BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/8/2024

Area Silenzio is eat-girls' debut record and it is both haunted and haunting. Since 2020, the French trio have been crafting their songs into little self-contained worlds with the patience of entomologists, taking them out all over the country and Europe to confront them with the wilderness of a live audience. The ten resulting tracks are a collection of electronic madrigals, groove-driven songs played on a mischievous multi-speed Victrola, ranging from languid dub drips to full-on drum machine cavalcades. Their live performances have that same ghostly, ephemeral quality.

"There is something other-worldy about the three of them, a suggestion of telepathy, their three voices blending together or going their separate ways like a flock of starlings. They secured opening slots with artists as different as Thalia Zedek, Exek, and The Young Gods, just to name a few. It is the elusive essence of their music that allows them to feel at ease pretty much anywhere they find themselves: part no-wave disco rhythms, part post-punk throbbing basses, folk tunes and synthesizers in equal measures, with a perpetual attention to hooks and melodies. The album was self-recorded, a necessary measure to protect the delicate nature of the inner landscapes painted by the band. In this case 'delicate' does not mean 'soft' by any means: the industrial disco inferno of 'A Kin,' the ritualistic kraut stampede of 'Para Los Pies Cansados' and the bubbly post-funk rhythms of 'Trauschaft' will leave you gasping for air once you come out on the other side. 'On a Crooked Swing', the opener, is all arpeggiated bass and stumbling kicks. 'Unison' will dip you into a hallucinatory river where nothing is what it seems to be and rescue you at the very last second. 'Canine', the first single off the record, will gently but firmly reach for your jugular with its vulpine Farfisa and deceptively nonchalant drum beat. The vocal polyphonies on '3 Omens' sound like a field recording of traditional music from a tiny country that has yet to be discovered. eat-girls exist on a slightly different plane from ours, where everything is teeming with secrets and hidden life. Area Silenzio is a precious polaroid shot from that world, or, as Tom Verlaine would have it, 'a souvenir from a dream'." --Sebastien Perrin

$28.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/8/2024

LP version. Color vinyl. Area Silenzio is eat-girls' debut record and it is both haunted and haunting. Since 2020, the French trio have been crafting their songs into little self-contained worlds with the patience of entomologists, taking them out all over the country and Europe to confront them with the wilderness of a live audience. The ten resulting tracks are a collection of electronic madrigals, groove-driven songs played on a mischievous multi-speed Victrola, ranging from languid dub drips to full-on drum machine cavalcades. Their live performances have that same ghostly, ephemeral quality.

"There is something other-worldy about the three of them, a suggestion of telepathy, their three voices blending together or going their separate ways like a flock of starlings. They secured opening slots with artists as different as Thalia Zedek, Exek, and The Young Gods, just to name a few. It is the elusive essence of their music that allows them to feel at ease pretty much anywhere they find themselves: part no-wave disco rhythms, part post-punk throbbing basses, folk tunes and synthesizers in equal measures, with a perpetual attention to hooks and melodies. The album was self-recorded, a necessary measure to protect the delicate nature of the inner landscapes painted by the band. In this case 'delicate' does not mean 'soft' by any means: the industrial disco inferno of 'A Kin,' the ritualistic kraut stampede of 'Para Los Pies Cansados' and the bubbly post-funk rhythms of 'Trauschaft' will leave you gasping for air once you come out on the other side. 'On a Crooked Swing', the opener, is all arpeggiated bass and stumbling kicks. 'Unison' will dip you into a hallucinatory river where nothing is what it seems to be and rescue you at the very last second. 'Canine', the first single off the record, will gently but firmly reach for your jugular with its vulpine Farfisa and deceptively nonchalant drum beat. The vocal polyphonies on '3 Omens' sound like a field recording of traditional music from a tiny country that has yet to be discovered. eat-girls exist on a slightly different plane from ours, where everything is teeming with secrets and hidden life. Area Silenzio is a precious polaroid shot from that world, or, as Tom Verlaine would have it, 'a souvenir from a dream'." --Sebastien Perrin

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/8/2024

LP version. Area Silenzio is eat-girls' debut record and it is both haunted and haunting. Since 2020, the French trio have been crafting their songs into little self-contained worlds with the patience of entomologists, taking them out all over the country and Europe to confront them with the wilderness of a live audience. The ten resulting tracks are a collection of electronic madrigals, groove-driven songs played on a mischievous multi-speed Victrola, ranging from languid dub drips to full-on drum machine cavalcades. Their live performances have that same ghostly, ephemeral quality.

