposed alongside slide guitars, live bass and vocodered vocals, we have something very special indeed.

Then there's the artwork...all lovingly drawn by the bubbling mind and deft fingers of Eddie himself. The package is made complete with a double-sided colour insert with liner notes (which happen to be written in reverse, naturally, so you'll need a mirror to read them) and another of Eddie's mind-warping doodles.
This is not like anything else you will hear...it's true art and you'll definitely need a very open mind to reap the rewards of this beautiful piece of work. A future weirdo classic in the making More

Invisible Inc is back with another remarkable release, this time diving even further into ambient, spiritual and folk-infused psychedelia.

“Mondo Organico”, as the name suggests, is a concept compilation that captures the “organic” side of Invisible Inc. The use of non-electronic instrumentation is a familiar theme explored by the label previously with the likes of Komodo Kolektif, Immaculate Rivombo and Peter Power...but this time the instruments and voices, tranquil and meditatively hypnotic in places, display an even deeper spirituality.

Featuring the talents of Andi Otto and his fello (electronic cello), Anna vs June's ethereal vocals, Tyler Ov Gaia's zoned-out mantra rhythms, Pieter Kock's 8-minute bass and guitar psych odyssey, as well as label favourites Sordid Sound System and Puma & The Dolphin, the record is enthralling and mesmerizing from start to finish - and yet another notch in Invisible Inc's rather idiosyncratic belt.

This record was pressed on eco vinyl. Everything from the sleeve to the inks are recycled too, in an attempt to address some the environmental issues we face today, albeit fractionally.

“Mondo Organico” is the future. More

Triple LP Repress!
Limited run of 300 units pressed on transparent dark green vinyl featuring ten of log(m)'s signature eternal opuscules and cryptic engravings on all three discs.

Tracklist:

A1. Daisy Fields
A2. Sruthi Dub Resonance
A3. Barefoot
A4. Pollinator (Eternal Opuscule #120)
A5. Stamens (Eternal Opuscule #121)
B1. Oregano In Dub Minor
B2. Sunken Forest
B3. Daisy Dub
B4. Beat Resonance (Eternal Opuscule #118)
B5. Gyration (Eternal Opuscule #119)
C1. Time Zone Conversations
C2. Deeping Breathely
C3. Oregano In E-Minor
C4. All That Spins (Eternal Opuscule #124)
D1. Sruthi Box Resonance
D2. Galaxea
D3. Be As You Are
D4. Be As You Will (Eternal Opuscule #126)
E1. Sundog Suite
E2. Pear Strings
E3. Pair of Seeds (Eternal Opuscule #122)
F1. Spiral Activator
F2. Final Oscillator (Eternal Opuscule #117)
F3. Sundog Reprise (Eternal Opuscule #125)

It gives me the greatest honour to finally be able to announce the release of this amazing triple vinyl masterpiece by log(m) and Laraaji on Invisible, Inc.

It's been over a decade since Laraaji first joined forces with log(m) in their Canadian studio in early 2007. Over the following ten years the trio recorded many hours of music. Over time these recordings, beginning essentially as live jams, were polished, dissected, processed, re-arranged and then finely and painstakingly distilled down to the 105 minutes of music that now form this album, which finally reached completion just earlier this year. The wait has been more than worth it.

The Onrush Of Eternity is a melding of minds like no other. Ever the pioneer of experimental ambience, Laraaji's signature hammered dulcimer, zither, mbira, auto harp, sruthi drone box and of course his exceedingly positive vibes are here combined with log(m)'s unique vision of gronky hi-tech psychedelic space dub. The resultant voyage into deeply meditative ambience and trance-inducing dub is as unexpected an outcome as it is a bona fide "Eureka" moment. It sounds neither like log(m) OR Laraaji....but of course like both. It is one of those rare collaborations that is, without a doubt, even greater than the sum of its already great parts.

Log(m) started making waves in the early '90s as Legion Of Green Men with their visually striking 12"s, complete with eternal opuscules (locked grooves) and mathematically inspired titles, all lovingly issued on their own Post Contemporary imprint. These deservedly got the attention of Richie Hawtin who promptly asked the duo for an album on his own classic Plus 8 Records. 20+ years later and the music (much like their name) has morphed into something more sophisticated: even more complex, atmospheric and deeper than ever.

