Following releases on Sähkö Recordings and The Trilogy Tapes, "Fever of the World" is the Soda Gong debut by Memotone, the nom de plume of UK-based multi-instrumentalist Will Yates. As a collection, it is both intimate and expansive, like the feeling of gathering one's thoughts before setting off on a long journey or committing to an irrevocable course of action. Throughout, Yates' talents as both player and sound designer are on full display, as are the sonic signatures that have come to characterize the Memotone catalog: low-lit, ECM-inflected noir; evasive and evolving loop-based accretions; and mellifluous mosaics of keys, guitar, reeds, and percussion. It is patient and focused music, built around production techniques and compositional ideas that have been perfected both in studio and in live performance over a period of several years. "Catherine, On Fire" sets the scene, one of two languid, longform selections, and develops slowly from a spare, harmonic-laden guitar loop into a bed of rippling textural ambience and woozy clarinet filigree. Later, "The Bus" and "When the Bakery Has What You Want and It's Cheap" conjure images of rain-streaked windows, fanciful baked confections, and grey skies broken finally by sunlight. Warm, generous, and comfortable in its own skin, this is music that reminds us that when it feels easy to resign ourselves to world weariness, we should pause for a moment and listen to the rustle of the leaves. The wind knows not to linger. More

Bristol multi-instrumentalist, producer and nature freak Will Yates offers a new record from his Memotone alias, an expansive, hypothetical revue titled How Was Your Life?

Launching from terrains recognizable to fans of Will’s extensive, restless discography, How Was Your Life? packs up his penchant for baroque druid folk, homespun electronics and weightless woodwinds and explodes them into glistening, fractal star dust.

Instigated by the purchase of an antiquated Y2K era guitar synthesizer, the record was produced over the first half of 2022, in a large part a result of in-studio improvisation and carved by equipment that offered both possibilities and parameters that Will relished and explored to the nth degree. The Roland GR33 not only provided sublime guitar sounds but also empowered the guitar to convincingly mimic fretless bass, tabla and a vast percussive array, also summoning an artillery of uniquely outre atmospheres over the course of the record. The resulting concoction sounds familiar yet subtly, unshakeably otherworldly, shaping up as perhaps the most honed, energized and beatific Memotone album to date.

Paradise Drips gently lifts off with wobbly guitar, randomized sequences and unidentifiable percussive elements situating us somewhere in an unearthly realm, before Open World zaps the serotonin receptors and gushes with ecstatic warmth, it’s quietly insistent soft disco shuffle and levitational fretless driving towards a totally blissed and very soft “drop”. Forest Zone sees Memotone deep in the green, with a loose, propulsive groove and dancing flutes stumbling into a medieval ritual in the clearing halfway through, and Glow In The Dark deftly bounces between spacey ambience and an undulating no wave vamp. Carved By The Moon is a delightfully melted classical cut, while Canteen Sandwich offers the record’s most explicitly nod to modernity in the form of a nimble drum workout with samurai synths and melodic percussion that heaves towards a genuine peak. Lonehead immediately backs right off, viscerally melancholic clarinet and bubbling fx making for the records most hefty introspective moment, before Walking Backwards simmers all the way down on an wistful arpeggio, rooting back in earthly reality with charmed rhythms and jazzy tunings. Catharsis complete, Memotone is onto the next incarnation.

Will Yates has been making music as Memotone since 2010, releasing music on labels like Black Acre, Disktopia and Accidental Meetings, also releasing music as O.G. Jigg and Half Nelson. He’s worked as a producer, session musician and live performer on a broad spectrum of projects, and recently provided source sounds that made up Batu’s “Opal” on Timedance.

How Was Your Life? was written, produced and mixed by Will Yates. It was mastered by Chris Wang. Art and design by Hugo Bernier. More

Bristol multi-instrumentalist and producer William Yates combines electronic jazz, bass, beats, loops and samples in the masterly ethereal and hypnotic way. More

