INIT is Benedikt Frey & Nadia D`Alo. We are delighted to present their long delayed vinyl and digital album, NRGY.

Born out of various art performances and installations, INIT states a logical outcome of Berlin based duo Nadia D`Alo and Benedikt Frey. With heavy use of analogue synthesis and drum-machines, INIT rethinks its genre's sonic approach, unfolding a unique and organic, yet alienating sound, somewhere in the mysterious midst of Acid, Techno, Ambient and Kraut-Rock.

This is INIT's third album, following two releases on Hivern Discs, and performances at clubs such as Berghain, Robert Johnson and Pudel Club.

INIT say -

Module, NRGY, and Time were reverse extracted out of our live set and re-recorded and re-arranged after we realised how well they work in clubs. It is the first time we worked this way as we tend not to play our compositions live, like we produced them. Mostly we just extract loops out of our production to mess around with in a loose live project.

Snowglobe, Holes In My CV and N.O.D. were more built up from a studio jam plus a bulletproof-ish arrangement afterwards.

Tried and tested on dance floors this is a surefire hit album on the dancefloor, and at home. NRGY! More

INIT's music has the rare quality of transforming bleakness into a soothing experience. In the duo's new EP, 'Wildcard', this mechanism is more intense than ever. And that might be because of the particular circumstances that surrounded its inception. Two years ago, Nadia D'Alo and Benedikt Frey decided to move from Darmstadt to Berlin. Adjusting to a rough area of a big city when coming from a quiet town necessarily brings a change of perspective. For Nadia and Benedikt, that meant experiencing the city life as outsiders while trying to figure out what they wanted from it.'Wildcard' is the sonic result of this process, and proof that changes always bring growth. Recorded in their new home studio during winter, the six tracks on the EP are as haunting as their previous LP for Hivern, but with a rawer approach and enhanced power. Take 'Cover' and 'Solver', an approximation to the kind of moody psych-techno they display in their live-shows and two of the most dance floor oriented tracks INIT have recorded to date. But it's the title track which best expresses the mindset of this work. With its skeletal rattle and undulating synths, 'Wildcard' feels as desolate as a Berlin street in a winter night, but possesses the kind of focus that turns uncertainty into hope. In a similar way, cuts such as 'Copycat' or 'Half Baked' perfectly capture the sort of estrangement -daunting yet hopeful- that comes when moving into a new place, with its slow tempos mirroring the cautious pace of a foreigner and the intoxicated atmospheres calmly distilling the essence of a new environment. Nadia and Benedikt describe this new habitat as small kids on big bikes, eating dry instant noodles, playing with what's to find on the streets, static aircraft traffic closely over our heads and constant running engines. Listening to the music that arose from it, it's obvious that, once again, they've been able to overturn apparently hostile elements into a place were you'd want to stay forever. The 12" comes housed in a sleeve designed by Xavier Marin. More

John Talabot's Hivern Discs label starts afresh in 2015 by introducing a heretofore unknown duo known as INIT. The pair hails from Frankfurt's Rhein-Main region and comprises Nadia D'Alò and Benedikt Frey, both of whom were featured on on the title track of Massimiliano Pagliara's 2014 LP on Live At Robert Johnson. Frey's cosmic, plodding, and house-related analogue experimentations have also appeared on the iconic Japanese label mule musiq, and this penchant for moody kraut-influenced psychedelia and atmospheric synth explorations is enhanced by his team up with D'Alò on INIT's debut album "Two Pole Resonance" More

TAMBURI NERI’s WORKS 2 is the first LDDLM release of the new decade. Following their acclaimed EP on Optimo, Claudio Brioschi (aka Brioski) and Andrea Barbiera further their exploration in stripping down their psychedelia. There is a long tradition of slo-mo tribalism in Italian dance music, cosmic or not. But Tamburi Neri dissolve the tribal decorum, focusing on the beat-as-heartbeat, and on Italian language as incantation. INDIO, the faster paced track, has been a staple in our DJ sets, pure raw energy for when things get settled in darkness. RELIGION REBEL is an exercise in menacing trance-funk, whereas IL VORTICE puts the vocal forward, a track and a story. We have been a fan of Marco Passarani for more than two decades, a man constantly reinventing himself and rewriting the history of Italian electronics. He here remixes RELIGION REBEL in some kind of power-balearic anthem, a record for, yes, ecstasy and sunsets.A1. Indio, A2. Religion Rebel, B1. Religion Rebel (Passarani Remix), B2. Il Vortice
More