Laraaji's reputation of course precedes him: he first came to wider attention when Brian Eno released his "Day Of Radiance" as part 3 of his Ambient Series in 1980. Since then, Laraaji has released over 40 albums, yet his stellar path seems still to be on the ascendant - a recent landmark being the 2017 "Sun" series of albums for the wonderful All Saints' Records.

This unique triple LP repress comes in a limited run of 300 units pressed on transparent dark green vinyl featuring ten of log(m)'s signature eternal opuscules and cryptic engravings on all three discs. More

It's been almost 3 years since the first volume of Dancefloor Detonators enhanced our nocturnal revelries, so it's a welcome treat to see a second volume has now made an appearance.
As with the first release, Volume 2 follows a similar principle, namely to put on vinyl some of the most popular tracks from the label's digital catalogue alongside some exclusive new cuts, appearing here for the first time to keep things 100% fresh. The resultant 5-tracker is nothing short of sublime.
Label regulars Secret Circuit, Sordid Sound System and Bal5000 appear alongside Optimo Music regular Feon and newcomer Wanda Krak.
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DJ / RADIO FEEDBACK:

“All of these are 100% dynamite” Sean Jonston [Hardway Bros. / A Love From Outer Space]

"I love both B side tracks" Leri Ahel [Mutant Disco Radio Show]

"Nice sounds...took me on a journey. I like all of them" Alicia Carrera [Sameheads / Maga Circe]

“Sordid Sound System and Feon for me" Cosmo Vitelli [I'm A Cliché] More

Repress!

The story begins in 2006.

That summer I developed somewhat of an obsession with Tonto’s Expanding Head Band after having seen them perform at the Big Chill festival that year. The music blew my mind. Later upon my return to civilisation and the ensuing 'research' which then began in earnest I became as much blown away by the enormous T.O.N.T.O. (The Original New Timbral Orchestra) modular synthesizer that had created the music as I was by the music itself. Built in the early '70s, it's still the largest synthesizer around today. With the live show still resonating in my head I tracked down everything Tonto had ever recorded. One of these tracks was an obscure outtake from the time T.O.N.T.O.’s creators, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, were producing and engineering for Stevie Wonder in the ‘70s (https://youtu.be/wuaSzFf7yq0). The track, Bittersweet, only ever appeared on a highly limited self-released CD put together to coincide with their appearance at the Big Chill. Consequently I featured it on a few mixes I did over the years and invariably I’d be asked “what’s that track?” by those with an ear for something unique. And invariably these same people, many of them DJs, would turn away disgruntled when I informed them it was CD only. Although I didn't know it at the time, the seed was definitely sown for this vinyl compilation that you now hold in your hands.

I first contacted the multi-Grammy award winning Malcolm Cecil in 2015 not long after Invisible, Inc. had launched with a proposal to putting the track out. There was always the question of what else would go on the record alongside Bittersweet? More Tonto tracks? Tracks by other artists? Other reissues? New material like the Invisible Family series? Or should it be just a single sided colour vinyl 12” celebrating the majesty of this wonderful piece of otherworldly yet emotive downtempo synthesizer funk?

As time rolled steadily onwards I realised at the end of 2017 that the 20th Invisible, Inc. release (a fair landmark for a small independent label) would soon be upon us.

I’d always thought of celebrating reaching the 10th, 20th, 30th release with a mix CD using tracks from the back catalogue.....but by the time INVINC 10 came around I'd missed the boat. I decided I wouldn’t let commemorating the 20th release slip me by and a compilation seemed the most fitting way to do this...and why not go the whole hog and spread it across two discs, house it in a gatefold sleeve and turn it into something rather special?

It took three years. From first contacting Malcolm in 2015, until shortly after his 81st birthday in January 2018, that we agreed to reissue the track on vinyl! The timing was perfect.

