Pingipung! Germany Vinyl & CDs

Review: Instrumental synth pop producer Gozen Atila, AKA Anadol - named after an old Turkish car company - has been building a stellar reputation for herself as a purveyor of 1970s and 1980s influenced electronic soundscapes since her first full length, curuyen Yillar (Rotting Years), turned heads among press and public alike in 2012. Plenty has come between then and now, but finally we're given Hatiralar, a record that was made around the same time as her debut but has never before seen the light of day. Informed by the experimental European and Eurasian movie scores of decades past, fans of Bruce Haack and The Space Lady will find much to fall head over heels for here, touching on naive keyboard chart hits from outside the Western music industry, kosmische, science fiction sounds and obscure electro forms, it's a strange but enticing trip into another world.

Review: Marewrew, a female vocal group specialising in traditional Ainu songs, takes centre stage in Pingipung's exploration of the music of northern Japan's long-suppressed people. Produced by Oki Kano, who is known for his work with Ainu artists, Marewrew's a cappella renditions offer a fresh perspective on these age-old tunes. With voices familiar from their backing vocals for Umeko Ando, Marewrew's harmonious canons create captivating, trance-like experiences. Nature's whispers and birdcalls add depth, while tracks like 'Little Sea God' weave hypnotic tales. The album, Ukouk, curated by Andi Otto, showcases Marewrew's enchanting melodies, including unexpected cumbia and pop-inspired moments, accompanied by percussion and the Tonkori harp.

Review: Stop us if you've heard this one before. Lee "Scratch" Perry walks into a Quasi Dub Development recording session somewhere in New York. He begins to freestyle in that surrealist, escapist, hallucinogenic kind of way we still love him for, and the results eventually make their way onto 2014's record, Little Twister. The rest, as they say, is history. Or maybe not quite. Four years after the world lost Perry's enigmatic poetry and pioneering contributions to dub, Pingipung, the label that carried that aforementioned LP, unearths the tape of one track from the collection the bosses clearly feel deserves more attention. 'Let's Communicate' is as intoxicating now as it was back then. Then contemporary UK dub don Elijah Minnelli steps up to deliver an alternative version that stands up on its own. No mean feat.