Ambient / Experimental

Celebrated new wave compilation from Japan reissued for the first time on Glossy Mistakes.A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen.The result is a charming time capsule of eclectic creativity in which nothing sounds dated. Take La Sellrose Can Can, whose two party jams predate Kero Kero Bonito's hyperpop by decades. In addition, an impeccable remastering from the original master tapes adds to the "could have been recorded yesterday" feel of the collection.Soft Selection 84 also includes the eccentric Picky Picnic. One of the few featured artists with recordings beyond the anthology, the trio is an essential act for those curious about Japanese art pop of the era. There is also new wave introspection from Name, whose "Do We All Need Love" plays out as a sensual nod to John Lennon. In a similar vein is Clä-Sick, the recording name of Goro Some, the compilation's original producer and founder of Soft.The record's rerelease comes with Some's blessing, along with his original artwork and photography. Ultimately, the listener is left tantalised by his selection and its bold excursions into no wave, synth pop, radioplay and bizzaro house. Most of the artists on this release would fade into obscurity, but the transient nature of the potential showcased has helped cement the compilation's reputation over the years.Soft Selection will be released on vinyl LP by Glossy Mistakes on March 2024, with a remastering from the original master tapes.

✺ First ever reissue of this groundbreaking ambient work✺ Produced in full cooperation with Yoshimura’s estate✺ Remastered for vinyl and pressed at RTI✺ Unseen original handwritten track notes by Yoshimura✺ US Retail Color Vinyl Edition: “Clear/Green Swirl” Colored VinylBarely known outside of his home country during his lifetime, the late Japanese ambient music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura has seen his global stature rise steadily in the past few years. The 2017 reissue of his lauded debut, Music For Nine Post Cards, along with a slow-building cult internet following has helped ignite a renaissance in his acclaimed body of work, much of which has never been released outside of Japan. Known for his sound design and environmental music, Yoshimura worked on a number of commissions following the 1982 release of Music For Nine Post Cards, including works for museums, galleries, public spaces, TV shows, video art, fashion shows, and even a cosmetics company.Originally released in 1986, GREEN is one of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s most well-loved recordings and a favorite of the artist himself. Recorded over the winter of 1985-86 at Yoshimura’s home studio, the compositions unfold at an unhurried pace, a stark contrast to the busy city life of Tokyo. As Yoshimura explained in the original liner notes, the album title in the context of this body of work is not meant to be seen as a color, but is rather used to convey “the comfortable scenery of the natural cycle known as GREEN”—which perfectly encapsulates the soothing and warm sounds contained on the album, although it was created utilizing Yamaha FM synthesizers, known for their crisp digital tones.This edition marks the first reissue of the highly sought-after and impossible-to-find album. It features the original mix preferred by Yoshimura himself, previously available only on the initial Japanese vinyl release (a limited edition remixed version of the album, with added sound effects, was released on CD in the US). Additionally, this release is the first in our ongoing series, WATER COPY, focusing on the works of Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Tokyo Dreaming is a superb selection picked from the highly collectible Nippon Columbia label and its Better Days sub-label. Wewantsounds have teamed up with journalist and Japanese music expert Nick Luscombe. The selection mixes electro, synth-pop, funk, and ambient and includes many sought-after rarities and hidden gems which have never been released outside of Japan and the set has been newly remastered by Nippon Columbia. Nippon Columbia, one of Japan's oldest music labels is also one of its most collectible thanks to its sub-label Better Days which, in the late '70s, became a hotbed for Tokyo's new generation of pop artists eager to experiment with ambient, electro, and funk. Armed with a string of new Japanese-made synthesizers and drum machines that would soon take the world by storm, they made cutting-edge music, which has since become highly sought-after by a new generation of Japanese music lovers.Nick Luscombe, who has long been a leading advocate of Japanese music from this era, has handpicked a selection of some of the sharpest music released on these labels at the time. Tokyo Dreaming starts with The End of Asia by Ryuichi Sakamoto from his 1978 ground-breaking debut Thousand Knives Of.... The track became a staple of Sakamoto and Yellow Magic Orchestra's live shows and was even re-recorded by the group for their 1980 album X Multiplies. The track is followed by Mariah's cult Armenian folk flavoured synth pop classic Shinzo No Tobira (1983). Chika Asamoto's Self Control (1988) and Jun Fukamachi's Treasure Hunter (1985) are perfect songs in the synth-pop canon, while Yumi Murata's rendition of Akiko Yano's Watashi No Bus and Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama's Rainy Driver both from 1981, move closer towards the slicker, funkier sound of city pop.Tokyo Dreaming superbly showcases the breadth of '80s Japanese music and the way electro pop was a playing ground for musicians to experiment with many styles, as showcased by Akira Sakata's dub-infused Room from 1980, Kazumi Watanabe's discoid Tokyo Joe (1980) and Juicy Fruits' techno pop song Jenie Gets Angry. The selection flows effortlessly between many shades of synth and ends with two cult classics in the form of Yasuaki Shimizu's Semi Tori No Hi and Shigeo Sekito's ambient-jazz masterpiece The Word II from his highly sought-after album Kareinaru Electone (The Word) Vol.2 (1975). Tokyo Dreaming showcases the groundbreaking sounds of a city turned giant sonic lab which was restlessly inventing the music of the future. Album designed by famed London-based designer Optigram. Also features Yumi Seino, Kyoko Furuya, Kazue Itoh, Haruo Chikada and Vibra-Tones, and Colored Music.