The hunt then began for other music to compliment Bittersweet. I'd heard some remixes legendary cosmic DJ Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionigi had done of '80s synth pop/electronic founding father Richard Bone that had appeared digitally that I immediately thought would fit the bill. Likewise I'd heard an astonishing collaboration between psychedelic techno/dub duo log(m) (formerly Legion Of Green Men) and ambient pioneer Laraaji that seemed greater than the sum of its parts (keep an eye out for a double album from this melding of minds in early 2019). K. Leimer was another hero of mine, active since the '70s, who I'd been in touch with for a few years. We'd never managed to get a full album off the ground so I was thoroughly over the moon to get a contribution from him for this compilation. Many emails and Skype calls later and the rest all fell into place. I'm so proud to be able to also feature the music of Baikonour (another long time favourite), Eva Geist with Epsilove, Randweg, Causa, Ulysses, and of course those that have already appeared on Invisible, Inc. previously: the inimitable Secret Circuit, Sordid Sound System, Komodo Kolektif, Higamos Hogamos presents Spacerocks, Bal5000, Natural Sugars and Bronze Savage. I couldn't have done it without these people, many of them on board from the very beginning and who I love and respect all the more for it. Invisible, Inc. wouldn't be what it is now if it weren't for them.

That being said, “Lost Transmissions From The Off-World Territories” is just a tiny fragment of some of the amazing music available to us today. I urge you to further explore the artists represented here. Some of them have a body of work surprisingly different from the piece of music you are listening to right now. I'll let you go down the rabbit hole yourself. This process is fun if you like a good dig....but beyond that is that every so often you'll find something, as I have done, that'll completely take your breath away and move you to marvel at what an incredible world we're living in; where music can express our most abstract thoughts and deepest feelings in a way that words could never do. Enjoy!

Peace and love

GK Machine

15 May 2018

Update (7 April 2022): Sadly Malcolm Cecil is no longer with us. He passed away in early 2021, aged 84. I am so lucky to have been able to release this piece of music by him and play a minor part in helping his legacy live on. More

Following hot on the heels of his recent mini-album for Elephant Gait, Italian producer Joseph Tagliabue is back with a full-length album on Glasgow's Invisible, Inc.

With Un' Altra Forma Di Vibrazioni Tagliabue continues to expand on the cosmic foundations laid by such pioneering experimental forefathers as Franco Battiato and his ground-breaking abstract ambient work of the '70s and Klaus Schultze whose legendary Innovative Communications label birthed the “Berlin school” sound at the start of the '80s, then tracing a path toward later luminaries like Boards of Canada and Plaid. There's a personal, emotive and ethereal quality also present here conjuring feelings of 4AD's glory years and the likes of This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. However, backwards-looking music this is not. It's fair to say the Milan-based producer is developing his very own distinct sound as he matures from one release to the next and regardless of his wide range of influences, it's Tagliabue's firm grasp of sound design and audio engineering that takes this album far beyond the realm of just “electronica” or “psychedelia” and plants it firmly into a distinctly forward-looking contemporary space of its very own that's as much music for the heart as it is music for the head.

Tagliabue provides some insight: “Un' Altra Forma Di Vibrazioni (meaning Another Form Of Vibration in Italian) is a concept album inspired by one of the most sensational scientific discoveries of recent years, namely evidence of the existence of the "Cosmic Web". The album is comprised of ten tracks, each linked to one another, much like the various forms of matter in the cosmic web, and whose meaning can only be understood by listening to them as a collective whole, rather than as separate pieces of music. The album therefore is a well constructed sonic experience fusing elements of ambient, psych, rock, experimental and trance and is designed to be listened to continuously from start to finish; the album's journey through the universal elements is reflected in each track, whose rhythms resonate in harmony with the phenomena they represent, whilst a backdrop of drones and mesmeric grooves contribute to an atmosphere of otherworldly mechanical oneirism." More

Veslemes (aka Felizol) makes his debut on Invisible Inc with this astonishing new album that comes hot on the heels of last year's ground-shaking I Know Where You Live Vangelis!.

With Apolithoma film director Yannis Veslemes takes us further into the dark crevices of his psyche.

The album's themes are inspired by the dystopian sci-fi of JG Ballard's The Drowned World and The Crystal World: both novels eerily prophetic in their dystopian visions of an irradiated Earth over which a bloated, blinding sun makes living as we know it bearable only within a few hours around dawn and dusk. Sea levels have risen and cities that are not wholly flooded are overgrown with emergent new flora adapting to this new and hostile environment.

