Avalanche Zone
*300 copies limited edition* Originally released in spring 2021 by US label L.I.E.S. on vinyl, Anthony Di Franco of Ramleh returns to Fourth Dimension Records with a timely and well-deserved reissue. Featuring three additional tracks to the original six, 'Avalanche Zone' is a weighty and abrasive follow-up to 2018's 'Weapon Design' that's propelled by cranium-crunching bass, icy and portentous textures, battlefield rhythms and just the faintest nod to Anthony's love of both old school noise and …
IV
"This might sound a little antithetical, but I am interested in making noise music that is free from unnecessary noise. I do realise how this sounds, but it is absolutely at the core of my new recording. I want to create maximum impact and dynamics in the music through using only the essential elements and materials. I am a huge fan of noise music, and in many cases I enjoy the excessive nature of that music. For my own work though I am interested in reducing this, boiling it down, to the very c…
Labour
Senegal’s master mbalax drummers are rendered in killer electro dubs and club rub ’n tug by Valentina Magaletti’s Holy Tongue trio, Beatrice Dillon and Lamin Fofana, for an instant Honest Jon’s classic.
Music for Unknown Rituals
After two years, Carl and Andreas present their second album, and once again, it opens up a wide associative space for us. What strikes us initially is the uncommon instrumentation: a church organ, harpsichord, glass tubes, and more. Like their first album (The Aporias of Futurism), it is mysterious and dark. But it also carries a strong touch of rebellion and adrenaline, sometimes quite pointedly. The pieces are now shorter and feature intricate yet irresistible rhythms. The impact is immediate…
Double Pendulum
*150 copies limited edition* Double Pendulum is a selection of new material from NY-based artist/composer Nickolas Mohanna. Using a varied palette of percussive devices alongside the electric guitar and computer, hammered notes flutter into brushed cymbals to create pulsing and immersive shapes. These forms unfold from a graphic score that was used to influence the process; the lines and color of the image merge with a jutting collage of guitar thumbing and dismantled orchestral strings, giving …
Echoes In The Sound Mirror
*2023 stock* Nice Music is pleased to announce the return of cult electronica duo Pretty Boy Crossover with their first new material in 15 years, 'Echoes In The Sound Mirror'. Cailan Burns and Jason Sweeney first made an impact in 2000 with their acclaimed 'The Building and Formation' full length on Ian Hamilton, James Reid and Tim Koch's Surgery label, which introduced much of Adelaide's coy and abstract rhythms to the global audience of that era. Since the 1990s they have toiled endlessly with…
Circle Drum Music
"Occasionally ideas present themselves in ways that no one can expect. This recording from Australia’s Eugene Carchesio and the UK’s Adam Betts is one such unexpected presentation. A couple of years ago, Eugene passed me a collection of recordings that he explained were in the orbit of his now legendary Circle Music series. The recordings, in Eugene’s particular manner, maintained an intensely rhythmic quality rooted in a deep and unwavering sense of minimalism. Eugene has a way of making a tiny…
Moving
*100 copies limited edition* There’s a raw hypnotic quality in Jerome’s output, a perceived facility to summon heavy bass, circular mantras and elastic shadowy beats. Over the last three years they have refined and cultivated their unique dystopian mixture of industrial, techno and dark electronics and their new EP ‘Moving’ is a fascinating snapshot of their ever-changing journey.
Based in Bristol, UK and Athens, Greece the Italian/Swedish/Greek duo of Annalisa Iembo and Stella Mathioudakis have…
Tawamure
*2023 stock* Modern Obscure Music turns to Japan for inspiration. Suemori debuts on the Barcelona based imprint with an album of striking textures and sounds. From the first track, you can feel the influence of the Far East in both the melodies and rhythms created by Suemori. The music is complemented by Mayte Nicole Esteban’s impressive artwork.
