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Review: Oceanvs Orientalis and Ilhan Ersahin first entered each other's orbits by chance at a performance at Turkey's Cappadox Festival in 2018. Orientalis is renowned for his fusion of Eastern musical motifs and traditions with cutting-edge electronica, while Ilhan Ersahin has long plowed a unique path uniting assorted musical strains from around the world via an exploratory jazz-improv sensibility. Following two tracks ('Mesta' and 'Pire') co-written by Ilhan and OvO and released as collaborations, as well as two more Ersahin / OvO co-writes ('Revenge Of The Wankers' and 'Television') released under OvO's name alone, a fresh and exciting new song, '1980', now heralds a full-length collaboration slated to land in Spring 2024. The track's title hints at a certain nostalgic bent, all while still keeping its gaze firmly fixed on the future as it evokes sun-drenched, bygone good times. The 10" edition adds several extra versions, one of which spotlights the multi-instrumental mastery of Darkside's Dave Harrington, and the other the mesmerizing vocal stylings of Gaye Su Akyol.

Review: Get yourself poolside for a much-needed repress of this 2021 gem from Lips & Rhythm cool crew Bad Kids Beach Club. It's a poolside fever dream with one eye on the Balearics and the other on the astral plane, as Jesse Sizmo and Seb Hall unfurl a veritable barge of plush synths on your downtempo-hungry ears. '45 Degrees' is indeed a sizzler, while 'Del Arrecife' takes a more sultry, late night approach to the executive lounge. Camilo Miranda then slides in for a drums-up remix of '45 Degrees' which adds some chugging tension to the mix in superlative style.

Review: When he's not busy exploring the minutiae of electronic frequencies as Alva Noto, Carsten Nicolai likes to amuse himself with experiments like this one, where he sent magnetic tape and photographic film out to various parts of the world addressed to Mr Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, hoping for the packages to be returned to him. The idea was these magnetic tapes and photosensitive films would pick be exposed to electromagnetic waves and radiation during their respective journeys, and so when he received his parcels back, he digitised the results and made this album, presented as a gatefold 10" with an eight-page booklet.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Original sleeve missing otherwise in excellent condition***


Emotional Rescue turn their attention to Rare Silk and their sublime cult classic "Storm". It's one of those rare tracks with a wonderful otherworldly quality that manages to be smooth and accessible, and somehow not like anything you've ever heard before. It must be somewhere in the mix, between the dreamy harmonized vocals, lush instrumentation and curious sense of space. The original on the A side is a treat enough, but then throw in a mercurial dubbed out version by Arp on the flip and you've got yourself a 12 inch portal to a most delightful dimension.

Review: Back in 2005 we might not have predicted what a phenomenon Ghost Box would become. In the years since, the label has become a beacon for the hauntological exploration of Britain's inherent oddness creeping just below the surface. Julian House's graphic design is a huge part of the label's artistic merit, and it figures his music as The Focus Group follows a similarly aesthetically rigorous direction. There's a pastoral collage quality to Hey Let Loose Your Love which takes you right back to the 70s, with beautiful musical passages offset by surrealist samples and unexpected diversions into the recent history of these wyrd isles.

Review: Sasu Ripatti continues to plunge into techno abstraction through his Hide Behind The Silence series. It's but one outlet for the seemingly constant stream of innovative sound emerging from the Finnish pioneer's studio, and on this fourth 10" he's offering up more compelling studies in noise, texture, rhythm and space. 'Death Of A Bassdrum' seems to take aim at techno by burying a 4/4 kick under a twitchy, uncomfortable bed of scuffs and scrapes, while 'Post-Mortem' diverts into space-building sonics where found sounds and artful reverb create a vibrant, three-dimensional space to explore with your mind's eye.

Review: Jurgen Paape has a brilliantly characterful sound and wrote one of our favourite silly records in 'Ofterschwang' some 13 years ago (go check it out, it's brilliant.) We're glad to hear some new music from the long time Kompakt legend and co-founder and once again it's not what you would expect. 'Allein' is a downbeat piece with oriental melodies and gently plucked strings over warm bass. It's not for the club, that is for sure, but the flip side version 'Allein In Italien' sure is. This one is a chugging and brit Italo disco number with retro 80s synth sounds and plenty of joyous grooves.