A different transmission from LDDLM. When the strange and different has become the new normal, a certain normality, well… becomes our first straight techno 12”. Danny Passarella (following Perc and Oliver Ho in a serie of collabs) needs no introduction, his death squad of shoegaze warehouse ghost being of non-fading memory. D’Marc Cantu does not either, hero of Nation and fine purveyor of American acid. This is pure machine music straying from the eternal revival of everything vintage. It looks forward not… As they say it themselves: ‘The Future has A Silver Lining’ title comes from the advertising for a high-end utopia promised in RoboCop’s ‘Delta City’. The track titles inspired by ASCII codes, represent the key elements that lay ahead in the film, or in today’s society. More

Family is a sometimes great, if big, notion. Hard to sustain, most often dysfunctional. At LDDLM, we do not put pressure on anyone, and certainly not ourselves. But bounds are sometimes tightened, some artists we would never consider ours, but most certainly as closed friends. This is the 3rd EP (a house record) by Antoine Harispuru aka GOLDEN BUG but the first, excitement renewed, in company of IN FIELDS. They push the boundaries of GB’s trademark ghost funk on this EP: BONES features once again Diego Hdez for a smacked out yet epic pop number (we would not call it shoegaze). CRACKS dissolves its ethnic funk into pure psychedelia, SHAKES dubbing itself out into oblivion. All in all, 3 strong bongs. Finally FANTASTIC TWINS (Hippie Dance/Optimo/Microdosing) builds her own wall of sound, expanding BONES into a mind bending prison. Turn on, tune in, never drop out. More

NADUVE is a real hippie. Not one of those you meet at Wholefoods in Stokey, I mean a gentle soul oozing psychedelia. He ’s a floating fixture in the “second generation” Tel Aviv producers (not in age nor talent) LDDLM met through the Red Axes connection, a very tight self-gravitating crew of friends. I have pictures in my head of Naduve, very lanky, bare chest with a slightly Aladdin waistcoat but do not get fooled, the “shamanic” appearance hides a much deeper music than the dross that now entertains some of the white rich crowd in a certain spot of the Nevada desert. Is it trance? Is it tribal weirdness? It’s most definitely as “who cares” as we like it. BACK TO WORK has been a firm fixture for us, a strange off kilter bleep homage to an imaginary Sheffield. PAKANA TANA is why Naduve shines at sunrise, whilst ZE HAZMAN shows us why is he is also full moon. Finally the XEN (more with her very, very soon) REVOX version of BACK TO WORK could almost be a Rimini circa 1990 anthem. More

In ancient LDDLM times, BLDDLM even, Belgium could well have been the freaky house and ecstasy center of the world. If only we could remember all the lost hours… But after all, as the Brussel saying goes: “it’s Friday, tomorrow is Tuesday”. At LDDLM, we try not to reminisce, that was just setting the mood.We are very happy to welcome ARTHUR JOHNSON in our non-fold, a young producer from Liege via Marseille and La Dame Noir. AJ is amongst those ever mutating artists, his u-turns slowly composing a real personality, and one fitting our contrarian attitude. In a way PERFECT STRANGER reminds us of a good 90’s Farley/Heller remix, not so much camp Fire Island than almost sweaty late night trancer. We love those tracks that do not fit our ethos a priori but that we can’t stop playing. COSMO VITELLI is a long time family friend and he beams up this stranger through the axis into some kind of romantic italo-german anthem. BALLADA and SECRETARY DISCORDIA show a different side of AJ, a dub march echoing Dif Juz and a percussive machine funk number.

More

In those times of newfound experimental conformity, it is sometimes needed to go back to simplicity. This may be where DJ OIL is leading us to. You think you know what you can expect but common ground is not always in your head, it is sometimes under your feet. This is the second 12” of the BREF AVENIR collection (to be released digitally later this month), our Southern activist using well-known tropes and samples to provide necessary confusion. TELEPHUNK is nothing else than a monster breakbeat funk (away from the new Lynn Collins dictatorship), unfashionably cool if you see what we mean. If PARESSE is its twin dark sister, locking electro in its black music roots whilst remaining strangely “European”, then FALL is its downer baggy brother. More

Having been an electronic activist in Marseille for more two decades and more, DJ OIL is now a firm staple of LDDLM. Following the RAIN ep released in the summer 2016, here is the first 2018 outing from us: the already bubbling HERITAGE ep. “Heritage” has been an Ivan Smagghe (and a few others) secret weapon for more than a year now, a strange sampladelic track featuring a full Marcus Garvey speech. A subtle yet powerful appropriation of early house clichés, the hit has one feet in tradition, one feet in political modernity. The EP comes with two more warped cuts: the slow guitar swamp of “Brouillage” and the System 01/McKenna influenced “May Be”. Psychedelics and sun. A second 12” by DJ OIL will follow shortly, doubled with a full digital release of the two EP’s with digital extras. More

