Techno / House

Second Circle are excited to welcome another new artist to the label, ISOR29, with a six track mini-album titled ‘Moon Phase Gardening’. ISOR29 is a new project from Colombian musician Tomas Garcia Station and follows on from his highly regarded 2020 debut release under the ‘Irie Nation’ moniker. The title ‘Moon Phase Gardening’ (also referred to as Gardening by the Moon or Planting by the Moon) draws upon the idea that the lunar cycle affects plant growth. Just as the Moon’s gravitational pull creates the tides of the oceans, it also creates more moisture in the soil, which encourages growth. Evolving out of forced time off, individual confrontation and the love for someone close, ‘Moon Phase Gardening’ was recorded in the living room of an old flat in Lisbon during the first lockdown. Using only a microphone, computer, Korg MS20, hang drum and a field recorder, ISOR29 channels Tomas’ musical vocabulary via electronics to reflect an immersive and self-reflective story bound to a uniquely powerful time and space.

The Diskotopia team is excited to announce the debut EP from the new project rush2theUnknown — a pairing of documentary writer and director Nick Dwyer (who helmed the Red Bull Music Academy's Japanese video game music composer documentary Diggin' in the Carts) and producer & musician Devin Abrams (aka Pacific Heights). rush2theUnknown is a project that was born in provincial New Zealand, developed in the hills of Izu Peninsula, Japan, but forged in the fire of potent teenage memories of the future sounds of jungle and drum ’n’ bass that exploded onto dance floors across the urban centres of New Zealand in the mid 90’s. Two old friends, both who played pivotal roles in the development of New Zealand’s own jungle and drum ’n’ bass scenes in the 1990s, estranged for decades, reunited to begin experimenting in an attempt to recapture the feeling of having their heads overwhelmed by sounds they couldn’t quite comprehend as adolescents. They channeled the energy, spirit, and vibes of (specifically) 1995-to-1997 jungle, where the ever-mutating evolution of the sound intersected with the dawning of drum ’n’ bass to create a utopian future vision before the latter genre changed course and moved increasingly darker. By weaving in the influences that the two artists had accumulated over the decades — most notably from ambient, kankyõ ongaku, new age, minimalism, and some of the deepest research into the history of Japanese video game music ever conducted — the pair aimed to discover new terrain from a specific era of dance music that was never fully explored.

Multidisciplinary artist Jermay Michael Gabriel and producer Giovanni Isgrò team up as Plethor X to present a debut EP of anti-colonial resistance, an unfolding experiment in self-determination. Colonial trauma has no linear trajectory, and neither does memory. It seeps and sinks into the fibres without a temporal pattern, crossing generations, back and forth between past, present and future. Plethor X channel the multifaceted dimensions of such phenomena, exorcising trauma through sound, embracing cultural legacies and collective memories as a form of healing. The driving force behind the record is the Habesha musical tradition, distinctive of Jermay's childhood - samples of the masinko, an Ethiopian and Eritrean one-stringed instrument, are used extensively - transposed into rhythmic structures onto which Isgrò playfully grafts elements of footwork, ghetto house, as well as gqom and singeli—a space-time gateway of complicity and experimentation. Plethor X’s soundscapes are Afro-futurist ecosystems of explicit messages—'Don't use the N word’ is distinctly heard in ‘Negro’—coalesced with frenzied percussive textures built through destruction. With ‘Bet’ we experience Muna Mussie's hypnotic recitation of Tigrinya words drawn from a set of nursery rhymes and words emblematic of Eritrean culture. The voice of Mussie, who shares the same origins as Jermay, serves here as a vehicle to express a certain identity melancholia, the repetitive mode sounding like a soothing process of reconciliation. PAN-affiliated producer STILL makes his own contribution by reworking Plethor X’s material in 'Fendika', raising the rhythmic tension with his signature colourful, plugged-in dancehall style. That with Europe is a bridge to an indefensible continent, with a predatory, plundering nature, sold as 'civilisation'. In ‘What You Mean’, Isgrò and Jermay conspire against their own Eurocentrism, regurgitating it from within. The package is complemented by remixes from OOH-sounds affiliated artists nobile, Losssy (formerly unperson), Glass and WEȽ∝KER. Their brilliant versions of 'Bet' are a further investigation of the evocative potential of Mussie's voice and expression of the collective nature of this project.

