飯島真理
遥かな微笑み 〜黄土高原〜 = Harukana Hohoemi

Cryptobitch has officially infiltrated, and corrupted the Planet Euphorique mainframe. The 17th release on the label orbits beyond tangible earth and seemingly slides into the new age of sexy cyberspace. 7 tracks of eclectic lysergic bliss, spanning speeds and servers; originally recorded over 2010/20 and re-released into today’s future; making more sense than ever. Hosting post-hyper electronics, recontextualized data and warped familiarity with metaphysical links to patterns of hacking; crashed genres and next-gen dance excursions flow throughout the record, only broken by bot-breath and text to speech realness. Hot-wired rhythmic signals scurry and disperse as your senses awaken, a harshness perfectly calmed by surfing over textures of the digital sublime.The Bitchy & Glitchy soundtrack to your personal, anonymous chat room fantasy.

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.

Maston’s Darkland is a breezy collection of the material from the Tulips sessions that didn’t make it on to the original LP. Originally a digital-only release for those in the know in the autumn of 2018, after re-issuing Tulips in 2020 it made too much sense for Be With to give Darkland a vinyl release. Like Tulips, Darkland was recorded mostly in Hoorn, in the Netherlands, between 2015-2017 during downtime from Frank’s touring duties with Jacco Gardner’s band. Bits were also done in Los Angeles on some extended trips back home. The collection plays like an alternate view of Maston’s instant modern classic Tulips; a companion piece to the LP proper with similar mixture of shorter themes and more full length tracks. As Frank Maston explains: “I think Darkland is the shadow of Tulips in a way… what it might’ve been in a different universe. But the heart of Tulips beats in these songs as well and they evoke the same memories and feelings for me. I see my process playing out across these songs - lots of experimentation and trying out new techniques and sounds and just sort of going for it.”

Maara makes seductively uninhibited, proggy dance music. In fact, she’s quickly becoming one of its foremost exponents. Barely pausing for breath between releases, ‘Spiral 2 the Other Side’ finds the Montreal artist summoning divine feminine frequencies with a hypnotic, ritual-ready 4-tracker.Some Maara productions are shot through with an almost radiant optimism, but here, darkroom throb prevails. Big on the gated vocals, ‘Spiral 2 the Other Side’ achieves cybernetic sensuality through trippy,moiré-d electro, while ‘Take the Wheel Miss Sweetie’, with its driving, fathoms-deep approach, provides a direct take on the blueprint.The Canadian assumes the role of high priestess on the flip. ‘Forget the world’ is a ritual incantation for bridging seen and unseen worlds; prog house magick with shades of ‘90s trance utopia. Rounding things off with a tunnelling electro tripper, ‘Doom Quest’ references the vortex-dwelling atmospherics of early tribal modes to mind-altering effect.

FR053 - NE - 202090% of wine is meant to be consumed within a year of production. 5-10% of wine improves after 1 year. Less then 1% benefits from the delicate process of maturation, ageing and preserving it for 15 years...