Top 100 Chart placements for Electronica
Updated 18 hours ago
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Facta & K-LONE's Wisdom Teeth imprint continues its busy schedule of 10 year celebrations with the debut LP by H TO O: a new collaborative project by Japanese ambient artists H. Takahashi and Kohei Oyamada. Set across six distinct movements, the LP maps the different stages of the cosmic cycle through a series of dynamic ambient set pieces: from the exponential expansion of the universe in its infancy - here invoked by the bright, chiming album opener 'Inflation' - through to it's inevitable collapse and rebirth, captured by the record's driving, ominous closer, 'Ever'. The record started life in Takahashi's hands, initially intended as a solo follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 LP, Escapism. The Kankyō Records founder shared his early sketches with friend and collaborator Oyamada, who began to play with the arrangements, taking the work in an experimental new direction. Naturally the project evolved into a cooperative effort, and its final form is the result of an honest and fluid back-and-forth between the two artists. The collaboration marks a considerable shift in energy to the artists' previous works - most of all in its foregrounded use of rhythm. Where Escapism was built from a series of gently lilting, dream-like vignettes, each movement of Cycle has a clear sense of forward momentum and purpose. Each composition builds from a set of sparse, meandering elements into something dense, cinematic and, at points, discordant. Although Cycle is at heart an ambient record, there is a club-informed feeling of forward motion running through the record, placing it in a similar sonic world to the beatless-but-rhythmic ambient techno of artists like Barker, Lorenzo Senni and Sunareht. Delicate and dramatic in equal measure, Cycle is a vital and exciting debut dedicated to the building of worlds - and to their eventual and inevitable dissolution.
Nuron continues to make his mark on De:tuned with the long-awaited new 3-track EP Blanchimont. Nurmad Jusat aka Nuron, one of the key figures from the golden era of 90s electronic music and UK techno, extends his legacy by swinging back into gear. On Blanchimont Nuron combines his signature drum programming with uniquely lush and highly emotional synth arrangements. Futuristic aesthetics and mystic sounds to take over your senses. New and essential material! Ian Anderson at The Designers Republic created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!
Social Engineering brings together thirteen text fragments from so-called phishing emails. Using speech synthesis, they are spoken, sung, and/or transformed into abstract textures. The result is a 36-minute language and sound collage devoted to the dark forces of phishing.
A profound musical package from the Dutch-Turkish artist, Okitap - Sis, is a cultural clash between his Turkish roots and his affinity for industrial, techno, gabber and earnest sonic exploration. EP opener Cicek Suyu plays out like Vangelis moved Blade Runner to Istanbul and replaced his Yamaha CS-80 with a Tulum, a traditional bagpipe known to Turkey. Its dense, dark and intimidating. Luring you in to listen closer. Track 2, Batarya haunts and engulfs, breathing down your neck as you press in closer to make out the whispers before Karsiyaka punches you in the face. A virulently potent 90s goth sludge groove featuring the slicing Okitap vocals that challenge you to listen up. The EPs closers Nefes Al and Sis lul you back out as you crawl away, a canvas for Okitaps transporting, cinematic sound design adeptness.
