Avid Fan steps up with his first release on Absolute Music, delivering the goods with this double A side of rolling and grinding Dn’B. Teeth propels itself along with morphing mids and hypnotic bongos that make your head nod whilst Slapstick adds and subtracts elements on top of the track’s layer of deep sub. Pure DJ material.

Limited to 100 copies. More

Eaux proudly announces a new collaborative mini-album from label boss Rrose and Polygonia. Containing six tracks and over 40 minutes of music housed in a fully printed sleeve with artwork by Jon-Paul Villegas, the record focuses squarely on the dancefloor while infusing it with the kinds of psychoactive drones, intricate polyrhythms, and relentless modulations that have come to identify both of their approaches to sound. Featured heavily are their shared interests in sonic shapes that resemble natural forms and conjure tactile feelings, in this case related to themes of skin-like surfaces and circulatory systems experienced simultaneously on a micro and macro level. While several of the tracks hover in a flexible tempo range between 125 and 130 bpm, "Stretcher" reaches up to 142, and the closing track "Vena Cava" trades the kick drums for spectrally processed percussion and endlessly diverging high-frequency pulses. The story behind the release starts in 2022, when Rrose reached out to Polygonia after noticing that her tracks were appearing in their sets more frequently than any other artist. Never before had Rrose proposed a collaboration with someone they hadn't met before, but there was such an obvious connection in their approach to sound that it felt necessary. As it turns out, Polygonia had only become interested in techno after hearing Rrose perform at a festival in 2018. It all made sense, and they began sharing sketches and unfinished ideas with each other, trading them back and forth until they reached completion. Without any announcement of their collaboration, the two artists have since been asked to share the stage together several times. It seems there are other people out there sensing a connection... More

Pearson Sound returns to his Hessle Audio label with Which Way Is Up, a 4 track EP showcasing a range of textures and tempos with soundsystem pressure as the anchor. The 808-laced 'Hornet' kicks things off with a sound palette inspired as much by '80s Miami as '10s London. 'Twister' dials up the energy with a jagged lead and scattered breakbeats pulling in opposing directions, while the steppers pulse of 'Slingshot' evokes formative experiences at Subdub in Leeds. The EP is brought to a close with the blissed out title track 'Which Way Is Up', whose arpeggios dance around each other until they fizzle to breaking point. Support from Mala, Mary Anne Hobbs, Joy Orbison and more. More

Fat Freddy’s Drop hit the ground running with new studio album SLO MO, a bass-heavy blast of redemption and resolution. Described by Fitchie as 'afro rhythmic soul music, an exploration of Black music from Polynesia’, this heady mix creates the undefinable Freddy’s sound.

Tracklist
1.1Avengers
1.2Slo Mo
1.3Next Stop Feat Mc Slave
1.4Stand Straight
2.1Oldemos
2.2Out To Sea
2.3Roland
2.4Getting Late
2.5I Don't Wanna See You


Listen: https://listen.k7.com/dd479405-914a-477c-89d4-2634c122f703 More

Tracklisting
A1 Viels - Nero
A2 ORBE - Rigging
B1 Mary Yuzovskaya - Trouble
B2 D-Leria - Battito

Sales Note
"The seventh Various Artists release on Mary Yuzovskaya's Monday Off imprint arrives on vinyl in October 2024, with Viels, ORBE, D-Leria, and Yuzovskaya contributing tracks.
First up on the record, Italy's End Of Perception founder Viels conjures up a storm with 'Nero', a cerebral cut with crushing, low-end-heavy atmospheres and mysterious alien signals. It is followed by Spanish techno lynchpin and Orbe Records boss ORBE, whose hypnotic 'Rigging' explores the abyss with foreboding sonics and a continual beep sequence that guides the track forward.

On the B-side, Monday Off label head Mary Yuzovskaya presents 'Trouble'. A masterful bassline and bodied kickdrum starts the trip, providing an excellent foundation while alternating between rattling percussion, deep dub hits, and strangely familiar but indecipherable vocal snippets. Sound design wizard D-Leria then closes out the EP with the spellbinding 'Battito', complete with mind-blowing melodies and swirling effects, rounding off another top-draw psychedelic offering on Monday Off. More

Sundial is the leftfield division of Vargmal Records showcasing the outer edges of sound and bringing forward artists who push the boundaries. For the birth of this endeavor, Jay Glass Dubs commences the project’s take-off with the six-track LP, ‘Resurgence’. The prolific Greek producer, whose explorations exercise a distinctive take on dub music, releases his new album on September 27th.

‘Resurgence’ is shaped by a perennial sonic stream of abstract dub formations. Within this elevated, desert-like plane, doused by the energy of the sun-heated strings, the hypnotic repercussions maintain an unaltered mood equilibrium of forbearance, stabilizing a majestic inner poise. Throughout this spiritual expedition, crystalline sounds render an effect of prismatic granularity, decorating further the slow self-awakening with their abundance.

Confidently, Jay Glass Dubs, with compositional prowess as a compass in his palm, leads the way through his genuine, vast field of soothing enchantments. By fulfilling promises of meditative deliverance, ‘Resurgence’, in its immersive entirety, cleanses with therapeutic waters, a compassionate core of introspectiveness and essential purity.? More

The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now, a ritualistic and expanding collaborative album between Holy Tongue and Shackleton.
Holy Tongue is Al Wootton, Valentina Magaletti and Susumu Mukai and they have collaborated with Shackleton to create free-form, high energy, spiritual dub-dance music. More

Repress soon!

