MUSIC
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Kenta Taku Yu Tataku 2nd Album
Physical release on cassette tape along with digital release. The cassette is limited to 100!
Imagine from the sound.
Create sound.
The "sound" that overflows from Kenta Nakagome and Yuta Sumiyoshi, who chose the media "cassette" in an era where they can listen to anything with various streaming services, is particular about their own sound and the sound that only two people can make "NAYUTA". It became a work called.
Please prepare a cassette deck and fully enjoy the difference in texture and sound quality peculiar to analog that can never be reproduced digitally.
Also pay attention to the cassette design that you want to collect and the bonus stickers that come with it!
Angus MacLise, the first drummer for the Velvet Underground, was a poet, composer, and a member of The Theatre of Eternal Music alongside La Monte Young.
The "Tapes" 3CD Box is the first-ever reissue of a 3-cassette compilation that Pleasure Editions originally released in 2015, limited to only 100 copies. The 3CD box set comes with a miniature poster and track lists, and each CD has a paper sleeve that reproduces the original cassette card artwork. This comprehensive 3CD box set is over three hours in length and includes session recordings with Tony Conrad and William Breeze (of Coil, Current 93, and Psychic TV), mystical recordings from the filming of Ira Cohen's "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" (1968), shortwave experiments, and sounds of Tibetan Buddhist monks recorded by MacLise.
The "Tapes" compilation features excerpts from the archives of the Angus MacLise Papers, which are held at Columbia University Library. The archives contain over 100 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings of live improvised music, theatrical performances, and sound experiments created by MacLise and his associates during the 1960s and 1970s. MacLise produced the original recordings in his own unique style, characterized by rough and peculiar editing.
The release is curated and sequenced by Will Cameron and Mark Iosifescu.
Jim O'Rourke completed a new sound restoration and mastering of the recordings in 2023.
The 3CD box comes with a miniature poster, a sheet of track list, and each CD comes with a paper sleeve which reproduces the original cassette sleeve artwork.
Sydney-based Korean drummer and improviser Chloe Kim considers New York's constant movement on this volatile solo workout, exploring heady rhythmelodic cycles, extended percussion techniques and unexpected textures. RIYL Milford Graves, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Eli Keszler or Chris Corsano. Solo drumming albums are still a rarity, so 'Ratsnake' is already a pretty thrilling prospect, but this one's worth getting a little gassed over. Kim's a pro - a lecturer at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music and a seasoned performer who's played in improv trio Holopeak, alongside Aussie saxophonist Jeremy Rose and with iconic "avant groove" act Medeski Marin & Wood. And 'Ratsnake' is her chance to broadcast her own signature techniques in high definition without interruption; for a drummer who's best-known for playing solo for 100 hours in 10 days (seriously, check '100 Hours' on Bandcamp for the juicy edited highlights), that shouldn't be too hard. 'Ratsnake' is her fifth solo release, but Kim considers it her proper debut album - it's been recorded and mixed by Randall Dunn, after all - and on the title track, she shows us what she's capable of. Her tempo-flexing, circuitous rhythms are front and center, sure, but there's no shortage of tonal experimentation on show. She doesn't play melodies as such, but Kim knows her kit so well that the melodic outlines appear like ghosts, generated by her arsenal of tuned gongs, scraped cymbals and carefully balanced toms. Similarly, on 'Birth Dream' Kim balances out her courtly marches with ringing, regal resonances that she uproots with chaotic fills. The name of the album and some of its track titles relate to Korean folklore; the Korean rat snake is a symbol of abundance, and Kim's mother had seen one in a "conception dream" before Kim was born. So it's hard not to hear a link between the percussionist's living, breathing patterns and the tempo-fluxing rhythms that sit at the center of Korean folk music. She explored these essential beats in 2018 and there are still traces of that framework here; even though Kim's style has been shaped by jazz and free improv, there's still something personal and idiosyncratic in there, just like that rat snake.
