Electronic / Experimental

AD 93 is proud to present the new album from Polish composer Wojciech Rusin, due for release on the 4th February 2022. Syphon is the second instalment of an ‘alchemical’ trilogy which started with The Funnel on Akashic records. The record consists of speculative medieval and renaissance music, imagined composed in the future, where it is reconstructed from the ashes of the past, via incomplete fragments. "In a future where the old semantic systems don’t apply anymore, what we are left with is some kind of delirium." The album features 3D printed instruments, multilayered bagpipe chanters, double recorders and other hybrids. With additional voices of soprano Eden Girma and Emmy Broughton. Artwork by Wojciech Rusin and Nicola Tirabasso Mastered by Rupert Clervaux

Delroy's in love. With House. Absolutely essential again.

Originally released in 2008 on CD and in a very limited vinyl edition, "The Malady Of Elegance" by Goldmund aka Keith Kenniff finally gets its long-deserved vinyl re-release, featuring a new artwork and remastered audio by Taylor Deupree. Taking cues from 'Corduroy Road' Keith Kenniff (aka Helios) again restricts himself to the piano in conjuring up his humble soundscapes and again we are pulled into a deep, meditative and filmic world as the notes glide to a slow, pensive meter. Keith's precedent release was the challenging 'Two Point Discrimination' EP, released on the Western Vinyl label as part of their portrait series, but where that record was a collection of haunting experiments in form and sound, 'The Malady of Elegance' sees us back into the warming, homespun territory of 'Corduroy Road'. That's not to say these compositions are upbeat, far from it in fact, but there are lines to be drawn to folk music, and while Keith no longer draws on the American Civil War as a primary influence there is still the sense that the ghosts of old America haunt the keys. On top of these references we see Keith tripping somewhat fittingly into a flickering filmic world somewhat in line with his taste in European film. There is a delicate narrative on show throughout the record from the opening hopefulness of Image-Autumn-Womb through the melancholy of Now to the sensitive romance of the album's closer Evelyn. Listening to the record almost creates its own cinematic accompaniment in the minds eye, and this is simply a testament to Keith's incredible talents as a composer. Fans of Erik Satie, Sylvain Chauveau and Hauschka need look no further, 'The Malady of Elegance' is a deeply personal meditation which you cannot help but get lost inside.

deeper and deeper: studio mule excavates another treasure from japan’s rich modern music history. this time spiritual leaning rhythms that come from none other then eitet-su hayashi, one of japan’s most renown taiko drummers, a percussive instrument that is deeply rooted in the mythology of japanese folklore.

with “kaze no shisha”, studio mule reissues a crucial album of his long-spanning career, that started in 1971, when hayashi joined the globally famed ondekoza group. the so called “demon drum group“ established the taiko drumming to a global audience and intensively toured around the globe between 1975 and 1981 - the year the group split.

shortly after, hayashi and some like-minded spirits formed kodo, a new drum troupe with hayashi as lead drummer. after their first live performances he left the ensemble again in order to launch his solo career, whose first output marked “kaze no shisha”, released in 1983 on the japanese subsidiary of the us record company victor.

the album’s six compositions feature hayashi on taiko drum and other percussion, famed japanese composer midori takada on marimba, cymbal and bells, shuichi chino on synthesizer, chi soungja on the traditional korean zither gayageum and the korean janggu drum as well as the singers kamur and tenko, also known as the honeymoons.

all songs have been written by eitetsu hayashi and been recorded between july and august 1983 at sunrise studio and victor aoyama studio in tokyo. it must have been an intensive time. a time, in which hayashi transformed the drumbeat of his heart into a variety sounds, melodies and rhythms, without losing the melancholic, yet demanding kaito air.

the record’s a-side starts rough and traditional with “kintonun”, a tune in which hayashi bangs the taiko stormy while charmingly dancing with chi soungja’s korean janggu drum performance. a propulsive start that slides into “cosmos” – a slow glooming melancholic trance-folk-spiritual tranquilizer, featuring hayashi playing the piano and koto, while chi soungja weeps ghostly on his gayageum zither.

