Afrikan Sciences carry the torch and grant the sight. This is his second offering for the ESP Institute. On the A side, 'The New Dun Language' shows us the meaning of loose. Literally everything about this masterpiece takes its time and operates in its own space, rhythms work together but stand apart, timbres inherently laidback are made aggressively present, like the diffused attack of a shaker that’s shook with such purpose it’s no longer granular but razor sharp. The soundstage drops all around you like percussion shrapnel, splitting your attention every which way, while the string lines remind you that no matter how deep inside your head you’ve gone, there is always a nearby exit to the comforts of familiarity. Flip the record over, however, and the track 'In His Convenient Way' will even further discombobulate your sense of self. Do you have dreams you’re on a merry-go-round and with each revolution you try to hop off, but you can’t? Each time you cycle around, the tension grows and grows? Well, this is like that, menacing but not dark, a demented odyssey through an impossibly thick swamp where you swear the trees are whispering to you but can’t quite understand their language, yet still you manage to communicate. As the time passes, and you near end of the track, the impenetrable veil slowly lifts and you realize you’ve been in control all along. These two songs will two songs will help to contemplate, heal and transcend. More

Afrikan Sciences hold time in one hand and space in the other. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A’s 'Have It Tall' boasts the characteristics of an improvised jam session. Tipped-off in a theme of rapid-fire percussion and an innocent chord progression, each instrument ventures into its own loosely carved space, allowing squelching sporatic bursts of bassline, rhodes piano twinkles and a frenetic funky drummer pattern that haphazardly cuts in and out, to coexist without ever stepping on one another’s toes. The production is simultaneously aggressive and mesmerizing, bright cracking punctuations alternate with a fat rolling bottom end, all elements dry and present. On side B’s 'Daily Gates', things are a little slower to get rolling. Currents of swirling synth chords carry over from the previous side, but here we’re dragged across a long and thumping upright bass intro. The fabric of instrumentation casually weaves itself over a 5 minutes of liberally syncopated rimshots, hi-hats and snaps, before a guitar interjects with a triumphant and otherworldly melody, a brief shot of glowing optimism before returning us to a heavy cosmic slop. These two songs have built the end into the beginning. More

After shifting through a few different monikers the last year Deepblak Rhythm Czar Afrikan Sciences returns to form. Laced always with his elastic funk forward grooves the "Res??pras?de?" EP continues to build on his legacy. One that has consistently morphed diasporic rhythms into new colors. Creating new space on the dance-floor as well inside the mind. Four independent yet intertwined tracks all meant to make you oscillate inward outward.
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Last year, Eartheater released her latest album, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, via PAN. After sharing a fully reworked version of the album, Phoenix: La Petite Mort Edition, digitally out February 26, 2021, PAN is now releasing a special, color vinyl LP edition of it. Originally conceived as a "sleep" mix for CRACK Magazine, Eartheater re-sculpted her entire album Phoenix into a seamless ambient edit. "This is Phoenix crushing, undressing, and compressing like carbon particles under the weight of boulders folded into silky soil, and decomposing. She is folding over and over and over and over like the rolls of young gummy stone. This is one REM cycle. I suggest listening to Phoenix: La Petite Mort Edition while asleep after climax. You are wet ash smudged across a pillow case." - Eartheater
Tracklist
1.1AIRBORNE ASHES (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.2METALLIC TASTE OF PATIENCE (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.3BURNING FEATHER (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.4HOW TO FIGHT (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.5KISS OF THE PHOENIX (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.6VOLCANO (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.7FANTASY COLLISION (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.8MERCURIAL NERVE (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.9GOODBYE DIAMOND (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.10BRINGING ME BACK (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.11DIAMOND IN THE BEDROCK (LA PETITE MORT EDIT)
1.12FAITH CONSUMING HOPE (LA PETITE MORT EDIT) More

A collective effort from a vital scene in Kampala, KIKOMMANDO takes its name from Ugandan street food of flat bread and beans. As a 'food of soldiers' offering maximum energy for minimum funds, the eponymous mixtape, video series and book project is an equally nourishing and ambitious proposition. It all began in the East African summer of 2018, during a two-month residency at the Nyege Nyege label and collective's villa, in collaboration with their sublabel Hakuna Kulala. Producer and PAN artist Simone Trabucchi (aka STILL) opened the door to his temporary studio in the city and a crucial cross-cultural collaboration was born.

