- Followup to 2015's Insides. - RIYL: Jacques Greene, Leon Vynehall, DJ Seinfeld, Project Pablo - Features cover art by Salvador Dalí protégé Steven Arnold. - Silver halide (gray + black marble) vinyl limited to 1,500 copies worldwide - Vinyl is housed in a black dust sleeve inserted in to a matte varnish jacket with metallic silver spot color // After a run of critically-acclaimed singles and EPs, British producer Michael Greene, aka Fort Romeau, returns to the full-length format with Beings of Light, the long-awaited follow-up to 2015's Insides and his second LP on Ghostly International. While a prolific DJ who orients many of his productions for the dancefloor, Greene still sees the album as the ultimate statement of intent, "a space to stretch out, to speak in full paragraphs rather than stunted sentences." He has explored several stylistic fragments in recent years (including the summer 2018 anthem "Pablo," hailed a Best New Track by Pitchfork), but when faced with the extended pause to the dance community in 2020, Greene felt compelled to focus on a larger body of work. Embracing a back-to-basics mentality, he amassed over a dozen hours of sounds, asking himself throughout the sessions: "Does the music move you? Is it honest?" He came out the other end with Beings of Light, an expressive collection traversing rainy day ambient, moonlit disco, and dream-like techno in pursuit of the power found within our subconscious. Album opener "Untitled IV" ushers in a sprinting tempo in its exploration of the human voice, a recurring device in the Fort Romeau project. Greene uses it as a compositional layer, disembodied with its context often opaque or reduced to a single phrase. Here the voice is scattered in percussive twitches, colliding with a kick drum to induce a near state of hypnosis as horns sound off in the distance. Propulsive standout "Spotlights'' is Greene's ode to the romanticised New York City that lives in our hearts, nocturnal and carefree. A vocal snippet repeats the title with a breezy poise, reminiscent of classic house cuts. "Ramona'' honors the beloved Robert Johnson club in Offenbach, Germany. Hazy, spacious, and sustained, Greene designed the beat with their system in mind, "also with a strong nod to the more modern lineage of exceptional minimal house music from Frankfurt," he says. Two ambient pieces surround the track, "(In The) Rain" sets the scene and "Porta Coeli" (a Latin phrase which loosely translates to "heaven's gate") soundtracks the comedown. The album's closer, the title track, is an arc constructed with atmospheric textures, euphoric swings of percussion, and a well-placed piano refrain, "Beings of Light" is adaptive; one could imagine it reverberating from a club, scoring the emotional apex of a film, or radiating through the realm of dreams. More

Fort Romeau returns with his first 12” of 2018 following a string of releases on Live at Robert Johnson, Running Back and Ghostly International as well as appearances on compilations from Rush Hour, Cocoon, and Mule Musiq. On the A side, “Pablo” unfurls with swirling arpeggios which build to a euphoric crescendo while the more heady “Terracotta” explores polyphonic syncopated FM sequences and ambiguous chord progressions. More

For their second release on the label, DGTL Records asked another one of its festival shows regulars: Fort Romeau. After playing at three different DGTL editions, and an upcoming fourth during ADE, the organization also wanted to propagate his sound with an EP on their imprint. The release consists of two multi-layered compositions, Untitled II and A Familiar Place, and will be available both on vinyl and in digital stores on the 13th of October. Fort Romeau came into the spotlight with releases on Running Back, Live At Robert Johnson and Ghostly International amongst others. The British talent gained recognition with his cultivated ear and apprehension of all genres of music, that brought him to add something unique to the widespread spectrum of electronic music, both as a DJ and a producer. In 2015 he also set up his own label, Cin Cin, releasing split EPs from established names and newcomers alike, with a diverse musical policy that reflects Fort Romeau his open minded and inquisitive approach.
?Untitled II? is a luminous house tune, with a soundscape on top that takes you on a journey, while ?A Familiar Place? adds a little bit of darkness to the EP. This B-side is made up out of raw elements, a high tempo kick and hi- hat create a sturdy flow that makes it hard to sit still. All in all, it advocates the vision of the festival and its label, in every way. More

