Through the medium of a distinctly synthesised, sustained ambience, seasoned artist and composer Jasmine Guffond arrives on OOH to explore the tension between technology and human creativity in an increasingly ambiguous playing field. Alien Intelligence came into being during Guffond's residency at fabled Parisian institution GRM in 2021. While learning how to generate sound and make music with the in-house Serge modular synthesiser, the Australian artist noticed the typical role of human input for machine output was being subverted by the behaviour of certain electronic elements, which came to exercise their own influences on the direction of the music. Taking this idea one step further, Guffond proceeded to explore the programming environment MaxMSP, a customisable interface which allowed her to blur the lines between human input and machine directives even further. Across the three extended pieces which make up Alien Intelligence you can hear the results of Guffond's inquisitive approach as she coaxed the machines into bringing their own ideas to bear on the music. The tension inherent in this thematic duality is mirrored by the contrast between glacial ambience and chaotic interference across the album

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Multidisciplinary artist Jermay Michael Gabriel and producer Giovanni Isgrò team up as Plethor X to present a debut EP of anti-colonial resistance, an unfolding experiment in self-determination.

Colonial trauma has no linear trajectory, and neither does memory. It seeps and sinks into the fibres without a temporal pattern, crossing generations, back and forth between past, present and future. Plethor X channel the multifaceted dimensions of such phenomena, exorcising trauma through sound, embracing cultural legacies and collective memories as a form of healing.

The driving force behind the record is the Habesha musical tradition, distinctive of Jermay's childhood - samples of the masinko, an Ethiopian and Eritrean one-stringed instrument, are used extensively - transposed into rhythmic structures onto which Isgrò playfully grafts elements of footwork, ghetto house, as well as gqom and singeli—a space-time gateway of complicity and experimentation.

Plethor X's soundscapes are Afro-futurist ecosystems of explicit messages—'Don't use the N word' is distinctly heard in 'Negro'—coalesced with frenzied percussive textures built through destruction. With 'Bet' we experience Muna Mussie's hypnotic recitation of Tigrinya words drawn from a set of nursery rhymes and words emblematic of Eritrean culture. The voice of Mussie, who shares the same origins as Jermay, serves here as a vehicle to express a certain identity melancholia, the repetitive mode sounding like a soothing process of reconciliation. PAN-affiliated producer STILL makes his own contribution by reworking Plethor X's material in 'Fendika', raising the rhythmic tension with his signature colourful, plugged-in dancehall style.

That with Europe is a bridge to an indefensible continent, with a predatory, plundering nature, sold as 'civilisation'. In 'What You Mean', Isgrò and Jermay conspire against their own Eurocentrism, regurgitating it from within.

?Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, cover-art by Jermay Michael Gabriel, photo by Jim C. Nedd, layout by incepBOY.

?Limited Edition of 100, 140gr. black vinyl, Includes instant download code.

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Craig Clouse has devoted the past several decades to exploring a wide range of avant-garde avenues for his brainchild Shit & Shine. The monolithic riffs of raw and powerful psych'n'roll hysteria, the freeform dance miasma, sub-heavy electronica and the blissful stupidity crafted for ecstatic ascension: all perfectly-placed in the idiosyncratic world of Shit & Shine. There's also fertile soil for twisted noises in their lowest form, often obscured by groovier comrades in S&S releases yet vitally important for the substance of Clouse's compositional carcass and OOH-sounds has given him the required space to stretch out his longtime interest in developing loose structures and crackling landscapes to transcend his rhythmic comfort zone. Making an enthusiastic transgression into noisy tones, "Joy Of Joys" has a friendly way of presenting difficult material. The rough and ready cheapo electronics sparkle in full electrifying mode, welding an ascetic gamut of aural hypnotics with a wormhole of uncompromising loop brut. Clanks, bangs, twangs and creeping, ragged globs of sound bloom on the bones of repetition to focus on the swinging stream of dirty anarchy. Stepping out of any context and genre disciplines, S&S finds new sonic trajectories in "Joy Of Joys" which perfectly sit in-between a wobbly cabal of international sub-underground acts: the idiot-avant strategies of LAFMS, early Mego bad digitalia, no-brow enthusiasm of Wolf Eyes family, micro-DIY ethos of Chocolate Monk and the sheer hellish nonsense of US noise circa '00s. Clouse was already established as a landscape painter with a series of faux naïf paintings charmingly accompanying his releases. With his heart full of passion for abstract minimalism, he continued these narrative forms but was always in search of the confidence to paint non-figurative art. The first step into the chaotic abyss is coming from his sonic side by abandoning the beat and riff layers of his previous works to complete nakedness and reductionist courage. At once Clouse makes an evolutionary lurch into extremes as well as taking us back to basic forms in "Joy Of Joys". He creates an entire new parallel world to Shit & Shine with his maverick imagination presenting us with one of the most mutant releases to bear his name. [Arthur Kuzmin]

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'Peace is where the real chaos begins…..we've been "normalised" for so long' (SY) An entanglement of sound, embodying euphony and noise, control and disorder. The conventional practice of producing and listening to music often tends to conceal and immobilise the multiplicity, the deviations, and the more unusual aspects of acoustic phenomena, in order to preserve an economical artistic perception. But what if we were to fuel spontaneity and embrace a pluralistic vision, by accepting the impossibility of absolute creative competency? Perhaps we would produce material that not only confronts the prospect of failure but actively accommodates it, as a viable aesthetic framework. dScott Young's work is an attempt to unlearn certain 'normalized' approaches to sound, representing a jolt to the system, a wild construction of invention and misdirection, one that reconnects us with the value of disarrangement. The non-hierarchical layering of sound and image on 'Post Peace' defies linearity and rationality. On the collaborative composition 'Tuck', written with Manchester based artist Joe Beedles, the two create music in reverse, inspired by a fictitious review written about the self-same piece. This sense of freeform originality is mirrored by the intimate portraits that Italo-Australian visual artist Rebecca Salvadori has produced for the artwork. A series of autonomous forms that transcend straightforward classification. Unerringly raw yet mature, Young's music evolves as an organic cycle, encompassing spry, cerebral, dub-inflected dynamics. Full of duality and enterprise, never conclusive. On 'Post Peace', there's freedom in forgetting what you know.

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Limited edition gold colour vinyl reissue with bonus 7" single to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this smashing album from Germany's finest funk ensemble. 11 cinematic deep funk instrumentals, celebrated b-boy breaks and vocal dancefloor killers with special guests Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk, Deejay Snoop, DJ Hektek, Donald D., DeRobert, Nichola Richards, Peter Thomas, Guillaume Metenier & Shawn Lee.

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Smoove is one of the most prolific and consistent producers in the UK, whether writing and producing for his Geordie soul outfit Smoove & Turrell, as the producer behind the highly prized multi track vinyl re-edits series or indeed the remixer de jour for a whole host of hip hop, soul and funk artists. Apart from Smoove & Turrell, his first solo outing on Jalapeno Records was a compilation of some of his finest remixes all collated together in one very DJ friendly package entitled 'First Class'. The postal theme continued to the second collection – 2019's 'Recorded Delivery' and through some miracle of continuity, lo and behold it continues into a third collection titled 'Heavy Goods'. This time round there's some truly killer cuts from the likes of Betty Black & the Family Fortune, Emma Noble, Kraak & Smaak, Izo FitzRoy, The High & Mighty and Bahama Soul Club. All of which get a healthy sprinkle of the Smoove production magic.

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