Before coming back in September for a new year of new releases, LDDLM gives you their current mood and state of affairs in the form of a sampler 12" GRIEVE NOT, BUT TRY AGAIN. Luke Abbot's mix of EASTER's "Champagne" has been in our drawers since the very early days of the label but still shines as new. No dust gathered. Easter's "synth pop" is turned into a slow, yet nor chugging, futuristic r n'b number. This is our conception of sunrise music. TOM OF ENGLAND grasps the metallic fury of Mutado Pintado's classic "Lazy boy" and chops it in a grinder. Decomposition / re-composition with of high industrial standard. A SCENE FROM A FUTURE, a from-a-lost-tape edit by our underbuy MANFREDAS has been one of our biggest club tracks for the last year. Check his recent Boiler Room ending to know how warped yet strangely hit-like it is.
Finally, COWBOY RHYTHMBOX decided of their own accord to do a club edit of GOLDEN BUG's "Physical Disco". We liked it, we release it. Simple and effective. Jugular attack. More

The number of bad luck is the number of good luck in our world. Antoine Harispuru aka Golden Bug is back on LDDLM with what has been a constant night hit for Ivan Smagghe since he magically received it. We are very happy to share it with you. PROGRESS FEAT. DIEGO HOLDEZ kind of defies categorisation, and blows the walls of the classic slow downed clocks of Golden Bug. We'd describe it as vocal funk? You may describe it the way you want. Ask your girlfriend, she seems to love it. On remix duty, Miami come Berlin bad boy DANNY DAZE a rest from the big room for a pounding Omnidisc version that will slowly burns through any leather jacket, very corrosive stuff. PHYSICAL DISCO is classic Golden Bug, a demented industrial pinball machine of some kind. Whilst SUPERNOVA is that exact machine played by a retro-futurist vocoder robot. Think Aux 88 played at 33rpm and you'll be as close as you can. More

Following their album SAVE! AKA COLDER & MUTADO PINTADO are back on DLM, with another deadly attack! Kamikaze style. We've been waiting a longtime for an I-CUBE remix. We've been fans and friends since his debut and we love that he strayed from his more technoey recent work, as great as it is. This is full on psychedelia, almost rock in its approach. A trip, not a track. Russia's great hope (not Ivan Drago), LIPELIS, hot on the wheels of his MacDonald Flack And The Ack-Ack Pack Pack remix delivers two radicals/tangents. Police & Robbers. They fly high, both in their own manner. RAINY MONDAY is dubbed out in space with that "jungle screw" feel. Slowed down breaks that are all the rage with the yoof, apparently but LIPELIS takes it to another level. Last floor his version of DARKNESS IN THE MIDDLE is a trickster, you'd think almost ambient kraut before you end up on an italo-piano-expansives beach. More

THIS IS A RECORD FOR THE SPRING THAT NEVER COMES. THE HEAT THAT WOULD BE ON. Through old Ghent acquaintances here's the tenth release from the LDDLM bunker.RHEINZAND is almost our super group. Mo (ex Glimmer Twins but still shining), Rheinard, the multi-instrumentalist force and Charlotte, the softer voice. We don't do retro but if we had, it would be them, chameleons on a sequin dress, sometimes camp, sometimes deep, sometimes even "disco clash" (the term is now copyrighted) On remix duties, we have the lovely cat lover Lokier who turns THE FIRST TIME (track who was a big hit with influential minor players blah blah) into her own smacked out industrial groove. AH, IT ALSO HAS THE BELGIAN COLORS. This is part 1 of 2. Get the talc out. More

The Light' is the first taste of the weird world created by American vocalist Craig Louis Higgins Jr. and French composer Marc Nguyen Tan. Marc is best know for recording under the name Colder for Trevor Jackson's OUTPUT in the 00s. 2016 see's him back after a ten-year hiatus with two records, the Save! LP and a new Colder one called 'Turn Your Back'. Forthcoming on Les Disques De La Mort, Save! mines similar terrain to David Lynch's surreal landscapes. Marc's collaborator Craig Louis Higgins Jr. was born in Cape Cod, MA. He has released his debut album '336 W 17th St.' under the name Mutado Pintado and is also known for contributing the wry vocals to acid house outfit Paranoid London, featuring on their 2014 self-titled album. Like Higgins, Tan is also a painter and video artist. Although the pair only met in person recently, months after establishing Save!, the project is well served by Tan's background as the solitary creative force in Colder. Just what Higgins and Tan are here to save is anyone's guess. It's a name that implies much yet remains elusive and misleading. That's the way the pair prefer it. The debut 12" release comes with a remix by Hivern Disc's Marc Piñol. B1 of the 12" sees Marc re-edit the track under a new moniker Judy Vs Save!, while Les Disques De La Mort boss Ivan Smagghe contributes an edit for side B2. More

