MOUNTAINS Feeding The Landscape
Interview with Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp
Fond of clear and delicate soundscapes, Mountains’ Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp have been gathering praises since the release of their debut album last year. With respective solo projects and a record label under their belt, the pair could have taken it easy, but, following a first live collaboration, they decided instead to join forces. With their second album, Sewn, just out, we took the opportunity to chat with them both about combining acoustic and electronic instruments, playing live and choosing a name that relates to their work.

NIGHTMARES ON WAX Now And Then
Interview with George Evelyn
In A Space Outta Sound, a luxurious blend of soul, hip-hop, dub, and jazz-fusion is a signature George Evelyn release. On this, his fifth album on Warp under the Nightmares On Wax moniker, Evelyn’s love of analogue over digital and his willingness to embrace the accidental in the recording process is very much to the fore. One track, Deepdown, for example features vocals from random passers by whom Evelyn dragged off the street and into the studio. “If it was all too perfect it wouldn’t have had that kind of rough and ready atmosphere to it that gives it its magic,” explains Evelyn. The track also features his 4-year old daughter. “She was the most awkward artist to work with on this album” he laughs. In the 16 years since his first releases, the seminal tracks Dextrous and Aftermath, Evelyn has come a very long way indeed. He talks to Stuart Aitken about first meeting Warp’s Steve Beckett, breaking with the Soul City Rockers back in the mid-eightiess and why he was always preferred Warp to James Lavelle’s Mo’ Wax.

TRUNK RECORDS Found Sound
Interview with Jonny Trunk
Some of the most interesting electronic music to have been released over the last ten years or so has been overseen by Jonny Trunk, proprietor of Trunk Records. Curiously though most of these releases are not the product of young bedroom visionaries hunched over the latest computer equipment, but rather they have been rediscoveries of lost gems made by eccentrics using what would now be considered rudimentary equipment. From Basil Kirchin’s soundtracks to imaginary films, to the pioneering music concrete of one-time Spitfire pilot Desmond Leslie, Trunk Records acts as a powerful reminder to all that less can often be more. As a new piece of salvage work, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s music for 70s TV show The Tomorrow People, approaches its release date, Jonny Trunk spoke to Stuart Aitken about his appreciation of good old fashioned British naivety and his love of the eccentric underdog.

THOMAS STRØNEN Pohlitz
Pohlitz is the debut solo album by Norwegian drummer and percussionist Thomas Strønen, one of the founding members of jazz band Food.

LUIGI ARCHETTI Februar
Experimental musician Luigi Archetti, perhaps best known as one half of Rune Grammofon’s Archetti / Wiget, produces with this album a beautiful and haunting work.

BIRD SONG Lightning Ghost
Bird Show is the solo project of Town And Country’s Ben Vida. On Lightening Ghost, he explores a rather eclectic musical scope and balances out atmospheric moments and more intense compositions.

CAROLINE Murmurs
Caroline’s first single had her compared to the likes of Björk and Múm, yet she partly fails to deliver over the length of a full album.

DEPTH AFFECT Arche-Lymb
Arche-Lymb is the impressive debut from French hip-hop-infused electronic outfit Depth Affect. The quartet present here a truly varied and fascinating collection of grooves and tunes.

DEXTRO Consequence Music
Following a handful of EPs released over the last couple of years, Glasgow-based multi-instrumentist Ewan Mackenzie, AKA Dextro, crafts on his debut album a series of wonderfully evocative and cinematic pieces.

DICTAPHONE Vertigo II
Dictaphone is the project of Belgian Oliver Doerell and German Roger Döring. Vertigo II, their second album, is a detailed melding of electronic and acoustic elements.

GLISSANDRO 70 Glissandro 70
Glissandro 70 pay homage to avant-garde disco and classic West End records of the late eighties on their debut album for Montreal-based Constellation Records.

KIERAN HEBDEN & STEVE REID The Exchange Session Vol. 1
First volume documenting the collaborations between electronic master Kieran Hebden and jazz and soul legend drummer Steve Reid, The Exchange Session Vol. 1 is a rather colourful and challenging collection.

INTERNATIONAL PEOPLES GANG Action Painting
Action Painting is only International Peoples Gang’s second album in over ten years. Here, the duo of Ric Peet and Martyn Watson collect a series of superb laidback compositions.

IZU Going Salamander
With Going Salamander, Ronnie McPherson’s Izu tells post-apocalyptic tales of desolation and decay with sharp acidic techno tones.

KYLER Pur Cosy Tales
Kyler is a side project from Shitmat’s Henry Collins, and this first album under this moniker shows a rather subtler albeit as busy, side of his talent.

LOKA Fire Shepherds
Four years in the making, Fire Shepherds is the long-awaited debut by Liverpudlian duo Loka and showcases the band’s fascination for soundtrack scores.

LIONEL MARCHETTI Red Dust
Ultra-limited release from musique concrète composer Lionel Marchetti, Red Dust spreads over 3 x 3” CDs.

MATMOS The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast
Three years after their last widely released album, San Francisco’s finest return with another collection of finely crafted electronic compositions.

MODERN INSTITUTE Excellent Swimmer / MILLER + FIAM Modern Romance
Expanding Records unleashes two little gems in the shape of Modern Institute’s Excellent Swimmer and Miller + Fiam’s Modern Romance as both albums chart a series of wonderfully eclectic organic soundscapes.

SAME ACTOR Sharp Edges
The first widely available album from Same Actor’s Chris Cook, Sharp Edges follows a string of CDR releases to introduce his unique blend of electronic and organic sounds.

TERRESTRIAL TONES Dead Drunk
The project of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare and Black Dice’s Eric Copeland, Terrestrial Tones is a fascinating and challenging collaboration and Dead Drunk is the pair’s third combined effort.

UNIFORM Protocol
Uniform’s Protocol is a collection of dark and desolate ambient with contributions from a wide range of vocalists including Alan Vega and Franko B.

VIZIER OF DAMASCUS Ephemeral Quiets
On Ephemeral Quiets, Vizier Of Damascus doesn’t only deliver on the promises of his recent debut EP but goes well beyond the call of duty to create a space for the mind to wander freely.

ZEEBEE Priorities
German-born songstress Zeebee returns with a second slice of twisted electro pop which sees her teaming up with a wide range of collaborators, including The Bug.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Pop Ambient 2006

ALOG Islands Of Memory
CHRIST. Vernor Vinge
FISK INDUSTRIES 77 And Rising
WINTER NORTH ATLANTIC Mercator
CHIN CHIN Deafness Becomes Me