Artist: Sote
Title: Ministry of Tall Tales
Label: SVBKVLT
Cat No: SBKT062
Artwork: Leila Hobooty Fard, Arash Bolouri & Luke Griffiths
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Format: Limited LP + digital
Release date: 29th February 2024

For our first album release of 2024, we are excited and honored to welcome Sote to the SVBKVLT family with ‘Ministry of Tall Tales’

Ata Ebtekar, better known as Sote, is an electronic music composer and sound artist based in Tehran, Iran. His wide-ranging love of rich sounds and textures is embodied in diverse paths such as hardcore club sounds, collaborations that straddle (traditional) acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and solo experimental electronics – making Ebtekar equally at home in concert halls, galleries, or clubs. Over the last three decades, he has released on labels such as Warp, Sub Rosa, Morphine, Diagonal, and Opal Tapes.

‘Ministry of Tall Tales’ is an electronic music composition that reflects on hyperbolic orchestrations of political and social current affairs.

In this work, notions such as misinformation/disinformation, biased mental states, bigotry, dogma and ultimately corruption are brainchild of the composer in order to achieve a sonic spirit in abstract form.

Ludicrous and distorted human behaviors are told by magnifying musical intervals and entering the spaces in-between, and simultaneously dramatizing subtle microtonal motifs, ultra-fine polyrhythmic, polymetric and polytempic pitched patterns assemble the skeleton of an engine symbolizing various systems.

The configuration and framework of this mechanism represents both harmonious and non-harmonious aspects in society. Rearranging and coloring components of tradition, neglecting moral codes, and separating ingredients of rituals to showcase humankind’s failures and accomplishments.

The composer has been experiencing an immense amount of frustration, anger, confusion, helplessness and fear because of what has been happening in his surroundings and the sociopolitical system. Consequently, the music is contemplations on corruption, oppression and murder.

“Ministry Of Tall Tales” is an all-synthesis based work, dark and melodic with a noise aesthetic.

SBKT062: Sote - Ministry of Tall Tales

SBKT063: Osheyack & Nahash - Bait
Release date: 18th April 2024

'Bait’ is the second collaborative EP from Osheyack and Nahash, following 2021’s ‘Club Apathy. 4 club-ready tracks, with remixes from Florentino and Safety Trance.

Cover photo: Jedi Zhou
Design: Luke Griffiths
Creative Direction: Dre Romero
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

SBKT063: Osheyack & Nahash - Bait

SBKT064: sideproject - sourcepond
Release date: 30th May 2024

Following up from work on Björk´s 'Fossora', Icelandic trio 'sideproject' debut on SVBKVLT with their new full-length album 'sourcepond'. Taking influence from the fog-covered wetlands of their native island, sideproject transfigure influences from the low-end frequencies of grime and bass music, and reshape it into a haze of transient-smeared beats accompanied by breathy synths that grow ever wetter till they slip beneath the surface tensions of their harmonic stratum. Compared to previous output, 'sourcepond' opts for a more concise approach to their music, stacking up their influences of experimental electronic, Icelandic punk and contemporary club music, and builds a sound that oscillates between melodic hooks and experimental rhythms. Each track carves through the sensuous material, pulling the listener into the dank sourcepond as though magnetic forces were guiding a bird's beak towards misty horizons.

Artwork by sideproject
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

SBKT064: sideproject - sourcepond

Taken from SBKT046: Rilla - Yugeki / 遊撃 EP

Cover Design: Tianyi
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Release Date: 21st January 2022

For our first release of 2022 we are excited to welcome Fukuoka born, Kyoto based producer RILLA to the SVBKVLT roster with ‘Yugeki / 遊撃’, the first in a series of EPs for the label.

Featuring 5 thunderous original tracks, and packaged with equally fierce remixes from Howie Lee, Osheyack and Hyph11E, the title ‘Yugeki’ translates to ‘attacking the enemy or assisting allies as the opportunity arises’, a ‘search-and-destroy mission’ or a military action without a predetermined target. Tianyi’s artwork encompasses this concept perfectly with a cloaked combatant, bow drawn, prepared for action.