"Civil Defense" was—and still is—a tone poem. It was written in 1984 and first performed in various beatnik-esque coffee houses (with a simple beatbox) in and around Chicago. (I went to college on a full poetry scholarship-- believe it or not!)", as Danny himself says, and we think it's right. "Civil Defense" was recorded at Seagrape Studios, Chicago. Produced by the late David Bell; mixed by Brett Wilcots. It is considered to be one of the earliest vinyl releases of House Music. (Earlier House tunes were shared via mix tapes.) and was never repressed as a legitimate 12". LDdlm is honored to bring you this " long lost piece of the puzzle" in the retelling of Chicago House Music history. The LDdlm edition of the original recordings documents the enduring legacy of this iconic piece of audio history, including the long lost Ron Hardy edit and a reshape of the edit of Ivan Smagghe for the first time on vinyl. More

Following the huge success of DLM 004 and the massive appeal of Roman Flugel's remix of IDLE EYES (as charted by all from Dixon to Michael Mayer, Dan Avery to Maceo Plex), here's a little surprise from our camp. GLOCK'D is C.A.R's trademark washed out sarcasm, bleached cynicism, the track forages paths through Chloe's dark mind. It was one of the first tracks she wrote on her own, and was recorded down the bunker with Timothy J Fairplay. A favourite of Andrew Weatherall (who nominated MY FRIEND, the C.A.R album, as "one of the best releases of 2014), it’s now coming full-circle, being given a stomping shuffle air guitar dance-floor rework by The Asphodells … if you liked Our Lord Sabre's remix of FUCK BUTTON's this is for you. Electronics looking at the floor & air guitar. Following it is MANFREDAS (the protégé of LES DISQUES DE LA MORT) vocal version of Angelina, a request from many after the instrumental being released earlier this year. The Northern Wulf is biting again. AND HE BITES HARD. More

Our new release has been a long time coming and is the first collaboration between those evil twins that are LDDLM and KILL THE DJ, two labels joined at the hips. C.A.R. is Chloe Raunet's project, whose album MY FRIEND will be released on October 25th on KTDJ. This is obviously an important project all round for her and for us and there was so much to do that two labels was a perfect idea. She originally wrote the lyrics for Gesaffelstein, who turned them down in favour of another two tracks they'd done together. A new song was woven from the words. Roman Flugel is not only an old friend of the family but also one of our favourite producer. His album on DIAL and recent remixes has proven that he's on the top of his game. There are bleeps, there are subs, and Chloe's vocal drifting on top of a general electronic monster. Kill the DJ commissioned the Planningtorock remix and we loved it so much that we "stole it' for our vinyl release. Jam has made the song hers, pitching down the vocal, punking up the bass grove and adding, yes, disco strings. Manfredas remix of Angelina has been Ivan's biggest record for the whole of last year, licensed by Rebolledo for his mixed CD and causing stir here and there. The 12" will include the instrumental version but as friends, you are getting both. This is a very hard track to describe, a cross between a panzer and Rondo Veneziano on acid. It's for those who dares. Finally, Robert Johnson and Hinvern new wunderkid, Benedikt Frey (his Blanc 002 was…) delivers a brilliant acid rendering but not a cliché plastic warehouse things. This builds and builds and builds… The EP has already been getting great support from Dixon, Dan Avery, Erol Alkan, Ten Walls, and Ivan Smagghe.. More

Les Disques De La Mort is the new and highly anticipated label from Ivan Smagghe & The Ginger Prince. Their first release is by the true originals Rimini maestros Margot, featuring a spellbinding remix courtesy the one and only Erol Alkan. Previously released as a very limited white label, this ecstatic 12" now gets a full release!! Margot who have previously released on luminaries such as Kill The DJ, Border Community and Hell Yeah!, are now given the esteemed honors of opening the Les Disques De La Mort coffin, and we could not have picked up better caretakers. Their Club Mix is an over-fast, Detroit infused earth-shaker, it sparseness balanced with a Franck Tovey / Soft Cell vocal romp sung in an undistinguishable language. The Original version on the inside cut is even more evocative of Marc Almond but shredded backwards through a blender, and slowed down to an almost eighties electronic glam beat. On the flip, Erol Alkan reworks the original to epic proportions. Erol has been a huge fan of Margot (he compiled them on his Bugged Out! "Inside" cd) and his admiration comes to life in a respectful but transcendental interpretation. Managing to combine elements of both versions, Erol then adds his own unique production magic and a transmogrifying piano line (dare we say "italo rave"?) that lifts the whole affair to new heights. This record has already been championed by Andrew Weatherall, James Holden, Erol Alkan, Optimo, Red Axes and Ivan Smagghe... More