Sounds From The Screen reissues Paolo Ferrara’s 1974 album "Sound," newly remastered for today’s listeners. Blending rare groove, psychedelic flair, and cinematic funk, the album features energetic rhythms and inventive arrangements, reaffirming Ferrara’s status as a visionary in Italian library music.
Sounds From The Screen proudly announces the reissue of Sound, the legendary album by Italian composer Paolo Ferrara. Originally cut in 1974 on the iconic Italian library label Canopo, Sound returns in a newly remastered edition, inviting a new generation of listeners to experience its unique blend of rare groove, psychedelic flair, and cinematic funk.
Sound is an alchemic mixture of frenzied rhythms, bossa-tinged themes, and acid funk stompers. The album’s percussive nature and genre-blurring arrangements showcase Ferrara’s mastery in crafting evocative soundscapes that transcend time. Well known for his psychedelic and electronic explorations, Ferrara is in full rare groove mode here, delivering a record that is as enthralling today as it was at its inception
Long considered a hidden gem among collectors and connoisseurs of Italian library music, Sound has been meticulously rescued from the dust and given the reissue treatment it deserves. This release offers both seasoned fans and new listeners the chance to immerse themselves in Ferrara’s visionary world, where every track pulses with energy and inventive spirit.
Miyazake collaborator Joe Hisaishi's accompaniment to 1993 crime thriller 'Sonatine' is another lovingly repackaged oddity from the WRWTFWW stable; one of Hisaishi's personal favorites, it's an eccentric, vividly colored mash-up of global percussion, Tangerine Dream-style cosmic minimalism and earworm piano themes.
Hisaishi isn't the first person we'd think of if we were directing a gangster film, but we're not Takeshi Kitano. The award-winning pianist and composer has penned over 100 scores, and is best known for his work with Hayao Miyazaki, having worked on all but one of his films, but he also nurtured a close relationship with Kitano, scoring 'Kids Return', 'Hana-bi' and 'Dolls', among others. 'Sonatine' is one of Kitano's most acclaimed films, and follows an aging yakuza (played by Kitano) who expressionlessly contemplates his decisions as his time ticks away. Somehow, Hisaishi takes this prompt as an opportunity to work in technicolor, juxtaposing his expectedly jaunty motifs with plasticky fanfares, Midori Takada-style marimba sequences, hand drum workouts and wyrd library psych detours.
We don't fully remember how the soundtrack meshed with the visuals (it's been a while), but as a stand-alone, Hisaishi's bizarre suite of cues works remarkably well. 'Sonatine' arrived over a decade after 'MKWAJU', his outstanding African-inspired collaboration with Takada, and his new age/kosmische-slanted solo album 'Information', and there are traces of each to be found here. Centerpiece track 'Into A Trance' might lack the Prophet 5-powered bite of 'Information', but its Reich-to-YMO electroid minimalism echoes the themes, and 'Eye Witness', a wonky ethno-scrunch of sitar drones, hollow reversed percussive thumps, shamisen plucks and sampled vocal stings is a tongue-in-cheek extension of Hisaishi and Takada's high-minded concepts.
Elsewhere, Hisaishi tries his hand at tabla-tinted Hammond psych on 'Mobius Band', and deploys a Miyazake-ready solo piano heart-melter with 'Light and Darkness'.
Miyazake collaborator Joe Hisaishi's accompaniment to 1993 crime thriller 'Sonatine' is another lovingly repackaged oddity from the WRWTFWW stable; one of Hisaishi's personal favorites, it's an eccentric, vividly colored mash-up of global percussion, Tangerine Dream-style cosmic minimalism and earworm piano themes.
Hisaishi isn't the first person we'd think of if we were directing a gangster film, but we're not Takeshi Kitano. The award-winning pianist and composer has penned over 100 scores, and is best known for his work with Hayao Miyazaki, having worked on all but one of his films, but he also nurtured a close relationship with Kitano, scoring 'Kids Return', 'Hana-bi' and 'Dolls', among others. 'Sonatine' is one of Kitano's most acclaimed films, and follows an aging yakuza (played by Kitano) who expressionlessly contemplates his decisions as his time ticks away. Somehow, Hisaishi takes this prompt as an opportunity to work in technicolor, juxtaposing his expectedly jaunty motifs with plasticky fanfares, Midori Takada-style marimba sequences, hand drum workouts and wyrd library psych detours.
