Various Artists
WITNESS04

Descending in tempo across three tracks, Outer Heaven states his case founded in breaks. ‘The Observatory’, ‘More Hardcore’ and ‘Minority Industrial Complex’ trail across the hardcore continuum connecting drum & bass to hardcore to hip hop. Essential listening for the discerning raver.

Constructed from a library of sounds collected by the artist in the rainforests of Borneo, Llyr’s debut album is an expansive documentation of natural beauty and human interference. Out July 29th on Max Cooper’s Mesh imprint, it is the first full-length album from the Berlin resident.The result of painstakingly manipulating these recordings via a multitude of cutting edge production techniques, Biome is an expression of precarity and beauty. It invites the listener to be enveloped by Llyr’s augmented reality rendering of the tropical rainforest, one of the Earth’s most biodiverse and iconic biomes, and encourages them to consider our impact on the natural world.Split into two sections - Pre-Anthropocene and Anthropocene - Biome tells its story with vast sonic ecosystems of molecular detail. Opening to the sounds of bird call, faint monkey hollers and the gentle crackling of mist-enshrouded trees, the album sets its tone with an archetypal impression of the jungle; one of instant familiarity. This is then expanded on across eight tracks, with the first four offering an abstract meditation on the marvels of nature, and the remainder of the album presenting a sonic vision of human interference - more chaotic and complicated than before.Llyr’s recordings include signifiers of human presence left untouched as an integral part of the story, with natural phenomena manifesting in different ways on each track. The resulting creations are a testament to the inherent musicality of the natural world. ‘Courtship Signal’ uses a recording of frogs singing in Kubah National Park to map out the rhythms and pitches of its composition, reconstructing an exact structural replica of these mating calls before manipulating and recomposing. Elsewhere, ‘The Hawthorne Effect’ captures a swarm of insects engaging in a rare mating ritual, sampling both a collective hum and individual percussive moments to build an entire library of sound. Similarly, ‘Winged Chamber Music’ carves out a majestic sonic cave using recordings of water dripping and the chattering of bats pitched down to human hearing range. Having engaged wholeheartedly with these moments as they occurred, Llyr extracts themes and motifs with a sincere respect for their origins.The first section is made in its entirety from Llyr’s own rainforest recordings with no use of drum machines, synths or samples. The recordings feature at every possible scale from macro to micro: unmodified binaural field recordings set the scene; granulated layers add pseudo-synthetic textural atmosphere; iteratively processed one-shots provide punctuation; and carefully designed custom instruments, forged from short fragments and cycles, express harmony and rhythm. The second half, heralding the arrival of humans, relaxes the rule book and a smattering of synthetic elements enter the fray to maximise visceral impact.The resulting work is a debut album that considers extensive themes by weaving these rare recordings into a remarkably coherent sonic blueprint. Biome resonates as both an affecting listening experience and a thematic exploration of the changing world we inhabit.

Zeta Reticula makes his Censor debut with Star’s Wobble EP. The A side starts with the EP title track with rushing leads, arps and a distinct energy that ZR is known for, all held together with electronic clangs and atmospheres adding tension to the mix.Next is Planet’s surface which has a murkier and tougher sound, jumping between broken beats and 4/4 electro territory in sections that creates a twisting, turning wormhole straight to the galaxy from which it was made. Unaided Eye is the final track of the A with a deeper and more drum focused mix intertwined with tripped out pads and fx.On the flip, Sync 24 & Alex Jann take care of the title track remix adding a rushing bass, claustrophobic edits, builds and impacts that the pair are known for respectively. Francois Dillinger brings the B-Side to a close with a sparse stripped back electro sound adding almost a down-tempo alternative to Zeta Reticula’s original.This is Censor’s 5th vinyl release following on from London Modular Alliance, Assembler Code and Alex Jann.Mastered by Alden TyrellAll tracks Uroš UmekRemix P by Sync 24 & Alex Jann (Star’s Wobble Remix) // Francois Dillinger (Planet’s Surface Remix)

For the second EP of the Uruguayan series, Fede Lijt lands on Partout with this 4 electro and acid tracks.

‘Albino Sound concocts textual delights in shades of metal on his forthcoming EP for Turnend Tapes.The ‘Metallurgy’ EP forthcoming on Turnend Tapes sees Japanese artist Hirotaka Umetani transmit four club orientated tracks through a UK bass lens, delineating from past musical excursions and so marking a turning point of his works.Indicative of this shift is the vast and varied sources of inspiration Hirotaka has tapped into in creating ‘Metallurgy’. Translating visual into sound through Hirotaka’s own experience, bare witness to granular detail made macro through swathes of sound design kinetically akin to the flurry of mineral-rich hot water springs, seething in chemical harmony.Entwining impressions of the past with forecasts of the future Hirotaka deftly connects the dots between the sounds stemming from the alchemy of metal and it’s interplay with the natural environment as we proceed ever closer to organic-synthetic assimilation.’

This record is a momentous occasion for me as it is the first release that I have signed from a member of my production tutorial website. This is something I was quietly hoping would come to pass when I started the project but I never knew if it would actually happen. Liebus was sending me tracks to critique as part of a feature on the site and after a batch of them came in that I not only didn’t have any critique for but actually I wanted to ask him how he made them instead, I knew I was onto a winner.I can’t quite believe this is his first release as the tracks sound so mature and incredibly produced but I was never going to think twice about putting them out.All five tracks are subby, drummy, mind bending workouts from start to finish. Proper cavernous vibes with a dose of potentially too strong an LSD trip mixed in for good measure.Not for the faint hearted...OK enough of my blather. Go and listen to the damn things yourself and decide if you like them, rather than trying to work it out from reading a bloody press release you weirdos.All four tracks are produced and sculpted for the club. They want big sound systems and dark rooms.Close your eyes, hold hands and experience transcendental space flight...