a perfectly built folk drama, deeply charged with musical infinity. its followed by “kalavinka”, an industrial leaning composition, that lifts off with metal tones and meditative chanting, only to melt into a mesmerizing melodic marimba crescendo, played by midori takada. again, the myths of ancient japanese music kisses modern minimal realms and nothing seems to refer to the pure percussive genre hayashi is famed for.

the b-side opener “kaze no shisha” presents a slow growing performance by hayashi on the japanese zither koto. his nervous play transforms into a synth drone played by shuichi chino, that slowly makes space for hayashi’s tribal taiko drumming that again disappears in another wave of koto string notes.

the follow up “bakuon” launches with a supersonic transport sound and operatic singing by the honeymoons, that amalgamates with hayashi’s feverish performance on his main instrument, the taiko. every now and then strange synth sounds and disparate voices open the short composition, that abruptly ends after 2 minutes and 30 seconds. the final of “kaze no shisha” is reconciliatory.

on “seiten” hayashi creates a conversation between the taiko and mokugyo, also known as the buddhist wooden fish. they turn into some kind of call and response talk, always leaving enough space between the rhythms and tones to create a deeply spiritual psychic sphere.

an utterly captivating, keen to experiment album, full of japanese music mysticism, surprising non-linear shock-waves, repetitive minimal structures and frenziedly drumming, who in interaction introduce a less popular side of one of japan’s most prolific drum poets.

Faitiche presents a new album by Andrew Pekler: Sounds From Phantom Islands brings together ten tracks created over the last three years for the interactive website Phantom Islands - A Sonic Atlas. With his 2016 album Tristes Tropiques, Pekler created a highly unique cosmos of ethnographic sound speculations. Sounds From Phantom Islands continues and simultaneously expands this concept: finely elaborated chordal motifs float like fog over fictional maritime landscapes. A masterpiece of contemporary Exotica.

Phantom islands are islands that appeared on historical maps but never actually existed. The status of these artefacts of European colonial expansion from the 15th to the 19th century oscillates between cartographic fact and maritime fiction. Sounds From Phantom Islands interprets and presents these imaginations as a quasi-ethnographic catalog of music and synthetic field recordings. The pieces on this album are based on recordings made for Phantom Islands - A Sonic Atlas, an online interactive map developed with cultural anthropologist Stefanie Kiwi Menrath.

Originally released in 2006, Eingya by Helios aka Keith Kenniff returns in a new 2021 edition vinyl re-release, remastered by Taylor Deupree.

Beginning the album on a high with the pastoral beauty of "Bless This Morning Year," Kenniff showcases of what he does best: heartbreaking guitar and piano melodies punctuated by crumbling beats and backed by the most atmospheric synthesizer sounds this side of Eno's Apollo. The appetizing "Halving the Compass" blends subtle field recording with the kind of piano melodies so beautiful they could be compared to Virginia Astley or Harold Budd. This is followed by the album's clear highlight, "Dragonfly Across an Ancient Sky." It's an unsurpassable folk guitar piece with a decomposing percussive background and the sort of melodies that would turn evil tyrants into weeping babies. An album that could appeal as easily to fans of Nick Drake as to fans of Boards of Canada or even early AIR, this truly has something for everyone.

Raised in rural Pennsylvania, Kenniff put out Helios's 2004 debut album, Unomia, while studying percussion at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Since then, he's released six more albums as Helios, in addition to collaborating with his wife Hollie Kenniff in the shoegaze-inspired pop duo Mint Julep and composing music for films and archival use.

