Being
Broxburn Funk

With a series of archival releases now chronicled on home imprint Offworld Records, enigmatic techno producer Tim Jackiw issues a highly limited magenta-coloured 3-track EP of recordings unearthed from late-night studio sessions captured on DAT tape throughout 1996. On the A-side, minimal number 'Full Moon' stretches out over 10 minutes and ventures deep into the unknown, the feature a Roland SH-101 motif drenched in huge washes of reverb. On the flip, a previously-lost longer mix of favorite 'Shade' captivates with emotive pads and melodies and is rounded out by the ethereal title track 'Sunset Over Saturn'. Recommended!

Not much is known about the German session musician ensemble Studiogruppe 1 from the ‘70s and ‘80s. It’s believed that the grandfather of one member, known only as V.S., originally soundtracked silent films in theatres - although that hasn’t been proved. Studiogruppe1 never rose to prominence in the heyday of studio groups and library records, but it certainly wasn’t due to lack of trying.Although it’s unknown who the individual members of Studiogruppe1 were, it’s clear they could find a groove within the machines. It appears the sessions were also engineered by V.S., and there’s plenty of space between the notes, which lends a heady atmosphere of anticipation to the music. Just close your eyes and you will find that the music triggers many scenes from the movies in your mind.

It’s the turn of AM/PM to bring some drama to What About Never, ushering in an ‘Age of Distraction’ with an EP of dark, pulsating techno, brittle dub polyrhythms and nebulous ambience.'Dance for Me’ takes the lead, locking into a propulsive, strobing groove, rolling out tension that ebbs and flows before the alien stepper, ‘Nobody Knows Anything’ shifts the tone. The mood changes further over the sparse, chattering, electronic fusion of the title track, before melting into the gaseous, ambient coda, ‘Now’s the Time’.

conatala · World Standard - 「麦秋」: Wheat Harvest1982, the season from spring to summer. Two young men in the peak of their youth, eager to immerse themselves in the recording of a single cassette tape.In March of that year, Soichiro Suzuki and Michio Kojima began to claim the group name “World Standard”.The music was produced in a room in Kojima's parents' house in Nishi-Ogikubo, Tokyo, making full use of ping-pong recordings on two cassette decks. With the focus on guitars, mandolin, and ukulele played by Suzuki, Kojima's upright piano, which was placed in a room between Japan across the corridor, was occasionally added. In addition, percussion was recorded using the echoes of the bathroom; toys such as pianica and trumpets, and drums made of cardboard were used as musical instruments.In the background, the sound of the TV and the subtle sounds of everyday life were intentionally mixed into the music. Listening to the delightful performance - Kojima's grandparents, who he lived with, occasionally opened the sliding doors and came to see the boys recording. They would even have lunch together from time to time.As they repeated their recordings while the tape turned, the young men felt like they succeeded in intercepting the soundscapes of the world - like a folklore in a far-off distant country to one corner of the city of Tokyo. They were so excited.In contrast to the techno pop and new wave sensations that swept the musical subcultures of Tokyo in the 80's, the analog and acoustic sounds they played were somewhat nostalgic. Instead of edgy and futuristic synth sounds, they intentionally tried to portray in the sound the scenery captured on the monochrome screen of an old European movie, and the Japanese houses of the 1950s where they were born and raised. They yearned for the landscape on the veranda. D.I.Y. - a time when there was no word for bedroom recording. Suzuki and Kojima dreamed of nostalgic, new, popular music that no one had heard on cassette.This work, "Asagao", is the first cassette work in a series of several demo tapes produced before the debut of "World Standard" (produced by Haruomi Hosono from NON-STANDARD label in 1985). In addition to being distributed among the members' friends, copies of the cassette tapes were sent to NHK-FM “Sound Street” (Tuesday personality: Ryuichi Sakamoto) - a demo tape special that had started broadcasting from the previous year, as well as cassette magazine “TRA” and Alpha/YEN labels who dubbed and passed out about 20 copies of the cassette. The original tape was restored by remastering, without changing the order of the songs at that time, and will be released for the first time on vinyl LP."Asagao" was remastered by Masato Hara. The cover was redesigned by Yu Yokoyama from the original design of the cassette, and all other design work and configurations, including the inserts, are also handled by Yu Yokoyama. Scheduled to be released in September 2020.conatala · World Standard - 「プリマ」: Prima

It’s been a long wait, pressings difficulties have got in the way, but here finally, slightly out of sequence, is the next release on SuperRhythm Trax.Luca Lozano’s returns for his third EP on the label and turns in something truly special. Packed full of bleeps, bass and breaks, with heavy nods here and there to Sheffield, plus the extra treat of ‘Summer Of Love’ with its dubwise swing and bonus DJ Steve remix for the real Break heads.