Emotional Rescue celebrates a decade of reissues by again pulling deep from the well with the first of several French avant albums over the coming year. The self-styled "Ethno-Industrial" Vox Populi! present their 1989 Aither album, remastered and repackaged with love nearly 30 years later.

Initiated by artist Axel Kyrou in 1982, Vox Populi! was soon joined by long term collaborator Pacific 231 on a series of coldwave/industrial cassette only recordings. Things changed considerably, however, with the meeting of the siblings, Mitra and Arach in 1984.

The consequential use of "traditional" instruments and, especially, his wife Mitra's Persian folklore vocals gave a specific tonality, incorporating the band's expanding passion for oriental sounds, electronics and psychedelic music.

Involving numerous musicians and friends in often-spontaneous studio sessions, the melting pot of varied cultural backgrounds added ethnic, electronic, concrete music, funk, dub and experimental flavours.

This feeling of the subjective absence of the artist was achieved via a communal way for making music, but still with an aim to entertain while leading the listener to experience something unique - mind elevating, non-egotistical, ethereal music - all pushing the intellect towards a more artistic transparency.

Welcome to Aither. More

Emotional Rescue completes its trilogy exploring the music of Vox Populi with Alternatif Realisme. Highlighting the music that followed 1989's Aither (ERC030) as they transitioned from ethno-industrial roots towards a more expressive "world" sound, until the band's dislocation in 1994.

The band's development saw original members Axel Kyrou (electronics), Mitra (vocals) and Arash Khalatbari (percussion) augmented by a number of guest musicians, bringing an energy to their spontaneous recordings sessions at their studio.

The additional vocals of Dierdre Dubous is indicative of this change. Her onomatopoeia singing features heavily, invoking songs Letsam La, Chaque Jour Est Un Bon Jour and the ethereal She Walks So Easily Across The Sky.

With this, Mitra's vocals lift Chaque Jour Est Un Bon Jour, Razaye Axel Jube Hast and closing paean Chirine, showing their best. Surrounding instrumentals - often built out of long improvisational jamming - underpin. Soleymani Dub, with its Laswell dub groove is a clear stand out, while the melodics of Vapanda's Electric Garden come like a wonderful Woo outtake.

Largely unreleased, the recordings were a step outside of the changing shift towards a more digital sound. The album captures Vox Populi!, mixing their atmospheric mastery with heartfelt arias, that have familiarity but are completely unique. More

Platform 23 again explores to the dense voids, this time with a touch of the funk, with a reissue of Dutch experimentalists De Fabriek and two tracks from their "Music For" cassette series, this time calling all Hippies.

Featuring both original and reinterpretations from modern-day heads, Dunkeltier and Khidja, this double-pack is something of an oddity, showcasing the bands' expansive range, moving away from the noise, drone and industrial soundscape releases they had become known for and crafting here, free flowing, groovy longform jams.

Active since the late 70s to today, De Fabriek (The Factory) have never considered themselves a real band - being also a label too - with an evolving and irregular line up centred around Richard van Dellen, they present their music and output as a kind of work-union.

With literally four decades and dozens of releases across all formats, 1988's cassette release, 'Music For Hippies', has become something of a cult curio, with the long improvisational tracks, Lullabye and Coming Down eschewing the rougher, industrial experience for something completely different.

In opener Lullabye, we go full leftfield P-Funk meets Motorik undertones. An incessant beat is laid from the start and doesn't cease for over 10 minutes, while spoken vocals call closer to the Krautrock realms of Can and hark to Liebezeit's stylised grooving best.

Analog, echo washed, with touches of glam and wrapped in simple effects pedal work, the secrets are passed to Dresden / Berlin inhabitant Dunkeltier aka Sneaker DJ aka Thomas Smorek. His darker moniker, appearing on obscure edits for Macadam Mambo and the much-missed Bahnsteig 23, his 'Hey Robot' mix adds bass, percussion, strings and synth to remold Lullabye into a late night, red light, basement denzien. This is followed by an additional, bonus reimagining, creating an all-new time piece, an ear worm of the best kind with Tik Tok Goes The Clock.

