Various Artists
Various YA.R 002

Arís return with part three of their ongoing series revisiting seminal 90’s Irish dance releases, reissuing the debut release from long standing D1 Recordings luminary Rob Rowland. His 1994 effort M.F.N. is remastered from the original DAT source for the first time, and comes with a fresh remix from young Dublin prog sensation Dylan Forbes.Dublin’s nascent electronic and clubbing ‘scene’ was beginning to take shape in the mid 90’s; you might have heard flashes of techno at François’ U.F.O. night in The Rock Garden or the likes of Dave Angel in The Temple Of Sound, while Tim Hanigan and Mark Kavanagh’s Red Records nights at The Ormonde pushed a progressive house/trance sound similar to their label’s output. In amongst the weekly revellers at these clubs, you might have encountered a young Dubliner by the name of Rob Rowland - a soon-to-be key figure in Ireland’s techno scene.Inspired by his formative clubbing experiences in the capital, Rob acquired an Atari ST, Akai S1000, Kawai K4 and a Roland R-5 and sat down in his bedroom to record. Two tracks, M.F.N. and Restless, emerged within 1 week while another track, Act Natural, soon followed. Initially recorded onto cassette at his house, Rob soon managed to book some time into Temple Bar’s Sound Training Centre, a professional recording studio featuring a 16 channel desk and rack effects, to polish up the record.These 3 tracks resulted in Rob’s inspired debut EP of raw and direct club tracks - a uniquely psychedelic rush of rave euphoria and darkened acid-inspired house and techno. It managed to pique the ears of New York’s Watts Music distribution, thanks to his friend Chris Gough playing them Restless on cassette, who subsequently pressed 1000 copies of the EP onto white label. Miami’s Fluid Audio then licensed it for a full release and acquired a sleek remix from California’s Überzone, which had similar success. All of this, a remarkable achievement for a debut record of underground dance music by a relatively unknown young Dubliner.Rob would go on to become a key artist on Dublin’s seminal D1 Recordings, a label run out of the capital’s northside on Parnell Street by renowned photographer Eamonn Doyle. Responsible for their first ever release, he would go on to do 6 more records for them, becoming an important figure in the label’s history and Irish techno as a whole.M.F.N. is an Irish rave gem, and a key blueprint of the Emerald Isle’s obsession with progressive house and beyond. Naturally, we turned to fellow Dubliner Dylan Forbes for a remix, a prolific producer garnering quite the reputation both home and abroad for his modern take on the sounds found on Rob’s debut. His remix cracks the shutters on the darkened psychedelic undertones of Restless, adding an ‘e’-cstatic layer of euphoria fit with added percussion and pump on a fine rework.

"Since 2018 João Pais Filipe (on drums) and Burnt Friedman (electronics/synth) investigate into automatic pattern–composition rooted in doubling and halving; the unimpeachable laws of motion.The offer of freedom can be seen as a way to get in touch with necessity.On „Mechanics Of Waving“ the attempt is made to succumb to such a mode of action, the drilling of a method, not through individual cunning or displayed musicianship.Through constant practise Friedman & Pais discover the principles of rhythmic phenomena while dis–associating the music from cultural idioms. Inspired by rare infrasound–ratios ranging from 11 to 23, Nonplace releases the results of a 4 years long operation."

Edition of 250, screenprint on tape-strips + 5 hand-stamps.No repress.

Help020 is the second of two new 8-track albums by Central.

Next up on X-Kalay it’s fresh heat from one of the finest among a current generation of prog-inclined producers. Guy Contact’s ‘Out of My Head (Into My Body)’ speaks to a sublime, utopian conception of dancefloor utility; dance music primed to achieve ascension through collective physical experience.Navigating mystic, offbeat zones, Contact sets out his stall from the start. ‘Out of My Head (Into My Body)’ is as pristine as it is expansive, inducing trance states as trippy flourishes oscillate over driving rhythm in impeccable lysergic style. Then, with another dose of melt-on-the-mind groove, a radiant bliss-out arrives in the beautifully buoyant flex of ‘Sacred Mist’.Taking its name from a part of the brain associated with emotional processes, ‘Amygdala Tongue Wobble’ propels into fractal introspection with dense, insistent pulse. Finally, ‘Optimystic’ finds Contact channelling new age spirits as he assumes the role of innerzone healer - wide-eyed downtempo to close things out.

Keeping up with the number of different aliases Legowelt has is as hard as keeping up with the number of personal beefs Prince Harry has, only far more worthy of your time. Here the prolific Dutch producer becomes Smackos and links up with Brightness Shallan Davar for a second of 10 proposed volumes of Whispers Of An Ancient World. Davar takes care of the first side, which offers four deeply atmospheric pieces of analogue ambient fuzz and cosmic imagery. Smackos steps up on the B-side with a more mystic ambient sound and plenty of his signature shapeshifting synth patterns that melt the mind and submerse you deep in an interplanetary world.