As mood changers go, this track is up there with the best. Last year whilst DJing with miche at Shapes festival in the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland, a breathtaking yet ominous Alpine sky suddenly became a picture postcard moment. The clouds parted and a double rainbow formed, as miche dropped Studio Rio's bossa nova remake of Bill Withers’ all-time classic 'Lovely Day'. From there, the dancefloor shifted gears and morphed into full-swing feel-good vibes, in a beautiful, spontaneous moment nobody could have planned for.

Mr Bongo now proudly presents a reissue of this brilliant, bossa-channelling Bill Withers reinterpretation from Studio Rio’s 2014 release ‘The Brazil Connection’. Masterminded by the German, Grammy award-winning Berman Brothers, the project was born out of their deep love of Brazilian music. “Our goal was to bring the Brazilian joie de vivre to iconic performances by well-known artists. What would these classic songs sound like had they been recorded in the studios of Rio de Janeiro in the first place, with the best Brazilian musicians and arrangers?” the brothers reflect.

Capturing the life force of Brazil, the beating heart that is its music, they set out to find the musicians who would fit best with their concept. Landing in Rio in 2013 a series of coincidences led to them being introduced to their idols Marcos Valle and Roberto Menescal, who both agreed to come on board. The Berman Brothers also wanted to find some of the musicians who recorded with one of Brazil’s most influential composers Tom Jobim. “Fifty years after Jobim made the music that really defines bossa nova, we found that many of his sidemen were still active, including Paulo Braga of Jobim’s famed rhythm section. It was magic; everything just fell into place.”

There's no question that the original of ‘Lovely Day’ is up there as one of the most feel-good, spirit-lifting anthems of all time. Here the brothers, with the help of a whole host of Brazil’s finest musicians, rework Bill’s soul-fuelled groove into a bossa nova slice of sunshine. With the blessing of Bill and Sony, they were given access to the original multitracks so they could incorporate Bill’s vocals perfectly into the new arrangement.

Joy-injected horns and bouncing double bass blend with the smile-inducing samba flavour of Pretinho da Serrinha’s cavaquinho playing. Tying it all together Torcuato Marinao who worked with the likes of Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, completes the line-up as arranger of the songs.

The perfect end-of-the-night track, mood lifter or soul warmer, remakes don’t get much better than this. More

Discover Backbone (Remixes) by Bestial Mouths, electrifying remixes that blend darkwave, industrial, and post-punk elements. With haunting vocals, pulsating beats, and eerie synths, this release delivers an intense and immersive sonic experience. More

In 2007 an Italian film festival invites Mouse on Mars to score a film of their choice. The organizers claim to be able to clear the rights for any movie the band chooses. Werner Herzog’s fictional documentary Fata Morgana, which merges footage of several desert explorations by Herzog and his team into one continuous association, has long been a band’s favorite. The film comes with a soundtrack by Mozart, Leonard Cohen, Third Ear Band and field recordings. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner are sent a DVD to Düsseldorf and start working. The idea is to score the film in real time so instrumentation has to be readily at hand: guitar, percussion, electronics, mouth harp, pedals, software, tapes, samplers. Once the arrangement for the three-part film is sorted Mouse on Mars bring their score to stage. Herzog Sessions is performed twice: first when the band still thought the rights had been cleared, and a second time at London’s Southbank Center knowing that Herzog would have never approved a new score.

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Mouse On Mars – London Queen Elizabeth Hall soundtracking Werner Herzog.
By Mike Diver, 24.04.2009

Filmed in 1971, Fata Morgana is perhaps not one of Herzog’s best-known works (think Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn, et cetera…), but then Mouse on Mars have never been ones to embrace the mainstream, quietly letting their modern, experimental take on krautrock do the talking over the years, thus producing some quietly brilliant electronica that far outweighs their modest profile.

The film itself is not altogether dissimilar to the wonderful, Phillip Glass-scored Koyaanisqatsi, with sweeping landscape shots and no obvious plot or narrative, though Fata is concentrated purely in one place – in and around the Sahara Desert, switching from images of barren wasteland to desert tribes and dead, skeletal cattle.

The obvious thing to do when soundtracking such powerful imagery is to vie for dreamy electronic soundscapes which can be sustained for a long period, and whilst this ambient shoegaze approach was present and correct (also carefully constructed and highly effective), Mouse on Mars added a human element to the performance, incorporating a live dimension by using and looping guitars, harmonicas, processed vocals and even a live horn player (quite possibly a flugelhorn. Look it up if you don’t believe me) for the final section of the film.

Some of the most interesting points arose when the duo suddenly switched from solemn, ambient tones to glitchy, bouncing electro (reminiscent of their more upbeat work) whilst on the same film shot – causing the audience mood to flick from tripped-out bliss to attentive semi-wired, utterly subverting any idea of a narrative the film may have possessed. Clever stuff.

Ranging from sinister to surreal to humorous, all the moods portrayed in Fata Morgana were successfully matched by Mouse on Mars’ live rescore – no mean feat. The duo also went above and beyond the call of duty with their own soundtrack, adding a fascinating personal signature to an already unique film. More