* Records store day only limited 300 coloured vinyl 7" More

Atlanta native Stefan Ringer steps up for a solo release on Bristol’s Black Acre, tracing a lineage of sonic references into an unmissable four-track EP. From radiant, soulful house to wonky machine funk, Soulflow is a distillation of cultural and personal narratives, tracing the evolution of his sound over a number of years. As an influential force in Atlanta’s dance music community - and with a strong connection to the sounds of Detroit - Stefan’s music reflects a genuine love for the underground. He held a residency at the legendary Sound Table with Ash Lauryn until its closure, runs the beloved monthly party Kudzu, and has spent years committed to his craft as a producer, DJ, promoter, and label manager. Tying the threads between an ever-expanding pool of sounds, his approach to production looks beyond the restraints of formal genre, and instead towards community, offering new sonic frameworks for others to soundtrack their own personal journeys. Black Acre has, since its inception in 2007, focused on strains of electronic music that mutate across different styles, and as such, Soulflow touches on a number of subcultural moments. As the name suggests, the title track is an uplifting, 101 groove of stripped back soul, driven by Stefan’s vocal treatments. ‘What’s Your Sign’ heads into hazier territory for an angular cut of minimal hypnotism. Taking a trip further into Stefan’s musical heritage with a nod to mid-2000s dubstep, ‘Cleanse’ is a half-time stepper adorned with glistening keys and improvised melodies that flawlessly embodies the cross-pollinated spirit of the genre, continuing the lineage of what occurred before with a sincere appreciation. Rounding things off is ‘Body Know’ - born from an experiment with a bass guitar and beat-boxed percussion - that fuses echoed vocals with a driving, analogue funk. Soulflow offers an honest portrayal of Stefan’s musical story, honing in on its past to build an expansive vision of its future. As he summarises succinctly: ‘This collection offers a glimpse into my journey thus far, with the anticipation of more to come.’ More

An artist dedicated to pushing the boundaries between the classical and electronic worlds, Prayer is a producer and composer who has impressed at both extreme ends of the spectrum. After dropping experimental four-part EP 'LOST' in January 2017 that aimed to give classical music a more accessible angle, Prayer can announce EP 'SEEING' a darker, club-orientated four-tracker ready to release on esteemed Bristol-based label Black Acre, who mark 10 years in the game this year. Dropping on 30th June 2017 on vinyl and digital, 'SEEING' is one made for the left-leaning club kids who like their sounds gothic. More

Rocks FOE returns to Black Acre with new, eight-track project 'Fight The Good? Fight' - a dark and conceptual record built around the notion of, according to Rocks himself, "everything being an internal and external battle More

An artist dedicated to pushing the boundaries between the classical and electronic worlds, Prayer is a producer and composer who has impressed at both extreme ends of the spectrum. After dropping experimental four-part EP 'LOST' in January 2017 that aimed to give classical music a more accessible angle, Prayer can announce EP 'SEEING' a darker, club-orientated four-tracker ready to release on esteemed Bristol-based label Black Acre, who mark 10 years in the game this year. Dropping on 30th June 2017 on vinyl and digital, 'SEEING' is one made for the left-leaning club kids who like their sounds gothic. More

Nan Kolé, producer, DJ and head of influential label on-the-rise, Gqom Oh!, returns to Black Acre for his debut proper with 'Bayefal', after first collaborating with Nervous Horizon's Wallwork on his 'Facts / Fyah' 12" at the back end of 2016. More

Since our inception back in 2007 we've had eyes for Sully (it's no secret) and now in 2016 he delivers a plate of austere but bass heavy Black Acre wrongness. Departing from recent Junglist output Sully delivers a distinctly futurist and spacious collection of bangers. Vamp - is a 6 in the morning drama piece which explodes into Juked-out binary code rinser. Arco - features a pure military Grime skank with fizzing synths hectic percussive switch ups and Roger Corman's laser cannon. Bronze - returns to seeming familiar places as the tempos is ratcheted up and we take and eastern junglist detour full of mystery and deft drum programming More