Invisible Inc once again presents another incredible full-length album from the talented Double Geography. Following on from 2020's The Indoor Gardener, the new LP Open Water is bathed in a similar blissful atmosphere...it would be appropriate to describe it as rather sublime. Double Geography aka Duncan Thornley (one half of Weird Weather and studio engineer at MAP Studios), following the success of his debut album The Indoor Gardener (also on Invisible Inc) had sent Invisible Inc label boss GK Machine demos of his second and third album, which the label reluctantly declined on the basis that the music didn't sound quite right for the label. However, this fourth studio album fits the bill perfectly. Leaning towards the label's more ambient and laidback output, the album is themed around water, transition and escape and sounds as unshackled and free-flowing as you'd expect...you can almost feel the breeze in the air and the sun on your skin. The album is a progression from his previous releases, this time featuring several additional musicians to compliment Thornley's electronics with live instrumentation...adding a complexity and depth to each of these compositions and an overall 'organic' quality that makes these new pieces sound like quite a departure from the first album. But departures of another form is what this album is all about. Fretless bass, clarinet and saxophone decorate the music with refrains and melodies that have been enchanting our reveries since first hearing them. _________________________ I wanted to incorporate some live musicians on this release so called upon some of the talent I'd worked with as an engineer at MAP Studios...that was the main drive behind the music for this release. The tracks are named after things that relate to either leaving behind canal boat living, e.g. Goodbye Great Escape (Great Escape was the name of our boat) or memories from a trip to Hydra, Greece. All sorta water related On one of our walks around the island we ended up sharing a beach with Pierluigi Collina hence Famous Italian Referee! That track felt like the weirdest of the bunch so it got designated the weirdest name / memory! (Duncan Thornley, March 2024) Duncan Thornley - synthesizers, programming, percussion Adam Hayes - drum kit, roto-toms (A1, A3, A5) Pike Ogilvy - congas (A2, A3) Jasper Osbourne - fretless bass (A1, A3, A5) Kaidi Akinnibi - tenor and soprano saxophones (A1, A5) Simeon May - bass clarinet (A2, A3, B2, B4) Greg Foat - piano (B1)
Firnis DC lands on Perko's FELT imprint with Firnis der Civilisation, an eponymous collection of 9 tracks that transmit the enigmatic meditations of its author; discordant trudges of twilight romanticism from pastures far beyond. The uncommon threads that bind FELT intersect neatly at Firnis DC. Their previous outings as , for Blackest Ever Black, Climate of Fear and AD93, and a pair of The News Cycle releases, were cult hits of uncanny ambient techno and jungle volleys interpreted through lenses of outsider electronics. A snug fit, in other words, for Perkos unpredictable stable. On Firnis der Civilisation, we find things paired back further than before. Its 9 tracks play out like beatless symphonies of wayward folk music whos basement transmissions have been intercepted from the ether; a stirring limbo of grotty emotions that inspire and conflict in equal measure. Tracks offer brief portals into zones of sampladelic oddities, haunted vocals and scatty euphoria that is collectively driven by an (un)willingness to straddle familiar pastures. By the time you reach its finale gut-punch of Dreifach Fiktierungs twitching breakcore and Innozenz Jahr funk rollage, you are offered a light at the end of a rather odd tunnel that you never quite understood how you got there in the first place.
Unlocked is the debut album on Pheek's Archipel label by William Jourdain, known under the moniker of Automatisme. He began the project in 2011 and has been publishing since on various labels, such as Constellation, Mille Plateaux, and Outlines, while simultaneously being active as an art historian and curator. His generative ambient dub techno music is continually reshaped in the studio. This album is a compilation of post-produced sound archives, including stems, presets, and templates dating from 2011 to the present day. Jourdain and Pheek met in 2017 and made two albums together via their Viatorism duo. Unlocked was mainly produced during a residency at Pheek's studio in August 2023. William Jourdain was going through a life transition at that time, which marked the end of his use of an artistic moniker and the beginning of creating under his own name. In his day-to-day life, he seeks out the semi-wakeful-sleepy state. A non-conscious transit space of lucid dreaming. It is a fictional location influenced by both the conscious and subconscious minds. For him it can be likened to an improvisation that follows us. This record mainly contains Audialab's artificial intelligence deep sampling tools and K-Devices out-of-the-grid and generative MIDI sequencers and audio modulators. The tracks were exported using a hard drive that was malfunctioning and producing errors when calculating file states. There's also a reference to 'locked groove', minimal house scores plus the addition of constant mutations in the surrounding elements. This creates an interesting dichotomy of two opposing worlds, as the music is both catchy and modulatory. Could this be a way of traveling through our roots? In short, it's a collaboration with the help of his double, an artificial intelligence, which learns by remixing the artist's work. The risk-taking of this project results in the restriction of the extended format of the pieces, following a basic theme that must take three or four directions maximum. This is where worlds merge together as one part ends and another begins. The titles of the pieces entitled Levels symbolize the small steps we climb, one at a time. The album also addresses how to be nuanced in noise, which is a sound source that masks all others. The result is a collection of storms between sublime and chaos. William Jourdain thinks it is the natural context for everything and that we are learning to live in it.
