Various
E123EP

boomkat: ...‘F.T.N.W.O.’ (eff the new world order) first landed in 2012 as Sherard Ingram’s only album under the DJ Stingray 313 alias. It effectively, aesthetically, works as a follow-up to his preceding pair of Urban Tribe albums for Rephlex 2006-2007, and laid the ground for his superb NRSB-11 album with ex-Drexciyan Gerald Donald. It remains a masterclass in proper Detroit electro futurism, pushing the faster templates of jit in line with his Afro-futurist, sci-fi-skooled inspirations for a definitive record of darkside Motor City club intrigue with a wickedly pulpy narrative. Opening to scene-setting samples of George Bush and TV evangelists in Evil Agenda’, the album plays thru a noirish graphic novel allegory of electro from the OG source, channelling Drexicyan mythos and hydroelectric principles in muscular, yet tautly minimalist, constructions that have become Stingray’s hallmark of production. With shark-eyed tension the album swims from the underwater shadow-boxing of ‘Dark Arts’ to a killer cybernoir finale in ‘Remote Viewing’, taking in warehouse-shudder pulses on ‘Denial of Service’ and the hyper-rictus machine chatter of ‘No Knock’ beside cut-scenes such as ‘Lead From the Shadows’ that perfectly set up the classic electro ping-pong of ‘Reverse Engineering’ and nexx level 313 depths of ‘Image Search’.

Efficient Space: ...For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive 'Down On The Road By The Beach' is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett's transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the 'Down On The Road By The Beach' exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.

ORANGE MILK RECORDS:...Nick Storring's eighth album (and third release for Orange Milk Records) takes the one-person-orchestra approach for which he is acclaimed and translates it to a single instrument: the piano. Recorded on everything from the innards of an old upright piano to a Disklavier (a computer-controlled acoustic piano) housed at Yamaha's Toronto offices, and using playing techniques that span conventional to idiosyncratic, Storring conjures a vast and vivid colour palette. Music from 'Wéi 成为' was composed for the choreography of his frequent collaborator, Yvonne Ng and began its life in a residency at the Banff Centre in December 2017. Just like the unique movement vocabulary found in Ng's quintet dance Wéi 成为, Storring's copiously layered score moves fluidly between tender lyrical phrases and driving interlocking figures, and from thick textural swarms to supple transparency.