"A protracted sunset of an album guaranteed to see you through the longest days of summer and into the twilight of the autumn." - The Wire "A soundtrack of molasses-sweet, midsummer sunset melancholy and pastoral mellifluence." - Tinymixtapes
 

“This heat are one of those bands that (as a person wanting to be in a band) I aspired to be like. Not to sound like them or rip them off in anyway, but just be one of those bands that you hear and you know instantly, that your listening to This Heat and none else. They’re a band that set their own rules and did it without ever sounding pretentious or like they were trying too hard. The first record i had by them was This Heat but I thought it was amazing that i could be into them for some years and keep discovering other EPs or songs by them like Health and Efficiency that still felt completely fresh and still do. - Dave Porter (Avey Tare, Animal Collective)

Few copies available. Terry Riley's incredible early tape manipulation works from the 1960s, “Bird of Paradise” and “You’re No Good. Incredible audio quality

Uwalmassa shape their relationship with various forms of musical heritage into technical and stylish forms on Malar, marrying acoustic sonics with a contemporary outlook that reflects their Indonesian identity; evolving, mutating, and scavenging traditions to draw parallels to dance music, and to test the adaptability and flexibility of those sounds. Here the collective go dark and deep in their first album-length collaboration with Mana, casting long shadows and moving snake style at speed across nine tracks. Using a mix of synthetic and acoustic instruments - the texture of Malar feels enigmatic, occasionally industrial, and the result magical in its mystery and fluctuating impact. Uwalmassa is the name with which DIVISI62, arts & music collective from Jakarta, Indonesia, perform and produce music.

Raja Kirik is Indonesian duo Yennu Ariendra and J. Mo'ong Santoso Pribadi, two radical artists who draw on Java's rich cultural traditions and its history of struggle against colonial oppression to create music that surprises, challenges and educates in equal measure. They root their music in the sound of shamanic trance dances, specifically the Jaranan, or Jathilan, a Hindu-Buddhist-era dance from the 11th Century that symbolizes the ways common people could overcome their rulers using evasion and agility. "Rampokan" is Ariendra and Pribadi's second album, originally released by cult Indonesian label 'Yes No Wave' in June 2020, and now presented in a remastered edition with an additional previously unreleased track in a limited double vinyl edition. The album is inspired by centuries of cultural resistance in Java. When Dutch traders established a colonial presence on the island at the end of the 16th Century, the Javanese used traditional dances to express their opposition. Raja Kirik express this historical friction with a mind-bending fusion of traditional Indonesian percussion, digital noise and over-driven Dutch hard-style. The album roots itself in the stage of Jaranan performance where the players become possessed, connecting to their subconscious mind and the body's collective memory and trauma. Ariendra and Pribadi reflect this by dousing evocative microtonal clanks from their arsenal of home-made instruments in expertly designed digital noise, and stringing the disparate elements together with the oppressive pneumatic pressure of high-BPM, warehouse-ready kick drums. Like the trance dances that inspired them, these tracks evolve and cycle from misery to ecstasy, spinning distinctive narratives with rhythm, texture and repetition. The album title is taken from "Rampokan Macan", a colonial-era arena battle between spearmen, criminals and wild animals. The ceremonial fights were provided to illustrate the strength of the Javanese Royal Kingdoms in the face of the Dutch East Indies government; Raja Kirik's sophomore album is a similarly lavish display, offering a charged confrontation of IDM, hard dance music and traditional sounds that spits fire into the face of tyranny. Of course, it is a recommended ritual trance / industrial picture scroll for fans around Gabber Modus Operandi and Senyawa!

Woo, Nuno Canavarro, Enya's phantom intersection ?? A work that also introduced the famous blog that has pushed New Age Revival to the next zone! A long-awaited reprint of the rare work released on CD only from in 1992 by "Uman", a 90's French new-age / ambient duo consisting of Danielle Jean & Didier Jean! Their work, which has recorded two pop albums up to this work, but the pros and cons are divided. To that end, they built their own studio in Orsay, on the outskirts of southern Paris, to escape the expectations of the French music industry. Introducing the latest music technology of the time in this place created to realize their new free perspective, space and ideas. A masterpiece that incorporates original sampling and vocal processing to create a soft and surreal modern classical new age that also leads to an acoustic sensation! Includes liner notes by Diego Olivas (FOND / SOUND).

