MUSIC

CLEAR VORTEX CHAMBER charts a new period of exploration and discovery for Alexander Tucker both as musician and producer. After discarding a year’s worth of material, Tucker sought the advice of Downwards Records label boss Karl O’Connor aka Regis who advised him on production techniques and approach. Along with further support form Freddy Lomas of Kinn and Emptyset’s James Ginzburg, Tucker got to work on a new set of material with a heightened sense of clarity and density. Tucker explains “Making this album really tested me, it was the outcome of a long period of hard lessons and harsh realities, but I had some good friends to guide me along the way and pull me out of the mire.”

At the core of MICROCORPS is Tucker’s complex modular systems, knitted into the tracks are triggered samples of his own cello and bass guitar playing, which meld into the electronic fabric of each track. Tucker expands “I wanted the album to sit somewhere between machine technology with something primitive, where synthetic and acoustic sources become intertwined. I like the idea of different dimensions phasing in and out of one another, creating new areas where I can explore sound, structures and imaginary spaces”

These imaginary spaces play a key role in the construction of CLEAR VORTEX CHAMBER. Tucker’s background in fine art and his current work with experimental comics bleeds into the unspoken landscapes of his music. “I want to trigger parts of the brain that can dream up imagery whilst at the same time focus of the sonic structure of the music itself, I guess I’m still obsessed with trying to create some sort of psychoactive environment” The architecture of each track presents itself in the form of massive kicks, sonar clicks and kinetic percussive rhythms, supported by pulsing bass drones. Cello and bass guitar samples initially bowed, plucked and hit by mallets are triggered creating dense wooden timbres that punctuate the electronic field. Voices and vocals both treated and untreated weave throughout the album in the form of cryptic dialogues and unspooling wordless singing, adding to the cross pollination of something human, machine and a space in-between.

Collaboration is a key element to MICROCORPS. Justin K Broadrick’s heavy spidery guitar lines and processed screaming rip wormholes in ‘FEDBCK’, Regis lends his distinct vocal work to ‘ZONA’, Japanese artist Phew injects organ drones, vocals and fried electronics throughout ‘SANSU’. On penultimate track ‘FEBCK 2’, Karl D’Silva’s droning saxophone joins Broadrick’s feed backing guitar noise and improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist Elvin Brandhi spits out cut up diatribes across final track ‘MALLETS’. Throughout the album Tucker’s own processed voice sits alongside singer JJOWDY’s eerily gentle laments

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1994 by German Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2023.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1994 by German Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2023.

unification of techno and dub reggae. The long-awaited 2023 repress of the Rhythm & Sound catalog number 5, which was originally announced in 2001! A one-of-a-kind solitary acoustic space by Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel.

unification of techno and dub reggae. The long-awaited 2025 repress of the Rhythm & Sound catalog number 1, which was originally announced in 1997! A one-of-a-kind solitary acoustic space by Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel.

12" containing Rhythm & Sound's one of the best dub "Mango Drive" will be repressed in 2023! Analog is the only way to fully enjoy the feeling of sinking and floating in this swamp. Also includes the sound source of the Chosen Brothers who will co-star in "See Mi Yah". Masterpiece!

Downtempo, Psychedelic, Techno … Using the Turkish psychedelic project Insanlar as a jump off point, Honest Jon’s have enlisted Ricardo Villalobos to turn out one of his grandiose remix projects that gels so naturally with more exotic sound sources.

Aphex Twin's Grammy-winning masterpiece heralds a miraculous comeback! Released unexpectedly in 2014 as his first full album in 13 years, this groundbreaking work sent music fans worldwide into a frenzy. Intricate rhythmic structures intertwine with warm synth sounds, constructing a unique world that feels mechanical yet somehow human. This work, distilling Richard's musical philosophy, won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album, propelling him back to the forefront of the global scene. Truly the pinnacle of electronic music representing the 2010s!