For the 15th anniversary of this timeless classic, !K7 Records are re-issuing Tosca’s seminal album ‘No Hassle’ in an audiophile 3LP format.No Hassle de Tosca

Oyez ! Oh yeah ! Cheval Detroit is here! Mmmh presents his new project with his most accomplished piece of music, a triple albummmh curated in his Parisian basement aka the sm dungeon.For 2 years, Mmmh has seen no other light than his own computer screen. No need, indeed, to confront the world and its urban apocalypse when you have a vessel shaped to produce light and hope. Hidden behind a rough cover, we have no doubt the music will penetrate your heart.As in a video game experience, you can dive and evolve in his childish world, level after level, adventure after adventure. This very colorful album is not your usual techno tool - It jumps from aquatic and dancefloor beats to hopeful ambient textures, or fast paced, funky and threatening techno. We must warn you : This is highly addictive.Physical release (Digital files not included)

NEW LP PRESSING on Opaque Yellow WaxReleased in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Huge tip!Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India.The unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono is the auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world, putting his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as an artist, session player, songwriter and producer. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit later in his career. Hosono made his professional debut in 1969 as a member of Apryl Fool, whose heavy psychedelia was somewhat at odds with his influences, which leaned towards the rootsy sounds of Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield. The latter was one of the main inspirations for his next group, Happy End, whose unique blend of West Coast sounds with Japanese lyrics proved to be highly influential over the course of three albums. After the band’s amicable break up in 1973, Hosono began his solo career with Hosono House, an intimate slice of Japanese Americana recorded inside a rented house with recording gear squeezed into its tiny bedroom. Hosono’s solo career would take many twists and turns from this point forward, with forays into exotica, electronic, ambient, and techno, culminating in the massive success of techno pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).Released in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India. Initially the album was to be a kind of ethnographic musical document, using found sounds and field recordings made by Hosono himself. Instead, after Yokoo introduced Hosono to the sounds of Kraftwerk and krautrock during the trip, Cochin Moon became something much stranger. Created almost entirely on synthesizers and sequencers with the help of future YMO collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hideki Matsutake, the music on the album is the perfect encapsulation of Hosono’s concept of “sightseeing music,” transporting the listener to an exotic place that may or may not exist. This highly sought-after album sees its first-ever official release outside of Japan.

