Review: Basel-based experimental labels Amenthia Recordings and A Walking Contradiction join forces for their first collaborative release here in the form of the Flash Crash/Hack Crash EP. Both labels are known for pushing boundaries within their close-knit creative circles and this one features Agonis' heavy stepper and Konduku's whirlpool of low frequencies on the Amenthia side, while Lemont continues the low-end, tripped-out vibe. Varuna represents A Walking Contradiction and delivers swampy, slow-motion sounds in their signature style. This release embodies both labels' commitment to daring, unconventional electronic sounds.
Review: A record that explores deep, hypnotic rhythms with a strong tribal and mystical undercurrent, the latest Siamese Twins records pushes the boundaries of what is possibly in eastern influences underground techno. Side-1 opens with 'The Golden Triangle', an atmospheric introduction that feels cinematic, setting the stage with ambient textures before giving way to movement. 'Lens of Time' follows, locking into a deep, primal groove where rolling percussion and rich low-end create an entrancing effect. On Side-2 'Mekong' leans into tribal mysticism, blending ancient rhythmic patterns with a modern pulse. The production is detailed yet raw, drawing from rich percussive layers. 'Ruak' closes the EP with pulsating bass and deep, rolling rhythms, channeling Eastern influences into a hypnotic techno flow. A powerful release from Siamese Twins Records, driven by Sunju Hargun's distinct vision.
Review: KANZ's artist alias, when reversed, becomes ZNAK, meaning "SIGN" in Bulgarian. He hails from Lyulin, a district known for breeding either crime or art, and thankfully Kaloyan embodies the latter. This outing on MELMAK is opened with '25% Personality (with Dickie)' which is deep and atmospheric dub techno. 'Low Orbit' is just as deep but more driving with some pad laced beauty up top, 'Trench Music' then brings frosty Berlin dub techno vibes, 'Dub Tool A' has conscious vocal mutterings and 'Splais' is a slow motion gem for late night contemplation. 'Kopriva (Opa Kanz Rerub)' is a spine-tingling closer with angelic vocals.
Review: Still riding high from the success of his superb re-make of Manuel Gottsching on Test Pressing ('A Reference to E2-E4'), Alex Kassian returns to Pinchy & Friends - who released his similarly popular 2021 EP 'Leave Your Life' - after a three-year break. Beginning with the lusciously languid, Balearic, effects-laden and sonically layered title track ('Body Singer', where Jonny Nash style guitars and tumbling sax motifs rise above a sparse drum machine beat and shoegaze-esque aural textures), the Berlin-based producer offers up a loved-up mix of weightless ambient bliss (Kinship), kosmiche soundscapes (the sun-flecked 'Skinship'), revivalist Krautrock (the Can-after-several-spliffs headiness of 'Trippy Gas') and immersive, cinematic excusions (the gorgeous 'Mirror of the Heart').
Review: 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk, released in 1974, is a seminal track that redefined the future of electronic music. Its significance lies not only in its innovative use of synthesisers and electronic instruments but also in its ability to evoke a specific visual and emotional landscape. Here, the song's repetitive, motorik rhythms are given an overhaul - or more specifically three - by Jim Rider, a regular at Lee Burridge's All Day I Dream parties. They're beefed up for the floor, certainly, but maintain the kind of delicate touches that makew the original such a great listen.
Review: Kraftwerk are as well known for their albums as they are their singles and the iconic 'Autobahn' is of course the name of both. It is a rather groundbreaking electronic gem originally released in 1974 and soon revolutionised music with its hypnotic synth melodies, driving rhythms and pioneering use of vocoders. The track - celebrating its 50th anniversary and here on 7" - alongside an album picture disc and new Dolby Atmos mix on CD, which seal the birthday celebrations - captured the essence of modern travel by blending motorik beats with atmospheric soundscapes to create a real electronic journey and sense of movement. It still sounds as futuristic now as ever, a record that truly changed the course of modern music forever.
