NEWSLETTER
Clark 'Steep Stims', Vainqueur, Low End Activist, Snad, U, MOND, Ende Gut Alles Gut: Is This the Final Chapter for Giegling?
FEATURE // RAVE IN RETROSPECT: CLARK’S STEEP STIMS REAWAKENS THE DANCE
FEATURE BY TOM DURSTON & WILL PATTERSON
Steep Stims marks something of a return for Clark. After forays into Thom Yorke’s school of a vocally-injected kind of IDM, as well as a number of full-length soundtrack LPs, the endlessly industrious producer drops a record that would fit snugly on the Warp Records shelves. A spot Chris Clark would, in the label’s golden age, have felt very much at home as he established himself as a mainstay there, alongside the likes of Plaid, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Autechre, et al.
But despite inevitable experimental leanings, Steep Stims is heavily rooted in dancefloor aesthetics; it’s a record that, despite all its intricacies, feels crafted to be heard, in its heavier and more dramatic moments, in a strobe-slashed woodland or cavernous dripping basement. Indeed, a recent live set at Draaimolen received wide praise whilst tapping into the productions found on the album.
Released on Clark’s own Throttle Records, Steep Stims sprawls languidly across genre boundaries, utilising reverb-drenched trance arps, off-kilter piano and DnB workouts, and lush electronica soundscapes, all shot through with an irresistible sensation of 90s nostalgia that both recalls the earlier productions such as Clarence Park, and threads a coherent path through this delightfully chaotic sonic maze of mirrors.
IA MIX 396 SNAD (SCISSOR & THREAD)
INTERVIEW BY TOM DURSTON
For more than a decade, Shyam “Snad” Anand has carved out a quietly distinctive voice in deep house and left-field club music. From his formative years on Chicago’s WNUR Streetbeat radio to Berlin’s after-hours dancefloors – and now, unexpectedly, a studio retreat in Texas – his sound has been shaped by movement, community, curiosity, and a deep respect for the craft. His latest release, ‘AM Yard’, marks a significant milestone: his debut on Scissor and Thread, the revered imprint founded by Francis Harris and Anthony Collins, whose work has long served as an inspiration for Anand.
Speaking with Snad is like stepping into the control room of his studio: ideas flow freely, tangents loop back into the narrative, and the technical and emotional are never far apart. He recalls digging through Bay Area crates just weeks before recording his Public Records mix, obsessing over rare D’Angelo cuts, and falling back in love with long-form modular jams.
He talks openly about Berlin – how its ever-rising costs are reshaping the scene, yet how the late-night culture still sustains a rare ecosystem of clubs, artists and friendships. And when the conversation turns to India, he paints a vivid picture of a young, hungry, rapidly evolving underground scene where the missing ingredient, he argues, is simply those magical “wee hours” that define true club culture.
In this feature, Snad dives deep into the making of the record, the gear and philosophies that shaped it, his roots, his inspirations, and the evolving musical cultures that have defined his journey.
LOW END ACTIVIST: AIRDROP II & III
REVIEW BY JASON CABANISS
‘Airdrop II’ and ‘Airdrop III’ find Low End Activist infusing ambient strains into the UK hardcore continuum of dubstep, grime, and bass music. It’s a stunning collection that refracts prominent late 90s club aesthetics through prismatic productions that are timeless in their reverence for the sounds and experiences that shaped Low End’s style. A fitting addition to the catalogs of both artist and label, ‘Airdrop’ exists in the liminal spaces between the past, present, and future of UK rave.
IA MIX 397 U (LEX RECORDS)
REVIEW BY WILL PATTERSON
ne year on from Life Isn’t A Fountain? – the Lex Records EP where archival post-punk was reanimated through meticulous sample-work – the elusive producer U returns with a project that reaches further back, and digs far deeper.