"There is something other-worldy about the three of them, a suggestion of telepathy, their three voices blending together or going their separate ways like a flock of starlings. They secured opening slots with artists as different as Thalia Zedek, Exek, and The Young Gods, just to name a few. It is the elusive essence of their music that allows them to feel at ease pretty much anywhere they find themselves: part no-wave disco rhythms, part post-punk throbbing basses, folk tunes and synthesizers in equal measures, with a perpetual attention to hooks and melodies. The album was self-recorded, a necessary measure to protect the delicate nature of the inner landscapes painted by the band. In this case 'delicate' does not mean 'soft' by any means: the industrial disco inferno of 'A Kin,' the ritualistic kraut stampede of 'Para Los Pies Cansados' and the bubbly post-funk rhythms of 'Trauschaft' will leave you gasping for air once you come out on the other side. 'On a Crooked Swing', the opener, is all arpeggiated bass and stumbling kicks. 'Unison' will dip you into a hallucinatory river where nothing is what it seems to be and rescue you at the very last second. 'Canine', the first single off the record, will gently but firmly reach for your jugular with its vulpine Farfisa and deceptively nonchalant drum beat. The vocal polyphonies on '3 Omens' sound like a field recording of traditional music from a tiny country that has yet to be discovered. eat-girls exist on a slightly different plane from ours, where everything is teeming with secrets and hidden life. Area Silenzio is a precious polaroid shot from that world, or, as Tom Verlaine would have it, 'a souvenir from a dream'." --Sebastien Perrin

$28.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/18/2024

LP version. Color vinyl. "You don't really need to say much about this man: co-founder of Wallenstein, drummer on at least two of the most wonderful Krautrock albums (namely Mother Universe and Cosmic Century), member of the legendary Kosmische Kuriere, records with Ash Ra Temple and Klaus Schulze. Finally, Harald Grosskopf switched from drums to sequencers and created something breathtaking. I listened to his solo debut Synthesist (BB 158CD, 1980) to death, and few days began without 'So weit, so gut.' It was a record that did everything right, that salvaged whatever could be salvaged from Kraut, adding the melancholy with which one suddenly looked back on everything that could still be naively believed and played in the '70s. Then in 1985 came the follow-up Oceanheart (BB 157CD), no less great, albeit already noticeably more minimalist. Manuel Göttsching could be sensed in the distance if you surrendered to the track 'Eve on the Hill' and followed it into the depths. Time passed, the music stayed with me. I lost sight of Harald Grosskopf, even though he did produce an album from time to time. And now: Strom. The evocation of electricity, the virtuosity of the circuit that skillfully intertwines man and machine, an antidote to the triumphal march of desolate musical digitality. If you listen carefully, you will immediately recognize the engineer behind the soundscapes. Right from the opener 'Bureau 39,' everything you would expect from Grosskopf is immediately there: the push toward hypnosis, a subdued pulse, catchy, circling bass lines, layering Moog kaleidoscopes. Sometimes the sounds coarsen, the depths distort into grinding noises (as in 'Blow'), into mechanical gurgling, i.e. into what remains when the path comes to an end, when the music reaches beyond the human. The mid-tempo track with the programmatic title 'After the Future,' grotesquely twisting the word 'Ònever,' points the way there. Time and again, however, the beat pauses, leaving space for the soundscapes -- and then, at the latest, the electronica of the early '80s springs back to life. The two complementary pieces 'Gleich Strom' and 'Spaeter Strom' would also fit in wonderfully on Synthesist. On the other hand, the closing track 'Stromklang' remains resolutely committed to the sinister, even gloomy groove that was previously unknown from this artist and with which he has finally returned to me after far too long. Stylo Kraut indeed." --Philipp Theisohn

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/18/2024

"You don't really need to say much about this man: co-founder of Wallenstein, drummer on at least two of the most wonderful Krautrock albums (namely Mother Universe and Cosmic Century), member of the legendary Kosmische Kuriere, records with Ash Ra Temple and Klaus Schulze. Finally, Harald Grosskopf switched from drums to sequencers and created something breathtaking. I listened to his solo debut Synthesist (BB 158CD, 1980) to death, and few days began without 'So weit, so gut.' It was a record that did everything right, that salvaged whatever could be salvaged from Kraut, adding the melancholy with which one suddenly looked back on everything that could still be naively believed and played in the '70s. Then in 1985 came the follow-up Oceanheart (BB 157CD), no less great, albeit already noticeably more minimalist. Manuel Göttsching could be sensed in the distance if you surrendered to the track 'Eve on the Hill' and followed it into the depths. Time passed, the music stayed with me. I lost sight of Harald Grosskopf, even though he did produce an album from time to time. And now: Strom. The evocation of electricity, the virtuosity of the circuit that skillfully intertwines man and machine, an antidote to the triumphal march of desolate musical digitality. If you listen carefully, you will immediately recognize the engineer behind the soundscapes. Right from the opener 'Bureau 39,' everything you would expect from Grosskopf is immediately there: the push toward hypnosis, a subdued pulse, catchy, circling bass lines, layering Moog kaleidoscopes. Sometimes the sounds coarsen, the depths distort into grinding noises (as in 'Blow'), into mechanical gurgling, i.e. into what remains when the path comes to an end, when the music reaches beyond the human. The mid-tempo track with the programmatic title 'After the Future,' grotesquely twisting the word 'Ònever,' points the way there. Time and again, however, the beat pauses, leaving space for the soundscapes -- and then, at the latest, the electronica of the early '80s springs back to life. The two complementary pieces 'Gleich Strom' and 'Spaeter Strom' would also fit in wonderfully on Synthesist. On the other hand, the closing track 'Stromklang' remains resolutely committed to the sinister, even gloomy groove that was previously unknown from this artist and with which he has finally returned to me after far too long. Stylo Kraut indeed." --Philipp Theisohn