We don't fully remember how the soundtrack meshed with the visuals (it's been a while), but as a stand-alone, Hisaishi's bizarre suite of cues works remarkably well. 'Sonatine' arrived over a decade after 'MKWAJU', his outstanding African-inspired collaboration with Takada, and his new age/kosmische-slanted solo album 'Information', and there are traces of each to be found here. Centerpiece track 'Into A Trance' might lack the Prophet 5-powered bite of 'Information', but its Reich-to-YMO electroid minimalism echoes the themes, and 'Eye Witness', a wonky ethno-scrunch of sitar drones, hollow reversed percussive thumps, shamisen plucks and sampled vocal stings is a tongue-in-cheek extension of Hisaishi and Takada's high-minded concepts.
Elsewhere, Hisaishi tries his hand at tabla-tinted Hammond psych on 'Mobius Band', and deploys a Miyazake-ready solo piano heart-melter with 'Light and Darkness'.
Available on vinyl for the very first time: “The Trance Of Seven Colors” by master Gnawa musician MALEEM MAHMOUD GHANIA and free jazz legend PHAROAH SANDERS. Produced by BILL LASWELL and according to The Attic “one of the most important albums of Gnawa trance music released in the ‘90s”.
Originally released in 1994 on BILL LASWELL’s AXIOM imprint, “The Trance Of Seven Colors” is the meeting of two true musical masters: MALEEM MAHMOUD GHANIA (1951 – 2015), son of the master of Gnawa music MALEEM BOUBKER GHANIA and the famous clairvoyant and "moqaddema" A'ISHA QABRAL, and a master of the traditional Gnawa style in his own right. MAHMOUD learned this craft as a youth along with his brothers, walking from village to village, performing ceremonies with his father BOUBKER and was one of the few masters (Maleem) who continued to practice the Gnawa tradition strictly for healing (the central ritual of the Gnawa is the trance music ceremony – with the purpose of healing or purification of the participants). With 30 cassette releases of music from the Gnawa repertoire with his own ensemble and performances at every major festival in Morocco, including performing for the King in various contexts, MAHMOUD GHANIA was also one of Morocco's most prominent professional musicians.
In 1994, BILL LASWELL and PHAROAH SANDERS went to Mocrocco, equipped with just some mobile recording devices, to record GHANIA and a large ensemble of musicians (to a good part family members) in a very intimate set up at a private house with the legendary free jazz musician contributing his distinctive tenor saxophone sounds that gained him highest praise as a truely spiritual soul right from the days of playing with JOHN COLTRANE and his wife ALICE and on seminal solo albums like „Karma“.
The aptly titled „The Trance of Seven Colors“ ranks among the best Gnawa recordings ever released , made it onto the list of “10 incredible percussive albums from around the world” by Thevinylfactory.com and is 25 years after its original CD release on finally available on vinyl!
Pick a small spot (a point) in front of you (a small knot of wood, a dog down the way). And tightly focus on this spot. And now slowly unfocus your gaze. Widen your gaze. Pan out without moving your eyes. Take it all in.
A smeared and pixelated surface, swelling of contour and light. (Monet’s seepages of light, Altman’s overlapping nomadic dialogue.) Once you have unfocused with little to no center of attention, slowly close your eyes. And please feel very free to notice the light. All of the light that your eyes knocked back as you dilated your focal point. This exercise can be repeated a few times. Unfocusing does not always come easily. And it is probably best to not put too much effort into it. Best to not employ too much pressure.
And we will not put too much pressure on this exercise to help us explain away the humidly, saturatedly psychedelic canopy of moan-‘n-twang and slackelastic-groove of The Dwarfs Of East Agouza’s Sasquatch Landslide.
Mitch Hedberg has a great joke about the Sasquatch: “I think Bigfoot is blurry. That’s the problem. It’s not the photographer’s fault. Bigfoot is blurry! And that’s extra scary to me, because there’s a large out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.”