Following the announcement of his comeback album Syro, Aphex Twin achieved a full-fledged return with two EPs and a revival project under the AFX moniker. This 2018 release features the lead track “T69 Collapse,” which explodes with near-frenetic hyper-speed beats and searing melodies, shocking the world alongside hallucinatory visuals by artist Weirdcore. Throughout the entire album, the complexity of the soundscapes and the precision of the rhythms reach unprecedented levels, where chaos and sensuality, violence and beauty coexist in a delicate balance. This definitive work proves Aphex Twin is a “genius in the making” and further carves out the future of IDM!

"High Contrast used to work in a record shop in Cardiff called Catapult Records. We lived on the other side of the city, but were always in there buying vinyl. Tough Guys Can’t Dance was everywhere, and If We Ever was the anthem. Ahead of summer this year we put together our own version just for fun, and the reaction was so wild, we ended up playing it in every set. Big thanks to High Contrast for this one. It means a lot to us" - OVERMONO

Detroit’s baddest yungers get down on their ones with a 2nd self-released volley of modern ghetto-tech and hyperlocal jit, reprising the road-ready sound of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s for new crowds hungry for this shit

Including a killer 2024 single indicative of what to expect in the tabla and jazz key puckered slam of ’SPANK!’, the 14-track ‘Honeypaqq Vol.1’ says its bit in a brisk half hour of scudding subs and sampler chops racked up at 160BPM. The levels are typically up there and lyrically lascivious from the bucking ace ‘Take Yo Panties Off’ to the ruthlessly sped-up R&Bop ‘Freak in Full Effect’, deftly reinterpreting and factoring the groundwurk of DJ/producers Funk, Assault, Rashad and Maaco for 2020s needs.

Since staking their sound with two LPs for Omar-S’ FXHE and a ruck of acclaimed live shows, Hi Tech have become standard bearers for a brand of ghetto house that found international favour some 25 years ago and long since long bubbled away in the background. The trio of King Milo, Milf Melly and 47chops aka Hi Tech are almost single-handedly responsible for renewed interest in this zone, paralleling the pace and intent of Chicago’s renowned footwork sound with similar but distinctively jazzy Motor City tekkerz.

Trust it twerks and fizzes in all the right places. Putative jit and deb dualities juke it out in the itchy but sublime ‘Norf Cold 304’s’, while they balance bebop and crunk in ‘New Jazz Schmell’ and snap to quicksilver electro-soul in ‘Empty Bus Stop’, or push out into that sort of weirdo scuttle that the 313 does so well on the spooked-out ‘Adultswim Doctor Etrange’ or ‘Queenbootyathenaaphrodite’, saving a superb sting in the tail for ’Shadowrealm.’

Deep hypnotic ambient techno from Kommune trio George Thompson, Kyle Martin & Jonathan Nash. Recorded live in converted barn, October 2014. Four long-form compositions showcase mastery of TR-808 & dub techniques. Profound minimalist electronic journey.

Music from Memory is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of Oast by Kommune, a double LP of deep, hypnotic ambient techno that captures a fleeting but profound moment in electronic music history. Formed by George Thompson, Kyle Martin and Jonathan Nash, Kommune were active between 2014-2015, emerging organically from the intertwined musical journeys of three close friends living near each other in North London. At the time of Kommune's formation, Nash and Martin had recently completed their debut album as Land Of Light, while Thompson (aka Black Merlin) was putting the finishing touches to his debut album Hipnotik Tradisi and also working with Martin as part of the duo Spectral Empire. Sharing equipment and ideas, Kommune served as a creative outlet for exploring analogue machine music in an improvisational context, with sessions in their North London studios leading to a handful of memorable gigs at venues including Hamburg's legendary Golden Pudel and London's LN-CC.

This fleeting chapter of musical history may well have gone entirely undocumented had it not been for the fortuitous decision to meet up for a recording session in October 2014. Filling a car with their machines, the trio drove to a converted barn in the south of England, proceeded to set up, settle in and hit the record button. Over the course of two days, fuelled by the experiences of recent performances, they immersed themselves in the machines, crafting subtly evolving, long-form compositions with an enchanting balance and flow.