Rezzett offer up a little something for afters on their new self-released EP

Once again it's quite difficult to pin down exactly what's going on through Herandu's debut album, Ocher Red, but its a little bit like Metalheadz meets Weather Report out on the Siberian steppes... Herandu are brothers Evgeny and Mikhail Gavrilov from Novosibirsk in Siberia. Mikhail and his brother have played music together since they were very young eventually forming the band FPRF together in the mid 2000's. Eventually the group split as the members dispersed around Russia, but Evgeny and Mikhail continued to make music, Evgeny under the alias Dyad and Mikhail under the name Misha Sultan (some of you may remember his excellent cassette, Roots, which came out on Hive Mind in 2022). Herandu was born in 2022 during several studio sessions they managed to grab whilst both visiting Siberia. They both quickly realised that together they were making music that didn't quite sound like either of their solo projects but which was influenced by the music of their formative years. Their friend Vladimir Luchansky was invited in to add saxophone and the result is an 'urban music' that's as influenced by the gritty cityscapes of '70s TV cop thrillers as it is by 21st Century urbanism. The paintings on the album cover are by Italian artist Mauro Reggio, who kindly allowed us to use his work, and whose paintings seem to convey something of the mood of Herandu...

Mbalax is a genre of dance music that is primarily performed in Senegal and The Gambia. Here we have re-interpretations of the mesmerizing master drumming rhythms from Holy Tongue, Beatrice Dillon, Lamin Fofana and LABOUR. Holy Tongue (Al Wootton, Susumu Mukai, Valentina Magaletti) take things in a heavy post-punk dub direction - think On-U Sound and 23 Skidoo. Beatrice Dillon electrifies proceedings in a Mark Fell/Gabor Lazar/Rian Treanor style. Meanwhile, Lamin Fofano hypnotizes with two psychedelic revisions and LABOUR ramps up the intensity with two perspectives on the same drum rhythm.

Moritz von Oswald, who has created a foundation for deep interaction between authentic Jamaican dub and Detroit-style classic techno through his collaborations with Mark Ernestus, dub techno legend =Basic Channel and Rhythm And Sound, is creating ambient techno. Moritz Von Oswald Trio, a legendary trio teamed up with Max Loderbauer of Sun Electric, the pioneer of , and Vladislav Delay, a master of avant-garde electronic music from Scandinavia and Finland. Stock up on the first album "Vertical Ascent" released in 2009 from London's prestigious !

Moritz von Oswald, who has laid the groundwork for a deep interaction between genuine Jamaican dub and Detroit-style classic techno through his collaborations with Mark Ernestus, dub techno legend =Basic Channel and Rhythm And Sound, is creating ambient techno. Moritz Von Oswald Trio, a legendary trio teamed up with Max Loderbauer of Sun Electric, the pioneer of , and Vladislav Delay, a master of avant-garde electronic music from Northern Europe and Finland. Stock up on the 4th album "Fetch" released in 2012 from London's prestigious !

From outsider disco to ambient to improvisational folk, the giant Arthur Russell's famous album "Calling Out of Context" has been reissued as Rough Trade analog edition!
Released in 2015, this work was recorded in 1982 and 1983, and the following year in 1985, the original 1/4 inch tape of the sound source produced as a test press board called "El Dinosaur", "Indian Ocean" and "Untitled".・From the master, Arthur Russell's partner Tom Lee and Steve Knutson compiled 9 tracks.
In addition to an unreleased/alternate take that emphasizes echoes and rhythm machines, the instrumental track "Ocean" is one of the most beautiful songs in the discography.
A must-have board for fans that includes "Movie"! !

