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Carl Finlow keeps on keeping on. As the world changes around him, the veteran producer continues to do what he does best - craft top-quality electro tunes which invoke the sound’s Drexciyan heyday, yet carry themselves with an assurance that is all of Finlow’s own. 

Finlow remains a prolific producer more than a quarter of a century on from his emergence. Still averaging several records a year across a variety of aliases, recent times have seen Finlow forge particularly strong links with the Central Processing Unit label. Now, after a run of EPs for the Sheffield imprint which began with 2018’s ‘Projections’, Finlow’s Silicon Scally project offers up CPU’s first drop of 2022 in the form of the ‘Field Lines’ LP. 

Silicon Scally productions have long been marked out by how they combine piston-precise beat programming with more textured synth play. ‘Field Lines’ runs with this formula to deliver some of Finlow’s most atmospheric material to date. At once shadowy and expansive, listening to ‘Field Lines’ is the aural equivalent of taking a night-time drive around some futuristic metropolis. 

The beats cruise sleekly here. Many of these burbling machine-funk numbers hover at mid-tempo, the crisp clip of their drum programming given shape and depth by all sorts of percussive tones fizzing around at the fringes of the mix. Even when ‘Field Lines’ seems to set its sights on the club - the Bunker Records-aping ‘Amino’, for instance, or the dystopian whizz-bang of ‘Static Fire’ - the tracks here strut sturdily rather than giving in to full-on freakouts.

However, from this sturdy base, Finlow moves outwards. Working with tones which range from rapid-fire machine-gun bass to keening, dawn chorus keyboard pads, Finlow leads us through the futurescape with the expertise of a seasoned guide. Cuts like ‘Submerged’ and ‘Yield’ are brilliantly cinematic, blooming from those reliable drum pulses into miniature masterpieces of nocturnal electronics. Elsewhere on ‘Field Lines’ there is a mechanical majesty to ‘Inhibitor’ and ‘Altered Domain’ which invokes the brave new worlds that Kraftwerk repeatedly conjured in their heyday.

Central Processing Unit’s first release of 2022 is ‘Field Lines’, an LP of electro-funk explorations from Carl Finlow’s Silicon Scally project which will thrill regardless of whether it’s experienced through headphones or out on the dancefloor.

RIYL: Drexciya, Kraftwerk, Cygnus, Annie Hall

Field Lines

Silicon Scally - Field Lines

For more than a decade now, Fleck E.S.C. has marked himself out as one of the most playful and prolific producers in the electro game. Across dozens of releases for labels including Bass Agenda and Science Cult, the France-born, Japan-based artist has made his name through a production style which balances limber beats with exploratory textural work. 

Fleck E.S.C. debuted on Central Processing Unit in 2018 with the Discrete Opinion EP. Now, after stopping by the Sheffield label last year on a Silicon Scally remix job, Fleck E.S.C. delivers his second EP for CPU in the form of Rough Silk. The record’s intriguing title proves an apt introduction to this four-track affair. These cuts are at once sleek and abrasive, anchored by robotechnic machine-funk grooves yet also full of strange, shifting shapes.

The opening title-track expertly sets out Rough Silk’s stall. Heralded by gurgling synths and all manner of whirring percussive tones, ‘Rough Silk’ blossoms around the minute mark with the introduction of a wickedly buoyant lead synth. This is music at once visceral and full of mystery, the sound of wending through the back alleys, and the feeling carries through to the following cut ‘Hat in the Cat’ - as the synth pads spool out overhead, the machine-funk snap of the beat has an almost aquatic quality that links it back to Drexciya.

Much like ‘Rough Silk’, the record’s first B-side ‘Faking Sweet’ also shifts gears. The opening strains of the track seem to be preparing for another insistent, expansive broken-beat pulse, but it stiffens its neck around ninety seconds in. Programmed drums whirr around a jittery machine-gun bass while discordant synths pull at the edges of the track, all of which brings a strong dystopian energy that increases further as the percussion sounds become increasingly bug-eyed.

After so much excitement, ‘Digger Play’ closes out the EP with a softer touch. There’s still plenty of low-slung bounce to the beat, but the track runs a little slower, and there’s a warm wistfulness in the synths which gives ‘Digger Play’ a painterly, almost poetic feel. However, while it may take its foot off the gas, the production here is as deft as it is everywhere else on Rough Silk. 

With new EP Rough Silk, electro whizz Fleck E.S.C. brings the sort of casual mastery to proceedings that has characterised his career to date.

