Boomkat new MMM, MARK FELL, BOTTIN, etc

Seeping to the surface two years since his cherished and widely acclaimed ‘Persistent Repetition Of Phrases’ LP, ‘An Empty Bliss Beyond The World’ returns our doddering protagonist to the deserted ballroom, wandering its waxed floor and dilapidated grandeur in an attempt to capture an era which has long since disappeared but still haunts the atmosphere. In the meantime he’s accessed an alternate set of memory banks with his derivés into Leyland Kirby land, but back in The Caretaker role, James Leyland Kirby conjures a quieter, more introspective spirit, lost in his own mind amidst a low-lit labyrinth of ever-decaying and antediluvian shellac phrases. Sourced from his mysterious collection of 78s, these vague snippets of archaic sonics reflect the ability of Alzheimers patients to recall the songs of their past, and with them recollections of places, people, moods and sensations. The effect is subtly amplified by the chronic vinyl cut at Berlin’s D&M, allowing each memory to segue seamlessly and unpredictably into the next for an otherworldly and disorienting experience. Coupled with another deeply enigmatic artwork commission from Ivan Seal, ‘An Empty Bliss Beyond The World’, is a highly potent transmission from one of the most singular characters operating in music today.

**Utterly mindblowing compendium of albums, rarities and archival recordings from one of the most compelling characters to have emerged from the 1980’s cassette/wave/underground, made in an individually numbered edition of 600 copies for the world including a certificate of ownership and individual sleeves housed inside a deluxe, embossed canvas box** After blowing us away with that gargantuan box of Geman Punk & Wave, Vinyl on Demand return to present one the year’s most anticipated archival issues – a comprehensive collection of material by seminal NYC-based minimal synth mistress Tara Cross, mostly released on cassette and vinyl between 1982 and 1989. As one of the leading female figures of the ’80s cassette underground, Tara created a lo-fi but distinct aesthetic with meagre means; just an Electro-Harmonix mini synthesizer, primitive drum box and vocals recorded to tape. After starting out in punk bands, she developed an unconventional, artfully experimental style of minimal synth music which appeared on several cassette releases and more recently on a number of Minimal Wave compilations, including the ‘Minimal Wave Tapes’ release with Stones Throw. With 65 tracks included here, Tara was evidently a prolific artist making an incomparable mark in a severely male dominated field. The compilation is presented in chronological order. The first LP contains nine attention deficit ‘Spurt Ditties’ from her 1982 cassette, and five selections from 1983’s ‘Waiting For The War’, covering a spectrum of expressions from incredible drum machine bursts to music box oddities, arabesque drones and warped wave music. The music on the second LP is more developed, opening out into longer, more layered synthpop experiments with Henk Wallays of Unovidual and stranger, fragmented sounds with Port Said’s Stefan Tischler made between between 1984-88. The third disc features compilation tracks from 1985-1989, from baroque machine miniatures to discordant pastoral pops, while disc four covers her most substantial tracks, working with an expanded instrumental palette and ornate song structures for ‘Tempus Fugit’ and some wonderful beatless ambient sections, depositing us at the stunning darkwave closer ‘Aalter Image’. Judging from this body of work, Tara was unswayed by other musical movements of the era and irrevocably in love with the mystical potential of electronics and the way they allowed her to express a truly unique identity. There’s just so much to immerse yourself in over this enormous set – making for one of the standout archival editions we’ve honestly ever seen. Just so so good.