In more remote locations, overgrown jungles and forests are exhibiting signs of a strange crystallisation: entire swathes of jungle petrified, calcified, crystalized, fauna included...and stories of missing explorers rumoured to themselves have crystalized!

An allegory for our times, for sure....but more importantly, the album is as adventurous musically as it is conceptually. Where on the surface we have stories themed around an external dystopian world, the music, like the rising floodwater, presents us with a lens through which to look at the internal world: on one hand a distorted prism into what lurks beneath, yet at the same time a perfect reflection - a mirror into the psyche.

At times dark, at times playful, unreservedly psychedelic, the album's wildly different musical styles all capture an atmosphere that is as profound and mystical as it is unique. It's clear too that Veslemes' background in film and OST production has a strong influence making the whole album seem like an imaginary soundtrack to a film that never was. Several of the pieces are strongly reminiscent of the early works of Barry Adamson...but where these faux soundtracks were solely dark and brooding (in particular the classic Moss Side Story) Apolithoma adds mystique, profundity and light which balances the music perfectly.

Featuring an assortment of guest musicians on saxophone, clarinet, vibraphones, oboe, guitars and other instruments not often heard in partnership with electronic music, the resulting collection of songs is up there with the best of Invisible Inc. More

Three years in the making only to be held up nearly another whole year due to COVID, this dark brooding monster of an EP by Brussels based Strapontin is finally seeing the light of day.

Att over 35-minutes the record is almost album length and spans a multitude of depths and moods with elements of techno, new wave, rock 'n' roll, house and tribal…...all glued together with a sleazy atmosphere reminiscent of the electronic body music pioneered by Strapontin’s Belgian forefathers Front 242 and their German peers DAF.
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There is definitely something "afro" inspired about this latest EP from Puma & The Dolphin, certainly in comparison to pretty much everything else I've ever heard from him, which includes a great EP on Canadian imprint Chambre Noir and some stellar inclusions on every one of Dj soFa's highly respected "Elsewhere" compilations.

I'm told that while immersed in domestic life during lockdown in Sofia, Bulgaria, the music evolved to take in what was happening at home and saw the inclusion of toy instruments, his own drum playing, the voices of his children playing and even the family parrots whistling and squawking in the background. These random ambient insertions when seen in the context of the hypnotic and percussive rhythms and timbres throughout are oddly reminiscent of the late, great Francis Bebey who, although culturally and physically a million miles removed, was also known for recording much of his work at home and who also featured the voices of his children playing.

In fact, it is as much the music's playfulness and simplicity that give the pieces their distinctive character, at times echoing the repetition and mesmerism of Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds For Baby" series. Yet, childrens' music this is not. There is a mysticism and depth on one hand and a willingness to experiment on the other that reminds me of pioneering experimentalist K. Leimer's early Eno-inspired tape outings as well (see "Supermarket" for example).

I asked Puma & The Dolphin's Nikko Names if he could share the story behind how these six tracks came together. He had this to say:

"This collection of pieces were created during a monotone period of my life which I have overlaid with colour: a time in which I surrender to the beauty of home life - watching my kids play, feeding the birds - entwining these sounds of my surroundings amongst the rhythmic layers of these pieces. Playing the drums to remind us of the next circle dance for four. There is something mystic to travel only in your head; a shamanic trip inside the body with no concepts and answers." More

Coming out in late July from the man who brought you E Ruscha V's "Who Are You" to great acclaim earlier this year is Secret Circuit's 2nd EP for Invisible Inc, the cryptically titled "Out Of Body Interiors".Featuring four exclusive new tracks of the acid drenched, dubbed out, tropical disco variety Mr Ruscha, as always, delivers a sonic palette you won't find on many other imprints: from the turbo-charged homage to early 90s bleep meets indie rave euphoria of Stomping Ground, through the chugging, motorik groove of Crazy Ways which sounds like it's blasting out full volume from a smoke-filled Space Patrol hovercar gone rogue then flipping over to side B and waking up in Mali, Andromeda in a haze of syncopated percussion, other-worldly guitar licks and a billion new synthetically generated sounds that you may strongly suspect you just imagined.....to finally The Feather Drop which brings entirely new meaning to the word deep and which fires technicolour sounds of profoundly immense variety at the synapses at a rate of knots not many other producers can keep up with as all the while the bass holds court and keeps things deep rooted and dub heavy.
Secret Circuit (aka Eddie Ruscha V) has had a plethora of releases on an equally expansive plethora of labels under such names as The Parels (Lal Lal Lal), Blasé (ESP Institute), Food Of The Gods/Laughing Light Of Plenty (Whatever We Want), Odd Numbers ('No' Label), Shadow Kids (El Diablo's Social Club) and of course as Secret Circuit (Beats In Space, Emotional Response and Invisible, Inc.) More

