Once again, digging deep into the underbelly of 1980s DIY cassette culture, Contort Yourself present a weird and wild collection of minimal wave, industrial, post punk, experimental electronic and more...

OUT NOW. VINYL AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD RECORDS SHOPS

Juno: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/80s-underground-cassette-culture-volume-2/883082-01/  
 
Volume 1 sold out super quick so be careful...

DIGITAL: https://contortyourself-cy.bandcamp.com/album/80s-underground-cassette-culture-volume-2

IF YOU BUY THE VINYL FROM JUNO OR ANYWHERE ELSE JUST LET US KNOW AND WE'LL SEND YOU A DOWNLOAD CODE FOR THE DIGITAL

"Focusing on razor-edged techno pop, bleepy drum machine minimalism and homemade synth experiments, ['80s UCC Vol.2'] takes a global view of the 80s tape underground...saturated in a vibrant layer of multicoloured DIY ambition. But this compilation is more than a nostalgia-fuelled expansion of the archive. It bends chronologies, suggesting that A didn’t necessarily follow B in the way it’s usually assumed. A snap-shot full of surprise precursors, heroic outliers and yet to be realised possibilities." - The Quietus

"Brilliant" - Tom Ravenscroft (BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC)

"From the lurching misanthropic menace of Years On Earth to the static drum machine robo funk of M Rendell, from the dark proto-House, monochrome industrial work out of Pornosect to the primitive sample-punk of Ob Ovo, these mutants all made music brimming with life and vim under the layer of culture and reality that was the mainstream in the 80s. Think Cabaret Voltairish experimentation, sub-Fad Gadget desperation, burbling radiophonic synth tones smothering grooves, these coldest of waves and most clanging of industrial tones represent a tip or a trough of an iceberg or valley of endless invention from the decade that refuses to die." - Monorail

"Listeners with insight into the subterranean 1980s might gather they have a handle on what 80s Underground Cassette Culture Volume 2 has in store, but a mere spin of the sides reveals the contents to be more expansive than one might expect...and even better, all the cuts have been fully licensed from the artists, making this a stand-up undertaking all-around. " - The Vinyl District

TRACKLISTING:

A1. Die Achse - Under The Church
A2. Nostalgie Eternelle - Peace Of Mind
A3. Years On earth - As You're Told
A4. If, Bwana - Tiny Bladders
A5. Stefan Schrader - Attempt To Rap

B1. Misteek - Bump Beat
B2. M Rendell - CV In
B3. Dix Ferro - Bienvenidos a Neuchatel
B4. Sluik - Open Window
B5. Pornosect - Pressure Level
B6. The Horse He's Sick - Projectile Fascination

C1. M Nomized - Nitsed
C2. John J Lafia - Life Is Short*
C3. Interaccion - Newton
C4. Die Mysteriösen - Spürhund
C5. Homage a Brinkman - Französisch

D1. Solanaceae Tau - Tekno Pop
D2. Ob Ovo & Sha 261 - The CIA, It Dances
D3. Collectionism - We Are All Children Of God
D4. UPM - Anstalt
D5. Wolfgang Wiggers - Slightly Mental

*John J Lafia - Life Is Short is available on the vinyl only

All tracks licensed directly from the original artists.

FORMATS: Double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve, printed inner sleeves and insert
                   Digital release
RELEASE DATE: 17/10/22
DISTRIBUTION ENQUIRES: milo.bragg@juno.co.uk
EMAIL: contortyourselfnow@gmail.com

80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2

80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2 - Double LP - PREVIEW

EM009 - King Softy - Scanner's Plateau

High narrative slow jam sleaze from New Zealand’s King Softy.

A Berlin-based project born of time and collaborative effort, his debut full-length on Electroménager is a sensory project which carries itself like a kind of neo-spirituality for the metropole. Rooted in influences from across a broad auditory spectrum: dense ambient washes; concrete grunge steps; scattered down-tempo fluctuations; and breezy trip-hop sentiments, all combine into a multi-faceted machine romance for the subconscious.

These are diverse spectres which speak to times and places at once familiar and abstract, all coalescing as a collection post-noir soundscapes for the modern imaginary.

Deeply human. This is sonic sentimentality for the wanderer: the Scanner's Plateau.

____

Composed, produced and mixed by Amos Turner
Mastered by Ike Zwanikken
Additional features, composition and production by Spivak, Xenia Reaper, Thodén, Kohwi and Ben Bondy
Artwork photography by Olly Geary
Creative direction by Yanni Caloghiris
©Electroménager 2024

Scanner's Plateau

EM009 — "Scanner's Plateau" by King Softy

Taken from 'Suso Sáiz - Distorted Clamor' (MFM074)
Buy Vinyl: https://www.musicfrommemory.com/
Buy Digital: https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/
© 2024 Music From Memory

Distorted Clamor

Sweet Elephant

B1. Suso Sáiz - Sweet Elephant

Feloneezy slinks into the Appendix.files fold with Unlimited Peace — a glistening 5-track transmission. It's peaceful, yes,  but only in the way a loading screen might be.