Sasquatch Landslide. A landslide of hazy configurations. Blurriness, far from a lack of detail, is an embroidering of detail, a horizontal expansion of surface and swarms of light. The name “Sasquatch” derives from the Salish word se'sxac, which means “wild men.” And Sasquatch Landslide is wild. Everything is unravelling. Offset. Décalage. A whole host of slippery tempos and pulses as the organs, guitars and saxophones loiter and lope over a skipping hop of beats, and everything emerges always mid-stream. It is all middle with no halfway point, no dead center, no bullseye. Everything twangs, moans, sweeps, slips, swings, skitters, slides, and grooves out of nowhere. And the almost-human voice with no mother-tongue.
There is something ecstatic (an elatedly miniscule frenzy) going on here but it is pushed beyond the ecstatic: a joyous-grotesque rolling right past trance to dance. Psychedelias appear out of the infra-spaces in between the apparitions and overlapping ‘regimes’ and registers—pushed and squeezed far beyond the recognizable. And these spaces groove joyously hard like some kind of illusive House music, houses completely submerged in molasses. BigFoot-work? (Oh my!) There is not a place to throw your anchor here in the furrowing humidity. That does, and it does, sound like some kind of landslide.
A psychedelic encounter is a brush with the marvel of otherness. The point from which we speak of other, becomes other itself, in an ever-storm of other-production that shreds ideas of knowing and understanding what we think is going on. Time unhinged from the clock. Space unhinged from the frame. An unpinpointing hallucination, a hot get-down, an untethered throw-down of oscillations, fiercely, joyously, exuberantly incomprehensible. Listening to Sasquatch Landslide, a wildly unhinged reverie.
Eric Chenaux and Mariette Cousty
Condat-sur-Ganaveix, February 2025
Paris-born electronic music pioneer and 1970s GRM alumni Ariel Kalma joins with multinational New York trio Asa Tone (Kaazi, Melati ESP, Tristan Arp) for a series of intergenerational, electro-acoustic studio conversations, exploring elasticity within rhythm and winds… or as one early listener observed “space and time.”
Following a chance encounter at Ariel’s studio in the Australian rainforest during the pandemic, Melati & Kaazi began recording long live takes with Kalma, weaving in bioluminescent synth improvisations from Tristan Arp remotely. Revisited a few years later between the members of Asa Tone’s respective homes in New York & Indonesia, “○” is the document of a significant moment in the lives of all the album’s players; an ode to memory and connection in an era of crisis, illuminated via flickering fragments of steel flute, kantilan, modular synthesizer, xaphoon, tenor sax, EWI, field recordings of the surrounding rainforest, and the human voice.
Recorded, written and produced by Asa Tone & Ariel Kalma.
Ariel Kalma: Western Concert Flute, Xaphoon, Tenor Saxophone, Voice
Melati ESP: EWI, Kantilan, Voice
Kaazi: Hydrasynth, Opsix, Percussion
Tristan Arp: Modular Synthesizer, Moog Sub37, Percussion
Additional percussion on *3 by Miles Myjavec
Mixed by Tristan Arp, Kaazi and Ariel Kalma.
Mastered by Jose Arentes at GRAMA, Porto.
Art Direction & Layout : Melati ESP, Kaazi, Biscuit.
Second volume of unreleased solo material by Tim Barnes, Noumena explores the thresholds of perception with long-form compositions built from minimal gestures, field recordings, and ambient textures. A durational and meditative counterpart to Lost Words.
Big Tip! Released shortly after its companion Lost Words, Noumena is the second chapter in a stunning return to solo work by Tim Barnes - percussionist, composer, and sound artist whose influence across avant-garde and improvised music is immeasurable. A study in durational drift and perception, Noumena eschews conventional structure in favor of immersive textures, soft frictions, and the subtle emergence of acoustic detail.