The second slab presents in Come Down, a more resembling De Fabriek werk. Edited to fit, the darkness is entered as snapshot vocal quips, oscillations and synthesised mutations are laid over a lazy, relentless ostinato rhythm where cymbals crash on the bar. Inviting, calling, De Fabriek's aptly titled downer is in fact, a joyous journey.

To complete, label affiliates, Khidja take a break from finalising their debut album to unfold their 'Psychebabble Mix', a dozen plus minutes of warped, twisted, cassette machinations that suck the listener further along the trip. Added bass propels their edit suddenly to a new direction, a hook for mind and for the open willed, the body. De Fabriek's "coming down lullabye" arriving on vinyl for the first time, with a twist and shake, calling deeper to acceptance.
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Repress!

Platform 23 presents the 2nd collection of songs selected from the Alternative Funk series released Vox Man and VP 231 Records. Originally appearing in 1985 across 1 vinyl and 2 cassette albums these cult collections have long been in collectors (and bootleggers) sights and finally see the first official reissue.

As with Volume 1 (PLA023) the series covers the weird, wonderful, esoteric, exotic and quirky sound and puts them in a reset context that immediately gives clarity of the original's curation.

This volume opens with some DIY electro stealers, first with Dee Nasty's Orientic Groove, where the early French hip-hop pioneer lays down a battle commence of beats, slapped bass and YMO keys, before the second offering from Scoop! and their rap attack, juxtapositions the past series and leads to label heads Vox Populi! & Man and their continued look at the rudiments of cut up manipulation and scratch techniques.

The avant rappears with 3M's percussive marker and legendary Amus Tietchens' is ever challenging, before Melsjest's post-punk meets the Weirmar possibly steals the side as Vox Pop spoken outro joins those (micro)dots.

The cult of Randall Kennedy returns with another garage-fuzz gem. His stories for wackos'n'weirdos end all too soon and are followed by Liquid Liquid's Dennis Young, diving deep with Intuition, before Stanalis returns with another winner. Bene Gesserit is a killer and welcome addition, before Kosa return with more industrial clippings and volume 2 heads to the door with Capital Funk's electro-punk bomb - possibly the series champion - while the slap bass-scratch of California's Psyclones leads to a music hall end in the homage to mum's favourite, Chukk.

What these Volumes again highlight is how the DIY aesthetic of so many independent labels was supplemented and spread via collections of friends, contemporaries and often, literally pen pals, to mail in their offerings that are then picked for wider ears. While some of these artists have become known, just as many are who and whats, but they sit side-by-side as warranted and often killing the scene of what Axel and co sought to be...the Alternative Funk. More

Repress!

Platform 23 launches with the reissue of the seminal Alternative Funk compilation series, presenting a selection of music across 2 volumes.

Known for the highly heralded "Folie Distinguee" album in 1985, what is often over looked is the fact there accompanied 2 further "Alternative Funk" cassette compilations that same year. Coming within the Audiologie series on Vox Man Records, these "Various Artist" selections were indicative of labels that sprung up in the early 80s around the DIY post-punk scene.

As founders of Vox Populi!, Axel Kyrou and Francis Man, working with close associate Pierre Jolivet's (aka Pacific 231) VP 231 label, released a number of cassettes, 7" and LPs between 1982 and 1988, as much to self-release their own music as to push new or contemporary artists.

Here then is a snapshot of the Alt Funk albums, selecting songs that avoid recent or upcoming reissues, to dive deep in the series from industrial to cold wave, proto-dub percussion to avant spoken word pieces. Featuring the likes of Son Of Sam, Philippe Laurent, Fist Of Facts - with a long lost first ever recording - and Human Backs, stepping out from semi-cult name dropping to sit alongside unknowns and never heard from again in Scoop!, Kosa, Zoohtee and the wonderful Randall Kennedy.

What is apparent is an idiosyncratic nature to the selections. In the same way many independent labels of the time - such as Auxilio De Cientos' Terra Incognita volumes or Final Image's Nightlands - created a label snapshot by pulling together far and wide contributions but retaining an overall 'sound'.

The Volume 1 and 2 reissue achieve that, mixing experimental with electro, post punk with noise, to offer more than the sum of their parts - an Alternative Funk. More

"When Aniruddha Das (DSPSSSSD) and Gary ""Roy"" Stewart (Dubmorphology) met at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic in the mid-80s, they started on a life-long friendship and musical collaborative partnership that continues today.