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/18/2024

LP version. "You don't really need to say much about this man: co-founder of Wallenstein, drummer on at least two of the most wonderful Krautrock albums (namely Mother Universe and Cosmic Century), member of the legendary Kosmische Kuriere, records with Ash Ra Temple and Klaus Schulze. Finally, Harald Grosskopf switched from drums to sequencers and created something breathtaking. I listened to his solo debut Synthesist (BB 158CD, 1980) to death, and few days began without 'So weit, so gut.' It was a record that did everything right, that salvaged whatever could be salvaged from Kraut, adding the melancholy with which one suddenly looked back on everything that could still be naively believed and played in the '70s. Then in 1985 came the follow-up Oceanheart (BB 157CD), no less great, albeit already noticeably more minimalist. Manuel Göttsching could be sensed in the distance if you surrendered to the track 'Eve on the Hill' and followed it into the depths. Time passed, the music stayed with me. I lost sight of Harald Grosskopf, even though he did produce an album from time to time. And now: Strom. The evocation of electricity, the virtuosity of the circuit that skillfully intertwines man and machine, an antidote to the triumphal march of desolate musical digitality. If you listen carefully, you will immediately recognize the engineer behind the soundscapes. Right from the opener 'Bureau 39,' everything you would expect from Grosskopf is immediately there: the push toward hypnosis, a subdued pulse, catchy, circling bass lines, layering Moog kaleidoscopes. Sometimes the sounds coarsen, the depths distort into grinding noises (as in 'Blow'), into mechanical gurgling, i.e. into what remains when the path comes to an end, when the music reaches beyond the human. The mid-tempo track with the programmatic title 'After the Future,' grotesquely twisting the word 'Ònever,' points the way there. Time and again, however, the beat pauses, leaving space for the soundscapes -- and then, at the latest, the electronica of the early '80s springs back to life. The two complementary pieces 'Gleich Strom' and 'Spaeter Strom' would also fit in wonderfully on Synthesist. On the other hand, the closing track 'Stromklang' remains resolutely committed to the sinister, even gloomy groove that was previously unknown from this artist and with which he has finally returned to me after far too long. Stylo Kraut indeed." --Philipp Theisohn

$35.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/11/2024

Double LP version. Blue color vinyl. Forty years since their inception, and almost two decades since their last release, art-synth auteurs Propaganda return with a brand-new chapter in their enthralling story. This self-titled set from principal songwriting partnership Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens embodies the depth and drama of their early work, while exploring fresh sounds and styles, and reflecting the personal and societal changes since their last outing. Conceived and crafted entirely in their native Düsseldorf, a deliberate decision to help them stay true to themselves, and featuring guest appearances from the acclaimed Hauschka and ascendant Thunder Bae, this is Propaganda at their most essential. Though an embryonic incarnation was formed by Ralf Dörper, former synthesist with electro-punks Die Krupps, and Andreas Thein in 1982, it wasn't until the addition of Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra percussionist Michael Mertens that the outfit emerged as the dark synth-pop powerhouse which would see chart success as part of the ZTT machine. Upon signing with Trevor Horn's irreverent imprint in 1983, Propaganda, now comprised of vocalists Claudia Bruecken and Susanne Freytag alongside Dörper and Mertens, delivered their classic debut LP A Secret Wish and a slew of international hit singles, "Dr Mabuse," "Duel", and "P Machinery," leaving an indelible mark on the alternative scene and securing an enduring place within the pantheon of synth-dance greats. In an era of impermanence, Propaganda wanted to produce something real -- to be played from start to finish, with artwork and packaging which allows a deeper understanding of the theme of the release. Finding the perfect label to match their ambitions in Bureau B, Propaganda have delivered a third album well worth the wait.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/11/2024

Forty years since their inception, and almost two decades since their last release, art-synth auteurs Propaganda return with a brand-new chapter in their enthralling story. This self-titled set from principal songwriting partnership Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens embodies the depth and drama of their early work, while exploring fresh sounds and styles, and reflecting the personal and societal changes since their last outing. Conceived and crafted entirely in their native Düsseldorf, a deliberate decision to help them stay true to themselves, and featuring guest appearances from the acclaimed Hauschka and ascendant Thunder Bae, this is Propaganda at their most essential. Though an embryonic incarnation was formed by Ralf Dörper, former synthesist with electro-punks Die Krupps, and Andreas Thein in 1982, it wasn't until the addition of Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra percussionist Michael Mertens that the outfit emerged as the dark synth-pop powerhouse which would see chart success as part of the ZTT machine. Upon signing with Trevor Horn's irreverent imprint in 1983, Propaganda, now comprised of vocalists Claudia Bruecken and Susanne Freytag alongside Dörper and Mertens, delivered their classic debut LP A Secret Wish and a slew of international hit singles, "Dr Mabuse," "Duel", and "P Machinery," leaving an indelible mark on the alternative scene and securing an enduring place within the pantheon of synth-dance greats. In an era of impermanence, Propaganda wanted to produce something real -- to be played from start to finish, with artwork and packaging which allows a deeper understanding of the theme of the release. Finding the perfect label to match their ambitions in Bureau B, Propaganda have delivered a third album well worth the wait.

