https://soundcloud.com/freybenedikt
https://soundcloud.com/esp-institute
🛒 https://freybenedikt.bandcamp.com/album/fastlane
🔊 https://youtu.be/nVzU6dgMxek

Close your eyes and merge into Benedikt Frey’s 'Fastlane'. Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat of a an automobile, one with exceptional horsepower and torque, as you stare out the windshield at the red light, warping in fata-morgana a mile down the road. It’s a straight-away, a black top with two lanes, and against your better judgment you decide to floor the gas. No hesitation in your muscle, your ankle or the ball of your foot, which you now realize is some kind of universal pivot, the first point of contact fusing your body with the will of machine. In this moment you’re in awe that you, a human, an animal, grew from pond scum into something so advanced as to engineer this thing, a mechanical beast capable of overwhelming power and exhilaration. But you also feel a seductive dread, an outside force diverting you from caution toward a dangling carrot of curiosity, asking yourself, ‘How far can I take this thing?’ The dread, now a constant, is numbed, equalized by an adverse intoxicating gratification. You feel both sensations in real time, however, rather than take responsibility for yourself, friends, family and innocent bystanders, you cement your foot to the floor and lean your head back. Noise around you fades to mute. Smell the benzene-scented air, feel the wind on your face, the menacing vibration of the vessel you control beneath you and every grain of asphalt under its tires. This mile has now lasted an eternity and you’ve left your body for some objective view, as if watching climax of a film. Past the point of no return, you embrace abandon and lean into fate. The film becomes slow motion, a crawling pace so mesmerizing you convince yourself of an option to eject yourself from this madness, but as you finally let go of your last morsel of fear, you run the red light head-on into the nucleus of a fantastic glistening sculpture of torn metal, glass, oil, broken dreams and heartache. 'Fastlane' may be just drum machines and synthesizers if you’re timid, but listen harder and know the catastrophic reality of existence, a wreckage so gruesome we dare not rubberneck, but afterall it is our nature to stare.

PREMIERE: Benedikt Frey - Crank [ESP Institute]

Rugštus Slėnis presents a mix full of chill, downtempo vibes. He will be opening the Valley Stage on Thursday at Yaga Gathering 2024 as part of an exceptional Whypeopledance Showcase. 

@rugstusslenis

》tickets: yaga.lt/tickets
》www.yaga.lt
》www.instagram.com/yagathering
》www.facebook.com/YagaGathering

YAGA'24: Rūgštus Slėnis | Valley

Here we are, ten years in and with a 2xLP on pink vinyl featuring 17 esteemed artists that you will hopefully love as much as I do after immersing yourself in these 80 minutes of music. They are each worthy of an introduction. Track them down where you can and support their work. And most importantly enjoy these little samples of their sublimely creative endeavours. Last but not least, thanks goes to everyone who has supported the label over the years...you know who you are.

https://soundcloud.com/dreemsdreems
https://soundcloud.com/invisible-inc

PREMIERE⚡️Dreems - Persepection [Invisible Inc.]

Omega Interpretations #3

Omega (Van Bonn Oh Mega Dub)

Hot summer rain hits the cracked pavement in uneven rhythms. A neon sign flickers above a café that never seems to close, its warm white light reflected in the wet ground like a fever dream. The air smells of summer and the world hums with an easy tone, as if the city itself is holding its breath. A light flooded film noir-ish scene, that needs a soundtrack like „POOL JAMS“, the new album of INIT, the Berlin based duo, that already caused quite a stir with their albums for Hivern Discs and Optimo Music. This time, they bring their latest creations out on R.i.O. - a label, with whom they are deeply associated. Their fourth longplayer is a playful one. One that brings trip hopping feelings. That has r’n’b grace, without catering regular trademarks of the genre. Dub, trance, drone, is all there too. Yet, nothing is present in pure definition. Rather suggested, interwoven, or newly twisted in a songwriting style, that haunts and
seduces. On top the voice of Nadia D'Alò dances, steps and hums tempting to the grooves she created with her partner in crime Benedikt Frey. Together they fashioned a record, that, as INIT puts it, is „some kind of old photo from an old dry empty pool that got faded by sunlight “. A dreamy, sunny piece of song art, made for endless smoky LA freeway drives, and other adventures that seek for infinite riddance. You can dream it. You can trance it. You can’t escape it, as soon as it rotates in your dream device for sound and vision.

Text ML

INIT - Pinata

Another contribution from Saphileaum - this time in a form of a remix.

Jodo is the track I created as a tribute to Alejandro Jodorowsky, one of my favorite writers. Saphileaum completely re-imagined it and the result is beautiful, light and joyful piece of music. It matches so well with the sun sparkles on the sea!

V.A. – Saulėlydis — an ode to the sunset — is out as a 2×LP and digital release on June 21, 2025.

Saulėlydis

Simas Slabačiauskas - Jodo (Saphileaum remix)

Collection of Memories tells the story of where my music begins, with original recordings used in my album Blurred Memories and personal sounds that have inspired me. My Vietnamese heritage has shaped my music through the sounds of martial arts, pagodas, home cooking, dragon dances, and more.

This is a collage of those memories:

My grandmother arrived in France after the Indochina War with her ten children. The Vietnamese families who left Indochina at that time arrived in France by boat, and some were settled in an empty village in the center of France called Noyant. There, they recreated a little Vietnam to feel at home, keeping traditions and habits alive—women wearing silk pyjamas, grilling skewers in the garden wearing bamboo hats, listening to Vietnamese bolero all day long, and built a pagoda. As children, my cousins and I would always play there, next to the huge black statue of a sitting Buddha, with the sound of chimes hanging in the trees.

Every year, our family gathers in this village on the day of my grandmother’s birthday (a random date that was assigned to her when she arrived in France). We spend the weekend cooking in enormous rice cookers and pots—caramelised pork and delicious grilled lemongrass beef skewers. My uncles light firecrackers, and then the dragon dance begins. Everyone takes part—cousins, aunts, uncles, and the little ones—playing drums, dancing under the dragon’s head and tail.

The dragon dance is traditionally performed by martial arts practitioners. Viet Vo Dao (Vietnamese martial arts) holds an important place in my family and connects us all. My uncles and my father are masters and each founded their own school many years ago. Every summer, we gathered at the martial arts camp organised by one of my uncles—this was our family holiday. I recorded many sounds from these sessions, including traditional weapons and instruments.

Hanoi has also been a huge source of inspiration, helping me understand the origins of certain family traditions and behaviours. While living there, I recorded many sounds from daily life: karaoke singers in the streets, celebrations I could hear from my home, women chatting, cooking, or yelling in the alleys, traditional concerts in front of pagodas, martial arts sessions...

Simas Slabačiauskas - Jodo (Saphileaum remix)

Simas Slabačiauskas

Recent comments

Stephanie Jennings

Related tracks