Planet Mu Records

Muizenberg

John Wizards - Muizenberg

Luke Vibert is back on Planet Mu with a new album called ‘Bizarster'. It's his seventh full-length under his own name with others having been released on Mo Wax, Warp and most recently Hypercolour. Luke first came to prominence in 1994 with his debut Wagon Christ album 'Phat Lab Nightmare' on Rising High records which was quickly followed by the evergreen classic 'Throbbing Pouch' with which he cemented both his sound and reputation. He has released on Rephlex and Ninja Tune as well as major label Virgin too.

What makes Luke's music so essential is his rare ability to blur the boundaries between genres by combining his irresistibly wonky dayglo funk with a British sensibility. Put another way, Luke's music is informed by UK dance's history. But 'Bizarster' is no empty eulogy, it’s a hall of mirrors with a happy bounce, re-tooled with skill, and always with a sense of fun.

It's these things that make the hip-hop speed bleep 'n' bass of opener 'Knockout' seems completely natural, or 'Officer's Club' with it's funky disco samples, reggae vocals and joyous synths sounding like the kind of delirious idea no one else could come up with. A track like 'I Can Phil It' is a piece of sampladelic hip hop with a punning title, but that's not to say he can't play it serious. 'Manalog' for instance, which is sharp spiralling low-slung synth funk, a gloriously deep track, while something like 'L-Tronic' is top draw spaced-out electro. The title track's cut and paste space-age samples remind one of his Jean-Jacques Perrey collaboration and 'War' is the type of groovy instrumental hip-hop reminiscent of DJ Shadow at his peak. The album finishes on the fun-filled vortex of ‘Don’t Fuck Around’, a cut-up jungle masterpiece with heart in throat chords. Enjoy the ride.

Bizarster

Pre-order

Luke Vibert - Bizarster

Reflection Through Destruction taken from the forthcoming LP 'Hollowed' by Ital Tek.

Pre order link: http://www.planet.mu/discography/ZIQ374

Hollowed

Ital Tek - Reflection Through Destruction

Kuedo returns to Planet Mu with his long awaited second album ’Slow Knife’. It’s been five years since his acclaimed debut ‘Severant’ and time has proved it prescient; its futuristic trap influence is now ubiquitous. ‘Slow Knife‘ seems to return to where ‘Severant’ left off, but with the intricate sound design of last year’s haunting EP ‘Assertion Of A Surrounding Presence’ subsumed into the compositions, making them more exacting and beautifully crafted.

Between albums Kuedo has been working as a sound designer and composer for hire and the application of intent and widescreen rigour that commercial work requires has definitely found its way into the new album. ‘Slow Knife’ has the subtlety, ambition and pacing of a brilliant soundtrack - a sense of an album of scenes, that easily lends itself to an impressionistic narrative. But, as with ‘Severant’, the title suggests relationship unease, with the slow knife being a metaphor for the building resentment in any close relationship.

‘Slow Knife’ is almost two albums; the first half, according to Kuedo, invokes the seduction of the city, taking the music of Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ as a cue, with the latter half being inspired by the bloody starscapes and voodoo wilderness of films such as ‘Angel Heart’, ‘Night Of The Hunter’ and more recently the ‘True Detective’ series. Both halves of the album are also in thrall to Mica Levi’s inspiring ‘Under The Skin’ soundtrack, especially in the turbulence of the mid-section. 

The songs of the albums first half are synthetic and seductive, a gelatinous veil with shades of the pseudo-sophisticated trance of Enigma, of all things, underpinned with dusky unsettling shadows and atmosphere. ‘In Your Sleep’, perhaps surprisingly, features the vocals of Hayden Thorpe from Wild Beasts, who settles his dark, whispered vocals into the moonlit shadowy atmosphere. ‘Floating Forest’ is the first track to allow back some of Kuedo’s experimentation with the Southern rap template, which he explored before it became commonplace, with echoed drum splashes and a sinister repetitive motif, ending with a haunting growl.

