INVERTED AUDIO NEWSLETTER

TOXIDO MASK // DIAL RECORDS // RAMJAC CORPORATION // LAENZ // EDEN AURELIUS // DYING IN BEAUTY // ANTEPOP // BLANK MIND

A Berlin luminary and a serial dreamer DJ and producer, Toxido Mask is known to execute a synaesthetic experience that makes one dissolve on the dancefloor. She keeps it clean, she keeps it lethal, she keeps it transcendental. At her mercy, spine-chilling emissions of mesmeric synths, textural mechanical bleeps, and batting basslines of industrial house and techno merge and corrode to produce the purest form of a musical elixir, a drop of which evades the concept of mortality for a hot minute.

The Tresor resident functions within the familiar and injects her beloved smoke-haze, club-influenced sound palette into IA MIX 380, drenching it with interstellar-grade, dubbed-out electronics. Time compresses, an hour whittled to five minutes in the blink of an eye, as Toxido Mask steers the wheel, captaining meticulous beat control and strong-grip storytelling, channelling the crowd toward a single vibration. Enter the dungeon with Toxido Mask.

IN-STORE: RAMJAC CORPORATION
(REEL-TO-REEL LIVE SET)

Acid house legend Ramjac Corportation performs a reel-to-reel live set at Inverted Audio Record Store in Peckham on Saturday 4th May.

Ramjac Corportation is the production alias of UK-based sound artist, programmer and percussionist Paul Chivers, one of the UK’s unsung electronic pioneers, known for his voltaic live shows during the heady Summer of Love in 1988 and beyond.

Jamming his own flavour of sampled beats live from his Atari and Emulator, Ramjac performed at the now legendary Sunrise, Energy and Back To The Future raves and went on to tour with Orbital, The Shaman and The Irresistible Force.

Ramjac’s most famous track ‘Cameroon Massif’ – originally released on Irdial Discs in 1990, then reissued via Emotional Rescue in 2018 – is the sound of UK dance music exploding into myriad new trajectories. Synthetic textures and acid squelch tie the track to the strobe light optimism of a rave. Yet the intricately programmed beats and wandering structure leave you feeling it is channelling something far more free-form.

DIAL DROP AT INVERTED AUDIO RECORD STORE
SATURDAY 20 APRIL // LONDON

Inverted Audio Store has secured the last vinyl copies of Dial's back catalogue, the much loved German record label helmed by by Peter M. Kersten aka Lawrence and David Lieske aka Carsten Jost.

Dial Drop II features LP's from Dial's discography, including sought after albums from Sten, Christian Naujoks, Ursprung (Pantha Du Prince & Stephen Abry), John Roberts, DJ Richard, James K, Roman Flügel, Carsten Jost, Lawrence, Tracey, XDB and Irakli.

Dial Drop II takes place at Inverted Audio Record Store in Peckham on Saturday 20th April. Remaining records will go on sale via the Inverted Audio Store website on Sunday 21st April.

Inverted Audio Record Store is open from 12 - 6pm and is located in Peckham's Holdrons Arcade, 2 minute walk from Peckham Rye Overground Station.

March was undoubtedly a fire-starter month for underground music. We’ve cut through the clutter with this sifted list of hot releases. Dive into the Selected Works playlist on Spotify or Soundcloud to listen through our favourite tracks.

REVIEW // LOST PARADISE: BLISSED OUT BREAKBEAT HARDCORE 1991​-​94

Blissed Out Breakbeat Hardcore – do we need to convince you anymore, if the title does not already itch under your nose, late-night cravings for a slight misbehaviour detour into the cosy murks of the underground?

A breakthrough compilation, ‘Lost Paradise: Blissed Out Breakbeat Hardcore 1991-94‘ sprouts peripheral visions of glory, as cleverly intended, rough frenzied breaks on a big merger multiverse of 90’s nostalgia, curated with excellent taste by Sam Purcell and Tammo Hesselink for London’s Blank Mind label. Within its hallowed rhythms, particularly niche to the UK, carefully woven threads of Sheffield bleep ambience, rave futurism, and soul-synchronised synth pads are dewy drops of pure club-floor epiphany.

Ruptured breakbeat is the sound of liberation—the more aggressive, the better. The 2×12″ beauty of a record articulates a collective consciousness of a generation, the aftermath of which we continue to thrive gregariously. Core narratives of social-political injustice of its time slither within layers of jungle-massive, like its other sonic genre friends. In the record’s reference, it happens to be local neighbourhood outlaws, striving against the harshest anti-rave Criminal Justice Act that befell the UK during the times of Thatcher.

