Andy Stott
We Stay Together / Passed Me By
Modern Love

Many electronic artists are entering a compelling new phase of progression and evolution, like Andy Stott, Rene Hell, Demdike Stare, Raime, and the Sandwell District roster -- and have crafted out their own hauntological niche in the modern music world. Brooding, visceral, and encompassing like a thick veil, sounding of a darkness that speaks psychically to the lonely silhouette of a dancer in the shadows of a warehouse party long after the crowd has dispersed. Slow, syrupy syncopated beats that are swirling in some sort of autoerotic blackhole, something like a VHS of loops thrown into a compression chamber. This music might slowly shut down your nervous system before transcending into brightly gaseous atmospheric bliss. Andy Stott mines in the deepest voids of sound and texture to craft what is at once real yet incredibly uncomfortable and subconsciously recessed in the depths of our emotions. Bondage wrapped electronica for those who wish to explore those existential darkrooms.

Purchase We Stay Together / Passed Me By here:


Morphosis
What Have We Learned
Delsin

This experimental techno free-form jam makes for one of this years best electronic albums. Recorded in only two days Rabih Beani has created a masterpiece that oozes with emotion and strays from traditional production methods and styles. The result is 10 tracks of abstract techno filled with dark kraut influenced bliss. Essential listening.

Conrad Schnitzler
Live ’72
Further

Fantastic Live recording from the Cluster founder.
Beautiful handmade gatefold sleeve.

Purchase Conrad Schnitzler Live '72







Holger Zilske
Acid Test 04
Absurd Recordings

Part 4 in the “ACID TEST” series from ABSURD RECORDINGS drops from Berlin’s HOLGER ZILSKE. “A pure analog jam using just a 303, 101 and a 808″ its a slow pulsing bass heavy acid work out. Comes with remixes from JOHN TEJADA and Stockholm’s AXEL BOMAN. Initial pressing comes with download codes in handpainted sleeves.

Purchase Acid Test 04





Deadbeat
Drawn And Quartered 2LP
BLKRTZ

Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat releases an album for his own label BLKRTZ. It has been 12 years since Monteith quietly launched his Deadbeat music project with an unassuming performance on the street outside a Montreal café as part of the first edition of the city's now internationally-lauded MUTEK festival. And while the venues and audiences have grown steadily and seriously in the years since, the crackling dub sonics, deep grooves, and rumbling bass which characterized that performance have remained a constant in his live and recorded work, and earned him a substantial number of devoted followers the world over in the process. Having worked with a virtual who's-who of the most respected labels in the industry over the last decade, Monteith now takes the plunge into the murky depths of labelhood, launching his BLKRTZ imprint with no less than a full album of new material. "When I received the news a few months ago that ~scape was officially closing its doors, I was incredibly sad to hear it." says Monteith from his new home in Berlin. "Though I hadn't worked with them in a few years, I always saw ~scape as the natural home for a very important part of my work. Not necessarily the more listening side of things per se, but certainly the most unconcerned with genre or function, from a creative standpoint the most free, I guess. Barbara and Stefan worked very hard to promote a great deal of quite marginalized material over the years and did a lot to help me and many other artists out personally who otherwise would have had a much harder time of it. Though I'll be concentrating on my own work for the first few releases, it's my hope that BLKRTZ can serve a similarly honorable purpose in the years to come." In celebration of the label's inaugural release, Monteith has teamed up with long-time friend and world renowned video artist, Lillevan, to create an immersive audio/visual performance quite unlike any other.