Originally made as a contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series, subsequently given a cassette release in 2019, now finally receiving a limited vinyl LP pressing. "A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."

A female project by Hermione Frank, an artist from France/Berlin living in Berlin who is also a famous producer of and who is also a member of and . rRoxymore. The latest album "Perpetual Now" in 2022, the first in 3 years, will be released analog from . An ambitious work packed with her spirit of pushing the boundaries of sound, blurring the lines between electronic and organic. Comprised of four extended soundscapes, each one takes the listener on a journey through tempos, textures and emotional states.

Ata Kak's cassette Obaa Sima fell on deaf ears when it was self-released in Ghana and Canada in 1994. The music on the recording - an amalgam of highlife, Twi-language rap, funk and disco - is presented with the passion of a Prince record and the DIY-bedroom-recording lo-fi charm of early Chicago house music. The astute self-taught song craft and visionary blend of sounds and rhythms has made the album a left-field cult favorite among adventurous listeners worldwide. Awesome Tapes From Africa founder Brian Shimkovitz found the tape in 2002 in Cape Coast, Ghana - one of only a few ever pressed - and later made it the inaugural post on the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog. Hundreds of thousands of downloads, YouTube views, music video tributes and remixes, as well as years of mystery regarding Ata Kak's whereabouts, culminate in this remastered release featuring rare photos and the full back story of one of the internet age's most enigmatic musicians.

Dub-infused post-punk treats from astonishing percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Moin, Holy Tongue) and Zongamin as V/Z. The basslines throughout really hit that sweet spot and the collaborations are killer; Coby Sey and Venus Ex Machina join the fun, along with Vanishing Twin's Cathy Lucas on 'Habadash' with a most appealing Seefeel flavour. Highly recommended.

Emerging from a generative paradox of laser precision and fluid dynamism, Metallur fuses percussive, metallic force with warping tempos and a field of ethereal resonance and debris. The result is an insurgent, elemental, time-smearing of hyperspace, where "tellurian beats merge with alien glossolalia and vocal samples blip tesseracts of human affect into a ghostly, melodic aether". Music for a crushed infinity.

The popular ambient project by Wolfgang Voigt, presided over by the prestigious , GAS released the early masterpiece "Königsforst" in 1998 from the prestigious on CD! It's a tremendous depth. It's like William Basinski meets DUB TECHNO ... A masterpiece with a mysterious dopeness that makes you feel like something you don't even know is writhing in the darkness of your heart, and it's about to crawl up. Dub / Ambient. It is a masterpiece that has reached a terrifying and solitary view of the universe!

The early masterpiece of 1997 released by GAS, a popular ambient project by Wolfgang Voigt, who presides over the prestigious , is reissued on CD! This is terrifying, like William Basinski meets DUB TECHNO ... A masterpiece dub / ambient with a miasma-like dopeness that blows up from the depths and envelops the sound field. It is a masterpiece that shows off a solitary view of the universe!

Field Records proudly presents the first complete vinyl edition of Monolake’s seminal excursion into experimental dub techno, Hongkong. Originally released on the now-classic Chain Reaction label in 1997, this collection of early singles by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles has gone on to become a vital listening experience in its own right - a genre classic alongside the other groundbreaking works from the likes of Porter Ricks and Vladislav Delay. The tracks which make up Hongkong were made while Henke and Behles studied computer science and immersed themselves in Berlin’s techno scene. Their early forays into computer-based music production were enabled by the use of the Max/MSP programming environment, forming a backdrop to the landmark work they would undertake in developing the Ableton Live DAW. Henke and Behles travelled to Hong Kong in 1996 to attend the annual International Computer Music Conference, and while there recorded extensive field recordings. These recordings became the glue that pieced together their collaborative tracks into a fluid listening experience for a CD-compilation at Chain Reaction’s request. While absolutely rooted in the embryonic sound of European dub techno, Monolake’s early work possesses a back room, headphone-ready demeanour which lends itself to the album listening experience. In the cascade of rhythms created by precision engineered delays and subliminal, expansive spatial world building occurring throughout Hongkong, the stage is set for a full and thorough immersion. Before the Monolake sound progressed into a more pointillist form of computer music as Henke’s solo project, Hongkong presented a gritty, grainy sonic still tied in some way to the traditional methods of techno production, even as the artists’ ideas were sending the sequencing and arranging in exciting new directions. Remastered and presented for the first time as a complete double 12” package, this is the definitive edition of an essential work in the evolution of experimental techno. As Henke himself explains, “twenty-five years later, this record still holds immense value to me in many ways.”

