MAY TRANSMISSION
Ulf Eriksson, Max Cooper, Joachim Spieth, Ibrahim Alfa Jnr, Lord Of The Isles, Variant, Boards Of Canada, Planetary Assault Systems
// FEATURES
Ulf Eriksson joins Andreas Tilliander — aka TM404 — to discuss their first joint release, Ulf Och Andreas - EP 1: minimal, raw house and techno ten years in the making. A candid conversation about creative tension and process, plus an IA MIX spanning PST, Omar-S and Eletun Selona.
→ MIX & INTERVIEW BY WILL PATTERSON
→ Feeling Is Structure: Max Cooper and the architecture of the human condition
Max Cooper’s seventh album, Feeling Is Structure, began as a commission to perform at the Royal Albert Hall and evolved into a sweeping exploration of how humans map emotion onto the structures that constitute the universe. In this interview by Will Patterson, Cooper discusses the album’s philosophy, its network of visual collaborations, his roots in club culture, and his thoughts on AI’s role in creative practice.
→ Joachim Spieth reflects on Affin, Delirium, Pop Ambient and 25 Years of Sonic Exploration
Joachim Spieth reflects on his journey from Cologne's Kompakt Records scene to founding AFFIN, tracing early influences from Mo' Wax and Warp through to Pop Ambient and beyond. From opening the first Pop Ambient compilation to shaping immersive sound worlds today, Spieth discusses his evolution, long-standing collaborations, and the ideas behind his latest album, Vestige.
// RECORD REVIEWS
→ Ibrahim Alfa Jnr. – Infinite Black Inside [FO]
Infinite Black Inside arrives from the most extreme of those stages. A diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, two subsequent heart attacks, and a compromised immune system jolted Alfa into total isolation — completely severed from the outside. One could have imagined this to be a career-crashing incident, but instead Alfa cracked open a different type of creative infestation within and out crawled his most interior and vulnerable record to date.
→ REVIEW BY ASMI SHEETY
→ BUY ON INVERTED AUDIO RECORD STORE
→ Lord Of The Isles – Venus Flux [Far Blue]
Lord Of The Isles provided his very own Far Blue concept mix around two years ago, he now returns to the label to provide their third physical release, Venus Flux, a four track EP that sees the renowned Scottish producer reaching deep into his bag of dub-inflected moods and tricks.
→ REVIEW BY WILL PATTERSON
→ BUY ON INVERTED AUDIO RECORD STORE
→ Variant – The Setting Sun [Field Records]
Jason Cabaniss reviews Variant’s ‘The Setting Sun’ — Stephen Hitchell of Echospace’s ambient dub masterwork, now given a deserved vinyl reissue by Field Records. Blending storms, train journeys, and reverb-laden synths into vast, slowly evolving soundscapes, the album balances intimacy with cosmic scale.
→ Jacob 2-2 – Dreams of Indoor Ghosts
Jacob 2-2’s Indoor Dreams of Ghosts is a richly orchestrated follow-up to Herbivore, weaving childhood nostalgia with grown-up weight. Drawing on the lineage of Stones Throw and Brainfeeder, David Ahuja crafts jazz-funk, breakbeat and synth-funk into something playfully inventive yet emotionally mature — his most accomplished production to date.
// FROM THE RECORD STORE
→ Store Selects // Wolfgang Voigt, HTRK, Khotin, Marc Leclair, Foote/Dickow, K Wata, Peach, Giegling, Paperclip Minimiser, Profan
Tom Durston selects new arrivals from Inverted Audio Record Store in Peckham, moving between ambient, acid, dub techno, deep house and the foundational edges of minimal techno.
→ WATCH EPISODE SIX
→ WATCH EPISODE FIVE
// RECOMMENDED RELEASES
New vinyl arrivals at Inverted Audio Record Store, updated weekly. Hand-picked releases from the best underground labels spanning techno, ambient, dub techno, experimental and electronic music. Based in Peckham, London — shipping worldwide.
→ Boards Of Canada – Inferno [Warp Records]
Boards of Canada return after thirteen years with Inferno — seventy minutes of dark, esoteric electronica that deepens the shadows of Tomorrow’s Harvest and draws on the occult territory of their 2019 Societas X Tape. The signature melodies are there. So is something harder to name. One of the most anticipated albums in electronic music, finally here.
→ Marc Leclair – Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes [ISC Hi-Fi Selects]
Marc Leclair’s Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes — one of the more quietly extraordinary ambient records of the 2000s — finally arrives on vinyl. Pressed in Detroit at Archer Record Pressing and issued as a double LP by In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi, this 72-minute meditation on pregnancy and transformation has never sounded more at home. Essential and long overdue.
→ Planetary Assault Systems – Planetary People [Ostgut Ton]
Luke Slater returns as Planetary Assault Systems with Planetary People on Ostgut Ton — his first album in ten years and one of the most anticipated techno records of 2026. Twelve tracks of bleepy, polyrhythmic, industrial-strength techno shaped by live rooms and studio craft in equal measure. Raw, relentless and entirely on his own terms. Essential.
→ Khotin – KIND 013 [Khotin Industries]
Khotin is back on dancefloor duty. KIND 013 delivers four tracks of dusty drum machine house — warm, considered and entirely his own. From the vintage drum textures of Resobeat (’89 Mix) to the sun-warmed ease of Tropique 707 and beyond. A welcome and long-overdue return to the floor from one of electronic music’s most quietly beloved figures.
