10 Years Of Acid Test

Ephemoral

Buy/stream: https://kompakt.fm/releases/agartha_lp_dl

‘Where is Agartha? What is the specific region in which it lies? Along what road, through what civilizations, must one walk in order to reach it?.’ Saint-Yves d’Alveydre in 1886

Agartha, the debut full-length album by Japanese producer Wata Igarashi, is a mysterious, divine thing. Named for the mythical secret kingdom, understood as a complex maze of underground tunnels, perhaps designed by Martians who colonised the Earth tens of thousands of years ago, it’s a similarly mystical, perhaps even cosmic trip – but this time, exploring an inner, deeply personal cosmos. Beautifully detailed and bustling with rich incident, it takes Igarashi’s music to new places, which still retaining his unique sonic imprimatur; in this respect, it’s perfectly at home with Kompakt, a label that’s always encouraged artists to make the visionary music they need to create, to take risks and make sideways steps into uncharted territory.

An eloquent producer and DJ, Igarashi has been releasing techno for eleven years now, appearing on such imprints as The Bunker NY, Delsin, Midgar, and Time To Express; he has also self-released his productions via his WIP net label. Throughout, Igarashi has consistently explored his unique approach to techno and electronic music, one that’s eloquent and poised, even when it shifts into more psychedelic terrain; he’s a master at balancing the sensual and the functional, and he has an unerring ear for the right texture, the right tone, at the right time. He brings all of this into Agartha, his most thorough-going expression of self to date.

For Agartha, Igarashi had a strong concept he wanted to explore. Visualising specific scenes from an imaginary film based on the titular secret kingdom, he created soundtracks for those scenes, spending time during the pandemic in his studio, working away carefully at the ten tracks here. Given his background in creating music for television and advertisements, Igarashi is well-placed to explore the marriage of the sonic and the visual in such intimate ways, but freed from commercial concerns, he let his imagination run riot. He also drew on a rich palette of musical influences – techno is in there, of course, but you can also hear the smoky, improvised jazz of the likes of Miles Davis (to whom the album’s title is an indirect nod), and the minimalism and systems music of Steve Reich.

The latter is particularly pronounced on the gorgeous, beatless drift of “Floating Against Time”, where an arpeggiated sequence lingers, lovingly, around your ears for nine blissful minutes, coasting across swooning drones and waves of ambient noise. “Ceremony Of The Dead”, originally composed as part of a Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial sound concert, is a deep pass into systems composition, with various patterns overlaid and interlocking, before a wordless vocal rises from the depths, a gorgeous counterpoint to the swarming textures that gather across the track. On the other hand, tracks like “Burning” and “Subterranean Life” nudge toward Fourth World territory, painting deluxe dreamscapes of uncertain provenance; the title cut is an abstract drift-world, Igarashi painting an alien tableau dotted by shape-shifting creatures.

Agartha’s conceptual framework means that everything on the album sits perfectly together; listening to it in one sitting is a dizzying, lush experience. Its imaginings of inner landscapes recall, in some respects, the nautical, aqueous mythologies of the Drexciyan universe, though from different perspectives. But the result is Igarashi’s own creation, a deluxe, enchanting trip through the visionary Agartha of this unique producer’s cinematic mind’s-eye.

Agartha

Wata Igarashi - Searching

Skudge - Convolution (Levon Vincent Versions)

A. Convolution (Levon Vincent Scream Version)
B. Convolution (Levon Vincent CS-101 Version)

CAT# : SKUDGE-LVRMX23
Formats : 12” and Digital

Out 16th June 2023



Levon Vincent is on production for this reversioning 12” of Skudge’s 2010 techno-house Convolution. Is there another producer working today that's a more exciting prospect to hear reimagining this classic cut.

The resulting two sides of vinyl give that late 00s Levon feel of rhythm and pace, meeting Skudge’s hallmark sound.

It’s been over a decade since Skudge took charge and urged us to "give it on up". Convolution' forged two distinct genres while avoiding the trap of losing the attitude of both. The track was a strong take on Techno and House simultaneously and brought something new and interesting to the table.

Fast forward a decade since this effort marked the beginning of the Skudge journey, which not only caught the middle ground between Techno and House but also the ears of fellow producer Levon Vincent. Levon is the master of oceanic underwater funk, drawing in strands of dub, techno, and house.

Levon delivers two distinct versions. Side A, Scream Version recalls something like A.J. Sounds’ minimal techno classic from 1995; Basemental. Flipping over to the B-side, one can hear the Convolution atmosphere echoing between Levon and Skudge respectively.

DJ FEEDBACK

Adiel
“Amazing” 

Alienata 
"Nice one <3"

Ben Klock
"That Levon sound..... so unique..... thanks. Both great but the CS 101 version is my fav. Sublime"

Perc
"I've got all the time in the world for anything by Levon and these remixes are great. Thank you!"

Cinnaman
"great tracks! will play out"

Nina Kraviz
"<3"

Eduardo De La Calle
"Fantastic remixes …congrats Levon"

DJ Bone 
"Strong and funky release here."

DJ Deep
"Two of my favorite producers on one record yes!"

DVS1
"DOPE! Will support via Aslice."

Radio Slave
"woah !!! Love both of these mixes. Thank you : )"

Tim Sweeny (Beats In Space)
"Love it. Skudge x Levon Vincent is perfect."