HEDONISTIC HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LOWLANDS 1990 - 1999Through 35 tracks stretched across three volumes, Music For The Radical Xenomaniac delivers the first ever deep dive into The Netherlands’ colourful house sound of the 90s and the under-celebrated producers and record labels whose music soundtracked a countrywide cultural movement.Plenty of books and documentaries have celebrated the riotous raves, legendary clubs, high profile DJs and promoters who shaped The Netherlands’ hedonistic house scene throughout the 90s. Music For The Radical Xenomaniac dares to challenge these narratives by shining a light, for the first time, on those who created the scene’s kaleidoscopic, game-changing and globally influential soundtrack.Leading the charge were a disparate group of key creators who not only forged links with their counterparts in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom, but also became celebrated figures on the worldwide electronic underground (Eric Nouhan, Aad De Mooy, Orlando Voorn, Stefan Robbers and Steve Rachmad). Alongside key underground imprints (Stealth Records, Basic Energy, ESP, Prime and Outland Records included) and lesser-known producers, these pioneers gave flavour to a radical musical movement via open-mindedness, unheard-of creativity and a genuinely futuristic ethos. All of these artists and labels are represented throughout the series.So, what defined this hedonistic house sound from The Netherlands? Stylistically, it was varied – as the series so emphatically proves – but was defined by a set of distinctive sonic characteristics: emotive musical motifs, high-frequency synth sounds, mellow basslines, pulsating rhythms and more than a touch of hallucinatory intent.Volume 3 is packed with in-demand tracks and hard-to-find gems, including a previously CD-only cut from Dutch techno originator Orlando Voorn (1999’s ‘Still’), a genuine rave classic from The Hague by hardcore DJ Charly Lownoise as Fluxland, and a killer cut from prolific producer – and genuinely influential pioneer – Aad De Mooy AKA D-Shake. He’s represented on this volume by Paradise 3001 cut ‘Surfin The Cuban Waves’, which first appeared on ESP Records in 1993.Other highlights include Direct Movement’s ‘Natural Chemistry’, a sought-after slow house cut produced by Dennis Buné, who had an enormous impact on the Dutch house scene as Jaimy, and ‘Delphi (Rewaxed)’ by NYX, a highly regarded and hard to find single from former new wave and synth-pop producer Bart Barten, and occasional studio partner Hanz Meyer.Packed full of forward-thinking 90s gems remastered for today’s dance floors by Alden Tyrell, Music For The Radical Xenomaniac Volume 3 is a life-affirming celebration of a distinctly Dutch musical movement, whose rich textures and melodies are still inspiring new generations of DJs and dancers today.Music For The Radical Xenomaniac was compiled and curated by long-serving Dutch scene stalwarts Christiaan Macdonald and Arne Visser and marks the debut of their new independent label, Amazing! Macdonald co-founded Rush Hour and Safe Trip, and also co-curated the acclaimed Welcome To Paradise and Planet Love compilations. Visser is known as selector and radio host Cinema Royale, and for his Dekmantel-released Italo-disco compilation, Profondo Nero.

HALDEAMONIX split L'épopée des cafards de GCR

Futuristic electro by Gerald Donald (Dopplereffekt, Drexciya) and Beta Evers, originally released on Weme, including a previously unreleased track.

Glasgow's Work For Love have once again descended deep into the cellars of Thee J Johanz early 90’s DAT recordings and pulled a companion selection to 2017's Declassified EP.This time they've come back up the ladder clutching a sultry yet sturdy triple-tracker, a little snapshot detailing the full spectrum of house and techno hybridisation that was rife in the rave at the time. The EP kicks off lovingly lamenting the second summer of love with the proto house jam of Tender Tales which features Johanz himself giving his best Sleazy D impression on vox whilst masterfully tickling the 303 to several squelchy climaxes.Flip over for Desire, a curled-lip 4am weird and wonky warehouse destroying techno leviathan that captures the stark minimalism of yer best Axis records and ads a real touch of John Carpenter esque menace to the affair. Bringing things to a close is the refreshing twinkly pulse of Prophet to say goodnight.