→ Earquake Series 1991–1999 [Profan]
Wolfgang Voigt’s Profan label is one of the founding pillars of Cologne’s minimal techno scene that built a decade of radical, uncompromising music from a single bass drum and an ever-shifting cast of aliases including Mike Ink, Grungerman, M:I:5, Wassermann and Love Inc. We are now stocking the complete collection of the Earquake reissue series on Kompakt Records.
→ Peach – Soak Vol. 1 [Mood Hut]
Peach makes her Mood Hut debut with Soak Vol. 1 — a meditative mini-LP shaped by a transformative tour through Asia. Layered with field recordings from Vietnam and the Philippines, the record moves through hazy pads, submerged basslines and fractured rhythms at its own unhurried pace.
→ Foote/Dickow – High Cube [Geographic North]
Brian Foote and Paul Dickow unite as Foote/Dickow on Geographic North with High Cube — their first recorded collaboration and one that arrives sounding entirely lived-in. Experimental techno and abstract machine funk made in the same room, with a clock running and no overthinking. Dry, tactile and loose.
// RECOMMENDED PRE-ORDERS
Reserve upcoming vinyl releases before they sell out. Inverted Audio Record Store hand-picks the most anticipated electronic music pre-orders — spanning techno, ambient, dub techno, experimental and beyond. Ships when in stock.
→ Idealist – Hidden World [Mojuba]
Idealist returns to Mojuba with Hidden World — four tracks of Swiss-precision dub techno and deep house inspired by the secret spaces that are part of our lives. Unhurried, immersive and crafted with the quiet conviction that has made Idealist one of the most essential voices in contemporary dub techno.
→ John Beltran – Sunrise And The Way We Live [Music For Dreams]
John Beltran returns to his ambient techno roots with Sunrise and the Life We Live on Music For Dreams — ten tracks of lush, aerated texture and hypnotic groove, thirty years on from his seminal Ten Days of Blue. Meditative, luminous and full of life. One of electronic music’s most quietly essential voices. Out July 10.
→ Gold Panda – Ton Up [Studio Barnhus]
Gold Panda makes his debut solo release on Studio Barnhus with Ton Up LP — eight rough-hewn pumping dance tracks of sampler-bashing house and disco, raw, funny and oddly tender. Out June 26, 2026.
→ Charles.A.D. – Luminous [Avantroots]
Japanese producer Charles.A.D. makes his Avantroots debut with Luminous — six tracks of chugging deep house and dub techno. Introspective, spacious and quietly powerful. A confident and fully realised debut from a label with an excellent ear for this kind of music. Out July 19.
→ Edward – Familiar Feeling [Giegling]
Edward returns to Giegling with Familiar Feeling — five tracks of warm, chugging house with a sparse downtempo interlude at the centre, moving with the unhurried, idiosyncratic confidence that has always made the label’s output so recognisable.
→ Joe Davies – Wonderful Tempo [Smallville]
Joe Davies returns to Smallville Records with four tracks of straight-but-quirky, far-out-but-to-the-point deep house — a latest vision of a cloudy night delivered at wonderful tempo. Following the continued success of Shields In Full Sunlight, this is Davies at his most effortlessly assured.
→ Lb Honne – Present Future / Here There [Project Indigo]
Lb Honne’s debut album Present Future / Here There — Inverted Audio’s #2 album of 2024 — is back on wax via a 2026 repress on Project Indigo. Nine tracks of warm tonal ambience and deep house tendencies from the Zurich producer, heart-strung and emotionally precise throughout. Sky Funk remains the standout. Don’t sleep on this one twice.
→ Various – Efflorescence III [Project Indigo]
Project Indigo’s third various artist compilation arrives across two records and nine tracks — the Zurich label’s most expansive collection to date, drawing together a cast of artists who share a sensibility rather than a sound. Ambient, breaks, deep house and downtempo move through the four sides with the unhurried, open-eared quality that has made Project Indigo one of the more distinctive voices in the current Swiss underground.
→ cv313 – Echospace [Detroit] Presents: “Altering Illusions” [Chapter One]
cv313’s Altering Illusions [Chapter One] finally arrives on vinyl — remastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering, fifteen years after its original limited release. Six tracks of fathomless dub techno and ambient from Stephen Hitchell, produced between Chicago and Detroit and reaching into sub-harmonic deep space with extraordinary patience and depth. Some of the deepest reductions ever committed to tape.
→ R.O.W.S. – 6.05 [St. Odes]
6.05 is a record born of grief and shaped by love. Completed by Martinou in the wake of Eletun Selona’s passing in 2024, this posthumous R.O.W.S album on St. Odes — the label of Ben Kaczor and Lb Honne — gathers their unfinished collaborative work into eight tracks of deep house and textured techno.
→ Ferrari – Heavy Duty [Faith Beat]
Faith Beat’s fourteenth signal comes from Ferrari — four tracks mixing peak time rolling basslines, late night vocals and classic US house influences. Ryan Elliott’s label has always had a sharp ear for this kind of material, and this EP delivers without hesitation. Absolute fire!! Out 9th June.
→ Pub – Do You Ever Regret Pantomime? [Ampoule]
Pub’s Do You Ever Regret Pantomime? returns on orange vinyl for 2026 — Glasgow’s great ambient IDM secret, remastered at Dubplates & Mastering with new artwork and a bonus track. A missing link between The Black Dog, Chain Reaction and Irdial across 70 minutes of spacious chords, abstract textures and gently shifting rhythms. Local folklore, back on wax.
Also, Joachim Spieth is on Substack! https://substack.com/@joachimspieth?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4licq5