Collected: Vol 5

This edition is a little harder given I’ve recently just completed my Reflection on 2024 mix with over 40 tracks and artists I’ve enjoyed this year. So with that in mind, I’m digging into some non-2024 stuff I’ve picked up on Bandcamp recently.

Akra - Pure (Rising Sun Melancholia - Shield Cut)

After our label event at Public Records in early December, we headed upstairs to continue the night at a second space (one of 3 rooms at the venue), where the DJ was sat in front of another lovely Devon Ojas system, comfy on a couch, spinning a bunch of classic house and 10’s. Most of it was built for the Friday night crowd- funky and danceable - but at one point, this absolute beast of a sub-bass cut through, and then a soaring atmospheric string line. My old ass started to move. I walked away not knowing what it was, but got a short 5-second video to go from. After sending it to the DJ on Instagram asking for a track ID - and after a bit of back and forth - it was finally revealed.

Funny, as my friend Hadi mentioned on my Instagram video when trying to ID the track “sounds like early Rising Sun”…. I responded… yeah it does, but I doubt it… it was a 10” and in the middle of a lot of older Chicago house-sounding stuff..

I was very glad to be in the wrong. Big love to Isaiah Collier, who was spinning this tune and did what any great DJ should do, and helped track down that track ID!

Christian Kleine - Relic Memories

As I prep another host of music from Christian Kleine’s prime era to be released on the label soon, he quietly dropped this bunch of nostalgia over on Bandcamp. As confirmed with a few other die-hard CK lovers, this is straight from the era that made many fall in love with his unique sound (and I'm kind of annoyed he didn’t send it my way first tbh ha). I have some more gems of his to come very soon, though, so don’t worry.

Jako Jako - Metamorphose

It’s the track Amygdala that blew me away from this album. Enough arps, enough analogue, enough euphoria for a perfectly sweet slice of electronics. It’s like Hania Rani’s classical sensibilities transported into a full analog system.

Citizen Maze - Northern Angelique

I have been well aware of Analog Attic Recordings for a long time now, of course through my relationship with ASIP artist Alex Albrecht. But, it often takes a while to make it through all of the releases. But after recently adding the Analog Attic catalog into rotation on 9128.live, I found myself deep in Citizen Maze’s releases - lost in some warm, dubby, trancey euphoric world. That’s a very rudimentary way to describe this music - but I’m only here to point you in the right direction, and not ruin it any more for you…

This might be the last we hear from the Citizen Maze alias, though, which is disappointing… a recent Soundcloud set text mentioned, “This mix might be the last of my mixes under Citizen Maze as I'm slowly working towards establishing my new alias and it's sound”…

Aspetuck - Early Color

As you may have already figured out, we are gearing up for a 2025 release with Aspetuck. Based in New York, Griff recently played at our Public Records label showcase, and is also a regular artist on South Korean techno label, Oslated, with several releases to date and a new album coming in the new year.

In addition to this, Griff also runs his own label alongside the Delayed crew, called Never Late. Early Color, the label’s first release, sets a very clear intention of sound and style that’s subsequently been followed by two more great releases by Mjulev and Tensen Park (also recommended).

A truly relaxing jaunt through various styles, soundtracking the brim of a beautiful horizon.

Find these albums and many more over on my Bandcamp Collection.

Christian Kleine / Touch & Fuse - Neon Orange 2LP version now available

Arguably Christian Kleine’s most comprehensive and colorful release to capture his enigmatic IDM style, Touch & Fuse was originally released on CD in 2020 and is now available as a Neon Orange 2LP edition.

Featuring a new vinyl master and lacquer cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich, with revised and expanded artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, copies are available through our Bandcamp store, our distributors Juno (UK) , One Eye Witness (EU) and additional stores soon.

View the album release page for more information, links to buy and stream.

2020 ASIP Label Showcase (Mixed Edition + CD)

After our successful 2019 edition, our annual label retrospective has now evolved in tradition to include a mixed edition available on CD (and of course digital).

Featuring one track from each of our 2020 releases, the digital download is now available alongside the CD, with the latter featuring a few additional tracks that aren’t available individually.

The artwork is always a personal choice for this compilation - and reflects my year in some way or another. This time, it features screen-grabs from a film that not only visually felt relevant, but captured the notion of everyone being inside - wishing to be somewhere else. I won’t say which film it was incase I get into issues, but lets just say it’s a heart-warming film about a man who did everything he could to escape reality and get in contact with others.

A big thank you to all of the artists for a brilliant year, and to you, for listening and supporting our music.

We also have a limited set of download cards available to purchase with this release - a perfect gift to introduce someone to the label maybe!

Available on Bandcamp.

ASIP artist playlist: Other Strangely Isolated Places

You may or may not already be a subscriber to the ASIP Currents.fm page where we post goodies every now and then, but either way you can access this playlist featuring music by ASIP artists that appears on other labels, other monikers, etc. Check it out and hit play from the top - moving from experimental and ambient through to more electronic realms from the ASIP artist crew, new and old.

Visit or subscribe to ASIP on Currents.fm

Now available: Christian Kleine / Touch & Fuse

Out today, a new album by one of our biggest inspirations, Christian Kleine. The digital will be NAME YOUR PRICE for today only as part of Bandcamp day's no fee day.

New music from CK is rare, and at 14-tracks, this is one of his most complete, expansive and enjoyable albums to-date. Link in comments

~

When you’re young, you’re heavily inspired by what you love and will do anything to be a part of it. The more you create, the more familiar you become as the years move on, and your ambition to perfect it becomes even stronger.

This natural evolution is something Christian Kleine is well versed in and since his first releases in the early 00’s, Christian has been synonymous with perfecting a particular sound that draws from early IDM, breaks and influences as far reaching as Punk music.

Touch & Fuse continues the melodic, drum-driven finesse he has become known for, but instead of trying to perfect anything new, different or conceptual two decades later, we’re treated to an album unconsciously inspired simply, by the wide variety of music he likes.

The slow waltz of album opener Return of The Underground; the nostalgic synthesizers in Nearfield to Nowhere; the electro-punk undercurrent of Number 6; the acid-tinged Val 2, or the Shoegaze-lulls in album closer Room In The Mirror; Touch & Fuse plays like a trip through Christian’s musical upbringing - snapshots in time, told in a timeless manner.

““Touch & Fuse is my way of reflecting where I am and what interests me, in the hope that other people find something for themselves in there as well. For me, music has the power to change my perspectives on time - it can act like a drug pretending I have seen and experienced things I never would have otherwise”

— Christian Kleine

Touch & Fuse will be available on Digipack CD + Digital download at Bandcamp>

Released as part of Bandcamp Day, the digital download will be ‘Name Your Price’ on this day only. Juno and other stores will have copies of the CD mid-October - sign up here.