onecaseman of The Music Lobby reviewed and recommended Terraforming by Gift Culture

Now this is a varied collection. Reminding me of the Hackers soundtrack (you know the one), Terraforming is a journey through 90s electronic sounds, all impeccably crafted so that each so is memorable and different from the next. There's ambient here, downtempo, IDM, ambient techno - it's all here to take you back to when Aphex Twin and Orbital were king. But Gift Culture provides more than just a trip down memory lane; he brings something new to the table by just how much he is able to vary his sound. The first track sounds like an uptempo groovy track, but then he segues to downtempo, even going for glitchy IDM for a while, and for the closer he even busts out some guitar over some extremely wobbly bass. This is obviously a case of a knowledgeable producer flexing his muscles, but not to the detriment of the music, as each track is crafted toward making a great song, if not a cohesive, flowing album. If you were born and bred on electronic music, this will definitely be a fun listen.

~ onecaseman - The Music Lobby

Textura wrote up a nicely textured review of When Falls Arrive by The Great Mundane

The Great Mundane's When Falls Arrive is more than just a pleasant surprise: DIY-producer Jeffrey Acciaioli weaves fifteen cuts into a solidly crafted travelogue of IDM-inflected instrumental hip-hop that goes down easily indeed. Par for the course, the beats are crisp but he brings an equal amount of attention to the tracks' melodic content and compositional structures. There's no shortage of collage-styled crate-digging on display too but Acciaioli arranges the elements into cohesive wholes where the bits (e.g., the bright piano flourish echoing throughout “The Great Escape”) are used in service to the whole. The level of imagination and resourcefulness impresses also: strip away the slippery rhythms punctuating the aggressive ostinato in “Collecting Rain” and you're left with a keyboard motif that could fit just as easily into a classical minimalism piece.

There's lots to dig into in Acciaioli's fully-developed cuts and sample-heavy interludes: jazz-hop Moroccan swing (“Bombs 2 Business”), laid-back funk-hop (“No Dumping in Jersey ”), and bouncy glitch-hop (“Worm Eaters”). “Neglecting Your Lover” nicely lays out his head-nodding style with a shape-shifting mix of acoustic bass lines, tight beats, and arcade melodies, and Acciaioli even works a samba feel into the heady Rhodes flow of “Disguising Discomfort.” Perhaps the strongest cut is “Chatter Box” which chops heads with pummeling bass buzz while its synth melodies inject a subtle shot of Boards Of Canada flavour into the mix. Prefuse 73 is an obvious reference but The Great Mundane's material is considerably less frenetic than Herren's, making When Falls Arrive a good introduction for those new to the genre.

~ Textura

12rec has released their 50th album. They decided to make it a compilation. All exclusive. All free. All for you. 12rec drummed up the whole bunch and asked them to deliver the best they have. The compilation includes seventeen tracks from recent and future 12rec artists.

You can download the compilation for free via www.12rec.net

follow the links =)

Daniel Merrill of Aligning Minds wrote up an inspiring review of When Falls Arrive by The Great Mundane located on: Eighty-Eight DC, the When Falls Arrive album review page and below//

In my ever increasing quest for music with individualistic character, that is, music that stands with a solid presence of unique personality that reflects that of it’s creator (rather than a genre/formula), I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with the sounds of The Great Mundane (www.thegreatmundane.com). Emerging from whatever shadows he had been hiding in, producer/instrumentalist Jeffrey Acciaioli has been swiftly perking up the ears of listeners who join me in that search.

First, through the connection made between 88 and the beautiful people over at Chi-town collective Psymbolic (www.psymbolic.com), I had the chance to meet and communicate with Jeffrey and hear his music. Then, I got to perform with him at the Sacred Earth Open Air Festival thrown in Wisconsin by the collective known as the Chilluminati (www.chilluminati.org), which was simply perfect. Through talking and listening, I discovered he’s both an outstanding producer and an exceptional human being. So, now catching up to his sound a bit after the fact, I’ve learned that he’s been pretty busy for a number of years, flexin’ his style until it came to bear the fruits of 2 Ep releases on Belladonna Records, which are now unfortunately out of print. Of course, I’ll be hitting him for my own personal copy.. :)

No worries however, as it was all leading up to the album in question, released recently on Psymbolic Sounds (the label platform that is a part of the aforementioned multi-faceted Psymbolic collective), called ‘When Falls Arrive’. This album is without a doubt a definitive moment in the career of the Great Mundane, as it flawlessly showcases a signature style and work ethic that is just…truly different.

