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 in stock | | A Tribute To Ryuichi Sakamoto: To The Moon & Back (gatefold 2xLP)
Milan Entertainment Released to coincide with Japanese musical Goliath Ryuichi Sakamoto's 70th birthday, To the Moon & Back was almost inevitable. Even without worrying reports about the maestro's health, there's no way anyone can have such a significant impact on global music for so long and not have people wanting to pay tribute upon reaching septuagenarian years.
And what a tribute it is. Taking elements from a huge back catalogue that stretches back to the mid-1970s, contemporary greats including Thundercat, Alva Noto, Hildur Guonadottir, The Cinematic Orchestra, and David Sylvian offer new versions and remixes of the master's stuff, with each track here chosen by Sakamoto, which is about as significant a seal of approval as you could hope for. Like the man himself, it's widely varied, consistently innovative and just really, really good. | | | | |   |  | £31.25 |
 in stock | | Symmetry Systems (limited transparent blue vinyl LP)
Past Inside The Present US 'Symmetry Systems' is the new LP by Dennis Huddleston AKA 36. Inspired by Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' releases from the early 90's, it's a melodic, synthesiser-driven record, with a wink to the past and a nod towards the future. "I have a deep love for those early Warp albums, particularly the Artificial Intelligence compilations. It was a wonderful time for UK electronic music. That beautiful, warm machine sound, with an optimistic (if somewhat naive) vision for the future. I found the whole thing incredibly inspiring and wanted to revisit those memories, albeit with a 36 twist" Like 'Wave Variations' before it, this record explores various approaches to the theme, with each track directly inspiring the next one. All tracks are sequenced in the order they were made. 'Symmetry Systems' is a collection of hypnotic machine music, made with a delicate human touch. | | | | | | | £26.99 |
 in stock | | Hope Is The Sister Of Despair (limited 2xLP + insert)
Libreville France With the re-emergence of trance as a cool and contemporary dancefloor sound it should be no surprise that it has been finding a way back into the ambient and downtempo worlds, too, and as a cornerstone of many tracks no less. Greek academic and producer Tzoukmanis, who holds a PhD in Mathematics(specialising in Functional Analysis and Calculus of Variations), certainly seems to understand the power of those arpeggiated melodies.
Having made music since 1995, you can also bet your bottom, top or any other dollar that his aural work is thoroughly accomplished, as this 2013 collection of tracks goes to show - here presented on vinyl for the first time. From subtly soaring harmonies and broken beats of 'Green Belt' to the plink-plonk, acid house infused beatless wonder, 'Free Hugs', everything resonates as much as it impresses. | | | | | | | £29.99 |
 in stock | | Various Alternative Funk: Volume 1 (reissue) (LP)
Platform 23 There's an awful lot going on here, and as such plenty to talk about. Alternative Funk: Volume 1 is both a compilation and reissue, with the original outing landing on cassette in the early-1980s on VP231, a label set up by Pacific 231, AKA Pierre Jolivet. The albums were the brainchild of Axel Kyrou and Francis Man, founders of the legendary Vox Populi!, and their aim was to showcase far out sounds, at least som of which were their own.
What we have in the modern iteration is a snapshot of that expansive and often hallucinatory aural odyssey, with seminal and lesser known artists resting side-by-side on the track list. Stylistically broad, running the gamut from dub percussion to cold wave and industrial, it's yet more evidence of just how fertile a decade the 80s were. | | | | | | | £20.99 |
 in stock | | AVI 002 (12")
Avidya For a four track electronic music EP, there's a lot here. Opening with 'Burning Fields' by Aphonia, the uninitiated might expect the whole package to nod to that classic electro sound, highly detailed but lo-fi, packed with dark atmosphere but all about dance floor energy. Skip to track two, though, and Angles of Pompeii present mutant indie-punk-dance in the vein of Detroit Grand Pubahs at their most guitar-y, and minimalistic.
Elsewhere, 'Retreat' is a slow mo maximalist triumph, acid lines flailing over the top of a muffled cacophony of noise that places the emphasis on a lunging, head-nodding bassline. Add 'Athma', Odopt's sinister low end and drum machine tune up that could almost be an accidental piece from the movie They Live and you've got not only a complex release, but one boasting replay value set to last for years after the investment. | | | | | | | £12.99 |
 in stock | | Various Alternative Funk: Volume 2 (reissue) (LP)
Platform 23 Weird, enigmatic, and unarguably wonderful would be three ways to describe the names that have been brought together on this reissue of part of a compilation series that first landed on cassette via the VP231 imprint as the 1980s got into gear. A collector's item in the truest sense, Alternative Funk Vol.2 is a strange yet recognisable beast, with so much here being almost familiar but alien at the same time.