Starting with an open dialogue seems like a good way to approach a collaboration. Almost a decade ago, that’s how Joana Gama (piano) and Luís Fernandes (electronics) started to work together, and both quickly understood that it was an ideal moment to develop and explore new paths in their music. “There’s no knowing” is their fifth album, 50 minute piece in which the two artists' have a dialogue while interacting with the void and silence around them. The origin of this work explains the frequent tension in this piece; Invited by Nuno M. Cardoso to compose the soundtrack for a TV series, “Cassandra”, Joana and Luís found themselves with the material and inspiration to extend this work into a long piece. At times, “There’s no knowing” feels like a tense and knife cutting soundtrack to a thriller. Joana’s tempo adds to a well-architected sound-design by Luís that pushes the boundaries of what the duo can achieve. The ambition, always present in their music, provides a fascinating backdrop - the focus in the moment coupled with the feeling of latent anxiety pushing each other to their limits.That tremendous momentum can be felt while listening to any of their records. As they push each other, we are invited to other realms of contemporary electronics and modern classical. “There’s no knowing” is their finest to date. But that’s no surprise, their work is based on that continuous progression.

"Textures & Lines" started as an invitation by Portuguese ensemble Drumming GP to work with the duo Joana Gama & Luís Fernandes. Joana's piano and Luís's electronics find new territories in a mix of subtle and raw use of percussions. In four pieces they defy the limits of classical contemporary music and create a landscape that evolves in each listening.

Grup Ses, Istanbul based veteran beatmaker returns to Souk after 2 years with first fully instrumental album since 2011's sought after 'Beats and Pieces from Turkish Psychedelia'. Grup Ses project dates back to 2007 which at the time focused on v/vm style edits and breakcore infused mash ups. Starting from 2008 Grup Ses started to build a version of Stones Throw & Brainfeeder influenced beatmaking mixed with a touch of humour. A blend including all kinds of local recorded material like records, tapes, radio broadcasts etc., which became the building blocks of signature Grup Ses sound. 'Beats from the vaults' is a showcase of beatmaking aesthetics Grup Ses visited between 2008 and 2021. Including various cuts available only on soundcloud plus unheard material compiled just for this album. Limited edition of 500. Vinyl edition includes 10 tracks not available on digital and streaming formats.

In an effort to sublimate the negative energy surrounding everyone in 2020, legendary Japanese heavy rock band Boris focused all of their energy creatively and turned out the most extreme album of their long and widely celebrated career, "NO." The band self-released the album, desiring to get it out as quickly as possible but intentionally called the final track on the album "Interlude" while planning its follow-up. The follow-up comes with "W", the band's debut album for Sacred Bones Records. The record opens with the same melody as "Interlude" in a piece titled "I want to go to the side where you can touch..." and in contrast to the extreme sounds found on "NO", this new album whispers into the listener's ear with a trembling hazy sound meant to awaken sensation. On all of "W" Wata carries the lead vocal duties. In general the styles on the album range from noise to new age, as is typical with one of our generation's most dynamic and adventurous bands, but there is a thread of melodic deliberation through each song that successfully accomplishes the band's goal of eliciting deep sensation. Be it through epic sludgey riffs, angelic vocal reverberations or the seduction of their off-kilter percussion, Boris will have you fully under their spell. This languid and liquifying sound is perfectly represented in the beautiful Kotao Tomozawa cover art and in suGar yoshinaga's sound production. "NO" and "W" weave together to form NOW, a duo of releases that respond to one another. In following their hardest album with this sensuous thundering masterpiece they are creating a continuous circle of harshness and healing, one that seems more relevant now than ever and shows the band operating at an apex of their musical career.

