Boomkat – new Rene Hell, Egypttrixx, Higuma, etc.

*Initial copies come on strictly limited white vinyl, plus a bonus 40 minute CD of exclusive extra material* Over the last 2 years Rene Hell has emerged as one of the most distinctive characters from a wave of neo-Kosmische and synth noise operators. Since his debut album for Type, ‘Porcelain Opera’, his restless talent has been diverted into cassettes for Night People and Agents Of Chaos, a brilliant 7″ track for Kraak and sterling collaborations with Daren Ho’s Driphouse as Cuticle and Mandelbrot & Skyy, all displaying an artist confidently in his creative stride. ‘The Terminal Symphony’ is a bold evolution of his sound, reframing analogue synth and drum machine experiments with a more concise, obsessively structured and complex form of minimalism, making each sound count rather than allowing them to become lost in the glut of meandering, often flabby drone compositions that bulk out the genre. It’s an efficient aesthetic in the lineage of the original North Rhine sound of E.M.A.K, Kraftwerk, Conny Plank and co, also sharing much in common with Emeralds’ most recent move towards brief, song-like structuring, but still with that demented twinge of wickedly jarring harmonies and a taste for visceral synth textures and noise. This is all heard in the malleable chrome shapes of opener ‘Chamber Forte’, through the glassy geometrics of ‘Cello Suite No.3’ or the ecstatic modern classicism of ‘Juliard Op’, but when the intensity subsides the subtleties of closers ‘Detuned Clarinet’ and ‘Adagio For String Portrait’ beautifully contrast with melancholy and understated, but arresting, finesse. RIYL Emeralds, Radio People, E.M.A.K. or AFX – Highly Recommended.

*Vinyl edition includes a download code redeemable directly from the label* Since 2008’s gorgeous ‘Luminarium’, Swedish troupe Tape have been holed up in their Summa studio in Stockholm, studiously busying themselves hand-crafting a follow up. And what a sequel it is; ‘Revelationes’ is everything you would hope for from the band and more, finding the well-worn sound of brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling pushing into darker, more downtrodden territory. The overwhelming prettiness of Tape’s back catalogue has been pushed aside; echoes of Slint’s genre-defining ‘Spiderland’ haunt the opening notes of ‘Dust and Light’, but when the signature organs and electronics finally make an appearance it is a markedly more subtle and melancholy affair than we might have expected from the band. ‘Revelationes’ is somehow deeply sad and incredibly affecting, but is a record flecked with hope – the curiously uplifting vibraphones, wavering theramin and jazz-tinged drums offering an occasional and much needed counterpoint to the mood. The band have refined their craft over an enviable selection of full-lengths, and ‘Revelationes’, which clocks in at an economical thirty-two minutes, is easily their most focused to date. No song drags or outstays its welcome, instead their pieces are pointed and enjoyable, bringing to mind Tortoise at their very best. A beautiful album – Highly Recommended

*Limited edition of 300 copies for the world* Mandelbrot & Skyy is a new horizon for Jeffrey Witscher (Rene Hell) and Daren Ho (Raccoo-oo-oon), a pair of busy heads with a stack of ace releases for NNA Tapes, Type Records and Yellow Swans in the last year alone. We’d imagine ‘OD-Axis’ is the kind of horizontal, skyward-gazing gear you’re meant to listen to after imbibing the cyber disco of their recent, and very, very ace Cuticle 12″ on 100% Silk (don’t sleep on this one!). These four tracks form their take on the kind of patched harmonic cross-hatching and bubbling rhythmic cadences of the neo-Kosmiche sectors, only with a more melted, malleable construction and richness of detail that escapes many of its practitioners. Frontside they gently depressurise with the glowtone cadence of ‘System R’ before suspending us in a hybrid simulation of OPN and Belbury Poly-like harmonic dissonance with ‘Sirocco’ and lolling out to the lysergic synth noise of ‘TT Races’. B-side ‘Monte Carlo’ is more substantial, an intrepid multi-dimensional voyage navigating through the Schulze constellation via E.M.A.K style electromagnetic pulses and eventually being consumed by an epic black hole and spat out somewhere in the skies over the North Rhein. Excellent.

