Boomkat: CDs just arrived

SUSUMU YOKOTA - Dreamer

2012-02-06T09:00:00+00:00

SUSUMU YOKOTA
Dreamer
Lo Recordings
ELECTRONIC
CD

Maverick, veteran Japanese electronic musician presents his umpteenth album, but shows absolutely no signs of slowing down or holding back. Taking Jon Hassell's concept of a "Fourth World Music" as a starting point, 'Dreamer' imagines a lush alternate world where musics from myriad sources criss-cross the ether like electromagnetic signals, creating a miscegenation of harmonic dissonance, outernational rhythm patterns and cyberreal sonics with a slight Eastern accent. This couldn't be any more apparent than the opening 'Human Memory', tapping into a collective rave unconsciousness with '91 style 'ardcore breakbeats alloyed to non-native horns and layered drones, before 'Flitting Ray' swerves into subcontinental raga and 'Subconscious Globe' makes telepathic connections with windswept northern moorland. He continues to trek between deepest Berlin Techno on 'Inception', via religious vocal music on 'Double Spot Image' and wilder, futher flung strains of hybrid Techno on 'Animiam Of The Airy', taking us to Demdike-ish sound design on Brainwashing And Senses' cryptic Middle eastern mimetics on 'A Day At The Planet'.

AFX - Chosen Lords

2012-02-06T06:00:00+00:00

AFX
Chosen Lords
Rephlex
ELECTRONIC
CD

Finally available again after several years out of press. With his 'Analord' series firmly installed in the annals of fanboy fetishism, Richard D. James has decided to pre-empt the eBay shitehawks by putting out a proper CD version of the 12's that seeks to reassemble the proto-retro-acid-beat-bothering-symphonies into a cohesive LP. Rather than just sellotape the source material together into some semblance of a running order, AFX has set about re-positioning the originals to work in a trimmed sequence - with the overall appearance of an analogue tornado lessened thanks to some wise ommisions. What this means for those without grooved fingers is that there's now a quality, iPod-primed distillation of the vinyl-only releases for you to savour in all its acid-whipped glory. What this means for the rest of us is that our Analord collection won't be complete without this nifty little package. The End. Maybe...

JOHN FOXX AND THE MATHS - The Shape Of Things

2012-02-06T04:00:00+00:00

JOHN FOXX AND THE MATHS
The Shape Of Things
METAMATIC
SYNTHWAVE / ELECTRO
CD

DERRICK MAY - Innovator (2011 Edition)

2012-02-06T02:00:00+00:00

DERRICK MAY
Innovator (2011 Edition)
R&S Records
TECHNO / HOUSE
2CD

**Classic album re-packaged in a white cardboard digipak, with a silver foil R&S logo block printed on the front, and contains the original booklet artwork inside with new liner notes.*** Possibly the most complete collection of Techno classics you will ever have the pleasure of laying your hands on, "Innovator" has long been one of the most sought after and priceless R&S releases ever, now finally available again after years in the Ebay wildreness. Tracklisting is too good for words : Strings Of The Strings Of Life, Another Kaos Beyond Kaos, Freestyle, A Rest / Beyond Kaos, The Dance, Spaced Out, Daymares, It Is What It Is, Some More Spaced Out, Beyond The Dance (The Cult Mix), Feel Surreal Ends The Feel Surreal, R-Theme, Emanon Begins, Sinister, The End, To Be Or Not To Be, Icon (Montage Mix), Phantom, Kaotic Harmony, Phantom Lurks, Salsa Life, Nude Photo, The Beginning, A Relic Long Ago, Drama, Emanon Ends, Winter On The Blvd, Strings Of Life, Dreams Of Dreamers, Wiggin (Juan's Mix). 29 Tracks, 2 discs - CLASSIC!!!

LEE SCRATCH PERRY & FRIENDS - The Black Ark Years

2012-02-06T02:00:00+00:00

LEE SCRATCH PERRY & FRIENDS
The Black Ark Years
Trojan
DUB / REGGAE
2CD

The high priest of reggae music is given one of his most definitive retrospectives by Trojan, collecting 44 groundbreaking classics spanning the most crucial 7" cuts of his ouevre, all recorded at the legendary Black Ark studio, from solo productions to his innumerable classics for Jamaica's finest singers and MCs. The discs are divided into two specific time zones, 1974-1976 'Sipple Out Deh', and 1977-1978 'Vibrate Onn', each containing more seminal cuts than you can shake a massive spliff to. It's almost pointless running through track by track, just take it on trust that this is one of the most comprehensive Perry sets we had the pleasure of encountering. Highly recommended!!!