*Comes with a huge fold-out poster inside* Following last year’s devasting UL8 set, Mark Fell returns to Editions Mego for a 2×12″ excursion into advanced rhythm mechanics. Back in January 2011, the SND man was invited by Erik ‘Errorsmith’ Wiegand to create some presets for the Native Instruments soft-synth he was building. In the end, NI rejected Fell’s sounds, but their loss is our gain: he’s further developed the pattern-Generating systems he used for UL8 and connected them to sounds produced in Wiegand’s synthesizer with a result so tantalising you’re almost reminded of Wiegand’s own classic MMM production ‘Donna’. Fell is just at his ballistic best, delivering nine tracks that manage to sound at once coolly scientific whilst also suggesting a kind of mutant, angular rave music. ‘Acids In The… thin razor, attack noise hat, Linn’ in particular is possessed of an itchy funk that is just completely addictive, while ‘Manitutshu’ is electro fit to soundtrack a 2045 block party, and ‘Manitutshu… parameter set 2, Linn HI Tom, JazzOrg…’ pays homage to Duet Emmo (the seminal 80s collaboration between Daniel Miller and Wire’s Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis) in a morse code techno style. Don’t get us wrong: though playful, this album isn’t exactly an easy ride, but for the more adventurous ears out there the rewards are enormous. The set ends with an industrial-strength remix from Fell’s SND partner Mat Steel, taking on ‘Occultation’, a track which in is original form sounds like Richard D. James’ Cornish acid focussed into a single, searing laser beam. If you need further incentive, know that Manitutshu was mastered by Lupo at Dubplates and Mastering and is packaged with a A1 full colour poster. Most artists pay lip service to the future, Mark Fell is busy making it happen. Highly recommended.

**Smoky ashen wax with hand-numbered insert. Limited to 150 copies** Superb new entry from Guapo’s Matt Thompson, providing his third cinematic instalment as Rashomon. As the fourth record on Hlava, it follows previous releases of impressionistic sonics from Steve Moore, Datashock/Aiden Baker/Leah Buckareff, and Guapo with a creepy amalgam of “’70s prog soundtracks, Transylvanian Folk, grotesque images and anxiety”. Matt’s obviously been busy imbibing the spirits of Goblin, Fabio Frizzi and Angelo Badalamenti which loom large over these eight tracks. Those influences seep out from each cut like a carmine miasma, but most brilliantly never give the game away – this could just have easily been imagined and fashioned in the late ’70s or today. His execution is scarily close to the original aesthetic, from frantically spiralling organ outings and acid-fuelled tension to authentic psyche-funk breaks, harrowed Moog jams and doomy chamber jazz, all played with an incredible instinctive touch which could really only come from someone who has spent far too many nights absorbing vintage celluloid and dusty wax. Their arrangements are incredibly vivid, following some sort of narrative which must exist in Matt’s mind, but is ripe for interpretation in your own confines, if you dare. Most particular to our tastes, he’s got an uncanny feel for slightly dischordant and chilling drones, especially on the wheezy accordions of ‘The Nightwatchman’ and the exceptional, Bohren and Der Club Of Gore-like ‘Pacemaker’. RIYL Bronnt Industries Kapital, Steve Moore/Zombi, Demdike Stare, Umberto etc.

Nicola Ratti might be primarily known as a guitarist, but this time around he’s decided to set his mind on eking sound from the wheezing circuitboards of electrical instruments (hence the album’s title). Ratti uses his electrical companions as simply the first step in a process, and proceeds to bend the source sounds into complex rhythmic forms ending up with tracks that sound like shuffling techno, rasping dub or the kind of chattering electronic manipulations you’d usually associate with Raster Noton. That’s not to say that ‘220 Tones’ is simply an exercise in postmodern digitalism; there is a warm, breathing, heart to the record which belies its curling electrical roots. The scratchy sound of reel-to-reel tape and vinyl, the distant, haunted organ hums and drones, or the pulsing blips of a half-functioning synthesizer make up the album’s core. Just when you think the glitches might get too much there’s something to drag the record back down to earth, and that’s what makes ‘220 Tones’ so engrossing. Somewhere in there lies the blurred cassette dubbed nostalgia of Not Not Fun and the pointed avant-garde experiments of PAN, and yet Ratti manages to distil and re-synthesize these sounds into one coherent whole. The result it nothing short of electrifying.

