emulation #2

stay inside

starty

Celes - untitled
Celes - untitled
Celes - untitled forthcoming

OB0456 — Celes

'a downtempo centric self-inquiry quest by means of binge-shiftin'

https://ab-u.bandcamp.com/album/binge-shiftin

released March 7, 2025

artwork by Mery Khugashvili & Arsen Iy
composed & mixed by @ab_y
mastered by @yeyomf & @qwqwqwqwa

sugar br (ft bighead)

The newest release from 29 Speedway, UltraBody, is a compilation record featuring the music of Jake Muir, Pent & Dylan Kerr, Nexcyia & mu tate, James K, Flora Yin-Wong, Ex Wiish & Dorothy Carlos, Kamran Sadeghi, Tati au Miel, James Hoff, Eric Frye, qwqwqwqwa & sop.io, Muein, & Maxwell Sterling. The record is emblematic of the artists who have performed at 29 Speedway shows in New York and Europe during the past two years, and is the third in a series released by the label.

The record investigates how the self, spirituality, and language are intertwined with the intervention of subjectivity by new technologies. With increasingly sophisticated tech, and the supposed ability to remake the world and ourselves, what differentiates our individual discretion from the will imposed upon us by software? Quoting Walter Chaw, “Decades of rampant, unregulated and ill-considered technological leaps have begun to evolve, to mutate, humans at a biological level”. This haphazard acceleration towards a techno-utopic transformation of humanity has faulted, and as William Gibson put it, is leading us to live in a “half assed singularity”. In this reality, artistic processes are influenced by excessive access to computational tools and assistance, but not utterly controlled.

This in-between state of dominion is explored on UltraBody. “Incoherences” samples the utterances of Dylan Kerr’s voice processed between Pent’s percolated glazes, muddying the gulf between vaporous ambient and reflexive sound design. The voice on James Hoff’s “A... ...Cha.... A... I feel l” was created by trying to get voice cloning technology to sing a gps data stream, the music an extrapolation from an earworm he got stuck in his head while shopping in Kyoto. On “Plogue Chain”, Eric Frye’s most speculative sci-fi observations spiral into a glazed pool of digital cacophony, while Kamran Sadeghi’s “Formula Fiction” is an experiment in (un)controlled generativity. Incorporating minimal pings from a 3D simulation scene based on gravitational interaction, cello bits evolve on “Assimilation”, a collaboration between Ex Wiish & Dorothy Carlos.

On UltraBody, sound has no separate existence from space.

James K - Sketch 4

Pain Management presents the debut release of London based percussionist Pike.

Having provided rhythms from the shadows for a number of reputable labels and live outfits - 12th Isle, Scenic Route, Slow Dance - Fallen Angel sees the artist unveil a musical fluency and soloist instinct with his first independent effort under his own name. Flexing a previously unseen multi-instrumentalism on two emotive post-rock offerings.

An active participant in London’s underground music circuit, Pike’s performances play with textural, rhythmic and improvisational possibilities. He has developed a unique rhythmic fingerprint indebted as much to UK bass music as to rock, dub and avant-garde electronics. The steady evolution of his practice, alongside extensive behind the scenes collaboration with a wide roster of UK-alt artists - Charlie Osborne, Covco, The Fertile Crescent, Tiberius B - has laid the groundwork for this year’s striking introduction to a new era of the project.

His official debut release on Pain Management falls somewhere at the intersection of dub electronics and art-rock; a dynamic exploration of live instrumentation’s cathartic potential.

On the expansive opener Fallen Angel, a tangle of emotive guitar and basslines float above steady, hypnotic drums. In contrast with the record’s plosive closer, Fallen Angel shimmers with a central ephemerality. Threads of euphoria woven into the shadows of something less sweet. The sensation is one of temporality; a distant memory just out of reach. The presence of this melodic softness shrouding over the rougher elements instills an intimacy to the piece. A late night hymn of introspection; one for the wanderers.

The B-side’s Concrete Dub mirrors this format, putting some serious muscle into things. In keeping with the title, Pike masterfully deploys a hazy, dubbed out groove brimming with swung-drum attitude and bassline thickness. From the mycelium grunge bursts a raw, heartfelt guitar line, distorted power-riffs soaring upwards higher and higher. The result is an emotive and vulnerable sensation of uninhibited feeling - a serious pain management power ballad.

Out Feb 17th on all platforms.
Digital files available via Bandcamp.
Cover image by Yasmin Gordon.

Pike - Fallen Angel [PM003]

manifestation

Kiosk Radio is an online community radio and streaming platform broadcasting 24/7 from a wooden kiosk in the heart of Brussels’ historic 'Parc Royal'. The radio was founded in 2017 and broadcasts a wide range of music genres, from jazz to experimental, from rock to electronic music.

Departure Lounge w/ Virginia Waters @ Kiosk Radio 23.03.2025

free version remix, shogun

Welcoming London-based artist House on the Strand to the Eastern Nurseries fold following his impressive 2024 debut, "Heroine", Ruben Elbrond-Palmer channels a sombre, cinematic sense of sound with "Unrest".

Interpolating the visual sensibilities of some of his favourite artists, filmmakers, and photographers into the sonic field, Elbrond-Palmer’s palette cuts loose from the percussive elements of his previous work, blending analogue synthesis with repurposed guitars, haunting melodies, and field recordings that call to mind the hazy delirium of a dusty summer’s day. Sitting at its core, "Unrest" places harmony front and centre, with each sombre movement rising and falling as electric fences hum, helicopters hover overhead, and unknown events are set in motion.

Deceptively simple, the resultant album is gestalt—an elegy of melancholic moments, lost to the world.

“Just because you wander the desert, it does not mean there is a promised land.”
— Paul Auster

Eastern Nurseries no. 41

Written & produced by Ruben Elbrond-Palmer
Recorded in London, Kobaek & Aude, 2019-2024
Mastered by Ike Zwanikken

Cover photo by Andrew Weathers 

Unrest

House on the Strand - Fata Morgana

Rell64st - 1 Man Mission (Prod.by.Yamaica)

@free-version @fr33-v3rsion

i am shameless; i am ashamed, 
exclusively severe drafts

free version remix, shogun

v3rsion fr33

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