The second half of the album enters wilderness territory with ‘Approaching’s slow descending notes, before ‘Broken Fox - Black Hole’ throws the record into the cathartic darkness, as undulating chords play hide and seek with riotous reeds and scratchy strings grown from challenging collaborations with cello player Koenraad Ecker (from Lumisokea). ‘Breaking The Surface’ shivers and coils, before metal and strings dominate while ‘In Your Skin’ feels like being lost in a vast hinterland before ‘Warmer Light’ introduces some memories of sunshine, with its plucked bassline and spiralling dub. ‘Halogen Light’ opens with the sound of crickets and a clear piano, cleansing the soul before ‘Lathe’ brings things down to earth with a short, yet powerful coda.

Slow Knife

Kuedo - In Your Sleep (ft. Hayden Thorpe) from 'Slow Knife' released on 14th October

Taken From Ecologies II: Ecosystems Of Excess  Released on Knives 11th November 2016

Ecologies II

J.G. Biberkopf : From Infinity To Here - Knives KNV004 11th Nov 2016

Jlin returns with the first fruits of her new work since last years ‘Free Fall’ EP. ’Dark Lotus’ is a transition between 'Dark Energy’, her debut album, and her forthcoming ‘Black Origami’ full-length. 

A-side ’The Escape of the Blvck Rxbbit (ft. Avril Stormy Unger)’ is the more traditional of the two tracks, starting off proceedings with a constantly switching rhythmic structure and a stop-start sweeping hoover stab panning between the speakers, descending bleeps and Avril's vocals cut into shapes and pushed through effects.

B-side ‘Nyakinyua Rise’ races headlong into uncharted territory, with a fierce barrage of djembe drums over pounding bass, punchy war cries and jubilant uluations that paint a tension between hot aggression and weightless ecstasy.

Nyakinyua Rise

Teengirl Fantasy, the duo of Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss, return with ‘8AM’, their first full-length since 2012’s ‘Tracer’. ‘8AM’ is music that replicates that headspace when you’ve seen the sun come up, but sleep is still way off. It’s music of the in-between time, between tonight and tomorrow, when you’re not ready to let the feeling of right here and right now go. Your body is spent, but your spirit holds on to the memory. A new energy or a different route.
 
The album takes the dream-state of Teengirl Fantasy’s 2010 album ‘7AM’ deep into the next day, stretching ambient themes in multiple directions, scattering with the morning light.
 
‘8AM’ is Teengirl Fantasy’s most introspective and abstracted work so far. It still pulses with the muscle memory of house and disco, slow-motion sub bass, chiming synth melodies, and the airy, perfumed chords of early techno, but takes a line of flight away from songs, immersing the listener in a gently invigorating space. Pieced together from evocative fragments and longer beat-driven tracks, the music is melodic and dreamy, yet sharp and clear. The only vocal comes from Khalif Jones (f.k.a. Le1f) who draws the album back from its gentle turbulence into a time and place on 'Seeds’. ‘8AM’ places the listener in a chilled delirium; one saturated with light, like when the glare from the sun’s too bright but you can’t stop squinting at it.

Star-Rise

Teengirl Fantasy - Star-rise (taken from 8AM, released 24th March)

Planet Mu are very excited to announce Jlin's long awaited second album “Black Origami”. A percussion-led tour de force, it's a creation that seals her reputation as a unique producer with an exceptional ability to make riveting rhythmic music.

“Black Origami” is driven by a deep creative thirst which she describes as “this driving feeling that I wanted to do something different, something that challenged me to my core. Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries. The simple definition of origami is the art of folding and constructing paper into a beautiful, yet complex design. Composing music for me is like origami, only I'm replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album "Black Origami" because like "Dark Energy" I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness. The willingness to go into the hardest places within myself to create for me means that I can touch the Infinity.” 

