Boomkat new releases list

Quite honestly one of our most anticipated albums of the year so far, and a genuine contender for the best of 2010, ‘Returnal’ is the fourth LP from the Boston/New York based synth dreamer, Oneohtrix Point Never. Last year’s ‘Drifts’ set was a compendium of his previous – and very hard-to-come-by – albums for labels including No Fun, Arbor and Gneiss Things and was a clear favourite for many in 2009, held in high regard by the Wire magazine, and cherished dearly by anyone in its possession. OPN’s hypnagogically-charged body of work is a dense fog of references, from beat driven edits on the ‘Memory Vague’ mini-album recollecting DJ Screw’s slowcore psychedelia, to privately intimate sci-fi vistas of ‘Russian Mind’ harking back to synth-whizz J.D Emmanuel or the fleeting, ephemeral pop charm of Ducktails washed throughout his catalogue. Mego’s Peter Rehberg obviously sensed the appeal of this mixture, putting together OPN’s most developed and mindblowing work for this brand new album, aligning an exceptional potential within the contemporary sonic landscape. For us, with the exception of few others, we’ve not really come across an artist whose music has so profoundly affected us in a very long time. Dare we say it…? Since Burial. Yeah, so you’re asking yourself “what the f*ck have they got in common?”. The very simple fact is that they both somehow trigger that un-nameable particle phizz that nobody has ever been able to explain, and hopefully never will. With 100% conviction and in the truest sense of the word, this is an essential purchase for lovers of Fever Ray, Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, Autechre, Aphex Twin or Jan Hammer. Brilliant.

While he’s kept himself busy with a series of short-form releases over the past couple of years, ‘Shoals’ is in fact Taylor Deupree’s first proper album release since 2007’s Northern. While that record introduced traditional instrumentation (notably acoustic guitars) into the 12k boss’ repertoire, ‘Shoals’ shuns any pop-oriented, pastoral tendencies and marks a return to the more abstract, intensive temperament of Deupree’s key work, Stil. ‘Real’ instruments still play their part on Shoals, but this time the focus of Deupree’s preliminary recordings is a selection of Javanese and Balinese gamelan instruments he encountered during a residency at the University Of York Music Research Centre. Rather than playing these in a conventional fashion, Deupree set about experimenting with the timbres and innate sonorities of the materials they were made of, coaxing sounds out of playing surfaces via scraping, tapping or using an eBow. The resultant recordings were then channelled through a specially devised looping program within Deupree’s favoured Kyma system, rendering a sonic environment rich in layers and subtle sound processing treatments. On first impressions, Shoals feels like a markedly more substantial piece of work than its predecessor, but then it’s also less immediately pretty. This is to be regarded as a good thing, because within the complexity and apparent freedom of these pieces you’ll hear the workings of the same artist that made records like the aforementioned Stil. (2002) and its precursor Occur (2001) so enduringly brilliant. The key difference between Shoals and those albums is the use of space and air: while some of Deupree’s best moments to date have derived from sounds that have been largely confined to the two-dimensional space of a computer’s hard drive, Shoals seems to breathe and pulse in a far more organic fashion – though all the while retaining the precision and intrigue of passing digital ephemera that are so integral to what Deupree does. In addition to the tactile instrumental source sounds, you can also hear their interplay with the surrounding space – each recording giving you a sense of the room’s dimensions and the mechanics of Deupree’s real-time performance. The division of the album into four lengthy pieces seems like another nod to Stil., and it’s a format that seems to suit this composer’s working methodologies, allowing the central loop of each composition to evolve through its natural course. Northern was hardly a lull in this man’s catalogue – it was and remains an expertly crafted album of its kind – and so calling Shoals a return to form wouldn’t quite be right, it is however a return to the more methodical and interrogative spirit of Taylor Deupree’s most successful releases. Very highly recommended.