Rilla

Rilla has been active in the Japanese music scene for almost 25 years, starting as a DJ in Tokyo in 1997 and a buyer for Cisco Records since 2002. His event ‘Almadella’ with Keihin and Yusaku Shigeyasu presented and toured artists such as Shackleton, Peverelist, Scuba, Goth-Trad and Karafuto aka Fumiya Tanaka, with Rilla himself playing over 50 events a year. Since 2012 he has been based in Kyoto, and in 2020 released his first EP ‘SFTM002’ on Torei’s ‘Set Fire To Me’ label. His SVBKVLT debut ‘Yugeki / 遊撃’ sees Rilla expand outside of Japan for the first time, with a second EP set for release later in 2022

Yugeki / 遊撃 EP

Rilla - Isn's (Osheyack Remix)

Taken from SBKT049: Osheyack - Intimate Publics
Release date: 8th June 2022

Intimate Publics, Osheyack’s second album, is an homage to Shanghai, the city he has called home since 2012. Over the past ten years the producer has evolved from an avid club-goer to a key member of the vital soundscape that emerged from ALL Club and its predecessor, the now defunct club The Shelter. As hinted by the title, which draws on American social theorist Michael Warner’s work on publics and counterpublics, the album expresses a commitment to mining the utopian potential of club music, forging new worlds and generating future social relations, just as the artist bids farewell to the city at a moment of uncertain transition. While tracks like 'Edging' and 'Thrall' continue to present his signature collage of harder club music, the rest of the record reveals a shift to synthetic approximations of acoustic instruments. 'Still', the central track of the album, is a piece composed almost entirely of samples found on Vocaloid (a vocal synthesizer developed by Yamaha, commonly used to give voice to Japanese virtual idols). While echoing themes explored in previous projects, like the nature of realism and authenticity in a techno-mediated landscape, Intimate Publics is charged with an unexpected emotional candor and vulnerability, unveiling a personal side Osheyack is only beginning to explore.

Words by Alvin Li
Artwork by Xiaofei Qiu
Design by Luke Griffiths
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

Intimate Publics

Osheyack - Thrall

Taken from SBKT050: ABADIR - Mutate
Release date: 22nd July 2022

Marking the 50th release-proper on SVBKVLT, we are excited to present ‘Mutate’, a new album by ABADIR.

‘Mutate’ started when I was trying out Maqsoum loops at high bpm blended with Jungle tracks during one of my DJ sets. I noticed that the Maqsoum rhythm complements the Amen break in a refreshing way. The first time I actually tried integrating both in my productions using “call and response” was when Ice_Eyes asked me to remix one of their tracks. The result was the closest to what I had always imagined to be my own club sound.

I set out to make an album using the same technique with some of my favorite club genres. My aim was to mutate those genres, collecting different types of Arabic rhythms and cooking them with Jungle, Jersey Club, Reggaeton, Footwork, etc. It’s an irreversible equation, like a chemical reaction, where the output is a melted piece which cannot be broken down into its separate inputs. Instead of ‘deconstructing’ or generally looking beyond club music, I made some fatty, straight up dance floor music.’ – ABADIR

------

AِBADIR (Rami Abadir) is a music producer and sound designer born in Cairo, Egypt. His work focuses on experimental, club, glitch and ambient music, and he’s one half of the duo 0N4B. .


Artwork: Luke Griffiths
Photograph: Omar Elkafrawy
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Special thanks to Amira Elmasry

Mutate

ABADIR - Mutate

Taken from SBKT050: ABADIR - Mutate
Release date: 22nd July 2022

Marking the 50th release-proper on SVBKVLT, we are excited to present ‘Mutate’, a new album by ABADIR.

‘Mutate’ started when I was trying out Maqsoum loops at high bpm blended with Jungle tracks during one of my DJ sets. I noticed that the Maqsoum rhythm complements the Amen break in a refreshing way. The first time I actually tried integrating both in my productions using “call and response” was when Ice_Eyes asked me to remix one of their tracks. The result was the closest to what I had always imagined to be my own club sound.

