An elusive producer comes back with a new mantle: Ruff Cherry, last seen on the label in 2017, returns with an EP of shredded halftime drum & bass with jungle accents that etches out a dominating stance in the producer’s first foray outside the thresholds of techno. Hugely distant from a meager first stab at the genre, the Cork-based producer’s ‘Phantom Fortress’ EP proficiently demarcates a sparse battleground for conflicting and rhythmically harmonic drum flairs, enveloping bass, and taut sound design that is as compelling as it is exhilarating.

Words by Freddie Hudson

Ruff Cherry - Phantom Fortress EP
https://soundcloud.com/ruffcherry

A1. Pass Real
A2. Livingdoom
B1. Tricky Dice
B2. Ruff Experience
D1. Livingdoom (Ruff Edit) 

Release Date
Digital : 15th June 2022
Vinyl : 30 November 2022

Mastering by Neel at Enisslab Rome
Artwork by Jacopo Severitano

Buy & Support

Ruff Cherry - B2. Ruff Experience

@magnapia a.k.a seasoned producer, DJ, and composer Hüseyin Evirgen, announces his second full-length album, ‘QUT’, arriving on Inland’s Counterchange label in March on double vinyl.

After 2 steamrolling EPs of club tracks on the label - now entering its tenth year of action - Magna Pia presents his most complete and advanced body of work to date, weaving a dense narrative of drone, figurative synthesis, bass-heavy electronica, and abstract techno.

Over eight tracks each referencing his rich cultural and musical background, we are treated to a unique overview of a producer at the crest of his art. The word ‘Qut’ is an ancient positive affirmation, in one short word encompassing all that is sacred, pure and good. The Old Turkic term meaning not only ‘good fortune’ and ‘joy’, but in shamanic circles, the ‘wonder of the heavens’, permeates the roots of Evirgen’s multi-heritage history.

That Evirgen expresses his interpretation of this central theme through the marriage of bewitching melodies with atonal, experimental and rumbling electronics is a conscious comment on the distortions and mutations of our Modern Era. We now exist in the digital age of the Technosphere for better or worse, and must seek beauty wherever possible.

The opening ‘Prologue’ invites the listener into a futuristic yet organic sound world, where lush stereo processing goes hand in hand with rumbling bass and subtly detuned drone languages. From the echoes of traditional Uyghur folk music, translated via synthesizers into a glistening slow-diving opus (‘Qizil’), to churning dub-techno adorned with a symphony of evolving sine-waves (‘Venus M’), Evirgen then deploys ‘X’ - a haunting experimental piece composed predominantly with his voice and electronic processing.

The interweaving synth lines of ‘Gudanna’ pierce the fog with a radiant and transcendent club-techno bounce before the ode to the ancient Bronze Age goddess ‘Astarte’ unfolds its snare-driven broken-beat formations. The title track ‘Qut’ embodies by far the heaviest club track of the album, in a deadly, stripped-back moment of future-techno hypnotism. Dancing flames of purple-tongued synthesis are held (just) in line by a wonderfully tough throb of drums.

With his ‘Epilogue’, Magna Pia allows the spectral ideas and concepts laid out across the LP to connect and travel full circle, confirming our suspicions that this could be one of the most coherent and exciting works to emerge in the brave new field of introspective, and sensitive techno-electronic language.

Written & Produced by Magna Pia, Berlin, 2022
Mastered by Inland
P & C Counterchange 2023
COUNTER034

Order 2 x 12''

Magna Pia - QUT LP [COUNTER034] preview

@killerrkat]
artwork www.tumblr.com/mycrewfuckyou

Hugo Mesi - ICON

LOST RAÅ’s deep journey mix.1

Datashader emerges from the shadows with a striking breaks- and bass-heavy debut release that challenges the fabric of our digital existence. Replete with a Dopplereffekt remix, it nods to the legacy of revered anonymous acts such as Scopex, Drexciya and Underground Resistance, pushing the boundaries of both electronic music exploration and its conceptual underpinnings. As a critique of the erosion of genuine human connection in the digital age, Datashader delivers a barrage of billowing subs, infectious electro, recontextualized jungle, and techno, serving as a poignant counterbalance to current dance floor-centric norms. It's a contemporary anti-soundtrack that offers a haunting mirror to the societal costs of technological convenience. 