*Initial copies come on transparent blood-red vinyl* Brad Rose of Digitalis fame returns with a powerful album under The North Sea pseudonym and ‘Bloodlines’ is one of his noisiest and most engrossing works yet. Painting a ghoulish soundscape that’s one part dense drone, one party spiralling kosmische and two parts sonic nihilism, Rose pays dues to the heavy electronic synthesis of Ramleh, Throbbing Gristle or Whitehouse but with an innately explorative vision and dynamic discipline that places this in 2010, as opposed to 1982. The sides run through continuously, bleeding tracks together into alternating streams of synth and guitar drone and more tender, stray Radiophonic blips with an untethered freedom to create abstract walls of sound. Drummer Mike Weis of Zelionople joins Brad for the majority of the record, although imperceptibly so at times, adding encroaching clanks and puncturing, tortuous hits to pit the surface of his dense drones with sore welts. The whole affair is brilliantly disorientating and troubling, liable to leave listeners naked and freezing in the middle of a gale force noise assault, or occasionally, offer some respite with near-pastoral moments of calm, but only occasionally. ‘Bloodlines’ is a cathartic expression of craftily structured terror, releasing daemons onto blood red wax for those of you fast enough to snap up one of the beautiful coloured editions. Highly Recommended.

Topping a newly re-energised M-Plant schedule, Robert Hood pays tribute to the 1971 film ‘The Omega Man’ with a re-imagined techno soundtrack – a brand new album from the master. The original film featured Charlton Heston as a last-man-on-earth figure, sequestered in a penthouse in LA, guarding life-saving serum by day and chased by zombies at night. It originally featured a jazzy easy-listening score courtesy of Ron Grainer, but Hood felt it needed a stronger and more urgent score that better represented his view of the movie. This means a display of his sharpest material for years, ranging from industrial throb-offs like ‘Alpha’ and the ominous drones of ‘Think Fast’, to noirsh, empty street scenes like ‘Are You God’ and the morse code rhythms of ‘The Family Watches’. We were hoping/expecting for some more beatless sections but we’ll happily make do with the plaintive tones of ‘The Plague (Cleansing Maneuvers)’ and just settle in for a kicks driven night drive through Hood’s imagination. Some of Hood’s finest propulsive material in years – very strong indeed.

We’ve only just come out of the trance state elicited by his ‘Last American Hero’ LP and now Jim (short for James, innit) Ferraro goes ‘On Air’ with fourteen tracks of unbelievably distinctive zoned-out kosmiche and martian hazyrock ephemera for his own Muscle Works Inc. label. The casings and genius artwork conceal fourteen tracks wrenched from Ferraro’s memory banks circa the mid 80s, high on sugary cereal with dilated ears absorbing computer game repetitions interjected with TV background noise. We’ll be f*cked if we can sum this stuff up any more than the wildest vortextual montage you’ve never heard, from psychotropical squawks to ident-extensions from a somnambulent dimension. So so good, and limited to just 100 copies for the world.

It’s a double whammy week for Ferraro releases, here presenting the alternate soundtrack to the 1989 nes cartridge ‘A Boy And His Blob’ after his ‘On Air’ madness. ‘Feed Me’ is about as mental and vital as the Ferraro oeuvre gets, strafing between well trodden bubblegum rock to 2D fantasy role playing in the realm of cannibalistic snuff and suchlike. In typical anti-fashion there’s absolutely no predicting what the hell is going to occur, and trust us, some freaky sh*t happens! Some of the tracks are almost like proper songs, almost, and the rest sounds like a tape machine playing Dennis Greenridge instrumentals being doused in chicken gravy and mauled by a bunch of honky zombies. WTF is going on? We don’t know but we really like it – welcome to another essential missive from one of the most original voices in contemporary music. 100 copies only!