“Reasons" marks Fort Romeau’s first full solo release since 2016’s “Secrets & Lies” on Live At Robert Johnson, having previously released records with Ghostly International, Running Back and his own Cin Cin imprint. The title track sees the development of the producer’s interest in playing with the human voice, developing a harmonic and rhythmic hook which builds to a crescendo of wailing synths. “C.E.M” is a focused dance floor workout built around syncopated sequences which ebb and flow creating a constantly evolving pattern of tension and release. On the final track “Satellite 2” a pair of beautiful duelling sequences unfurl giving a sense of weightlessness and provide the perfect epilogue to a record that marks the continuing evolution of the producer’s unique sound. More

A warm and affectionate take on the sound of Chicago house, mixing thick analog pad sounds with a 4/4 kick. More

The masters for these recordings were lost long ago so we have restored from mint vinyl and had remastered at Subvert Central Mastering. The DJ Seduction remix is rare as hens teeth. The record has been cut at 45 RPM for the DJ's. More

This grouping of audio recordings is for aural use only. Any emotional content perceived herein is borne of its listener, and is in no way intended by its author. Any sounds resembling speech are not intended to convey meaning. Several Shades Of The Same Color is Patricia's first album for Spectral Sound — produced in conjunction with his own label Active Cultures. More

Matthew Dear continues his resurgence as Audion in 2014 with "Sky / Motormouth Remixes" as he continues to build on last year's Audion X, a compilation album looking back at a decade of Audion material. The latter featured two all-new Audion tracks, "Sky" and "Motormouth", featured here for the first time on vinyl accompanied by four hard hitting remixes from Daniel Avery, Hotflush label boss Paul Rose aka Scuba, and Spectral Sound newcomer Matrixxman. The pages will only continue to turn as a new Audion album is imminent along with a groundbreaking live audio-visual show, Subverticul, touring worldwide throughout 2014. More

Producer Mark E hails from the West Midlands, an area of the UK that was at the heart of the industrial revolution and was also hit hardest by the decline of UK industry in the 1970s, and again by the economic crisis of our own time. It's an area with a distinct sound and atmosphere, one that manifests in the music of artists as diverse as Black Sabbath and The Specials, and one that plays into many of the ideas behind Mark E's new record Product of Industry. The album's title is a subtle nod to the producer's past and heritage. He explains, "The name lies in the manufacturing past of the area I grew up, [and] the manufacturing past of my family. [It references] how the decline of industry in the Midlands UK changed the landscape physically and socially — I'm now a music producer and DJ, and this is totally different to my grandparents who were truck drivers and sheet metal workers. [The title discusses] how things have changed, and it's also about how I came to be in this position, due to the current global financial situation. I lost my job due to it, [which led to me] trying out music — and here I am, a product of industry, both currently and historically." As befitting its genesis, there's something distinctly mechanistic to the music on Product of Industry — as Mark E says, "The music is grinding, continuous, heavy, relentless." You can hear this idea in the industrial clatter that underpins "Kultra Kafe," the grinding rhythm of "Bog Dance," the pounding beat of "Eganix." Part of this sound is generated by the album's reliance on classic machinery of a musical kind: "My approach was very different on Product of Industry compared to Stonebreaker," Mark E explains. "I approached it with an album in mind. The technique is [also] different — this is majority analogue, whereas Stonebreaker was 100% digital." But just as importantly, this reliance on classic analogue synths also means that the sound of Product of Industry is shot through with a certain warmth, a reminder that there's humanity at the heart of this industrial environment and this industrial sound.. The music, explains the producer, was designed to be "soulful and delicate," and in many ways its abiding warmth is a throwback to the classic sounds of Chicago house. They're firmly located on the other side of the Atlantic, though, and several tracks incorporate "vocal snippets of the language and accent of the West Midlands." The result is an album that's steeped in history — both musical and social — but also sounds utterly contemporary. It's a testament to the way the creative spirit can flourish even in the most adverse of circumstances, and also an album-long evocation of the idea that the machines we build are ultimately expressions and extensions of ourselves. More

A warm and affectionate take on the sound of Chicago house, mixing thick analog pad sounds with a 4/4 kick. More

The Rise EP is Yakine's first release for Spectral Sound, a four-track slab of understated, atmospheric techno More

"Oranges" is a glorious eight-minute slow-burner with a Space Dub version on the flipside. More

Following the noir glory of "The Lovers Night", Subb-an blesses Spectral with another techhouse monster. More