I set out to make an album using the same technique with some of my favorite club genres. My aim was to mutate those genres, collecting different types of Arabic rhythms and cooking them with Jungle, Jersey Club, Reggaeton, Footwork, etc. It’s an irreversible equation, like a chemical reaction, where the output is a melted piece which cannot be broken down into its separate inputs. Instead of ‘deconstructing’ or generally looking beyond club music, I made some fatty, straight up dance floor music.’ – ABADIR

------

AِBADIR (Rami Abadir) is a music producer and sound designer born in Cairo, Egypt. His work focuses on experimental, club, glitch and ambient music, and he’s one half of the duo 0N4B. .

Artwork: Luke Griffiths
Photograph: Omar Elkafrawy
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Special thanks to Amira Elmasry

ABADIR - Another One

Taken from SBKT051: Swimful - Rushlight
Artwork: Luke Griffiths
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Release Date: 14th September 2022

Returning for his 5th release on SVBKVLT, we are excited to present ‘Rushlight’, a 5 track EP by Swimful, with remixes from Hyperdub’s Ikonika and Nyege Nyege’s Phelimuncasi, and artwork by Luke Griffiths.

Rushlight

Swimful - Translation to Heaven

Swimful - Official Party Line

Swimful - Backwards

Taken from SBKT053: Zaliva-D - 孽儿谣 Misbegotten Ballads
Release date: 23rd November 2022

孽儿谣 Misbegotten Ballads is the long-awaited fourth studio album from Beijing based A/V duo Zaliva-D.

--------

The years are passed on to the elderly, and the elderly sing to the children. Unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

A song for several lifetimes, then blurred and reduced to a hum.

People who have forgotten where home is, believe in deceptive signposts.

Festive steps backwards, one step to the left, two steps to the right, singing without using the mouth, humming, not knowing who is who.

Faces ingress into kids, laughing and jumping, shouting and pissing. Darkness pours into midnight musume, floating in the water, two eyes, three eyes, not me, not me either.

The river waves all the way. Stars that lead the singing, towards the ripples of the bells, stumbling and untidy.

------

Artwork by 周沫 MoZhou
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

孽儿谣 Misbegotten Ballads

Zaliva-D - 吊揉揉 Diao Rou Rou

Taken from SBKT055: TRANCE BAND - Entrancing
Release date: 3rd March 2023

In a global landscape that increasingly prioritizes individuality over collaborative expression, TRANCE is a distinctive project. Initiated by Chinese multidisciplinary artist Tianzhuo Chen, best known for his work with Asian Dope Boys, TRANCE is as artistically amorphous as its constantly evolving line-up, that fluctuates as it shimmers across borders and time-zones. In 2019, the project was demoed in Beijing as part of a solo exhibition from Chen, a 12-hour durational performance that examined the altered states of living and dying and pondered the sounds, sensations, bodies and spaces that notion might suggest. On hold for three years due to COVID-19 restrictions, TRANCE was eventually premiered in Hamburg at the Kampnagel Theatre last year where it was presented as a surreal three-day ceremony. This time around the Trance Band was made up of Berlin-based noisemaker and vocalist Dis Fig, Indonesia's Gabber Modus Operandi, musician and MC KIM KHAN, guitarist and engineer Felix-Florian Tödtloff, and Vancouver-based percussionist and producer CITY. Chen directed the show, channeling each artist's unique energy into an alliance that highlighted their independent skills while pushing towards ideas that simply couldn't have been realized discretely.