This is the first single from Commodo's upcoming album on Black Acre. More

Returning home after the acclaimed Holding EP and the highly regarded Clap Clap Remix, Lurka continues with his journey into sonic bat country. Partials kicks off with Lurka's typical intrigue, pads swell with distant spectres of percussion build into the most saturated kick of the year slapping you in the face like wet rag, while an architecture of syncopated hats and bit crunching snares lock the angles a shower of haunting bells falls. Dancehall for witching hour. Mach steps in with an equally holo-deck soundscape. Drums swing in awkward alliance with dry wooden blocks and woozy binary language. Both tracks united in their skewed viewpoint and distinctive awkward funk.
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Limited 1-sided white label 10". He's back, in the run up to 2015's longplayer dropping another slice of broken electronic pop this time teaming up with US isolationist and icey voiced songwriter Kid A. Here FMF delivers his trademarked frosted heartbreak chords with a grime lilt on the drums and low-end. We have enlisted the deft remix skills of Visionist acknowledged leader of the new Grime movement who adds his own low slung mood take on FMF's fractalised funk.
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After blazing trails with his debut longplayer Exits and wowing the sceptical chat rooms with his all-hardware Boiler Room blow out, the North country bit smasher returns. The IIVA EP is mini album of experiments, re-animations and rebirths. Like Dr Herbert West with a hypo of fluro-serum Loops Haunt plunges elbow deep into his hardrive’s sonic corpses unleashing an army of weaponised soundscapes. Unlike it’s big brother Exits, IIVA sets an immediate agenda, drums burst through fizzing tape hiss and field recorded ‘found sounds’ are given urgency and purpose. Along with an army of hooded mystery collaborators Pan’s NHK even joins the fray with a radiophonic technoid rerub of IIVA. All action. More

* Since his debut in 2009, Loops Haunt has continued to confound and excite with an output as mercurial as it is rare. * Toying with Jungle and Hip Hop on Zenith and outright sound design on Ark, the wilderness-bound beat alchemist uses his isolation to explore and even create his otherworldly sound palate. Lurking behind immaculate drums are the windswept sounds of the desolate North and mechanized textures plucked from his Father's own workshop. Here we embark on Loops' most complete work to date. Exits is designed to be listened to as one continuous track, opening with ambient mood and emotion, layering outboard synths and found-sounds on the title track and Trap Door. An unexpected calm beginning is shattered in the second act with the pounding rhythms and industrial heart beats of Howl and IIVA. Exits is an insight into a uniquely unpredictable talent and rare chance to be immersed in his sound. More

*Making his Black Acre debut rogue genre-splicer Alex Coulton takes the label back to its roots in the darkest corners of the club. With certified smashers dropped on All Caps, Livity Sounds and a long catalogue of tinkering with the perimeters of House, Techno and Grime, Alex's invention and adventure make him a perfect edition to the label's cannon. Here he come out of corner swinging with the bass equivalent of an H-bomb. 'Murda' is a rock solid grime/techno bastard child buliding a drum workout littered with bleeps, churps and claps riding along a tidal wave of low-end. Round two is no less bloodthirsty with the bruising 'Break Pressure' which dabbles with ethereal atmospheres before unleashing a drag-jungle beatdown.
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*Welcome to the first instalment of the Black Acre library series curated and created by long-time Hip Hop production boss and Strange U beat-bruiser, Dr Zygote. His mantra in creating this LP has an almost Jack White level of reductionism. “In this day and age where people have almost too many sonic options at their fingertips, I find it easier to spark my creativity if I limit myself in some way, give myself a set of rules to work within on a project. That’s why on this one I decided to only use sounds I'd played and recorded myself, no samples.”
*Although Grupo Zygote masquerades as a throw-back library album it’s genre busting content places it on the cutting edge of Black Acre’s output. The dissonant sounds of Giallo are dripping with the grainy gore of 70’s horror. Nods are given to contemporary classics like Photek’s Hidden Camera while Eastern Jazz and the heavy tape delay of King Tubby are regular visitors. It’s Zygote’s basement dubbing techniques which hold together this album bursting with globe spanning flavour. *“It was really fun playing with Dub mixing techniques on this project. Almost all the tracks use tape echoes I hooked up using my tape machine and the mixer.” *As you can tell from the depth of production on offer here Dr Zee is no new-jack, dropping his first Jungle record when he was just 16 and following with 2 more on the classic Essex imprint Juice Records. Turntablism was then his pathway back into realms of Hip Hop where he still breaks boundaries with long time cohort Jazz T on their 14 year deep imprint Boot Records. If this wasn’t enough Dr Zygote has a strong reputation building in modern electronics through his leftward Zoot label and new Eglo signings Strange U.
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* Amsterdam local, Ivory Coast progeny and Grime-Juke-Jungle gene-splicer, H-SIK makes his Black Acre debut in rude style with two concrete-junglist chemical weapons. First up is the muscular drum workout "Sonic Rage" which layers a ridiculously powerful, yet deftly chopped 808-Amen bombardment with delicate citric pads, bleeps and lost droideka language. On the flip is the Orwellian "No Promises" a natural pairing of Vangelis atmospherics and committed drum-funk workout, building with undead voices and B-Boy breakdowns. More