Third time’s a charm. Or a chant in this case. “Antologia De Música Atípica Portuguesa” is back. Following two sold out volumes, the unplanned trilogy comes to a close with chants and hymns whilst continuing to merge music genres and presenting them as a world building concept. If the first two volumes were dedicated to work (“O Trabalho”) and regions (“Regiões”), it only made sense to close the trilogy with ceremonial music, connecting the real – each musicians’ creation – with a fantasied celebration of Portuguese folk, traditions, and ghost methods within these unusual anthems. If you’ve listened to Niagara before, you probably felt this whole ceremonial thing going on. A perfect opener then, for this volume with Niagara’s deep dive into proto religious-ambient music with “Paulo, Apolo e Pedro”. It sets the tone for the next 35-minutes of ethereal like songs. Either you listen to musicians working within their natural habitat (João Pais Filipe or Filipe Felizardo) or feel them exploring new areas in their realm (Niagara, Joana Guerra or Serpente), this third volume manages to combine eight of the best underrated visionaries working in current day Portugal. In the past, “Antologia da Música Atípica Portuguesa” created an imaginary folktale where current day creations could live with the idea of archive or fake-folk. This volume forgets the world building and actually lives in it. Because this is the real Portugal. This is our folk. These are our chants. Embrace the otherworldly.

Kink Gong is back with his unique take and re-interpretation of the music he’s been recording and documenting for years in the South East Asian highlands. Zomia Vol.1 takes the conceptual idea of ZOMIA, proposed by James C Scott in The Art of Not Being Governed, an Anarchist History of Upland South East Asia, to construct its very own mythological soundscape inspired by a semi-utopic region where state rules don’t apply. Zomia might be (almost) gone but Kink Gong is keen keep its spirit alive by releasing a series of albums celebrating the region’s quasi mythological features. ‘’Zomia is an idea, a concept that, not so long ago, there were two very distinct worlds in southeast Asia, the valley VS highland/hinterland, the civilisation VS the primitive, paddy rice VS slash and burn agriculture, Buddhism VS Animism, fixed territory VS movement/migration, written system VS oral culture, the state VS anarchy, property VS squat, controlled population VS autonomy, bricks VS bamboo and wood and, at my level museumified traditional mainstream music VS real emotions/songs of devastated lives and/or gongs ceremonies with buffalo sacrifices, extreme heat in the valleys VS shade in the jungle. I could go on and on but let’s not forget that ZOMIA is disappearing fast, if not altogether already. How many of the people I’ve recorded are still alive? As you might know, before composing new music from my own ZOMIAN experience (from 2001 to 2014 in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and China) I had to find those musicians, be able to communicate with them, record them as good as I could with very limited finances and gradually release a collection of 160 CDrs. It is very important for me to make sure you to listen to the fantastic original recordings before or after you’ve listened to this experimental reconstruction I called ZOMIA! Expect more volumes to come, this is my biggest source of inspiration, and the reason why I’ve been involved for years in constructing a mythological experimental musical ZOMIAN soundscape.’’ Laurent Jeanneau, Berlin 2020

Originally conceived as a mock live bootleg for Turn Us Alias 2020 (Macao’s Saturnalia festival online edition), Stock Fantasy Zone is the new album by Babau dedicated to the unearthly delights of unconscious reticular motion, wacky 2D shredding and daily side quests. Directly from inside the Stack, finally imagine a zone where all activities are possible but purposeless, all primary objectives are achieved without even moving and the game-logic has finally disappeared leaving back a virtual fauna of forsaken babbling Npc’s and uncharted, yet to be tested stockpiles of maps and levels. Lofty low poly structures, tentacular mickey-mousing gesticulations, already obsolete sonic ontologies and the unsung age of Dreamcast fantasy frenzy. All and all, just another day spent testing the margins and edges of the simulation without leaving your Sofa. Don’t wait! Enter the Stock Fantasy Zone! Stock Fantasy Zone has been mentioned by Simon Reynolds among his 2020 albums of the year and two tracks have been selected by Kode9 for a mixtape released by Club To Club Festival.