Across the four long-form compositions that make up Oast, the trio summons barely controllable scrapes, acid-like bubbles, and bleeps from their machines, leaning on dub mixing techniques to give the tracks a sense of depth, dynamism and organic ambience. Mastery of the TR-808 drum machine is central, with remarkably nuanced drum programming imparting a hypnotic rhythm to the work, allowing other elements to emerge and unfold at a beautifully measured tempo.

Recorded entirely live and improvised without any overdubs, Oast offers a profound journey into minimalist electronic music while serving as a tribute to friendship, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation. The album stands as testament to the magic that can occur when talented musicians come together in the right place at the right time, creating something that transcends the sum of its parts. Each member would continue to develop their individual projects following Kommune's dissolution, but Oast remains a unique document of their collaborative chemistry and shared vision for electronic music that bridges the gap between ambient meditation and dancefloor hypnosis.

Oast will be released on LP and digitally on July 25th 2025 via Music From Memory, with sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

TTT catch Basic Rhythm in neurotic hardstep flow on four cuts of the tightest D&B following his killer mixtape in this mode OG pirate radio DJ for Rude FM in the ‘90s, and multifaceted producer since the 2010s; Anthoney J Hart is a true survivor of the hardcore ‘nuum. ‘The Bounce’ chases up his superb ’23 mixtape, ‘Straight From the Bedroom’ with a high calibre selection of cuts relating to that session, nailing a dead tuff seam of millennium-era pressure that variously plays deep into, and fucks with, its classic form. Living up to his mantle, Hart’s ascetic production values keep everything chiselled and rictus, but with nuff funk in its flex, tying D&B back to roots in the rigidity of OG electro and betraying its foundational links to earliest dark garage and grime. The title tune shadowboxes with clinically compressed snares in dank negative space, and ‘Tubby’ ups the neuro factor with shearing synths and grinding, granite-cut bass wobble. ‘Fists in Pocket’ is pure early ‘00s warehouse menace straight out of a Loxy or Dylan DJ set, and ‘Unworthy’ rudely distorts the structure with noisier, eye-wobbling compression fuckry.TTT catch Basic Rhythm in neurotic hardstep flow on four cuts of the tightest D&B following his killer mixtape in this mode OG pirate radio DJ for Rude FM in the ‘90s, and multifaceted producer since the 2010s; Anthoney J Hart is a true survivor of the hardcore ‘nuum. ‘The Bounce’ chases up his superb ’23 mixtape, ‘Straight From the Bedroom’ with a high calibre selection of cuts relating to that session, nailing a dead tuff seam of millennium-era pressure that variously plays deep into, and fucks with, its classic form. Living up to his mantle, Hart’s ascetic production values keep everything chiselled and rictus, but with nuff funk in its flex, tying D&B back to roots in the rigidity of OG electro and betraying its foundational links to earliest dark garage and grime. The title tune shadowboxes with clinically compressed snares in dank negative space, and ‘Tubby’ ups the neuro factor with shearing synths and grinding, granite-cut bass wobble. ‘Fists in Pocket’ is pure early ‘00s warehouse menace straight out of a Loxy or Dylan DJ set, and ‘Unworthy’ rudely distorts the structure with noisier, eye-wobbling compression fuckry.

Mark Fell’s Nite Closures EP marks his return to rhythm-focused electronic music after a decade of acoustic explorations. Released on his own label, National Centre for Mark Fell Studies, the 12" features intricate polyrhythms, dub-infused textures, and minimal techno structures. The EP builds on his Sensate Focus series, blending experimental precision with club-ready grooves. Tracks like “Nite Closures (Extended Dub)” and “Auchterhouse (Inversion)” showcase his signature rhythmic complexity. It’s a bold re-entry into dancefloor abstraction from one of electronic music’s most cerebral figures.

