Montreal duo Biochip return to Central Processing Unit with their new LP Crux Alley. The pair of Melissa Speirs and Julian Kochanowski turned plenty of heads when they first rocked up on the Sheffield label back in 2019 with debut drop Synthase. Synthase found Biochip twisting up Braindance, IDM and electro to their own ends, and Crux Alley is an album which hits similar sonic sweet-spots.

It's clear from the off that Biochip have brought their A-game here. Opener 'Mind Bubbles' has no time for pleasantries, dropping the listener straight into a nocturnal IDM-electro groove where bass dances nervily around shadowy synth pads. 'Mind Bubbles' is followed-up 'Polymorphic State', a tune whose laser-gun synth-bass plumbs even more energy into the pair's Rephlex-indebted sound. It's a hugely arresting way to begin an album, and the bold sonics here align Crux Alley with recent CPU releases like Bit Folder's Silicon Frontier and Annie Hall's Fum.

Other tracks on Crux Alley ease up on the frenzied feel of those opening numbers. Take 'Orbital Rendezvous', a cut which is still full of zippy melodies and keening keyboards but whose contemplative strut recalls the legendary electronic music duo referenced in the track's title. There's also a distinct cyberpunk flavour to this track, and this is brought out further on the vivid 'Dopamine City' and 'Tower 13' - it is at these points where Biochip most resemble the work of fellow CPU act B12.

Biochip record their music straight from the mixing desk, an approach that gives their tracks a spontaneous energy and one which sometimes leads Speirs and Kochanowski into novel sonic terrain. Crux Alley's 'Antagonist Part 6', for instance, is a spiritual successor to Synthase's 'Acid Billy' in how the overload of electronics almost pushes it into industrial-techno territory. Furthermore, while most of the LP draws on the Detroit electro continuum of Drexciya, DJ Stingray et al, 'Neutral Current' obliquely recalls the jazz-tinged house of Theo Parrish - although the wobbling synth chords and reverb-laced drums make 'Neutral Current' sound more like an extra-terrestrial reimagining of the Motor City legend's music.

Biochip continue to mark themselves out as one of contemporary electro's most exciting new acts with the Crux Alley LP.

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When A&R get an email from a legend saying 'listen to these tracks, I think they're up your street' we knew we were on to something special.
Please welcome Biochip with their debut release 'Synthase'. Eight tracks of analog electro and acid techno, all recorded live. Very much of the Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 ilk. Beautifully noisy, highly melodic and raw, with those emotional mid nineties IDM tendencies that very few successfully capture.
Biochip are Melissa Speirs and Julian Kochanowski from Montreal, Canada. Listening to Synthase you can tell they are huge fans of vintage analogue synths, magnetic tape and drum machines; their sound has a reassuring warmth and human feel to it.
We already can't wait to hear their next live sessions.

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Originally released on Firstcask Records in 2003. A selection of my styles and ideas at the time, ranging from drum n bass, ambient, acid etc etc

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Let's celebrate 20 years of WeMe records!

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WeMe inaugurates 2024 with an braing massaging yet teeth grinding first vinyl release by Chromedealer aged 23 hailing from New York! Blending all sorts of styles creating a nice mixture of all things WeMe. A match made in heaven!

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A collection of unreleased tracks from the early 90's Jumpin' & Pumpin' era, when FSOL hid behind various guises

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Originally released on Firstcask Records 2006 played by a dj like Aphex Twin at Field Day 2023, Ceephax essential oils ! Acid Varsity !

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NOT_MDK is not MDK. Like a human ship of theseus. Martin Wood-Mitrovski's 3rd album. 23 years since the 2nd. He lives at building number 23 in Skopje. MDKs ticket exploded. He can not return. This is NOT_MDK's first album. NOT_MDK is exploring ideas with depth, in depth. Every track is Grime and 140 BPM. Grime is a genre that covers a huge area of sound A fixed tempo is a gravitational well of coherence That is to say: Martin Wood-Mitrovski is a musical lifer - someone whose enthusiasm cannot be dimmed by time. The Coventry-raised polymath first came to public attention in the late 1990s as a keystone part of the Spymania crew, which also first showcased Squarepusher, Jamie Lidell and Cassette Boy. Even among such esteemed company, Martin's two albums, one EP and various collaborative contributions to the label stood out for their audacity and variety. Detroit techno, death metal, bleak ambient, golden age hip hop and dozens more sounds besides made implausible sense next to each other, and bleeding into one another. Now, though, relocated to the Balkans, returning to album making after over two decades of only sporadically slipping tracks out, Martin has taken an entirely opposite approach to genre. This album is entirely built around instrumental grime. But it's built with such finesse and a scholar's knowledge that there's still extraordinary variety within that. Subsets of OG 00s grime producton - Eski, Sino-grime, breakstep, sublow, and sounds with no name at all - are threaded together with the finessed modernist abstractions that came together around London's Boxed club in the 10s, and also with electronic predecessors. The ghosts of jungle, of bleep'n'bass, of warehouse techno, of various flavours of garage, leave traces through these tracks - or maybe he's waking those ghosts in the grime. It's a perfect fit for Belgium's W?M? Records. The label has always specialised in artists who get to the deep fundamentals of acid, electro and other pillars of electronica - and here, Martin has shown the wiring that were always there connecting those things into grime. It's a record where Timbaland and Terror Danjah, Nightmares On Wax and N.A.S.T.Y. Crew, Kraftwerk and Kromestar all operate on a plane of consistency. But it's no intellectual exercise or history lesson: the sounds and patterns here are there because they work - they sound spectacular coming out of big speakers. That's what it's always been about. Whether carving up genres in the Spymania days, or distilling them now, whether MDK or NOT_MDK, before all other considerations it's all about a joyful noise.