DEEPCHORD - Vantage Isle Sessions

2012-02-06T02:00:00+00:00

DEEPCHORD
Vantage Isle Sessions
Echospace
BASIC CHANNEL / DUB TECHNO
CD

*BACK IN STOCK - BRAND NEW 13 TRACK CD VERSION (THE VINYL EDITION CARRIED 10 TRACKS) - INCLUDING REWORKINGS FROM CONVEXTION, DEEPCHORD, ECHOSPACE, CV313 AND SPACECHO* Certainly the most anticipated release from Rod Modell's Deepchord project, this incredible package also marks the debut emission from the Echospace imprint, a label curated and steered by Modell in conjunction with Soultek's Steve Hitchell (Hitchell and Modell are also writing together under the Echospace moniker, with their debut efforts included here with 4 tracks and soon due for an appearance on the Modern Love imprint for a series of twelves). Apart from the fact that this album has taken several months to painstakingly put together, and the fact that it is limited to a measly 1000 copies worldwide), "Vantage Isle" also boasts a rare remix effort from Convextion, three new Deepchord mixes and five versions from Echospace - there are 13 tracks here beautifully mastered in Detroit by the legendary Ron Murphy and handpackaged by the Echospace crew with all the bespoke attention to detail you might expect from a package of this nature. The music, well, its just vintage Deepchord : kicking off with the mighty DC version of the title track, a lilting Maurizio-style killer that seems to hover over its own percussion with a million shards of space-echo and reverb breaking out of the mix - pure, hazy brilliance. The debut Echospace "Glacial" mix is up next and more or less sums up what this collaborative pairing is all about - a towering wall of fuzz and washes of delay drench the mix in a cascading variation of the primary dub sound-palette, an analogue leviathan that just blew my mind listening to on headphones - mighty, mighty stuff. On to the Convextion mix : and you get just about what you expect - the spacial hemorrhage of the original squashed into a pulsing BASS killer, sparse yet menacing, the chords taking on their own signature sound - deconstructing and re-building itself into something you could only really describe as epic. The Basic Channel continuum once again casts its influence over its legions of drooling followers, with this release finding one of their most sought-after, well-realised transmissions to date. Awesome.

GABO GULBENKIAN - Explorers

2012-02-02T13:00:00+00:00

GABO GULBENKIAN
Explorers
Dramatic Records
ELECTRONIC
CD

Dramatic Records' web of fictions grows ever more intricate with the release of Gabo Gulbenkian's electro cruise 'Explorers'. Already beloved of XXJFG, the fourth release on this intriguing imprint casts into dreamspace electronica, arcing from late '90s IDM back towards lushly compatible realms of kosmische and Italian soundtracks. It's a sound quite close to our hearts and rendered here in crisp yet sweetly psychedelic relief. Each of the nine tracks are respectfully dedicated to the 'Explorers' of the title, and also accompanied by a brief but evocative quote. For example, the plainsong chorale and glassy keys of 'Arthur Rimbaud (1851 - 1891)' reads "I might well be the child abandoned on the jetty heading out to sea, the little farmboy following the lane whose forehead touches the sky", ok well that's one of the more esoteric instances, but there's also the surreal digital anachronisms of 'Baron Münchhausen (1720 - 1727)' "He spoke as a Man of the world, without circumlocution; his adventures were numerous and perhaps singular, but only such as might have been expected to happen to a man of such experience", each lending these carefully constructed homages a sense of wonder and cute playfulness which is possibly Dramatic Records' most endearing quality.

PORTER RICKS - Biokinetics (CD Edition 2012)

2012-02-02T13:00:00+00:00

PORTER RICKS
Biokinetics (CD Edition 2012)
Type
BASIC CHANNEL / DUB TECHNO
CD

Type mark their 100th release with a reissue of Porter Ricks' essential 'Biokinetics'. Back in 1996, dark ambient pioneer and sound designer Thomas Köner, together with engineer Andy Mellwig, presented the Techno community with one of it's most enduring and definitive albums in the form of 'Biokinetics'. It was the first album release on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction imprint, birthing three 12" singles which expanded and twisted the templates of Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus with an aquatic torque and unique vision, taking the sound to immersive, isolated depths previously unexplored to this degree. Womb-like systolic pulses plunge us fathoms into darkness penetrated by only the faintest trace of melody, its oceanic pressure profoundly meditative and transporting, reflecting the unimaginable vastness of space. But most importantly, 'Biokinetics' achieved what so many others tried but failed within this realm; managing to shape the infinite wave with an individual sense of narrative, one which will entrance a dancefloor and equally flood the senses of a home listener, dissolving the boundaries between club functionality and artistic experience. Fundamentally, it just sounds incredible - available for teh first time in over 15 years and featuring brand new artwork.

MUSETTE - Drape Me In Velvet

2012-02-02T11:00:00+00:00

MUSETTE
Drape Me In Velvet
Hapna
SOUNDTRACKS / LIBRARY / EARLY ELECTRONIC
CD

Musette is a very dapper looking gent called Joel Danell who makes utterly enchanting exotica and records onto time-worn and overused tape. 'Drape Me In Velvet' is his first vinyl release and first record for the lovely Swedish label, Häpna. It's also one of the most endearing albums to cross our paths from the label so far, braiding hand-played strands of wheezy organ music with rippling easy listening rhythms in a gloriously spacey and tantalisingly out-of-reach sound world. We're a bit partial to good use of tape-recorded techniques around these parts, but this fella's got something really special going on, apparently using half-century-old reel-to-reels and cassettes inherited from his family and dating to the '50s and '60s to achieve his uncannily warm and anachronistic aesthetic. There's obviously a playful sense of irony at work, to be able to craft such archaic work in an age of futuristic possibilities. And like, say, The Caretaker, it's matched and masked with a sincerity that's loveably demented and always accessible and reality-stifling when you need it - as though providing a glimpse into the whiskey and prescription smudged memory recess of a character from Mad Men. Like we say, it's one of the years first real gems, a record we'll all surely be getting better acquainted with.

TENNISCOATS - Papa's Ear

2012-02-02T10:00:00+00:00

TENNISCOATS
Papa's Ear
Hapna
FOLK / AMERICANA
CD

Saya and Ueno return to Sweden's Häpna label for their follow-up to 2007's delightful 'Tan-Tan Therapy'. In the time that's passed they've released their achingly cute music on Room40 and Domino's Geographic sublabel, continuing to refine their childlike sense of naive, playful melodies and crystalline folk arrangement to a cannily satisfying sweetness. Again they travelled to Stockholm to record 'Papa's Ear' surrounded by their extended Häpna family, namely producer Johan Berthling (Tape), Tomas Hallonsten, Frederik Ljungkvist, Lars Skoglund, Andreas Söderström and Andreas Werlin, who gild the fragile interplay of Saya's sparrow-like vocals and Ueno's tender finger-picking with subtlety and sensitivity. They really don't come much lovelier than this.