Claro Intelecto
In Vitro - Volume Two

What does a contemporary album mean to us? Marc Pinol and Hugo Capablanca asked themselves this question when faced with the challenge of recording their first C.P.I. LP. To find the answer they went back to some of the most important records in their lives and listened to them from start to finish. At a time when the whole concept of an album might be at its lowest ebb for decades, they wanted to return to the old way of telling stories, recreating the notion of a narrative "journey" but doing so in their own original manner. 'Alianza' displays a wide range of emotions through only a few elements. There are no structures, barely any drums. It's a puzzling journey that moves through darkness and light, happiness and despair, hope and menace, as it unveils its own mysterious universe. Every track is a world in its own, yet all of them are linked by an invisible energy that reflects a coherent constellation. To achieve this, Hugo and Marc used a broad array of vocal timbres, including their own drone-treated voices, digitized vocals from an old vector synth, and those of several contributors. Most of the sounds on the album come from digital devices, as they wanted to "prove themselves" in the studio "by doing something as warm as we could while trying to avoid analogue if possible? The major part of 'Alianza' was recorded during the spring of 2018 in Barcelona, with further takes and additions recorded in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland. It features contributions from Spacemen 3's Will Carruthers, Tanja Siren, Veronica Vasicka, Anna Homler, Demetrio Martini and Pablo Sanchez. The album was mastered by Gordon Pohl in Dusseldorf. The artwork is by Dominic Brucia and features a picture by Tanja Siren. The album was created with the support of The Richard Thomas Foundation.

DE269 - US - 2019Patrick Cowley was one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of electronic dance music. Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study music at the City College of San Francisco. By the mid ’70s, Patrick’s synthesizer techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco diva Sylvester, including hits like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance (Disco Heat)” and “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight.” This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. Cowley created his own brand of peak time party music known as Hi-NRG, also dubbed “The San Francisco Sound.” By 1981, Patrick had released a string of his own dance 12″ singles, like “Menergy” and “Megatron Man”. He also co-founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, Megatron Man. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he composed two more Hi-NRG hits, “Do You Wanna Funk” for Sylvester, and “Right On Target” for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp. His life was cut short on November 12, 1982, when he passed away 24 days after his 32nd birthday from AIDS-related illness.Mechanical Fantasy Box is a new collection of 13 unreleased songs recorded between 1973-80 released in tandem with Cowley’s homoerotic journal of the same title. Featuring Patrick’s first electronic compositions in the Electronic Music Lab at CCSF when synthesizers were new technology to songs made at his semi-professional studio on Minna Street equipped with an Oberheim DS-2 digital sequencer. The sounds flows from funk to kraut to psychedelic ambient electronics inspired by Tomita and Krafterwerk. As Maurice Tani wrote in the liner notes that accompany this release, “What you hold in your hand is a collection of Cowley's work from the years preceding his meteoric rise as a pioneer of Hi-NRG dance music. This was before drum machines. Before programmable, polyphonic digital synthesis. This was before “cutting edge”. This was experimental music in every sense.”Some songs were mixed from 4-track stems by Joe Tarantino and all songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studio in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl comes housed in a black and white gatefold jacket designed by Gwenaël Rattke featuring a photograph by Susan Middleton and include an essay from music partner Maurice Tani and an 8.5x11 insert with notes. Proceeds from Mechanical Fantasy Box will be donated to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, who have been committed to ending the pandemic and human suffering caused by HIV since 1982.

JUZER by Beau Wanzer and Dan Jugel finds new stomping grounds at RUBBER with a four track release including a fresh remix by Unit Moebius Anonymous. Wanzer and Jugel, two pillars of the Chicago underground are known for their distorted jacked techno which is heavily rooted in the Chicago tradition. Together with Beau Wanzer we have selected three archival tracks made prior to Jugel's passing in 2018. The result is a grinding ensemble of raw techno jams that tips its hat to the different electronic flavors of Chicago and The Hague.

Jupiter Jax on the label with a 50 minute introspective journey. Waves of hazy atmospheric pads laced with reserved melodies slowly thrust this double sided cassette through the void. Jupiter Jax's Lower Your Entropy offers a great escape from Earth's turbulent times and constant distractions. A cassette for those with a strong urge to reconnect with our most inner frequencies.

If-Only · Premiere: Pop Negatif Wastad – Pop Negatif Wastad [Musique Plastique]