Rephlex Records

Bochum Welt’s 2019 LP ‘Seafire’ and its accompanying remix album are two of the Central Processing Unit label’s most beloved releases. However, links between the two parties run far deeper than just those records.

You see, the tracks that Gianluigi Di Costanzo cut as Bochum Welt in the 1990s and 2000s are in the very DNA of the celebrated Sheffield imprint. Bochum Welt’s drops on labels like Rephlex made for some of the most celebrated electronic music releases of the era and went on to influence producers the world over - including many of those who have turned up on CPU since it launched in 2012.

As such, it makes sense that two of the most crucial EPs from Bochum Welt’s first wave are now being given new life by CPU. ‘Desktop Robotics’ and ‘Feelings On A Screen’ initially emerged in 1997 via Aphex Twin’s Rephlex imprint. Now, Di Costanzo has curated this special CPU release to celebrate both of those EPs making it to 25. This is a reissue with a twist, though. While ‘Desktop Robotics / Feelings On A Screen’ features many crucial cuts from the original pressings, the record also serves up other gems gathered from Bochum Welt’s original master tapes - all of which have never previously been released on vinyl.

The ‘Desktop Robotics’ cuts which make for the record’s first half are dreamy, impressionistic things. On this quartet, Bochum Welt plays painterly synth work off of idiosyncratic drum programming to illuminating effect. The opening title-track, for instance, blooms from a clattering, distorted beat into an icily beguiling electronic soundscape, a vibe which carries through to following number ‘HMT (202 Mix)’.

Things become more weightless on ‘Leafs Brought By The Wind’, a potent vignette where you can almost see the leaves falling amidst its reverb-drenched haze. We then get ethereal ‘Marylebone (Demo Version)’. Anyone who’s heard the iteration of ‘Marylebone’ which appeared on Bochum Welt’s 2017 LP ‘April’ will be pleasantly surprised by this alternate mix. Here the track pulls away from pretty post-minimalist piano composition to widescreen ambience - it’s so warm and intimate that it feels like peeking behind a curtain to observe an artist at work.

Things ramp up a notch with the tracks taken from in and around ‘Feelings On A Screen’. The title cut kicks off the record’s second half in limber fashion, its nimble percussion programming dancing around a pulsing bassline. Like A Tim’s mix of ‘Greenwich’ is still as much of a party-starter as it was on the original ‘Feelings On A Screen’ release, with the Djax-Up-Beats veteran setting buoyant rhythm work against a playful, eccentric lead-line. 

Between these tunes we are treated to one of the gems of the Bochum Welt discography. In 2007, Di Costanzo split an EP with Heinrich Mueller, an artist best known as Drexciya’s Gerald Donald. That record featured Mueller’s ‘Z Version’ of Bochum Welt’s ‘Saint’, and the track’s appearance here, with machine gun bass burbling alongside strange textures, joins the dots between Di Constanzo’s style and the pulsating machine-funk that Donald helped popularise. Things close out with ‘North’, a frostily beautiful ambience which makes for a fitting bookend to this album when taken alongside ‘Desktop Robotics’.

This 25th anniversary re-release of Bochum Welt’s ‘Desktop Robotics’ and ‘Feelings On A Screen’ EPs reminds us that, while time may have passed, the appeal of Bochum Welt’s electronic music remains as strong as ever.

RIYL: AFX, Mike Paradinas, Boards Of Canada, Mrs Jynx

Bochum Welt - Desktop Robotics & Feelings On A Screen (25th Anniversary Edition)

Module 2

That's Mutuality

Lunakhod

Mechanique

Radiopropulsive

Spring

Joss Bay

Sunset Park

Peech Blue

Limoncello

In recent years, Blackploid has come to be one of Central Processing Unit’s signature artists. The German producer has averaged more than a record a year for the Sheffield imprint since he first landed on CPU in 2021. This prolific run continues with Cosmic Drama, Blackploid’s second LP for the label. The album takes the baton from its predecessor Enter Universe in style, delivering twelve tracks of top-quality machine-funk that draw down from electro’s classic artists while also imbuing proceedings with a playfulness that very much gives things a signature Blackploid-ish flavour.

Cosmic Drama sets its stall out from the off. The opening run of ‘Alien’, ‘World Construction’ and ‘Virtual State’ all deliver piston-snapping beats which anchor pleasing melanges of B-movie synth lines. Alongside this, Blackploid adds little flourishes which add buoyancy to each joint - a syncopated bassline reminiscent of I-f’s late-90s classic ‘Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass’, crackling robo-voiced commands, skittering synth chords which wash across the mix and so on. It’s the work of someone completely at ease with their craft, comfortable enough to take risks without upsetting the apple cart of their sound’s core appeal.