While Das went on to acclaim as part of Asian Dub Foundation, Stewart is an artist and experimental sonic musician, producing projects featuring sound design and immersive works, for the likes of Tate Museum.

Together they perform as Dubnoiz Coalition, exploring the outer limits of improvised bass, noise and distortion, which has seen them perform across the globe.

In 1990 they took their first steps in a recording studio, mixing the early influences of Acid House with their interest in drone and sound effects, to create two pieces, Tilt and Fari 116.

Recorded as improvisational jams and dubbed live to the mixing desk, they were pressed as very limited white labels. Here Tilt is all bubbling acid and taut percussion, recorded to a 2” 16 track. Using samplers, drum machines, Roland TB303 and sync box, Ani arranged the drum and bass lines, as well as programming the 'counter melodies' with the TB303, with acid modulations and sometimes in odd time signatures, while Roy looked after the samples and drones.

Archival testaments but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene and simply great music, here remastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23. More

Platform 23 presents Ani-Roy, a project from friends Aniruddha Das and Gary "Roy" Stewart, who recorded two 12's of improvisational acid-house meets drone and samples in 1990.

They met over a love of principally reggae and post punk at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham in 1982, and started combining equipment, to make tape loops and delays for exploring the basics of dub, all the while building their own Sound System.

This learning and experimenting converged their interests in early possibilities afforded for programming sounds and effects. They moved to London / Birmingham respectively and continued their collaboration until all things aligned in 1990. Coming together with Andrew Campbell, a community / social entrepreneur based in Nottingham - and with access to the Marcus Garvey Centre studios - they recorded two improvisational jams to 2 16 track; Ani arranging drum and bass lines, programming 'counter melodies' with a TB-303, and Roy looking after the ominous ambient loops, melodies, riot and Prince Far I samples.

The fact there were so many "versions" compelled Andrew to put the results out on two 12's instead of one. Fari 116 and Tilt were self-released on hand-stamped white labels.

Archival testaments, but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene - here they are re-mastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23. More

Platform 23 is delighted to present music from Colin Potter with It Was, a collection of tracks chosen from his 1989 cassettes Recent History Volumes 1 & 2.

After a burst of activity, mainly on his ICR label, from 1980 - 82, the tapes were the first released music in seven years and highlighted the intervening period.

While much of his earlier recordings have now been reissued by Dark Entries, Deep Distance and Sacred Summits, It Was covers the period where Potter recordings were limited while working as an engineer at his IC Studio, and pre-date his work with Nurse With Wound.

The ambience and guitar of The French Polisher leads to Diary Of A Nobody, an embodiment of Potter, sequencers and guitar against submerged, metallic percussion rising. Dense, claustrophobia follows in Solidarity At Wujeck Colliery towards the guitar refrains of Persistence.

Side two starts with Green Fields, where plucked guitars are surrounded and consumed by arpeggios. Propulsion without percussion, the layers of arps shift and redefine before the scatter of Saw with reversed synths and guitar acting as counterbalance. Nine Months, a possible centerpiece, has an autumnal atmosphere; crashing cymbals and ambulant guitar, leading to the closing Ships That Pass In The Night, a hazy drift of slowly sequenced synths & primitive voice samples. More

The 4th and final EP of music from Exquisite Corpse brings to a close this series of rebirth and definition. Together, Robbert Heynen, Debbie Jones and Tim Freeman released in just 2 years a stream of sacred, serotonin beats and hypnotic tribal rhythms that shape shifted dance floors. Returning to the source, the debut Reassembling Reaility EP, with Hollywood. A confluence of steppa rim, spoken mystics, found sounds, synth-strings and rolling basslines. Join us. Leading to Strange Attractor from the prized Dream Night Dance album, familiarity and progression. Euphoric onrush, bottom end pulsing, sentimental strings, serene keys, pitch shift, a master class of less becoming more. Aural injection. Calling The Quarters off 1993's Inner Light album starts the final side in bestowing beauty; above so below, in front, behind, around. Raw, natural, fluctuating, moody, obscure. The mystery. The release and series completes with Etoiles. Again (aptly) drawn from 1992's Dream Night Dance Music, the hallmarks' of this underrated project are there. Detroit bass, lazy hats, counter claps, harmonies for modern times. Tribal. Ambient. Techno. The terms do not justify the music included. As it should be. Primal, sanctified, conscious, living. The journey ending. More