In an interview for The Wire magazine back in January 2012, Spencer Clark claimed that one the most important "lesson" learned while performing with The Skaters was "stay true to your imagination". Taking this life motto at heart, Clark's world today is still a place of wonder and myth, conveyed through a myriad of aliases and invocations like Vodka Soap, Fourth World Magazine or Typhonian Highlife. Always the wide-eyed mystic and searcher of the netherworld, Clark surfaces again on Discrepant sister label Pacific City Discs, straight from the Canary Islands with this not quite but somewhat reissue under his celebrated and celebratory Monopoly Child Star Searchers alias. Combining visions from two long, long sold out and hardly traceable releases on Clark's own Pacific City label, pressed for the first time ever in wax with a new master by D&M - as it should - 'The Aqueducts Of Channel Island/Prince Of Parrot Shooters' stands as a vital piece in an ever changing and deeply personal mandala-like oeuvre. An hypnotic and appropriately lo-fi flux of bouncy hand percussion loops, nature calls and celestial synth harmonies that weave themselves into trance inducing rituals. Levitating fever-dream recordings from imaginary topographies, or perhaps a gateway to fortean alternate realities just lurking around the corner. Stay true to your imagination indeed.

One of the drone / ambient gems suitable for the coming autumn day, where a ray of light that makes you feel hope comes in from the nostalgic, tranquility and shadowy sound scenery! Matte laminate & embossed sleeve specifications. Highly recommended !!!!

Rhythm fiends, your time! Lisbon’s DJ Nigga Fox swangs it wide, precise and deadly on his first new tunes since 2019’s outstanding ‘Cartas Na Magna’ LP and a killer live tape in ’21 Deploying four immediately upfront, naturally experimental workouts, ‘Música Da Terra’ marks just over 10 years since DJ Nigga Fox came to our attention on the ‘African Digital Dance’ compilation, and solidly affirms his role as the leader of Lisbon’s new school. Balancing a cosmic jazzy depth akin to Jamal Moss or Ron Trent’s deep house with more urgent, syncopated ghetto grooves, his music is the pinnacle of contemporary Kuduro, if you ask us. The lad’s catalogue practically charts the sound’s development from grimy and hardcore to more sensual, textured and rhythmelodically psychedelic in a way that places him like Kuduro’s answer to Dego or A Guy Called Gerald, and especially on this EP. Including an instant standout jam with fellow Príncipe don DJ Firmeza in the muscular bass churn, bolshy brass and groggy pads of ‘Sanzaleiro’, Nigga Fox absolutely bosses it on his three solo works. There’s the adrenalizing scorcher ‘Madeso’ at the front, with its shards of marching horns sliced up into swingeing heads-down swagger, but also laid with a mental breakdown, while ‘Gás Natural’ cools off for a hot minute with its exquisite, chill breeze melody and in-the-pocket log drums leading somewhere deliciously darker, and ‘Sasuke’ simply slays with jaw-dropping twist of cosmic acid broken beat soul, lathering hazy organs, 303 and nimblest drums into the tightest, inimitable step. Oh my days this is fucking strong. TIP!

DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited net Lisbon legend Blastah for a bag of sensuous, playfully animated dembow, drill and kuduro mutations that sit ever so sweetly beside the label’s gems from Sangre Nueva and Henzo. Blastah blesses his debut firmware with a dreamily memorable set of six concise, lowkey burners that hover around reggaeton’s 100-110BPM brackets. Over the years he’s developed an online penpal relationship with Brian Piñero aka DJ Python, naturally leading to this shared conception of romantic club music with a mutable bent that lends itself just as easily to end-of-night slow jam sections as low lit bedrooms. The vibe is perfectly sensuous and set in woozy soft focus, from the Elysia Crampton-esque, dusky fusion of R&B pads and soundsystem stabs on ‘Raining’ to the neck-caressing nod to Timbaland and Timberlake in its ‘Closer’. A heartical deep house dembow sound is echoed on ‘Cendres’, and a prime fusion of US drill softened with subtropical appeal shapes ‘Unknown’ and the slinky, subbass-gilded minimalism of ‘Call’, while ‘Fish Friends’ most clearly betrays his taste for late night Lisbon tarraxho. Up-to-the-moment, inch-tight, timeless pearls for the dancehall lovers.