Over ten years ago, Audika Records began releasing the exceptionally varied, long sought-after music of Arthur Russell, and in the process has succeeded at helping the beloved, late artist find the broader audience he always believed he would reach. A new generation of listeners and critics has come to appreciate Russell as a visionary and an influence upon a broad range of today’s most compelling musical artists. On October 28, Audika will bring to light an as-yet-unavailable side of Russell’s body of work- the most rare and, at the same time, arguably the most accessible part- in Love Is Overtaking Me, which comprises 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, folk and country songs from his vast catalog.While much critical and popular affection for Russell’s music has come about well after his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, many fellow artists believed in his genius and were drawn to collaborate with him during his lifetime. The legendary producer John Hammond (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) recorded Russell on several occasions; a number of these recordings will finally heard on Love Is Overtaking Me. So, too, will songs recorded with various incarnations of The Flying Hearts, a group formed by Russell and Brooks whose shifting lineup included, by turns, Jerry Harrison, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo as well as Larry Saltzman and David Van Tieghem. Several other Russell projects are represented on Love Is Overtaking Me, including The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty and Bright & Early.

Compiled from over eight hours of material, three years in the making, Love Is Overtaking Me reaches back further to Russell’s first compositions from the early `70s and spans forward to his very last recordings, made at home in 1991. Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear contributed mixing, restoration and editing to the album, whose tracks were selected by Audika’s Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks and Russell’s companion, Tom Lee. A number of the songs feature prominently in Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Matt Wolf’s film, which had its world premiere this year at the Berlin International Film Festival and will be released theatrically and on DVD this fall by Plexifilm.

Love Is Overtaking Me is the fifth release of Russell’s material by Audika Records, whose work has proven that the music remains as contemporary today as when it was first recorded. The label launched with the disco/new wave collection Calling Out Of Context (2004) and continued with a reissue of the cello-and-voice masterpiece World Of Echo (2005); the instrumental compositions double-disc First Thought Best Thought (2006); and the hip-hop-inspired Springfield EP (2006), which includes a DFA remix of the title track.

Extensive Love Is Overtaking Me liner notes by Tom Lee provide an intimate perspective on Russell’s diverse catalog, which spanned an extraordinary diversity of styles and won the love of artistic communities that would seem utterly disparate, from Philip Glass, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg to rock bands like The Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers; the pre-Studio 54 disco-party scene of Nicky Siano’s Gallery and David Mancuso’s Loft; and DJ-producers like Francois Kevorkian and Larry Levan, among others. 

Inspired by a life long obsession of dub, synth, industrial and different kinds of minimalism, "Extended Player" 12"EP by The Idealist is a tribute to these inspirations aswell as an attempt to move forward or elsewhere. This is experimental techno and electronic music from an artist that is freely moving between drone and noise to this. Party music for professionals. iDEAL disco sleeve designed by Studio Awoha.

