Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dean McPhee – Northern Earth (Bass Ritual)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: Northern Earth is Dean McPhee’s sixth full-length album and the second release on his own label, Bass Ritual. Expanding on the low-end focus of 2024’s Astral Gold, Northern Earth integrates overdriven guitar, a wooden snare drum pedal and a powerful 18-inch subwoofer, pushing his sound further beyond the sparse fingerpicked solo guitar of his earlier releases. Drawing on influences from psychedelic rock, British folk, dub and underground electronic music, the album’s three expansive compositions – including the side-long title track – were honed through live performance and recorded live with no overdubs at McPhee’s home in Bradford. His solo setup – stacked valve amps, subwoofer, guitar, percussion pedals and expansive pedalboard – now functions as a single self-contained instrument, layering hypnotic basslines, ritualistic loops and fluid melodies with physical weight and a deep sense of space.

The Chills – Brave Words (Expanded And Remastered) [Fire Records]

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: The Chills reveal legendary debut Brave Words (Expanded and Remastered) will be released on double LP including a disc of unheard extras out 13th October on Fire Records. Remixed and remastered under the supervision of Martin Phillipps, this special release will feature brand new reimagined artwork by Martin.

The Chills have long been recognized as one of New Zealand’s most influential bands, Brave Words is a shining example of their unique sound and has been praised as a masterpiece by critics and fans alike.

“This is what a living legend looks and sounds like” Rolling Stone

whatsisname – Undercurrents (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: This is another later-than-anticipated release in an occasional series of musical catastrophes. All tracks were originally recorded between May and August 2010. Primary remixes (where the track structure and music were finalised) took place between August 2012 and April 2013. “Flow” was remixed by Loz Grover at Crimson Sun Audio in September 2013. Final mixes for all tracks except “Flow” were made between November 2017 and August 2020. Mastering was performed between April 2019 and August 2020.

This album was a little easier to put together than my previous releases, both in terms of writing, and also mixing and mastering.

Genre: ElectroProg, synths, TranceFusion, acid, groove, glitch, atmospheric, quirky, chillout

Written, recorded and mixed by Whatsisname in EnergyXT

Instruments:

Genesis CM1.02, Cubix, AMB Electra Bass Rack CM, Padawan, SQ8L, EnergyXT Drum Sampler, Texture, SynthMaster2, Amphetamine, BMK2, Polyiblit, EnergyXT Synthesizer, NI Pro-53, Drumatic 3, CM SR202, Lounge Lizard EP-4, EVM Ultra Sonique, Synth1, Drumatic 4, Abakos, Linplug Alpha3 Free, PPG Wave 2.V, Antopya, Linplug Alpha3, Dream Vortex Microtrance, GTG K 1.3, ilo Synth 1, Jxplugins JX220, Oktagon, KX77FREE KXOMNI-600, AM Kicklab XXL, SonicCharge Microtonic, Hahaha CS33, Oatmeal, ersdrums, Hahaha CS33V2, ZebraCM

Effects:

EnergyXT Delay, IK CSR, TP Basslane, IK CS EQ PG, U-He Satin, Permut8, EnergyXT Reverb, Valhalla Shimmer, REFLEX Free V1, Newfangled Audio Equivocate, EnergyXT Compressor, Diversion FxCM, Ohmforce Frohmage, SFXMachine Pro, Gvst Gcomp2

24-bit audio mastering in IK T-Racks3:

VC-670, Equal, Quad Comp, Saturator X, Stealth Limiter, Dyna-Mu

z’Ev – Schönste Muziek (Cold Spring)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: Early hallucinatory ritual percussion works from the much-missed rhythmajik master. This legendary album by Industrial pioneer Z’EV was originally released in 1986 (LP, Dossier), now finally available with the state-of-the-art remastering it deserves.

Also included is the bonus 20 minute track ‘Titan Night’, recorded at Berlin Atonal in December 1983, now available here for the first time on any format since the original 1984 split LP with Psychic TV (who performed their iconic set at the same event). Z’EV performed on all-steel, custom-made percussion instruments, designed to activate the acoustics of the space.