The 3rd EP (of 4) looking at the music of Exquisite Corpse's output from 1992 to 1994. As with the rest of the series the music included covers the palette of Robbert Heynen's output and is presented here, remastered and redesigned for club play.
Working as ever with friend and engineer Tim Freeman, as well as partner Debbie Jones, Heynen's post-Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia productions took his techno, trance and tribal explorations to a new conclusions.
With Point Zero all these elements come together with possibly the strongest tracks of the EPs. Opening EC's sophomore album, Inner Light, there is confidence in the interplay between oscillating sequencing and rattling drums, perfectly and infectiously interweaving between headspace and dance floor.
B K S from the Dream Night Dance Music album follows and takes things down a notch. Ethnic leanings interplay with light percussion and a deep bass to pull you till dawn.
Side two opens with the clattering, syncro-rhythms of Traditional Ties With Dreaming. Taken from their debut EP, Reassembling Reality is itself the perfect elude. Quasi-dreamlands, drumming for 1000 musicians that loops and builds, dismembers and starts over like a gentile, hypnotic orchestra.
To complete the EP, Dream Night Dance Music appears again with Elevator showing a love of the original deep house odes emanating from Fingers and Jefferson of late 80s Chi Town. Fluorescent keys overlay somber drum and bass to sink the most melancholy sunsets. An end to the beginning. A beginning to the end. A third ending. More

Platform 23 presents the 2nd (of 4) EPs of music from Exquisite Corpse. In Between Rhythms II, a deeper, ambient, percussive selection again returns to the project of Robbert Heijnen.
As part of the post punk / alternative Tilburg music scene of the mid-80s, Robbert influences of expression and interest in industrial and EBM is apparent. The move from the metallic sounds (as a member) of the early incarnation of Psychick Warriors Of Gaia to embrace the sounds emanating from late 80s Chicago and Detroit saw the band develop from their early cassette '1989' to the fully formed and now revered 1992 debut album, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves (A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics).
The parallels between this deep, trippy and haunting melodies meets tribal percussions, highlights some similarities of PWOG and Exquisite Corpse's outlook during this period. Looking further, upon leaving the former, the bands sound developed a harder edge, with more focus on rhythm and their exploratory properties indicating the nature of Heijnen influence and part in PWOG and how this was further explored when going solo in 1992.
The release starts with Shadow Play from his second album, 1993's Inner Light. Darkness descends to echo'd drums as the vestiges of developing European techno worlds can be heard in the distance. What A Life, from the Reassembling Reality EP, brings things down with an ambient beginning moving to Reich loops and sequencing that create shifting melodic horizons. A personal favourite of the artist, the EP saw the realization of the collaborations with Debbie Jones in design and life.
With the consistent presence of 'third member' - in mixing, engineering and support - from Tim Freeman, the songs in the series have a unique, but familiar and inclusive nature. This can again be heard in Sacrifice from the highly sought after Dream Night Dance Music album. The interplay of drums, claps and swing are enough alone to warrant acceptance. To close, Tepu returns to the Inner Light album. Darkness, Questioning. Calling. Second(s) ending. More

Transmigration celebrates the 20th release milestone with a repress of Coil's The Snow EP. Released as a promotional single for the 1991 album Love's Secret Domain, it marks the influential groups closest brush with the dance floor. Featuring a set of remixes from Peter Christopherson, Jack Dangers and an early collaboration with Drew McDowall prior to joining the group.