Much needed new edition of this ethereal and deeply abstract 2008 recording by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and Taylor Richardson (Purple Haze/Prehistoric Blackout). We’d have to classify this as one of the more blissed and minimalist projects Lopatin has been involved in, one where his usually striking synth architecture is subdued under Richardson’s gauzy layers of obfuscating drone. There’s a genuinely bleak, abandoned space station vibe to ‘Sheets Of Face’ with its dread-filled choral drones cloaking melancholy harmonies lurking at the bottom of long deserted corridors and around blind corners. ‘Internal Compass’ is more blissful, almost exhilaratingly so in that manner that OPN has managed to isolate and stretch to infinity, like a tentative, heart-fluttering moment frozen in time. ‘Skull Theft’, meanwhile, is an 11+ minute mission into mournful, solemnly slow and deeply engaging outer space music, light years removed from earth and coming to terms with its desolate situation. Incredible music, mastered by Keith Fullerton Whitman, art by Robert Beatty, in an edition of 500 copies. Highly recommended!

Nights Slugs’ foreign correspondent, Toronto resident Egyptrixx, comes very correct with his second album ‘Bible Eyes’. It’s also the first solo artist album to be released on the label, and represents the more synth-based side of their oeuvre in fine style. He’s been a member of the crew since his early 2010 12″ ‘The Only Way Is Up’, but has been orbiting the mutant electro/Bass scene for a few years already. Ten tracks deep, the cryptically titled ‘Bible Eyes’ cycles through a neon spectrum of club killers interspersed with poppier and slightly more esoteric grooves. The undoubted highlight for many will be his achingly sharp pop piece ‘Chrysalis Records’ featuring the nonchalant female vox of Trust over his signature detuned synthlines and clipped Funky drums in sensuous, synthetic copulation. Those seasick synths form the basis for much of the album, in the two parts of banger ‘Recital’, to jelly-limbed effect on ‘Bible Eyes’ and to screwed Trance effect on ‘Naples’, the most melancholy and experimental moment. If you thought Egyptrixx was just all about club bangers, then this album should widen your expectations of him and Night Slugs in general. Highly Recommended.

This international trio recorded ‘In A Flash Everything Comes Together…” one year after their first release, ‘Tima Formosa’ also on Black Truffle. It documents in entirety a live performance at SuperDeluxe. Tokyo on January 24th 2010, the players reconfigured as a classic power trio with Ambarchi on drums, O’Rourke on bass and Haino on guitar, lap steel, electronics and vocals. But this ain’t no standard rock set-up, this is heavyweight ritual improvisation featuring Haino in phenomenal form, taking a more central role to command Fushitsusha-weight dynamics from the trio. Taking the drummers stool, Oren Ambarchi’s percussion ranges from tantalising cymbal and hi-hat to propulsive five-limbed pounding when it’s required, while O’Rourke’s bass complements Haino’s lead, boosting his velocity at crucial moments. Undoubtedly, Haino is the main catalyst in this equation, from terrifying vocal outbursts to the tangled lap steel of ‘BLUES for putting a FUZZ beforehand’, his is a force to be reckoned with. Fittingly, the album is housed is lavish gatefold packaging with printed inner sleeves, design by Stephen O’Malley with high quality live shots by Ujin Matsuo and a stunning cover-image by noise-guitar blaster and internationally renowned visual artist Marco Fusinato. Strictly limited edition – don’t miss.

Way out in the North West American wilderness, Evan Caminiti (Barn Owl) and Lisa McGee regroup for another exceptional, ethereal session as Higuma. ‘Pacific Fog Dreams’ is also their 2nd release for Root Strata, following their earliest collaborative release in ’08 with ‘Haze Valley’, and 2010s ‘Den Of The Spirits’ LP for Digitalis, one of the finest of its ilk in recent years. Their sound is incredibly precious and achieves the rarest of tangible sensations with glooming, ghostly drones and billowing gaseous shapes shrouded in mystery. Unlike say, the isolationist ambient tones of Thomas Koner, who operates at roughly the same latitude, their vast sound is infused with the spirit of a North West heritage, shoegaze guitars look down rolling mountains over dense forests and deeply embedded folk harmonies drift into being, as though breathed by the vegetation. Their bleakness is balanced with a quietly soaring positivity, whether its from McGee’s angelic vocal catharsis or Evan’s elemental, overarching mastery of quiet/loud or soft/ dramatic dynamics, we’re not sure, but their music is uncannily attuned to the ebb and flow of the senses with a dewy, sublime effervescence and spacious quality that leaves the small hairs on your arms tingling. ‘Pacific Fog Dreams’ was mastered by former Yellow Swan Pete Swanson and comes housed in full colour sleeve. Hugely recommended to romantic home listeners.