"Entrancing" is a live documentation of that incendiary Hamburg session, powered by the performative fireworks that came from having the project halted for two years before it was allowed to burst into life once more. Just as with previous iterations of TRANCE, the space was terraformed into an alien landscape that allowed the collective to enact a carnivalesque display that was tightly controlled but creatively boundless. Musical u-turns were accompanied by monumental stage overhauls that reshaped a muddy, fog-filled outdoor riverscape into an arena, or a sweaty nightclub. This theatrical impact can't be visualized as clearly on the record, but musical cues do just enough heavy lifting to provide a tantalizing contour. When the alluring electro-acoustic plucks and resonant sustained string tones of 'There's a Ghost in the Lantern' cascade into cinematic drone metal on 'Ylva's Theme', it's impossible not to be drawn into the TRANCE narrative. Sonic stage lights flicker with uncommon intensity as the nebulous group rewrite their collective personal stories into stirring, synergistic poetry.

"Something changes!" KIM KHAN calls out on 'Soft and Black', cutting through warbling synths and itchy beatbox percussion. The track builds quickly, reaching a sizzling crescendo of buzzsaw noise and acidic electronics. It's a stylistic sea change that channels the group's kinetic energy into a rock show, and CITY picks up the message on 'Trance Genesis', adding rapid-fire drums to a barrage of guitar skronk. 'Shaolin Affliction' glues Trance Band's jagged artistic edges to a vintage metal template, gradually dissolving into throaty post-hardcore, while 'My Fortress' brings the show to a powerful conclusion with Dis Fig assuming the role of grunge balladeer, bellowing into the void over cacophonous live instrumentation. Unbound by musical and artistic conventions, TRANCE peers out from the basement, the gallery and the playhouse to forge an expression that's all of this and something new entirely. It's refreshing, witty, exhilarating and most of all, completely unpredictable.

Entrancing

v1984 & City - Parallel Phrases [digital only]

Taken from SBKT061: 33EMYBW - Holes of Sinian
Release date: 8th November 2023

Photography: Hqeivy
Design: Luke Griffiths
Mastering: Raphael Valensi


‘Holes of Sinian’ is the fourth studio album from Shanghai based artist 33EMYBW, and features collaborations with Marina Herlop, Batu, Forrest Gander and oxi peng.


‘Time is a porous Sinian stone.

The mystery of the Sinian stone lies in the "holes" rather than the "stones" - these holes constitute the beauty of the Sinian stone, forming overlapping gaps and penetrating scenes, and also constructing the existence of the Sinian stone itself . The mysteries and contingencies of life are like holes in stone, densely covered in time, leaving fractal paths and jumping clues in the evolution history of the earth. Ghosts of the oldest Ediacaran biota wander among them - "Evolution Failed!" But instead of dying, they drift from rocky crevices into another dimension, from hole to hole, haunting them in nonlinear time, replanning another arrival.’

Holes of Sinian

Preorder

33EMYBW - Holes of Time 时间之孔 feat. oxi peng

Taken from SBKT062: Sote - Ministry of Tall Tales

Limited LP + digital
Release date: 29th February 2024

For our first album release of 2024, we are excited and honored to welcome Sote to the SVBKVLT family with ‘Ministry of Tall Tales’

Ata Ebtekar, better known as Sote, is an electronic music composer and sound artist based in Tehran, Iran. His wide-ranging love of rich sounds and textures is embodied in diverse paths such as hardcore club sounds, collaborations that straddle (traditional) acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and solo experimental electronics – making Ebtekar equally at home in concert halls, galleries, or clubs. Over the last three decades, he has released on labels such as Warp, Sub Rosa, Morphine, Diagonal, and Opal Tapes.

‘Ministry of Tall Tales’ is an electronic music composition that reflects on hyperbolic orchestrations of political and social current affairs.

In this work, notions such as misinformation/disinformation, biased mental states, bigotry, dogma and ultimately corruption are brainchild of the composer in order to achieve a sonic spirit in abstract form.

Ludicrous and distorted human behaviors are told by magnifying musical intervals and entering the spaces in-between, and simultaneously dramatizing subtle microtonal motifs, ultra-fine polyrhythmic, polymetric and polytempic pitched patterns assemble the skeleton of an engine symbolizing various systems.

The configuration and framework of this mechanism represents both harmonious and non-harmonious aspects in society. Rearranging and coloring components of tradition, neglecting moral codes, and separating ingredients of rituals to showcase humankind’s failures and accomplishments.

