Astrophonica welcomes Austin, TX-based finger-drumming beatmaker Flobama to the label for the first time with Orion Sound—a raw, undiluted, and psychedelic take on Jungle, infused with shades of classic Hip-Hop, Jungle, and that indefinable celestial fusion underpinning Astrophonica.

With a background in instrumental Hip-Hop, Flobama has performed live alongside Blue Lab Beats, Shigeto, and The Alkaholiks using a Roland SP-404 sampling workstation. He has also built a dedicated online community on Patreon and Instagram, creating official live video content for Red Bull Music Academy and Roland.

Orion Sound takes this U.S. instrumental Hip-Hop foundation and blends it with modern UK Jungle through a cosmic lo-fi lens. The entire EP was crafted using PotenzaDSP’s recently developed Amigo Sampler, which emulates the signature gritty sound of the 1980s Commodore Amiga—the machine that helped define early UK Hardcore and Jungle music.

Despite Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry being part of the world premiere of the Amiga 500 in 1985, the affordable home computer never penetrated the studios of underground producers in the U.S. as it did in the UK. While the U.S. is known for lo-fi beat machines like Akai’s MPC range and the E-Mu SP1200—pushed to the limits by greats like Dilla, Pete Rock, and Madlib—the original Amiga alumni were dominated by a crew of UK junglists such as Bizzy B, Equinox, Urban Shakedown, Dlux, TDK, Zinc, and Paradox. It’s suggested that megastars like Aphex Twin, Calvin Harris, Mike Oldfield, and Kanye West have used Amigas running various pieces of tracker software, but that distinctive sound will forever be linked with raw, DIY bedroom Jungle.

Orion Sound takes all of this and mixes it into a well-seasoned sauce that is as tear-out as it is cook-out—combining the laid-back, loud-pack sunshine of Texas with the wall-slapping intensity of an East London rewind. Low-riding at higher tempos, it’s not Footwork Jungle, but it occupies a similar furtive U.S./UK mash-up space once held by Machinedrum, Om Unit, Rashad, and DJ Spinn.

To celebrate the EP’s crunchy, cosmic origins, Fracture and Flobama have collaborated on the Orion Sound Sample Pack, created with the Amigo Sampler and available separately from the EP on the Astrophonica page. The pack features 255 scratch-built, handcrafted sounds using hardware such as Korg SV2 keys, a Mackie 1604 desk, and more—all sampled and processed in Amigo. It includes breaks, pads, and bass samples drenched in glorious 8-bit, low-sample-rate sonics—go wild.

Orion Sound is available as a four-track 12” vinyl and digital release, featuring a collaboration with label boss Fracture and artwork by Utile Creative.

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Fracture & Neptune reissue two classics from the Astrophonica catalog on a new 12”. Clissold and The Limit shine a spotlight on the early days of their musical journey in the mid 2000s.

While there are other tracks that could and may get reissued, the pivotal nature of these two and the ongoing demand for represses made them the perfect place to start. Reissuing them not only honours their impact on our careers and Astrophonica's evolution but provides the opportunity to have them remastered on vinyl by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven and on digital by Bob Macciochi at Subvert Central Mastering for a modern take in 2024.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: gpsr@wordandsound.netMore

Repress!

0860 is a project by Charlie Fieber aka Fracture inspired by London Pirate Radio. The project includes an album, radio station and interview series that explores the history and legacy of Pirate Radio and its importance in the development of UK underground music.

0860 is presented via an 8-track, DJ-friendly 2 x 12" Vinyl Album, 19-track mixtape cassette and the radio station 0860.fm, which is broadcasting now. There is also a Pirate Radio Art Print from UTILE and T-Shirts. Broadcasting now on 0860.fm is an additional 90-min 'Signal Test' ambient album by Fracture.

Over the coming weeks, 0860.fm will broadcast interviews with Bryan Gee, Eastman, DJ Flight, Scratcha, Dextrous, Uncle Dugs, Mantra, Missing, Eddie Peake, Om Unit & Laurent Fintoni, Naina & Sherelle, Stamina MC and more. It will also broadcast lost recordings of original 90s & 00s London pirate station broadcasts from the likes of Kool, Rinse, Pulse and more.k about it.

Track two is ‘Where Are U’ and encourages us to ask ourselves that question through the exploration of full speed Breakbeat Electro. If we know where we are, we can begin to look into where we are going. Probably the dance floor.

Track three is ‘it's NP-Complicated’ which sets out an uncomplicated blend of bubbling bass and simple sympathetic drums, providing us with a network to feel more empowered and to build a sense of community.

Track four is ‘Donut Time’ - Well done for finishing the course! You can congratulate yourself with a donut full of squelchy acid jam, glazed with frosted pads and hi hat sprinkles.

“Together we can help ourselves be alone together.” - Nikki Nair

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: gpsr@wordandsound.netMore

Atlanta resident Nikki Nair invites you to join his new 4 track EP on Astrophonica - ‘Renormalization Support Group’. It’s a place where we can share our experiences via the help of Nikki’s special ‘not quite sure what you call it’ bass lead Electro Breakbeat programme.

Track one is ‘Plug’ - An uptempo low slung booty shaker which will have sound engineers scrambling at cables and faders trying to work out wtf is going on. We’ve all been there so let’s talk about it.

Track two is ‘Where Are U’ and encourages us to ask ourselves that question through the exploration of full speed Breakbeat Electro. If we know where we are, we can begin to look into where we are going. Probably the dance floor.

Track three is ‘it's NP-Complicated’ which sets out an uncomplicated blend of bubbling bass and simple sympathetic drums, providing us with a network to feel more empowered and to build a sense of community.

Track four is ‘Donut Time’ - Well done for finishing the course! You can congratulate yourself with a donut full of squelchy acid jam, glazed with frosted pads and hi hat sprinkles.

“Together we can help ourselves be alone together.” - Nikki Nair

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: gpsr@wordandsound.netMore