Recorded between 2016 and 2019, the album presents three long-form pieces (Note, Difference, Noumenon) that unfold slowly, often hovering at the threshold of silence. Through field recordings, incidental sounds, and sparse percussive interventions, Barnes offers a deeply immersive sound: field recordings, found objects, analog manipulations, and barely-processed percussion dissolve into each other, creating three long-form pieces—Note, Difference, and Noumenon—that meditate on the porous edge between perception and abstraction. In 2021, Tim was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 54, and he and his family went public with this immediately. The response from Tim’s network of friends and musical peers was overwhelming, but the lingering shutdown meant only remote and long-distance interactions were possible. Beginning in late 2021, a large body of recordings coordinated and assembled by Tim’s longtime friend Ken (Bundy) Brown, with whom Tim had worked in the past as a member of the group Pullman, early pioneers of the new Americana movement in the indie scene of the late 90s.
Rather than a showcase of virtuosity, Noumena reveals Barnes's acute sensitivity to space and resonance - his ability to draw musicality from what might otherwise remain unnoticed. Presented on LP in a limited edition via Quakebasket, and distributed by Drag City, this is a vital document from one of experimental music’s most quietly important figures.
London-based percussionist and composer Valentina Magaletti teams up with Japanese experimental electronic artist YPY for Kansai Bruises, an evocative exploration of cross-cultural sonic territories that bridges European avant-garde percussion with Japanese electronic minimalism. The album unfolds across eight carefully crafted tracks that document a metaphysical journey through Japan's Kansai region, where ancient traditions collide with hypermodern urban realities. Opening with One Hour Visa, the record immediately establishes its liminal character—caught between arrival and departure, belonging and displacement.
Magaletti, whose collaborations span from Nidia to Jandek, brings her signature approach of "strategically enriching a folkloristic and eclectic palette through endless listening and experimentation." Her percussion work here is both architectural and atmospheric, creating rhythmic foundations that breathe with organic unpredictability while maintaining an underlying structural tension. YPY's electronic contributions provide the perfect counterpoint—minimal yet emotionally charged, digital yet deeply human. Together, they create soundscapes that feel simultaneously intimate and vast, personal and universal. Standout tracks include the title piece Kansai Bruises, where field recordings merge with processed percussion to create an almost cinematic sense of urban wandering, and Float, which achieves a remarkable state of weightlessness through its interplay of subtle electronics and polyrhythmic percussion. The album's sequencing tells a complete story: from the initial disorientation of One Hour Visa through the nocturnal drift of Lantern Lit Run, the contemplative pause of Interlude for Fog Days, and the surprising warmth of closing track Pesto—a title that hints at the unexpected cultural fusion that defines this remarkable collaboration.
Kansai Bruises represents a significant evolution in transcultural electronic music, proving that the most interesting artistic encounters happen not in the comfort of familiar territory, but in the bruising, beautiful space between worlds.
Marionette is pleased to present dessus oben alto up, the first collaborative recording by Andrea Belfi and Jules Reidy. Hailing from different ends of the globe (Australia and Italy) but both longtime residents of Berlin, Reidy and Belfi’s approaches have much in common, bringing together compositional precision and electroacoustic rigour with improvisation freedom, the immediate gratifications of rhythmic pulse, and an overtly lyrical sensibility. Working together during a residency at the sound studio of Berlin’s Callie’s, an arts institution housed in a 19th century machine factory, the pair (with Marco Anulli manning the desk) have conjured up four expansive pieces where the beautifully recorded percussive clarity of Belfi’s drums threads through a sparkling haze of guitars and electronics.
Opener ‘dessus’ begins with Reidy’s distinctive just-intoned guitar figures, shimmering over a delicate substratum of Befli’s brushwork and bass drum accents. As in all of Reidy’s recent work, the guitar is twisted out of cliché by the unfamiliar tuning and electronic processing. Hanging almost inaudibly in the background for much of the piece, a rush of synthetic tones surges into the foreground to end it. ‘oben’ is built from kinetic patterns of picked guitar arpeggios, locking into irregular grooves with Belfi’s drums, which move from elegant rolls and cymbal patter to driving closed hi-hats and explosive rock interjections. Around the traditional instruments and across the stereo field, electronic sounds swarm and swirl, fizzing and popping in a sun-drenched soundscape that at points suggests both vintage analogue synth destruction and glitching harmonies. ‘alto’ begins in similar territory but turned up a notch, eventually settling into a propulsive 6/8 groove of shifting drum accents, manically strummed 12 string acoustic, and burbling synth chords.
