Currently based in Los Angeles, Laurel Halo has spent over a decade stepping into different towns and cities for a moment or more, to the point where everywhere almost became nowhere. Atlas, the debut release on her new imprint Awe, is an attempt to put that feeling to music. Using both electronic and acoustic instrumentation, Halo has created a potent set of sensual ambient jazz collages, comprised of orchestral clouds, shades of modal harmony, hidden sonic details, and detuned, hallucinatory textures. The music functions as a series of maps, for places real and imaginary, and for expressing the unsaid. More

Currently based in Los Angeles, Laurel Halo has spent over a decade stepping into different towns and cities for a moment or more, to the point where everywhere almost became nowhere. Atlas, the debut release on her new imprint Awe, is an attempt to put that feeling to music. Using both electronic and acoustic instrumentation, Halo has created a potent set of sensual ambient jazz collages, comprised of orchestral clouds, shades of modal harmony, hidden sonic details, and detuned, hallucinatory textures. The music functions as a series of maps, for places real and imaginary, and for expressing the unsaid. More

Laurel Halo presents an album’s worth of score provided for the 2018 essay film Possessed, by artist collective Metahaven and Rob Schröder, produced by Dutch Mountain Film. The film was nominated for the IFFR Tiger award and the CPH:Dox New Vision Award in 2018. Her first foray into writing music for screen, the album provides a rich variety of sounds, from aqueous, subterranean drones, to plaintive folk pieces for violin and cello, to uncanny pseudoclassical piano mutations. The soundtrack traverses both the synthetic and acoustic, in keeping with the film’s tension between what is natural and unnatural. Opening track Hyphae unfolds like the titular fungal network, spreading and extending indelibly; the various Rome Themes all motivic in their romantic yearning; the surreal piano of Marbles pointing towards the recurrent image of void like black marbles, all knocking against one another, but never touching. Zeljava, named after the abandoned former Yugoslavian military air base featured in the film, is a central piece for it’s resonant, wrenching quality, like a perpetually arched back. In a nod to film music tradition a simple rendition of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater is also included in the collection. More

The 68th edition of the DJ-Kicks mix series is another landmark one, with experimental producer Laurel Halo taking the reins. The American's adventurous 28 track trip features seven exclusives, including two of her own plus those from Rrose, Machinewoman, FIT Siegel, Nick León and Ikonika. An electronic outlier, Halo hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but has been based in Berlin for a number of years. Landing on labels like Hyperdub, Honest Jon's and Latency, Halo has released a body of work ranging in style, yet cohered by production and compositional tendencies that sound distinctly her own. Her studio work tends to be a multi-layered mix of the electronic and the acoustic, the organic and the synthetic. As a DJ, meanwhile, she lays down more floor focussed mixes of techno, bass and worldly drum rhythms, and her live sets are similarly visceral and direct. Halo's DJ-kicks packs a lot in to just 60 minutes. It kicks off with the first of two of her own exclusives, 'Public Art', a tactile piano loop that sets the melodic tone of the mix in focus. Crunchy drums soon take over and begin what is a blistering ride through electro, trippy minimalism and textures that range from icy and dubby to steel plated and sharp from the likes of Red Axes, Parris and an exclusive from Rrose. Another exclusive, rough and ready cut from Machinewoman follows, before the mid section twists and turns on surging drum patterns, frantic industrial textures and spaced out gqom sounds from the likes of Griffit Vigo, Dario Zenker and Final Cut. This is a mix forever on the move: one minute its tightly coiled and kinetic, the next it's loose and joyful before switching into more cerebral and insular passages that keep you intrigued. Fusing together so many disparate sounds and textures is no mean feat, but like everything Halo does, here they all add up to something as thrilling and edgy as it is unpredictable and compelling.
CD Tracklisting
01 Laurel Halo - Public Art ** 02 Stallone the Reducer - Always Hate 03 Red Axes - 5 min (feat. CAR) 04 Parris - Puro Rosaceae 05 Rrose - Cricoid Pressure ** 06 Machinewoman - Just Made Some Jazz Music ** 07 WCC - Ana 08 FIT Siegel - Pennyrut ** 09 Yamaoka - Plastic PQ 10 Siete Catorce - Canto 11 Facta - Poliwhirl 12 Laurel Halo & Hodge - The Light Within You 13 Ikonika - Bodied ** 14 Griffit Vigo - A.C.I.D (Electronic Gqom Mix) 15 Panda Lassow - Lachowa 16 Dario Zenker - Koraimer Bro 17 Final Cut - Temptation 18 Aos - Violent Light 19 Geoffrey Landers - Brian's Having a Party 20 Via Maris - Side Effects 21 Laurel Halo - Oneiroi 22 Nick León - Pelican Dub ** 23 Stefan Ringer - Lust 24 Kirk The Flirt - Loser 25 Laurel Halo - Sweetie (DJ-Kicks) ** 26 Blake Baxter - Funky World (Blake Baxter Remix) 27 Kiki Kudo - Freakey Keke 28 Group A - Ketabali 29 Whitefield Brothers - Ntu More

