Artwork and Typography by Stefan Marx

Joe Davies aka DJ Assam makes a welcome return to Smallville following his ‘Shields In Full Sunlight’ LP with the ‘Pardon My Late Response’ EP.

The past decade has seen DJ Assam releasing material for the likes of (his own imprint) Lehult, that he runs with a few friends, KANN Records, Super Tuff and Smallville Records sub-label Down by the Lake, as well as Djing regularly at hotspots across Europe and beyond.

Last year he made his debut on Smallville appearing under his own name- Joe Davies with a long player project. Here he returns with more of his distinctive deep and hypnotic style on a new EP for Smallville.

Up first on the package is ‘Errol Dub’, a six minute journey traversing through bouncy bass tones, airy chords, crisp shuffled percussion and modulating synth lines before ‘Unknown’ dives deeper via a reduced rhythm section, acid synth bleeps, soft bell tones and subtly naunced atmospherics. Opening the flip-side ‘1234 Love’ captures a more raw aesthetic with saturated drums at its core while an amalgamation of modulating synth licks and ethereal pads ebb and flow throughout. The Frankfurt Mix of ‘Hi Life’, known from Joe's mesmerizing Smallville album, rounds out the release, journeying into dub territory courtesy of spiralling echoes and slowly unfurling chords underpinned by a bumpy off-kilter drum groove.

Tracklist:

A1 Errol Dub
A2 Unknown
B1 1234 Love
B2 Hi Life (Frankfurt Mix)


All tracks written, produced and mixed by Joe Davies, additional production on B2 by Ossia, Vocals on B2 by Ocker
Mastering by Helmut Erler, Vinyl Cut by Lathesville

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World excluding Japan

2024 repress

LP Format Notes:
First re-issue since its original release in Japan in 1983, remastered from the original masters, 140g vinyl, gatefold sleeve, 16 page photography book with liner notes.


LP Track List:

A1 : Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach
A2 : Never Find A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
A3 : By The Pool
A4 : Roll Over, Beethoven - Out Of The Beach
A5 : In The Shade
A6 : Looking Across The Street
A7 : Long Distance Look

B1 : Hot Afternoon
B2 : Crying In The Sun
B3 : The Next Time
B4 : Miss B.B. Walks Away
B5 : Sleep Walk
B6 : Standing There

Release Notes:

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett‘s transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

In 1982, representatives from Tokyo’s Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan’s most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit Never Found A Girl.

Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the Down On The Road By The Beach exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.


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2023 repress

We are happy and proud to present „The Trentemøller Chronicles“.This new double album is not a new studio album, but an overview of Trentemøller‘s impressive body of work. The Trentemøller Chronicles include Anders‘ personal selection of his best songs and remixes and includes one extremely excellent exclusive track Trentemoellers hymn against global warming: A1: The Blacksmoke Organisation: Danger Global Warming (Trentmøller Remix) * , A2: Trentemøller: The Forest , B1: Mathias Schaffhäuser: Coincidance (Trentemøller Remix) , B2: Jokke Ilsøe: Feeling Good (Trentemøller Remix Chronicles Edit)*, C1: Röyksopp: What Else Is There? (Trentemøller Remix), C2: Trentemøller: Gush , D1: The Knife: We Share Our Mother‘s Health (Trentemøller Remix), D2: Trentemøller: Kink

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Genres: Dub Techno, Romanian, Techno

Vinyl only

Tracklist
A1. ZentaSkai - Bob (6:16)
A2. ZentaSkai - Bob (6:52)
B1. ZentaSkai & Sebastian Klenk - Bob (11:41)

Release Date:
Following a ten-part series of unannounced artist records and a spectacular high-concept album on Mask Records, label head ZentaSkai returns to the imprint for his next solo vinyl-only release, ‘Bob’.
The A1 sees the Berlin-based ZentaSkai combine a dusty, taped white noise feel with subtle, swirling dub chords as its high-end propels the track forward. It’s a stunning and evocative piece before the A2 continues with minimal drums and electric acid bleeps, a smooth organ lead completing its gorgeous soundscape.
On the B-side of the ‘Bob’ EP, ZentaSkai joins forces with long-time collaborator Sebastian Klenk. It follows their
‘Apeiron’ track on ZentaSkai’s 2023 ‘Architecture Of The Mind’ LP, among other joint work, and sees them deliver a near-twelve-minute track that is a true masterpiece. The track takes listeners through found-sound texture samples, intricate drum patterns, crunchy breakbeats, and more beautiful dub melodics.
‘Bob’ is another fantastic listening experience on Mask Records, already supported by Satoshi Tomiie, Raresh and Laurent Garnier.