Over the course of the track list, then, you'll find proto-e-funk (Dee Nasty's 'Orientic Groove'), block party electro hip hop ('Asphalt Zombie' by Scoop!), broken, guitar-lick-heavy funk that's almost definitely been sampled for pop and house mash ups, only set to the vocals of a militant German sex droid ('Der Sound Kosten' by Melsjest), and spoken word poetry worthy of Hunter S. Thompson layered over driving breaks (Randall Kenney's 'Norma Jones'), alongside a host of even trippier, experimental and abstract stuff. | | | | | | | £20.99 |
 in stock | | West View (limited 2xLP + booklet)
Minimal Wave US Minimal Wave is honored to present West View, a double LP of rare demos and newly remastered classics by UK duo Vicious Pink. Vicious Pink was an electrifying synth-pop duo formed by Josephine Warden and Brian Moss, who met in a smokey Leeds nightclub in 1981. The pair formed their band Vicious Pink Phenomena and soon after went on to provide gloriously off-kilter backing vocals for their friends, Soft Cell, completely unrehearsed. Later, they dropped Phenomena to simplify their name. Between 1982 and 1986, they released seven singles that all reached the UK dance charts, despite the fact that their ambitions never lay in commercial success. To this day, their music remains artful, catchy, and provocative. West View compiles material from their early days together, featuring previously unreleased demos as well as newly remastered classics like Cccan't You See and My Private Tokyo. The double LP is housed in a glossy heavyweight sleeve, accompanied by a 12-page LP-sized booklet featuring the duo's entire 'how it happened' story, unpublished lyrics, and unpublished photos from those early years. The double LP is limited to 999 copies. | | | | | | | £34.75 |
 in stock | | Gala (LP)
Dark Entries US Anyone for a bit of shoewave? It may not be a thing yet, but it's still the best way to describe the sound of this nine track from Argentinian and Euroshima. Here, their Gala album - originally released in 1987 by Polygram but relatively unnoticed until a 2020 CD release - sees a vinyl reissue courtesy of Dark Entries. The likes of 'Esfumados Suenos', with its battering drum machines and chilly synths, betray the influence of Depeche Mode at their darkest, but there's also some gloriously clunky Joy Division bass playing and a Morrissey-esque vocal. Elsewhere, the spirit of Cocteau Twins, The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees loom large, meshing beautifully with more technological shenanigans. Ahead of its time, for sure, but still owrth a careful listen. | | | | | | | £23.75 |
 in stock | | The Thetford Beast (limited green splattered vinyl 10" + MP3 download code)
Castles In Space Alan Partridge fans will no-doubt recognise Thetford, one of the many areas mentioned in a jingle used by the fictitious radio host during his Norfolk Nights broadcasts. Somewhere between Norwich and London, Thetford Forest, to use the full name, is an expansive woodland purposefully planted for timber, now a managed park offering a genuinely lovely day out for anyone in the area.
However, according to Concretism's Chris Sharp, and his family, there's also a beast that roams the area and has long-since been committed to regional folklore. Now, imagine that dark, snarling creature who likely only really comes out at night, and transpose that into coldwave tunes packed with eerie, sinister atmospheres, paranormality mixed with a kind of retro-futurist synth aesthetic. Got it? | | | | | | | £16.75 |
 in stock | | West View (limited pink vinyl 2xLP + booklet)
Minimal Wave US Formed in Leeds, England, in 1981, Vicious Pink have at various points been described as 'provocative', 'sexualised', and 'catchy'. If you've never encountered the outfit before, then it's probably going to take about two seconds to realise how accurate those points are. Not least as West View opens with one of their most successful singles, the super-chartable, but subtly suggestive 'Cccan't You See'. Those who are familiar with their oeuvre will probably have picked up on the fact this LP isn't in their back catalogue. Instead, West View is a retrospective celebration of this often overlooked early British synth-pop group, collating early and rare demos, remastering and re-releasing. The result feels transportive, authentic, and - even if you're just imagining what that show at legendary Leeds venue The Warehouse would have been like, in support of Soft Cell - vivid. | | | | | | | £30.75 |
 in stock | | Fossora (limited gatefold burgundy vinyl 2xLP + insert (indie exclusive))
One Little Independent "Another Bjork album?!" cry the naysayers. But little do they know they've been duped into thinking the Icelandic legend's last full-length, Utopia, was a recent affair. Actually, it's already been a good five years since the singer's flowery flabbergaster, and collab with experimentalists Arca and Doon Kanda, came to be. Fossora, by contrast, is a much more mournful LP: it's a meditation on generations, and was in part inspired by the death of Bjork's mother. It also contains collaborations with her two children, Sindri and isadora. A homelier affair, revisiting Bjork's upbringing in Iceland, on which she hadn't reflected on record since she was 16. | | | | | | | £38.75 |
 in stock | | Taum (LP + MP3 download code)
Plangent Germany Since releasing his debut album On Acid back in 2012, Lorenz Brummer AKA Recondite has released sets that various touch on techno, acid, tech-house, minimal and, most recently, ambient and downtempo grooves. Taum, his latest full-length offering, mixes and matches his various electronic influences and repackages them in interesting new ways. After opening with a spot of acid-sporting minimalist electro, Brummer confidently strides through trace-influenced mid-tempo chuggers, intergalactic IDM, ghostly post-dubstep electronica, experimental D&B and the kind of skittish, unpredictable electronic soundscapes that are refreshingly hard to pin down. Throughout, he opts for synthesizer sounds and machine drums that recall the halcyon days of ambient techno in the mid 1990s. | | | | | | | £22.50 |
 in stock | | Methods Of Mayhem (reissue) (180 gram audiophile vinyl LP + insert)
Music On Vinyl Giving you a time portal back to the glory days of rap metal on a major label tip, Methods Of Mayhem was the moment legendary Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee took a break from glam metal to get down with the kids and serve up a fierce slab for the bros to mosh to. The guest line up is no joke, taking in Snoop Dogg, Fred Durst, George Clinton, Lil' Kim, Mixmaster Mike, Kid Rock and U God from Wu Tang Clan. Truthfully, it's aged well compared to a lot of the rap metal of the era, capturing a genuine hip hop swagger which more than stands up to the guitars, with production that reaches to sampling and synthesis as much as crushing riffage. It may not be the smartest creative expression out there, but neither is it trying to be. The main thing is that it kicks raw ass, which it absolutely does. | | | | | | | £24.75 |
 in stock | | Peter Rehberg At GRM (LP + MP3 download code)
Portraits GRM France Better known to many as Pita, British-American electronic audio composer Peter Rehberg was certainly taken before his time. Founder of the acclaimed experimental label Editions Mego, and one of central figures at its predecessor imprint, Mego, his back catalogue of work is nothing if not highly accomplished, academic stuff - aural essays on where the boundaries of sound lie, and what exists beyond.
