Mary Yalex / Fantasy Zone (ASIPV042)

 

German musician Mary Yalex debuts here on A Strangely Isolated Place depicting a storied transition from our recognizable surroundings, into a vision of the future. 

With releases and music styles across a variety of labels over the years, it has been Yalex’s more experimental ambient work that has stood out amongst her catalog, and in Fantasy Zone, we find Mary fine-tuning this sound to reflect the work of a true architect of storytelling, mood and atmosphere. 

Drawing influences from her day-to-day surroundings, Fantasy Zone begins with more vivid pieces; softer melodies and clearer instrumentation, represented as much in song titles such as Air, After Rain Comes Sun, and Half Light of Dawn. The second half of the album transitions into a future state, as Yalex draws on darker manifestations - perhaps intrinsically influenced by the state of the world, and in particular her love of nature, we play witness to more storied, haunting atmospheres, distant voices and slowly shifting gravitational chord movements. Dystopian-bound or pure fantasy, Yalex depicts a future that mirrors some of the more poignant, thought-provoking work of great synthesizer soundtracks of the past. 

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri, and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, Fantasy Zone will be available on Purple Smoke 12” and digital.

Preorder now available with full release following on August 28th 2023.

Listen and links to buy via the release page

 

New 9128.live iOS and Android apps

 

Our radio station (and sub-label) 9128.live has been up and running for over three years now. Born out of the lockdown period, it went on to host many great takeovers at a time when everybody was locked inside, and the station has grown slowly with music from a collective of amazing labels now in rotation, for always-on, 24/7 ad-free listening.

While the website is still a great place to listen and hosts the important chat, our Apps have not changed since day one and so we were excited to update them with a new look and functionality.

We were restricted as to what we could do with these, so while I know there is probably a wishlist of great things we could do if we had a clean slate, that was not the case. However, we think they’re a great improvement and will allow for a much better experience.

Here’s what you can expect from the new 9128 apps.

- Submit a song request - choose from a specific set of tracks that will evolve and change over time to include upcoming and unreleased music and other themed options. Requested tracks are entered into a queue and depending on queue length, will normally play after 2-3 tracks. Think of this like advanced previews on demand!

- View the radio schedule/calendar, including upcoming takeovers, showcases and regular radio shows such as the Espacio Perpendicular weekly radio show.

- View the latest news and updates from within the app.

- Listen to the ASIP/9128.live Podcast, which will include all the mixes from ASIP as well as 9128 exclusives, with more to come soon.

- Light and Dark modes (Default is Dark mode)

- Dynamic stream option (request a lower quality signal to save on mobile data)

- Push notifications! Never miss out on new and important updates (don’t worry we will use these very sparingly)

Download / update on the Apple App store

Download / update on Google Play store.

https://9128.live/

For the time being, the apps remain free of charge and ad free. We endeavor to keep them this way but they are not cheap to build and maintain, so grab them before we put a $ sign in front of them one day.

Don’t forget to leave us some glowing reviews and rate us 5* on each respective store!!

Thank you.

 

OKRAA / 1994 (Versions) (ASIPV038X)

OKRAA's debut on ASIP, '1994' was originally constructed with live performances in mind and since then, Juan has gone on to play the album to a great reception in Europe and his home country of Colombia.

Instead of simply repurposing the original tracks for these live performances, Juan found himself making new additions, edits, and textures during these sets, altering the originals and resulting in these four completely new versions presented as a new release, simply titled Versions, now available as Name Your Price on Bandcamp.

View the full release page.

 
 
 
 


New: ASLIPs (Anti-Slip Leather Turntable Mats)

Now available, in a short run of 60, the ‘ASLIP’ is a leather anti-slip turntable mat, featuring an embossed ‘RSS’ ASIP logo (inspired by our blogging days).

Available in 3 editions:

Matte black with Black logo emboss

Matte black with Silver logo emboss

Tan with Silver logo emboss

You can buy them here in our webstore (US orders) or visit Space Cadets to buy for UK/EU/ROW shipping.

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Made of premium vegetable-tanned leather, this anti-slip mat boasts less static than other materials, along with added sound-dampening properties. The ASLIP improves sonic characteristics by reducing vibration transfer to the turntable playing surface and allows the cartridge a more stable performance. The leather sound impression is often described as tight, rich, and soft. Suitable for most turntables, but not for DJ’ing purposes due to its anti-slip nature.

 
 


Quiet Places / Volume 2 (ASIPV040)

You don’t get any trippier or spaced out than Quiet Places, so following their mind-bending debut, I’m very excited to announce Volume 2 is now available.
~
Dennis White, Charlie May, and Dave Gardner return with their second outing as Quiet Places, expanding upon their deep and suitably hypnotic long-form compositions across four continuous sides of wax.

Minimal in context and retaining the untitled track approach, the trio of producers, well versed in a variety of music styles between them, leave the music and the subliminal messages contained within as the descriptor.

Finding moments of melody amongst the wide landscape of abstract sounds and samples is the only glimpse of reality you’ll find down here. 

Quiet Places, Volume 2 is available on limited edition gatefold 2LP pressed on marbled vinyl, mastered and lacquer cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding. 

Listen and links to buy via the release page

Stream the full Digital Bonus track in full over on Headphone Commute.