Inner Touch
100% Gone

boomkat: ...Mesmerising, sui generis noumena from a mongrel duo of Püdel regulars, F#X/E.K.G. and Nika Son, a.k.a. C for Nina and good news' V I S label, together building on a collaborative practice developed during and since they were commissioned for an installation in a Hamburg gallery.Their Tennõ EP is a result of haptic and synthesised inputs generated from a variety of tape-machines, filters, self-made physical resonators, synths, drum machines and vocals, yet you’d be hard pushed to pick out where and how those “instruments” are used in the abstract, amorphous fabric of their compositions. Submitting to their sound is like going in blind, giving yourself up to their fancy. Across the front Geroll revolves a central knot of a hip hop break which seems to freeze and thaw in and out of focus like some lost joint from Spectre’s The End album left to fend for itself on the high plains, ending up stomping itself into an acid wormhole.On the other side, even the rhythmic handrail is extinguished with Diphtongues, plunging us into deepest indigo drones and a bath of glossolalic texturhythm acutely recalling Tongues of Light’s amazing Channelled Message at the End of History record, before spinning out along multiple vectors at once like a six-handed Valerio Tricoli in Tennõ.Another peach from this brilliant label.

tagged: reggae conscious dub reggae roots stepper uk stepper London

Thirteen perfectly balanced, keyboard saturated songs flutter like flags threaded on a string: a collection of fleeting thoughts stirred by the winds of Eighties pop. Riffs soar, the drum machine gallops and vocals are as carefully blended as a mango smoothie on a white-sky day.Modal Melodies is the duo made up of Violetta Del Conte-Race (Primo! / The Glass Picture) & Jake Robertson (Alien Nosejob, etc.) The group stemmed from a loose chat at Geelong’s Jerkfest in early 2021, where they made plans to help each other complete some unfinished demos. After emailing ideas back and forth through lockdown, they were soon able to be in the same room together to structure their quickly blossoming songs. Vio added vocals from home and Jake mixed them into their sessions. Six to eight months after making their first arrangements, Modal Melodies had matured into this debut record.There’s something about a duo - something intimate and serious: it requires full trust and an act of balance. These are people who have listened to so much music they know how to make tunes in a way that seems intuitive. Karen Marks, Saada Bonaire and Lena Platonos have been mentioned as influences, but it seems like the biggest inspiration to cite came from each other. There’s an untamed instinct for melody, and layers like clouds, slowly rolling in. Drenched with colours and understated tension in parts, coupled with reckless joy, this album speaks to this moment.

U-Trax: ...Ambient braindance from ItalyComprising Marco Simioni, Matteo Mazreku, and Francesco Pio Nitti, Qualia are a group of Italian producers who have never met in person. Due to the covid pandemic, they had to colaborate in the cloud, resulting in some exquisite ambient braindance.Having previously released records on Detroit Underground and fellow Utrecht label 030303 between them, they arrive on U-Trax with their eponymous EP of four deep tracks taking influence from a range of genres, including acid-techno, ambient, noise, and beyond.Leading the release, 'Perception' brings beautiful strings, funky 808 drums and acid tones for a deep and moving opener. The track clearly reveals the inspiration Qualia got for this release from the early Gescom releases. Stretched across the A2 is the ambient bliss of 'VV Cephei A', which brings Boards of Canada-esque drones and tones.On the flip, the title track 'Qualia' brings a headsy dose of braindance to the mix, recalling the early experiments of Aphex Twin with merciless 303 squelches and distant reverberations. Closing track 'Until I Break Apart' leads with dark, moody strings before a pounding kick introduces a stark tempo shift before deep ambient atmospheres engulf the final minutes.

boomkat: ...Arguably thee deepest Seekersinternational dive bubbles back up for a necessary new edition with Ossia’s excellent No Corner label, and in a new remastered roots version to bootScrolling back to near ground zero in their widely celebrated catalogue, ‘Rootprinciple’ is foundational SKRS business that appeared on Bristol’s finest in 2014, a few years after their session for the late, great Digitalis, and would pave the way for a run of outstanding turns over the years, garnering praise from all quarters to their borderless, judicious application of dub psychedelia.It’s truly essential listening if you’ve been snagged on their sound and ever tumbled down one of their wormholes, playing it relatively stripped back and breezy compared with some of their wilder shenanigans, with a real focus on sensuality and smoked out atmospheres that’s primed for toking types and late night sessions. The tracklist has been slightly trimmed, but contains all the spirited nutrition of the original, keeping heads and feet off the ground with finely toggled and juggled dub FX that have become their hallmark, filleting and diffusing samples of obscure and classic roots dub records in an endless swirl of shifty subbass hits, vaporous vocal contrails and smudged harmonic horizons that come off like the results of Rhythm & Sound’s imaginary cosmic siblings. Peerless! Crucial! Killer!