Blackploid’s idiosyncratic approach to synth work is something which distinguishes Cosmic Drama from the pack. Electro has long been a genre which prides itself on innovation on the keys, but few producers are willing to push their sonics as far as Blackploid does - take the seasick churn of pads and processors on ‘Multiverse’, for instance, or the way John Carpenter-esque single-note lines dovetail with gurgling synthetic pulses and eerie, spacious chords on ‘The Lab’, a highlight of Cosmic Drama’s midsection.

Cosmic Drama skips along at club tempo throughout - every one of these joints will get bodies moving in dark rooms across the galaxy. However, even when tracks maintain their single-minded pursuit of machine-funk perfection, they never forget to deliver on the hooks. Blackploid has lead lines (and counter-melodies) to burn here, and each track knots them together in ever-more intriguing ways as they plough onwards. Drexciyan heads will be thrilled by the sci-fi delights of ‘Species’, for instance, while Blackploid brings melodies as cold as they are catchy on the aptly-named ‘Polar Dunes’. By the time Cosmic Drama hits upon the vroom-vrooming bassline line of closer ‘Contact’, you’re fully enthralled to the album’s combination of broken-beat heft and synthetic melodiousness.

RIYL: Drexciya, I-f, Cygnus, AFX

Cosmic Drama

Blackploid - Cosmic Drama

NAME: John Shima

HOMETOWN: Sheffield, UK

DJ HISTORY:  In 1995 John was playing records on Pirate Radio Stations and fine tuning his turntable skills locally at "The Music Factory", in Sheffield. 

INSPIRATION: Electronic Music - LTJ Bukem, The Black Dog, B12, Tangerine Dream, Nightmares On Wax, The Forgemasters, LFO and the sound of early Warp Records.

PRODUCTIONS / RELEASES: You will find a full back catalogue of work via John`s Discogs profile (link attached) - including releases on Firescope Records, Distant Worlds, Emotions Electric, Rawax, Seventh Sign, Exalt Records and Sheffield`s Central Processing Unit.  

(Click here): https://www.discogs.com/artist/1353605-John-Shima


TRACKLIST:
=========

1/ Outer Order "Fresh Phonica" (Planetary Instinct)
2/ Raymond Owen "Dnap" (Indulgence)
3/ Tom Carruthers "Ozone" (Data Sync)
4/ Tom Carruthers "Psyche" (Craigie Knowes)
5/ XON "Bopulate" (Network Records)
6/ Bobo "I Know (End Of Times Mix)" (Mixing Mates)
7/ Turner Street Sound "Dunes (Oceanic Mix)" (Butter Sessions)
8/ Workshop ????
9/ John Shima "003" (Central Processing Unit)
10/ Transparent Sound "Pissing Against The Wind" (Exalt Records)
11/ ???? (White Label)
12/ Duplex "P.O.M (Time Dilation 2)" (Clone)
13/ Thomas Rouge "rjam" (GOSU)
14/ Dona "Acid Day (Live)" (Moreaboutmusic)
15/ Octave One "Point-Blank (Mix 1)" (430 West)
16/ Doc Scott "Surgery (Ordinary Mix)" (Absolute 2 Records)

CONTACT: For any enquiries regarding bookings or potential releases please reach out to John via social media or email the shop for an introduction - myvinylrecordbox@gmail.com

Thanks,

Matthew

TOP JOCKS: "JOHN SHIMA" - DEMONSTRATION PURPOSE - DJ MIX SERIES

TL Premiere #1958 (2025.07.10) : Blackploid - Alien [Central Processing Unit]

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For this 117th Premiere of 2025, we have a track by the veteran German Electro DJ, producer & composer Martin Matiske, aka "Blackploid" (@martin-matiske), titled ‘Alien’ from his forthcoming LP "Cosmic Drama" on the independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 2012, specialising in electronic music : Central Processing Unit (@cpurecords).

The album will be available on August 1, 2025 in Limited edition 2x12" vinyl LP + Digital. 

▶︎ Pre-order : https://centralprocessingunit.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-drama

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Release Info :

Blackploid - Cosmic Drama

Preview here: soundcloud.com/cpurecords/blackploid-cosmic-drama

In recent years, Blackploid has come to be one of Central Processing Unit’s signature artists. The German producer has averaged more than a record a year for the Sheffield imprint since he first landed on CPU in 2021. This prolific run continues with Cosmic Drama, Blackploid’s second LP for the label. The album takes the baton from its predecessor Enter Universe in style, delivering twelve tracks of top-quality machine-funk that draw down from electro’s classic artists while also imbuing proceedings with a playfulness that very much gives things a signature Blackploid-ish flavour.

