upsammy - Strange Meridians [topo2-001]

a centrifugal spin collapses inward
sucked into the ground
vibrating with the quake beneath the crust
the folding repeats itself in time
an echo amid the buildings of a primordial era

with closed eyes
the shapes begin to take form
in the debris
objects clump together into conglomerates

a scream
trapped in water-retaining cells
the moss that embeds itself after
a short passage of time
you talk back
but I can’t hear you

something springs forth
somewhere

a remnant that remains


—
Strange Meridians is an album by multidisciplinary artist @upsammy. It is released by adventurous electronic music label topo2 on November 21, 2024. The record is pressed on 180 grams of ICCS-certified bio-vinyl, housed in a heavy full-colour sleeve, and comes with a download-code to the full release. Mastering is done by Isabel Schröer at Scape Mastering and artwork by courtesy of Thessa Torsing and Kees de Klein. Poetry by Thessa Torsing with editing by Eelco Couvreur.

1. Lapis Manalis 
2. Edge of Sleep 
3. Cosmo 
4. Aqualizing
5. The Guest 
6. Spiral Biting Its Tail 
7. Mazing 
8. Centripetal Lense

Release date: 22 november 2024
Formats: limited bio-vinyl LP (300 copies), digital
Inquiries: topo2world@gmail.com
Physical Distribution: mark@rushhour.nl
Digital distribution: contact@nomorewords.net

www.upsammy.com
www.topo2.nl

Strange Meridians

upsammy - Strange Meridians [topo2-001]

Tryphème - TGV in the misty morning

Taken from Big Hands' ‘Bacchanalia’ EP, out January 24, 2025.
Pre-order: https://vargmalrecords.bandcamp.com/

A1. Bacchanalia I
A2. Bacchanalia II
B1. Bacchanalia III
B2. Bacchanalia I (Al Wootton Remix)

The EP will be available on black 180-gram 12” vinyl and digital formats.

Mastered by Neel at Enisslab Studio
Artwork by Niall Greaves

Sign up to the mailing list for exclusive material and updates: bit.ly/vargmal-nl

All rights reserved.

Bacchanalia

Big Hands - Bacchanalia II

Glad to share our first release of the year, produced by Andrei Rusu and including a remix from Beatrice M. The Romanian and Berlin-based artist has been deeply involved in electronic music production, DJ-ing, and live performance as part of the duo Khidja. We discovered his music through his first solo EP, "I’ve Lost Control", released in 2024 on Berlin based label Malka Tuti, followed by the album "Met Him On A Wednesday", released under his alias Ed Rain and marked by its introspective tone and experimental approach. His weird electro sound is influenced by post punk, DIY and wave. Rusu’s music is organic, exploratory and unconventional.

Andrei: « This is my most cathartic to date, it’s quite haunting and feels a bit like screaming into a pillow. I imagine it as the perfect soundtrack to banging your head against a table. »

A key element throughout the EP’s sound and lively feeling is the use of Andrei’s favorite machines such as the Mort’s Barge module, the Microtonic or the Syncussion. He creates captivating soundscapes and deep evolutive atmospheres that inspired Beatrice M. to deliver a slow bassy belter that compliments this release perfectly.

Release date: February 6th, 2025

Produced and mixed by Andrei Rusu
"Left My Hand" remixed by Beatrice M.
Artwork by Olga B. / Gabriel Sauvageot
Mastering by Daga Audio

Socials Andrei Rusu:
SC: @andrei-rusu-748409088
IG: rusofkhidja

Socials Beatrice M.:
SC: @beatricemasters
IG: beatricem._bait

Andrei Rusu - Left My Head

LOIF - GHOSTWORLD LP

-

Do you believe in LOIFs?

-

https://soundcloud.com/loiflan
https://loif.bandcamp.com/album/ghostworld
Artwork - Richelle
Mastering - Borg Queen at Syntonix

--

STPLNT010

--

Steeplejack operates on Stolen land.
We acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land.
We pay our respects to their elders past, present, and future.
Sovereignty was never ceded

PREMIERE - LOIF - Qualia

Twenty-four years on from its original release, Monolake's seminal Gravity receives its first vinyl pressing courtesy of Field Records. Occupying its own space at the intersection of dub techno, minimal and electronica, it's an ageless album of staggering vision and technological prowess which has matured into an all-time pillar of electronic music. This edition, remastered by the album's key architect Robert Henke, follows on from the recent reissue of Monolake's first album, Hongkong.