“Each track finds Z’EV creating moody and atmospheric percussion based compositions. If you’re familiar with Z’EV’s work you’d say these tracks are a bit more primal, stripped back, and unmanipulated. Each track takes in a set pattern of percussive elements, which he investigates over the tracks length, and these move from forceful battering onto more moody drifts, and in between the two… a worthy work from this most respected and unequalled artist” (Musique Machine).

CD in matt digipak, with all artwork remaining true to Z’EV’s original concepts.

1-5. Recorded 6th August 6 1986, 22:00 – 00:00 At Corps de Garde
6. Recorded at Berlin Atonal, Saturday 3rd December 1983

All Sounds and Compositions by Z’EV

Recording: Dick Lucas
Executive Producer: Manfred Schiek
Neutral Listener: Gerd Peeckel
Provocative Listener: Paul Delli Quadri
Time Keeper: Francis Horton
Original Photographs: Nick Fault

Graphic Design: Abby Helasdottir
Mastering: Martin Bowes

Various Artists – Tarkovsky (Cold Spring)

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Label Description: This boxset contains the original soundtracks to the five core works of Andrei Tarkovsky, the master of Soviet cinema: “Ivan’s Childhood”, “Andrei Roublev”, “Solaris”, “Mirror”, and “Stalker”.

The works by Eduard Artemyev and Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov may sound imperfect to the modern ear, but have been sympathetically remastered and presented as close as possible to how striking they would have sounded to audiences at the original film presentations.

Deluxe matt-laminate boxset containing 5 x CDs in individually-printed card sleeves. Each album is accompanied by an artcard featuring the original Soviet / Japanese cinema posters on its release.

-:-

Vol 1: IVAN’S CHILDHOOD
The haunting soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1962 film “Ivan’s Childhood” (Иваново детство) was composed by the prolific Soviet composer Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. It features a deeply romantic yet sorrowful 5-note leitmotif that captures the poignancy of innocence lost in war. Ovchinnikov’s sweeping score relies on romantic idioms to contrast the harsh realities of the Eastern Front with Ivan’s nostalgic, dream-like flashbacks.

Vol 2: ANDREI ROUBLEV
The soundtrack for the 1966 masterpiece “Andrei Roublev” (Андрей Рублёв) was also composed by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. The sweeping, evocative score is deeply intertwined with the film’s religious and historical themes, with its profound, choral-heavy resonance that perfectly accompanies the film’s exploration of faith, art, and Russian history. The composer collaborated closely with Tarkovsky to create a score that captures the raw, earthy reality of 15th-century Russia while elevating the film’s stunning visual language.

Vol 3: SOLARIS
Eduard Artemyev’s score for Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi masterpiece “Solaris” (Солярис) is a ground-breaking work of early electronic music. With Tarkovsky envisioning an ambient / mechanical soundscape, Artemyev’s futuristic takes on Bach’s organ works are combined with haunting, abstract synthesizer drones and environmental noise, all crafted on the famed ANS synthesizer. At atmospheric, dreamlike score that perfectly mirrors the psychological themes of the film.

Vol 4: MIRROR
Eduard Artemyev’s magnificent soundtrack to Tarkovsky’s 1975 film “Mirror” (Зеркало) is the natural follow-up to “Solaris”. Dense, slow-moving, and often disorienting mood pieces with Baroque sensibilities resonate beyond the film’s dream-like images. A combination of monolithic scale and pastoral melody makes the music so intriguing, lush and unique.

Vol 5: STALKER
For “Stalker” (Сталкер), the third part of Tarkovsky’s science fiction trilogy, Eduard Artemyev was inspired by Indian classical music and employed eerie layers of synth tones, flute, harpsichord, and tar (Iranian stringed instrument), as well as choirs, to create a central theme as spellbinding as The Zone, a setting in the film where laws of physics no longer apply. Achingly beautiful.

Mastered by Martin Bowes
Graphic Design by Abby Helasdottir

Licensed from TMP Ltd

MZ.412 – The Nar Mattaru Curses (Cold Spring)

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Label Description: For almost four decades, MZ.412 have forged some of the most uncompromising ritual industrial and dark ambient soundscapes the world has ever known.