DDS with the debut EP from unknown entity NZO, whomever she may be, dancing in the gaps between amapiano, Afrobeats, broken beat and R&B with a rare guile and flavour to file somewhere alongside Joe, Dolo Percussion, Cousin Cockroach, Various Production, Ghostphone.​ The 4th in the DDS 12” series, NZO helps stake the label’s 15th year of operations with a typically Janus-faced approach to classic >< contemporary club ruffage. Tune to tune, she decimates and distills familiar tropes in singular, whirring syncopations designed to prompt bodies to move in fresh new ways. It’s all primed for proper animist magick, bound to snag rhythm fiends with its shape-cutting manoeuvres. Working deep in the hardcore ’nuum’s 30 odd year tradition of concrète sampler chicanery, the four tracks find fractured vocals and echoes of club classics revitalised and reset with advanced drum ingenuity. 160BPM opener ‘Concentrate’ appears like Hessle Audio’s Joe stripped for parts, whilst ‘Mallet’ swivels like SND remodelling Afrobeats’ palette of tuned percussions, next to what could almost be a lost Various Production edit in the sublime tension of syrupy R&B and frothing drums on ‘Come Alive’. The EP ends with its standout, ‘Body & Soul’, an undulating ama simmer punctuated by dub chords like some lost Basic Channel production re-cast for the lovers.

Terre Thaemlitz’s precious 1994 debut album finally makes a vinyl appearance of sorts 30 years later, hailing its sublime downbeat highlight in three different versions that come with highest recommendations if you’re into classic Mo’ Wax, The KLF’s Chill Out, Urban Tribe, Blue Lines-era Massive Attack, DJ Sprinkles! Tranquilizer’s mesmerising centrepiece ‘Hovering Glows’ is here deployed in 3 different versions totalling almost half an hour of amniotic bliss. The original 9 minute depiction of crepuscular Midwest ambience and dusted dub is beloved of anyone acquainted with the album over the years, finding Terre’s feel for electro-acoustic sound sensitivity flooded with a rarified sense of deep blue soul distilled to near-perfection. It mines a similar path to Future Sound of London productions of the same era, and in its moody abstraction foreshadows 4hero’s ‘The Paranormal In 4 Forms’ that would follow a couple of years later. The OG is joined on by two alternative versions: a ‘Little Guy Mix’ that swerves the few minutes of sensuous atmospheric foreplay to slip right into the pendulous swing; and a longer ‘Vinyl Mix’ that duly opens out the intro with Terre’s unique grasp of subbass and tongue-tip atmospheric suss. Collected, they supply an extended session of beatdown ecstasy to discerning, romantic listeners who’ve awaited this release for decades, ‘cos as Comatonse fiends know, their releases always sound especially exquisite on vinyl.

Demdike Stare return to Modern Love with their first release on the label since 2018, a sick addition to the label’s 7” series. One side of charred bruk-pop rufige featuring Alice Merida Richards on vocals, with a murderous pipe-bomb riddim on the flip. Both cuts find Demdike in wickedly rambunctious mood, the a-side ‘Junk’ weaving gated filters and squashed subs into the gynoid vocal delivery of Alice Merida Richards, formerly of baroque pop band Virginia Wing, and here giving it a full Nico via Trish Keenan thing. Imagine the Chain Reaction label doing monochrome, mutant pop, and you’re just about there. ’Tuff Crew’ on the flip sees the duo panel-beating sheet noise, gnashing drums and hyperpop hiccups into a seething industrial dancehall swivel made to swarm warehouses with its dizzying stereo diffusions. Hands down some of their best gear, play extra loud for the full madness.

Blinding double pack of heavily old school influenced bleep, direct from the depths of England by prolific young producer, Tom Carruthers. These are heavily sample based mpc productions that harken to the carefree days when the pills were pure and the music was fresh and never stopped. When house was techno and techno was house, this long player takes the best elements from say Chill Records, early-Warp and the best Nu-Groove creating timeless dance tracks made for the warehouse dj. Essential stuff here.

Synth wizard, soundtrack composer, and Zombi member, Steve Moore expands further on his stark and drama filled cosmic sound with a new six track lp. These tracks call to mind to his early-L.I.E.S. releases, where Moore focused on cold arppegations and basic beat constructions to fuel his epic productions which center around pristine soaring synthscapes. A master of the genre, Moore gives us an equal mix of explosive, creepy home at the end of a dark street floor fodder as well as slower tempo cosmic headcrushers, all capable of getting your head or niteclub in a frenzy. Beyond epic!!!