Having recently relocated to the remote redwood forests of Northern California in order to set up a satellite mixing studio for his old stomping ground, Glasgow’s Green Door Studio, Sordid Sound System returns to Invisible Inc with 4 cuts of Psychedelic Dungeon Disco. The EP opens with his most blissed out track to date ‘Die Ewige Nacht’, an eight and a half minute inverted sun ritual based around shimmering cascades of dubbed up electronic percussion and an overdriven tintinnabulated FM arp. Hi-NRG meets 80s B-Boy electro on ‘Crescent City’ with a careering off-road excursion into tripped out mutant carnival cavalcade territory. Dia De Muertos’s offbeat eerie percussion and driving low frequencies are met with spectral buzzing melodic refrains from the furthermost reaches of a decaying Oaxacan cemetery. The acid drenched ambient lullaby ‘You & Me’ brings proceedings to a fittingly fucked up close.
Sordid Sound System’s last release on Invisible Inc, 2017’s ‘Fear Eats The Soul’, received plays and praise from the likes of Manfredas, Trevor Jackson, Sascha Funke, Optimo’s JD Twitch and Thomas Von Party.
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Finally the long-awaited second series of 'Invisible Family' outings has arrived. Label boss and compiler GK Machine has this to say: 'Beyond ecstatic to get these tracks out. The Gazeebo track I've been playing in my sets for years. Digital only but SO great it definitely needed to get pressed onto wax!! I would DJ with it using Ableton and speed it up a lot so for the vinyl I asked Jon (Nedza) who I've been a huge fan of since his Community Recordings releases on Grayhound and Imperial Dub, whether he could speed it up a little bit before we pressed it up. Now it's 100% perfect: a Moroder-esque cosmic stomper that's sure to set any dancefloor alight. The Apiento track is another one that's been gestating for a long time...first appearing around the time the original "E.S.P." 12' appeared on the wonderful Golf Channel Recordings in 2014. Secret Circuit gave it a complete overhaul, in fact several complete overhauls, plus some of his signature guitar and has turned the already blissful track into an afro-esque, trippy, beautiful, beautiful piece of music that (IMO) is one of his best yet. Utterly gorgeous!!
Then there's the boy-girl retro-future duo Der Kundalini coming from the wonderful Lectric Sands stable in NY who gave us Zoovox. This one's also been hiding on my hard drive way too long! Finally relative newcomers Konzel (of Junto Club/Optimo Music fame) & Natural Sugars (Pardon My French) round off the package just perfectly. The former so distinct that I felt it was a perfect opener for the A side. So, I hope you dig it...and keep an eye out for the super limited 12-track cassette too!!!'
Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies. More

Invisible, Inc pull out the stops with their most dancefloor-friendly release to date which comes courtesy of Strange Culture aka Glasgow-based DJ GK Machine. The EP features 4-tracks all built around the classic arpeggiators and self-oscillating filters of two synth heavyweights going head to head: a customized Jupiter-4 meeting a seriously hot-rock-burned Jupiter-8.
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Invisible Inc's third release departs in yet another direction as they dig through the archives of '80s new wave/psych funksters The Poncho Brothers. Apparently these three previously unreleased killer beats were recorded between 1987 and 1990 and then forgotten about, only for a cassette to find its way into label boss GK Machine's hands during some drunken tequila-fueled nights on holiday in Mexico in 2012. Fully remastered from the original tapes these no wave, disco funk dubs are firmly rocketed into the 21st century with NY's Zoovox duo's stripped down stellar remix of Amantes Latinos. Getting plays from Daniele 'Cosmic' Baldelli, Jan Schulte, DJ Kaos, Kirsty P. + more.
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