The B side is dedicated to the fifteen-minute ‘up’, where the strategies adopted on the other pieces are put in the service of a more relaxed, slowly unfolding epic. Anchored by a steady pulse throughout, the piece combines chiming guitars, dubbed-out bass lines and constantly adjusted percussive details into a complex flux of sound. Change is at once so subtle and so ever-present that, at any given moment, the listener can never be entirely sure quite how they got there.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 274px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1254513280/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://andreabelfijulesreidy.bandcamp.com/album/dessus-oben-alto-up">dessus oben alto up by Andrea Belfi & Jules Reidy</a></iframe>
Based in Kampala, Arsenal Mikebe are a groundbreaking Ugandan ensemble who playfully dance around the fringes of of acoustic and electronic music, infusing tempo-fluxed polyrhythms with dizzying chants and ghostly synthetic drones. The band is made up of percussionists Ssentongo Moses, Dratele Epiphany, Luyambi Vincent de Paul and was co-founded by Portugese sonic alchemist Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, together they straddle a unique custom instrument dreamt up by Ugandan master sculptor Henry Segamwenge, better known simply as Sega. By reverse engineering Roland's iconic TR-808 beatbox, they devised a steel-cast "percussion machine" that allows Arsenal Mikebe to seamlessly integrate bass-heavy electronic sounds into their frenetic performances, and it's this device that lies at the core of their debut album.
'DRUM MACHINE' is a rhythmic masterclass that's impossible to slot into any particular niche or other. Moses, Vincent and Dratele's kinetic beats appear to bisect each other, slipping between time signatures as fluidly as they pierce the membrane between the organic and the digital. On opening track 'Okuleekaana', brushy high-end hits coalesce into quivering patterns that bounce off the trio's guttural chants before the track's shuttled into peak-time by an ear-splitting distorted kick. Harsh death metal-style growls echo and spiral into the distance, and Sega's percussion machine is nudged into overdrive, its smorgasbord of distinctive pulses lifted skyward by glassy, evocative synths and resonant twangs.
It's extreme music, in a sense, but Arsenal Mikebe command startling dynamics, veering off course whenever possible. 'Omuzimu' is the perfect example, a labyrinth of itchy rhythms and anxious pauses that only slowly converges into a discernible beat, with its jerky bumps and muted crashes underpinned by eerie, almost inaudible B-movie whines and stifled shouts. And on the lengthy 'Boiller Omukka', the trio sing soulfully and wordlessly over feverish hollow thuds and cowbell knocks, referencing traditional Ugandan song forms while simultaneously excavating the bones of techno. It all builds up to the rubbery, intense 'Bell Ghost', that carves energetic vocal snippets into an undulating rhythmic concertina and fractalizes the atmosphere with swirling, psychedelic flutes and haunted intonations.
Paris-born electronic music pioneer and 1970s GRM alumni Ariel Kalma joins with multinational New York trio Asa Tone (Kaazi, Melati ESP, Tristan Arp) for a series of intergenerational, electro-acoustic studio conversations, exploring elasticity within rhythm and winds… or as one early listener observed “space and time.”
Following a chance encounter at Ariel’s studio in the Australian rainforest during the pandemic, Melati & Kaazi began recording long live takes with Kalma, weaving in bioluminescent synth improvisations from Tristan Arp remotely. Revisited a few years later between the members of Asa Tone’s respective homes in New York & Indonesia, “○” is the document of a significant moment in the lives of all the album’s players; an ode to memory and connection in an era of crisis, illuminated via flickering fragments of steel flute, kantilan, modular synthesizer, xaphoon, tenor sax, EWI, field recordings of the surrounding rainforest, and the human voice.
Recorded, written and produced by Asa Tone & Ariel Kalma.