RAINBOW ARABIA
Boys And Diamonds LP+CD
Kompakt

This is the debut full-length album by Rainbow Arabia. Averse to any easy classification, Rainbow Arabia's continent-trekking, kaleidoscope pop is rooted in no particular time or place, employing modern technological processes to an array of musical cultures and eras. The Los Angeles duo began with the purchase of a Lebanese Casio that played microtonal scales and Eastern beats, with which they quickly recorded their propulsive first EP, The Basta, synthesizing bossa nova and industrial post-punk with heavy Middle Eastern vibes. Digging deeper for inspiration from the worldly found sounds of Sublime Frequencies compilations, their follow-up EP, Kabukimono, expanded the color palette of their "fourth world" pop with dark, Arabic disco-dancehall jams sitting alongside sunnier moments with Caribbean and African flourishes. Rather than restricting themselves to the expanse and musical artifacts of Earth alone, Danny and Tiffany Preston recalibrate their focus, aiming their sights upwards into outer space. Nearly a year in the making, Boys And Diamonds is a stunning journey that not only marries East with West but also the past with the future. Immediately, you can hear some familiar elements found in their previous releases: Danny's asymmetrical tribal beats and lysergic pads, Tiffany's labyrinthine fretwork and tick-tock vocal swagger. But you'll also notice: the hooks are stickier and more confident, the rhythms are sturdier, and the production is lusher, even astral, giving the songs more space to breathe. Boys And Diamonds is unmistakably a pop album but also one that comfortably fits in with Kompakt's long-standing lineage of genre-refracting releases. You will be hard-pressed to find another record that cohesively brings to mind Siouxsie rubbing elbows with Shabba Ranks, Giorgio Moroder sipping daiquiris in Bali, Desmond Dekker envisioned through skittering footwork, Tom Tom Club sitting in with Congotronics, even early Madonna produced by Chris and Cosey. Unlikely as all of that sounds, Rainbow Arabia makes it sound easy. Drummer/producer extraordinaire Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat, Boredoms, MIA) contributes arrangements and beats in places, and Icy Demons' Dylan Ryan plays on the percussion-heavy island shuffle "Nothin Gonna Be Undone." The album was mixed at the wonderful Hobby Shop studios in L.A. by Mudrock, who also adds some final production touches on the record.

Storm Queen
Look Right Through12”
Environ

Morgan Geistʼs new project STORM QUEEN marks a return to his roots with an analog approach towards modern house music with a disco pedigree. STORM QUEEN is made for DJs, but doesnʼt sacrifice atmosphere and songwriting. STORM QUEEN owes a debt to classic house music from New York, Chicago and Detroit, as well as disco and boogie.

Listen to "Look Right Through" here:





John Daly
BIG PIANO 12"
Drum Poet

Ireland's JOHN DALY brings this 4 track EP of house perfection. The title track brings back the feeling of 90s KERRI CHANDLER; "REACH" continues the deepness with a warm sound; "LONG DISTANCE" adds more of a tech texture & "ATLANTIC DRIVE" finishes the 12" with a serene mood.

Listen to "Big Piano" here:




LUKID
Chord 3LP
Werk

Four Tet & Mala
Nothing To See
Soul Jazz

First up is the glitchy, sparkling electronica of "NOTHING TO SEE" by FOUR TET, with a shuffling post-garage vibe to it. On the flip is "DON'T LET ME GO" by MALA, a thick stew of discordant beats and propulsive melodies. As the label says, "Future Bass!" Limited edition and available now!

Listen to "Nothing To See" here:






Dr. Dunks
Keep It Cheap
Keep It Cheap

Eric 'Dr. Dunks' Duncan (COMBI / Still Going / Rub 'n' Tug etc) launches his new Keep It Cheap imprint, the winner here being the Dolly Parton edit that Harvey’s been caning for a while now. Hot!






Conrad Schnitzler
Zug LP
Minimal

Conrad Schnitzler's Zug is one of the most important and one of the first electronic minimalist works that was published in the 1970s. Almost simultaneously with Kraftwerk's groundbreaking Autobahn, "Zug" appeared on the legendary The Red Cassette (1973). Wire wrote about Zug: "Kraftwerk might have used similar methods to create rhythm, but three decades on, it still sounds like the future." As an original member of Tangerine Dream (1969-1970) and a founding member of Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler is a creator of milestones in the history of electronic popular music. This release is rounded off with remixes by Con (1978) fan Stefan Betke aka Pole and Borngräber & Strüver. Pole and Kassian Troyer (Radian) have mastered the record, so the best quality is guaranteed.