The 68th edition of the DJ-Kicks mix series is another landmark one, with experimental producer Laurel Halo taking the reins. The American's adventurous 28 track trip features seven exclusives, including two of her own plus those from Rrose, Machinewoman, FIT Siegel, Nick León and Ikonika. An electronic outlier, Halo hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but has been based in Berlin for a number of years. Landing on labels like Hyperdub, Honest Jon's and Latency, Halo has released a body of work ranging in style, yet cohered by production and compositional tendencies that sound distinctly her own. Her studio work tends to be a multi-layered mix of the electronic and the acoustic, the organic and the synthetic. As a DJ, meanwhile, she lays down more floor focussed mixes of techno, bass and worldly drum rhythms, and her live sets are similarly visceral and direct. Halo's DJ-kicks packs a lot in to just 60 minutes. It kicks off with the first of two of her own exclusives, 'Public Art', a tactile piano loop that sets the melodic tone of the mix in focus. Crunchy drums soon take over and begin what is a blistering ride through electro, trippy minimalism and textures that range from icy and dubby to steel plated and sharp from the likes of Red Axes, Parris and an exclusive from Rrose. Another exclusive, rough and ready cut from Machinewoman follows, before the mid section twists and turns on surging drum patterns, frantic industrial textures and spaced out gqom sounds from the likes of Griffit Vigo, Dario Zenker and Final Cut. This is a mix forever on the move: one minute its tightly coiled and kinetic, the next it's loose and joyful before switching into more cerebral and insular passages that keep you intrigued. Fusing together so many disparate sounds and textures is no mean feat, but like everything Halo does, here they all add up to something as thrilling and edgy as it is unpredictable and compelling.

A1 Laurel Halo - Public Art ** A2 Parris - Puro Rosaceae A3 Rrose - Cricoid Pressure ** B1 Machinewoman - Just Made Some Jazz Music ** B2 FIT Siegel - Pennyrut ** B3 Siete Catorce - Canto C1 Ikonika - Bodied ** C2 Panda Lassow - Lachowa C3 Nick León - Pelican Dub ** D1 Stefan Ringer - Lust D2 Laurel Halo - Sweetie (DJ-Kicks) ** D3 Group A - Ketabali More

Following on from her much-lauded debut album ‘Quarantine’ on Hyperdub released earlier in the year, Laurel Halo concludes both the year and the drama explored in ‘Quarantine’ with this new single 'Sunlight On The Faded'. Where ‘Quarantine’ was dense and beatless, layered and visceral with vocals cutting through intense soundscapes, 'Sunlight On The Faded' is energized and geometric, with lush chords built around hard, sparse drums and Laurel's harmonized vocals. The claustrophobic motifs explored on ‘Quarantine’ remain, but here they are turned inside out, incandescent and fleeting. Choked samples and illusory FX support the vocal phrases, the lyrics hinting at a resolution from the pain of the album’s themes, and a hopefulness too. The b-side dub is a deep exploration, again reflecting the soundscapes of ‘Quarantine’ but ramping up the intensity with simultaneously tense and lithe drum patterns. The chords of the original are broken by gaseous blooms, distortion detail work and rhythmic FX, allowing them to breathe and bounce in and out of the track, pivoting around a sinister, bassy dub techno pulse. Like the original take, the dub version is equal parts dark and positive, both ideal for late nights and early mornings.