Clocking in at around 21 minutes, Unlimited Peace hovers in that strange zone between comfort and collapse. Žarko Komar constructs lush, slow-moving forms that seem to promise clarity, only to blur the edges just before arrival. Dub-wise atmospheres curl into ambient smog, vaporous tones smudge over faded rhythms — it’s music that soothes and unsettles in the same breath.

The title’s utopian ring is no accident — Feloneezy gently excavates the faint optimism of the online, not to critique but to drift into an ambivalence that feels current, lingering like a tab you forgot to close.

Written and produced by Žarko Komar in Belgrade, the EP is mastered by Ike Zwanikken with artwork by Amos Turner. As with all entries in the APPX:EP lineage, Unlimited Peace arrives digitally and as a limited lathe-cut edition of 20 — tactile signals in a sea of disappearing content.

Buy: https://appendixfiles.bandcamp.com/album/appx-18-unlimited-peace

PREMIERE: Feloneezy - Unlimited Peace 05 [appendix.files]

hello

‼️  License This Beat at:   https://bsta.rs/MOowM   🎤 
💳  License Other National Parx Beats at:  nationalparx.beatstars.com/   🎧 
👀  National Parx on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoFtAPWDWraBkAlE-15-1kA  📽️ 🎬 

"Hard Days" | Dark Boom Bap | Mobb Deep x Griselda Type Beat

Holidaze [short remix]

Out now
https://blondes.bandcamp.com/album/quality-of-life-struction-remix
https://www.beatport.com/release/quality-of-life-struction-remix/2230618
https://open.spotify.com/album/4Rxt0jeRYPDgJeYPtsNPUW

Blondes - Quality Of Life (Struction Remix)

B3 from MW005, 'Dismeteo' by OL

Format: 12" / Digital
Release Date: 10 May 2019
Distribution: Rubadub
Artwork: Shy (uon)

https://soundcloud.com/olegbuyanov

Preorder:
https://motionward.bandcamp.com/album/ol-dismeteo
https://www.rubadub.co.uk/records/dismeteo
+ plenty of other online shops!

OL, 'Shatter Dub'

Sorry We Can't Make Love (CHANOIRS VOL.1)

Patrick Belaga - Blutt 
Format: LP / DL
Cat.No. PAN 117
Release Date: 2 April 2021
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Blutt

Conceived at the heel of Italy’s boot-shaped peninsula in Apulia, Patrick Belaga’s Blutt makes music for the unruly imagination. The title is an old German word for ‘naked’, ‘bare’, but it can also mean ‘blood’ when spelt blut. Take away another letter and it makes ‘butt’. None of these definitions and adaptations were what prompted the classically-trained composer and cellist to name his second album with a word simulating the sound of a punctured artery. That came later.

Blutt’s nine woozy compositions are inspired by a contemplative road trip with a friend, and the mysterious muffled music heard from an unidentified source. It was a combination of jazz and classical music that haunted Belaga’s wanderings through the Byzantine town Gallipoli, and soon infected his dreams of long-gone civilizations. This record is its outcome, where organic instrumentals and electronic production merge into a sound that’s both contemporary and ancient. Samples of mewing incantations and tape hiss sway atop the waltzing thud of piano chords on “Sigh”. Composite layers of Belaga’s cello play in downcast harmony on “Rust”. There’s a wistful sense for the romantic, in the eerie rhythm of a piece like “Momentum”. The quarter tones of an Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk scale probe a profound melancholy via Kai Knight’s violin. Its notes are haunted by a field recording of running water on “Unsoft”, echoes of panpipes and a Jew’s harp on opener “Lilt”.

As a consummate composer and performer known for his work with artists Wu Tsang, boychild, Josh Johnson and Asma Maroof, Belaga’s Blutt is itself marked by flawless collaborations. Vocalist and instrumentalist Jazmin Romero sings and composes the surreal melodies of “Grey Eye”. Multidisciplinary dance artist and producer Riley Watts contributes to the muted, motorik movement of “The Tunnel is a Tower”. Together, the record plays as a stunning soundtrack to the strangeness of sleeping, and the heartbreaking transience of time. Like an intense dream half-remembered, the emotions persist after waking but for the sharp machinations just outside of the mind’s reach. 
credits

The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Giovanni Forlino and design by Bill Kouligas & NMR. 

@patrickbelaga

Blutt

Patrick Belaga - Lilt (w/ Kai Kight) (PAN 117)

A label run by @jacquestorrance + @olly-geary

Monthly on Rinse France

info (at) electromngr (dot) com

.............

Past Showcases :

16.11.24 at Backsteinboot, Berlin
21.09.24 Music IRL at Cahier Central, Paris
10.02 — 02.06.24 Exhibition at Galerie Kernweine, Stuttgart
01.03.24 at Le Tony, Paris
30.11.23 at Cahier Central, Paris
06.10.23 at Le Sample, Paris
08.10.21 + 09.10.21 at La Station, Paris
29.01.20 at Paloma, Berlin
23.11.19 at Galerie Kernweine, Stuttgart