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

As promised, Hessle Audio issue the second and final 12" accompaniment to Pearson Sound's slow burning debut album which grips two more cuts extended out for optimum dancefloor deployment. It's the two toughest moments from the album too! "Headless" really highlights David Kennedy's mastery of mutant productions - the sparse drum programming and drunken alien tones that get twisted into strange new shapes sound all the more potent here cut at 45rpm. On the flip is an extended take on "Rubber Tree", the track from the LP that has got the most repeat plays in the Juno office - superb stuff! More

Hessle Audio are excited to announce the release of the self-titled debut album by Pearson Sound, aka label co-head David Kennedy. Characteristically minimalist in approach, its nine tracks use a handful of elements to craft mesmerising, self-contained worlds, alive with motion and near-subliminal detail: from vast and inky landscapes, to electrifying rhythm tracks, where layers of percussion and bass tumble over one another like rocks in a landslide. Recorded between 2013-4, Pearson Sound documents a distinct phase of Kennedy's studio explorations. "I had a signal chain set up that I was really happy with, and I started sending my machines through the same processes" he says. Expanding upon the techniques underpinning his recent REM and Starburst 12"s, its tracks emerged swiftly through improvised jam sessions; some were captured in a minimum of takes, while others later took shape through extensive sculpting and post-processing. "A lot of it was made by feeding the the same sounds between two different pieces of equipment and they'd end up feeding back between each other and snowballing. On some tracks it's about harnessing that and taking it to the brink before it disintegrates, and some of them are about just letting it go full-blown out of control." The result is a record of striking contrasts: bold, stark and visceral, yet also subtle, harmonically complex and deceptively playful. While Pearson Sound's livewire percussive energy remains inextricably rooted in the club, this exploratory studio process has created Kennedy's most wide-ranging yet coherent body of work to date: a suite of thrillingly impulsive, expressive and open-ended music, untethered from restrictions of form.

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HES022 sees Hessle Audio co-owner Pearson Sound, aka David Kennedy, return to the label. The 3 tracks represent a new phase for the producer, stripping back many of the sonic characteristics of his recent music and looking towards the broken, cyclical rhythms of instrumental grime.
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

Double LP bundle, featuring both Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 EPs served in a PVC sleeve w/ sticker. Changing Channels is the new album from Pangaea, AKA Kevin McAuley, his first since 2016's acclaimed debut LP In Drum Play and a jolting reminder that functional doesn't mean complacent. The seven tracks here are galloping, infectious and hypnotic, capturing Pangaea's skill at constructing bangers that reflect an innate experimental tilt without sacrificing impact. Tested across his international DJ sets, and developed during a healing period of introspection, these cohesive tracks attack and retreat with an urgent and emphatic focus on the dancefloor, and a precision so undeniable as to seem predestined. More

Olof Dreijer signals a return to the dancefloor with the 'Rosa Rugosa EP', presented via UK label Hessle Audio. Lead track 'Rosa Rugosa' combines dreamy vibes and rubbery sounds with Olof's signature ear-worm synthlines, sitting comfortably alongside the label's extensive catalogue with a bassline that tears and splinters on the verge of breaking apart. Picked by Pitchfork as their 'Best New Track', it's found its way into the tracklists of some of the most respected and adventurous DJs throughout the Summer.

Complementing the title track, 'Camelia' dials up the emotional intensity with gliding leads soaring throughout the breakdown while 'Cassia' completes the EP with painterly splashes of colourful pads and gentle hand claps keeping the pulse. From his club focused work as Oni Ayhun, to his membership of the Swedish electronic pop group The Knife, Olof's music has always found ways to expand our ideas of what's possible in both instrumental electronic and pop music production, with an approach that is as inclusive and colourful as it is experimental. More

Changing Channels is the new album from Pangaea, AKA Kevin McAuley, his first since 2016's acclaimed debut LP In Drum Play and a jolting reminder that functional doesn't mean complacent. The seven tracks here are galloping, infectious and hypnotic, capturing Pangaea's skill at constructing bangers that reflect an innate experimental tilt without sacrificing impact. Tested across his international DJ sets, and developed during a healing period of introspection, these cohesive tracks attack and retreat with an urgent and emphatic focus on the dancefloor, and a precision so undeniable as to seem predestined. Set for release October 6th, Changing Channels is the culmination of several years of exploration and refinement and has a natural home on Hessle Audio, the label McAuley co-founded in 2007. The album has formidable, unstoppable grooves – a key part of Pangaea's intentions as DJ and producer – and gleam like marble set against concrete: sleek yet rough, attractive yet abrasive. His music has always felt more twilight than dead-of-night, where mysterious elements can emerge without feeling like a threat, and that holds here, with a warmth permeating the darkness. More