Spirituality and movement are both at the core of “Black Origami”, inspired largely by her ongoing collaborations with Indian dancer/movement artist Avril Stormy Unger whom she met and collaborated with at her debut performance for the Unsound festival – ”There is a fine line between me entertaining a person and my spirituality. Avril, who collaborates with me by means of dance, feels the exact same way. Movement played a great role in Black Origami. The track "Carbon 7" is very inspired by the way Avril moves and dances. Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us. When there is something I can't quite figure out when it comes to my production, it’s like she senses it. Her response to me is always "You'll figure it out". Once I figure it out it's like time and space no longer exist.” 

Similar time shifting/folding/disrupting effects can be heard throughout the record – especially on “Holy Child” an unlikely collaboration with minimalist legend William Basinski. She also collaborates again with Holly Herndon on “1%”, while Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes' voice is on “Calcination“ and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude provides vocals for “Never Created, Never Destroyed“.

Jlin will be touring extensively this year and is currently lining up appearances including Sonar festival. Later this year she will be collaborating in London with acclaimed UK choreographer Wayne McGregor who played her music recently on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and described her music as “quite rare and so exciting".

Black Origami

Jlin - Challenge (To Be Continued)

Planet Mu are very excited to announce Jlin's long awaited second album “Black Origami”. A percussion-led tour de force, it's a creation that seals her reputation as a unique producer with an exceptional ability to make riveting rhythmic music.

“Black Origami” is driven by a deep creative thirst which she describes as “this driving feeling that I wanted to do something different, something that challenged me to my core. Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries. The simple definition of origami is the art of folding and constructing paper into a beautiful, yet complex design. Composing music for me is like origami, only I'm replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album "Black Origami" because like "Dark Energy" I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness. The willingness to go into the hardest places within myself to create for me means that I can touch the Infinity.” 

Spirituality and movement are both at the core of “Black Origami”, inspired largely by her ongoing collaborations with Indian dancer/movement artist Avril Stormy Unger whom she met and collaborated with at her debut performance for the Unsound festival – ”There is a fine line between me entertaining a person and my spirituality. Avril, who collaborates with me by means of dance, feels the exact same way. Movement played a great role in Black Origami. The track "Carbon 7" is very inspired by the way Avril moves and dances. Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us. When there is something I can't quite figure out when it comes to my production, it’s like she senses it. Her response to me is always "You'll figure it out". Once I figure it out it's like time and space no longer exist.” 

Similar time shifting/folding/disrupting effects can be heard throughout the record – especially on “Holy Child” an unlikely collaboration with minimalist legend William Basinski. She also collaborates again with Holly Herndon on “1%”, while Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes' voice is on “Calcination“ and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude provides vocals for “Never Created, Never Destroyed“.

Jlin will be touring extensively this year and is currently lining up appearances including Sonar festival. She also has plans to collaborate with acclaimed UK choreographer Wayne McGregor who played her music recently on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and described her music as “quite rare and so exciting”.

Jlin - Nandi (from 'Black Origami' - out 19th May)

Claude Speeed returns to Planet Mu, two years after the 'Sun Czar Temple' EP, with his second album 'Infinity Ultra'. He describes the record he's been creating since he started making computer music as one "conceiving an interior territory: an abstract space to process the oppression, confusion and insanity of the contemporary age; and to formulate an honest emotional and artistic response - a psychic jumping off point into an uncertain future." 
 
'Infinity Ultra' takes inspiration from sleep paralysis, monumental artworks, children’s anime, abandoned places, ghostly rave pasts and terrifying silicon valley futures, and the limitless anger of the digital present.
 
These influences have been channelled into an impressionistic burst of varied creativity: Shimmering VSTs; monolithic noise; euphoric blocks of colourful sound; trance stabs and the citrus rush of hardcore; towering drones, and skynet math rock – all rendered against cold, sinister space and nostalgic synth melodies.
 
The album reveals the artist’s Scottish roots, viewed at a hazy distance from his Berlin home - a series of memories of Glasgow’s experimental psychedelic underground, its DIY rock scene and defiant club hedonism. These genre relationships are blurred and at times they contrast with audible brutality; the result is a hybrid, sculptured way of rendering music – minimal specifics, maximum emotions.