Each track on the record is a forgotten realm, laced with the memories of the lads dancing deep in the early UK burrows, reality out-of-touch, only sound, only rhythm of the body, only mass escapism. Listen closely to DJ Mayhem’s ‘Inesse‘, Skanna’s ‘This Way’, Hedgehog Affair’s ‘Parameters‘, to name a few, a strong dose of calibrated ecstasy from creators lost and found once again, each time a curious mind finds its way to the earth’s centre.

NEWS // EDEN AURELIUS INAUGURATES CO:CLEAR WITH ‘PLATEAU’ EP

Brooklyn-based producer Eden Aurelius is set to unveil their debut vinyl release, a four-track dub techno stunner titled ‘Plateau’, which also serves as the launch of Glaswegian imprint co:clear.

Aurelius has been active over the past half decade, DJ’ing and releasing a sprinkling of productions. With “serial unwinders” in mind, Aurelius delivers three tracks composed between New York and Chicago.

Where previous digital singles explored the experimental side of psy-trance and harder club tones, ‘Plateau’ embraces a murky, smeared dub techno aesthetic. Aurelius’ sound has been distilled down to a somnambulant aura where the listener is thrust into a tripped out headspace that’s impossible to resist.

The release comes with three scorching originals plus a remix of “Want 2” from Chicago production trio Purelink, whose debut LP was one of our Best Albums of 2023.

REVIEW // LAENZ: AFTER SUNSET

Brooklyn-based Laenz‘s debut album “After Sunset” on EMA’s fondly wub-dub candy store Woozy grabs attention by the collar. Music for the flesh, master of the senses, a trip towards an all-consuming rhythmic movement of body and soul.

Precisely intimate productions of haunting textures, personal to Laenz, morph into a delicate black and blood-orange cassette, devising a space of high-quality dream-induced psychosis in a single play. “War on the heart“, she concludes, at the end of carving mind projections into an emotively dense, brooding dialogue with sound, a conjecture ultimately reflected in the emissions of her work.

Down ominous winding paths go ‘Choices‘, spirited percussions and metallic whirs atop stretched-out mystical synths, followed closely by the trip-hopping title track, ‘After Sunset‘, a tasteful mild-destructor doused in zapping psychedelia. On side B, ‘Echoes Until‘ rumbles in subfrequencies spaced scrumptiously until dripping lucid ambience erupts from ‘wiL‘ sparks of breakcore and a teary-eyed fairy-nymph’s soft imaginations.

Laenz’s ‘After Sunset‘ unfurls a strong intoxication of suppressed melancholia. Obscure, eerie and severely low-end broken beat, dubstep deconstructions on a runtime of about thirty minutes dilute reality into an open-ended teaser of tense and physically alert, smokey reverie. Get your hands dirty.

LISTEN BACK TO DYING IN BEAUTY AT INVERTED AUDIO RECORD STORE

London-based techno producer Dying in Beauty performed an all vinyl DJ set at Inverted Audio Record Store in Peckham to mark the release of ‘In Praise In Shadows’ EP issued through his own Rhythm Without Reason imprint.

A very big thank you to everyone that made it down to the store, the main man played a slamming techno set and his EP is now sold out! Our next in-store event takes place on Saturday 20th April, a live reel-to-reel set from acid house legend Ramjac Corporation, full event info can be found here.

ANTEPOP ALL NIGHT LONG AT RONS

The first in a series of vinyl only DJ sessions from myself at Rons Coffee House in Peckham (135A Rye Lane, Holdrons Arcade) - the home of Inverted Audio Record Store. For the occasion I performed a mix spanning the finest ambient, experimental, deep house and dub techno. Comment for track ID's :)

NEWS // SIGNIFICANT OTHER INAUGURATES PAIN MANAGEMENT IMPRINT

New York-based producer Significant Other returns with his first release in three years with ‘When It Rains’, an EP inaugurating their new Pain Management imprint.

Significant Other displays smoky, fogged out and otherworldly club sounds across these four tracks, delivering “a meeting of outsider sonics and sleazy dance tropes, body music for restless minds”.

The first taste of the EP is the opener, “RPG“, a killer collaboration with fellow NYC artist James K. A rumbling, shuffling stunner, “RPG” is an effortless pairing of Significant Other’s dubbed out production with James K’s ethereal vocals. The listener is beamed to an empty dancefloor, long after the party’s over, still brimming with slowly decaying energy.