In a world engulfed by the digital realm, where social media platforms thrive and dominate every aspect of our lives, the enigmatic project known as Datashader was founded to reflect on the pervasive erosion of authentic human connection through various virtual realities.

Artistically, Datashader seeks to critique the impact of technology on human identity and relationships, breaking with an archetype of digital conformity and expressing a profound disillusionment with the superficiality of online interactions through music. Genuine human connection and art cannot be quantified by likes, comments, or followers but rather thrives in the visceral realm of shared sonic experience and human emotion. This idea is at the core idea of Datashader, whose artistic expression ranges from avant-garde composition and electronic experimentations to art, installation, film and more.

Expressed within the varied contexts of diverse artistic mediums, Datashader explores the concept of "technological gentrification", which describes the gradual displacement of human interaction by technology. Just as gentrification alters the urban landscape, driving out communities and cultures, digital gentrification transforms the social landscape, replacing genuine connection with curated online personas. 

Musically, Datashader's practice confronts this dystopian reality, highlighting the alarming consequence of people becoming mere nodes in a network, reduced to a collection of data points. This is manifested sonically by a blistering assault of breaks, recontextualized IDM, abstract electronics and otherworldly synthscapes, conceived as the aesthetic counterbalance to much of contemporary electronic music's dancefloor focus. 

Datashader dives deep into genres and influences which stand for a form of sonic resistance: A contemporary anti- soundtrack &ndash; a sonic mirror of the price we pay for convenience and instant gratification. A self-image in constant flux. No false technological idols.

BANDCAMP

Datashader - Velocity

✧ SC @solonyaa_so_n
✧ IG https://www.instagram.com/solonyaa_so_n

tracklist 

1. a b - outta phase snapp type beat
2. Max Duret - Crystal Ground
3. Medlock - Focus
4. DJ Hauge - Enter Everlasting
5. Eli Høff - The First Rule of Point Work
6. monosym - Persipheria
7. Surt - Slick
8. Keeptress & Xyro - In Dreams (Chanting)
9. Adam Rajab - Miley
10. Sociedad Anónima - Tekno Barrial
11. Tommy Lewis - FYO
12. Masha Zabeg (unreleased)
13. OD1 (unreleased)
14. Eli Høff - C17
15. Tapefeed - Candy Bath
16. Astral Bandit & DJ Hauge - Finders Keepers
17. Jacobworld - Uon
18. Aveen - U.08
19. So_N (unreleased)
20. Anastasia Kristensen - Practice Of Menace (Anémi Remix)
21. Changer - Undiscovered Expeditions
22. My Gander & Jidder - Tillstymmelsen
23. WakeUpNeo - Amphibian Destiny
24. Neporyadok (unreleased)
25. Astral Bandit & DJ Hauge - Creek Song
26. POLUCIA - MY HOMOSEXUALITY WILL BE MY LITTLE SECRET (NYYX remix)
27. So_N (unreleased)
28. Autogenesis - Namorrodor
29. Eli Høff - The Same Thing Over and Over (So_N Remix)
30. Clay Louis - innercity_marauder
31. Lawrence Le Doux - May Picture (Neporyadok Sky Trance Rework)

✧

✧ Flux Mix Series 023︱So_N

"Cries From Inside" de Darkduction es un EP que lleva a los oyentes a un viaje sensorial a través de paisajes sonoros evocadores y texturas intensas. Este EP está compuesto por cuatro pistas, cada una de las cuales presenta un enfoque único para explorar el sonido y la atmósfera, creando una experiencia inmersiva para quienes se sumergen en sus capas auditivas.

