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: 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: UK producer Inigo Kennedy - also known as Seducer, Tomito Satori and Helki Torsnum - comes up with a pair of techno tracks that positively glisten with luxuriant melody and a beautiful musicality that's rare to ape in this - or indeed any - scene. 'RackSpace 2' and 'Dewdrops' both glide with serene ease, the melodies weaving away in the back seat of the track but never threatening to overwhlelm the atmosphere. The latter is definitely operating in a spacier sphere, with the reverbs and delays working overtime, but both are nicely restrained takes on techno that nevertheless paint vivid sonic pictures.
Review: Khotin - or Canadian electronic musician Dylan Khotin-Foote if you prefer - returns with 'Peace Portal', a six-track suite gliding us through a tantric slow motion, threading gauzy textures through ambient, Balearic, and soft-focus downtempo. After a decade refining his palette across releases for labels like 1080p and Ghostly International, here he reserves some of his most intimate and glowing material for his own platform, Khotin Industries. Opener 'You Made My Weekend Wonderful' sets the tone with choir-like vapour trails and delicate piano, while 'HP 1' follows in a dream state of sub-bass eddies, flowing seamlessly into the playful skip of 'Druid Dance'. The B deepens the haze: 'Vacation (Spam Free Mix)' evokes luxury resort liminality with plush pads and sunkissed low-end, 'Oasis Bioreference' drips warped acid through a slow-motion filter. Each piece is a postcard from somewhere gently unreal.
Weather Forecast (feat Prince Morella - Bluetrain Freestyle dub) (12:09)
Review: Mega-minimal ambient dub from Anton Kubikov, whose music emerges with all the push-pull of a locomotive piston. 'Weather Forecast' truly does sound like a meteorologists' crystal ball; synaptic chord pulses, and offhand bass licks, accompany the mix's overall drive. Prince Morella, an as yet unknown toaster, appears on the vocal version of the B with Bluetrain at the controls, delivering a freestyle that repeats the urgent mantra: 'rain is a gift'.
Review: Outlier experimental label Eating Music brings back more for us to chew on here in the form of a varied four tracker from various artists. It is Mindexxx that opens with 'Track 1' which layers up snaking synths and deeply buried dark bass that grows in intensity and washes over you like a Tsunami. Laughing Ears then cuts back to a tender mood with soft piano chords and slowly unfolding rhythms that are warm and lithe. Gooooose's 'The Dusk Of Digital Age' is a churchy affair with textured drones shot through with beams of synth light and Knopha's 'Off-Peak Season Tourists' layers up choral vocals and jumbled drum sounds into something hypnotic and escapist.
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: It is always a joy to hear from the Music For Dreams label. Not only is it a musically interesting outlet but also one that digs deep into plenty of fascinating different scenes. And this is one such case as the project is centered around 99-year-old Iboja Wandall-Holm who sings about memories from her childhood growing up in Eastern Europe. The record plays out like a musical encounter where the songs are worked into magical forms by Danish musician Mikkel Hess and other members of his Hess Is More band with extra collaborative input from label head and producer Kenneth Bager.
Review: Trash Can Lamb is the layers solo work from Akron-based multi-instrumentalist Keith Freund. With two decades of musical exploration, Freund, known for his work with Trouble Books and Lemon Quartet, crafts an eclectic blend of analogue synthesis, piano, bass, saxophone, and field recordings. This album delves into experimental realms, melding 8-bit delays with acoustic elements that give rise to great ethereal melodies. Handmade electronics coalesce with wistful piano and saxophone melodies to make for a juxtaposition of chaos and tranquillity. Freund captures the essence of a backyard at dusk, where the cacophony of nature meets the serenity of twilight.
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.
String Quartet In C-Sharp Minor (Opus 131) (part 9: Why We Fight)
Discovery Of The Camp
Nixon's Walk
Austria (part 10: Points)
Band Of Brothers Requiem
Review: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..." So said Henry V before the battle of Agincourt in one of Shakespeare's many lauded histories. The quote went on to Christen Stephen Ambrose's 1993 novel and a subsequent American war drama miniseries of the same name, chronicling the journey of the "Easy Company," a group of American paratroopers during World War II. Training, combat tussles, and fraternal bonds are given a brutal portrayal in the film, and this mood of brutality and endurance was not unnoticeably underscored by Michael Kamen's soundtrack, now reissued on gatefold 2xLP. Kamen, known for his scores for Die Hard, X-Men and Memento, brought out a mood of orchestral fortuity, successfully mirroring the film's intent to portray themes of glory, tragedy and camaraderie, all of which ooze from its many orchestral swells and windfalls.
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: Spanning no less than 131 volumes in print, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has understandably found cult status among fans of Manga worldwide. Running from 1987 to present day, the most recent instalments began serialisation in 2023. Presumably looking to make the most of the first new chapters since 2012, Sony has opted to re-release the score to part five, Golden Wind, which landed in 2001 and was adapted into anime form. Setting the scene in Naples, Italy, the plot involves gangsters, drug dealers who specifically target kids, and a plot to kill the protagonist's daughter. Steeped in Japanese animated movie score traditions, the accompanying music by celebrated composer Kanno Yugo is at times tense, in other moments playful, often fantastic, regularly bizarre, and resolutely eccentric.
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).
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.