Inspired by how she feels at the moment, what direction she’s facing, the people she’s surrounded by, and the energy of the location, YoshimiO uses the piano and her voice to create sound. IzumikiYoshi uses a microphone to pick up the raw sounds created by YoshimiO and feeds it through his modular synthesizer, where the sounds undergo spectral processing and modulation. These electronic tones are combined and mixed again with YoshimiO’s live sounds in a spontaneous manner, to output the sounds that were only in their imagination. That is how the music of YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO is created.The duo’s debut album To The Forest To Live A Truer Life combines the thrill and precision of masterful improvised music practitioners unearthing new sonic possibilities. YoshimiO’s kinetic energy saturates the album’s every pore. For the first time using the piano as her primary instrument in addition to her singular voice, YoshimiO’s every move is bent, stretched, and mutated by IzumikiYoshi’s modular synthesizer into cascades of brightly colored waves and dotted constellations of sound. A balance of YoshimiO’s raw live improvisations and IzumikiYoshi’s correlated processed sounds give the pieces a sense of grounding and weightlessness in tandem. Stark piano figures that recall bluesy phrasings or classical progressions warp into beams of fizzling synthesizer. YoshimO’s voice undulates and echoes in wild tendrils. Rather than taming YoshimiO’s spirited performances, IzumikiYoshi adorns every unique flutter with complementary otherworldly textures. Recorded primarily in a cafe nestled in a forest in Japan, To The Forest To Live A Truer Life is a celebration of pure potential, of music born of the moment expanding in every direction.

A fresh, ultra-minimal version of David Bowie's "Low"-era classic 'Subterraneans' featuring Depeche Mode's Martin Gore on vocals? What's not to love?Released in 1977, "Low" marked a departure and creative peak for Bowie, the first of the Berlin Trilogy that saw him team up with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti. Wordless closing track 'Subterraneans' was a stand-out, originally recorded for Nicholas Roeg's surreal "The Man Who Fell To Earth". Bowie later said the track was dedicated to anyone caught in East Berlin when the city was divided, and that's an element that takes on even more resonance here as it's reimagined by East German minimalist Carsten Nicolai. He's not alone either - William Basinski steps up to duplicate Bowie's memorable sax solo, and Depeche Mode's Gore handles the vocals. Nicolai's version is a confident cover, even if it isn't a radical departure from the original. It sounds more like a tribute to a track that helped inform the direction of each artist involved, and their way of remembering the original is to subtly insert their own signature sounds into the whole. Smart and touching, it's avant-garde karaoke that's actually worth checking out.

They say: "Contemporary synthesizer sounds illustrating wide open space activities, environment and research."We say: Panoramic proto-techno underwater-electro library dynamite.One of the hardest pulls on the seminal Coloursound, Open Space Motion (Underscores) isn't just regarded as one of the best releases from library-funk overlord Klaus Weiss. It's one of the very best library records ever.As cult as it gets when it comes to library music, the Klaus Weiss sound was built on top of sometimes funky, sometimes frenetic, but always hard-hitting drums. AND YET! Open Space Motion departs from his drum-heavy approach by being completely...BEATLESS! That's right, the virtuoso beat smith, Mr "drumcrazy of Deutschland", a man known for snapping necks at will, crafted one of the most horizontally sumptuous, elegantly sweeping electronic masterpieces, sans-drums, a good decade before chill-out rooms became a thing. It features organic instruments married to pulsing synth bass atop brilliantly subdued yet irresistibly funky percussion. Possessing a very special vibe, that's at once futuristic yet cinematic, it overflows with atmosphere.The highlights - unsurprisingly - are many. The very first track - the unstoppable "Wide Open Space Motion" - is a sinister, string-fried electro bomb that rides an unrelenting bass loop. "Incessant Efforts" is more reflective, with pastoral yet probing flutes atop strutting synth chords and head-nod percussion that really swings. The heavenly, uber-kosmiche "Pink Sails" hovers over swirling neon-synthy-strings and yet more unobtrusive percussion. The beautiful "Transiency" is a dramatic piano-led underscore, its creeping unease created by patient strings, unhurried percussion and some wonderfully strident keys. "Driving Sequences" is perhaps the key tune here, and if the Detroit crew weren't listening to this staggering piece then, well, imagine if they *were*.The bubbling rhythms of "Southern Mentality", at first ominous, give way to a more optimistic vibe as the movement progresses. The lush, gorgeous "Bows" is deep-sea slow-motion magic whilst the bright-eyed "Outset" feels as fresh as the dawn, and no less beautiful. How these tracks haven't been gobbled up by sample-driven producers is beyond us. Equally calming is the sweeping majesty of "Constellation", again conjuring images of being at one with and fully beguiled by the wonders of nature, of space, of underwater worlds. "Changing Directions" is another fidgety, propulsive non-Detroit beatless bomb.As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Open Space Motion comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