More

Kode9's most ambitious work yet as a multi-disciplinary artist, `Escapology' is the soundtrack album to the sonic fiction `Astro-Darien', itself soon to be released on Hyperdub sub-label Flatlines. Already available as a special edition CD and digital album, we now offer a 1000 piece limited pressing on lucent orange vinyl, in spot-gloss sleeve with additional artwork by Optigram. `Escapology' reconfigures `Astro-Darien's tense, off-world atmospheres into slices of high definition, asymmetric club rhythms, woven through thrilling sound design and vertiginous sonics. "A record brimming with ideas and novel sounds, departing from genre exercises to offer something genuinely different." - Album of the Month -DJ Mag "[Kode9's] most dextrous and intuitive club music yet, full of mind-bending rhythmic nuggets. He's still the brilliant master behind the scenes, quietly one-upping everyone else." - Resident Advisor "The 15 tracks become proper dancefloor scorchers _ `Escapology' builds a futuristic jumble of aesthetics and sound design." - The Wire More

180g vinyl. The sublime three-track EP 'Streetlands' is the follow up to 2022's 'ANTIDAWN'. The EP incorporates 35 minutes of transcendent music in three new pieces.

TRACKLIST
1. HOSPITAL CHAPEL
2. STREETLANDS
3. EXOKIND More

'Antidawn' reduces Burial's music to just the vapours. The record explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world game-space ambience. In the resulting no man's land, lyrics take precedence over song, lonely phrases colour the haze, a stark and fragmented structure makes time slow down. `Antidawn' seems to tell a story of a wintertime city, and something beckoning you to follow it into the night. The result is both comforting and disturbing, producing a quiet and uncanny glow against the cold. Sometimes, as it enters 'a bad place', it takes your breath away. And time just stops.

TRACKLISTING: 01. STRANGE NEIGHBOURHOOD 02. ANTIDAWN 03. SHADOW PARADISE 04. NEW LOVE 05. UPSTAIRS FLAT More

‘Chemz’ is hooky, rushy and loved-up - both an unhinged premonition of unleashed post-pandemic joy, and a demonic flashback to past ecstasies in a hardcore style perfected in the UK. ‘Chemz’ is a 12 minute rave monster that has ingested several tracks and incorporated them into its distended body. At the other end of the Burial bi-polar spectrum, ‘Dolphinz’ is a desolate oceanic love letter to
our underwater friends.

Tracklist:
A. Chemz [12:31]
B. Dolphinz [09:03]
More

TRACKLIST

01. AROUND ME
02. COME
03. DESTROY ME
04. BLOOD
05. IN 2 U
06. LEVITATING

#2:
01. FOREVER
02. BLUE TO BLACK
03. TAKE
04. NO RETURN
05. YOU
06. END IN BLUE

The Bug aka Kevin Martin, and producer/vocalist Dis Fig aka Felicia Chen, refer to their style on `In Blue' as "Tunnel Sound"; a foggy, melancholic meltdown of narco-dancehall-soul and dread-drenched, electronic dub. The 2018 prototype rhythms for this album were a continuation of Martin's ongoing quest for a futuristic dancehall mutation, but more sci-fi, aquatic and smokey than before. An obsessive search for the right sultry 2AM voice to ride his syncopated walls of sub, fuzzed out white noise and infinite echoes eventually led him to Dis Fig's torched soul-jazz glow, and 20 months of subsequent lab exchanges have resulted in the deeply sensual pulsations and lyrical long shadows of `In Blue' - an album that shares shades of King Midas Sound's wrecked lovers rock, alongside the bass immersion that The Bug has become infamously known for. Just as Martin took a stylistic swerve on `In Blue', so did Chen. Previously known for experimental noise onslaughts and emotional exorcisms, she opts here for threatening intimacy and hushed confessionals, concentrating on bittersweet vocals and seductive surprises that are all the more potent for their inferred narratives and delicate delivery. Mixed during lockdown, the sense of claustrofear, escapism and tension throughout is palpable. With the bewitching croon of Dis Fig directing the flow, carnality and violence merge under the turbulent, cinematic surface of an hypnotically addictive album.
More

