Miskotom
Aegean Cruise EP

Max D's latest LP is the first full length album on 1432 R. It's a milestone from the Future Times boss, who's been holding it down in his creative corner of electronic music for over a decade. The album opens fast and fierce with I Think Our Souls Are Other People, a storm of live percussion and widescreen drone. And then from track to track, it strips itself down, mellows itself out, and rides on hypnotic loops. Many Any Dolo Brush is something of a cameo from Max’s Dolo Percussion moniker, giving way to the first of three field recording miniatures that glue the album together and provide a sort of romantic center. Fly Around The Room is a true half-time float, with a melody that sits in your ear while drums zip past. Shoutout Seefeel, a 130 mind cleanser, is full of the namesake shoe gaze and thick hovering techno drums. Lullabiological features the keyboards of 1432 R's own Dawit Eklund, wandering off the deep end like some dream that can't be shaken. Cuz It's The Way rounds out the work with a groove made for the dance floor. Max D and 1432 R: we are always on some hopeful shit.

Raï is the music of a youth hungover from Algeria's recent independence. It became a space for a liberated, transgressive dialogue that told the social truths of its time -- an up-front yet poetic voice that covers the taboos and frustrations of daily life, expressing emotion without detour. This voice is heard at weddings, cabarets, in the nightclubs of the Oranese coast, and casually on the street... With the boom of the audio cassette, an avalanche of raï tapes were produced in Oran and diffused all over the world. Both women and men sang and listened to the new sound, as raï is intimately tied to parties, alcohol and the night. With the spontaneous improvisation of its singers as the main part of each song, raï keeps reinventing itself. In this style, Cheb Hasni, along with Cheb Nasro, incarnates a second generation of musicians. With the "love raï", or sentimental raï, Hasni sings about love, passion and its setbacks -- moving away from the bittersweet daily chronicles of the first chebs and chebates. Having recorded nearly 150 cassettes, Cheb Hasni remains one of the most prolific and talented raï singers of his generation. Almost thirty years after his death, this three-volume compilation of rare tracks from his cassette releases on the Oriental Music Production label is a tribute to the lasting legacy of Cheb Hasni -- ya raï! The second volume of three is presented here.CHEB HASNIVol 1Outre National

These tracks were recorded by Kevin Low and Fiona Carlin in Kevin’s bedroom in Gayfield Square, Edinburgh, in 1986. Me and my dad, Kevin, dug out a huge bunch of his tapes over the lockdown (about 80 of the them at first). Some were…better than others, however, the Gayfield Square demos were the pick of the lot. Previously Kevin and Fiona were part of the Post Punk / indie band ‘Wild Indians’, whose first release “Stolen Courage” had come out in 1983 – released on Flexi Disc via the Edinburgh fanzine Deadbeat. Throughout the mid-1980s they performed across Edinburgh’s clubs, including at the Hoochie Coochie Club (name checked on track 7), where they played alongside bands and close friends Pop Wallpaper and Visitors. The band went on to release two 12” singles, “Love of My Life” in 1984 and “Penniless” in 1986.After the band broke up Kevin sold his guitar amp and 7inch collection, Fiona her saxophone and they went out and got themselves a Yamaha RX-5 drum machine, Yamaha QX7 sequencer and a Yamaha DX-100. These bedroom tracks are the fruits of their first venture with this hardware, combining their experimentation with synthetic sounds (mostly the DX-100’s famous pre-sets) with a post-punk vocal style.These eight tracks are also, in part, the fruit of the “Enterprise Allowance scheme” - a policy venture of Margaret Thatcher’s UK government that gave unemployment claimants access to an extra £40 to top up the basic dole money. Following Thatcher’s election victories in 1979 and 1983, the policy sought to reduce the figures of mass unemployment which hung over Britain well into the 1980s. This policy, according to Kevin, helped to keep up the credit payments. He notes that, “when Fiona and I turned up at the DHSS office with the sure-fire money-making plan of making a business as a ‘song-writing’ duo they signed us up. However, I still think they thought we said, sign writing as they were filling out the form.”Kevin and Fiona stopped making music together shortly after these tracks were recorded so unfortunately, they never saw the light of day…until now!Fiona went on to work in Film and Television sound. Kevin became a photographer, working mostly in theatre. He is now an artist/painter working in Glasgow.

European Carryall hits release number five with more superbly stylish techno. This time out they get a call from boss man Mr Telephones, who markedly ups the pace compared to his usual antics across a couple of fierce new weapons. 'Blue-Tek' (Raw Mix) opens up and despite the name is a mega slick and smooth, high speed fusion of Detroit and Balearic styles into something utterly breezy and compelling. The Dream Reprise is a little more airy and then 'FV555' (Arkanoid Dusk mix) gets more deep and heady on the flip. A Suenotechno reprise then heads off into the cosmos for late night dreaming.

250 copies only. Antwerp’s Stadspark: a once-thriving triangular cruising ground, and still an occasional recreation site. These days, however, the only flash you are likely to get is that of a police badge. Linger on a bench too long and brave the consequences; to fester at home is best. But the animals just proliferate. Unwanted domestic pets – gerbils, rabbits, mice – dumped in the night in Logan’s Run; no one knows how and when this unsavoury practice was begun. To his astonishment, The Administrator once reported seeing a raven swoop clean from the trees and scoop up a guinea pig in its claws. The guinea pig was not heard from again. Reborn real estate: in the bushes, militant structures don sportswear shades, and a club scuppered by arson emerges as a generic phoenix –the Grand Café Capital. That chip on the shoulder of second cities. Not to deny the park its stately airs: fin-de-siècle street lamps, precious steel suspension bridge and the whole beguilinglyprehistoric as seagulls soar and light irradiates the lake. Desiccated one summer, pumped artificially after protest, sans the resident black swans. A former fortress now offering fourteenhectares of jogging excellence. The playground is cordoned off with crime tape.

Detroit's Ali Berger joins up with FatCat Records' sub-label FCR to release four acid-tinged cuts entitled 'Keys The Door EP1'.Michigan's Ali Berger has been making music for nearly ten years now and was first introduced to house and techno in 2012 through a party at New York's Dope Jams. Later that year he went on to release his debut EP on Militant Science and has since gone on release music via Clave House, Isaiah Tapes and Firm Tracks. Ali represents a new wave of producers coming through the US scene earning him regular slots at venues across the country. His 'Keys The Door EP1' sees him join Brighton's FatCat sub-label FCR which launched with two releases from Cottam, in addition to records from DJJ and Project 223.Ali uses mostly hardware from the 90s and early 2000s to make his music and the stripped back nature of production is a constant feature throughout the EP. 'Badlands' opens things up with a chugged out groove immersed with weaving 303s and eccentric modulations before rhythmic synth stabs, angelic leads and delicate chords take the focus in 'Love In This Box'.'Secrets' maintains the attractive atmosphere through a lusciously deep bassline, a haunting acid line and inviting oscillations until 'Sleeves' finishes things off with a raw drum sequence, illustrious melodies and alleviating pads in the second half.