Japan’s KAKUHAN deliver a futureshock jolt on their incred debut album ‘Metal Zone’ - deploying drum machine syncopations around bowed cello and angular electronics that sound like the square root of Photek’s ‘Ni Ten Ichi Ryu’, Arthur Russell’s ‘World of Echo’, Beatrice Dillon’s ‘Workaround’ and Mica Levi’s ‘Under The Skin’ - or something like T++ and Errorsmith dissecting Laurie Anderson’s ‘Home Of The Brave’, her electric violin panned and bounced relentlessly around the stereo field. It really is that good - basically all the things we love, in multiples. While "Metal Zone" might be their debut, KAKUHAN are hardly newcomers. Koshiri Hino is a member of goat (jp), releasing a run of records under the YPY moniker, and heading up the NAKID label, while Yuki Nakagawa is a well known cellist and sound artist who has worked with Eli Keszler and Joe Talia among many others. Together, they make a sound that’s considerably more than the sum of its parts - as obsessively tweaked, cybernetic and jerky as Mark Fell, frothing with the same gritted, algorithmic intensity as Autechre's total-darkness sets, stripped to the bone and carved with ritualistic symbolism. The album’s most startling and unexpected moments come when KAKUHAN follow their 'nuum inclinations, snatching grimey bursts and staccato South London shakes and matching them with dissonant excoriations that shuttle the mind into a completely different place. It's not a collision we expected, but it's one that's completely melted us - welding obsessive rhythmic futurism onto bloodcurdling horror orchestration - the most appropriate soundtrack we can imagine for the contemporary era. By the album's final track, we're presented with South Asian microtonal blasts that suddenly make sense of the rest of the album; Nakagawa erupts into Arthur Russell-style clouded psychedelia, while wavering flutes guide bio-mechanical ritual musick formations. It’s the perfect closer for the album’s series of taut, viscous, and relentless gelling of meter and tone in sinuous tangles, weaving across East/West perceptions in spirals toward a distinctive conception of rhythmic euphoria with a sense of precision, dexterity and purpose that nods to classical court or chamber music as much as contemporary experimental digressions. Easily one of the most startling and deadly debuts we’ve heard in 2022; the louder we’ve played it, the more it’s realigned our perception of where experimental and club modes converge - meditative, jerky, flailing genius from the outerzone. Basically - an AOTY level Tip.

From the cutting-edge label Principe, which continues to innovate the dance music "Kuduro" originating from Angola in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, comes a huge compilation of 37 unreleased tracks by its crew and related artists! A prayer of rhythm that connects the memory and future of Afro-diaspora. Sharp and flexible beats, irregularly swaying polyrhythms, vocal material and sound effects that cut through the void. While resonating with house and UK funky, the sound pursues the "groove of the black city" to the fullest, transforming from the back alleys at night into a street festival. It is the forefront of modern post-club music and a spiritual archive for the future.

Sakura is without doubt the most loved and lauded entry in Susumu Yokota’s catalogue.

The music unravels like cascades of petals falling from the eponymous cherry blossom trees. Yokota intended to ‘express ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions; joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness) through music’, and throughout Sakura, the effect fluctuates between profound tranquillity, hesitation, melancholy and joy with ease, addressing the fickle nature of human emotion, while transcending the inclination to label moods entirely.

Sakura became Yokota’s best selling album. It was greeted with universal acclaim, lauded by Philip Glass and Brian Eno and launched Yokota internationally.

‘A bittersweet beauty, heightened by the sadness that all things must one day end.’ - Martyn Pepperell

Jim Coles once again turns the tide towards a new horizon and travels further into the echo chamber. Leading on from the much-lauded ‘Secret Location’ mini-album with Seekersinternational, one-offs such as ‘Open Palms dub’ (Dub Stuy) and other teasings, ‘Acid Dub Studies’ is the fully-fledged result of the merging of the calligraphic expression of the 303 Acid bassline with the stern sway of Dub Reggae and the hazier edges of Dub Techno and Ambient music.

For those who have been paying close attention, this project will come as a welcome return to the vulnerability and playfulness of early Om Unit records such as his sub-radar single from 2010 ‘Lightgrids/Lavender’ (All City Records) or the unearthed chugging ambience of ‘Friend of Day’ (Idle Hands) and indeed in some sense draws from similar wellsprings as moments on 2013’s Bass classic ‘Threads’.