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 10/11/2024

LP version. Forty years since their inception, and almost two decades since their last release, art-synth auteurs Propaganda return with a brand-new chapter in their enthralling story. This self-titled set from principal songwriting partnership Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens embodies the depth and drama of their early work, while exploring fresh sounds and styles, and reflecting the personal and societal changes since their last outing. Conceived and crafted entirely in their native Düsseldorf, a deliberate decision to help them stay true to themselves, and featuring guest appearances from the acclaimed Hauschka and ascendant Thunder Bae, this is Propaganda at their most essential. Though an embryonic incarnation was formed by Ralf Dörper, former synthesist with electro-punks Die Krupps, and Andreas Thein in 1982, it wasn't until the addition of Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra percussionist Michael Mertens that the outfit emerged as the dark synth-pop powerhouse which would see chart success as part of the ZTT machine. Upon signing with Trevor Horn's irreverent imprint in 1983, Propaganda, now comprised of vocalists Claudia Bruecken and Susanne Freytag alongside Dörper and Mertens, delivered their classic debut LP A Secret Wish and a slew of international hit singles, "Dr Mabuse," "Duel", and "P Machinery," leaving an indelible mark on the alternative scene and securing an enduring place within the pantheon of synth-dance greats. In an era of impermanence, Propaganda wanted to produce something real -- to be played from start to finish, with artwork and packaging which allows a deeper understanding of the theme of the release. Finding the perfect label to match their ambitions in Bureau B, Propaganda have delivered a third album well worth the wait.

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2024

"The inspiration for Album l and Album II began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance, the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film Drive My Car was joined on drums by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Joe Talia; both integral members of the top-level improvisational/experimental scene in Tokyo. While in town for the festival, Ishibashi met up with the members of the Cologne-Berlin based group Von Spar who featured Ishibashi on their then new album Under Pressure. It was these previous collaborations that triggered the seven friends to take part in an extended session which resulted in these two new recordings, the first of which contains a variety of short pieces while the second boasts one continuous epic, album-length track. These recordings are a development of Von Spar's collaborative ambitions, where Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez, and Phillip Tielsch have previously invited special guests to their home studio to help realize a vision -- a methodology exemplified on their last two releases, Street Life and the aforementioned Under Pressure, which featured contributions from Marker Starling, Laetitia Sadier, Vivien Goldman, and R. Stevie Moore. On Album I, the percussion and drums phase in and out in a bold and skillful manner and form the framework for delicate guitars and complex progressions on the keys, all resulting in somnambulistic city-pop pieces like the opener, grooving electro-jazz reminiscent of the early 2000s, and fusion. You can also hear elements of contemporary jazz explorations from New York, LA and London, or reach back further to the Chicago post-rock of the early '90s. Album II with its expansive, experimental nature goes one step further featuring Yamamoto and Janzen's jagged percussion serving as the bedrock for a menacing and otherworldly arrangement of wind instruments to float in until essential sampler work by Joe Talia brings everything to a lively conclusion. These two albums may have the same origin but they are wildly different pieces of work, both exciting in their own way and proof that daring to experiment with freedom and trust in your collaborators can lead to musical highs such as these." --Lars Fleischmann, 2024

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2024

"The inspiration for Album l and Album II began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance, the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film Drive My Car was joined on drums by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Joe Talia; both integral members of the top-level improvisational/experimental scene in Tokyo. While in town for the festival, Ishibashi met up with the members of the Cologne-Berlin based group Von Spar who featured Ishibashi on their then new album Under Pressure. It was these previous collaborations that triggered the seven friends to take part in an extended session which resulted in these two new recordings, the first of which contains a variety of short pieces while the second boasts one continuous epic, album-length track. These recordings are a development of Von Spar's collaborative ambitions, where Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez, and Phillip Tielsch have previously invited special guests to their home studio to help realize a vision -- a methodology exemplified on their last two releases, Street Life and the aforementioned Under Pressure, which featured contributions from Marker Starling, Laetitia Sadier, Vivien Goldman, and R. Stevie Moore. On Album I, the percussion and drums phase in and out in a bold and skillful manner and form the framework for delicate guitars and complex progressions on the keys, all resulting in somnambulistic city-pop pieces like the opener, grooving electro-jazz reminiscent of the early 2000s, and fusion. You can also hear elements of contemporary jazz explorations from New York, LA and London, or reach back further to the Chicago post-rock of the early '90s. Album II with its expansive, experimental nature goes one step further featuring Yamamoto and Janzen's jagged percussion serving as the bedrock for a menacing and otherworldly arrangement of wind instruments to float in until essential sampler work by Joe Talia brings everything to a lively conclusion. These two albums may have the same origin but they are wildly different pieces of work, both exciting in their own way and proof that daring to experiment with freedom and trust in your collaborators can lead to musical highs such as these." --Lars Fleischmann, 2024