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Tracklist: (A1) Angora (Fairmont Remix) (B1) Invierno (John Tejada Remix)
Info:
Welcome 2016 and welcome back everybody to the second Cocoon Recordings roll out. We wonder what this year will bring if the kick-off is already on such a high level?
Ricardo Tobar's first remix 12" comes with two stunning re-arrangements by Fairmont and Tech-House grandmaster John Tejada. The canadian minimal techno hero Fairmont remixed Tobars "Angora" and gave it such a strong Border Community vibe. Dark but at the same time pushing and hedonistic. Fairmont starts off with a subtle percussion-beat-acid-combination and turns his remix into a proper and mad electronic masterpiece the longer it runs. Epic!

Californian tech-house pioneer John Tejada is on remix-duty for "Invierno" and he blasts us away with the result. Deeper than deep and kick-ass house with a pushing detroit and KMS vibe. This one almost appears like a lost & found alltime techno and house classic and it will hit the Zeitgeist in Berlin, London, New York and Tokyo like no other release on Cocoon Recordings lately. This is ingenious clubfood for all the innercity hipsters and musiclovers and it simply makes us wanna dance! This! Is! Tech-House! Baby!


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Tracklist: (A1) Florian Hollerith - Perlas (DE-Q20-19-01843)
(A2) Florian Hollerith - Love Summer (DE-Q20-19-01844)
(B1) Florian Hollerith - Electro Indianer (DE-Q20-19-01845)


Release Info:
As a winemaker hailing from the Palatinate, Florian Hollerith understands a thing or two about vintage. It's something that also comes through when you sample his music - rich, full bodied with just the right level of acidity. 2018 was already a good year with Ohrenzirkus featuring on both Sven Väth's Sound of the 19th Season mix CD as well as this year's Dots and Pearls vol. 5 compilation. Florian certainly announced his arrival on the scene in style, so it's only fair that he gets the chance to demonstrate his full range of skills on his very own Cocoon Recordings release. 2019 however, has a darker, more complex flavour...

Florian certainly knows a hookline when he finds one. On the EP's title track Perlas, he's working from the inside out with complex layers creating a vortex of sound. This dense sonic mesh is playful yet dangerous, with ethereal voices and jagged chants adding to the disorientation of the opening exchanges until the congas and skipping bassline give us something to hold onto. The dance floor melts under our feet as a raw, tripped out groove takes hold before the bass suddenly morphs into a brassy acid line that spreads its wings and soars. It's music for the headstrong, a celebration of the timeless tribal ceremonies that have come to define us.

Love Summer adds a contemporary twist to the melodic joys that drenched the early nineties in pure ecstasy. The soulful vocals soothe the mind as horn stabs punctuate the sensual groove, generating power and passion in equal measures. It's a straightforward approach, revolving around a familiar yet eminently seductive riff that just keeps on rolling, propelled forward by the force of its own momentum. There's no need to fuss when you hit on a winning formula like this.

More retro futurism abounds on Electro Indianer as arpeggiated bleeps usher in another vast, sprawling soundscape designed to induce a collective trance on the dance floor. Whistling, circular effects wash back and forth increasing the tension notch by notch as we're led deeper into the wormhole. Finally, the track deconstructs slightly, creating enough space for classic Casio-style bleeps and percussion to embellish a beautiful blissed out ending that trails off into the sun rise, as ancient Native American pipes pick out a haunting melody in the distance.


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Tracklist:
01 Lucky Star
02 Crystal Growing
03 Floating Tank
04 Analog Dreams


MASK’s ZentaSkai & Laura Merino Allue announce vinyl-only underground house and techno series as
Cuddling Monsters.
Cuddling Monsters serve up the first vinyl-only volume of a new self-titled series on Berlin-based Mask Records. All
four cuts explore deep and classy techno, dub and house soundscapes with the aim of rediscovering the soul of
electronic music and forming new bonds between human creativity and technological innovations.
Cuddling Monsters is the coming together of creative partners ZentaSkai and Laura Merino Allue. ZentaSkai is the
MASK founder recognised for his immersive, hypnotic groove, and Allue is a fashion and graphic designer. They are
newly assembled under this alias but have a long-time love of vinyl and analogue machines, which shows in their sounds.
"Crafting music with analogue instruments holds profound importance in the contemporary musical landscape. Despite
the omnipresence of digital technology, analogue instruments maintain a pivotal role, offering distinctive sonic qualities,
creative constraints, and genuine sound reproduction. The tactile, hands-on connection." - Cuddling Monsters
The superbly deep and atmospheric 'Lucky Star' is a dubby minimal cut with a deft rhythm and warm pads that are
perfect for cosy back rooms. The absorbing 'Crystal Growing' is another stripped-back techno roller with rubbery drums
and pensive chords that lock you into a state of meditation. Up next is the powerful 'Floating Tank' which pairs gorgeous
ambient synths with driving drums. It's a great coming together of the physical and the emotional that will take dance
floors to the next level. 'Analog Dreams' shuts down with more perfectly smoky pads and grainy lo-fi atmospheres as
slick but driving drums power onwards.
Cuddling Monsters ‘Cuddling Monsters_CM Vol. 01’ releases via MASK 29th March 2024.





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