Experimental/Electronic Juno Download

FEATURED RELEASES

Regis - Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss

Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss Downwards

A mighty 19 years since we last heard a solo album from Regis on Downwards, Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss sees Karl O'Connor return with a post-era defining sound. Stripped-back, heavy, and broken beat techno swinging with tribal percussion and industrial malice, it's tracks like "Cracked Earth", "Calling Down A Curse" and "The Sun Rose Pure" that should appeal most to hardened Downwards characters. Find slower, more malevolent numbers in "The Blind Departing", made harder still by the moans and gnarly bass in "I See Fire", collectively plotted through a album of loose narratives and beatless sound design in tracks like "Eros In Tangiers" and "Alone Of All Her Sex". Long live Regis!

Various

John Tejada Presents: Future Stars Touched Music

Non-for-profit label and cause for charity Touch Music has pulled some sweet moves off over the years, be it their recent Australian Bushfires compilations to releasing music from Plaid, Marc Van Hoen aka Locust down its founder Yin-Y-Llin. This latest incentive has John Tejada hand pick a compilation of largely unheard producers to bring into the spotlight. With Tejada's own melodic and broken beat "NYC83" breezing its way though this comp about halfway the album, there's a wealth of talent and musical styles to be found in artists like Simo with the warm and lo-fi grooves in "Protection", to the instrumental psychedelic folk of Hope Sparrow or the spooky and abstract beats in Mar's "Valentine". There's some ballroom house in Benneyybeatz' "Hold On", quality synthwave in Gavin Carl's "Miss You More" and some freshly squeezed deep two-step from DJ Pari Naaz. Check it out!

Various

Ransom Note Presents Pen Pals Ransom Note

To do their bit to support artists during the lockdown, music website Ransom Note has put together this compilation, with sees the participating artists receiving much welcomed support. It starts with left of centre post-punk sounds from Malcolm and Funderground, before moving into the gritty, lo-fi house groove of Local Suicide & Thomas Jackson's "Hit & Miss". On "Like To Lie", R Elizabeth & Burko conjure up a jittery electro track, while Bawrut's "Triangulo De Amor Bizarro" sees the compilation descend into low-slung jacking techno, accompanied by Chico Blanco's sleazy vocals. Otik & Tom VR's "Poly Echo 97", which is supported by broken beats and features eerie textures.

My Cruelty

The Last Hour Of The Night #internetghetto

Now this one truly was an interesting liste, as we see My Cruelty land on #internetghetto for a truly unique four track selection, exploring numerous different hybridisations of sound. We begin our journey into this one with a dive into the swirling pad textures and choppy drum breaks of 'Lost In The Dark', located at a somewhat UKG tempo, before shifting our attention towards the bubbling synthesizer designs and unpredictable rhythms of 'Through The Darkness'. Next, 'Through Hardship To The Stars' deploys scattered 2steppy beats beneath yet more airy synthesis for another unusual design, before rounding off the EP on the minimal drum textures and starlight inducing soundscaping of 'The Last Hour Of The Night'. Very unorthodox indeed!

Axel Boman

Eyes Of My Mind Studio Barnhus Sweden

We were rather surprised to learn that "Eyes of My Mind" is Axel Boman's first solo single on Studio Barnhus, the label he co-founded, since 2013. It's also his first EP of any sort since 2017 (though 2019 did see the release of his fine "Le New Life" LP on Mule Musiq). The track is little less than a loved-up aural hug; a slow building, deliciously glassy-eyed affair in which dreamy chords, quirky vocal samples, droning bass tones and bubbly electronic motifs ride a bustling, loose-limbed drum track that sits somewhere between regular deep house, Max D's Dolo Percussion project and good old-fashioned breakbeat. Boman calms things down dramatically on "Echoes of My Mind", a swelling, wall-of-sound ambient revision of the A-side that's as comforting and meditative as they come.

Darkstar

Wolf (John Talabot Remixes) Warp

Four years since their last album British duo Darkstar return to Warp with a new single, Wolf, backed by two strokes of subliminal genius from John Talabot. The single itself presents a resonating nebula of sub-pop, R&B and electro, with metachronous tones evoking feelings of our current day with memories from post dubstep's collapse. With melancholia and shuttering drum machines at play too, Talabot's remixes shape the original's vocals, textures and breaths to fit deep tunneling minimalism for the Euro-heads, with the 'Materia' remix blending harder edged body music with rave and warehouse techno.