“The Nar Mattaru Curses” gathers obscure recordings from their whole career including previously unreleased or buried tracks, recorded between 1989 and 2017 in the legendary Nar Mattaru studio. Raw hymns of apocalyptic industrialism, occult malevolence, and crushing sonic sorcery that never made the original albums.

An essential transmission for devotees of black industrial and dark ambient music.

CD in matt digipak, with artwork by Abby Helasdottir.

H. Takahashi – Body Trip (Remixed & Remastered) [Constellation Tatsu]

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Label Description: Originally released in 2016 on Constellation Tatsu, Body Trip introduced Japanese ambient composer H. Takahashi’s quietly immersive approach to minimal electronic composition. Built from delicate synth tones, meditative repetition, and understated melodic movement, the album has become a lasting favorite within contemporary ambient circles.

Over the past decade, Takahashi has developed an internationally respected body of work spanning releases such as Raum, Low Power, Escapism, Elegy, and Paleozoic. Beyond his solo output, he has collaborated through projects including UNKNOWN ME, ATORIS, and H TO O, contributed music for installations and exhibitions, and performed throughout Japan’s experimental and ambient music communities.

Body Trip (Remixed & Remastered) revisits the original 2016 album with a newly remastered edition alongside reinterpretations from a cross-generational group of contemporary electronic artists. The collection connects H. Takahashi’s meditative ambient language with artists working across contemporary experimental electronics, dub-informed minimalism, ambient techno, and modern new age composition, extending the album’s original aesthetic into a broader contemporary context. Fans and listeners have frequently described Takahashi’s music as calming, minimal, comforting, and deeply transportive, with recent online discussions continuing to highlight Body Trip and Escapism as standout works in modern Japanese ambient music.
credits
released July 28, 2026

All songs recorded by H. Takahashi
Artwork & design by Yudai Osawa

sachi’s mirror – Talking in a Different Way (Constellation Tatsu)

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Label Description: Oakland, CA — Talking in a Different Way is the debut full-length release of sachi’s mirror, the creative alias of multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Shaina Pan. Melding disparate elements of ambient, electronic, dream-pop, and avant-garde classical, Pan beckons us into sonic worlds equally enigmatic and emotive.

Across a collection of self-produced songs and vignettes that began to take form during a month-long residency in Vallejo, CA in the spring of 2025, she explores a theme of constant and quiet evolution, posing the question: What are we if the world we were born into no longer exists? How do we relate to one another and ourselves? Using field recordings and looped textures as sonic blueprints, she patiently constructs dimly lit, spiraling paths that simultaneously churn inward towards memory and outward towards the cosmos.

Pan studied violin performance at Indiana University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, specializing in contemporary classical music. After nearly two decades of performing in classical ensembles, Pan left the path to becoming a symphony violinist, burnt out and frustrated by a culture of rigidity. She settled in Oakland where she eventually began writing and performing in post-punk quartet Juicebumps.

Emboldened by her peers in the Bay Area scene, she found herself shifting towards composition and improvisation, using her violin, voice, and laptop to explore electroacoustic composition. From those efforts emerged room to receive, her 2025 debut EP on Cone Shape Top Imprint. Talking in a Different Way arrives one year later on Constellation Tatsu, a woozy 35-minute spell sparkling with the same experimental spirit, this time with moody sampled textures, gossamer string arrangements, and Pan’s vocals at the fore.

Al (sic) tracks composed, performed, and recorded by Shaina Pan
Mixed by Beau Sorenson
Mastered by Sébastien Politi
Drums on tracks 2 and 4 recorded by Chris Grant
Artwork and design by Ramon Keimig
Additional layout by Parker Richard

Guitar on track 1 by Jas Stade
Drums on tracks 2 and 4 by Rick Altieri
Synthesizer on track 2, guitar on tracks 3 and 4,
and additional vocals on track 4 by Parker Richard
Saxophone on tracks 6 and 9 by David Alvarez

Grandma Love – Grandma Love (Constellation Tatsu)

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Label Description: Setting aside the dread-soaked UK atmosphere of his Karkossyn moniker, Tavis Hitchcock introduces Grandma Love. In stark contrast to his previous work, Grandma Love welcomes listeners home for a warm, hearty stew just before the streetlights come on. Drawing from childhood nostalgia, Cornish summers, and family day trips, Hitchcock pulls the plug on a reservoir of mood and atmosphere that sits somewhere between post-club sofa lounging and early morning coffee mug steam.