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727 directives : 1."Serve the public trust" 2."Protect the innocent" 3."Uphold the law" 4."Classified" 5."Restrain hostile feelings" 6."Promote positive attitude" 7."Suppress aggressiveness" 8."Promote pro-social values" 9."Avoid destructive behavior" 10."Be accessible" 11."Participate in group activities" 12."Avoid interpersonal conflicts"

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Its been five years since Belgium's WeMe Records lovingly selected the first ever collection of Heinrich Mueller's (Drexciya/Doppleffekt) best remixes/remodels for a new generation of listeners that won't have to pay collector prices to have them on vinyl. Volume 2 of False Vacuum is now with us and still has riches to choose from. These 13 rare and hard to find tracks (3 of which make their vinyl debut) all deliver in different ways as he systematically reinvents each one. Beginning with his raw and now classic remix of Ultradyne's 'Clones', the hard-edged dance-floor friendly 'Woman's Scent' by Cisco Ferreira (The Advent), the more laidback and futuristic sounding 'Bohrium 274' by Jauzas the Shining and Victoria Lukas, the slow and mysterious and first time on vinyl 'Somehow' by Rough Days For Diamond Trade, reinventing the darkest of dance-floors on 'Rytumtraks 0002' by Albert van Abbe, the moody masterpiece and first time on vinyl 'Now We Continue' by White Car, Duplex's 'Autoslug' sounding like its been rearranged inside a black-hole, a balancing act between the light and darkness on Fasenuova 'Cachito Turulo', an insistent rise and falling workout for As One's 'Where Did He Go and Why', a tightly wound and almost meditative 'The Truth' by The Exaltics, an angular stomping march of the robots 'Longwang' by 6D22, a jumpy fidgety groove for first time on vinyl 'Forty Eight Hours' by Yan Wagner and perhaps one of his most sublime pieces is kept for last with 'So Long For A Small Storm' by Dollska.

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RTR makes a dazzling return to WeMe Records with Circle coming through with 6 new tracks. 6 ways to outline his love for playful melodies, sauntering arrangements, squelching synths. Less breakbeat, more dancefloor oriented, RTR shows off some of his best and most colourful material as of late The record is both raw and punchy, kicking into gear over and over like an old fashioned detuned drum machine loop.

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In the year 2000 the internet had not yet become the new messiah. I would often cross the Channel by ferry on my way to London where I would spend the weekend going out and hunting for records, especially those that were impossible to find in Belgium. As soon as I set foot in a record shop, then under the influence of labels like Rephlex, Warp and Planet Mu, I would rush like a gold digger, head down in the racks that mentioned these labels, to try and find the piece I was missing or the latest release not yet distributed in Belgium. The artists that obviously haunted me the most at the time were Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. During one of my visits to the record shop "Sister Ray", I was, as was often the case, deep in the Squarepusher rack. And there, I find a record that I do not yet know, an LP entitled Ceephax Acid Quakers 1000, on the fantastic label "Lo Recording" ! Without hesitation and without further investigation I rush to buy it, convinced that I am holding the new Holy Grail from Squarepusher. Back in Brussels, I listen to this mysterious LP straight away and I discover a completely different album from what I was expecting. More audacious than what Squarepusher had produced in the past and which was more in line with the sound I was looking for at the time. I had to look hard at the record sleeve to understand this new approach. "Produced by Andy Jenkinson... but no, it's Tom Jenkinson....there must be a mistake?" Knowing the record shops of Brussels well, here I was on my way with the record under my arm to get more info. A record shop owner in the city centre tells me that this "Andy" is Tom's little brother, and that if I'm interested, he just brought in another record by this artist who calls himself "Ceephax"... Of course I'm interested! Icing on the cake, it is on a Belgian label, and moreover, provided with a cassette. I had to meet the guys who were behind this impressive "First Cask" label. I don't know by what magic I managed to meet Ga?l, one of the two founders, but what is sure is that since that day he has become more than a friend and he arranged for me to get in touch not with Squarepusher but with Andy. Two historical albums united in a superb gatefold !

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Incredible return of Jodey Kendrick in the Legion of Durocobrivis

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First ever vinyl release of Jodey Kendrick's first album from 2007 by his +10 moniker, "Grace" was thought out with a Chicago vibe in mind in the hope that Ron Hardy might play some of it but mostly showcases Kendrick's already distinctive braindance skills. Selected by Aelfric Michael Avery from 500 tracks given by the prolific artist, each of these timeless picks was already foretelling of a budding talent on the rise. To be (re)discovered without further ado.

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Fast raving acid tracks by Binary Digit. For all fans of Roy Of The Ravers and playful, cheerful acid breakbeat electronix.

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Weirdo acid tracks and spacedout braindance by RTR. Probably the most energetic up there tracks RTR has done so far. Putting those 10 tracks together makes us go through an immersive musical journey that goes from stuttering, rapid breakbeats all the way through the record to complex melodies, needling acid basslines, mind-melting electronic workout that'll leave you on your knees. One for the Aphex Twin and Rephlex fans (and isnt everyone a Aphex Twin fan???). Limited edition of 300 copies!

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