Infinity Ultra

Claude Speeed - Fifth Fortress (14th July)

https://jlin.bandcamp.com/album/black-origami

Planet Mu are very excited to announce Jlin's long awaited second album “Black Origami”. A percussion-led tour de force, it's a creation that seals her reputation as a unique producer with an exceptional ability to make riveting rhythmic music.

“Black Origami” is driven by a deep creative thirst which she describes as “this driving feeling that I wanted to do something different, something that challenged me to my core. Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries. The simple definition of origami is the art of folding and constructing paper into a beautiful, yet complex design. Composing music for me is like origami, only I'm replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album "Black Origami" because like "Dark Energy" I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness. The willingness to go into the hardest places within myself to create for me means that I can touch the Infinity.” 

Spirituality and movement are both at the core of “Black Origami”, inspired largely by her ongoing collaborations with Indian dancer/movement artist Avril Stormy Unger whom she met and collaborated with at her debut performance for the Unsound festival – ”There is a fine line between me entertaining a person and my spirituality. Avril, who collaborates with me by means of dance, feels the exact same way. Movement played a great role in Black Origami. The track "Carbon 7" is very inspired by the way Avril moves and dances. Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us. When there is something I can't quite figure out when it comes to my production, it’s like she senses it. Her response to me is always "You'll figure it out". Once I figure it out it's like time and space no longer exist.” 

Similar time shifting/folding/disrupting effects can be heard throughout the record – especially on “Holy Child” an unlikely collaboration with minimalist legend William Basinski. She also collaborates again with Holly Herndon on “1%”, while Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes' voice is on “Calcination“ and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude provides vocals for “Never Created, Never Destroyed“.

Jlin will be touring extensively this year and is currently lining up appearances including Sonar festival. She also has plans to collaborate with acclaimed UK choreographer Wayne McGregor who played her music recently on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and described her music as “quite rare and so exciting”.

Jlin - Holy Child

Meemo & Mu (Show 3). A show by Lara Rix-Martin (aka Meemo Comma/Objects Ltd) and Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq/Planet Mu).

Previous shows
Show 2: https://soundcloud.com/meemocomma/meemo-mu-show-2-26122016
Show 1: https://soundcloud.com/meemocomma/meemo-mu-show-1-71216

01 DJ Nigga Fox - Pra Que Dinheiro @dj-nigga-fox-lx-monke (Principe)
02 RUI HO - 戰記 - Vicissitudes @ruiho (Genome6.66)
03 Meemo Comma - Dialup @meemocomma (Objects Ltd)
04 Vivienne - Breast Bone @vivienne01 (Objects Ltd)
05 Chino Amobi - Blood of the Covenant @chinoamobi (UNO NYC/NON Worldwide)
06 Jana Rush - Midline Shift @jaru-1 (Objects Ltd)
07 Jlin - 808 @jlinnarlei (Planet Mu)
08 Yoneda Lemma - Rainforest Mars @yoneda-lemma (Objects Ltd)
09 Claude Speeed - Windows 95 @claudespeeed (Planet Mu)
10 Ziúr & Aïsha Devi - Body of Light @ziurziurziur @aisha-devi (Objects Ltd / Planet Mu)

Meemo And Mu (Show 3)

https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/85964-antwood-sponsored-content

@margaret-antwood

Antwood (a.k.a. Canada's Tristan Douglas) returns to Planet Mu with his second album 'Sponsored Content'. The album is more reflective than his debut, last year's 'Virtuous.scr'. The relentless mood of the first album has given way to a more melodic, stripped out sound. It still shakes with speed and energy, but with more space, more moments of delicate sadness and strange cyborg pop. What comes to the fore in 'Sponsored Content' is Tristan's gift for melody, coupled with the uncanny feeling that somehow his strange music is an entire ecosystem of it’s own. It's best explained by Tristan himself:

