Boule Noire
Aimer D'Amour

Strangelove’s latest release turns left somewhere near the edge of the Atlantic, with Electricidade Estética” documenting a vibrant window into the musical landscape of 1980’s counter-culture Portugal. Compiling early un-issued works, DWART’s organic Ash-Ra Balearics meld with spikey Iberian electronics, coalescing around the floating beauty of ‘Mate’, reissued for the first time on vinyl.

After the 2020 release of Old Dreams And Memories, Icelandic dub techno linchpin Yagya returns for a second release on his emergent label, Small Plastic Animals. This latest venture marks a new chapter in the artist's accomplished career, having released on Delsin, Subwax BCN and A Strangely Isolated Place as well as forming a core part of the Thule collective alongside his partner in Sanasol, Thor. As those associations ably point out, the music Yagya crafts is spacious and atmospheric, using the techno tradition as a vessel for meditative as well as emotional exploration and experimenting with sound design according to a specific, patiently cultivated style. Always Maybe Tomorrow finds Yagya ruminating on the behavioural energy of environments as viewed from afar - the man-made electricity of urban expanses and the interconnected flora and fauna of ecosystems. Looking to his chosen tools as a means to express these ideas, he employed a non-linear approach to each of the four tracks on this EP, choosing to create musical systems in constant flux rather than composing each piece in a conventional left-to-right narrative. Yagya's trademark voluminous chords and vast pads ebb and flow through filters controlled by LFOs and randomness, creating their own micro-incidents and macro evolution as though holding a mirror up to the environments the initial inspiration was drawn from.

FATHOP008 - UK - 2021Jerome Hill revives his Itsu Uno guise for the first time in 7 years and starts 2021 with some much needed fun. He serves up 2 Cut n Paste Party Rocking Funk Bombs for the B-Boys and B-Girls. No prizes for guessing the inspiration for "Shooter (Super Sharp B-Boy) although you'll not have heard it like this before. Meanwhile in "Battle Of The Breaks", Itsu Uno goes to town and serves up all manner of funky-ass beats and samples culminating in a finale that will get you ‘jumpin' Fat Hop was started by Jerome in 2009 to house B-Boy Break jams, Old Skool style Hip Hop and Britcore.

Always open to experimentation, Welsh imprint Haŵs welcomes Wyatt to the family. Comprising five evocative, glossy cuts, the ‘Netherwood’ EP is a time capsule back to his hometown, turning memories into alchemical moments experienced under a blazing sun or by the light of a full moon.

CMD aka Corina MacDonald is a Montreal-based DJ, producer and host of the program Modular Systems on CKUT 90.3 FM. She has released on JACKTONE, EXPERIMENTAL HOUSEWIFE’S PERFECT LOCATION RECORDS, FUR TRADE RECORDINGS, and BASIC_SOUNDS. For her vinyl debut, she brings us four entrancing, slightly dubby and acidic techno dance floor cuts perfect for the smooth edges of the late night.The A-side opens up with “Social Factory Reset”, modular jacking techno with an infectious acid swell and patient pads. “Shaping Inner Space” is an apt title. The tempo is slightly faster than A1, and it sounds like an extraterrestrial night out. Euphoric synth twists bring in the break while the bass drum toys with the rhythm only to zap it back home with the force of cosmic gravity.“Dream-Life Cycles” opens up the B-side tough, with an acid line and bass drum syncopation sure to bring out the stomp. Modular tweets fire off in stereo; pads bring in the harmony; and a nuanced and pleasantly surprising vocal line brings the euphoria on home. “Body Locked” closes the EP with an athletic, cosmic techno track that doesn’t shy away from the trance palette. Step out of your body and onto the dance floor!