"The intention was to record as much as possible," Trabucchi says about KIKOMMANDO's musical showcase of eight Kampala-based artists, coming from the spectrum of musical influences, crossing trap, drill, cut ups, kuduro, electro, smooth jams-the list goes on. In creating a sonic space to support the expression of its featured singers, poets and emcees, the mixtape ties countless styles and flows into a single snapshot of a particular part of the Kampala music scene, at a particular point in time. The invective of rapper and street legend Blaq Bandana's "Nkwaata" is laid over a spare and brooding ambient. Kampala Unit trumpet player and first-time singer, Florence, rolls a thick melodic texture through the organic clicks, knocks and atmospherics of "Bae Tasanze". Jahcity's unique lyricism combines a personal take on traditional music and soulful-reggae with a jerky, wobbly collection of drops and donks.
Meanwhile, Ecko Bazz applies his grimey vocals and rhythmic, introspective words to lead single 'Ntabala (Rolex Riddim) at a particularly pertinent moment of self-reflection. "I was trying to listen to the voice inside myself and wanted to achieve a higher level of understanding of things, life," he says about the themes that he felt inspired to explore with Trabucchi at the recording desk. The accompanying video, shot on a rooftop in the Kampala neighborhood of Ggaba, is one of a series of slick and high-definition films complementing each one of the KIKOMMANDO tracks. These also include contributions from Ugandan emcee and key Hakuna Kulala member Biga Yut, don dada of the GabaGaza gang Swordman Kitala (with Omutaba on percussion) and South Sudanese poet and singer Winnie Lado.

Also accompanying a 'visual mixtape' of moving images for each song on KIKOMMANDO is a recording diary of sorts, where Trabucchi compiles a vibrant collection of pictures, colours and textures reflecting the its heterogeneous sonic palette into a book. Together this multifaceted, interdisciplinary project showcases, what Lamin Fofana's liner notes describe as, "amazing originality, complexity", while "embracing dissonance".
Trabucchi's personal take on a kind of 'digital dancehall' defined the sound of his ground-breaking rumination on Italy's colonial history on debut STILL album, I, in 2017. KIKOMMANDO is a different proposition entirely, where he finds new ways to complement the personality and skills of its contributors sprung from a constant stream of visitors arriving at the Nyege Nyege Villa's makeshift studio. "It was a dialogue," stresses Trabucchi, who has always preferred collaboration as a means to escape branded and stereotypical identities, while creating something new. "I created the musical platform to make the singers confident, and challenged them at the same time. Working together accelerates ideas and reveals that nothing is your invention alone. That's why KIKOMMANDO is a mixtape to me, and not an album."

The mixtape is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by NMR. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11 & 12 mixed by Ville Haimala. Tracks 5, 6 & 8 mixed by Lorenzo Dal Ri.
Digital mixtape
& Paperback:

160 pages

17 x 24.

Includes a mixtape download code.

Design by NMR
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Properly head-melting debut album from Beatrice Dillon featuring/including contributions from Kuljit Bhamra, Laurel Halo, Batu, Untold, Kadialy Kouyate, Jonny Lam, Verity Susman, Kenichi Iwasa, Lucy Railton, Petter Eldh, James Rand and Morgan Buckley...bit early to call aoty 2020? More

On 'Safe', Visionist makes his most personal statement yet. Distilling his influences down to a sparse palette of manipulated folk, pop and R&B acapellas, icy synths, and metallic drum samples, he plays off ever-present anxiety and his own battle not to let it overwhelm him. "Comfort, protection, salvation-this is what we search for," he says. "We are taught that a life of no worries is better for us, and therefore we try to create one that is 'Safe.'" Since 2012, Visionist has toured extensively throughout Europe, Unites States and Asia, appearing at industry standard clubs and festivals like Fabric, Berghain, Sonar and Unsound and as well as various underground venues. He has scored music for Kenzo, Liam Hodges and Roxanne Farahmand in the world of fashion, and remixed Kelis, Ghost Poet and Glasser. In 2014, he supported FKA Twigs on her first-ever UK tour. Having recently partnered with Bill Kouligas to relaunch his Lost Codes imprint as Codes, Visionist takes a defining step forward with the release of his PAN debut album, 'Safe'.
The South London artist born Louis Carnell broke during a period of experimentation in UK music when, with the disintegration of the dubstep scene, emerging producers began looking to juke and Chicago house for inspiration. A pair of EPs on Lit City Trax (and a collaboration with Fatima Al Qadiri) in 2013 and '14 introduced Visionist's minimalist take on fractured R&B and liquid grime, establishing him as a leading voice in new-wave UK soundsystem culture. But while safe as a musical concept implies conformity, 'Safe' as an artistic statement is anything but. At a moment when the UK scene, once known for innovation, has settled into rehashing old tropes, Visionist continues to propel his sound into more experimental territory. The album traces the arc of an anxiety attack, from its onset through to recovery. Following the stately discord of brief opener "You Stayed," the grimy, ballistic assault of "Victim" sends its targets diving into mirrored corners. "I've Said" is a brutal, almost militant advance, its sound cutting in and out as though transmitted via shortwave radio. "Too Careful To Care" trades in skittering paranoia, with the soporific "Sleep Luxury" closing out affairs.