"This record was made during a very challenging year. Some of these challenges were for the best, some were not, most were both, others were neither. The music is inextricably tied to these events, whether I like it or not, and I’ve begun peeking out from behind my self-imposed veil of heavy conceptualization; revealing things about myself that my previous album Virtuous.scr didn’t."   "In the past year, I found that ASMR, which I had previously used as a source of foley in my music, was a fairly effective sleep aid. I’d been using the videos in this way for a few months, when I noticed a popular ASMR YouTuber announced a plan to incorporate ads into her videos; quiet, subtle ads, woven into the content. What bothered me about this was that these ads would target viewers, such as myself, during times of semi lucid vulnerability. This disturbed me, and I unsubscribed."

"Sponsored Content explores this idea of subversive advertisement, at least superficially. It’s obviously about the ubiquity of ads and the commodification of online content. The unlikely placement of ads in the music aims to force the listener to become hyper-aware of being advertised to rather than passively internalizing it. But after the record was finished, it became undeniable that really it wasn’t so much a “concept record” about advertisement; it’s as much about intentionally devaluing the things I’ve invested myself into, and over-complicating my work. When I realized this, I considered taking the ads out, and playing the music straight. But I left the record as it is: honest, flawed, with a little humour, and slightly up its own ass."

"I collaborated with El Popo Sangre (a.k.a. Paulin Rogues) for the visuals after he showed me his short film “Fantasy” which used several tracks from Virtuous.scr. He and his team at UNICORN added a depth to the project I could never have done on my own."

Antwood - Wait For Yengi

Taken from Ziúr's debut of the same name, released 6th October 2017 on Planet Mu / Objects Ltd.

Buy: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/87000-zir-u-feel-anything

Ziúr - U Feel Anything? Released - 6th October 2017

In January 2014 Rick Owens showed his MOODY FW14 women's collection to the soundtrack of Jlin's "Erotic Heat". During that trip Jerrilynn Patton met up with Bryan Black, a musician who had soundtracked a previous Rick Owens runway show. They struck up a firm friendship and now, on the day of Rick Owens' new SS18 show, we thought what better time to let you hear Bryan's Black Asteroid remix of Jlin's track "Black Origami".

You can stream Rick Owens' SS18 men's show today (22nd June 2017) at 11:30am UK time, 12:30pm French time: http://streaming.rickowens.eu/

Jlin - Black Origami (Black Asteroid remix)

This summer Tom Scholefield a.k.a. Konx-om-Pax will release the very welcome 'Refresher' EP, his follow up to last year's album, the popular 'Caramel', which explored and disassembled the afterglow of warm rave memory.  

The EP kicks off with the joyous actual rave of Cascada, a piece of sunny techno with a modulating, catchy stab riff over strong kicks. Next up, 'Species with Amnesia' starts of with hazy bells and synthetic, warped bird-like sounds, before dropping into a chugging Italo disco bassline and a relaxed synthline which snakes around the chords in unexpected ways as the track progresses. 

The first of two remixes, the µ-Ziq mix of 'Caramel', is recast to maximise it's airiness, its soft chords building into epic slabs of choral sound over loose breaks. The EP finishes on the slowly evolving dawn ambience of Huerco S.'s 'Extended Stay - The Morning Version' of 'Beatrice's Visit', eleven pure minutes of gentle bliss to get lost in.

Refresher

Konx-om-Pax - Cascada (Aug 11th)

Planet Mu are releasing two special limited edition cassette tapes for Christmas 2017, one by Claude Speeed and this one by Ekoplekz. As the title suggests, Cassettera assembles a further 10 tracks from the same sessions as Ekoplekz's recent Bioprodukt album, to be released as a cassette & also digitally. 

The beats are still to the fore, even incorporating elements of techno and house, but the mood is darker, with a heavier emphasis on noise and drone textures resulting in a more uneasy listen. This greyscale outlook is reflected in the monochrome variation on Bioprodukt's sleeve art. 'Bass 2 Dank' and 'Jacktrak' apply solid kicks and grooves for moody dancefloors, whilst 'Formative' and 'The Imperitive' combine convoluted percussion and cloying sub-bass with eerie atmospherics. 'Tactile' and 'Nitrate Abuse' offer minimal user-unfriendly experimental textures and the set ends with the extended grinding dread of 'The Outlook Is Bleak'.