Suemori’s real name is Yoshinobu Hoshina. He previously recorded as Hoshina Anniversary. Under this alias, Hoshina released music on labels such as Boy…
Bilk
In spring 1994 Mouse on Mars contributed an exclusive piece to Sähkö Recordings’ ambient radio project, a one-week public radio program that was aired citywide in Helsinki, Finland. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner recorded sounds in and around their studio in Düsseldorf Bilk to construct one continuous composition that spanned the course of one neighborhood walk. Midi-controlled synths, samplers, analogue effects, tape delays, effect pedals, guitars and a jew’s harp were juxtaposed with recordings …
Slow And Distant Corrosion
*50 copies limited edition* Lichen functions like nothing else on earth. This combination of algae, fungus, and bacteria serves as a keystone species to keep the entire ecosystem healthy and on track. Thanks to their ability to take nutrients from air, sun, and rain, and their capacity to survive with very low water contents, these species can thrive on every continent, including Antarctica. They can spread their secondary metabolites that make the rocks slowly flake off, participating in soil f…
Station To Station To Station
Sparse, drum centered, dubbed out Electronica excursions by CZN, an acronym which stands for for copper, zinc and nickel the raw path of materials used by percussionist and sculptor Joao Pais Filipe, composer and drummer Valentina Magaletti (from the great Tomaga) and producer Leon Marks. This is ritual music for the whole family. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Incorporeal
Burnt down utopias and urban paranoia, Hidden Horse are back with their second album. “Incorporeal” is the follow-up to 2022’s “Opala” and the band’s first release on vinyl. Composed by João Kyron (keyboards/electronics) and Tony Watts (drums), long-time friends and collaborators on different projects, the most prominent one being the exotic and dreamy Beautify Junkyards (Ghost Box). As a duo they’re a totally different game.
Playing live regularly after the release of “Opala” offered them the p…
Claim
*100 copies limited edition* A much more ominous creature than they, or you, ever expected, Westholm and Hielm had no option but to let Claim have its way with both of them. Now it’s coming for you.
Sun Masks Remixes
*2023 stock* The San Francisco label Dark Entries has released over 100 records in the past few years, most of them reissues of synth music from the '80s. Given the sheer volume of their output, it would be easy to miss the special attention they gave to one artist: Lena Platonos, a Greek avant-garde musician influential in her time but under-appreciated today (in other words, exactly the kind of figure that makes reissues worthwhile). Since 2015, Dark Entries reissued two of Platonos's albums, …
Muscut x Mida: Volia x Rahu
*300 copies limited edition* Ukrainian Muscut & Estonian Mida team up for “Воля x Rahu” compilation (Ukr: Volition x Est: Peace) with 100% of label profits donated to “Livyj Bereh” – a volunteer group based in Kyiv & working in regions affected by the war. The A–side is curated by Muscut & holds only Ukrainian artists: Kavkazka Sound, Radiant Futur, Mlin Patz, Iury Lech & Ihor Okuniev. The B–side by Mida has Portuguese trio Niagara stuck in between Estonians Maarja Nuut, Rotrum, Luurel Varas & T…
Reality Therapy
Russell Haswell's first new work on Diagonal since 37 Minute Workout Vol. 2 in 2019 is a response to the continued absorption of real-time video feeds on YouTube in and around the Covid period. The release is accompanied by a special visual collaboration with MuirMcNeil, the design partnership whose activities focus on systematic and algorithmic methods in type design, graphic design and moving image. Paul and Hamish have previously worked with Factory Records / Hacienda, Juan Atkins, Durutti Co…
Barbados Wild Horses
After the not-quite-reissue of 'Prince of Parrot Shooters/The Aqueducts of Cannel Island', wide-eyed mystic and tireless searcher of the netherworld Spencer Clark returns to the Discrepant fold with 'Barbados Wild Horses' under his Monopoly Child Star Searchers moniker. Recorded while Clark was living in the Canary Island's by Tupperware and Lagoss' Dani Tupper, 'Barbados Wild Horses' brims with insular romanticism and escapist bliss, with sunkissed synth-lines interwoven around his trademark ha…
Outline of Nature
“Outline of Nature” is the debut album by Twilight Sequence (aka Matthew J Saunders) following the release of a 12” EP and 7” single on Castles in Space, and an EP on his own Bandcamp page. “Outline of Nature” started as an experiment in building a modular synthesizer system and ended up as a voltage controlled outpouring of love for the natural world. Sylvan-born and pastoral-powered, sap-blooded and lightning-charged, this album grew out of the damp florescent corners of the woods, each note a…
Proof Of Identity
More than a decade ago, I made a piece of beat-based electronic music and titled it "Middle Eastern IDM" for a course assignment. After listening to it in class, my professor asked what was Middle Eastern about it. It was only a year after I had left Iran to study in the US, and I didn't know that I could say "I am. I made the piece". So I went back and superimposed a sample of Egyptian protest chants on top of the piece, to make it "sufficiently Middle Eastern". What prejudiced conservatism and…