Various Artists
Code 16035 EP

When British Airways got privatized and listed on the London Stock Exchange, somewhere in Canada the first Starbucks outside of the US opened, and the Walt Disney Company signed an agreement with the French Prime Minister to construct Disneyland Paris. In the sky above southern Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, northern Somalia, and the Atlantic Ocean a hybrid solar eclipse materialized for 7.57 seconds, whilst Margaret Thatcher performed for 45-minutes on Soviet television. Some days later, The Simpsons cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, Diego Maradona wins his first Italian soccer championship with Napoli, and Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. In the mists of the world's first conference on artificial life at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mainland China opens in Beijing, and Prozac gets approved for use as an antidepressant in the United States. Much give way for the future, down there in 1987, the year that marks the title of Benedikt Frey’s freshest mini album, out into the world on R.i.O., the label he runs with some pals in the North of Berlin. It’s a dubby melancholic conqueror, wistfully, repetitive, drilling, absorbing, spooking. It makes you dream. Not particular of the year 1987. But it’s all there: The Red Square, the untouched land of the Val d'Europe, Diego on fuego. Six dark-ish tracks in trance, melancholic dub, downbeat heaven, journey music depths, all full of light and yet so dark. Futuristic dramas linked to a speculative past. In our dreams all might look different. The eclipse may last 27- minutes. You meet Neuromancer cyberpunks and blade running Ghost dogs, all taught to hack by Phrack. Cristal clear melodies, sampled voices, and veiled basslines, analogue scopes, and digital ropes, longing for a past that storm into the future. A time where deep listening widens the acoustics into infinity, while neon glows charm the light smog. Benedikt Frey been down there. Or maybe not. His latest music tells stories from the bygone, vested with the forthcoming. Come in and look out. There is nothing to see, yet so much to hear.

Joel Brittain's music is defined more by what it isn't than by what it is. This is breakbeat... but not, house... but not, electro... but not. Hell, there's even a hint of prog in these expansive, indefinable tracks that switch-up in oh-so-unexpected ways.Perhaps it's because this US-born, UK-based producer has been bubbling in various scenes for so long. Brittain had a string of releases in the 2000s on labels like Wrong, Reverberations, and Tango, plus ran his own label Nonsuch Recordings.But all the while he was busy making music, refining a vast cache of unreleased tracks.It’s from this treasure trove that States of Mind draws, but it still sounds like it could have been made this year.So yes it's breakbeat, yes it's house, and yes it's electro... and it's all the better for it.

The second release from Edinburgh-based rave Headset, showcasing unsung Scottish artists making alternative house, techno, garage & breaks in dubby styles.Unknown producer Capricorn One provides 3 tracks of finely engineered Broken Techno & Dubstep, finishing with a dubbed out House jam on track 4.

New VIL Records!

Second release of Berlin-based Shiver recordsDJ Seen takes you through a field of mesmerizing frequencies. The record's A-Side opens up for the waves of relaxation & dream. The title track Hypnotique lushes you into a continuous state of trance-induced easiness emphasised by a plain repeating chant.Adam Collins’ remix takes you into a bubbling dreamworld underlined by a soft acid bed and a heavy deep neverending blanket of warmth.The B-Side performs a natural switch, activating the brainwaves & inducing a woke state while trying to understand the sudden synth-explosions hailing through the tribalistic grooves of Bandicoot.The trip ends with a burst of Insight at 6 am. A hymn to the frequencies of dance before it all settles down again.