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 - Agartha

Saphileaum - New Gentle Dawn

Where Things Are Hollow: No Tomorrow

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Schrödinger’s Box is proud to unveil the latest EP from Catalonia’s own Adrian Marth (SXDNS188), a standout name in the dark side of the electronic music scene. Known for his analogue-driven sounds and dance-inducing productions, Marth brings a fresh perspective to the label with a collection of five tracks – four blood-thirsty originals and a fangy remix by Legowelt – that explore the nuanced interplay between light and dark, rhythm and melody. Each track on “Labyrinth Mind”, soon available on digital and vinyl formats, is a testament to Adrian’s mastery, drawing listeners into a world where the past and future collide in a dazzling display of sonic ingenuity.

One of the standout moments of the EP is "Beverly Hills," a track that exudes a sense of opulent nostalgia. The melodies loom with a majestic presence, intertwining with retro elements to paint a picture of 1980s grandeur. It's an operatic homage to a bygone but not forgotten era, infused with a modern twist that makes it both timeless and contemporary. The lush production and emotive undertones make "Beverly Hills" a track that is sure to leave a lasting impression on its passersby.

You can find (and buy) this and other music pearls on the Bandcamp page of the label: https://sbox.bandcamp.com/music

Follow @adrian_marth and @sboxdj, peeps!

PREMIERE723 // Adrian Marth - Beverly Hills

Mattia Prete returns to Jazz-o-Tech with a new EP that emphasises the power of collaboration. His dark, abstract Eruption EP blends electronic and jazz sounds and features musicians from the label roster across five edgy tracks.
Prete has been expanding his musical horizons in recent years. After building a solid foundation in techno, he has begun to work across a wider world of electronic and organic sounds while also working closely with formally trained musicians, plenty of whom feature on this EP. 
 
This world has allowed him to express himself more freely and authentically while adapting and responding to new and contrasting settings. From performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Daniel Calvi as 505 to DJing in underground venues like Tresor in Berlin, he continues to make innovative connections between different worlds while continuing to bring diverse artists together on this label.
 
As always with his productions, Prete went wherever the music took him with this EP. It follows no trends, is packed with expressionism and draws on deeply personal emotions while once again highlighting that techno and jazz can communicate together in many different ways. The results are cinematic and fluid, run through with dreamy synths but also built on direct and clubby rhythms with an industrial undertone.

Opener 'Nebula' Ft. Aki Himanen and Aleksi Kinnunen is a widescreen sound with live jazz drums and pained sax lingering in the air above fizzing synths. It's roomy but packed with details and ever-increasing drama. 'Solar Approach' ft Alegros rides on rubbery kick drums and has sweeping chords that reach up to the sky where twinkling melodies awake. There's a halfway switch up when breakbeats change the groove and sombre trumpets sweep across the mix.
'Subway Juice' ft. TUN is much more direct and physical. The sax notes are busy and restless, the drums crash hard and the cymbals splash loudly while acid motifs and busy melodic scales play out in a wild frenzy. 'Cactus' brings a punchy jungle rhythm and icy synths bring unease and edginess to the oversized bass, then Prete collaborates with Daniel Calvi and Leonie on 'Palettes'. It's another bold and in-your-face collision of brass, bass guitar, punishing drums and low-end menace that drives into darkness.
  
Jazz-o-Tech is a label that draws on the rich heritage of two of the most visionary and experimental genes in music: jazz and techno. Taking inspiration from the freeform creative nature of those two musical worlds, artists on the label mix tradition with modernity, improvisation with experimentation, and create a new sound known as techno-jazz. Modern music needs to be ambitious. It must aim to deliver a musical message which is one step beyond what has already been heard. It must take you on a new musical journey into unknown dimensions and emotions. That is the Jazz-o-Tech mission.

Credits:

Track 1 features Aki Himanen on trumpet and Aleksi Kinnunen on Drums

Track 2 features Alegros Gramma on Saxophone

Track 3 features TUN (Torino Unlimited Noise) with Gianni Denitto on Saxophone, Mattia Barbieri on drums, and Fabio Giachino on Keys and Synths.

Track 5 features Daniel Calvi on Synths and Electric Bass, and Leonie on Saxophone

Written, produced and arranged by Mattia Prete
at Garden 505 Studio in Berlin.

Mixed and Mastered by Luigi Di Filippo at LRS Factory in Rome

Artwork by Todo Kunst

Released by Jazz-O-Tech

Solar Approach ft. Alegros

Pet 2000 - Synchronized Dimensions-25 (Only Vinyl Mix) (February 2025)

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Pet 2000 (Mallorca island) now offers us, every month, an exclusive Electro Vinyl Mix on Tracklistings.

Recorded with Rodec CX1100, Technics SL1200 and SoundBite Pro

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Tracklist :
01. Caustica - Late Night - Caustica Waveform
02. Promising/Youngster - Both Of You - Analogical Force
03. Nullptr - Connected - Central Processing Unit
04. Elecktroids - Silicon Valley - Clone Classic Cuts
05. Promising/Youngster - Signals - Dialecto Periferico
06. Lowfish - Knives - Electro Records
07. Versalife - Out Of Ether - Apnea
08. Anthony Rother - Matrix - Dominance Electricity
09. 214 - Approaching Sector - Science Cult
10. Suburban Knight - Predator's Language - Underground Resistance
11. Resura - Mother - Echo Alpha Recordings
12. Biodread - No Hope (Morphology Remix) - X0X Records
13. London Modular Alliance - Remainder - Private Persons
14. Kafkactrl - Hashing Technic - Gladio Operations
15. Data Theft - Amen Code - Rat Life
16. CEM3340 - Profondo Rosso - Curtis Electronix
17. Cyrk - Obsession - Burial Soil
18. Saigg - Hu Of Synth - Mars Defenders
19. AtomTM - Selbst - Raster
20. I-F - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass - Disko B
21. Maelstrom - Expression Directe - Cultivated Electronics LTD
22. Abandoned Footwear - Mind Over Matter - Polybius Trax
23. Vidrio - Predator - Pi Gao Movement
24. False Persona - Knocking Featuring Nite Fleit - Acid Avengers
25. Human Rebellion X Power - Fake Reality - Midi Mode Records
26. Clark - Kin Griff - Warp Records
27. The Bandit - 2013 - Dialecto Periferico
28. LFO - Freak - Warp Records
29. Ben Prest - Who Would Have Thought I'd Be - Cultivated Electronics LTD
30. Assembler Code + Jensen Interceptor - Nrg Lvls - Trust
31. Godley & Creme - Babies - Polydor

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Follow Pet 2000 :
Discogs : www.discogs.com/artist/10053883-Pet-2000
Mixcloud : www.mixcloud.com/pet2000
SoundCloud : www.soundcloud.com/pet2000x

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Pet 2000 - Synchronized Dimensions-25 (Only Vinyl Mix) (2025.02.20)

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