This posthumous release from the equally worthy platform Portraits GRM is a great example of that. Creating deceptively expansive, deep, and vivid worlds from singular noises, the pieces represent masterclasses in taking one focal point for the ears and bending minds, and - in turn - thoughts around that. All very impressive, adding the fact this is a live recoding only accentuates the genius at play. | | | | | | | £22.50 |
 in stock | | Open Space Motion: Underscores (reissue) (LP)
Be With Not to be confused with Klaus WeiB, the East Germany-born handball hero of the Summer Olympics 1972, although born in the same era, this Klaus Weiss is in fact the man who started out as a jazz drummer before expanding his remit to other instruments and genres, winding up pretty prolific in the world of movie and TV scores. As can be heard here.
While not directly linked to, taken from, or inspired by screen work, Open Space underscores (ahem) many of the same totems. It's un-rushed, yet tracks are relatively brief, not much more than interludes. Each feels similar to the next, but they clearly invoke very different emotional responses. Somewhere between synth-laden fantasy soundtracks of yore, and medieval court music, it's like going into the future only to realise civilisation has gone backwards while retaining some of its tech prowess. | | | | | | | £23.75 |
 in stock | | Paesaggi (LP)
Four Flies Italy The fact Paesaggi is being released on Four Flies, an Italian label that has tasked itself with unearthing, or rather catching obscure soundtracks from the country's golden age before they fall into complete obscurity and off the face of the Earth, should tell you everything there is to know about this one. One of the all-time masters of film scores, Umiliani delivered the album in 1971, and it's a wonderful example of his work.
It's probably important to point out that his output leant towards the less high brow genres, including Spaghetti Westerns, and soft core sex movies. This version of the album itself, which is number three after the original in 1971 and re-release (with different sleeve) in 1980, features performances by legendary session supergroup I Marc 4, and is as wistful and beguiling as it is lounging and made to make background moods. Flutes, guitars, strings and all. | | | | | | | £29.99 |
 in stock | | Samurai Champloo Music: Playlist (limited 2xLP + insert)
Flying Dog Japan This one will instantly appeal to the heads, and then everyone else once they get a second or two into the opening stunner, Tsutchie is cult Japanese hip hop producer Shinji Tsuchida's artist name, a chap who came through as part of the ShakkaZombie group but has mainly worked as a soloist or on collabs since. Here, he presents a top collection of work made for the anime series Samurai Champloo (which also used tunes by Nujabes and Fat Jon).
Not bad for a cartoon, you might say, Tsuchida's contributions are nothing short of beautiful, combining spectacular piano keys, low-slung beats, and a certain atmosphere of playful hypnosis, calling on elements of rare groove, funk, chip and computer music, downbeat and avant garde electronica. Combined, it's a masterclass of understated, achingly cool head nodding business. | | | | | | | £61.75 |
 in stock | | Returnal (Soundtrack) (yellow vinyl LP + insert)
Milan US You might be more familiar with Bobby Krlic's long-established moniker, The Haxan Cloak, with two critically acclaimed studio albums already out under that name. Here, he steps out from behind the veil (ahem) for the latest example of just how far video game soundtracks are going these days. Returnal is a third-person shooter set in space, wherein players land on a distant planet in search of the White Shadow, a mysterious signal that has been emanating from the region.
Sadly, things don't go too well, as we wind up trapped in a time loop, really just wanting to go home and make some sense of what's happening. Krlic's score does that surreal and unnerving plot proud, moving between these huge, epic, Blade Runner-esque moments of stretched synth refrains to collages of eerie chimes and whispered abstract noises. | | | | | | | £20.50 |
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