Recent recipient of the lauded “Best Newcomer” mantle in DJ Mag’s 2010 awards, joint head of the Numbers empire, and all-round good egg, Jackmaster heads up his first commercially available mix CD, ‘Fabriclive 57’. It’s a proper party session, heavily informed by an abiding love of ’90s dance classics and underground American funk, coupled with a penchant for the most virulent emissions of the current UK scene. These are all BIG records, starting with one foot in the ’80s electrofunk of The Fantastic Aleems ‘Release Yourself’ before stepping into the Juan Atkins fix of ‘Big Fun’. He’s got you by the short and curlies at this point, segueing a path through the likes of Model 500’s ‘Night Drive’, Armand Van Helden’s deadly mix of Kim English on ‘Nite Life’, Anthony Shakir’s ‘Plugged In’, an exclusive Martyn joint ‘Alldayallnight’ and the bubbling SocaXFunky of Geiom’s ‘2 4 6’. In the mid section he cruises through Jook 10’s London House anthem ‘Emotions’, Larry Heard’s ‘Sun Can’t Compare’, Addison Groove’s ‘Make Um Bounce’ and Davina’s Mad Mike-produced piano Houser ‘Don’t You Want It’, to an outstanding run of CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It’, DJ Deeon’s ‘The Freaks’ and The Outlander’s ‘Vamp’ for the hardcore House heads. The final flush features some priceless classics, from UR’s ‘Jupiter Jazz’ to Thomas Bangaltar’s ‘What To Do’, onto AFX’s heart-swelling ‘VBS.Redlof.B’ meshed with Skepta’s ‘Doin It Again’ and closing to the tear-jerking strains of Radiohead’s anthemic ‘Idioteque’. As you can gauge, these aren’t obscure joints, but the DJ magic lies in his intuitively programmed drops and pacing, making for a party mix you’ll reach for over and again. Respect also for not just pulling out a cache of whites and exclusives, instead opting for a classic selection that’ll no doubt introduce a ruck of heads to important dance classics, and still sound good a decade from now. Bigup!

Few could deny the inherent, unmistakable grandeur of Johann Johannsson’s compositions, and ‘The Miners’ Hymns’ might just be his grandest statement to date. The record finds our Icelandic protagonist tackling characteristically difficult subject matter; the plight of the Durham miners as their industry was brought down to rubble over the last hundred or so years. Notable too is the fact that Johannsson’s score is a companion piece to a new film from celebrated artist Bill Morrison (he of ‘Decasia’ fame), so already there is a feeling that a certain air of substance surrounds the album. Play this against Johannsson’s clever use of instrumentation as he tackles brass for the first time since 2004’s genre defying ‘Virthulegu Forsetar’ and we’re left with a mesmerizing record, and one that could stand as the finest addition to Johannsson’s canon thus far. The subject matter lends a distinct weight to the already emotive songs, but the truth is that the music stands alone without this kind of contextualization. While it is definitely cinematic, those chilling brass tones (influenced in part by Durham’s rich history of brass bands) stand strong as part of Johannsson’s singular musical vocabulary, and the narrative he tells needs little imagery to enhance its appeal. ‘The Miners’ Hymns’ might be his most subtle work to date, and I get the feeling that he has allowed far more space and much more time in each piece on the record. These are slow moving, slow burning, brooding epics, and while they share stylistic traits with ‘classic’ soundtracks of the past there is a sense that Johannsson is more willing to allow his pieces to dwell in the darker recesses of the mind. You can almost hear the cavernous mineshafts and their ominous heritage in the brutal electronic treatments, and hear the creaking, crumbling landscapes beneath the haunting brass. I’m reminded of Gavin Bryars’s seminal ‘The Sinking of the Titanic’, and if any body of work compares favorably to that classic composition then it has to be a good thing. ‘The Miners’ Hymns’, simply put, is a crowning achievement for Johannsson. Highly Recommended.