“Longevity”, un tema que intensifica la experiencia con ritmos contundentes y texturas complejas. A pesar de su presencia más agresiva, el track mantiene un estado de ánimo propicio para sumergirse en sonidos más profundos. Esta composición es una muestra de la maestría de Darkduction a la hora de combinar elementos contrastantes para crear una pieza única y envolvente.

ARTISTS Links:

DARKDUCTION:
SC: @darkduction
FB: https://www.facebook.com/darkductionm
IG: https://www.instagram.com/darkduction/

GRANULAR SPECTRUM:
SC: @granularspectrum
FB: https://www.facebook.com/granularspectrum
IG: https://www.instagram.com/granularspectrum/

MEDELLINSTYLE:
SC : @medellinstyledj
FB: www.facebook.com/culturaelectronica
IG: www.instagram.com/medellinstyle/?hl=es-la

SUPPORT:
https://granularspectrum.bandcamp.com/album/cries-from-inside

P R E M I E R E: Darkduction - Longevity [GRNSPT021]

Blame Rec is thrilled to present a mix by Enigma's crew member Low Order.

https://www.instagram.com/loworderproductions/
https://soundcloud.com/loworder

ZOLFO 002 w/ Low Order (02.06.24)

DeR.MauReR - Ist Halt So

zonedout - WEBCORE TRACK 646 (prod. phntmzn bR)

HIT ME WITH YOUR SPLIT SHOT.

LIL DOUBLE TRACK FOR YOU GUYS, BASED ON A CHARACTER FROM FFXIV THAT NOBODY PROBABLY CARES ABOUT.

MORE NEW SHITE SOON.

ENJOY.

PRODUCED BY ASTRO_KID (& SECLUTHA ON THE 2ND TRACK)
HILDA ART BY @anjian.bsky.social GO COMMISSION THEM

[STUDDIE//AK//ASTRO_KID//] [DFCT//ORDER//2025] 

HOW TO BE UNIQUE (+SECLUTHA)

At midnight, on March 13th 1991, a basement door opened at Leipziger Strasse 126, Berlin. Through this door, many passed, on their way to defining new terrains in electronic music. There they found a dance floor in the vaults of a closed-down department store, with a unique sound bound to dense fog, building night after night a history that was also a vision of the future. 

This history has seen in Jeff Mills’ first sets on three turntables, Underground Resistance's first live appearances in Europe, grandiose Tresor Park parties, to various chapters of the Loveparade with Sven Väth in the 90s and since then countless generation-spanning parties. These moments represent the highlights of infinite personal clubbing experiences. It is the manifestation of the Berlin spirit, emerging from its considerable strife. This history is not without its complications - from temporary closure by the authorities and several raids in the early years to closure and demolition of the old location in 2005. What followed was years of wandering in exile and, finally, resurrection in the new home in Kraftwerk Berlin.

These stories, conversations and shared experiences within our walls forge a resilience that drives towards a shared ideal, the Tresor sound: community, resistance, and the world to come. This was observed in the newly re-unified German youth, who danced and celebrated together from the club’s inception, and into the present day through ongoing community work in Detroit. 

Tresor Records was founded in the same year and began to serve as a platform for exporting the new sounds associated with Tresor all around the world. Emergent musicians from Michigan, such as Juan Atkins, Underground Resistance and Drexciya, were pivotal in shaping these early years. Their visits to Berlin would kick-start dialogue between the youth movement in Europe and these musicians. This story is one of friendship and community-building, inextricably linked with cities like Detroit, Birmingham or Edinburgh, where like-minded friends built something truly special, where revelatory rhythms soundtrack decaying industry in corrupted metropoles. 

Tresor Records has been the fertile soil for dozens upon dozens of creative minds, from the very luminaries of the scene who developed electronic music over the last three decades through to contemporary protagonists who are currently defining the sound of the future -  A more than 300 strong catalogue displays an unmistakable identity - the Tresor spirit.

To those that have danced before, and to those that will dance in the future: the light at the end of the long Tresor tunnel is a signal. A flicker amidst the fog. This is our future. This is our place.