Changing Channels is the new album from Pangaea, AKA Kevin McAuley, his first since 2016's acclaimed debut LP In Drum Play and a jolting reminder that functional doesn't mean complacent. The seven tracks here are galloping, infectious and hypnotic, capturing Pangaea's skill at constructing bangers that reflect an innate experimental tilt without sacrificing impact. Tested across his international DJ sets, and developed during a healing period of introspection, these cohesive tracks attack and retreat with an urgent and emphatic focus on the dancefloor, and a precision so undeniable as to seem predestined. Set for release October 6th, Changing Channels is the culmination of several years of exploration and refinement and has a natural home on Hessle Audio, the label McAuley co-founded in 2007. The album has formidable, unstoppable grooves – a key part of Pangaea's intentions as DJ and producer – and gleam like marble set against concrete: sleek yet rough, attractive yet abrasive. His music has always felt more twilight than dead-of-night, where mysterious elements can emerge without feeling like a threat, and that holds here, with a warmth permeating the darkness. More

Hessle Audio welcomes Toumba to the label with the four track EP 'Petals'. Based in Amman, Jordan, Toumba explores Levantine microtonality, rhythms, play styles and timbres across the record. Lead track 'Istibtan' is a twist on a typical Jordanian wedding song with deep subs providing the foundations, while 'Petals' rides on the heavy swing which is unique to music from the south of Jordan. On the flip side, 'Hazzeh' deconstructs Dabkeh, while the EP is rounded off with 'Identity Crisis' which is four minutes of lilting melodies all in Maqam Rast but played in an untraditional way. Toumba is a producer, DJ and sound designer and is a curator at MNFA, a club and arts space in Jordan's capital Amman. A nationally respected artist, Toumba also holds a residency at the MMAG Foundation. The foundation works with a selection of the most gifted artists in the Levant, providing a space for artistic research, production and critical discourse. More

Pangaea returns to his Hessle Audio label for the first time since his debut LP 'In Drum Play', with two club tracks exploring different textures and designed for impact.
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Hessle Audio present the debut full-length album from label co-founder Kevin McAuley, aka Pangaea. In Drum Play's ten tracks cut deep into stripped-back techno structures, yet remain infused with the ravey intensity and rogue experimentalism that has placed his work among both the strangest and most banging dance music to emerge from the UK in the last decade. Since his debut 12" in 2007, Pangaea's music has existed in a continual state of metamorphosis. From the ghostly flex of his early singles into the rhythmic vortices of his self-released Hadal EPs, and now the mesmerising dance of In Drum Play, it's evolved into a freewheeling strain of ruffneck techno - one ear jacked into sound system culture, the other in the stomping nocturnal psychedelia of UK pioneers such as Surgeon. His DJ sets have developed in parallel, becoming fast-paced acrobatic voyages at the interface of loopy techno and more exploratory UK styles, an aesthetic captured on his 2014 mix for the Fabriclive CD series. As its title suggests, In Drum Play is a product of that feedback loop between the studio and the club. The devilishly funky intensity of tracks like 'Rotor Soap', 'More Is More To Burn' and 'DNS' emerged froma desire to write music that mirrored the late night dancefloor environments that McAuley has been DJing within. Crafted around sharpened motifs that burrow simultaneously into mind and body, they rank among his headiest and most forceful music to date. Yet these tracks remain alive with the subtle diversions and shifts in mood that have always made his music so distinctive. The snakelocked metal drums and glowing melodies of 'Skips Desk', 'Bulb In Zinc' and 'One By One' are pure volatile energy, their bubbling percussive momentum building on killer earlier Pangaea cuts like 'Hex' and 'Viaduct'. Elsewhere, the record drifts off into increasingly dream-like zones; 'Lofty Can' and the pirouetting flute melodies of highlight 'Send It In' slow the tempo to a simmering steppers' groove, creating beautifully tangled musical puzzle boxes that, as with the blissed-out ambience of 'Scaled Wing', equally recall the roaming sensibilities of Amber-era Autechre and contemporaries like Lee Gamble. Just as intrinsic to Pangaea's aesthetic as his body-shock dancefloor tracks, these form the vital connective tissue of a record that's focused and immediate, yet just as compositionally subtle as ever: a More