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2024

"The inspiration for Album l and Album II began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance, the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film Drive My Car was joined on drums by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Joe Talia; both integral members of the top-level improvisational/experimental scene in Tokyo. While in town for the festival, Ishibashi met up with the members of the Cologne-Berlin based group Von Spar who featured Ishibashi on their then new album Under Pressure. It was these previous collaborations that triggered the seven friends to take part in an extended session which resulted in these two new recordings, the first of which contains a variety of short pieces while the second boasts one continuous epic, album-length track. These recordings are a development of Von Spar's collaborative ambitions, where Sebastian Blume, Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez, and Phillip Tielsch have previously invited special guests to their home studio to help realize a vision -- a methodology exemplified on their last two releases, Street Life and the aforementioned Under Pressure, which featured contributions from Marker Starling, Laetitia Sadier, Vivien Goldman, and R. Stevie Moore. On Album I, the percussion and drums phase in and out in a bold and skillful manner and form the framework for delicate guitars and complex progressions on the keys, all resulting in somnambulistic city-pop pieces like the opener, grooving electro-jazz reminiscent of the early 2000s, and fusion. You can also hear elements of contemporary jazz explorations from New York, LA and London, or reach back further to the Chicago post-rock of the early '90s. Album II with its expansive, experimental nature goes one step further featuring Yamamoto and Janzen's jagged percussion serving as the bedrock for a menacing and otherworldly arrangement of wind instruments to float in until essential sampler work by Joe Talia brings everything to a lively conclusion. These two albums may have the same origin but they are wildly different pieces of work, both exciting in their own way and proof that daring to experiment with freedom and trust in your collaborators can lead to musical highs such as these." --Lars Fleischmann, 2024

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/20/2024

LP version. "Parisian-by-choice Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax turns the page again. Always willing for a new episode, notion, impulse, idea, ideal. Searching for some light out there. Now Kiosque Versions, a compilation compiled by himself, featuring seven edits by friends and treasured artists. They renew some rare TLT tunes, as well as hits, that never took the charts by storm. There is French legend and Tigersushi boss Joakim, edging the TLT winner Rushing Into Water from 2016. A guarded stepper, dancy, trippy, with an enchantress on his shoulder, that haunts your body and soul. The 2020 TLT tune "Dawn Is Temporal," taken from his album Jumping Dead Leafs, comes as an old school hip hop leaning track, re-fashioned by New York's Beat Detectives, including Amen-Break and nod-your-head vibes. Producer Ido Plumes from Bristol took "Tristeros Empire" home and worked it club-wise. A nervous beating modification, Detroit machines, motorway funk, cosmic gasps - pure driller killer. Glasgow's Dip Friso stays tense too. Echoes, tribal bounce, manic loops. Another driller in dub heaven. Like Paris based digi-dub explorers Froid Dub, who bring a great wave of warm grooves, making baroque-esk dub friends with "Make Friends," a TLT track from his legendary three-volume strong 2016 Antinote sampler compendium. Their fellow countryman Simo Cell nervously metamorphoses "A Song and a Photo Novella," a TLT soundtrack for a film by artist Nicolàs Guagnini. His version has all that bass, vibrates on an experimental subconsciousness, and aims the dancefloor with a stirring bouquet of rhythmic ideas. The dot on the I comes from TLT himself, remixing his very own music, translating the Gamelan melancholy of "Subghosts," a tune from his 2010 debut album Mask Talk, into today, refined with dubby upsetting notes, a speed lift, and a very playful TLT groove. Let's turn the page." --Michael Leuffen

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 9/20/2024

"Parisian-by-choice Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax turns the page again. Always willing for a new episode, notion, impulse, idea, ideal. Searching for some light out there. Now Kiosque Versions, a compilation compiled by himself, featuring seven edits by friends and treasured artists. They renew some rare TLT tunes, as well as hits, that never took the charts by storm. There is French legend and Tigersushi boss Joakim, edging the TLT winner Rushing Into Water from 2016. A guarded stepper, dancy, trippy, with an enchantress on his shoulder, that haunts your body and soul. The 2020 TLT tune "Dawn Is Temporal," taken from his album Jumping Dead Leafs, comes as an old school hip hop leaning track, re-fashioned by New York's Beat Detectives, including Amen-Break and nod-your-head vibes. Producer Ido Plumes from Bristol took "Tristeros Empire" home and worked it club-wise. A nervous beating modification, Detroit machines, motorway funk, cosmic gasps - pure driller killer. Glasgow's Dip Friso stays tense too. Echoes, tribal bounce, manic loops. Another driller in dub heaven. Like Paris based digi-dub explorers Froid Dub, who bring a great wave of warm grooves, making baroque-esk dub friends with "Make Friends," a TLT track from his legendary three-volume strong 2016 Antinote sampler compendium. Their fellow countryman Simo Cell nervously metamorphoses "A Song and a Photo Novella," a TLT soundtrack for a film by artist Nicolàs Guagnini. His version has all that bass, vibrates on an experimental subconsciousness, and aims the dancefloor with a stirring bouquet of rhythmic ideas. The dot on the I comes from TLT himself, remixing his very own music, translating the Gamelan melancholy of "Subghosts," a tune from his 2010 debut album Mask Talk, into today, refined with dubby upsetting notes, a speed lift, and a very playful TLT groove. Let's turn the page." --Michael Leuffen