Porter Brook - "Three Things You Can Watch Forever" (5:58)
Ayu - "Light & Reflection" (4:51)
Atavic - "Subconscious" (5:30)
Tammo Hesselink & DYL - "Accent Award" (5:10)
Plebeian - "Gowanus" (5:05)
Review: Aaron J's Sure Thing kicks on towards its tenth release with a superb new 12" packed with fresh techno jams. Myriad different mods, grooves and tempos are on offer here starting with the puling rhythmic depths of Vardae's 'Pahlevan' then moving on to Kick21's 'Bright Interface', a dark and haunting low-end wobbler. Atavic's 'Subconscious' is a heady one with ambient cosmic pads over deeply hurried, supple rhythms then while Tammo Hesselink & DYL combine to mesmeric effect on the carefully curated broken beat brilliance of 'Accent Award.' A forward-thinking EP for sure.
Review: Heart Dance Recordings is a genuinely unique proposition: a new age, ambient and spiritual music label run by, and for, women, offering up decidedly calming music from an ever-growing roster of artists. The Phoenix-based imprint's latest full-length excursion was created by a trio of musicians: flautist Sherry Finzer, percussionist and vocalist Karasvana (real name Ella Hunt) and synthesizer enthusiast-come-guitarist City of Dawn (Damian Duque). There's much to admire about The Journeying Sun, from the daybreak beauty of 'Memory of Awakening' and the immersive, enveloping bliss of 'On Seashores of Endless Worlds', with its haunting chimes and drifting vocal refrains, to wide-eyed aural wonder of 'Resident Wandering' and the simultaneously pastoral and ethereal 'Indefiniteness'.
Review: Belgian artist Kaboom Karavan is back on Miasmah Recordings with Fiasko! which embodies musical chaos-ecstatic, fun, yet deeply melancholic. It's an overwhelming experience where every sense is touched and the whole thing has been crafted for an underground rebellion against societal norms that reconnects with the inner child of black tie workers. In essence, Fiasko! is contemporary exotica created by a madman with boundless creativity and was made using a plethora of homemade instruments, including acoustic guitars, electronics, vocals by Bram Bosteels and Bart Maris contributing trumpet, tuba, and trombone, while Stefaan Smagghe adds violin and sarangi. A kaleidoscopic delight for sure.
Mending Space Entering Streams Of Mist For Visible Becomes The Rays Of Light, Time Touches (4:42)
The Equilibrium In Transition (6:01)
Echoes Of Ephemeral Breathing To The Floating Forest (2:34)
Folding Futures Present Wake The Dust In Obscurity (7:43)
The Sea Brings, Waves Of Casted Silver Softly Crawls, Into Moss We Sink (4:06)
Shallow Winds In Atoms Kissing, Harvest Nights Forgotten Lights Strain The End Of New Beginnings (4:43)
Review: Ben Kaczor and Niculin Barandun's debut album, Pointed Frequencies come on the tasteful German outlet Dial Records and explores the healing potential of sound through six immersive tracks. Their collaboration began in 2022 for an audiovisual show at Digital Art Festival Zurich and has developed masterfully since and as Kaczor studied sound therapy, Barandun became intrigued by its possibilities, and it is that which has inspired the album's direction. It incorporates therapeutic elements like binaural beats and solfeggio frequencies into a seamless blend of ambient and experimental music. Through free improvisation, the pair have cooked up some brilliantly contemplative pieces here.
Summer Sketch (Floating Through Space In A Dream - IF edit)
Nexus 2 (Beatless version - IF edit)
The Land At Breath (IF edit)
Encounter (IF edit)
Paradigm Shift (IF edit)
Review: Parisian label InFine presents Collection, a stunning anthology of Kaito's ambient works, the project of Hiroshi Watanabe, a techno veteran with nearly three decades of experience. This album compiles remastered and re-edited tracks originally released between 2020 and 2022 on Watanabe's Cosmic Signatures imprint, offering a serene sonic journey for introspection and reflection. Collection shows off Kaito's ethereal soundscapes, blending layered drones, emotive synthetic strings, and analogue harmonies that ascend to euphoric heights. Pieces like 'Summer Mood' evoke a nostalgic beauty, blending piano-led melodies with a bittersweet sense of reminiscence. The track 'Birds of Passage' features delicate, treated textures, while 'Summer Sketch' nods to the warmth of Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain with its humanistic horns. The album's beat-driven tracks stand out, with 'Silent Cloud' echoing the vibes of Mo Wax and Massive Attack, and 'Silent Sky' delivering deep basslines and subtle details reminiscent of classic downtempo electronica. Masterfully remastered by Rashad Becker, Collection is a testament to Kaito's mastery of ambient music, blending minimalism with emotional depth. Hats off to InFine, for further solidifying his place among Japan's ambient music luminaries.