Review: Emotional Rescue turn their attention to Rare Silk and their sublime cult classic "Storm". It's one of those rare tracks with a wonderful otherworldly quality that manages to be smooth and accessible, and somehow not like anything you've ever heard before. It must be somewhere in the mix, between the dreamy harmonized vocals, lush instrumentation and curious sense of space. The original on the A side is a treat enough, but then throw in a mercurial dubbed out version by Arp on the flip and you've got yourself a 12 inch portal to a most delightful dimension.

Review: Baz Bradley and A Girl Called Kate team up to make Orbs Of Light, cementing their decades-long collaborative synergy with a slice of contemporary Balearic beat. 'Billion Days' hears Kate loll through a resolute vocal line, as its production opens up an ever-expansive beach-bound vista, whether by sequenced steel pans or synths. The 10" also includes remixes by 40 Thieves and Mind Fair, who add their own twists to the original.

Review: Brussels label By the Bluest of Seas is a secret gem of the free jazz and improvisation scene that should get plenty more eyes on it in the wake of this new album from Delphine Dora and Mocke. it is their second long player after one on Okraina Records and it invites you to slip into a dreamstate as languid guitar strumming and drawn out vocals stretch to infinity. Melancholic arpeggios gently rise and fall, there is both tension and tears and a churchy architecture to this which places you at the centre gazing up in awe - no shock really given that it was recorded in an old church in the village of Mauzun in the Puy-de-Dome.

Review: While there's no doubt the Middle East has stepped into the electronic music limelight in recent years, catalysed by good (a rebalancing of media focus within dance culture) and bad (controversy surrounding events like MDL Beast and the media's desperation to keep 'breaking new territory' in a world growing smaller by the day), Fatima Al Qadri is not part of this wave. A Senegal-born Kuwaiti, the US-based artist has been doing very good things for well over a decade (2010's 'Muslim Trance' mix is a must hear), creating everything from music exploring meeting points between Arabic traditions and contemporary synth work, to sound installations for renowned galleries. No stranger to Kode 9's Hyperdub, her third outing on the imprint since 2014 puts dark, atmospheric ambient out on the streets of Dakar after dark. Or something like that.

Review: Vladislav Delay can manipulate sound like few others. Where he gets his ideas from is anyone's guess but we're presented with a laid more of them here in the first of five EPs in a series. This one finds the man born Sasu Ripatti deconstructing his soundscapes into whirring machines, metallic textures and chopped dup dubs. It is sound art as much as club music but will still work on the more adventurous dance floors out there. 'Three-Room Problem' in particular is an eerie and unsettling piece but one that leaves you wanting more.

Review: Martin Jenkins aka Pye Corner Audio kept existing fans happy and won over many more new ones with his Let's Emerge! album in summer. As it often the way it now gets remixed with a Sonic Boom twist. The three cuts are all fresh and original fusion of cold wave and synth with analogue textures and enveloping sub bass, heady sound designs that make you wonder how and plenty more besides. 'Haze Loops', 'Saturation Point' and 'Warmth Of The Sun' are all classics in the making.

Review: This is a beautiful new project from Lucy Gooch (UK), Black Brunswicker (US) and zake (US)-

Lucy Gooch's vocals become an ocean of loops and washes that float above the Black Brunswicker lap steel swells and zake drones.

Review: Dial 81 and tell them it's an emergency... Blair French has dropped his second single this year and there are only 300 copies in existence! Following "Standing Still Is An Illusion" on Rocksteady Disco come two more sublime Balearic affairs that fit Claremont 56 like a snug pair of speedos; "Sandbar Caviar" wafts and sways with island waves as gentle arpeggios ebb and flow creating harmonies and cosmic textures while "Inland Island" adjusts our seats to a horizontal position with its snaking bassline and spacious percussion gradually opening into a heavenly vocal and guitar lead that's tantamount to transcendental.