Licensed by Danny Hyde and remastered by ManMade mastering. More

1st outstanding release for ARCHIVIO FONOGRAFICO's sub label BORDERLINE EDITIONS ! Remastered official reissue of the original version dated 1983 on Best Records LIMITED 300 COPIES ON STANDARD BLACK VINYL / PICTURE COVER LIMITED SUPPLIES / 1st copies only on colored clear vinyl "Suicidal" by Amin Peck is one of the most intense italo disco songs ever. For almost 10 minutes, the listener experiences some very light male vocals tossed on top of some extremely deep synthesizer rhythm's concurring with all sorts of experimental noises and sounds. Cit magic00

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Every now and again, a record carves itself an indelible place in the history of a place, a scene or a genre, all under its own steam – without a big budget, without a press campaign, without mainstream radio, just by hitting all the right notes at the right moment. Maybe you had to have been there to really feel it – locked into the pirate stations, a regular at the right clubs, or leaning on the counter in the right records shops on a Saturday afternoon – but if you were, there are some tunes that will always vibrate with the underground cultural energy of their time. Bô'vel's 1996 Manchester streetsoul anthem 'Check 4 U' is one of those tunes. The kind of song that makes the over-used phrase 'underground classic' mean something again, it effortlessly distills the sounds of its era into one of the most undeniable, genre-spanning cuts of the mid-1990s. The song resonates with the regional flavours of UK sound-system culture: the sweet club sound of Manchester's vibrant streetsoul scene, the dubwise hip-hop throb of the Bristol movement, and the bass-lore of the reggae sound systems whose wisdom stretched from Leeds to South London and beyond. Built around a humid kick drum and a bin-busting bass pulse arranged in head-nodding syncopation, the song is blessed with an instantly memorable harmonised hook, and perfectly set off by Bô'vel's crystalline vocals. Upful, stepping and tinged with melancholy, it remains one of the most well-loved and highly sought-after UK streetsoul sides. The three mixes of 'Check 4 U' appeared as the a-side of a blank-label five-track 12". It was Bô'vel's second release, after a soulful five-track EP issued in 1995 on her own Bô'vel Records had been a surprise success. Produced by Kev Waddington, that initial record had come about almost by accident after a chance encounter in Manchester's HQ Studios, as Bô'vel recalls today: 'We were making these five tracks because we were having bit of an argument with radio not being able to play what they wanted, really, only what the record labels wanted… they never had anybody coming through properly, because everything was pretty much underground. We were making records, like really pop stuff, to take the piss… So in the studio one day, this guy came in – all I know is that his was name was Nigel. And he came in and said, I want to put that five-track EP out with you. We just don't know who the hell he was to this day, really. And he said, you've got to do it 50/50, it's going to be £1000. So I said okay – I just trusted him. I gave him 500 quid. He gave me 1000 records. He just dropped them at the studio. I picked them up and then I went into Manchester city centre and gave it to a couple of DJs on underground radio.' Pirate radio loved it. With play on stalwart Manchester pirates like Buzz FM and Soul Nation, the EP immediately blew up. Bô'vel took the record into Fat City Records, Manchester's premier outlet and distributor for soul, hip-hop and dance, who took a batch, quickly sold out and took several hundred more copies; it eventually transpired that a large quantity were selling to Japan, where the combination of soul smarts and classy production had been caught by discerning ears. Elsewhere, friends distributed the record by hand in London and Birmingham, working them through UK's then burgeoning network of independent dance music shops. The warm reception the record received encouraged Bo'vel to return to the studio for sessions that would become 'Check 4 U'. The EP had been issued under a Bô'vel Records imprint, but she had sold it to Fat City without disclosing that she was the artist – 'I said, "There's this singer, she's great, she's done this cheesy stuff, try it, it's a bit Kylie Minogue". He said "oh, give us 300", and then he had some more.' For the next release, she decided to keep things completely minimal. 'The next one, I said, right, let's just put it out as a white label, and if people like it they like it, they don't have to see who we are or anything.' Though punitive legislation and overexposure had tamed rave culture, and the inflated status of superstar DJs had pushed once underground scenes fully into the mainstream, dance music culture in mid-1990s Britain still retained a certain feral energy. There was still a groundswell of vital local scenes and rapidly changing musical styles, and – combined with local record shops – clubs and pirate radio were still the chief arbiters of influence. 'In the 90s, pirate radio just played the best music. I mean, you couldn't really get music like that anywhere. The same as you couldn't get music like that [being played] in the Reno, which was very different,' remembers Bô'vel, referring to the legendary Moss Side soul club, an underground institution from 1962 until its closure in 1986. 