Nous'klaer Audio and Sound & Vision's RE:VIVE initiative have teamed up for the third and final ALBUM in their film scoring trilogy. The collaboration invites two musicians to compose for these archival films from the collection of Sound & Vision, the national media archive of the Netherlands. This final instalment features through and through Rotterdammer, Kems Kriol and the Amsterdam based Turkish composer, pianist and DJ Loradeniz. Kems Kriol accompanies the amateur documentary collage film ''Rotterdam in de Jaren 90'', a dark period of strife, economic and social crisis for the now booming metropolis, with the compassion and empathy of someone who experienced those years first-hand but with enough time removed to reflect with heart. Loradeniz angularly and precisely moves her way through the delicate film ''Tegenlicht'', a surprisingly colorful and fluid educational film about painting, a bold juxtaposition that propels the film into the 2020s.
Following Mattr's remixes for Max Cooper and Grammy award winner Steven Weston comes a slice of melancholy electronica on his own imprint - Loft & Sound. Fusing his signature granular synthesis with syncopated rhythms and warm pads 'Cholia' has a sombre tone and continues his exploration of broken beats and lush soundscapes.
Composed between 2020 and 2021, these three pieces have lain in waiting ever since, maturing like a fine wine, and now ready for consumption by musical connoisseurs the world over. Triptych as the title suggests features three tracks, the opening title track being a Triptych in itself; a musical journey that flows continuously through three interconnected sections that elicit three distinct atmospheres as we weave our way through the full 13 minute of its length. Touch Air, is a rhythmic odyssey, a trance-like production masterpiece for spiritual enrichment. Pythagoras in Japan is an ambient trip to the far east. Drifting on a tanpura-like drone the piece floats off to infinity as waves of sound enmesh one another while spoken-word poetry transports us to Pythagoras' final destination.
Gerry Franke lands on iideo with three signature cuts of rhythmic wisdom. Concise in length while expansive in spirit, these songs pull the listener into Gerrys unique world of motive abstraction. A gift to home listeners and adventurous selectors alike.
Monika Enterprise welcomes a new act to her roster with Berlin based experimental pop duo Post Neo releasing their new EP. Individually known as Nicole Luján and Pauline Weh, both musicians pursued their own solo projects before forming the duo Post Neo. On "Alles Immer Wieder" they combine as more than the sum of their parts to produce 5 songs of dark and powerful experimental avant- pop which is released as an exclusive 10" vinyl. Pauline and Nicole met making music in Berlin during the summer of 2019 and kept collaborating online, until Nicole moved to Berlin in 2022. The musicians' different musical backgrounds result in diverse intuitions which complement each other perfectly when producing tracks together - Nicole was more into synthesis and electronic music production in Mexico City while Pauline received a classical piano education in Munich before she started doing electronic music. In 2022 they released their first EP, «do you?», which consists of five tracks that were composed and produced as an inter-continental project between Berlin and Mexico City. In autumn of that year Post Neo received a residency at Sternhagen Gut from Musicboard Berlin where they caught the ear of monika head Gudrun Gut who was so taken with their compelling mix of techno beats and dreamy melancholic atmospheres she immediately signed them to her label. The EP's opening and title track "Alles Immer Wieder" (trans. Everything again and again) is a reflection on repetition and monotony as transcendence in the form of sleep, dreams, work and other daily cycles. The rhythmic juxtapositions and tempo shifts make for a captivating opening track. "Ganz Schön Was Los" (trans. A lot happening) has a proper synthwave electro pop vibe while the vocals lend a little light hearted humanity to the otherwise calculated computer music aesthetic. With its fusion of synthesizers and drum machines track B1 "Die Verwirrung" (trans. The confusion) brings a sense of melancholic doom. The flow of B2 "Wenn Wir Wüssten" (trans. If we knew what would happen) is a future-focused reflection on the unidirectional movement of time's arrow. Sampled harmonies and instrumental breakdowns make it possibly the most emotive track on the EP. And the record comes to a close with "Dreh dich" (trans. Turn around) which lures us in with delicate vocals before menacing synthesizer sounds blast us into oblivion. It is an invitation to turn the record over and start listening from the beginning again. Post Neo's music is steeped in minimalism: at once managing to be hugely expressive and evocative while still retaining a sense of privacy and mystery for the listener to decrypt. Like all great pop music their songs are musically captivating while also conveying a strong message. As their band name suggests, Post Neo are essentially futuristic and with live shows at some of Berlin's hottest underground venues under their belt as well as in their hometowns of Munich and Mexico City, plus the release of „Alles Immer Wieder" in 2024, great things are in store for the electronic pop duo.