$16.50 IN STOCK

After dipping into the archive to deliver a series of essential reissues, Bureau B continue to encourage the chaotic brilliance of Faust with an LP of brand-new music curated by originator Zappi Diermaier and a band of musical friends, including fellow founder Gunther Wüsthoff. Over the years Faust has become many things, each as separate as the fingers, but as together as the hand which makes up their eponymous fist. From 1971 to 1974 the Hamburg band blazed a bold sonic trail, helping to create the distinct and delirious strand of German music we've come to know as Krautrock. Uncompromising, innovative and experimental, their releases in that period, and the stories accompanying their creation, are nothing short of legendary, and the fact that after a hiatus, the band returned and remained active in a variety of separate and simultaneous incarnations is entirely fitting for these musical revolutionaries. On Blickwinkel, Diermaier's incarnation embrace synchronicity and chance in order to capture the moment in a six-track snapshot of industrial churn, unsettling ambience and psychedelic motorik. Sonically and politically, Blickwinkel is a profoundly Faustian venture, a communal project based on democratic ideals which eschews external influences to create something entirely out on its own. As with the previous LP, Daumenbruch, the journey started with Zappi behind a drum kit at the home studio of his neighbor Dirk Dresselhaus AKA Schneider TM (bass), alongside electronics whizz Elke Drapatz (drum effects). The trio embarked on a session of instant composition, playing wordlessly with a deep empathy to each other as well as the energy in the room. While the Daumenbruch session, which took place in the midst of lockdown, delivered three long-form pieces, this two=hour spell served up six diverse tracks, an audio analogue for the speed of life post-lockdown. Drones, delays, clatter and clang came from all corners -- in fact, only Uwe Bastiansen (Stadtfisch) added melodies, lending long distance support to Dirk Dresselhaus' insistent bass sequences, and channeling the magic of their moment into potent pagan tonalities. The stylistic definitions are constantly disrupted by unexpected guests -- baroque strings, impish horns, found sound breakdowns, or else mind melting phasing and flanging -- each offering a new combination on this radical and forward-facing record.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. After dipping into the archive to deliver a series of essential reissues, Bureau B continue to encourage the chaotic brilliance of Faust with an LP of brand-new music curated by originator Zappi Diermaier and a band of musical friends, including fellow founder Gunther Wüsthoff. Over the years Faust has become many things, each as separate as the fingers, but as together as the hand which makes up their eponymous fist. From 1971 to 1974 the Hamburg band blazed a bold sonic trail, helping to create the distinct and delirious strand of German music we've come to know as Krautrock. Uncompromising, innovative and experimental, their releases in that period, and the stories accompanying their creation, are nothing short of legendary, and the fact that after a hiatus, the band returned and remained active in a variety of separate and simultaneous incarnations is entirely fitting for these musical revolutionaries. On Blickwinkel, Diermaier's incarnation embrace synchronicity and chance in order to capture the moment in a six-track snapshot of industrial churn, unsettling ambience and psychedelic motorik. Sonically and politically, Blickwinkel is a profoundly Faustian venture, a communal project based on democratic ideals which eschews external influences to create something entirely out on its own. As with the previous LP, Daumenbruch, the journey started with Zappi behind a drum kit at the home studio of his neighbor Dirk Dresselhaus AKA Schneider TM (bass), alongside electronics whizz Elke Drapatz (drum effects). The trio embarked on a session of instant composition, playing wordlessly with a deep empathy to each other as well as the energy in the room. While the Daumenbruch session, which took place in the midst of lockdown, delivered three long-form pieces, this two=hour spell served up six diverse tracks, an audio analogue for the speed of life post-lockdown. Drones, delays, clatter and clang came from all corners -- in fact, only Uwe Bastiansen (Stadtfisch) added melodies, lending long distance support to Dirk Dresselhaus' insistent bass sequences, and channeling the magic of their moment into potent pagan tonalities. The stylistic definitions are constantly disrupted by unexpected guests -- baroque strings, impish horns, found sound breakdowns, or else mind melting phasing and flanging -- each offering a new combination on this radical and forward-facing record.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Heiko Maile and Julian Demarre, both pop musicians and film composers, have been collaborating since the mid-'90s album classic Meanwhile by Camouflage. While Heiko continued pursuing the perfect pop song, they both landed their first feature film score gigs. In recent years while working together on several films, they felt they should create something for themselves -- a love letter to '70s and '80s electronic music. With some esoteric 1970s keyboards from Japan designed for the sound of tomorrow they have now recorded an album for all the days after tomorrow. The result is the genre-bending album Neostalgia, a unique blend of various electronic styles and 1970s Krautrock with pieces featuring intros/outros, flutes, flanger guitars and vocoders, and tracks pushing the six-minute mark.