Following his appearance on Northfield Records’ Gilbert Road EP with the track “A2,” this self-titled debut album dawns the opening chapter in the Grandma Love story. Filled with field recordings, delicate percussion, washed-out pads, and fragments of home-video VHS recordings, the album opens a time capsule of lost memories, coastal daydreams, and a longing for a time washed far away with the tide.

Written, recorded, and produced by Tavis Hitchcock
Artwork by Tavis Hitchcock
Images by Karen & Bill Mckinley

Michael Boezi – No Love Songs, Vol. 2

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Label Description: These songs invite progressive, collectivist, and non-confrontational reflection as an antidote to the years of programming and propaganda we all endure. Let’s help each other UNLEARN. Let’s afford each other the space to grow. //

SONG SUMMARY:
01. Knocks – Finding the energy to take positive action
02. I Gotta Go – How life goes on amid daily horrors
03. Temperature Drop – How no one’s coming to save us
04. Last Song – How AI art & music will change us
05. Read Me Out – Turning the page on the Boomer’s world
06. Nothing Left – Silence will speak on your behalf if you don’t
07. Doing Any Good – How advocating for change is depleting
08. Fever – How to develop empathy for the victims of disinformation
09. The Recidivist – How old habits and ideas imprison us
10. Graveyard of Good Intentions – We’re fighting the wrong battle
11. Cheap Seats – How to deal with the “Billionaire Problem”
12. Wipe Right Out – How you won’t listen to me anyway

We are waking up one by one. The algorithms will try to keep us apart because this is what those in power fear the most – that we learn from each other’s experiences. //

This is why art is so important. Stories and narratives are the only way to create positive change. So we come together around art. And conversation. And solidarity. And big ideas. //

Positive change is a collective effort. Individualism is our common enemy. //

PRAISE:
“My pick for this week is the just released ‘No Love Songs Volume 2.’ Singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Boezi and a bunch of fine musicians bring us a great collection of songs about the unfortunate state of the world.

Despite the subject matter, which is presented through great lyrics and excellent instrumentation, the album is not depressing, because it’s a perfect example of how art is essential in hard times, of how we can work through chaos by using our creativity.”

— Aaron Smith (source: BlueSky)

CREDITS:
Lyrics and music by Michael Boezi

PERFORMERS:
Michael Boezi: Voice, guitars on all songs
Dave Brophy: Drums & percussion on all songs
Joe McMahon: Bass guitar on all songs
Andrew Stern: Lead guitar on 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Andrew Stern: 12-string guitar on 8, 9
Andrew Stern: Slide guitar on 12
Britt Connors: Backing vocals on 3, 6, 8
James Rohr: Wurlitzer on 3, piano on 6
Andy Santospago: Pedal steel guitar on 1, lap steel on 4
Aaron DeGraff: Backing vocals on 9
Dave Brophy: Backing vocals on 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12
Peter Fernandez: Rhodes on 1, 2, 9
Peter Fernandez: Organ on 1, 2, 5, 8, 9
Peter Fernandez: Synth & other keyboards on 1, 5
Andrew Stern: Triangle on 2
Dave Brophy: Organ on 7

PRODUCTION:
Recorded at Studio Solitaire in Somerville, MA
All songs engineered by Dave Brophy
Backing vocals engineered by Mike Connors on 3, 6, 8

Arranged by Michael Boezi and Dave Brophy
Produced by Michael Boezi and Dave Brophy
Mixed and mastered by Dave Brophy
Cover photograph by Michael Boezi
Cover design by Michael Boezi

Cover image:
Title: [Emma Gillingham Bostwick, half-length portrait of a woman, three-quarters to left, facing three-quarters to right]
Artist: Mathew B. Brady
Date: Between 1851 and 1860
Source: Library of Congress
Underlying Rights: Public Domain Worldwide

℗&© 2025 Control Mouse Media, LLC
Published by Control Mouse Media, LLC, Boston, MA. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable copyright laws. UPC: 057829394049

Publisher IPI: 1126697538 (ASCAP)
Michael Boezi IPI: 1126697636 (ASCAP)