The composer has been experiencing an immense amount of frustration, anger, confusion, helplessness and fear because of what has been happening in his surroundings and the sociopolitical system. Consequently, the music is contemplations on corruption, oppression and murder.

“Ministry Of Tall Tales” is an all-synthesis based work, dark and melodic with a noise aesthetic.


Artwork: Leila Hobooty Fard, Arash Bolouri & Luke Griffiths
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

Ministry of Tall Tales

Sote - River of Pain

Taken from SBKT062: Sote - Ministry of Tall Tales

Limited LP + digital
Release date: 29th February 2024

For our first album release of 2024, we are excited and honored to welcome Sote to the SVBKVLT family with ‘Ministry of Tall Tales’

Ata Ebtekar, better known as Sote, is an electronic music composer and sound artist based in Tehran, Iran. His wide-ranging love of rich sounds and textures is embodied in diverse paths such as hardcore club sounds, collaborations that straddle (traditional) acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and solo experimental electronics – making Ebtekar equally at home in concert halls, galleries, or clubs. Over the last three decades, he has released on labels such as Warp, Sub Rosa, Morphine, Diagonal, and Opal Tapes.

‘Ministry of Tall Tales’ is an electronic music composition that reflects on hyperbolic orchestrations of political and social current affairs.

In this work, notions such as misinformation/disinformation, biased mental states, bigotry, dogma and ultimately corruption are brainchild of the composer in order to achieve a sonic spirit in abstract form.

Ludicrous and distorted human behaviors are told by magnifying musical intervals and entering the spaces in-between, and simultaneously dramatizing subtle microtonal motifs, ultra-fine polyrhythmic, polymetric and polytempic pitched patterns assemble the skeleton of an engine symbolizing various systems.

The configuration and framework of this mechanism represents both harmonious and non-harmonious aspects in society. Rearranging and coloring components of tradition, neglecting moral codes, and separating ingredients of rituals to showcase humankind’s failures and accomplishments.

The composer has been experiencing an immense amount of frustration, anger, confusion, helplessness and fear because of what has been happening in his surroundings and the sociopolitical system. Consequently, the music is contemplations on corruption, oppression and murder.

“Ministry Of Tall Tales” is an all-synthesis based work, dark and melodic with a noise aesthetic.

Artwork: Leila Hobooty Fard, Arash Bolouri & Luke Griffiths
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

Sote - Kangaroo Court

Sote - Lips Seeking the Forbidden

Sote - Motion in Morality

Sote - Separating Ingrediants of Rituals

Taken from SBKT063: Osheyack & Nahash - Bait

Release date: 18th April 2024

'Bait’ is the second collaborative EP from Osheyack and Nahash, following 2021’s ‘Club Apathy. 4 club-ready tracks, with remixes from Florentino and Safety Trance.

Cover photo: Jedi Zhou
Design: Luke Griffiths
Creative Direction: Dre Romero
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

Bait

Osheyack & Nahash - Bait

Osheyack & Nahash - Dream, Shit, Dream

Osheyack & Nahash - Elite Capture

Osheyack & Nahash - Temperance

Osheyack & Nahash - Bait (Florentino Remix)

Osheyack & Nahash - Dream, Shit, Dream (Safety Trance Remix)

Taken from SBKT064: sideproject - sourcepond
Release date: 30th May 2024

Following up from work on Björk´s 'Fossora', Icelandic trio 'sideproject' debut on SVBKVLT with their new full-length album 'sourcepond'. Taking influence from the fog-covered wetlands of their native island, sideproject transfigure influences from the low-end frequencies of grime and bass music, and reshape it into a haze of transient-smeared beats accompanied by breathy synths that grow ever wetter till they slip beneath the surface tensions of their harmonic stratum. Compared to previous output, 'sourcepond' opts for a more concise approach to their music, stacking up their influences of experimental electronic, Icelandic punk and contemporary club music, and builds a sound that oscillates between melodic hooks and experimental rhythms. Each track carves through the sensuous material, pulling the listener into the dank sourcepond as though magnetic forces were guiding a bird's beak towards misty horizons.