Hessle Audio present the debut full-length album from label co-founder Kevin McAuley, aka Pangaea. In Drum Play's ten tracks cut deep into stripped-back techno structures, yet remain infused with the ravey intensity and rogue experimentalism that has placed his work among both the strangest and most banging dance music to emerge from the UK in the last decade. Since his debut 12" in 2007, Pangaea's music has existed in a continual state of metamorphosis. From the ghostly flex of his early singles into the rhythmic vortices of his self-released Hadal EPs, and now the mesmerising dance of In Drum Play, it's evolved into a freewheeling strain of ruffneck techno - one ear jacked into sound system culture, the other in the stomping nocturnal psychedelia of UK pioneers such as Surgeon. His DJ sets have developed in parallel, becoming fast-paced acrobatic voyages at the interface of loopy techno and more exploratory UK styles, an aesthetic captured on his 2014 mix for the Fabriclive CD series. As its title suggests, In Drum Play is a product of that feedback loop between the studio and the club. The devilishly funky intensity of tracks like 'Rotor Soap', 'More Is More To Burn' and 'DNS' emerged froma desire to write music that mirrored the late night dancefloor environments that McAuley has been DJing within. Crafted around sharpened motifs that burrow simultaneously into mind and body, they rank among his headiest and most forceful music to date. Yet these tracks remain alive with the subtle diversions and shifts in mood that have always made his music so distinctive. The snakelocked metal drums and glowing melodies of 'Skips Desk', 'Bulb In Zinc' and 'One By One' are pure volatile energy, their bubbling percussive momentum building on killer earlier Pangaea cuts like 'Hex' and 'Viaduct'. Elsewhere, the record drifts off into increasingly dream-like zones; 'Lofty Can' and the pirouetting flute melodies of highlight 'Send It In' slow the tempo to a simmering steppers' groove, creating beautifully tangled musical puzzle boxes that, as with the blissed-out ambience of 'Scaled Wing', equally recall the roaming sensibilities of Amber-era Autechre and contemporaries like Lee Gamble. Just as intrinsic to Pangaea's aesthetic as his body-shock dancefloor tracks, these form the vital connective tissue of a record that's focused and immediate, yet just as compositionally subtle as ever: a More

As promised, Hessle Audio issue the second and final 12" accompaniment to Pearson Sound's slow burning debut album which grips two more cuts extended out for optimum dancefloor deployment. It's the two toughest moments from the album too! "Headless" really highlights David Kennedy's mastery of mutant productions - the sparse drum programming and drunken alien tones that get twisted into strange new shapes sound all the more potent here cut at 45rpm. On the flip is an extended take on "Rubber Tree", the track from the LP that has got the most repeat plays in the Juno office - superb stuff! More

Hessle Audio are excited to announce the release of the self-titled debut album by Pearson Sound, aka label co-head David Kennedy. Characteristically minimalist in approach, its nine tracks use a handful of elements to craft mesmerising, self-contained worlds, alive with motion and near-subliminal detail: from vast and inky landscapes, to electrifying rhythm tracks, where layers of percussion and bass tumble over one another like rocks in a landslide. Recorded between 2013-4, Pearson Sound documents a distinct phase of Kennedy's studio explorations. "I had a signal chain set up that I was really happy with, and I started sending my machines through the same processes" he says. Expanding upon the techniques underpinning his recent REM and Starburst 12"s, its tracks emerged swiftly through improvised jam sessions; some were captured in a minimum of takes, while others later took shape through extensive sculpting and post-processing. "A lot of it was made by feeding the the same sounds between two different pieces of equipment and they'd end up feeding back between each other and snowballing. On some tracks it's about harnessing that and taking it to the brink before it disintegrates, and some of them are about just letting it go full-blown out of control." The result is a record of striking contrasts: bold, stark and visceral, yet also subtle, harmonically complex and deceptively playful. While Pearson Sound's livewire percussive energy remains inextricably rooted in the club, this exploratory studio process has created Kennedy's most wide-ranging yet coherent body of work to date: a suite of thrillingly impulsive, expressive and open-ended music, untethered from restrictions of form.

