Label founder Holly Lester pools together a selection of her favourite artists from across the globe to form the first volume in the Duality Trax Visions compilation series. Bouncing from the U.S to Europe, the VA travels through a multitude of moods and genres across seven tracks - including acid tinged electro from New York, breaks infused garage from Chicago, rave-fuelled house music from Belgium and a pulsating trance-inspired club track from Estonia. 

Today we bring you the first listen of 'Umwaya', a dreamy breakbeat number that beautifully rounds off the compilation from Belfast hustler Optmst.  

Keen to reflect the core ethos of the label, the compilation series name serves as a nod towards her ideals of a more equalised future in electronic music - something which is fittingly demonstrated throughout this stellar lineup. 100% of compilation profits will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, who provide medical care to casualties of war in Gaza, Syria, Yemen and much more. The organisation has also worked tirelessly to provide Covid-19 related aid to countries hit the hardest throughout the pandemic and are currently lobbying for a global waiver of patents on COVID-19 technologies.

Premiere: Optmst - Umwaya [Duality Trax]

Monocyclical

Villager - Monocyclical

This Is Our Time welcomes & embraces Dj Chrysalis from Melbourne into its ranks with a tight hug upon his new EP, 'Just Passing Through'. For this release, Chris' mantra was 'the garden is in charge, we're just passing through', consequently, it's not merely an invitation to dance, but to a cheerful escape from the urban hustle.

The EP opens with 'Breathe', a meditative pacesetter that, right from the start, encourages you to embrace being the instrument of the notes and rhythm flowing through you. A playful backbone for any cleverly constructed dj set. We follow it up with the happy-go-lucky stomper that is 'The Day After Techworld', imagining a stroll along the banks of the Yarra River with this one, making our way to an after-party for Melbourne tech-heads.

As we reach the B-side, we aim for the higher state of minds with 'Babycake.' Fluttering breaks and dominant acidic pads balance amidst the heavy dripping of sound drops. This is the last dance of the dawn, knock the chip out of your third eye. After our dance, we are closing our garden gate with 'Overthunk (Big Dub Blub)' a reverb-drunk dubby trip, where we lie down on the grass and listen to fuzzy bird calls answering strings plucked underwater.

Just Passing Through (TIOT-DIGI5)

BUY on BANDCAMP

PREMIERE : DJ Chrysalis - Babycake

Angry Frogz

Power Top

He's back. After a break that felt like an eternity, @Cuthead has finally awoken from his creative beauty sleep to check up on his home base Uncanny Valley with his new album THE DETOUR. To avoid overexciting everyone’s attention span, the album is spread over four parts. And he's definitely not coming back as a cheapskate since the album is full of gifts that true Cuthead fans desire. In other words, he does what he does best: Blasting out slick tracks that oscillate between laid-back underground hip-hop, sample heavy house and vintage acid, but with enough surprises along the way. The tracks were created over the last few years, including some jams from his live set that he made while travelling or in a hotel.

As soon as the typical cozy, warm chords kick in during the INTRO of The Detour Part 1, you immediately feel at home again in Cuthead's world, where it's always Saturday afternoon and laid-back jams drip out of the speakers (at least on two of the four parts). On top of that, Chester Watson from St. Louis (one of Cuthead's absolute favorite rappers) provided a feature. With his distinctive voice and dreamy flow, Chester explains in not one but two versions of PROCEED how to carry on and stay relaxed despite adverse circumstances. TOUR DE FRANCE, on the other hand, is a trapstrumental for the masses in which a hi-hat thunderstorm is intertwined with a wind sample that constantly twists around itself.

The second in Cuthead's tetralogy is what we can certainly call a house monster. It starts with a track named after one of Cuthead’s special skills: MPC JAM. With its filter attacks and unmistakable drops, the track builds on Cuthead's great house floor fillers, leaving no ass standing still. SUNDAY 5 PM enters the floor like a bird of paradise with room-filling disco strings, before SPACED OUT follows with Theo Parrish-like grooves. MIDNIGHT ROUTE closes The Detour Part 2 with broken beats and an unusual but irresistible electronic bassline.

The opener of the third part once again praises the old promise of the House Nation, not without ZUBU being refined with the very own Cuthead spin, which definitely puts the track on a techno floor as well. POWER ACID lives up to its name and comes across as a classic warehouse acid screw that takes every rave to the edge. Understatement is also not required with PARTY LIKE IT'S 99. After all, every Saturday afternoon is followed by a Saturday night and a piano house bomb with a little ounce of acid always goes down well on such an occasion.

The final chapter of THE DETOUR opens promisingly and in typical Cuthead style with the aptly titled BONKERS and the kind of weirder head-nodding beat that only the Dresden resident can squeeze out of his samples. In LISOLEIL, Malone the Chemist drops his lines over what feels like an aquatic jazz foundation. Cuthead spotted the Canadian rapper when he posted a freestyle under a tweet from Flying Lotus. After that, the snares are turned up again in the sample fest that is FOXY. OUTRO is almost epic by Cuthead standards and could easily be the soundtrack to a modern giallo film.