TRACKLIST

01. AROUND ME
02. COME
03. DESTROY ME
04. BLOOD
05. IN 2 U
06. LEVITATING

2:
01. FOREVER
02. BLUE TO BLACK
03. TAKE
04. NO RETURN
05. YOU
06. END IN BLUE




The Bug aka Kevin Martin, and producer/vocalist Dis Fig aka Felicia Chen, refer to their style on `In Blue' as "Tunnel Sound"; a foggy, melancholic meltdown of narco-dancehall-soul and dread-drenched, electronic dub. The 2018 prototype rhythms for this album were a continuation of Martin's ongoing quest for a futuristic dancehall mutation, but more sci-fi, aquatic and smokey than before. An obsessive search for the right sultry 2AM voice to ride his syncopated walls of sub, fuzzed out white noise and infinite echoes eventually led him to Dis Fig's torched soul-jazz glow, and 20 months of subsequent lab exchanges have resulted in the deeply sensual pulsations and lyrical long shadows of `In Blue' - an album that shares shades of King Midas Sound's wrecked lovers rock, alongside the bass immersion that The Bug has become infamously known for. Just as Martin took a stylistic swerve on `In Blue', so did Chen. Previously known for experimental noise onslaughts and emotional exorcisms, she opts here for threatening intimacy and hushed confessionals, concentrating on bittersweet vocals and seductive surprises that are all the more potent for their inferred narratives and delicate delivery. Mixed during lockdown, the sense of claustrofear, escapism and tension throughout is palpable. With the bewitching croon of Dis Fig directing the flow, carnality and violence merge under the turbulent, cinematic surface of an hypnotically addictive album.
More

Two new tracks by Burial, rendered in his singular ambient style. Total running time of seventeen minutes and thirteen seconds.

More

So, here’s the information for Burial’s new single. Two new pieces named ‘Young Death’ and ‘Nightmarket’, just over 13 minutes total running time on 180g 12” vinyl, catalogue number HDB100, dealer price £4.99, barcode number 5055300386526, release date 30/11/2016. And right now, that’s a secret (but no longer) There won’t be any advance publicity for this release, no teaser announcement, no audio “leaks”, no nuthin'

More

Zomby's new album is his most focussed to date. His ultra-modern music has a unique character, and 'Ultra' really displays his ability to create varied and detailed mutations. On 'Ultra' he warps discordant Eski grime (‘Burst’, ‘Freeze’, ’Yeti’), creates dreamlike blooms on ’Her’ and ‘Thaw’, and builds crystalline music box takes on house and 2step on ‘Glass’ and ‘I’. Zomby also collaborates on the album with Darkstar, Rezzett, Banshee, Burial and HKE. These all throw up unpredictable fusions and immaculate fissions. Housed in red metallic mirriboard with debossed graphics, while the vinyl is additionally enclosed in spot-varnished hi-gloss card inner bags., designed by Ben Drury, reflecting the glow of Zomby's music. TRACKLIST : A1. Reflection A2. Burst A3. Fly 2 [ Zomby & Banshee ] B1. E.S.P. B2. I B3. Glass C1. Sweetz [ Zomby & Burial ] C2. Her C3. Quandary [ Zomby & Darkstar ] D1. Freeze D2. Yeti D3. S.D.Y.F. [ Zomby & Rezzett ] D4. Thaw

More

Zomby's new album is his most focussed to date. His ultra-modern music has a unique character, and 'Ultra' really displays his ability to create varied and detailed mutations. On 'Ultra' he warps discordant Eski grime (‘Burst’, ‘Freeze’, ’Yeti’), creates dreamlike blooms on ’Her’ and ‘Thaw’, and builds crystalline music box takes on house and 2step on ‘Glass’ and ‘I’. Zomby also collaborates on the album with Darkstar, Rezzett, Banshee, Burial and HKE. These all throw up unpredictable fusions and immaculate fissions. Housed in red metallic mirriboard with debossed graphics, while the vinyl is additionally enclosed in spot-varnished hi-gloss card inner bags., designed by Ben Drury, reflecting the glow of Zomby's music. TRACKLIST : A1. Reflection A2. Burst A3. Fly 2 [ Zomby & Banshee ] B1. E.S.P. B2. I B3. Glass C1. Sweetz [ Zomby & Burial ] C2. Her C3. Quandary [ Zomby & Darkstar ] D1. Freeze D2. Yeti D3. S.D.Y.F. [ Zomby & Rezzett ] D4. Thaw

More

Long time mutual admirers, Zomby and Burial get together for this one-sided white label taken from Zomby’s forthcoming album 'Ultra’, with probably the most toxic track from either of their back catalogues to date. Limited to 5000 copies of which we have 3000 for the UK.