To mark the release, U delivers IA MIX 397, extending the thematic thread of rebellion, unrest and cultural excavation that runs through their work. Set against the decaying optimism and alienation of Thatcher-era Britain, the mix digs deep into U’s personal record collection, unearthing forgotten fragments and overlooked influences that reshape into a compelling meditation on the fringes of pop music. Moving through post-punk, new wave, progressive rock and the many micro-scenes splintering outward from that era, U revisits a time when recorded music was both abundant and disposable – discarded as quickly as it was invented.
In doing so, IA MIX 397 mirrors the album’s core concern: how meaning persists in the things we leave behind, and how the remnants of one era can speak powerfully to the uncertainties of another.
ENDE GUT ALLES GUT: IS THIS THE FINAL CHAPTER FOR GIEGLING?
FEATURE BY TOM DURSTON
Giegling has always carried an air of mystery. Born in Weimar from a group of like-minded friends throwing parties in an abandoned building, the collective turned loss into legacy when their club was demolished in 2008. “The label was meant to be a requiem for the club,” ATEQ told Inverted Audio back in 2013. “We had little money left and decided to press a vinyl. We wanted to save some of the dirt and the magic.” That spirit – sentimental yet defiant – became the foundation of one of underground music’s most influential imprints.
Seventeen years on, that same sense of closure seems to echo once more. The forthcoming Ende Gut Alles Gut (“All’s Well That Ends Well”) – a six-piece vinyl release featuring long-time collaborators and friends – feels as much like a celebration as a farewell. It raises a quiet but pressing question: could this really be the final release from Giegling?
MUSIC VIDEO // FORSTER – MOND (DIRECTED BY STEFANO CANAVESE)
FEATURE BY TOM DURSTON
MOND, the new collaborative film from director Stefano Canavese and experimental duo Forster (Mitchell Keaney and Davide Luciani), arrives as a work defined by abrasion. It thrives on rupture rather than resolution – a spliced-together collision of over-clocked editing, splintered rhythms and analogue-digital interference that feels less like a music video and more like a system pushed deliberately towards malfunction. Rooted in Berlin’s underground, the film borrows the city’s appetite for off-grid experimentation but refuses its clichés, instead embracing an aesthetic of volatility.
Visually, MOND positions itself within a familiar lineage of sensory overload, nodding toward the hyper-kinetic body-mod chaos of Chris Cunningham’s video for Squarepusher’s Come On My Selector and the dreadnought-grey ferocity of Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy, while sonically brushing up against the algorithmic turbulence that haunted Autechre’s early work. Yet where those touchpoints feel meticulously engineered, MOND deliberately courts collapse. Shot through a warped fisheye lens that erases any hope of a stable vantage point, its momentum is jittery, feral and barely contained – a feverish spasm of fragments, staccato glitches and visual aftershocks that appears to disintegrate even as it unfolds.
NEWS // VAINQUEUR’S REDUCTIONS 1995–1997 REISSUED ON SCION VERSIONS
A cornerstone of 1990s dub techno is back in circulation as Vainqueur ‘Reductions 1995–1997’ is reissued on Scion Versions. The collection revisits the stark, weightless sound that helped shape the Chain Reaction era, gathering together some of Löwe’s most revered work from the second half of the 1990s. The triple-vinyl edition of Reductions 1995–1997 pulls together material originally released on Chain Reaction, the influential Basic Channel sub-label.
NEWS // KASSEM MOSSE & LOWTEC RETURN AS KOLORIT ON WORKSHOP WITH ‘LOSE IDEEN’
WORDS BY TOM DURSTON
Experimental house vanguards Kassem Mosse and Lowtec reunite under their collaborative alias Kolorit, marking their return with a new six-track release on Workshop titled Lose Ideen (Loose Ideas). The project arrives after a period of renewed activity from the duo, who recently shared an all-nighter at Open Ground and delivered a tape for Cav Empt in Japan.
STORE //
VEHICULAR - FALSE 05
BORGESIAN TERM - FALSE 06
LA-based Peak Oil co-founder Brian Foote issues the fifth and sixth release on False Aralia, both highly tipped if you’re into the weirder shades of downtempo and experimental electronic music.