$16.50 IN STOCK

Heiko Maile and Julian Demarre, both pop musicians and film composers, have been collaborating since the mid-'90s album classic Meanwhile by Camouflage. While Heiko continued pursuing the perfect pop song, they both landed their first feature film score gigs. In recent years while working together on several films, they felt they should create something for themselves -- a love letter to '70s and '80s electronic music. With some esoteric 1970s keyboards from Japan designed for the sound of tomorrow they have now recorded an album for all the days after tomorrow. The result is the genre-bending album Neostalgia, a unique blend of various electronic styles and 1970s Krautrock with pieces featuring intros/outros, flutes, flanger guitars and vocoders, and tracks pushing the six-minute mark.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The Berlin project Sprung Aus Den Wolken was part of the "Geniale Dilletanten" movement in the early 1980s, along with Einsturzende Neubauten and Mechanik Destruktiw Komandoh. The band first released an EP on ZickZack in 1981, followed by further releases on the band's own record label Faux Pas in 1982 and 1983, then on the French outlet Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier until 1991. The track "Pas Attendre" was part of the soundtrack of Wim Wender's movie Der Himmel Uber Berlin and thus became an underground hit. Bureau B is thrilled to now re-release the debut EP under the title 1981 West Berlin, including additional songs from the band's early days, which have been carefully remastered from the original cassettes.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. After introducing listeners to the techno-tropical pop of Supersempfft via an essential reissue of their stargazing sophomore LP Metaluna, those surefooted folks at Bureau B beam back a couple of years to bring listeners the Hessen outfit's outrageous debut. The collaborative vehicle careers through the cosmos like a high-performance clown car, disguising daring chord progressions, technical innovation and a heap of hooks behind its cartoon chassis, and taking lucky listeners along for the joyride. Operating at the unlikely nexus between creative studio and sixth form common room, and fusing all the expertise of the former with commercial disinterest of the latter, Supersempfft served as the multidisciplinary moniker for a trio of childhood friends whose separate skills combined perfectly for their high-concept high jinks. The prodigious musical talent of Dieter Kolb, augmented and elevated by Franz Knüttel's electronic innovation, provided the ideal medium for Franz Aumüller's wacky world building, which made up the lyrical thrust and visual flair of the project. Roboterwerke, both the name of this 1979 LP and the revolutionary drum machine created by Knüttel, tells the story of a mellow tuba-toting frog (apparently an avatar of Kolb), who is technologically transformed by a mad scientist (a Professor Knüttels, as it happens) into a star surfing superhero. So far, so far out -- especially considering the lurid, lysergic lunacy of the comic book cover art -- but this slapstick silliness also serves as sleight of hand, a daft disguise to keep these sublime sounds away from the squares.

$16.50 IN STOCK

The Berlin project Sprung Aus Den Wolken was part of the "Geniale Dilletanten" movement in the early 1980s, along with Einsturzende Neubauten and Mechanik Destruktiw Komandoh. The band first released an EP on ZickZack in 1981, followed by further releases on the band's own record label Faux Pas in 1982 and 1983, then on the French outlet Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier until 1991. The track "Pas Attendre" was part of the soundtrack of Wim Wender's movie Der Himmel Uber Berlin and thus became an underground hit. Bureau B is thrilled to now re-release the debut EP under the title 1981 West Berlin, including additional songs from the band's early days, which have been carefully remastered from the original cassettes.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Dumbo Tracks returns with a second album Move With Intention -- the anticipated follow up to 2022's eponymous debut. Philipp Janzen and collaborators deliver a varied collection of nine zoned-out grooves direct from Dumbo Studio in Cologne, with vocal contributions from Portable, Ada, Marker Starling, Rubee Fegan, and nothhingspecial. Looking back to his musical upbringing, Philipp Janzen switched up the recording process from the first record to incorporate more of a live band element. The result is a more eclectic sound which allowed more freedom to experiment, while keeping the collaborative spirit that is a vital Dumbo Tracks trademark. The genesis of the record began in Italy, where Philipp and co-producer Julian Stetter traveled to jam out ideas on modular synths over the course of a few days. These ideas served as the basis for more instrumental tracks back at Dumbo Studio, where Philipp invited friends to develop the tracks further within a live dynamic. For the final phase of the record, Philipp enlisted the artistry of five vocalists: spoken word frontwoman Rubee Fegan, Canadian singer songwriter Marker Starling, house romantic Portable, Bonn-based haunted pop artist nothhingspecial and Hamburg's techno visionary Ada. The title track sees Philipp and crew slow the tempo down to a molasses dreamscape, a beatdown groove that's joined by Paris-residing artist Portable. It all makes for a gloriously eclectic album, an anarchic pop record that follows its own rules. Move With Intention is both electronic yet alive, motorik and pastoral, filled with dancefloor grooves and a krautrock swagger. In this sense the intention is clear: to respectfully rip up the rule book and keep moving forward.

