Xs-Ive House
REZ9Nine

Habitat by Leon Louder / Scattered EnsembleMontreal-based composer Leon Louder spent the 2020-21 lockdown period in remote collaboration with four fellow musicians, exploring tones from homemade and traditional instruments and percussion, using a mixture of live sampling and improvisation to create aleatoric tonal landscapes. Inspired by a stay on a remote island in the St-Lawrence River estuary, where the weather can shift dramatically from serene to turbulent at any moment and the dialogue of birds, insects, and seals is omnipresent, Habitat is a sequence of restless sound worlds, an impressionistic depiction of a constantly changing ecosystem that had its parallel in the emotional turmoil of pandemic time.Like the phenomena they approximate, the pieces exist in a continual state of composition and recomposition. Populated with melodic fragments that call and respond, break apart and ricochet, they ask the listener to live in the music as much as to listen to it, accepting discord as equal to harmony, chaos as part of the order.The individual tracks are strikingly varied, not only in their vocabularies of sound but in the moods they create and the hints of environment they evoke. They range from "Full of Light", in which mesmerizing bell and woodwind tones interweave in melodic counterpoint, building to a gently driving train-like rhythm that conjures some sort of Celestial Express -- to "Underpass", whose low dark sounds and simple repeated rhythms carry us down through subterranean strata bored out by primeval life forms, into what feels like a maze of subway tunnels on another planet.The recordings bring into play double bass, vibraphone, homemade zithers, piano, modular synthesizer, and found percussion, and feature collaborators from the Montreal experimental music community: radio artist Martin Rodriguez, multi disciplinary artist Gabrielle Godbout, drummer and electroacoustic composer Samuel Bobony, and multi instrumentalist Rodney Sothmann.

A sublime techno reissue from the vaults of one of London's leading electronic labels of the last 25 years, remastered and re-presented for 2022!Originally released in 1994 on Mr.C's cult UK house and techno label Plink-Plonk and composed and performed by Laggy Panteli and Zeno Messis (aka Megalon) in their London studio, 'Pandora's Box' is a truly unique record. Sleek, futuristic, fathoms deep and wholly original, the music contained on these 2 discs sounds as modern and as vital as it did on it's arrival all of those years ago.Exploring a deeper vein of electronic music, Megalon craft their own sonic landscapes that are undoubtedly inspired by all forms of cerebral electronic music. Ambient, Detroit techno, electro, European electronics and of course the duo's experiences in London's early acid house and rave scene all filter through their lens to bring something brand new to the table. The arrangement, sound design and mix on the album is outstanding, lending a totally visionary and modern feel to the tracks that continues to echo today.'Pandora's Box' is a record that has existed within the shadows for many years, with a hardcore cult following. The kind of record that one might hear deep into the early hours, at the hands of a seasoned selector or an 'insider' who has the knowledge. It is redolent of a time when innovation, ideas and imagination trumped the run of the mill and the homogenous, which goes a long way in explaining what makes this record so exciting some 25+ years later.A totally essential mid 90's UK techno and electronic classic, as much a treat for the mind as for the body.Reissued in full conjunction with the artists and remastered by Curvepusher from DAT and original source materials.

The Jak has returned with 2 new Dirty bLends in extremely limited quantity.Introducing nU cOhort to the label:The Falcon (a silent assassin)this new artist alias to the label has contributed to the further effort of maintaining the sound from the early inception of Chicago tracks like the days of old that still lives and breathes in us today that honours and treasuresenriched essential dance music history.DirtyBlends Edition 7 both sides IZ straight HEAT!The Jak kicks the A-Side into madness with a Jakbeat blueprint of energetic electronics and various bass lines on this obscure creation honouring Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles and Farley that resonates a confrontationalquestion repeatedly saying “Who said i can’t beat U for the title track ‘An Offbeat Formation of Control’The Falcon Flys fiLthY iLL on the B-Side wit a whiPLash idea influenced from Chicago’s south-side of rhythm styles Paul Johnson and Chip E!!!made 2 Jak 4 Crazies that is truly Definitive Jakbeat.