Ruaraidh Sanachan’s Nackt Insecten imparts his second full length LP of cosmic folk drones for Blackest Rainbow following the acclaimed ‘Quantum Odyssey’. He’s perhaps currently best known for his guitar shredding in the Moon Unit trio and also runs the Sick Head label which has released a ton of stuff from The Skaters to Ensemble Economique. His ‘Reality Bridge’ takes us to a psychedelically active zone of pastoral kosmische on ‘Solar Plexus Skyscraper’, all levitating, luscious drones with enough distortion for your ears to chew on, and sharing the side with the spellbinding, gnostic psychefolk of ‘Deathcatcher’. There’s something of a wild and barren spirit to the track which kinda defines his sound, and his impressive control over such a dense and free-moving piece of music. Flip over and ‘The Atomic Age’ rolls us in organic distortion over searching synth drones with surprisingly tender, personal effect, and ‘Suicide Overdrive’ finishes on a high, fuelled by motorik pulses and sky licking Krautrock guitar spirals. The lo-fi self-portarit sleeve artwork is purely indicative of the warped mind at work inside, and houses virgin 180g vinyl.

**Limited to 200 copies** Elemental, excoriating noise blinder from underground Midwest hero, Andrew Coltrane for Will Bankhead’s Trilogy Tapes – following a blink and miss it 12″ from Dro Carey at the end of 2010. It’s release #378,483 for Coltrane, an artist whose discogs section stretches to 14 pages (and counting), and a relatively rare appearance on vinyl compared with the towers of cassettes he’s released on his own Hermitage Tapes imprint. So, what does it sound like? Side A is akin to being waterboarded with sulphuric acid at Guantanamo Bay in the middle of a full force hurricane, a blistering experience of flesh-strippingly visceral textures and convective dynamics that’s about as potent as they come. The B-side is equally brutal but with slightly more room to breathe, leaving pockets of tape silence as respite before the waves of noise onslaught, which spew forth with bone splintering force and an exhilarating sense of expression. It surely sounds even more affecting due to the brilliant mastering and press by Berlin’s D&M and comes with photocopied insert and silk-screened sleeves; something nice to look at while your ears are being masticated. Recommended!

Highly impressive solo debut from Joe Seven, aka half of They Live and collaborator with Noisia. Tracing the Technoid tack of Instra:mental or Kowton, ‘Restionaire’ works on some heavyweight, sub-loaded 4/4 swing tip accented with Monolake-like dynamics and spring loaded reverbs. Flipside, ‘The Cous’ drops to 115bpm for a strutting 808 and woozy synth vibe referencing classic Drexciya and IDM strains. Don’t sleep on this. Big TIP!

The R&S renaissance continues with three uniquely lethal tracks from one of the UK’s most exciting young producers. Like Untold before him, Blawan respectfully infuses his hardcore swung rhythms with a sound most commonly associated with the label, the good ‘ol 303. It forms an integral part of each track, from the chirruping squiggles smudged into the loping swingjack groove of ‘Bohla’ to the detuned gurgles eating into complex tribal polyrhythms on ‘Kaz’ or dissolved into the bass-sunken new world jack of ‘Lavender’. Aside from sounding fiercely technoid and alien, his use of acid sequences with swung or broken patterns exposes a vital connection between Belgian and UK hardcore dance musics, where tribal febrility meets cybernetic reality in a marriage of exotic futurism.

Big platter from Slackk and Hervey Jenkins inaugurating the promising Forefront label. With ‘Synthetic’ Slackk solidifies a Glasgow-Liverpool-London connection in dapper style, harnessing careening tribal drums to a sub-soaked and bumpy 4/4 riddim layered with infectiously melodic bleeps. Hervey Jenkins takes up the other side with his debut production ‘Steelo’, a classically informed 2-step joint for the Gangster soul crew leaving most “Future Garage” cuts for dust. Arrives with support from Brackles, Jackmaster, Blackdown, Blawan, Dubbel Dutch and Hackman.