Giant Swan
"proper ODD sound world. really like it - somewhere between early AFX and a rust game world. good sheet"

Machine Woman
"scream is the one for me!!! nice dub version"

Laurent Garnier
 "Excellent ......"

The Blessed Madonna 
"Really really great."

Skatebård 
"Lovely. Thank you."

Jason Kendig (Honey Soundsystem)
"love the intensity of the scream version and the cs-101 version is like coming up for fresh air. killer stuff! 

Mosca
“What a pairing - Scream Vrsn is close to perfection >>>"

Philip Sherburne
"Love the CS-101 version..."

Mano Le Tough
"beautiful stuff! a legend remixing a classic. :)"

Nihad Tule
“Hit!”

Levon Vincent Versions

SKUDGE-LVRMX23

A. Convolution (Levon Vincent Scream Version) Preview

https://hevlaran.bandcamp.com/album/model-to-excite

Hevlaran - We Didn't

.VRIL’s first EP for Kynant Records explores his trademark style of euphoric dub techno, whilst also diving deeper with spoken-word pieces in collaboration with two critical thinkers in the world of soundsystem culture and experimental music: Edward George and Isis Semaj-Hall AKA Riddim Writer. Acclaimed Dutch techno artist Steve Rachmad also dons his Parallel 9 alias for a remix. 

Written & Produced by .VRIL
Additional Production on B2 by Steve Rachmad
Vocals on A3 by Edward George
Vocals on B3 by Isis Semaj-Hall
Artwork by Irakli Kedia, Layout by Grant Gibson 
Distributed by N.E.W.S

A1 VRIL - Crystal Cell Energy

Answering Machine Mix

On June 27, 2025, a long-dormant signal reactivates from Hamburg's hidden places: Helena Hauff and F#X return as Black Sites with R4 on Tresor Records—their first full-length album and the first release under the moniker since 2014. Like a hieroglyphic recently discovered and translated, R4 feels more like a long-awaited resumption than a comeback.

Recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production the record is a classic example of the symbiotic relationship that can come from the interaction of human and machine. This punk ethos isn't invoked through distortion alone, but through method; in the album's breaking from the received wisdom of hardness tethered to speed as most of the tougher pieces are lower BPM and vice versa (with one notable exception in the mind-melting stomp of BLOKK).

Across ten tracks, Black Sites traverse a landscape where genre dissolves into intention. It migrates through electro's danceability, acid house's corrosion, and into the liminal realm of machine funk—a genre coined by Andrew Weatherall, which sounds like the results of technology dreaming of soul where the emphasis is on live execution, on immediacy over perfection—a sound forged in the act of creating, not polishing.

In a 2013 interview, around the time of the first Black Sites EP, Hauff was quoted as saying that she wants "things to fit together properly, but on another level, I really want them to make sense together." That principle animates R4: The album's form reveals itself in time, with each movement echoing and amplifying the others to create a synergistic whole.

From the opening crawl of C4 (a name that like the music foreshadows the explosions to come) to the end-of-the-night bliss of MOTHERJAM via the intense peaks of BLOKK, 707, and classic acid track 3D it's clear that R4 is a work made with serious intent; a refutation of a world where streaming has made the two-minute single the dominant musical form again. R4 demands immersion, not just attention. It is not a collection of tracks, but a singular, recursive experience: a mirror in which sound and listener repeatedly rediscover one another.

BANDCAMP

Black Sites - 3D

* Subscribe for more premieres: @BoltingBits
* Read more: https://boltingbits.com/saku-niamh-circling-sungate
* Listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/f_Bdq4sQTzc
* Pre-order: https://sungaterec.bandcamp.com/album/there-will-come-soft-rains

Spiralling endlessly, Saku Niamh’s angular, edgy beat science makes a perfect match for our 57th outing. Setting off with a nod to golden-era intelligent drum and bass on “soul talk”, piling up the angst on the quasi-industrial hammering of “sick”, and pushing out lysergic, IDM-techno hybrids on “circling” and “melting”. Niamh’s music hints its origins in deeply personal plights through buzzing, sharp sound design, fantastically rounded off with the lethargy of an aptly titled “peace in me”.

PREMIERE: Saku niamh - circling

Premiere of Schwefelgelb - Ay [NPLX007]

BUY: https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com/album/marginale

Artist: Schwefelgelb
Title: Marginale
Label: n-PLEX
Catalogue: NPLX007
Release Date: September 5th, 2025

ARTIST LINKS
SC: https://soundcloud.com/schwefelgelb
IG: https://www.instagram.com/schwefelgelb_official/?hl=en
BC: https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com

LABEL LINKS
SC: https://soundcloud.com/n-plex
IG: https://www.instagram.com/nplexrecords/?hl=en
BC: https://nplexrecords.bandcamp.com

If you would like to promote your music via our channels, please submit your track for consideration here: forms.gle/E7nU616j5Qh4iMxf6

Schwefelgelb - Ay [SOMA SELECTS Premiere]

Mad Mike - The Final Frontier

Hideland

Kingdom Of Lo

Jacek Sienkiewicz, born in warsaw, makes textural, melodic, experimental music and more... 
contact / booking : info@recognition.pl