Over the last ten years KFW has persistently melted our minds with unfathomably brilliant compositions. In 2005 he brought these amazing tracks into being, running dextrous Egyptian Oud passages through a Serge modular synthesizer accompanied by an array of Eventides clockworks harmonizer, metal zarb, Italia Modena electric guitar, electro-harmonix pedals and vox amplifier at his home studio, the Reckankomplex, and the Harvard university studio for electro-acoustic composition (HUSEAC). Finally released in 2010, we can confirm they’re two of his very finest arrangements and easily one of the best things we’ve heard all year, sounding like some long lost Ilhan Mimaroglu tapes remastered by Florian Hecker, or as he puts it himself “…this music can be seen as my “tribute” to Dariush Dolat-Shahi’s first Folkways record…& François-Bernard Mâche’s ‘Kemit’ & ‘Korwar’ one-two punch'” (to be frank, we’re not familiar with either, but they’re on the list now!). Face A opens with an explosion of dynamic electro-acoustic attacks emerging from acute blindspots to test the shape of the space we’re about to enter. This continues to spasm and diffuse as the more earthly tone of his Oud and the metal zarb rhythms fuse into place and we’re left stunned and silenced. Face B is a more sedate, but no less affecting piece, directing our attention to the fluid Oud at its core until we realise the space has opened into a palatial Byzantine hall with us at the centre and fragments of electric ephemera orbiting the periphery to create a supremely psychedelic experience that doesn’t require drugs to completely lose oneself within. As an article of faith in electronic music to express completely abstract yet lucidly human feelings this record is practically unparalleled in recent times. Copies are highly limited and come pressed on 45rpm “big-hole” 7″ with classic replica labels housed in b&w jacket with a frosted plastic outer. Want, need, must have!!!

*Limited Edition 12″ featuring 2 tracks not included on the soon to be released ‘Liumin’ album* Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell return to Modern Love with this new twelve and soon to be released album ‘Liumin’. In the years that have passed since their last album both artists have been busy with numerous projects, building their own Echospace imprint and recording under a number of different guises. Modell in particular has developed his longstanding fascination with location recordings, and some made in Tokyo over the last couple of years provide the source material for these new tracks. Although the vapor trails of dub still colour the essence of their recordings, ‘Vibrational Studies’ (an alternate version of album opener ‘In Echospace) is a much more ‘destroyed’ experience than anything the pair have done before, deploying a relentless cycle of washed-out analogue loops layered around submerged field recordings and electric currents that somehow propel the track while at the same time immersing it in deep, murky waters. ‘Symbolism In Transition’, by sharp contrast, forms a padded configuration with a sort of late night shuffle so beloved of Move D, all squashed House vibes, sparkling melodic keys and bursts of barely there white noise – it’s a gentle, beautiful thing.

*Part 2 of 2 – limited edition blue vinyl 1st pressing, Hand stamped with custom insert* Second of two sampler 12″s for the highly anticipated Sandwell District album! The group are out in full force again, with two tracks from Silent Servant complemented by cuts from Regis and Female. Those two Silent Servant efforts are simply immense. On the a-side dry boulder kicks and geyser release valves set the scene for a sublimely star-eyed synth wash, while his flipside finds its depth with sonar bleeps and spindly metronomic percussion before the darkest synthline you’ve heard in years injects surroundings with impenetrably inky blackness. Female’s ‘Live Extract’ sounds kinda like he left a Gas CD playing in the background while he makes a brew and writes an email, eventually a mobile phone signal disturbs the peace and he turns the DAT off. Maybe? The Regis edit of this sounds like a workout theme for a synchronized dubtech dancing team from Siberia. F*ckin’ reight mate. Essential!

The pieces on this latest Touch 7″ were composed by Room40 label boss Lawrence English for a performance by avant-garde Australian circus group Circa for their Regarding The Joy Of Others performance. The event involved the transformation of Brisbane’s Gasometer from an imposing industrial presence to the backdrop for a unique trapeze act by Chelsea McGuffin. Accompanying this, English set about spinning some of his signature electronic tones and noise signals designed to allow the audience to “experience the woman’s pain and sheer joy”. Devoid of that context the two compositions (‘Without Sanctuary’ and ‘One Thousand Miles Of White’) remain pertinent drone works, making for an apt companion to his Kiri No Oto album (also on Touch). Expect windblown drifts of static, searing jetstream sounds and hints at grainy, veiled field recordings. Amazing.

