Categories
Ambient Experimental Review

Various – The Quietened Dream Palace

A Year In The Country – Release: 17th Nov 2020

One of the UK’s most intriguing labels, A Year In The Country releases albums with both regularity and mystery. Conceptually the label appears to exist in an intersection between music, folklore and science fiction. With amazingly produced products that go beyond the music itself. However this isn’t style over substance, or an after attempt to attach more meaning to a piece of music, as the themes are intrinsically linked between both audio and visual elements.

The Quietened Dream Palace their latest offering and teh last of 2020 for the label. It focuses on the an exploration of closed down cinemas, including those which have been abandoned, become derelict, reopened as something new or demolished and there is little or no trace of any more.

In their words:

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Categories
Experimental Review

Loula Yorke – Crowd Control Vol 2

Tigerforce Records – Release: 4/12/20

Having recently scooped up an Oram award, presented by PRS Foundation and The New BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Loula Yorke follows up on the improvised Crowd Control V0l.1 with a more considered studio selection of bustling drones, noise, algorithmic generation and granular processing.

Keep an eye on her bandcamp for details on ordering.

Categories
Electro House Review Techno

DJ Godfather – Electro Beats For Freaks

Databass – Release: 20/11/20

Ghettotech legend DJ Godfather has been making trax and spinning tunes for over 20 years. I first became aware of his music via his Databass imprint sometime around 2000, when I was buying Detroit and Chicago imports via the Vinyl Underground shop in the UK. Since then, I’ve caught a few of his quick-mixing DJ sets and more recent releases and can safely say, he is an artist who hasn’t strayed far from the original ideas being pushed back then. Fast and raw party trax, with an outspoken appreciation for the female form.

Now in 2020, Godfather’s first proper artist album ‘Electro Beats For Freaks’ is penned for released, and his biggest undertaking to date: “With nearly 2 hours of music, it’s a collection of 44 tracks that range from Ghettotech to Juke and Electro; Techhouse to Bmore. The tracks (only a handful of which have been previously released) transition into one another with a seamless flow, so they can either be heard individually or as a continuous playback.”

Categories
Art Culture Film

The Drexciyan Empire: A. Qadim Haqq with Dopplereffekt

New York gallery space The Issue Room hosted this visual and audio event featuring a montage of images from A. Qadim Haqq, author of The Book Of Drexciya, and audio soundscapes from Dopplereffekt. The theme grows on the concept originated by the late James Stinson and Gerald Donald (of Dopplereffekt), an underwater world inhabited by the water breathing descendants of slaves thrown overboard during the Atlantic slave trade.

After the presentation, techno musician and cultural theorist DeForrest Brown, Jr. talks with A Qadim Haqq about the legacy of Drexciya and techno as black futurism.

Categories
Minimal Wave Review Synth

Group Rhoda – Passing Shades

Dark Entries – Release: 20th Nov 2020
darkentriesrecords · Group Rhoda – Passing Shades SNIPS

Dark and foreboding synthwave from Group Rhoda, the solo project of Mara Barenbaum. Channeling some Grace Jones vibes in this one, over skittering unprocessed 808 beats and deep pentatonic analogue bass lines. A good exercise in pop reductionism.

Get the vinyl direct here

Categories
Ambient Review

BAHÍA MANSA – Memorias de Los Pajaros Niños

Golden Ratio Frequencies – Release 26/11/20

Big fans of GRFRQ releases here at Flatland Frequencies, with many of their releases finding their way onto our monthly radio show.

Their latest offering is a lush 8 track cassette of bubbling lo-fi electronics from Chilian producer Iván Aguayo, who as the blurb states “creates emotive, dream-like vignettes of sound, assembled through an array of digital and analogue processes using electronics, traditional instruments, tape loops, found sounds, and field recordings.“

Head over to GRFRQ bandcamp and pre-order your copy now, as these things don’t tend to stay on the virtual shelves for long…

Categories
Ambient Experimental Review

Benge – Loop Series (One: BUCHLA 100)

Randomly stumbled on a tweet recommending this release from a few years ago, made entirely on a 1960’s Buchla 100 system. Glad I did, as it’s very very nice indeed! Pure tones and drones, without any overzealous reverbs masking those tasty analogue waveforms!

Check it out here (and chuck em a few quid)

Categories
Ambient Beats Experimental Review

Bass Clef – Maze Greys

Four tracks of long form, linear compositions. There’s something quite modern and ‘techno’ about the sound design in these tracks, very up-front and clean, with the structure powering through from A to B. Quite refreshing for fairly long tracks to have the feeling of propulsion, without any tendency for meandering off the track.

Grab is now on the Frequency Domain bandcamp

Categories
Art Experimental Review

Loula Yorke – Crowd Control Vol.1

Tigerforce Records – Oct 10th 2020

Crowd Control Vol.1 is a more thematic and focused offering from Suffolk based sound artist Loula Yorke, in comparison to her more techno-orientated output in ‘Ldols’.

The topic of surveillance capitalism covers the use of digital products such as social media, as a means of surveillance and corporate influence. The term was coined by the work of Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff and is also regularly covered by Silicon Valley commentator Jaron Larnier.

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Categories
Ambient Radio

Luke Sanger – Mutant Radio 23rd Sept 2020

Watch on facebook:

Tracklist:

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