Whilst being perhaps an ‘interim project’ this is still a vital and important expression of exploration and playfulness. A study in the true sense and borne out of a subtle but pervasive frustration with the rigidity found in musical words he has up to now been cohabiting, Acid Dub Studies comes from the pressing need to break with perceived expectation and to explore an honest and natural space away from the genre labels and tags that had been often lazily applied to his sizeable catalogue of music.

With no desire to reinvent the wheel, rather to paint pictures in an honest framework, the LP was crafted using a medley of classic analogue mixing techniques inspired as much by the adventurous dubbing of Adrian Sherwood as by the inward-delving haze of Scott Monteith’s Deadbeat project. Created during a period of lonely introspective walks through his home town of Bristol, the cover art is a photograph of some of the iron kerbstones that are found almost exclusively in the characterful and hardy city which were installed in the late 1800’s to protect pavements from cart wheels. Something about the permanence of those iron slabs and cobblestones inspired a sense of comfort and determination.

Acid Dub Studies is due for release as yet another self-released label-free project leading on from recent EP titles ‘Violet’ and ‘Submerged’ both of which hinted at some of the shapes found in this full length album.

Once again Jim has shown a rare convincing adaptability that few electronic artists can embody. Another step on the journey of personal and creative curiosity that fans are sure to appreciate. 

Known as an early member of Napalm Death and later a pioneer of industrial and dub’s deepest realms with Scorn and Lull, Mick Harris returns with a long-awaited new album, issued on vinyl by U.S. stronghold L.I.E.S.—a bastion of industrial and raw techno. Across nine tracks, Harris sculpts an abyssal soundworld where cavernous bass pressure and grainy textures descend like a dive into the deep sea. Delay and reverb loop like chisels carving stone, layering dub’s decay with the grit of noise to construct shadow-filled spaces. Probing the very limits of lightless zones, this work stands as a weighty statement at the outermost edge of industrial dub.

A-side is taken from Metri-album. The ending of the track is slightly altered.

B-side is the first version of Mika Vainio's Sahko Movie Soundtrack.

Ludvig Cimbrelius returns with his third full-length album on ASIP under his illustrious ambient jungle/drum’n bass alias, Illuvia. Shifting focus from the stratospheric highs of 2021’s Iridescence Of Clouds, Ludvig now reflects on the meaning and spectrums of life on Earth. "According to my lifelong research, Earth appears to be a modulation of light. It is said that what the eyes receive are rays emitted by a star, whose flow of photons is invisible to the human eye until they are reflected and modulated by matter. Matter — the patterned dance of charged particles appearing out of nothing. Simultaneously, it is observable that light converts into matter. And matter converts into light. Logic tells me that they are one, appearing as two. And, as a consequence of their division and subsequent interaction, the spectrum of a world appears. Being a manifestation of something as ethereal and ephemeral as light modulated by the dance of charged particles, the world feels surprisingly solid. Less like a prism and more like a prison. That is what the surface tells us. Those who seek freedom look deeper." –Ludvig Cimbrelius (Illuvia) Earth Prism will be available on A Strangely Isolated Place on transparent vinyl, gatefold 2LP + digital formats from June 20th 2024. Mastered by Hollis Nolan, Lacquer cut by Andreas LUPO Lubich, featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding. ***** “The rhythms are complex and riotous, but they feel like some elemental process taking place thousands of meters up (perhaps in the titular iridescent clouds), surrounded by layer upon layer of mist and radiance.” Joe Muggs (Bandcamp, Best Electronic Music, 2021) ***** “The typical Illuvia track is panoramic, majestic, and ethereal; packed with detail, the material engulfs like a blinding snowstorm.” - Textura, 2021 ***** “Forget liquid d’n’b, this is steam drum and bass” - Forestpunk, 2021 ***** “Full of pastel soundscapes and poignant melodies, Iridescence Of Clouds luxuriates in its gauzy aesthetic, weaving in kinetic percussion and rollicking Amen breaks that would likely be quite ferocious on their own; here, however, they’re largely kept in check.” - Shawn Reynaldo / First Floor, 2021 ***** “Creative mixers combined drum ‘n’ bass with ambience and a hint of dub, creating a hybrid that was simultaneously soothing and exciting; Iridescence of Clouds falls into this vein, an hour-long set that unfolds like a dream.” - A Closer Listen 2021

This EP was suddenly released in 2015 and, as the title suggests, contains tracks produced between 2006 and 2008. Characteristic of the AFX moniker, aggressive acid lines and hard-hitting rhythms take center stage, drawing listeners from the dance floor into the depths of experimental music. It brims with raw sonic intensity and analog warmth, while simultaneously showcasing the meticulous construction typical of Aphex Twin. An essential work that inherits the lineage of IDM dating back to the 90s while updating it for the future. An indispensable album when discussing Richard's work under his various aliases.