Arriving just after the turn of the millennium, Gravity marked a turning point for Monolake. With co-founder Gerhard Behles moving on to other ventures, Henke produced most of the album solo and journeyed deeper into spatial exploration and the dub-informed principles that underpinned their project from the start. Minimalism and negative space run through the whole record, from the keen slithers of percussion pinging through lattices of delay to the hypnotising pulse of subliminal basslines anchoring the tracks. Gravity is a record which hangs on techno's linearity as a form of meditation, but the crystalline clarity of the mix allows every micro-fluctuation in rhythm and sound to cut through.

Compared to a lot of overly sterile digital music released in the early 2000s, Gravity endures thanks to the warmth and texture Henke elicited from his processes — even when leaning into none-more-digital effects like bit reduction. He described the ninth-floor view over Berlin from his studio at night as a key influence on the sound of the record, but the space Gravity shapes out feels thrillingly implacable. Unbound by the standard conventions of time and space, Gravity stands proud as a true original and finally gets the ceremonious vinyl pressing it so richly deserves.

Aviation

Bandcamp

Monolake - Aviation

Serpentine 3

Pre-order the EP : https://uselessseconds.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

Mysterious French producer Souzo takes over useless seconds’ second release with ‘The Other Side’, 5 beautiful originals full of attractive deepness, comforting analogue warmth, and seductive tones for the explorers of the mind.

The drexciyan grooves of ‘A175-4 Levit8’ and the pressure-inducing ‘Don’s Eternal Drift’ set the release’s mood and show Souzo’s delicate taste for sharp, icy transients and round, mellow subs. We just stepped through the gate. Following up is ‘Haze Modulator’, one of those tools you feel like never fading out with a perfect balance between cycles of coercive dancefloor energy and drop-out momentum.

‘Octotiger’ and ‘Overloaded Bucket’ open new corridors and make up the last chapter of the EP where Souzo showcases its interpretation of the drum & bass plus techno cross-bred genre, where rolling hi-hat loops and stomping syncopated kicks provide an anchor to his signature, ethereals and sustained textures.

Souzo - The Other Side EP
1. A175 Levit8
2. Don's Eternal Drift
3. Haze Modulator	
4. Octotiger
5. Overloaded Bucket

Written and mixed by Patrick Pereira
Artwork and design by Federico Spini
Mastered at Enisslab by Neel

Souzo - The Other Side EP (previews)

Carrier - Tender Spirits
Cat # CRRR003
Label : Carrier

Vinyl / Digital / Streaming 04/04/25

available now from Boomkat https://boomkat.com/products/tender-spirits

Carrier presents Tender Spirits, the third turn on his eponymous series that explores his abstractions at its most sparse and cerebral.

Space maintains great purpose for Guy Brewer, having experimented with this previously for multiple drum-focused missives as Carrier. On his latest release, he treads deeper into the furthest regions of dub deconstruction, with Tender Spirits offering a serene path to the inbetween.

Across 8+ minutes, Light Candles, To Mark The Way moves towards the muted sublime; a gentle half time’d bliss that ebbs and floats across the enveloping mist. Slow Punctures gradually returns to dusk, eerily surveying the hollowed-out remains of its dub architecture with an off-kilter lurch. Carpathian echoes further in stark reduction, a weightless atonal zone anchored by the abstracted pressure suspended within.

Tender Spirits tracks Carrier at exciting new parallels, unfurling his most ascendant and capacious music to date. 


Written & Produced by Guy Alexander Brewer
Mastered by Rashad Becker @ Clunk, Berlin
Iconography by MENSLIES
Photography by Benjamin Lehmann
Digital layout by Atack.uk
distribution via boomkat.com.

Carrier - Tender Spirits

Angelique Stanley

nature

Touring EU/UK June-Aug 🌎

Serpentine [2025] / @naffrecordings @animalia-label 

Heatwave [2024] / @midgar_records

Rivulets [2023] / @kalaharioystercult

Prismatic Spring [2021] / @animalia-label

Intertidal Zone [2021] / @waxo-paradiso

Anther [2020] / @steeplejackrec

Serpentine 3

OK EG

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