Ariel Kalma: Western Concert Flute, Xaphoon, Tenor Saxophone, Voice
Melati ESP: EWI, Kantilan, Voice
Kaazi: Hydrasynth, Opsix, Percussion
Tristan Arp: Modular Synthesizer, Moog Sub37, Percussion
Additional percussion on *3 by Miles Myjavec
Mixed by Tristan Arp, Kaazi and Ariel Kalma.
Mastered by Jose Arentes at GRAMA, Porto.
Art Direction & Layout : Melati ESP, Kaazi, Biscuit.
Mutant steppers techno maverick Carrier caps 2024 with a doublepack of the sought-after first two 12”s issued on his own label - both now trading for twice the price 2nd hand - comprising some of the deadliest, most stripped down twists on club music fundamentals of the decade so far - big one if yr into T++, Photek, Chain Reaction, Burial.
As Carrier, Guy Brewer has rigorously consolidated his fascinations with technoid dance music physics to proper, cult acclaim. Distilling the rolling pressure of his D&B work as half of Commix with the granite hewn heft of his techno streak as Shifted, and the finely spaced pressure of his sound design that defined his Alexander Lewis and Covered In Sand bits, the project has come to represent the bleeding edge of club music in a way mistakenly thought lost to a previous era.
The bloody-minded focus on his thing has resulted in a frankly jaw-dropping new sound that still conveys the increasingly rarer rush of the new that we once felt hearing Photek and Source Direct in the late ‘90s, or in the refined rolige of Autechre and T++/Monolake 12”s in the ‘00s, thru the mutations of 2562 and A Made Up Sound, or Raime’s writhing shapeshifting into the 2010s. Fair to say those lineages were fractured by Covid-enforced dancefloor downtime, but Carrier still holds their principles of obsessively tight, syncopated percussion and subbass rhythm programming and proprioceptive sound design close to heart with diehard, visionary effect.
From the squashed woodblock drums and dry concrète tone of ‘Into the Habit’ and rugged techno dub of ’Shading’, thru the tendon-tweak lean of ’Still So’ on the ‘Neither Curve Nor Edge’ 12”, and over to the pressure of his subaquatic shimmy in ‘Coastal’, or lip-bitingly taut 2-step swivel of ’Wood Over Plastic’ on the ‘In Spectra’ 12”; his skeletal rhythm trax dare to dance in lesser heard but wholly vital niches of club music in a way that plays to club needs, not wants.
No hyperbole, it’s just 100% deadly if you ask we, and makes the other 99% of dance music producers right now sound like line-dancing copycats in relief of his sound: a painstakingly chiselled pursuit of the dragon that drove UK dance music - particular the ‘hardcore ‘nuum - to thrilling, inspirational degrees from the late ‘80s thru the ‘90s and into the present. After wriggling our socks off to his new live set on The White Hotel’s faithful rig a few weeks ago, we can only confirm he’s the best to do it right now, and this doublepack is fucking unmissable if you follow.
For the dancers, DJs!
</p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 274px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=246103884/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://0207carrier.bandcamp.com/album/neither-curve-nor-edge">Neither Curve Nor Edge by Carrier</a></iframe><iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 241px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3759117354/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://0207carrier.bandcamp.com/album/in-spectra">In Spectra by Carrier</a></iframe>
Emotional Rescue completes the series of non-defined reissues where the label licenses some all-time favourites, remasters and then reappraised with new interpretations by contemporary producers for today’s collectors. After the series started back in 2019 with Hawkwind’s sprawling drone mixes by the esteemed digger Cherrystones (ERC074), the bouncing cosmic-Balearics of Thomas Leer with wonderful reworkings by friend and producer Bullion (ERC075) and then the post punk dubs of The Embrace (ERC076) and Timothy J Faiplays brooding italo-dub excursions, there was always one artist and producer left out. Finally then the percussive excursion of the early 80s band The Impossible Dreamers and their cult B side jam, Spin, coming with an seemingly endless percussion-dub extravaganzer of an extended reversion, plus a bonus drum reprise by label favourite Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys / Noid) under his alias NAD.