Cosmic Drama sets its stall out from the off. The opening run of ‘Alien’, ‘World Construction’ and ‘Virtual State’ all deliver piston-snapping beats which anchor pleasing melanges of B-movie synth lines. Alongside this, Blackploid adds little flourishes which add buoyancy to each joint - a syncopated bassline reminiscent of I-f’s late-90s classic ‘Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass’, crackling robo-voiced commands, skittering synth chords which wash across the mix and so on. It’s the work of someone completely at ease with their craft, comfortable enough to take risks without upsetting the apple cart of their sound’s core appeal.

Blackploid’s idiosyncratic approach to synth work is something which distinguishes Cosmic Drama from the pack. Electro has long been a genre which prides itself on innovation on the keys, but few producers are willing to push their sonics as far as Blackploid does - take the seasick churn of pads and processors on ‘Multiverse’, for instance, or the way John Carpenter-esque single-note lines dovetail with gurgling synthetic pulses and eerie, spacious chords on ‘The Lab’, a highlight of Cosmic Drama’s midsection.

Cosmic Drama skips along at club tempo throughout - every one of these joints will get bodies moving in dark rooms across the galaxy. However, even when tracks maintain their single-minded pursuit of machine-funk perfection, they never forget to deliver on the hooks. Blackploid has lead lines (and counter-melodies) to burn here, and each track knots them together in ever-more intriguing ways as they plough onwards. Drexciyan heads will be thrilled by the sci-fi delights of ‘Species’, for instance, while Blackploid brings melodies as cold as they are catchy on the aptly-named ‘Polar Dunes’. By the time Cosmic Drama hits upon the vroom-vrooming bassline line of closer ‘Contact’, you’re fully enthralled to the album’s combination of broken-beat heft and synthetic melodiousness.

Tracklist :
01. Alien
02. World Construction
03. Virtual State
04. Universe Research
05. The Lab
06. Species
07. Shadow
08. Polar Dunes
09. Multiverse
10. Lift Off
11. Cosmonaut
12. Contact

releases August 1, 2025

All tracks written and produced by Martin Matiske.
Mastered at Computer Club Sheffield
Design by Human / www.humanstudio.com

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Alien

TL PREMIERE : Blackploid - Alien [Central Processing Unit]

Noumen returns to Central Processing Unit after a six-year absence with Altum. This bumper record, the Ukrainian artist’s fourth release for the Sheffield label and first since 2019 double-LP Obscurium, serves to remind us all why Noumen’s music has been lauded by the likes of Mixmag and Resident Advisor in the past. Altum is a consummate piece of contemporary electronic production, a technoid exploration of outer-edges electronica that nods to genre greats like Autechre while still maintaining its own unconventional charm.

Across well over an hour of music here we find Noumen repeatedly playing punchy mid-tempo beat work off of some more cerebral tuned synths. Altum kicks off with the epic ‘Oion’ - beginning in that Autechre/AFX mid-tempo zone, full of deep-sea bangs and whirrs, the track slowly builds to a final stretch of delay-drenched keys which set us free amidst the outer cosmos, almost Sun Ra-style. It’s a perfect liminal-space roller and an apt scene-setter for Altum.

‘Oion’ provides a blueprint for several of the album’s other highlights - plenty of the joints here adopt that same approach of hitting hard with the drums and soft with the synths. Second track ‘Splitter’ takes on the baton from ‘Oion’ while souping up the kick to warehouse levels; the beats in ‘Far Wind’ splutter like a needle skipping on a mid-90s Tresor drop; ‘Fate Carette’, all eerie looped synth leads, is a highlight as the album enters the home straight.

The rhythm production (which, it should be noted, is exemplary throughout Altum) is ratched up in intensity on a handful of numbers. ‘Telemask’ displays a delightful breakbeat - if you’d told me this was sampled from golden age A Tribe Called Quest, I’d have believed you. Mid-section anchors ‘Awe’ and ‘Axis’ are glitchers in the Mike Paradinas mould, with the latter showing off some pleasing steel pan-esque synth leads for good measure. And while Altum generally maintains a processional pace throughout, there are points where Noumen toughens up the drums for club deployment - ‘Unveilness’ shows off a real chunkiness in the low end, closer ‘Spurling Sign’ plays a satisfying rolling groove off of ever-layering synths, and the title-track is an alien machine-funker in keeping with fellow CPU electronauts like Silicon Scally and Cygnus.

Noumen’s third album for Central Processing Unit is a pleasingly hefty double-LP which builds on the zany invention of acts like Modeselektor and Autechre to delightful effect.

FFO: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Modeselektor, Bochum Welt, LFO

Radiopropulsive

Bochum Welt

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