More

Hessle Audio is happy to present its 27th single - a three-track 12" of glistening techno and broken abstractions by newcomer Bruce. Played from Benji B and Gilles Peterson on BBC radio, and Joy Orbison on his essential mix. More

Do your thing, just make sure you're ahead of the game", warns 'Game', the opening salvo of Release, Pangaea's new double EP for Hessle Audio. It's a statement of intent for the entire record, reflecting the increasingly idiosyncratic nature of his music. Release's eight tracks are entities unto themselves, each a natural evolutionary continuation of the rough and rolling pirate radio techno he began to culture on last year's Hex and Inna Daze 12"s. Since his early releases, Pangaea's music has expanded to reflect the growing diversity of dancefloors, reaching outward to integrate jungle, hardcore, techno and house into its rhythmic axis. The result is an incendiary hybrid form rooted in UK hardcore traditions, where ruffneck MC chatter, static-addled voices and sinewy melodies slip in and out of earshot like ghosts channelled from raves past. These base materials are put to a variety of different uses across Release's length. Foremost among them is a swung and sub-heavy vision of UK techno, informed by a love of pirate radio and soundsystem music. So instead of remaining locked to a four-to-the-floor pulse, rhythms are splayed outwards....
Tracklisting:
1 Game
2 Release
3 Trouble
4 Majestic 12
5 Time Bomb
6 Middleman
7 Aware
8 High
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Do your thing, just make sure you're ahead of the game", warns 'Game', the opening salvo of Release, Pangaea's new double EP for Hessle Audio. It's a statement of intent for the entire record, reflecting the increasingly idiosyncratic nature of his music. Release's eight tracks are entities unto themselves, each a natural evolutionary continuation of the rough and rolling pirate radio techno he began to culture on last year's Hex and Inna Daze 12"s. Since his early releases, Pangaea's music has expanded to reflect the growing diversity of dancefloors, reaching outward to integrate jungle, hardcore, techno and house into its rhythmic axis. The result is an incendiary hybrid form rooted in UK hardcore traditions, where ruffneck MC chatter, static-addled voices and sinewy melodies slip in and out of earshot like ghosts channelled from raves past. These base materials are put to a variety of different uses across Release's length. Foremost among them is a swung and sub-heavy vision of UK techno, informed by a love of pirate radio and soundsystem music. So instead of remaining locked to a four-to-the-floor pulse, rhythms are splayed outwards....
Tracklisting:
A1 Game
A2 Release
B1 Trouble
B2 Majestic 12
C1 Time Bomb
C2 Middleman
D1 Aware
D2 High
More

HES022 sees Hessle Audio co-owner Pearson Sound, aka David Kennedy, return to the label. The 3 tracks represent a new phase for the producer, stripping back many of the sonic characteristics of his recent music and looking towards the broken, cyclical rhythms of instrumental grime.
More

Following on from last month's 12" by Elgato and having premiered music from the likes of Blawan, Untold and Joe, Hessle Audio is proud to present another debut EP - this time from UK producer Bandshell. More

This format is 3X12” Vinyl & 2 X CD packaged together in a gatefold sleeve shrink wrapped. One of the reasons ascribed to dubstep’s continuing
success has been its ability to absorb influences from across the entire electronic spectrum, and no label has been more key to its continuing evolution
than Hessle Audio. Started in 2007 by David Kennedy, Ben Thomson and Kevin McAuley, the label quickly became a benchmark for quality, through releases from (the then) new artists like TRG, Untold and James Blake, as well as a vehicle for their own productions. With 18 releases over the past three years, the imprint is renowned for its impeccable quality control. Kennedy is their most prolific producer, under his Ramadanman and Pearson Sound monikers, now amalgamated into his own name. Ben UFO has always stayed true to his initial love, that of DJing almost as curation: he demonstrates this biweekly on his Rinse FM radio show and at Hessle’s Fabric residency, having been one of the first to start playing with the tempo to allow for older house and garage influences in More