Squarepusher Shobaleader One
D'Demonstrator

Detroit's Ali Berger returns to FatCat Records' sub-label FCR with a follow up release entitled 'Keys The Door EP2'.After his 'Keys The Door EP1' that picked up support from the likes of Ben UFO, Artwork, Huerco S and Machine Woman, Michigan's Ali Berger returns to the FatCat Records off-shoot FCR which features releases from Cottam, DJJ and Project 223. Ali's previous releases on Clave House, Firm Tracks and Isaiah Tapes reflect his keen ear for slick, stripped back house productions that's gained the attention worldwide resulting in him being signed to FatCat and regularly featuring in clubs all over the US.'Grease Trap' kicks things off with a wavering acid line, robust melodies and outlandish oscillations before 'Heard' drops low-slung bass grooves, emotive leads and rhythmic tombs reminiscent of early Larry Heard productions. 'Hit Piece' introduces eccentric synth shoots, bubbling percussion and glistening rhythms until 'Keys The Door' rounds things off with a cheerful house cut fusing dreamy piano chords and a stimulating drum sequence.

Reymour packed their bags in the pre-Alps of Switzerland and left to start a new life in Bruxelles. This debut album finds originates in this transition, again in a bilingual environment, by now a Knekelhuis theme. Leviosa documents the emergence of a kind of dance built from chansons, synthpop and cute minimal wave. Luc Bersier’s wide musical spectrum reaches great heights while staying small. He creates the musical bedrock on which Reymour’s cabinet of musical curiosities rests, allowing us to drift away on the unctuous fumes of Lou’s vocals. On these tracks she covers a wide array of feelings, of doubt, sexual orientation, play and melancholia. And it all comes together in the reflection of life. Close friend and family guy Low Bat contributes vocals and gameplay on 2 of the album’s tracks.

These days, Hamad Kalkaba is a retired Army colonel and track and field athletics administrator in his native Cameroon. Yet back in the mid 1970s, he was a musician with dreams of potential super-stardom, trying to update traditional Cameroonian "Gandjal" music for the funk generation. To that end, he recorded a small number of singles and EPs alongside his backing band, the Golden Sounds. It's those thoroughly obscure and overlooked releases that make up Hamad Kalkaba & The Golden Sounds, a retrospective of his pioneering work. Sitting somewhere between Afro-beat, Afro-funk and Afro-jazz, with a distinctively Cameroonian rhythmic swing, the music showcased on the album is undeniably special.

Le Cliché - 7' single on clear vinyl on Polytechnic Youth Records, London.250 copies.Second of this June’s PY releases as another absolute gem; a killer double A side 45 on clear wax, again released as an edition of 250. This time from the mighty LE Cliché. “Production Line” with its (aptly timed) homage to Kraftwerk, and it’s flip, “Vicarious Life”, a tribute to the best of early 80’s minimal synth DIY cassette culture, (so revered and key to PY’s existence in the first place). Le Cliché is Barcelona-based, Limerick-born, Gerard Ryan; who studies consumers by day as professor of marketing at the Rovira & Virgili University, and writes music about consumer behaviour by night. Ryan released his first LP on Seattle’s finest independent label, Medical Records, in 2014. He followed that with a collaborations album on Barcelona's Cold Beats Records, which saw him work with some of his cult synth heroes such as Gay Cat Park, Mick Milk, Moss Garten, Mark Lane and Effetto Joule. After two further albums of songs about observations on consumers and academic life (“The Product is You” and “Look at my Powerpoint”), a support slot for Wolfgang Flür, a conference on the future of electric music- and a warm up for Andy McCluskey (omd), the Le Cliché sound evolved from clear crisp synth pop to more obscure, lo-fi, minimal synth. In 2018 he released “Nothing is Original” on Berlin’s Detriti Records, followed by 2019’s Post Plagiarism on Belfast’s Tonn Records. Ryan is also notable for his artwork, in particular the lavish limited editions he prepares of his music releases. In 2019 some of his work appeared in a V&A Museum exhibition at the National Museum in Belfast on 'The art of selling songs'. This new single on Polytechnic Youth places both sides of Le Cliché back to back, with the clean electronic, Kraftwerkian melodies of “Production Line” on one side and the colder, experimental, minimal synth of “Vicarious Life” on the flip.

According to "The Wire", the British bible of musical excellence, Cluster 71 is one of the "One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire". Very few albums from Germany can lay claim to this honour. The album is a monster: Cluster's debut work from the year 1971 (actually just called Cluster) contains a mere three tracks (untitled) and is quite an ordeal for untrained ears – back then, at least. Yet the album pointed the way forward like no other electronic opus.

Another limited edition cassette tape. This time in metallic gold, with premium gold foil Jcard.BVS presents this essential story with over 60 mins of beats on Nullify (A) & Elevate (B).