'That's where music really started for me, going to clubs like the Reno at the age 15, 16, 17, and going to places like the Nile [upstairs from the Reno], which was all reggae, you know – that's really where the beats came for me.' The production on the new record would reflect these influences more than the EP had been able too. 'I liked a big bassline,' the singer reflects. 'There's a big bassline there on the five-track EP, 'I Can't Get By', which is a really, really good song, but they just could not get the bass – I was so gutted when that came back…if they'd have shown us the master we'd have said no.' These problems were to be avoided on 'Check 4 U' by the involvement of producer Uriah Gale. 'We already had the tune, and Uriah came on board, and I said, it's just not soulful enough. I was working with Kev Waddington, and he said "I just can't do it." So when Uriah came along, the bass was there, but he tidied it all up and made it really cool, and he was tremendous on the harmony,' she recalls. 'Out of all the mixes, his was the best. He was incredible to work with, and also incredibly talented. With alternate mixes of 'Life Changes You' from the 1995 EP as the b-side, 'Check 4 U' was issued with blank blue labels and sent out with a DJ one-sheet describing Bô'vel as 'Manchester's favourite soul Diva'. 2000 copies were pressed, and the record was distributed by Jetstar. It quickly became another pirate radio hit. 'Soul Nation and Buzz FM did support me from the very start [along with] every single DJ on Manchester radio,' she recalls, 'They're my biggest fans, the DJs here, I've got to big them up!' Manchester's support was mirrored by pirates around the UK. 'We had the support of radios across the country – I just could not believe it. So we went on a tour… We would go to the pirate stations, do an interview, then do a gig – that's how the gigging came about… gigging in Birmingham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, London – I've got so much respect for the pirate radios down there. They were brilliant… We used to take all my stuff straight to London,' she remembers. 'Each radio was doing pretty much the same thing, in their own style, with their own beats. Like, when I went down to Bristol, I showed them the EP and 'I Check 4 U' and they said, hey girl, you've got the Bristol beat!' But her core audience was at home in Manchester. 'London did support me a lot, but not like my home town – they loved me as I love them… Manchester supported me through and through, to this very day,' she remembers. Performing in mid-1990s Manchester was not always straightforward, though: 'In Manchester, it was kind of hard to do gigs, because there was a bit of gang warfare. So, you know, that was a problem. You'd be doing a gig and they'd all be there in their [bulletproof] vests, you know, Cheetham Hill and Moss Side, and it was a bit of a nightmare. And because I was more Manchester side, even though I went to school in Cheetham Hill, I was with a guy from Moss Side. So it was pretty hard gigging in Manchester, I had a bit of a hard time.' Nevertheless, 'my gigs were packed to the rafters…I wasn't scared because I knew I had protection. The gigs were fantastic, here in Manchester and everywhere, and I'm glad and very grateful to be able to say that.' A further single followed – the garage-flavoured 'Earthling', made with producer Ben Stansfield – but this would be her final release. 'My life changed,' she remembers. 'I had a split… I was just bringing my daughter up. I used to live in the countryside, and I was having a bit of a different life… I just spent a lot of time writing when I split up – I couldn't sing, it was like my voice wouldn't work. I was just thinking all the time, and not speaking. So I was just speaking through my music… I just became a writer, and I was more looking for other people to sing the [songs], you know? Because there's a lot of talent here in Manchester.' However, she retained access to a studio, and over time she began to record again, working with various producers and amassing a large amount of material. It is this unreleased material that we collect on Life Changes – nine unheard Bô'vel songs from the period 1997-2008(dates?), selected from her own archive. Until now, none of this unreleased work has been heard. Not an artist to be constrained by genre, the music showcases Bô'vel's exploration of a wide range of styles, from the dubbed-out downtempo of 'My Man' or 'I Wanna Be Free' to the updated streetsoul of 'Let Down And Liar', via the breakbeat hype of 'Do It Your Way' and the straight-ahead reggae vibe of 'Daydreamer'. This unreleased music is presented alongside the unfadeable 'I Check 4 U' and two classic streetsoul cuts from her 1995 EP, 'Life Changes You' and 'Coming Back'. The common denominator across the album is of course Bô'vel herself: a singer of rare timbral clarity whose musical vision has determined the sound of every record she has made, a prolific and personal song-writer in the UK soul tradition, and the artist behind one of the most celebrated underground soul tunes of the pirate radio era. Still most definitely someone to check for. More