#14 Top Releases in Downtempo

wo years after making their bow via a fine contribution to the Claremont Editions 3 compilation, Nurembergs Neumayer Station are ready to drop their debut full-length excursion, the mesmerising and immersive Crossings. The brainchild of drummer-turned-producer Michael Kargel, a musician with a bulging CV that includes stints in various German indie-pop and rockabilly bands, Crossings was co-produced and mixed by Frank Mollena (best known to Claremont 56 fans as the man behind the Fursattl and Bambi Davidson projects), with additional contributions by Alexander Sticht and an impressive roll call of guest musicians plucked from Nurembergs vibrant musical underground. Recorded at different points over the last three years, the eight tracks showcased on Neumayer Stations inspired debut album draw influence from the hypnotism of classic German kosmische recordings, the freewheeling and stoned headiness of CAN, and the gently unfurling beauty of sun soaked Balearica. Kargel, Mollena and their collaborators set the tone with opener Unterfuhrung, where Stichts layered and sonically hazy vocalisations rise above space-rock guitar motifs, droning analogue synth sounds, languid bass and slow-motion drum breaks. With effects aplenty and all manner of melodic electronic flourishes, its a deeply psychedelic and mind-expanding affair. Nalut follows, with Kargels own atmospheric howls and whistles cannily combining with sun-bright tropical guitars, echoing chords and delay-laden saxophone solos riding the dub-flecked, low-slung groove. The collectives Balearic influences are explored in more sonic detail on A Gentle Flow, a shuffling and soft-focus affair marked out by emotive piano & jazz guitar, brushed percussion, sunrise-ready synths and pleasingly stretched-out electronic textures. Neumayer Station return to this drifting, morning-fresh and eyes-closed sound later in the LP, via the wonderous Von der Morgenrote. The heady influence of spaced-out dub production techniques comes to the fore on Bassrutscher, an Alexander Sticht co-production rich in Americana-influenced guitar textures, metronomic dub bass, rim-shot heavy drums, mazy organ and orange-hued sundown sounds. It ushers in the more up-tempo shuffle of Zielgerade, an inner space, out-of-mind affair whose driving but loose-limbed groove provides a platform for exotic, droning and otherworldly guitar, sax and synth sounds. As with all great albums, Crossings gently builds towards a triumphant and memorable conclusion. The spacey Balearic/kosmische crossover of Feeling Forst, where darting intergalactic synth sounds rub shoulders with gentle acoustic guitars in a hallucinatory soundscape, tees up closing cut Crossings, the krautrock-rooted, sax-sporting slab of enveloping late-night beauty that first introduced listeners to Neumayer Station back in 2023. Its a fitting conclusion to a staggeringly good debut album.

Neumayer Station

#34 Top Releases in Downtempo

Originally released on Rong music in 2007, Quiet Villages epic 14 min mix of Mudds Spielplatz is joined by the instrumental version previously unreleased on vinyl.

Mudd

#35 Top Releases in Downtempo

Eighty Three, a sumptuous slab of slow-motion gorgeousness smothered in sun-splashed synth sounds and warming electric piano motifs, was one of the undoubted highlights of Mudds critically acclaimed sophomore solo album, In The Garden of Mindfulness. Now the track has been given a makeover by Conrad McDonnell, a long-time friend of the family and Claremont 56 contributor. McDonnell is famous for his wild and effects-laden dub mixes, both as a solo remixer and alongside long-time musical partner Dan Tyler as the Idjut Boys. Together, they provided deliciously wayward and mind-altering takes of tracks from the Claremont 56 catalogue as part of the labels 10th anniversary triple-CD compilation back in 2017. Now McDonnell has gone solo to deliver an album of dubbed-out revisions of In The Garden of Mindfulness, a set that will land next year. To get us all in the mood, hes laid down a trio if reworks of Eighty Three in his distinctive style. McDonnell first offers up the Le Cidre Dub, a slowly pulsating rendition in which lightly echoing and tape delay-laden guitar, synthesiser and Rhodes riffs drift across a throbbing electronic groove and low-tempo dub disco drums. The veteran DJ/producer has effectively given the track a more cosmic and spaced-out spin whilst retaining much of Mudds intricate and densely layered instrumentation. Those seeking even wilder and more out-there acoustics are catered for by McDonnells two alternative dub takes. He successfully strips back the track to its most skeletal form on the Uppity Dub, bringing the sparsest of beats in and out of the mix whilst focusing on ambient synthesiser sounds, bubbly electronic patterns, echoing electric piano notes and Mudds squelchy and addictive bassline. His favoured effects are all audible in the mix but never dominate the sound space. This celebrated side of McDonnells audio output comes to the fore on the EP-ending Uppity Again Dub, in which waves of trippy and picturesque electronics lap against a locked-in, delay-laden dub disco groove and flashes of reverb-heavy bass. Its effectively a heady, mind-altering ambient dub interpretation of a sun-splashed Balearic treat. Like the other revisions on the EP, it offers a mouth-watering appetiser for the album of dubs still to come.

Mudd