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Review: Test Pressing is a legendary and influential blog that documents dance music's most special moments past, present and future, all from a mature and in-the-know perspective. It makes sense that it is now branching out with an all-new label arm, and it makes sense that the first offering is a real doozy. Alex Kassian is the man in control and he serves up a 90s, trance-tinged new age techno adventure with 'Voices' which also comes as a blissed out ambient version, and punchy tribal sweat-athon. 'Lifestream' then douses you in a world of psychedelic and tropical synth laden Balearic brilliance.

Review: Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe might sound like the elaborate name of a facetious solo artist, but it's actually a later alias of progressive rock supergroup Yes, after they resolved to stop going by the name Yes. Yes, indeed, this is Yes in reunited form, having packed in the former name with a resounding No. Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe return for this later-career, nine-track smorgasbord, which shows off the group's collaborative-compositional complexity, virtuosic musicianship and belty vocals. Everything from heroic theme music to instrumental ecstatic dances feature here, with the opener potentially especially appealing to DJs.

Review: Way back in the early 2000s, Hardrock Striker's (now dormant) Parisonic Records imprint debuted with a pair of EPs that breathed new life into classic cuts from 'Makossa Man', Manu Dibango. To celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, the Paris scene veteran has decided to bring back Soul Of The Makossa Man, this time via an EP containing four cover versions/sample-heavy productions. Simncino steps up first with 'Tribal Spirit Mix', a percussion rich hybrid dub disco/sturdy house number, before FTG delivers the hypnotic deep house excellence of the 'Deep In The Jungle Mix'. FTG returns to close the EP with the hybrid electronic/organic brilliance of the 'Afro Manimal Mix', while the 'Studio 937 Mix' by Groove Boys Project sounds like an unlikely collaboration between Dibango and the Burrell Brothers.

Review: Italian house music is always standout for the dreaminess of its melodies and the escapism inherent in its grooves. This new one on the fledgling Digging Deeper Music label is another case in point as Mixmaster and Maurizo Verbeni offer up The Sound Of Assisi, which was originally released back in 1993 and has very much stood the test of time. There is a subtle darkness to the bassline, a drive in the busy drums but lushness in the chords to the Padre mix which opens up. The Suora mix is more spaced out and Francesano mix brings some bouncy drum funk.

Review: If you're unfamiliar with Yugoslavia-era Croatian animated children's entertainment than where have you been? And, please, allow us some introductions. Produced for 11 years, between 1967 and 1978, Professor Balthazar was a kids show about a benevolent genius scientist (the titular star) who helps those around him overcome various problems, often through the use of invention, using a magical machine to come up with innovative designs to solve any issue. While there is certainly subtext to read into - TV has always been a bastion of propaganda, not least behind the Iron Curtain of yore - trying to pinpoint the location or origin here isn't easy, if you don't already know. No character speaks a discernible language, making this resolutely universal storytelling. Similarly, the soundtrack, by Balkan master Tomislav Simovic, is relentlessly shapeshifting and expressive, and impossible not to fall in love with, no matter where you grew up.

Review: Tomislav Simovic was among the most significant musical masters to emerge in post-World War II Yugoslavia. The Croatian artist was a member of several jazz bands over the years, is considered a pioneer of southern European electronic music, a highly respected musical theorist, commentator, and all-round visionary. During his lifetime, he would score 300 films, many of which are lost to the sands of time, and those that did survived, or were recreated by new artists, are considered examples of soundtrack as art. Few answer that call better than this previously unreleased collection of 18 short animated films from the Zagreb school, which positioned itself as an artistic institution concerned with presenting philosophical world views and changing the course of animated history. Simovic's work, even without the visuals, conveys this brilliantly, with a mixture of whimsy, comedy, contemporary songwriting, and grand arrangements.

Review: Felipe Gordon kicks off the new Wide Awake album with Errare Humanum Est, a second conceptual album that runs a gamut of deep house sounds. The title comes from the Latin proverb 'To err is human' which is an inspiration for Gordon who leaves the mistakes in his music. It was written in his home studio in Bogota at the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 and finds him re-visit some forgotten musical sketches to rework them and cook up a long and absorbing listen that really makes use of the long player format.

Review: The small but already well-formed Innate label offers up a superb split EP for its sixth outing. Gilbert opens up with 'Low Flying Objects', a widescreen and serene bit of synth-laden tendon with more than a hint of Motor City soul over the dusty drums. 'Unknown Entities' is a brain-cleansing and celestial electro-styled cut with dreamy pads and cinematic deepness. Bristol-born, Welsh-rooted Owain K then steps up to the flip with equally painterly sounds. 'Corona Borealis' pairs deep and rubbery bass with crisp electro drum patterns and far-sighted chords. 'New Horizon' then closes out with some delightfully dozy deep house that's laden with wispy chords and undulating bass.