I feel that his sound, no matter where it eventually leads you, is based on a very firm foundation of hip hop work ethics and very intelligent sound design. The rhythms and general themes of all these 15 tunes are very hip hop influenced, and you could easily throw an mc on any one of them. Think funky-chunky breaks, moody ambiances, g-funk leads, experimental beat structures and heavily edited/fragmented sample layers, and you could be getting close to describing his sound. Only close though- as the combination of these elements only hint at things familiar. The sound design is exceptional, swaying your senses constantly and keeping you in check with extreme textural manipulations and stereo field imaging that work in subtle and suspicious conjunction so well calculated you feel like you’re getting a subliminal math lesson. New neural pathways get opened with this music for sure, making you question the direction at all times- and challenging your expectations of linear musical development by delivering surprises at every turn. Some may hear similarities to Prefuse 73. Totally different styles, but there are certainly similar decisions made in some major regards, which is quite the compliment.

Composing and producing this album completely in Reason, he makes me want to go back and check it out again. His melodies are consistently warm, playful, melancholic, and full of dreamy connotations, heavily utilizing flutes, Rhodes, and monophonic synth lines that weave their way around, full of motion and movement. Standouts for me are ‘No Dumping in Jersey’, ‘Disguising Discomfort’, ‘Circus’, ‘ and ‘When Falls Arrive’- all tunes that linger in the domain of melodies that make me feel discomfort through comfort, if that can possibly make any sense. There is also so much diversity on this album, you’re continually exposed to new varieties of sonic oddities, texture and nuance. Every track is a different flavor, but extremely cohesive to the album through such a common set of ground rules, which I think is the ideal for an album, as it shows that the artist has a solid grasp on his vision.

As a debut album, this is most promising- I can’t recommend it enough. It might be a bit different from what you encounter with your normal listening habits, and that’s a much-needed thing. It’s inspiring and hopeful to run across artists who have no fear of really pushing limits as well as the ability to do so. If you have a bone in your body that wants to hear something unique and distinctly fresh, you’ll follow along with this fellow- he’s got you covered.

~ Daniel Merrill - Aligning Minds / Eighty-Eight DC

From unfoundsound records:

being that foundsound and unfoundsound were launched and nurtured in philadelphia, it’s only appropriate that we give you a new chapter to our “location series” – a compilation of tracks from philly artists entitled philly time! you get a whopping 13 tracks (woohoo!) illustrating the vast diversity that philly artists have to offer. the list of artists ranges from veterans to newcomers. you get deep and lush atmospheric bliss from scuba (a.k.a. king britt), tweaked-out tech-house insanity from nigel richards, danceable field recording brilliance from unfoundsound’s own fidget and tleilaxu, harsh and abrasive tech-core from duran duran duran, grime-ish dirty dub from starkey, fun-filled idm-ish tech-house from kilowatts, plus everlasting goodness from pink skull, accidentally and city rain. you also get some dope remixes! two tracks from miskate’s zuni ep (foundsound-03) are fiercely reworked by diss0nance and robmall. plus, jamie morris transforms “goofball” (unfound-01) by someone else into a minimal loop-techno gem. yes, indeed. philly will always be home.

artwork by fidget

Artists and Track Listing:

01. fidget - bucket of fun
02. tleilaxu - mobilize
03. miskate - wizards are lucky (diss0nance remix)
04. nigel richards - do it 4 the devil
05. pink skull - choco taco
06. kilowatts - luna rd
07. someone else - goofball (jamie morris remix)
08. duran duran duran - minimal brain power
09. accidentally - onoyoko
10. miskate - zuni lullaby (robmall remix)
11. city rain - poker face
12. king britt presents scuba - spring
13. starkey - time

Kahvi's 10th Anniversary celebration continues with a new release exclusively for digital download fans. For most of the artists listed below, this is the first time they've ever been released on commercial sites.

www.kahvi.org

Release date for Beatport - July 1st, Release date for iTunes + others - August 1st.

Artists and Track Listing:

01. Acrilic Colors - Moon Kiss
02. Abyssal Plains - Biome
03. Coax - Robot Dreams
04. Brioskj - Oxygen
05. Nedavine - Being and Time
06. Atmogat - Termina Eve
07. General Fuzz - Go Inwards
08. Introspective - Winds of Neptune
09. Aaron Jasinski - Angel Face
10. Alessandro Pintus - ML Wagner
11. Audio Cephlon - Merge and Diverge
12. MigloJE - Day after
13. Mosaik - Yoghurt
14. Workbench - Ascent
15. Mikael Fyrek - Reduce to Silence
16. Blackberry - Deep Silence
17. Scann-tec - Dolbo Job
18. KiloWatts - Foothold Herald's Summit View
19. 4T Thieves - Beneath a Steel Sky
20. Bad loop - Sometimes
21. Lackluster - Shimmering Edges
22. Xurba - Summers Gold
23. Alexey V - Tune Part II