Kaleidoscopic and psychotropic, Authentically Plastic's sophomore album is a dense mass of oozing rhythms and viscous harmonies that surges in all directions at once. Its predecessor, 2022's critically acclaimed 'Raw Space', had prioritized a level of intensity that Authentically Plastic dubbed "sonic flatness", developed in response to Western art's obsession with depth of field. 'Rococo Ruine' doesn't go back to the drawing board, but refines and widens the concept even further - without deepening it. The potent, austere rhythms that grounded 'Raw Space' have been stabilized and shredded, pasted into more consistent repetitions that act as an anchor for Authentically Plastic's surprising melodic hallucinations. And it's this fresh development that provides the new album with its unique sonic fingerprint.

When the time came to follow up 'Raw Space', the Ugandan DJ and producer wondered if it might be possible to approach melodic and harmonic material with the same philosophy they had applied to rhythm on their debut. Jamming on synths for the first time, they recorded long melodic sequences that they later juxtaposed with the steely rhythms that rooted their earlier material. The process is plain to hear on the album's volatile title track, a constantly moving fusion of buzzing arpeggios, eerie drones and mesmerizing rhythmic echoes.

Similarly, the evocatively titled 'Mercury Lake' ornaments its pounding, distorted beats with xenharmonic synth undulations, weaving the high-pitched squeals between glistening polyrhythms and volatile effects. And on 'End of the World Sale', Authentically Plastic takes a different approach, treating the melodic elements like "percussive objects", and it's one of the album's most distinctive statements. Working with just synthesized, tonal sounds, they orchestrate a pointillist symphony, dreaming up a surreal, trance-like mesh of staccato stings and semi-solid drones that dark, enigmatic and almost overpowering. Elsewhere, on 'Polycollision' and the turbo-powered 'Schizz', Authentically Plastic responds directly to 'Raw Space', augmenting its polymetric experimentations with discomfiting comb filtered oscillations on the former, and focusing its weight into skittering peak-time patterns on the latter. 

'TTT grip Reckless Records don and record collecting heavyweight Toru Yoneyama on a mad cosmic noise mission sparked off with bony dancehall and mutant tekno-electro pulses – think Conrad Schnitzler meets Jeff Mills at Heinrich Mueller's lab afterhours, it's that wild.

The 92 minute 'Rescue at SW4' is among the best of TTT's already deadly run of '25 so far. Toru's eight trax take all the time needed – nearly up to 20′, and more often at least 10′ – to work out unpredictable permutations of spiny machine rhythm and rudely activated arp leads that seem to have a jazz-noise-tekno mind of their own.

An ideal case in point is the opening passage '052 T.HOLE', which spends the first 10 mins coaxing analog machines to sputter like a Schnitzler-meets-Dilloway jam, overeasy on the curdled chromatic distortion, before crystallising into a gnashing dancehall and Kongo tekno drum pattern whilst the synth wheezes psychoactive spumes. The transition is as effective and it is unexpected, and sets the tone for a class session of strangely sidewinding treats.

'BITT 35ER' stays in the longform lane with a more direct, if wobbly, traction from the offing, recalling some noisy Drexciyan probe and Mills' offbeat jazz-techno treks, whilst a pair of acrid palate cleansers set off a 2nd half encompassing pulsating, kosmiche dub techno noise in 'SPKXXX042', to Ra-esque wormholer '254222 BC' resolving in coiled acid tekno, and the stewed 303 gunk of '052 T.HOLE (048 bottoms)'.' (Boomkat, June 2025)