NULLPTR never fails. Since emerging in 2016 with the Optical LP, Eddie Symons’ project has become a byword for top-draw contemporary electro productions. After triumphantly returning to Sheffield’s Central Processing Unit with 2020’s Future World full-length, NULLPTR follows that album up with a new quartet of machine-funk slammers. Striking a balance between highwire, twitchy rhythm programming and some deft textural work, the Terminus EP demonstrates exactly why the NULLPTR name is so respected in the world of electro.

The first half here almost showcases the two sides of the NULLPTR sound in microcosm. Opening track ‘Connected’ zips along like one of the racers from a Wip3out game. The 808s are all booming breakbeats and hissing-piston hats, with a jittery synth bassline nipping in and out of the spaces left vacant by the drums. Atop these swirl eerie keyboard pads, the reverb from them draping across the rest of the instruments like fog above a city. By contrast, following cut ‘Mesospheric Cruise’ is the yin to ‘Connected’s yang. Where its predecessor was tense and coiled, this lilting number is expansive and open like a primetime Virginia joint - though the point where the wistful house pads strip back to foreground the twinkle-toed electro beat still has a pleasing crunch to it.

The B-side of Terminus serves dystopian snap from the off. Genre masters Drexciya are invoked by ‘Syndicate’. The needle-gun bassline here turns itself inside-out across these five minutes, and all the while the tune is laced with some evocative shadow-realm synth pads. A similar energy courses through the EP’s closing title-track, a cut which also brings into play a booming four-to-the-flour that gives it an unstoppable sense of forward-motion. Like ‘Connected’ and ‘Mesospheric Cruise’ - indeed, like all of the NULLPTR material that Central Processing Unit has brought us down the years - these jams will sound positively devilish when deployed in a dark basement.

The Terminus EP sees electro don NULLPTR (Eddie Symons) deliver four slices of unadulterated machine-funk heat.

RIYL: Virginia, Cardopusher, Drexciya, Silicon Scally

Terminus

NULLPTR - Terminus

Reconstruct Your Mind

Shawescape Renegade - Reconstruct

Carl Finlow has been a prominent name in UK electro since the mid-90s, releasing music at an astonishing rate under a variety of monikers. Silicon Scally defines his most strictly electro-oriented project, reflective of the Kraftwerk era and the emerging electro-scene, with releases on respected labels such as Cultivated Electronics, CPU and of course 20/20 Vision, with music from a variety of Carl’s monikers being amongst the labels earliest releases. 

‘Crushed’ is a sought after album project originally self-released on Finlow’s Bandcamp during the 2020 lockdown. We felt the release was to important to be overlooked without a much deserved run of vinyl, so have pressed a limited run of records featuring futuristic electro highlights and the best unreleased cuts. 

‘Proton Mass’ kicks things off with perfectly crafted robotic funk, solid mechanical breaks and mind bending glitches, setting the landscape for a journey into the abyss with Silicon Scally unshakeably at the helm. ‘Centronix’ follows up with razor-sharp rocking beats, squelchy bass and jarring grooves as if designed for high pace no nonsense club sets from the likes of DJ Stingray or Helena Hauff. 

On the flip side ‘Axiom’ takes us deeper into the void with dark basslines, complex drums and unapologetically disorientating frequencies. A track that makes us question if Finlow has transcend to a future state where he is more machine than man, sending psychoactive messages in the form of killer electro cuts. 

‘Cascade Lasers’ wraps up this epic dose of electro with interstellar energy, driving things home with deep bass wobbles, high octane breaks, wrapped grooves and tormenting yet playful synth licks. Yet another release that has us convinced the late great Andrew Weatherall was indeed correct! 

"For quite a number of years now I have been convinced that Mr Finlow is a conduit for musical transmissions beamed from a parallel universe, sometime in the future” - Andrew Weatherall

Proton Mass
Centronix 
Axiom 
Cascade Lasers 
Geosonic
Docking Procedure

VIS323: Silicon Scally - Crushed

Basic Contact

Optimistic Octopus 2.0

Recorded at Cable Studios in London (UK)   XX.12.2021

https://soundcloud.com/tadan127 [https://soundcloud.com/electric_shapes]

Tadas Majeris, aka Tadan, is a DJ/producer from Vilnius (Lithuania) and currently based in London (UK). 
He's the founder of party series and label “OneTwentySeven” https://soundcloud.com/area127, host of Music Therapy radio shows and a keen explorer of Electro, Techno, EBM, Goa-Trance and everything in between.
Tadan released his music on labels such as https://soundcloud.com/fukuinn, Everyone On Acid, Urban Connection, https://soundcloud.com/whypeopledance and last year gave birth to a new album called "Neoshamanism" on Electric Shapes, where he incorporates shamanic trance sounds for the dancefloor.

• https://tadan.bandcamp.com/releases
• https://www.facebook.com/tadan127
• https://www.youtube.com/tadasmajeris
• https://linktr.ee/Tadan

E.S.T. 058 • Tadan

@bengerhardt
All profits are being donated to CARE International for Ukraine, providing humanitarian help such as water and food supply, hygiene kits and psychosocial support.

Huge thanks to everyone involved!

Mastered by Veduric

DJ Gerhardt - Kalifloor

B2 Tangential (Clip)

B1 War On Words (Clip)

A2 Trinian (Clip)

Mysterious, melodic and dark - Portuguese can-do-no-wrong-er @lakehaze is back, adding to his impressive catalogue a four-tracker EP named 'Coordinates Of A Decaying World' for Lisbon's ever-attentive Paraíso.

Off-beat toms and rim shots paired with squelchy, slippery, acid make the opener, 'Galactic Federation', feel as bouncy and polyrhythmic as a non 4/4 track, playing a delicious illusion on the audience - completed emotionally by beautifully textured stabs and pads that speak of longing and perhaps of ethical space exploration to escape the pains of this Earth.

Reverb-drenched arpeggio acid and digital choirs welcome the listener in a grandiose, almost goth-like way, offset by an improvisational, on-the-go arrangement spirit, an impression that is met by the track title 'Jamming in Dracula's Castle'.

The B side opens with fat kicks and bass, its textures reminiscent of dutch and Belgian rave traditions; expertly merged with a Moroder-like synth-a-delic motif - always propulsed by that driving, taking-no-prisoners bass and acid lines.

The last track of the EP takes us to sunlight-drenched territories in comparison, with a warm sub bass and classic breaks serving as a base to another one of Lake Haze's expertly programmed acid lines.

The beautiful pads and melodies prevail, but the feeling in this closing number gives us an optimistic glimpse into a better future, after an EP that is about showing us some moodier, shadowy emotional rave bangers.

BUY VINYL/DIGI

A2 - Lake Haze - Jamming In Dracula's Castle

A Cirklon sequence i threw together and mixed in a couple hours, used a deepmind 12, micro korg, atlantis, sealegs and a tr8-s, was fun to make

Sour Patch Kids

Gated Record Label for a variety of good music.

A2 Trinian (Clip)

Gated

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