Notes: SINGOLI is a 7 channels DC coupled active combiner with an analogue transient detector output.

All the inputs I are equipped with LED meters and a dedicated attenuating potentiometer.

O will give you the combined mixed output.

T is an additional transient detector out that will fire only when a certain threshold is detected from the sum of all the inputs.

The toggle switch activates or deactivate the internal connection to Tutto&Sempre when the two modules are paired together thanks to the included JST cable.

Features

DC coupled mixer with 7 inputs and individual attenuators.
Intensity sensitive LED meters on all the inputs.
Analogue transient detector output.
Toggle switch to activate / deactivate its normalization to Tutto&Sempre.
"Whatever" power connector a.k.a. don't mind the polarity.

Technical Specs

Width: 6HP
Depth: 25mm
15mA +12V
10mA -12V

Notes: Befaco's unique GameBoy-based effects module allows you to change effects by swapping cartridges, all with CV control over key parameters. Effects include Skuara's harsh fuzz, Instruo's micro phaser and much more.

Supplier's Notes:
A crazy idea with the support of a bunch of crazy people.

A Multi FX module based on game carts!

FxBoy is a multi-FX module designed in collaboration with several talented manufacturers.

This is an effect unit with CV control over the parameters and Dry/wet control, with a Built-in CV controllable four bands EQ.

Each effect is physically hosted in a hot-swappable game cart and designed by a different manufacturer: Touell Skouarn with Skuara a harsh fuzz with overdrive, Instruo with micro Phaser, a two-flavoured Phaser, Feedback modules with a vintage Flanger, XOR with FX-Girl, a digital double effect module: Delay + Granularizer, Making sound machines with an analogue Wave folder, Tesseract with a bit crusher and Befaco Trash distortion!

What have these crazy people put in their cartridges?

Trash

Trash is a harmonic distortion that combines both clipping and folding flavours. Modes A and B will select between aggressive and more aggressive flavours!

Flanger

Analogue Wavefolder

Eskuara

AVMA
AVMA by Tesseract Modular is a bipolar VCA with one switchable wavefolder stage followed by an analogue frequency reducer. The VCA gain is x2, it can be used with i5V oscillator signals at the CV input for ring modulation effect.
Micro Phaser

Three cascaded all-pass filters, a built-in LFO and a saturator in the feedback path.

The purpose for this cartridge is to completely f&%k your phase up!

Instruo - We make sounds with the things that we make to make sounds with.

Technical Specifications

CV control over all parameters and Dry/wet
CV controllable four-band EQ, routable post or pre-effect.
Hot swap for all carts.
Selector for two different flavours of each cart.
Open specifications to design your own carts

Specs

Current needs: +12V: 125mA, -12V: 100mA, 5v: 0mA
Width: 12 HP
Depth: 35 mm (including power connector)
Aluminium, heat-treated front panel.
Designed and assembled in Barcelona.

Review: Lisbon has a lot to answer for in electronic music. Not just a great city to party in (and we mean great), the Portuguese capital has, for a very long time now, been responsible for some of the most cutting edge beats and pieces being made in Europe as a whole. More impressive still, it has managed to build this reputation due to the predominance of location-specific noises. The country's colonialist history means the population is hugely diverse, resulting in a real cultural melting pot, and tunes are a major outlet through which people can express their identity.
A place packed with characters as big as the impact of their respective sounds, Teteu, AKA Normal Nada the Krakmaxter, AKA Qraqmaxter,AKA CiclOFF, AKA Erre Mente, certainly accounts for a good number of those personalities on monikers alone. And, as Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal shows, his tunes are also hard not to notice. At once harsh and yet also delicate, or at least spatial, we run from a plain evil gabber-chip music-fairground ride oddity ('Alive'), to dubby proggy techno ('Da Gamer'), off-kilter pianos and UK funky drums ('Batida 2 Dance'), and snare-bass minimalism ('Nai Na Chi (Na China)'), among other adventures.

Review: Depending on your personal circumstances, the Covid pandemic was either a blissed-out paid holiday or a stressful and seemingly never-ending time of loss and hardship. Both ends of the spectrum are gorgeously captured here by London-based Joy Ellis, who wrote her third album 'Peaceful Place' during those strange weeks. Though a renowned singer, she decided to strip things back to just piano for this record, with long-time collaborators Adam Osmianski on drums and Henrik Jensen on double bass fleshing out the sound. It is a poignant listen from front to back, with all the many different emotions of that time conveyed perfectly, from grief to uncertainty, hope to despair, in one immersive record. The sheer beauty of these songs and the meaning of the melodies stay with you long after they have finished playing, making this a real triumph out of adversity and one that is sure to stand the test of time.