The album is accompanied by beautiful animations created in collaboration between illustrator Robert Deutsch and animator Tobias Kramer.

The Detour Part 1
Release Date: 21.03.2024

The Detour Part 2
Release Date: 28.03.2024

The Detour Part 3
Release Date: 17.05.2024

01 Cuthead - Zubu
02 Cuthead - Power Acid
03 Cuthead - Party Like It's 99

The Detour Part 4
Release Date: 31.05.2024

Credits

Written and produced by Robert Arnold.
Lyrics and Rap on Proceed by Montrell Haymon. Lyrics and Rap on Lisoleil by Marlon Gray.
Published by Copyright Control. Proceed published by Copyright Control and Chester Watson. Lisoleil published by Copyright Control and Hoxton Music Publishing.
Artwork by Robert Deutsch
Animation by Tobias Kramer
Mastering by Jacob Korn at Tailout Studios

The Detour Part 3

Bandcamp

Cuthead - Power Acid

Fractal Architect - Apophenia [Superordinate Music]

Cette année, j’ai surtout consolidé ce que j’avais fait jusqu’ici.
J’ai repris tout ce que j’ai appris en traitement du son sur ordinateur pour revenir sur les morceaux créés quand j’étais exclusivement sur synthé.
Là, c’est le second set live que je publie.
L’exercice est un peu délicat : je pars d’un enregistrement en direct, mais la prise était de qualité suffisante pour me laisser une vraie marge de travail.
L’occasion de réécouter, de revivre des émotions anciennes, avec tous les souvenirs qui vont avec… et parfois un peu de doute et de douleur aussi.
Et de les partager.

Yves Ma

Rewind the 90s

A track released on the almighty M>O>S Deep label...

https://www.delsinrecords.com/release/6239/asok/better-dead-than-alien

ASOK - Better Dead Than Alien - M>O>S Deep

More info - http://loose-lips.co.uk/blog/assembler-code-open-your-mind-sync-24-x-jensen-interceptor-remix-ce033
@cultivated-electronics
@assemblerc
@jensen-interceptor

Write Pulse EP

Open Your Mind (Sync 24 x Jensen Interceptor Remix)

Pre-order

PREMIERE: Assembler Code - Open Your Mind (Sync 24 x Jensen Interceptor Remix) (CE033)

Legs dangling off the hill, they sat in silence taking in their surroundings. From up here you could see the entire city below; the glow of hundreds of cars moving through the streets and the huge skyscrapers that seemed to stretch far beyond the heavens. She'd never taken another person up here, it was her special place where she came to escape everything. But he seemed different to everyone else; she wanted to let him on her secret.

Moscow's ИДА (IDA) return for another instalment of breakbeats and wonky dance floor cuts, this time from Russian producer Moonoton. Alongside two original cuts that bring a blend of breaks, voodoo vocal samples and Italo synths, the release is backed up by two remixes from Facets and St Petersburg-based producer Maruwa, who adds her signature touch, balancing heavy breaks with dreamy, celestial atmospheres.

PREMIERE: Moonoton - Max Bleep (Maruwa Remix) [ИДА]

Low Khey - Never Trust A Cyborg
Release Date : January 2021 
Label : Comic Sans Records
Cat # : COMICSANS10

Graphic Design by Virgile Flores & Cestainsi
Mastering by Saif Bari
Distribution by Bigwax

Tracklist :
A1 Never Trust A Cyborg
A2 Control X
A3 Huta Vibz
A4 Click Of Death
A5 Proteus
B1 Homos Estivus
B2 Cyborgs Faking Emotions
B3 Ying Yang 
B4 Avaton Anomias
B5 Mauvaises Herbes

After a small digital break, here is new record from the Comic Sans' vaults. First world appearance for Low Khey with 10 tracks exploring the 90-100 bpm side of experimental bass music. Call it mutant dancehall, deconstructed dub or industrial riddims, it's difficult to describe precisely in which genre the release falls. Let's just imagine that Vybz Cartels' beats met Adrian Sherwood's punk dub sound design and that the whole thing was supervised by the evil twin of DJ Python. The big space left to the drums and the precise use of robotic sound-effects give a hyper-mechanical aspect to the riddim tracks which are aired by several interludes made of weird FX making it sound like futuristic commercials for spaceships or intergalactic bitcoin exchange. The whole project has hidden references to artificial intelligence and problems that human are facing regarding the technology. The world in wich Low Khey lives is dominated by machines, and mankind is having a rough time to say the least! But there is hope for our Homo Sapien friend... If only he kept in mind this simple advice : Never. Trust. A. Cyborg.

Low Khey - Never Trust A Cyborg [COMICSANS10 PREVIEW]

No longer DJ'ing or making music.

There is a party
everyone is there
Everyone will leave
at exactly the same time
When this party's over
it will start again
It will not be any different
it will be exactly the same