RIYL: Silicon Scally, Jensen Interceptor, Annie Hall

Rough Silk

Fleck ESC - Rough Silk

Mix of the Week #422 is by The Robot Scientists
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Mix of the Week #422: The Robot Scientists

DC Promo Tracks #941: "Аббис Адеба (Abbis Adeba)" by Forgiveness is part of the release "Forgiveness" on Not Not Fun @not-not-fun-1  

Buy Now: https://forgiveness.bandcamp.com/album/s-t 

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DC Promo Tracks #941: Forgiveness "Аббис Адеба (Abbis Adeba)"

DC Promo Tracks #942: "Wave Iridescence" by PARC is part of the release "Wave Iridescence" on 100% Silk @100percentsilk  

Buy Now: https://parcvancouver.bandcamp.com/album/wave-iridescence 

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DC Promo Tracks #942: PARC "Wave Iridescence"

DC Promo Tracks #946: "Bob the Dub" by Break Mode is part of the release "Bob the Dub" on Bed of Roses @bed_of_roses-1  

Buy Now: https://bedofrosesentertainment.bandcamp.com/album/bob-the-dub 

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DC Promo Tracks #946: Break Mode "Bob the Dub"

DC Promo Tracks #947: "Oceanside Girl" by Holo is part of the release "Oceanside Girl  EP" on Noire & Blanche @noireblanche  

Buy from: https://noire-et-blanche.bandcamp.com/album/oceanside-girl 

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DC Promo Tracks #947: Holo "Oceanside Girl"

Beach Bird

DC Promo Tracks #952: "Trans-Music" by Rayko is part of the release "Days of Future Past LP" on Rare Wiri Records @rare-wiri-records  

Buy Now: https://rarewirirecords.bandcamp.com/album/days-of-future-past-lp 

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DC Promo Tracks #952: Rayko "Trans-Music"

DC Promo Tracks #954: "Home Grown" by Coyote is part of the release "Home Grown" on Disappear @chris-coco  

https://dsppr.bandcamp.com/ 

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DC Promo Tracks #954: Coyote "Home Grown"

DC Promo Tracks #955: "Second Wind" by Mensah is part of the release "Elusive Fantasy" on Paradise Is a Frequency @paradiseisafrequency  

Buy from: https://mensah.bandcamp.com/track/second-wind-2
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0cJiTIGMdNQj6emVvGpOmJ?si=736dd8e38726475e

A breezy Dam Funk-esque cruise through Cloud City on this ’93 daydream. 
~
Digital keys splash over cascading crystal bells & satin smooth strings–the fresh synth-funk bass leisurely grooving along with mellow n’ minimal computer drums. Quite cool, super stylish and completely easy on the ears;)

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DC Promo Tracks #955: Mensah "Second Wind"

DC Promo Tracks #957: "Clouds" by Cosmonection is part of the release "Hidden Places" on Pont Neuf Records @pontneuf  

Buy Now: http://lnk.to/CosmonectionHiddenPlaces

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DC Promo Tracks #957: Cosmonection "Clouds"

DC Promo Tracks #958: "Earthquake" by Scout Island is part of the release "Laurentian Voyage" on Not Not Fun @not-not-fun-1  

Buy Now: https://scoutisland.bandcamp.com/album/laurentian-voyage 

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DC Promo Tracks #958: Scout Island "Earthquake"

Moon Makeup

DC Promo Tracks #960: "Second Password" by Nate Archer is part of the release "Wild Tigers I Have Known: Original Soundtrack Recording" on 100% Silk @not-not-fun-1  

Buy Now: https://natearcher.bandcamp.com/album/wild-tigers-i-have-known-original-soundtrack-recording 

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DC Promo Tracks #960: Nate Archer "Second Password"

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)

Hear the Richard Norris remix of this ace Public Service Broadcasting track here first. Read more, and grab a free download, here: http://www.theransomnote.co.uk/music/premieres-exclusive-streams/premiere-public-service-broadcasting-gagarin-richard-norris-vostok-remix/

Free Download

Premiere: Public Service Broadcasting - Gagarin (Richard Norris Vostok Remix)

Jacco Gardner - Find Yourself (Richard Norris remix)

NZCA LINES - Persephone Dreams (Richard Norris remix)

One of my favourite Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve re-animations. Unusually for us, we used very little of the original - just a snippet of Alex's voice. Even the main 'Come On Let's Get High' vocal isn't on the original - it's me, pitched down. We wrote a new tune over a short drum loop. It was nominated for DJ magazine's Remix of the Year. BTWS mixes have been rare of late, but who knows, we may re-enter the arena... 

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muddy mike