Man/ipulate
Trance and Dance EP

BAR07, a double A side featuring an 11-minute mind bending rollercoaster by JEANS and the debut of Blond, a new moniker by Oceanic, delivering the perfect spring / summer track.

There are many things we don’t understand here, maybe in time we shall...

Konduku returns to the Delsin Mantis series with an exciting double pack (Mantis 09 + 10) which dives deeper into his remarkable fractured rhythms and light-touch synthesis. Over the course of nine tracks Ruben Uvez straddles the space between introspective headphone trips and hypnotising dancefloor elegance, operating in a liminal zone of fluid tempos, submerged atmospheres and pointillist beats. It's an open-ended but clear-sighted approach that aligns perfectly with the direction of the Mantis series. Mantis 10 opens up with the circular electronica of 'Trail', masking the start and end points of the groove with the kind of polymetric construction Uvez has made his name with. The pattern continues through the displaced, dubby experimentation of 'Lust' before the more sharply defined transcendental tone of 'Lavender' cuts through the fog. 'Dalgin' rides its pattering percussion on a minimalist D&B growl, setting the scene for the dislocated, avant-darkside closer 'Helles'.

ISLE011 is a collection of cassette recordings made in Athens by Christos Chondropoulos over the last five years. Coming from an avant-garde percussion background, Christos calls upon themes of ancient Greek folklore and musical tradition through a futurist lens depicting robotic societies in post-human harmony. He constructs worlds reminiscent of Marcello Giombini’s Mondial Folk series or Umiliani’s exoticised Omicron outings. By looking to the future rather than the far-off past, he builds upon these early instances of technologically charged cultural geography and presents an authentically Greek reading of a parallel Athenian basin. Where his last work for 12th Isle explored once-forbidden tunings and unplaceable tonalities, these recordings further expand on the artist’s simultaneous concern for heritage and imaginary projection. Across the final Side D, Chondropoulos explores themes of maternal love present across the album by working with local singer Sofia Sarri to record six piercing, beautiful acapella phrases.

Split #1 marks the debut of a new vinyl series, to be hosted on the Various Artists catalogue of Pi Electronics. The split series will be bringing two artists on the same vinyl, with this very first release presenting music by Greek producers Fragedis and Nemmett.Coming from different backgrounds of electronic music, prolific figure of the Cretan islands' dance scene, Fragedis and one of the Athenean founding members of the "pi" crew, Nemmett, contribute their sharpest weapons to this release.On the A-side, Fragedis delivers a techno/breaks cut of dystopian melodies and vocal samples with his opening track "Flantza". His second track, "Klirish" blends industrial leaning percussions with Detroit techno flavored synths.On the flip side, Nemmett returns with his trademark industrial / breaks sound, in a hypnotic, rap vocal atmosphere with the track "Altars". His broken beat influences go more noise with his second track "Teeth", which concludes the B-side of the vinyl.

After three EP's in his own name, and one with Moreno Ácido at Holuzam, Diogo makes his debut 12” in the Discos Extendes series with “FINALMENTE!”. In a singular appropriation of the vast legacy of rave culture, Diogo crosses, along four tracks, a certain time span between the 90's and the 2020's, with all kinds of recycling and updates that the exercise entails. Syncopated rhythmic patterns, robust basses, junglist echoes, haunted voices or celestial pads make up a revivalist sound palette, here rearticulated beyond linear structures. “Até Segunda” sets the tone in territories close to Objekt's Theme from Q in a live sound design amidst sudden disturbances and rallying hooks. Tracks 2 and 3 stand out for their plot twists: “Ponto de Não Retorno” starts with a frenetic breaky maze before get immersed in a oneiric landscape, and “What?!” progresses gently within Vancouver coordinates to be opened to a schizophrenic rawness that, from there, completely remakes the track. “Errar É Ok” is an exercise of decompression, melodically woven, with a dreamy coda pointing to nostalgic horizons. Violet closes the EP with a muscular version of “Ponto de Não Retorno”. "Finalmente!" marks for this unstable balance between familiarity and strangeness, intuitiveness and disturbance, euphoria and immersion. Tracks for the dance floor, yes, with a twist, to be rediscovered as often as you like.