$16.50 IN STOCK

After introducing listeners to the techno-tropical pop of Supersempfft via an essential reissue of their stargazing sophomore LP Metaluna, those surefooted folks at Bureau B beam back a couple of years to bring listeners the Hessen outfit's outrageous debut. The collaborative vehicle careers through the cosmos like a high-performance clown car, disguising daring chord progressions, technical innovation and a heap of hooks behind its cartoon chassis, and taking lucky listeners along for the joyride. Operating at the unlikely nexus between creative studio and sixth form common room, and fusing all the expertise of the former with commercial disinterest of the latter, Supersempfft served as the multidisciplinary moniker for a trio of childhood friends whose separate skills combined perfectly for their high-concept high jinks. The prodigious musical talent of Dieter Kolb, augmented and elevated by Franz Knüttel's electronic innovation, provided the ideal medium for Franz Aumüller's wacky world building, which made up the lyrical thrust and visual flair of the project. Roboterwerke, both the name of this 1979 LP and the revolutionary drum machine created by Knüttel, tells the story of a mellow tuba-toting frog (apparently an avatar of Kolb), who is technologically transformed by a mad scientist (a Professor Knüttels, as it happens) into a star surfing superhero. So far, so far out -- especially considering the lurid, lysergic lunacy of the comic book cover art -- but this slapstick silliness also serves as sleight of hand, a daft disguise to keep these sublime sounds away from the squares.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. After Die Drift, Kenne Keine Tone is the second studio album by the Vienna-based artist Conny Frischauf. Moving between pop and experiment, she embarks on a search for the momentary, the transitions and sonorous threshold spaces, creating a fascinating sound laboratory with Kenne Keine Tone that invites listeners to readjust their listening habits. Things are not what they seem to be. It is in this spirit that the artist guides us into her synaesthetic sound laboratory in which she acousmatically examines worldly phenomena as sonic events and combines them with delicate pop references. Stones, wind, water and other phenomena thus turn into audible miracles. In the sixteen tracks of her latest album, Frischauf is playing with our senses. Field recordings, carefully microphoned percussion instruments, aerophones, clapping hands and cosey synth sounds become finely balanced antagonists on this album, digging deep into auditory canals. The album is less about clear linear temporal sequences than about the spatial assembly of various possible meanings. Frischauf consciously awards this kind of independence to the sounds and ideas on the album. It is the reduction that makes a certain understatement reverberate on Kenne Keine Tone, and yet this restraint merely conceals Frischauf's passion for sound. Facing such a multitude of ideas, it's striking that the album remains as personal, casual and melodic as it does. A distinct groove emerges and occasionally invites listeners to dance.

$28.00 IN STOCK

On the red album, Conrad Schnitzler laid down the direction his musical artistry would take. The blue album (Blau) offered confirmation of his intent. Maybe the Rot and Blau tracks were recorded in the same session. The structure, sound, and timbre of both LPs are so similar as to suggest that this was the case. Far more important than this historical pedantry is the fact that Schnitzler included two brand new compositions on Blau which followed on seamlessly from the previous album. Quite simply, he had found his way, a course from which he would not stray as long as he lived. The so-called Berlin School (Berliner Schule) -- with Conrad Schnitzler one of their number -- had developed its own style of minimalist music. Clearly distinct from Anglo-American pop music, and no less removed from the minimalist art music of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, the focus here was on electronics and elementary rhythmics. The Berlin musicians showed no great interest in instrumental or vocal virtuosity, nor were they in thrall to exuberant interleaving of rhythm. With the aid of synthesizers and studio technology, they were bent on breaking into territory hitherto considered the province of a privileged elite, clouded in mystery and secrecy, resonating with uncharted sounds and noise. Blau is an archetypal example of this very phenomenon. Courage, the pioneering spirit and artistic brilliance can be detected in each part of the album's two infinite sequences. Inspired by Joseph Beuys, Schnitzler propagated those very tones beyond the musical realm, detached from tradition, the only tones capable of catalyzing the utterly stagnant pop music and new music scene of the day, injecting them with fresh impulses. Questions of harmony, melody and strict form were well and truly rejected by Schnitzler. His aural crystals shine like pearls on a string. Schnitzler uses his ropes of pearls to weave new, fantastic patterns which constantly shift like kaleidoscopes to reveal unexpected facets; they are signposts to spatial and temporal infinity. Schnitzler's style was really too idiosyncratic ever to set a precedent, but he was, and still is, one of the most significant inspirations for pop music in more recent times. Already a figure of prominence, perhaps he will one day be elevated to the status of a legend. Limited anniversary edition: embossed, reverse board, hand numbered, limited edition blue vinyl, 500 copies available.