Cassettera

Ekoplekz - Jacktrak

Claude Speeed’s ‘Other Infinities’ is a diverse companion release to the well-received ‘Infinity Ultra’ LP from earlier this year.

Speeed says "I see this mainly as an alternative take on how the album could've turned out, one of the many paths it might’ve gone down. But it also serves as a neat ending, closing off that period by releasing the other material that's been kicking about my mind and harddrives for the last 5 years."

The material on ‘Other Infinities’ reaches into the darker corners of the world portrayed in ‘Infinity Ultra’, the uncanny valleys of the near future. Obliterated rave sits alongside twisted computer-generated prog rock; cathartic noise is pitted against submersed piano and dreamy, night-time synthscapes. New age meditation and lonely autumnal sadness compete with the intense drumming of a neo-tokyo cult.

Other Infinities

Claude Speeed - Spectral Trance

East Man is a new project from Anthoney Hart and its material predates his previous work as Basic Rhythm. His unique take on grime reduces the sound to its steely fundamentals, bringing in influences from dancehall, drum and bass and techno to gird the voices of the MCs he works with. His own name for this hardcore continuum mongrel is 'Hi Tek'.

Anthoney struck a friendship with the academic and theorist Paul Gilroy, who wrote the album introduction below, after starting personal research on representations of working class and mixed race families. He asked Paul for some help after coming across his work via Stuart Hall, Paul's mentor. Their discussions and friendship developed, and it dawned on Anthoney that his research and the East Man album had some synergy, so he asked Paul to write a piece conveying that. 

 - - -

London’s young people have been seen as a problem by governments for many generations now. Their distinctive street cultures stretch back into the nineteenth century when, just like today, a stylish public presence signified danger to respectable people. At that time, Britain’s class conflicts were being re-made amidst all the glorious fruits of a global empire. Divisions like class and sex had different shapes and tempos that hardly resemble the machinery of our increasingly networked and unequal world. Religion, racism and nationalism were all important, but work, exploitation and poverty supplied the fiery core of politricks.

These days, Britain’s imperial wealth and prestige are long gone. Today’s young people are excluded and marginalized, confined and criminalized, yet they remain at the heart of the vital, energetic best of our city. Their energy and imagination drive London’s convivial culture. They duck and dive just like their predecessors. They hustle, they suffer and they survive. Even where knives are common, most of the problems that come up get resolved without murderous violence. The defining experience of their precarious situation is more likely to be fear or anxiety than warfare between gangs. Their violence is more likely to turn inwards on to their loved ones and family members. There are many forms of self harm and self medication.

Yet the space in which those youthful lives unfold has contracted. The scale on which life is lived has shrunk. Moving around can be expensive. Surveillance is constant. Dignity and certainty are difficult to find and hold on to. It can be hard to feel comfortable outside the spaces and places you know best. Those familiar circuits are marked out by the roadside shrines of dead flowers that show just how vulnerable you can quickly become.

We have been losing London to Babylon but we are busy making a new place. The edges of the city have become fertile. The weeds grow up explosively between palisaded concrete boxes and the litter-strewn greenery. This is not zones 1 and 2 where houses and flats are capital rather than buildings to live in. The music that comes out of that edgy world isn’t what it was a generation ago, but it’s still fundamental--necessary for life.

These shocking sounds can be a part of healing and repair while staying faithful to the pressures that forged them. Musicians can’t make a living from their creativity, but their listeners can’t understand this historical moment unless they get to grips with its local rules, meanings and poetry. This is not America. Even without words, this music speaks for itself and tells a story. It calls out to be understood while seeking ways to escape interpretation.

We are always more than either this or that. We are more than either black or white. 

Paul Gilroy 2017.

Planet Mu Records

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