Artwork by sideproject
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

sourcepond

sideproject - weight

sideproject - perlin Worm

sideproject - captcha land art

sideproject - peephole feat. John McCowen

sideproject - sospir

sideproject - cannonposting

sideproject - double zebra

sideproject - vasulka (basúkka mix)

sideproject - wet cement

sideproject - swamp merchant

sideproject - bering strait

sideproject - fluttertongue

Taken from SBKT065: ABADIR & Nahash - Marchadair مرشدير
Release date: 25th September 2024

Over the past few years, Nahash and ABADIR have been sharing food recipes, the same sense of humour, and their love for 90's rave, Beth Gibbons, Sun Ra, and grilled lamb. They met last summer for the first time and enjoyed a B2B together during a label showcase in Fano, Italy. Their memories of and appreciation for 90’s and early 00’s Arabic pop music inspired their first collaboration on SVBKVLT. Marchadair is the distillation of the meaty club sound by both producers; ABADIR’s micro-edited audio sampling and surgical chopped percussions mixed with Nahash’s lavish dub techniques and hefty bass, all serving as the main ingredients for these 4 heavyweight tracks. To close the menu, the EP features remixes by Ehua and Toumba.

The track titles play on a symbolic link between both artists and their native languages, using French words that have morphed into Egyptian slang. This Franco-Egyptian mixture echoes the hybrid sound of the EP.

Artwork by Dave Gaskarth
Mastered by Raphael Valensi

ABADIR & Nahash - Tenterlé تنترليه

Taken from SBKT021: Osheyack - Empty Hell
Release date: May 11th 2018

Empty Hell is the second EP from Osheyack for SVBKVLT, containing 3 original tracks plus remixes from KABLAM and Via App. The release was inspired by a text written by Jordan Tierney, and features artwork by Dre Romero. A limited edition, long sleeved shirt featuring the artwork and a back patch with the text will coincide with the release.

@osheyack
@ka-blam
@dylanscheer

Empty Hell

Osheyack - I Not Me

Empty Hell is the second EP from Osheyack for SVBKVLT, containing 3 original tracks plus remixes from KABLAM and Via App. The release was inspired by a text written by Jordan Tierney, and features artwork by Dre Romero. A limited edition, long sleeved shirt featuring the artwork and a back patch with the text will coincide with the release.

Osheyack - Hidden Teeth

Taken from SBKT026: Various Artists - Cache 01

Release date: April 26th 2019

Mastered by Raphael Valensi
Artwork by Kim Laughton

Cache 01

Osheyack & Nahash - Hold Pattern

Tzusing & Hodge - Electrolytes

Gabber Modus Operandi - Sangkakala II

Taken from SBKT029: Gabber Modus Operandi - HOXXXYA
Release date: 16th August 2019

For the 29th release on SVBKVLT we are excited to present ‘HOXXXYA’, a new album from Indonesia’s Gabber Modus Operandi. Artwork by Asian Dope Boys’ Chen Tianzhuo, mastered by Raphael Valensi

‘For this album, we owe a lot to the metal/noise scene and to the small rapidly growing rave crew in Denpasar, while at the same time a ton of influence strongly came from all the sounds blasting out from our banjar (neighborhood) community, the loudest spirits of Dangdut Koplo and Indonesian happy hardcore, to gamelan sounds and everything in between.’
– Gabber Modus Operandi

HOXXXYA

Gabber Modus Operandi - Sangkakala III

Taken from SBKT039: Osheyack & Nahash - Club Apathy
Release date: 2nd April 2021

‘Club Apathy’ is a new collaborative EP from Osheyack and Nahash. 4 club-ready tracks, with remixes from DJ Marcelle and Nkisi.

Cover photo: Dre Romero
Layout & Design: Luke Griffiths
Handstyles: Orron Fearon
Makeup: Freya Ni 
Hair: 柯维涛
Model: Ary
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

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