More

Her first release since last year's ‘Wait Til’ Night' album, which featured synths and live instruments meshed with Cooly's vocals, this EP by contrast presents five tracks of house music, the Cooly G way : stripped down to the essentials, dark, and built for maximum soundsystem impact. These tunes have a steely grid more common to techno, but at house's slower pace. Kicking off is the moody 'Trippin B', with a spiralling three note bassline and a quick dubbed out sample of Cooly's voice, over tough rolling drums, finessing the art of keeping it simple and effective. ‘Booboo’ is all shivery male / female vocal samples and slip-sliding drum patterns that subtly warp and transition. 'Flange City' runs a see-sawing acidic five note scale over shaky, spacious claps, a rolling drum pattern and a deep sub bass kick. ‘Waybay’ featuring Marc Perrineau is the most straight-up track here, a spooky dive into scratchy, scissoring rhythms, with a subtle panning melody over dubby bass. 'Horrors In The Dance' is a wild workout, with strange shapes thrown across bouncing drums that stop and start, build and drop with dub sirens thrown into the deep spaces in between. ‘Armz House’ is powerful and direct return to the dancefloor for Cooly G. A1. Trippin B A2. Booboo B1. Flange City B2. Waybay ft Marc Perrineau B3. Horrors In The Dance

More

The ‘6613’ EP from DJ Rashad's vaults will be released just over a year after his untimely passing, with all the proceeds going to his family. Some of these songs will be familiar to anyone who saw Rashad DJ. The first are two really upbeat, rolling juke tracks; ‘CCP2’ has breezy worldless vocals chopped and diced over a rolling claps and kicks, and 'Cause I Know U Feel', with Gant-Man, chops a longing vocal refrain into a delirious frenzy of unexpected shapes, over pounding kicks and toms as a warm synth swells up. The vocals recede towards the end leaving just a synth glow. 'Ya Hot', with Taso, chops and changes rhythms, dipping into half speed trap, to rolling 4/4 and into more offbeat patterns, while a hectic, bleeping melody bangs out in contrast, almost as if its tracing the pattern of dancing feet. 'Do Not Fuck' is a paranoid 'footwork as a virtual panic attack' track, drawing fxs through a tunnel of accelerated bleeps, the only constant being a deadly serious guitar breakdown, a deep bass tone and the warning words of the title. The energy of DJ Rashad will remain strong through his music.A1. CCP2 [ft DJ Spinn] A2. Cause I Know U Feel [ft Gant-Man] B1. Ya Hot [ft Taso] B2. Do Not Fuck [ft DJ Manny, DJ Spinn and Taso]

More

Jessy Lanza meets the Teklife crew on this sultry EP, with DJ Spinn and Taso's first-released RnB track, and a Teklife footwork remix with assistance from the late DJ Rashad. The main mix is a dejected confessional slow jam with Jessy's plaintive vocal sitting in the middle of spiralling drums and teardrop-like chords, a gentle guitar refrain dropping in at the end like a comforting hand on the shoulder. Following an instrumental version, the Teklife mix doubles the tempo, switching the gentleness to deliver an interpretation that touches on tense anger, with the sweeping chords the track is built on snapping into shivering shapes, as strings simmer in the background, building the tension. Also included is Bambounou's remix of 'Fuck Diamond', a track on Jessy's ‘Pull My Hair Back’ debut album, which appears here on vinyl for the first time after an initial CD-only release last year on the ‘Hyperdub 10.4’ compilation). Bambounou transforms it into a rough drum machine workout, leaving sparse elements of the original in place - a splash of vocal and a held chord - building a dynamic trance that slips and slides in and out of different patterns. A1. You Never Show Your Love A2. You Never Show Your Love (Instrumental) B1. You Never Show Your Love (Teklife Mix ft DJ Rashad) B2. Fuck Diamond (Bambounou Remix)

More