The two tracks on this 7″ were recorded at a performance by Philip Jeck and Marcus Davidson during a long-weekend of events and talks revolving around the themes of Hauntology and sounds of the natural world in early summer 2008 in the resplendent surroundings of London’s Museum Of Garden History, located on the South Bank. Davidson plays keyboards and Jeck uses his familiar, but enigmatic array of record players, editing and overdubbed bass to create majestically blooming harmonics and beautifully textured patterns that draw us in and envelope us within their lush clasp. As with anything Philip Jeck is involved with, the magical connotations seem the most appropriate, as they elicit something unimaginably life-affirming in the A-side’s ‘London Tenderberries’ which he duly morphs into an inverse dimension of dub-distanced and intangible subbass strafes moving across the stereo field within opaque atmospheres that seem to leave a fine layer of Thames fog mixed with ultra-fine pollen on the surface. Mystical, phantastical and utterly compelling material.

Four immense groove deconstructions from the shadowy cast of Downliners Sekt landing somewhere between Autechre, Rhythm & Sound and T++. It’s fair to say we’re a little intrigued with this record, not least because of the willfull lack of information attached to it, but also because the production is so shockingly precise and complex. First up ‘U Gumbu’ starts out sounding like Autechre’s ‘Pro Radii’ mixed with the sort of funk and soul displacment of James Blake’s ‘Air & Lack Therof’ before lapsing into a crackling dub groove almost worthy of Rhythm & Sound’s ‘Distance’. Next ‘Dirty Meinz’ calls for the T++ comparison with mechanically shifted post-garage techno styles swamped in psyche-tumbled static while acousmatic voices croon from the ether. Meanwhile ‘Inside Maverick’s’ takes a different route with distant bomb-drop bass implosions and shivering organic jazz percussion sinking slowly into a tense and ominous K-hole. Applying the finishing touch, ‘Negative Green’ finds a graceful tension between ultra compressed bass weight and wide-open dub space threaded with ethereal jazz signatures reminding of Biosphere’s ‘Dropsonde’ set mutated to the nth degree and spliced with vocal glossolalia worthy of Burial. We’re really, really into this 12″ and any fans of hi-calibre, beats-driven electronica should pay it their full attention without fail. Highest recommendation.

*LIMITED CLEAR VINYL* CV313 give cause for contemplation in two mixes of ‘Infinit-1’ backed with the first ever STL remix on the flip. Both of the original mixes were recorded at Leipziger Platz Studio in Berlin using a prototypical hybrid form of waveshaping and subtractive synthesis called “Carriershaping” currently in development for wider consumption in the near future. Their original is our preferred choice, using their advanced tools to create something tangibly classic, squaring the Detroit spirit with deep yet sprightly chord licks and a heavy, heavy bass catalyst made to drag you deep under. The remodelled version is a more muted affair, featuring an ultra low-cut bass grumble and ghostly dub apparitions gradually revealing themselves. STL’s remix is just immense, plunging into the deep-end head first with meditative, laidback arrangements and a drawn-out dreamy quality to levitate the dancefloor. Dub house heads will easily fall in love with this.

After circulating for what seems like years ‘pon dubplate, Numbers drop the direct current of Mr Mageeka’s ‘Different Lekstrix’. When it first cropped up on one of Marcus Nasty’s radio Rinse-offs the blogosphere and forums were set alight with folk trying to figure out what the hell it was. Now, nearly 12 months down the line and it’s a regular fixture in the sets of DVA, Kode 9, Jackmaster, Geeneus and just about any other DJ worth tracking right now. We’d have to rank it next to Martin Kemp’s ‘No Charisma’ for the sheer rinse-and-repeat factor, with that cartoonish synthline sounding juicier on every play. L-Vis 1990 is roped in on remix detail, giving it a slow burning swing with escalating synth pads and a potent, squidgy-black bass to co-ordinate heads, torsos and toes. In a word, this is unmissable. To the future!