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Alongside fellow members of Berlin's Janus collective, recently behind nights at Berghain and Corsica Studios, M.E.S.H. is known for his futurist approach to club dynamics and production. On Piteous Gate, tightly gridded and sculpted sound juts up against loose-wristed improvisation, automated processes, and collage. Standard club syncopation is twisted by sliding tempos, cut and paste time signatures, and indeterminate pacing. Its sound design and compositions are ornate, even courtly, with neo- feudal moods offset by the recurrence of hydraulic hiss and flanger. A synthetic fuel injector revs opener 'Piteous Gate' to life. Drawing from action- scifi film trailers and the sound design of festival trance, its hardcore synthlines shatter into 'Optimate'-stately, spatial, and whiplash-luxurious, with meandering cybernetic drumming. 'Thorium' sends a slow-motion camera through a melting test reactor: all burnt VSTs and synthetic theorbo and loose drums. 'The Black Pill' smears high-end renaissance sample libraries through arcs of static. In 'Epithet,' temple sewer atmospheres are ruptured by 'Scythians'-style cut-up drums. 'Jester's Visage' indulges a minute-long baroque guitar improv, and territorial youths air their beef in 'Kritikal & X.' Closing out the album, 'Methy Imbiß' is a machinic rhythm track, and 'Azov Seepage' mingles birdlike granular noises with rusted steel clanging. The LP was recorded in Berlin in winter 2015, mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, and pressed on 140g LP and CD.
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Alongside fellow members of Berlin's Janus collective, recently behind nights at Berghain and Corsica Studios, M.E.S.H. is known for his futurist approach to club dynamics and production. On Piteous Gate, tightly gridded and sculpted sound juts up against loose-wristed improvisation, automated processes, and collage. Standard club syncopation is twisted by sliding tempos, cut and paste time signatures, and indeterminate pacing. Its sound design and compositions are ornate, even courtly, with neo- feudal moods offset by the recurrence of hydraulic hiss and flanger. A synthetic fuel injector revs opener 'Piteous Gate' to life. Drawing from action- scifi film trailers and the sound design of festival trance, its hardcore synthlines shatter into 'Optimate'-stately, spatial, and whiplash-luxurious, with meandering cybernetic drumming. 'Thorium' sends a slow-motion camera through a melting test reactor: all burnt VSTs and synthetic theorbo and loose drums. 'The Black Pill' smears high-end renaissance sample libraries through arcs of static. In 'Epithet,' temple sewer atmospheres are ruptured by 'Scythians'-style cut-up drums. 'Jester's Visage' indulges a minute-long baroque guitar improv, and territorial youths air their beef in 'Kritikal & X.' Closing out the album, 'Methy Imbiß' is a machinic rhythm track, and 'Azov Seepage' mingles birdlike granular noises with rusted steel clanging. The LP was recorded in Berlin in winter 2015, mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, and pressed on 140g LP and CD.
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2LP LTD - NON RETURNABLE EAN: 5060165481460 Groove Covermount Track !

PAN is excited to announce the release of Objekt's debut album, Flatland. Written between 2012 and 2014, Flatland follows up a succession of dynamic single releases from his base in Berlin, including the recent split 12" with Dopplereffekt on Leisure System, Cactus b/w Porcupine on Hessle Audio and three 12" singles on his eponymous white label series.

Tracklist: 1. Agnes Revenge 2. One Fell Swoop 3. Ratchet 4. Strays 5. Agnes Apparatus 6. Dogma 7. First Witness 8. Interlude (Whodunnit?) 9. Second Witness 10. One Stitch Follows Another 11. Cataracts
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2LP LTD - NON RETURNABLE EAN: 5060165481453 - 6-PAGE FEATURE IN THE WIRE JULY 2014, FEATURED ON THE HYPERDUB 10.3 COMPILATION

Following up from the success of his emphatic PAN releases 'Dutch Tvashar Plumes' and 'Diversions 1994-1996' in 2012 (# 2 IN FACT's ALBUMS OF THE YEAR) PAN is excited to announce 'KOCH' (pronounced "cotch"), the new album from Brummie/Londoner Lee Gamble.
Sharing some stylistic affinity with his previous records, which excavated his deeply personal history with UK jungle and rave, and techno, this new work dives even deeper to reveal a singular and intimate musical vantage point, shifting to approaching music as projection, state,hallucination, an other place. In 'KOCH', we experience an artist constructing a future after time spent deconstructing the past.
'KOCH' represents an intimate and revelatory new phase in Lee Gamble's practice. Producing tracks that can live and grow on their own in a club or personal listening environment, the artist's exploratory framework creates threads of consistency and tension between disparate spaces, locations, and mental states.

Tracklist: A1.Untitled Reversion A2.Motor System A3.You Concrete A4.Nueme B1.Oneiric Contur B2. Head Model B3. HMix B4. Frame Drag C1. Voxel City Spirals C2.Yehudi Lights Over Tottenham C3. Jove Layup D1. Ornith-Mimik D2.Caudata D3.Flatland D4.Gillsman D5.6EQUJ5-7
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Serious new 12" combining the talents of Karl O'Connor aka Regis and veteran sonic alchemist Russell Haswell. Three track EP of dark, experimental Techno and fizzing electronics.
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New 12" EP from the thoroughly reliable Helm, and the first after his killer LP for PAN.
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The prolific Helena Hauff and F#X team up as Black Sites for this tough but intricate EP of warped jackers.
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