Earl Jeffers
Higher

If you stand long enough at this bus shelter, it will begin to snow. The horizon that ends the road outward often feels like it will crawl closer, but it remains the same distance, the same traffic. When running on a track and the centrifugal force begins to carry you, and you feel as if racing the other user on the track is the winning solution, remember to race the track itself. The track does not move. The meditation of punching a brick wall is still a meditation. The moment you decide to walk, as the horizon is not far off, the moment you race the white chalk lines on the clay field you're running, when the bricks break before you, you find you the outcome. Place your phone in your pocket and sit back in the seat of this bus, place your head between your knees, and brace for impact. The scream of glass is only a second, then the peace of glitter as it becomes particles around you is overwhelming in beauty. You are the outcome. You are what made it this far in a single day, a mayfly's life-cycle, a work shift, several movies streaming in a dark room on a laptop, a cat's fur glowing. Turn the key for your flat and enter. Welcome home. Again.

In 2006 the now defunct BaseLogic label released the first in a triad of EP's entitled 'Fixxy', produced by the enigmatic British artist Ed Chamberlain. These EPs left many electronic music lovers scratching their heads, having heard something genuinely different. It represented a new generation of IDM reminiscent of The Black Dog or Plaid, melancholic electro with a meticulous nuanced palate that immediately transformed Chamberlain into a revered figure.Fifteen years on Lapsus Records, as part of its 'Perennial' series, will release Ed Chamberlain’s superlative productions across 2x12", entitled '03/06'. The lavish 12” double pack will feature a sizeable part of the ‘Fixxy’ material, along with additional tracks created during the same period of time, 2003 – 2006, including 'Zarathustra' and 'Does Ape' –the latter released on vinyl in 2008 by Madrid label Semantica–. For this special release all tracks have been re-mastered and will be pressed and packaged in a deluxe edition format.

‘Distrub Roqe’ encapsulates the ultra-precision of Bristol-based producer FFT as he asserts both intensity and restraint in unearthly textures. Numbers's latest signee FFT’s sonic mark has been dispersed over an obscure association of aliases which sprawl between labels - including The Trilogy Tapes, Low End Activist’s Bruk Records and his own imprint Super Hexagon. Converting signal into rhythm with an impressive amount of focus, the bass resonances of ‘Disturb Roqe’ are particularly loaded with weight to capture outlandish, alien frequencies.

Since our first contact with NYC based producer Thavius Beck in 2018, he sent us over 100 unreleased tracks, or beats, as he calls them. 25 of them have been selected for releases on U-TRAX, good for over 2 hours of music, across this album and the Lovesick EP.Growing up in LA, Thavius Beck entered the hip-hop scene as member of Global Phlowtations, and released several solo albums under the Adlib moniker. In later years, he released five albums under his own name on labels like Mush, Big Dada and Plug Research, and also produced albums for artists like Saul Williams and K‑the‑I???, and did some remixing for amongst others Nine Inch Nails.Nowadays he combines making music with a career as a succesful certified Ableton and Bitwig trainer and as a music teacher at Berklee NYC.The tracks vary in style a lot, but what they have in common is that they either are moody – in U-TRAX lingo: deep - or they are drum heavy. The common denominator would probably be 'experimental/instrumental hip-hop', reminiscent of producers like Flying Lotus. People have tried all sorts of comparisons to pinpoint Thavius' sound, ranging from 'between DJ Shadow and Orbital' and 'a mix of Massive Attack and The Orb'. None of these are spot on, yet quite a few of these tracks feel like a happy marriage between hip-hop beats and techno sounds.Despite the fact that some tracks are 20 years old and have been made with widely different gear (one track was even made on a PlayStation 2), this selection sounds remarkably balanced, yet diverse.From the irresistible single 'Lovesick/Still Sick' to the dark and massive 'Birdsong' (that echoes the sound of his popular song 'Atmos'), and from the head-nodding 'Work!' to the soothing 'Reunited With The All' - if this collection showcases anything, it's Thavius' brilliant production and composing skills, as well as his wizard-level sampling techniques. The result is a luscious electronic music album with a broad appeal.Available on double 180 grams colored vinyl vinyl, comes in gatefold picture sleeve.