KiloWatts- Exit The Laugh

A1. Everglade
A2. Everglade (Alland Byallo's Mixed Messages Dub)
B1. Exit The Laugh
B2. Well Tempered Weirdness

"The project kicks off with a heady,sharp, staccato tech house tune with dancefloor crumbling bass! Eveglade is a wintery and hypnotic pallate of strange sounds clashed with melodic swells. Like a trip through a forest, it changes and morphs from a light jazzy atmosphere to an intense synth ridden banger! San Francisco's Alland Byallo gives his signature spacey techno rework to Everglade. Dubby drums and covert chords rattle as this late night rework chugs along sending listeners into an unfocused reality. On the flip KiloWatts offers a drummy minimal techno tune with plenty of gnarling bass and glitched out pops! Exit the Laugh has a clockwork orange feel with haunting melodies and scary music box leads. Keeping with the astranged scenery Well Tempered Weirdness is a dancefloor timebomb! This tune starts out mellow and well mannered but soon builds into a swirl of naughty circus dreams with immense filtered strings and and various other sonic abnormalities. "

Available at beatport

Titus Ellis has done an incredible video to 'B. Sprout's First Fight' integrating dark causality and Newton's 3rd law.

Check it out at YouTube

Check out Titus Ellis's other projects here

Skeetaz - Fogrequing EP
Spacebar Sentiments

A1 - Fo
A2 - DramaQuing
B1 - Fo (Limbertimbre Remix)
B2 - Ogre

"Those of you who have been paying attention will no doubt remember Skeetaz from their contributions to Spacebar Superstars Vol. 2 last year. Seemingly in the blink of an eye they are back with their astounding full debut for Spacebar Sentiments, the " Fogrequing EP ". Comprising of James Watts (KiloWatts) and Bil Bless (Son of the Electric Ghost, The Disciple Grin) , this is evidently material written by two producers at the peak of their powers. Straddling the thin line between breaks and electro (just the way we like it), this has the energy and funk of good breaks, with the amazing sound design and futuristic edge of electro..."Fo" kicks off the EP in fine fashion, with hints of P-funk peeping out from amongst the mindblowing programming. "Drama quing" follows, and sounds like a friendlier version of Aphex's "Windowlicker", adding truly beautiful padded chord progressions to the sharp electro underbelly. Limbertimbre grabs the bull by the horns on the flip and ups the tempo of "Fo" while keeping the funk in full effect. "Ogre" rounds the EP off nicely with a glitched downtempo jam that urges us to "check the rhythm". Good advice, as just when you think you have got a handle on it the track has sped up, slowed down, sped up again, and those of you who were brave enough to attempt dancing in the first place are left spinning...

A1 gets a big Holy Shit. The P-Funk All-Stars would be proud of it. It dropped my jaw and loosened my rectum (thankfully only a little). Watch for that 1:27 mark. It's deadly! I'm almost hesitant to listen to the rest of the samples. I'm sure to pay a dear price for hearing something of this nature. I just may be ruined towards all future Electro records."

As Quoted Here

Si Begg Review:

"If you want next level sh*t then get this EP. The production is flawlessly future proof the beats are funky and the grooves are deeper than a submarine. Seriously, I love this EP. “Fo” is like some kind of acid crunk groove , super funky fun, “Drama Quing” sucks you into a totally holographic headspace, Limbretimbre’s remix of “Fo” gives you something a bit heavier to bash some bins with whilst keeping a bit of the 80s cameo crunk from the original mix, then lastly you’ve got “Ogre” a tempo shifting glitch-hop oddessy. Great label, great EP."

Skeetaz
Spacebar Sentiments

Voodeux - 'The Curse'
Mothership

A: The Curse
B1: The Spell
B2: The Curse (Mike Shannon Rmx)

Voodeux (Voo-Doo, innit?) is the deep techno moniker of Tanner Ross (dirtybird) and his partner in crime KiloWatts. On “The Curse” Ross & Watts expand their catalog of sound beyond the funk and into the sublime. Instead of swiggles and bounce, we get creeping basslines and chilling echoes. With “Thriller” as a distant relative, side A1 makes for the graveyard, zombies in tow. The duo’s continuing development as artists sees them rappelling further into the darkness for new beats, and as the track matures, so do the chills on the back of your spine. “The Spell” goes one step further, taking the sound of a distant train, shards of ghoulsound and an ancient wind under a pulsing beat and chiming melodies.

Mike Shannon, founder of Cynosure and master of all things deep, puts his own well-crafted stamp on this dark sound, distorting the edges and frying the fringe to make a ghostly dancefloor manuscript. Shannon, who has recorded for ~scape, Force Inc. and many more, knows his way through the night.

Voodeux - The Curse