The debut full length album from Gloved Hands, entitled Empty Terminal, finds the musician straying from the dance floor in search of something amorphous and less tangible. Ambient in nature, the eight tracks that comprise the LP have a deep focus on texture, space, and human feelings rather than a need for constant propulsion and momentum.The A-side, the more rhythmic and percussive of the two, is awash with vague echos and smudged, slow-moving chords. Subaqueous drums shift in and out of focus. Sound sources are at once distant and intimately close. The curtains part to reveal a glimpse of a crystalline melody or a fraction of a vocal phrase only for the room to fill with fragrant smoke and go dark. It is a place beyond the dance floor. Perhaps it's a place without any floor at all.The B-side is even more fragile and diaphanous. The foreground and background are obscured, leaving a hazy mesh of delicate, interwoven forms and rhythms; glistening and brushing against one another in the warm, dimly-lit space in between. With a swirling mix of cavernous bass and sweet-but-never-saccharine melody, the details are stretched and abstracted into something new yet familiar. The compositions ripple in midair, appearing and vanishing, close but just out of reach.

What would happen if Florian Schneider from Kraftwerk fell in love with Anne Dudley from Art Of Noise? That’s exactly how “A Spanner In The Werk” sounds : a mix of soulful melodies and robotic rhythms, which proves, at last, that Techno and love songs can meet… and have a fruitful relationship!Composed in 1996, this unreleased track by French New Beat veteran Guillaume U. Chifflot received massive positive feedbacks as a bonus track on the recent 2xLP compilation by n9.So here’s a brand new “Longform Mix”, taking android sensuality even further, lovingly pressed by Swewax onto a collector item, with a beautiful floral etching on the flip side by artist Yül-Rik.Mastered by techno and acid superstar Thomas P. Heckmann (Trope, Drax, etc.), the EP also features the participation of cult Rephlex duo D’arcangelo, who offer an exclusive remix, filled with a firework display of the delicate electronic drifts they excel at.n9 is a French label founded in the early 90’s to release new beat and techno-rave tracks. After focusing on graphic design for a decade, groups of Discogs fans brought n9 back into the field, and the label began to pioneer a 21st century blend of New Beat and TBM, while making room for a growing number of like-minded French techno artists.

180g vinyl, including two posters and 4 inserts with extensive liner notes by Ken Hidaka & Naohiro Ukawa (in Japanese and in English).A Solid compilation of exclusive new music on the freshly formed 'Advanced Public Listening Records', Japan.Advanced Public Listening Records is the new Japanese label established by Miho Mepo, a veteran of the Berlin music scene for the past 20 years. After recently coming back to Japan, she decided to start this new, highly conceptual label that symbolizes her unconventional musical vision, experience and network that she accrued while living in Europe. As she has stated, “This is my dedication to the musicians and music lovers everywhere. What the world needs now is pure energy and the essence of real music. Through our label, we strive to share with all, true music created out of miracles and magical moments. I have no doubt that these refined musical vibes will help us grasp the universal nature of true understanding and hopefully assist us in realizing that music has the ability to make us free.” To help launch it, Advanced Public Listening Records is proud to announce the release this compilation, "On in out""On in out" assembles an incredible array of legendary figures in the electronic music world from different genres and categories whose sonic imprints has dazzled us innumerable times. She asked each artist to create original pieces that epitomized her axiom of “no rules, no ego, no pride but pure essence of real music”. She also wanted them to produce music that “touches one's heart, shake our souls, make us feel emotions that we never knew we thought that we had deep inside.”

WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) are ecstatic to announce a new full length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada (Through The Looking Glass), in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is available on half speed mastered vinyl LP, housed in a 350gsm sleeve, with OBI, and liner notes,

We welcome Stasis to De:tuned! UK techno pioneer Steve Pickton has dug deep into his DAT tapes collection to unearth 2 previously unreleased recordings from the golden era '92-'93. Both rarities offer a trademark lush and retro-futurist Detroit inspired sound that is totally unique. Fellow Likemind legend Nuron provides a stunning remix. The track was built up from scratch as no stems were available, giving you another sneak peek of the genius musical mind that is Nuron.The vinyl version comes with impeccable sleeve and label artwork by Abdul Haqq (Third Earth).Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl.