unofficial edit of caroline polachek's the gate

Caroline Polachek - The Gate (nthng's Safe Haven)

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

CRUDE MIX 207 - DJ Mantis

@djjsaliva at Herrensauna Pride Fest XXL
27.07.24–29.07.24: RSO Berlin

instagram.com/herrensauna.official 
www.herrensauna.net

DJ Saliva | Herrensauna Pride Fest ’24

Courtesy - Ways of Raving feat. Aaron Altaras and Geoffrey Mak [Against Interpretation]

Live hybrid set recorded at playbody 1st anniversary (07.12.24), Hackney Wick, London

www.instagram.com/playbody.london

Opening track featuring S3BA (www.instagram.com/s.3ba)

pic by Stylian (www.instagram.com/stylian____)
with PHEBE (www.instagram.com/phebpm) as playbody human microphone holder

playbody006 • HEZEN (hybrid live) • 07/12/24

Last night, I played a set where all the emotions like lust, confusion, excitement, sadness, and overstimulation, collided, (Like thats not new) 10hifniz. 
Anyway... its leading me to overreact in the best way possible, by playing my emotions out. Welcome to my neurodivergent brain :-)

Deep thanks to @Sortsindmusic and  @Ḓ𝑗 Ặ𝘓ĠÔƦⓎṪȟṂ  @britneyspeed <3 your light has left a mark on my heart. But also to all who’ve stood beside me,  I carry your energy with me always

Xoxo 
Delove 
Copenhagen, Denmark

I am not a woman, not yet a man

Presenting a portfolio of twitchy techno tectonics with a sharp line in corporate acumen, LDS returns to the market with a double-dose of limber futurism for PM+.
 
Stuttgart shock broker Luca Daniel Schwarz has been firing and perspiring on all cylinders since he went public around 2016. Past form for the likes of Subwax BCN and Blue Hour have all shown a deadly instinct for modern variations on the techno tradition, and he keeps pushing at the form with a fine balance between playful disruption and poker-face propulsion.
 
'Business Influencer Theme' is a jagged bolt of hi-tech soul littered with crafty edits, luminescent synth strokes and a mid-section pep talk to get you match fit for the midnight power lunch. 'Portal Merge (Peak Mix)' leans towards the growling, subtly emotive brand of electro pioneered by the Weatherall-Tenniswood dream team, bolstered with modernist sound design flex and another canny helping of sliced-up word salad.
 
Forecasting at the intersection of social commentary and cutting-edge club clout with devastating clarity, LDS packs a lot into his wry, laser-focused motivational workouts. The outlook is weightier than a hedge fund manager's bloated bar tab.

Mastering by: Isle Audio
Artwork by: Håkan Ullberg

LDS - Portal Merge (Peak Mix)

ARMAGEDDON REMIX - DISTANT STAR 

ORIGINAL :  https://on.soundcloud.com/4zl5vbQVdPGg7L68Ga


LATIN LYRICS 

꧁༺Ignis caeli, flamma veritatis,  
Peccatores coram luce.  
Miserere, Domine fortis,  
Lux tua vincat tenebras. ༻꧂

Fire of heaven, flame of truth,  
Sinners stand before the light.  
Have mercy, mighty Lord,  
May your light conquer the darkness.

ARMAGEDDON - DISTANT STAR REMIX

This album is dedicated to the brave and strong people of Palestine, the blood of my blood.  And to all the antifascists and freedom fighters all over the world.  To the poor, the suffering, the lost and the lonely. Until the last breathe we will take our world back from the oppressors.  From Palestine to Ukraine to the USA we will be free. Fascism always dies but freedom doesn't.

GOLDSTEIN-A Broken Kind of Love

Buy the track here: https://peachlyfe.bandcamp.com/releases