Utilising a mammoth bank of saxophone samples, Shmuel Hatchwellpresents his new alias hoyah with an engrossing album captured in tape and digital form on Bruk. The process leading to Set + Setting started out with a need for limitations to provide some focus for long-serving sound engineer and producer Hatchwell. He set out the following guidelines to accompany the overarching idea of 'set + setting': No 'beats' Saxophones are the voice Stay away from the computer for as long as possible Hatchwell took a deep dive in search of every saxophone sample he could find, threw them all into his MPC and then proceeded to weave together a variety of pieces. The focus on a particular instrument brings cohesion to the album, but equally the limited sound inspired freedom to experiment with other techniques and tools. At times one or two sax voices sound naked and undisturbed, while elsewhere you might only hear jagged shards or distant ghosts as they pass through aggravated processing. Beyond the sound itself, the name hoyah was born with the flippancy of the 21st Century and ratified by ancient tradition. After the music had been made, After the music had been made, Hatchwell plucked the name out of thin air as a play on the TikTok meme 'can I get a hoya,' and subsequently discovered on a dive into his Jewish heritage that in old Hebrew hoyah means, 'to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out.' This distinction between Jewish concepts and modern political conflations is important to Hatchwell, who finds himself consistently having to separate Judaism from the situation in the Middle East and its ongoing genocide. Subtly calling to mind the understated cosiness of real-life sax players like Sam Gendel as well as the fragmented sample manipulation of Matmos and Tim Hecker's approach to processed noise, hoyah's debut album absolutely manifests an idea and musical practice as something new and intentional
Fernie dives deep to present an ambient space voyage interstellar in scale. Mu Cephei is a live improvised performance from Fernie created to allow listeners minds to wander into the realms of universe unknown. All works written, produced and performed live by Fernie Mastering - Recording mastered by Motion Symmetry Artwork - AI generated pastel canvas Distributed by Pressology - www.pressology.net
Ayjay Nils doesn't really know what he wants to hear. As a classical musician (practically since birth) who writes experimental electro beats on the side, it's hard for him to decide on one kind of sound: Viola, synth, harpsichord, bird sounds, synth again, piano, vintage drum breaks, wait, maybe no drums, electronic, acoustic.Without being able to commit to anything for more than 2 minutes, Ayjay Nils presents 6 microdoses of what's going on in his head and ears, none overstaying their welcome, everything coming to an end in a flash.
Sound artist and designer Mattia Onori steps into the spotlight, illuminating the expanse with his debut solo album, "Tra Vento E Oscurità" ("Between Wind and Darkness") on Naarm's Southern Lights. "Tra Vento E Oscurità" guides us through the interplay of sound and silence, inviting listeners on an odyssey that pushes the boundaries of music's significance in the contemporary world and marking a moment of full-circle for Onori: A harmonious balance between experimentation and sound art, deeply rooted in an expansive understanding of sound engineering.
Khurki is a testament to the ethereal nature of beauty. It shows us that things which look distorted or imperfect at first sight, may in fact hold shades of perfection. Music is no exception to this rule, it transforms, evolves and can leave behind unexpected feelings of wonder. _URTS & Arslan Elbar, working in collaboration to produce their own form of perfection, dive into sounds riddled with blemishes and glitches. The duo deliver their vision of balance which, despite unforseen beats and unpredictable pace, leave you feeling that everything is in its place.