Summer Sketch (Floating Through Space On A Dream) (5:10)
Review: Following their latest maxi-EP for Infine, 'Silent Sky', Kaito (a beatsmith's production alias of a towering name, none other than Hiroshi Watanabe) returns for Collection, his newest album for Infine. Celebrated for his contributions to the "enviro-ambient" scene in his home Japan, Collection marks the latest reminiscence under Watanabe's Kaito pseudonym, which was started in 2001 after visit to Europe and subsequent release on the Kompakt label. With "Kaito" meaning both "universe" and "secret" depending on its usage, Collection is comprised of ambient, quiescent and melodic tunes which serve as individual therapies for the ear, despite their dual esoteric and cosmic quality.
Review: French label Good Morning Tapes welcomes Paris-born electronic innovator and 70s GRM alumni Ariel Kalma New York-based trio Asa Tone for some serious deep ambient soundscapes. The wellness movement has never been more polar than it is now but if you ask us, nothing could be better for your mental health and sense of self than sitting a dark room with this one nice and loud so you can soak up its high fidelity designs, the microscopic pads, the whimsical melodies and slowly shapeshifting sounds in all their glory. A tremendous work.
Review: No prizes for guessing the kind of sonic avenues we're invited to explore here. Less obvious is the fact Kandodo is actually Simon Price, a name many psych lovers will recognise from British heavyweights The Heads - a group that have spent the last few decades bending minds to their will, or at least sound, and opening up third ears with far reaching cosmic tones. Here you can expect similar wormholes to open, but dark matter reigns supreme. Introverted to the point of collapsing in on itself, Theendisinpsyche feels sludgy, deep, heavy and all the things that make us look down and then inside ourselves. With the B-side taken up by 22-minute long epic, 'Swim Into The Sun', you should hopefully know just how intense and inescapable things get - which should only ever be taken as a strong recommendation from us.
Review: Polish producer, multi-faced musician and multi-instrumental maestro Albert Karch knows his way around the sound engineer's desk. So much his finesse is unmistakeable, with a number of standout records already behind him. For example, the 2019 stunner, Celestially Light, created in collaboration with Japanese folk singer and songwriter Ichiko Aoba, Here, he delivers another exceptional joint project, teaming up with Irish ambient icon Gareth Quinn Redmond, himself no stranger to the WRWTFWW label, for a sublime outing of precise strings and pianos. A slow, meandering journey into melodic immersion which captivates and lulls, it moves between moments of sparse quiet, electronic experimentation, and more complex and full sounding arrangements in a way that holds the attention until the very last. A thing of patient beauty that deserves to be in your shopping basket.
Review: Since delivering his debut album on PNN a decade ago, Matt Kent AKA Matt Karmil has proved adept at adapting the club-focused sound of his EPs to the long-playing format - as his inspired and wonderfully atmospheric sets for Idle Hands and Smalltown Supersound prove. He continues this notable run of form on this Studio Barnhus released set, crowding ultra-deep, dusty grooves in opaque chords, cut-up sample snippets, lo-fi crackle, hazy ambient textures and nods towards a myriad of ear-pleasing electronic styles and sounds. Highlights are plentiful, with our picks being the dubby, mind-altering late-night hypnotism of 'Still Something There' and the becalmed, meditative ambient deepness of superb closing cut '15 Mins' (which, confusingly, is just 13 minutes long).
Review: Eli Keszler hears the New York percussionist and composer of the same name lord his soundworld over as yet unhaunted terrains. Rooted in dust residues of American abstraction, jazz noir, ancient melodic memory and crumbling industrial forms, the record unfolds as a footworking meditation on beauty and erosion, gawping at the anguishes and awes of the present moment. Keszler's metamorphic practice spans releases on PAN, Empty Editions, and ESP Disk, as well as collaborations with Oneohtrix Point Never, Rashad Becker and Laurel Halo. Icons emerges as a natural continuation of his previous, equally as unsettling LP Stadium from 2018, and this one emerges as its natural progression. The release coincides with a conversation between Keszler and filmmaker Adam Curtis, framing the album within a wider dialogue on sound, history and collapse.
