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

TRACKS IN THE MUD – Retreat Radio's first-ever compilation of original music drops on April 20, 2025! Available as a double CD, on a wrench-shaped USB, digitally, and across multiple streaming platforms. Listen to the first 4 tracks and pre-order: retreatradio.bandcamp.com/album/tracks-in-the-mud

Tracklist:
SAATANS KVINNA - I have a lot to say (intro)
HOS - Jorn
Prins Emanuel & Rivet - Umarel
Klofink - Triple Tundric Vision
Goaty - Drear
Thomas Bush - Loneliness Remembers
DJ Sandylion - Look Out!
Moonilena - Solarna
Sofftronic - Metallic Dub
Oklo Gabon - The Theoretical
Jonte Prippz - Nomore
Digge Shim - Dawn 2 Dusk
East Moon - Soloflight (Ecover Version)
Miranda Magdalena - Polly Pocket (Rivet Scrub)
CYSP - Farever
tala drum corps - conc
Aircode - Came Back
Oblinof - KK2 Corp
Rumina - Rezillik
Ceqi - Fog Juice
tZimtZum - Re-Koil
towLie - taLk to me
Five o'clock Traffic - double refusal
2Lanes - Tadpole Prime

The online radio station Retreat Radio has acted as a unifying force on the underground scene in Malmö for close to a decade and now offers its first compilation of original music from its vast community.

A community grown exponentially like a virus, with Retreat Radio as the source of infection, comprised of artists in various stages of despair revelling in hazy ambient, angular industrial rhythms and post-dub influences. Now bringing you 24 tracks of frog-induced head music made for a sad generation that wanted to be club kids but had no club to go to.

Many - if not all - of the names behind this mammoth of a compilation are Retreat residents with current or past monthly shows on the programme. Many of whom have walked the stark lit street at the outskirts of town at night to climb a spiral staircase above a carwash to play their shows.

Loosely centered around the interpretation of dub as a genre, the compilation hand-picks a curation of tracks which nonetheless point to a coherent vision: that of dub as a vital cornerstone in the development of new music reflecting on an urban post-capitalist environment.

releases April 20, 2025

Mastered by: Martin Blomberg & Jonatan Bergsman
Artwork by: Oda Haugerud
Design by: FETIDGRUPPE©
Words by: Simon Eliasson

TRACKS IN THE MUD

premiere: towLie - taLk to me

premiere: Five o'clock Traffic - double refusal

https://soundcloud.com/danielskiboy

www.retreatradio.net/future-past

Listen 24/7 at www.retreatradio.net

Future Past #11 w/ DJ Danielski (20/03/25)

https://soundcloud.com/towlie

Listen 24/7 at www.retreatradio.net

towLie (12/04/25)

@danielskiboy

www.retreatradio.net/future-past

Listen 24/7 at www.retreatradio.net

Future Past #12 w/ DJ Danielski (17/04/25)

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'Mr. Computer sees two figureheads of Dutch electronics pay homage to the voice of electro disco, the vocoder. Figi and Luca dell’Orso team up to sing praise of a tool that has crossed genres and styles and give the little metal larynx deserved limelight on their own three track theatre. Rumbling bass is shot through with crisp snaps in the title piece, warbling vocals rising as keys dance in this wonderful collaboration. Production across the 12” is beautifully clean and sharp, allowing the rich analogue sound and robotic lyrics to be fully appreciated. Of course, as happens with the vocoder, those lyrics are just that shade of bittersweet. That brooding quality is used to full effect by Luca dell’Orso in “Fire with Fire.” A bold and daring melody is countered by a tale flecked with sorrow, the brightness and immersion of synths contrasted by the filtered and fractured human voice. Figi flies solo for the finale. “Moonlight (Vocoder Version)” dips words in a thick mechanical syrup, a story of burning love recanted to moonbeam rinses and bending disco bars. A true celebration of man and machine.'

Vinyl: https://bordelloaparigi.com/shop/vinyl/figi-luca-dellorso-mr-computer-ep/
Digital: https://bordelloaparigi.bandcamp.com/album/mr-computer

Figi - Moonlight (Vocoder Version)

@caf_rec

Ce live a été enregistré sur la scène du label CAF? au festival de la Cité à Lausanne en Suisse, en juillet 2023.

CAF? invite ep30 — CAF? invite Five o'clock Traffic (Festival de la Cité 2023)

Plays FRAK

01 Choosing Format (Digitalis - DIGIV039)
02 Grown Up Guests (Cosmic Pint Glass - CPG010)
03 Humalog (Kontra-Musik - KM049)
04 No Adventure (Ultimate Hits - UH006)
05 Arcitect (Höga Nord Records - HNRUK009)
06 Concentrated Feed (Futurepast - FP006)
07 Sync Rebate (Midlight - MID005)
08 999 (Kontra-Musik - KMWL001)
09 Dimthings (In The Dark Again - Dark003)
10 Lamentation (Discos Del Quebranto - DDQ01)
11 Urgent (Kontra-Musik - KMWL002)
12 Wobbler (Kontra-Musik KMWL003)
13 Lance Stroboscopes (Lux Rec - LXRC24)
14 Instant Transport (Midlight - MID02)
15 Raw Space (Kontra-Musik - KMWL005)
16 Monster Apparat (FRAK Remix of Shinoby) (ISTHEWAY - ITW006)
17 Jammin Kabap (Cosmic Pint Glass - CPG008)
18 Cromos Fraction (Femur Records - FEMUR01)
19 Deeper Thoughts (Kontra-Musik/Skudge - SKUM01)
20 Large Function (Unknown To The Unknown - UTTU080)
21 Drumcometrue (TSAR - TSAR002)
22 Sailor (Monotono Edit) (Rubadub - RAD-FRK1)
23 Bruhn Agitation (Go Finger - GFEP05)
24 Making Control (Hypercolour - HYPE074)

FRAK plays FRAK - 2025-05-31

Five o'clock Traffic electronic artist, making music on synthesizers and drum machines. The music has been released on swedish labels such as Borft  records, UFO Mongo, RÃ¥synth i Blekinge, Skiboy.

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danielskiboy

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