Klara Lewis’ latest offering is undoubtedly a heartfelt tribute to her friend, mentor and former label boss, Peter Rehberg. 

The opening track Thankful resides as a direct tribute to the track recorded under his PITA moniker, the timeless ‘Track 3’. A track of which the impact has been vast and deep, still rattling the walls of the now enormous worldwide experimental electronic scene. Countless new youth carve and project wildly distorted melodic digital matter which all falls back with a knowing or unknowing wink back to this original ground zero monster. Klara’s take on this is one that resides as a tribute to Rehberg with a cascading emotional melody gradually succumbing to a euphoric digital abyss. Thankful also comes across as a farewell gesture to her deceased friend with its beautiful, almost funerale tone. The abrupt ending is not only a method Rehberg would have relished but also a signifier of a life suddenly cut short. 

Lewis was 21 when her first album Ett was released by Editions Mego in 2014. Now at 31 years of age Editions Mego is very proud to present Thankful, a profoundly mature and emotional peak in Lewis’ career thus far.

The track Ukulele 1 is another tender tribute within an album made by a human, utilising contemporary technology with absolute sincerity, surprise twists and sublime emotion. The sound of the instrument in the title gently loops and deconstructs in a recording replete with the sound of the room it is recorded in. A human element appears at exactly the point an increasingly inhuman approach is becoming the forced raison d'etre today. Top!

One of Peter’s many repeated phrases was the word ‘top’. One he used at any occasion to agree with a vast array of subjects. With this musical tribute to Rehberg’s favourite phrase, Lewis conjures a short blast of mutant acid techno which shrivels and thrives as much as it lives and dies. 

Following Top we have the reflective and deeply moving 4U. No words. Just sounds. As it was. And lives on. 

Ukulele 2 sits at the end, as an epilogue of sorts, fashioning itself as an ouroboros with the return of the initial methodology of the previous track Thankful (track 3 tribute). This time around the sublime melody of the previous Ukulele 1 plays out in returnal as it is gently swarmed by all manner of digital play. 

Thankful is an emotionally considered and precise homage to the methodology and spirit of Peter Rehberg. A new work which inhabits the spirit for what this was written for and the general guise devised with the launch of the original MEGO label many moons ago.

Thankful

Klara Lewis 'Top' (EMEGO313)

Simply wanted to listen to this version while on the highway

smashing pumpkins - to forgive (slowed + reverb)

Venera - Exinfinite
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 153
Release Date: 12 September 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Exinfinite

Having defined a multi-dimensional sonic universe on their acclaimed eponymous debut album, composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt and Korn's James "Munky" Shaffer abandon the familiar and drift towards a kingdom of recursion on EXINFINITE, staring down a tangled mass of mirrored wormholes that hum with eldritch ambiguity. VENERA's sophomore full length is darker, heavier and more percussive than its predecessor, but there's something more intimate wired into its circuitry that's harder to define - something mystical, mysterious and melancholy. Songs materialize from the void only to be dissolved by acidic synths or pierced by Hunt's whetted beats, while Shaffer's dense, tortured riffs are offset by euphoric, time-dilated vocals from FKA twigs, Dis Fig and Chelsea Wolfe. Following their encounter with vastness, VENERA have peered inward, ruminating on the limits of existence and excavating their most deeply buried emotions.

VENERA emerged in 2022 when Hunt and Shaffer veered into their own musical territory after recording with Albanian artist Xhoana X. Improvising together and experimenting with cinematic, sci-fi-inspired sound design, the duo realized the collaboration had potential, so they began developing and evolving the sound further, bringing in assistance from former Mars Volta drummer Deantoni Parks, Queens of the Stone Age's Alain Johannes, post-punk duo VOWWS and LA noise rock legends HEALTH. And after their debut album appeared on Mike Patton's Ipecac imprint in 2023, VENERA kept deconstructing and rebuilding their approach to songwriting, swapping out ambient Eno-esque atmospheres for blown-
out beats and dense textures, and figuring out how to extend the narrative they'd opened up without retreading old ground.

On 'Tear', the duo's new direction can be heard clearly as Shaffer's primal guitar noises are reformed into eerie widescreen expositions that Hunt punctuates with pneumatic kick and snare cycles. Broken up by airlock hisses and luminous synths, the track proposes a backdrop that VENERA continuously transmute, reforging the concept as the album develops. Cult singer-songwriter Wolfe adds a gothic American flavor to the crepuscular 'All Midnights', crooning powerfully over VENERA's vacuum packed rhythms and gaseous synths, and Berlin-based noisemaker Dis Fig follows work with The Body and The Bug on 'End Uncovered' lending breathy, emotionally layered tones to Shaffer and Hunt's tape-damaged industrial pops and whirrs. They launch squelchy, decelerated techno into occult noise reflecting pools on the slithering 'Asteroxylon', and Hunt replies to Shaffer's reverberating plucks with foghorn groans on the ominous, pensive 'uuu773'.

'EXINFINITE' perpetually builds momentum until it hits 'Caroline', an intense collaboration with FKA twigs that isolates her most unearthly tones. Initially curling her words around ominous electrical distortions and mangled, ghostly voices, twigs launches into a charged operatic cry that Shaffer and Hunt meet with skittering cybernetic beats and dense walls of guitar noise. It's this track that fully cracks open VENERA's concept, merging the synthetic with the natural and prompting dysphoria, loss of self and infinite regress. So the blood-curdling noise and sinister ambiance of 'Decreation' acts like a dissociated coda. In the 'EXINFINITE', destruction and death are not overcome, they're intensified until they metamorphose completely.


Venera ft. FKA twigs - Caroline

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Panic Attack - Blueprint Records [PREMIERE]

https://blueprintrecords.bandcamp.com/album/memoir-of-disintegration-2

Samuel Kerridge emerged onto the music scene with remarkable force during the past decade, propelled by a meteoric rise that, from his very first releases, demonstrated significant artistic maturity. From the outset, his work conveyed solidity and depth; his feat, perhaps, lay in his ability to transfigure the codes of techno and adapt them to inhospitable sonic environments, all filtered through a unique and deeply personal vision.

This distinctive approach draws from a deliberately diverse spectrum of influences, ranging from drone and industrial music to post-punk, dark ambient, abstract electronics, and even metal riffs. It was this amalgamation of qualities, this powerful and singular sonic identity, that immediately marked him as a producer to watch and established him as a cornerstone of the influential label Downwards, founded by his compatriot Regis.

Now, Samuel Kerridge returns to reaffirm his status with Memoir of Disintegration, his sixth studio album. The work stands as a convergence point where the key experiences and influences that have defined his trajectory perfectly crystallize. Across eleven tracks, the author focuses on weaving complex rhythmic sequences based on polyrhythms, erecting industrial textures of tangible roughness, and applying granular sound treatments that flirt with the territories of noise. All of this is framed within corrosive ambient landscapes, creating an atmosphere of oppressive and hypnotic beauty.

Electronics, in their purest and most twisted form, act as the binding element, mixing masterfully with all these raw ingredients and endowing the whole with a sophisticated, cerebral IDM touch. Memoir of Disintegration stands out as a work of exceptional creativity and elaboration, an album that confirms Kerridge's evolution and solidifies his position as an essential and provocative visionary on the fringes of the contemporary electronic scene.

Release Date: December 5th, 2025.



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Ryohei Hattori

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