Review: Dubio makes no secret of its intention, from the word go. The opening, titular track give us the lay of the land. A record inspired by the soundtrack to a puzzle game of the same name, there's a cyclical, perpetual kind of motion to everything here. Obviously, we know where the start of each piece is, and the conclusion. But the vibe isn't forward motion, nor backwards. Instead, there's a gradual meandering tempo, a loose, open-ended kind of aesthetic that invokes the old cliche - the journey, not the destination. And with that, you can't help but sense a little mystery here, too. Kettel isn't always known for this type of free spirited exploration, and yet here we are, and how we got here is part of what we're trying to figure out. Musically, that means warm pads and string refrains, twinkling chimes, plodding, almost unsteady percussion and a sense of wonder and perpetuity throughout.
Review: Reimer Eising, aka Kettel, and Lennard van der Last, aka Secede, had already been lifelong friends by the time they began working on When Can. The Dutch producers wanted to create a seamless listening experience that would unfold and develop as a film does, using cinematic-leaning sounds to achieve their big idea. The whole thing feels like a narrative, a beginning-middle-end, which is doubly impressive when you learn there was no grand plan to begin with. Just two pals exploring what might come next. Originally released in 2012 - hark!, those heady, innocent days - what's perhaps even more astounding than the picturesque, immersive soundscapes here, is the fact this is the first time When Can has made it onto vinyl. Having said that, 12 years ago was another time and place, not least in terms of music sales, so let's not dwell on what everyone was thinking by not bringing this out on wax sooner. Instead, savour every moment of the rich, dreamy electronica.
Review: Kiasmos is the duo of Icelandic composer olafur Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus Rasmussen. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their iconic debut album, it now gets reissued on a limited blue vinyl pressing of only 2000 copies. This album has been streamed over 100 million times on Spotify and is a cornerstone of experimental and ambient music that has inspired many artists around the world. Following the success of their recent album II, this anniversary release reminds us of the pair's beginnings when two friends were simply experimenting and creating music together in the studio. It has aged well and prices a great release from busy modern life into a world of supple rhythm and delicate, tender melody.
Love Song For A Vampire (performed by Annie Lennox) (4:24)
Review: In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola tapped Polish composer Wojciech Kilar to create the score for his adaptation of Dracula. Kilar, relatively unknown at the time, crafted a haunting and atmospheric composition that adds depth to the story of the infamous vampire. The score relies on low tones to evoke dread, as heard in the main title, 'Dracula: In the Beginning', where deep cello and bass strings set a sinister tone for Count Dracula's eerie castle. 'Vampire Hunters' builds a tense violin theme, punctuated by woodwinds and percussion, reflecting the determination of Van Helsing in his pursuit of the vampire. 'Ring of Fire' delivers a ferocious climax, blending demonic voices and chorale elements in a chilling fashion. The highlight of the score is its haunting minimalism. Kilar avoids conventional melodies, focusing instead on repetitive, unsettling arrangements that grow in intensity. Tracks like 'The Storm' showcase his mastery, shifting from delicate harp plucking to powerful brass and gothic organ swells. Kilar's score stands out for its unique use of instrumentation and atmosphere, making it a perfect complement to the gothic horror of the film. Now available on 180-gram yellow vinyl, this chilling composition is essential for fans of the legendary story.
Review: Klaus's Tanum compilation unites five groundbreaking 12" releases, originally scattered between 2012 and 2021, into a cohesive journey that reveals the innovative spirit of the artist. Each record, known for pushing boundaries, defied expectations and explored new sonic territories and in this compilation, the hidden connections between the tracks become clear. The work effortlessly blends genres, while maintaining a smoldering core of intensity that pulses through every track. From the unexpected twists of rhythm and texture to the emotive undertones, Klaus never settles into predictability. This collection, presented on a CD housed in a recycled card gatefold digisleeve, showcases the depth of Klaus's artistry and vision. Mastered by Matt Colton, the tracks retain their raw energy and sonic clarity. Marking the conclusion of one chapter while igniting anticipation for what comes next, this CD concludes a vital period for the artist.
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