Cellist, composer & sound​ artist Leila Bordreuil takes us deep into the bowels and liminal spaces of a deserted NYC with 40 minute long contrasting works of a tempestuous and sorely enervated nature, played on location in the subway at the Ralph Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn - complete with passing trains, people, and tension in the air. If you’re into anything from Arthur Russell to Lea Bertucci - this one’s a total headmelt. First pinging our radar with her ‘Headflush’ album for Catch Wave back in 2019, Leila Bordreuil has a tactile, extreme approach to the cello, one that focuses on its visceral aspects in a way that mimics the most spirited, fraught and melancholy human emotions. Despite the complex nature of her playing, you can trace Bordreuil's lineage back to Arthur Russell’s defining ‘World Of Echo’ in methodology and spirit - Leila plays with no processing or effect pedals, everything stems from the player, her instrument, and their surroundings. On ‘For Tamio’ - Leila performs in tribute to her collaborator and saxophonist Tamio Shiraishi, whose late night performances at the Spring Street subway, 10 stops away from Ralph Avenue, greatly inspired her own approach to capturing and playing with resonance in the subway. For just shy of 20 mins, she makes the air burn and buckle with a combustible grasp of loud/quiet dynamics and keening discord that has us seat-edge by the end. The setting is evocative to the extreme - the usually chaotic and bustling subway station now emptied of its usual inhabitants, reclaimed as a performance space in which Leila played late into the night - accompanied by memories and echoes of life, as well as a person living in the subway station who started dancing to her music, an engrossed audience of one. In contrast, ‘Past Continuous’ on the flipside was recorded in Leila’s building’s hallway, where she attached a brick to the pedal of a broken upright piano and angled her microphones in a way that gave the illusion of a large reverberant room. Adding sinewaves to enhance natural frequencies, the result is a heartbeat sketch that operates at barely perceptible levels of tonality, working in a liminal space with almost hallucinatory, ghostly overtones and a colossal sub that speaks to the anxiety dreams of a megatropolis in stasis. ‘Not An Elegy’ is a grippingly stark work that owes as much to the city’s history of jazz as it does to experimental classical forms. It's an uneasy but deeply life-affirming trip through the dense fog of memory and modern anxiety, coaxed by a player whose hands shape, and whose feelings ooze through the recordings in a way that’s impossible not to be affected by in the deepest sense. It’s a remarkable document of a time, and an artist, right on the cusp.

Demdike Stare zoom into the late 90’s sweetspot where jungle producers swang into UKG and R&B with a high grade mixtape spliced together with typical, obsessive knowledge and swerve - trust it’s one of their best. Mining one of their essential touchstones, ‘The Call’ highlights the ’97-’99 period in the UK when the likes of Steve Gurley, Anthill Mob and Sky Joose were key players in the phase shift from ruff to sweet club styles around needlepoint 2-step drum programming. Also spotlighting the irrevocable influence of US R&B at the time, the mix homes in on one of the hardcore ‘nuum’s most fascinating innovations, when original, leading producers reclaimed their music from the sweatier excesses of jungle/D&B, and ushered it back to sexier, slinkier styles primed for dressing up and showing off - not gurning your tits off and brukking the f uck out. Stitched together with subtle, patented sleight-of-hand edits and dial strafe smudges, the mix exerts exquisite control for one hour of dainty rudeboy shuffle and woodblock parry in honour of their innovative heroes. Without overstating it, they trace UKG’s flex from bumpty speed garage soul inflicted with syrupy R&B, to its four-to-da-floor variants, and the sparkier punctuation of 2-step, proper, emphasising the sound’s rhythmic and textural sensuality with triple deep and eternal cuts that find the sound crystallizing from a delicious flux of puckered US garage-house and R&B-soul aspects, and updating the memory banks of original UK rave. Like the post-factum UKG archaeology of Finn and Oneman, Demdike’s picks are educated and educational, but never academic - presenting an ideal primer on the way styles shifted quickly back then, exemplifying how the tussle of energies between the house traction of Grant Nelson, Dem 2’s dissection of Timbaland/The Neptunes’ mainstream R&B, and the restless bad foot of rave were factored by the adroit chops of early jungle DJs on radio stations such as Freak FM and Jason Kaye’s Sun City mixes.