Notes: Arkan

Dual Voltage Polarizer

You may have heard this before: "You can never have enough VCAs". A voltage polarizer (also known as a bipolar VCA or a 4-quadrant multiplier) is often viewed as the VCA better suited for CV. As it can be used as a unipolar VCA and it allows you to invert a signal when it is modulated with a negative voltage. Resulting in interesting movements in your modulations.

What sets Arkan apart from other voltage polarizers is the curvature control, a feature usually only seen in unipolar VCAs. By taking a different approach to the classic voltage polarizer circuitry, Malstrom have devised a unique solution that provides a new way to shape your audio and CV. The non-linearity of the polarizer also makes Arkan really good at reaching silence when presented with a 0V CV signal.

At audio rate, Arkan acts as a ring-modulator with four controls to change timbres.

Boosting adds odd harmonics (symmetrical distortion), while offsetting adds even harmonics (asymmetrical distortion). The modulation curve changes ring modulation sharpness, and modulation strength determines the carrier dominance.

Two identical channels with carefully selected features will make Arkan your go-to modulation control hub. Arkan is especially useful for common utility duties such as mixing, scaling, inverting and offsetting. As well as CV modulation, feedback patching, and waveshaping. All this makes Arkan a very versatile tool that will certainly have a place in your patch!

Features (per channel)

- Input attenuation with inverter switch gives you more precision and range, with voltage inversion and quick silencing.
- Bias input with attenuverter control to offset your input signal or mix/invert another signal.
- CV input with curvature control allows you to shape the polarizer and improve its 0V attenuation.
- CV modulation control to fade in the modulator, allowing you to determine the amount of modulation.
- Voltage gain and polarity led indicators showing you exactly what is happening under the radar.
- Output normalled internally and externally (to other Arkans) to easily mix signals.

Additional features

Optional signal boost (x4 / +12dB) via switch on the PCB to increase voltages when needed.
5V or 10V voltage reference selection for bias voltage and CV input range to adjust Arkan to your system.

Dimensions
- 8HP.
- 28mm, Skiff-friendly.

Power consumption
- 90mA @ +12V.
- 85mA @ -12V.

I/O specs

- All inputs DC coupled.
- All inputs handle audio signals.
- All inputs have 100k input impedance. - All inputs have +-10V Input range.
- CV range +-5V or +-10V.
- Bias Voltage range +-5V or +-10V.
- Boost gain x1 or x4.
- All inputs are overvoltage protected.
- Keyed power header.
- Reverse power protection.

Review: Accidental Meetings' series of mixtapes are the kind of documents that demand the same attention as an album. The label has a formidable track record in platforming the most exciting advances in electronic music with an organic heart, and they reach out to DJs as interesting and idiosyncratic as their recording artists. Past efforts from Susu Laroche, Azu Tiwaline and Ghost Phone give you some idea of the quality involved, and now BFDM alumni OKO DJ steps up with two wild-style sides of unlikely blends, veering from deadly jazz-spiked beatdowns to grimy turntablism garnished with nu-metal power chords. It sounds like it could be a mess, but in the hands of a true artist anything is possible.

Review: 'Guiding Me' is the new single from South African-born, Berlin-based artist Portable, who is known for his distinctive vocals and futuristic soundscapes. The track is inspired by his ancestral roots in the Khoi San people, and explores the theme of using technology to alter our dreams. The original mix is a delicate and hypnotic blend of minimal beats, ethereal synths and his soothing voice. The remix by Lawrence of Smallville and Dial reinterprets the track in his typically understated, late night mood music style. The EP also includes an exclusive B-side track called 'Vigor,' which is a deeper and moodier affair that creates a more edgy and mysterious atmosphere.

Review: Dutch party-starters Kraak & Smaak have always been hard to pin down, with their vast catalogue containing everything from jubilant nu-disco, funk-fuelled breaks and Afrobeat to club-ready hip-hop jams, revivalist electrofunk, purple P-funk and slow-motion Latin treats. What unites their output - as this expansive two-disc 20th birthday celebration proves - is a hard-headed commitment to making sure everyone has a good time (something also proved by their occasional live shows). As best of collections go, Twenty is inspired, not least because it not only contains their biggest singles and fan favourites, but also some of their most notable collaborations. Look out for killer cuts with house legend Romathony, soul sensations Durand Jones, Mayer Hawthorne and Izo Fitroy, and yacht rock-loving Aussie nu-disco band Parcels.