**Embossed, deluxe box with bilingual (English/French) 160 page book and 5 metal balls (ø 3,969mm)** Presented by Editions Mego and commissioned by the UK’s Urbanomic organization, ‘Speculative Solution’ brings together Hecker’s sonic practice and psychoacoustic experimentation with philosopher Quentin Meillassoux’s concept of ‘Hyperchaos’ – the absolute contingency of the laws of nature. The project comprises a CD with four compositions by Hecker, and a 160-page book with essays by the artist, plus Elie Ayache, Robin Mackay and Quentin Meillassoux. With ‘Speculative Solution’ Hecker proposes that the concepts of absolute contingency and hyperchaos offer a rigorous new alternative to the employment of chance and randomness in avant-garde composition. The four pieces, ranging in length from 32 minutes to 3 minutes, contain a series of “micro-chronics and sequences of auditory contingencies, ranging from extreme stasis to the most dynamic intensities, crisp dramatisations of what Meillassoux calls in his text ‘extro-science worlds'”. We can safely say that this is some freaky sh*t, indeed. I failed to heed the advice given, that “Headphone use is not advised” and duly ended up with watering eyes and feeling acutely nauseous by the end of the first track. But, that’s not to say it wasn’t a pleasurable experience, it was just intensely visceral, kind of like a consensual domination, or a synaesthetic ear f*ck. Entering this psychoacoustic 3D environment you’re submitting yourself to a uniquely heightened sensory experience. “This sensation that you are in a world where there can be no physics, but only a chronics, of things” (Quentin Meillassoux in conversation with Florian Hecker and Robin Mackay, Paris, 22.07.2010).

**Heavyweight double gatefold with individually numbered insert. Limited to 600 individually numbered copies** Germany’s amazing Vinyl On Demand label present a massively overdue debut album by the enigmatic and near-mythical Italo group, Fockewulf 190!!! It collects the group’s two original singles, ‘Gitano’ and the legendary ‘Body Heat’, together with new remixes and their other demos made between 1982-86 to make many Italo fans dreams a reality. As one of those fans, we were turned on to the group by the Clone-affiliated CBS radio, and more specifically I-F’s legendary top 100 countdown. ‘Body Heat’, featuring “the voice of Italo” aka Fred Ventura, featured in their end-of-year charts, causing I-F to exclaim “…it rocks so hard, it’s a scandal”, and we were in total agreement; I mean, who can knock the intent behind nonsensical lyrics like “Hey You, Take A Look At Me, Look Me Deep Inside, It’s The Way I Feel”?!? But, to be fair, we had no idea as to the full extent of their mystic sonic concepts, which dealt with the esoteric integration of Kabbalah into electronic music. The group’s mastermind, Victor Life perhaps sums it up best: “The Fockewulf 190 project was created as a shape equal to a substance, experimental analogyc electronic music connected to the theatrical and mimic power of rock and the romantic and esthetic force of the electronic dance of the 80s. We translated those expressive channels with the force of a psychedelic mind folded into a magic and evocative world, a profound research into ourselves. This personal and futuristic mistycism originated the dark side of italo disco.” So, nearly 25 years later, their esoteric electronic capital and evocative vision can be fully appreciated by a freshly synthesized generation, offering something remarkably definitive and quite honestly, ESSENTIAL.

Absolutely crackers new single from MMM, indulging their taste for UK Funky and outernational rhythms to the fullest. Aside from being utterly lethal and undeniably effective, both these tracks are perhaps an unknowing middle finger to those Disco, House and Techno snobs who’ve turned their dopey noses up at Grimier, soca-synched street-level sounds in recent years (you know who you are, and you can’t dance). Anyway, rant o’er, you’ll find the amped swagger of ‘Dex’ on the frontside, a blinding slice of optimised tribalism romping with dubstep-style subs, ear-clipping claps and party-fuelling electro synths. It’s a f*ckin’ bangoh, mate. Turn it up and over to ‘Rio’, a stealthier, techier builder running on swingers drums and inimitably red-lining synths guaranteed to be lodged in your head by the end of summer. Like anything else bearing the MMM herald, it’s an essential purchase.

Another new artist to the 100% Silk set, or someone working incognito? We suspect the latter but no matter, these tracks are very cool. We can hear traces of exported European industrial music soaked into these discombobulated disco patterns, from the sticky FX gunk rubbed over ten minutes of entrancing, Cab’s style drum machines and carpenter-esque synth spumes on ‘I’, to the augmented Schnitzler-esque metallic pulses of ‘II’ or emaciated and sickly DAF-like monorail tracky-ness of ‘III’. Seriously, I wish there were more parties playing this kind of gear, in places for people who like slow nosebleeds and move like flickering holograms.