Issue 90 / 28 November 2025
Your essential DIY electronic music lowdown: Track Of The Week: Danalogue + Album Of The Week: Raica + Ian Boddy & Chris Carter + Central Office Of Information + Lia Kohl + more, more , more...
After this week there is just two issues of Moonbuilding left to go this year and it seems like everyone is trying to clear the decks. There are so many releases this week and it’s not even Bandcamp Friday. That’s next week! You should see the state of my inbox right now. Not complaining, but a few more hours in the day wouldn’t go amiss. Next week is also our last review-led issue of the year as 12 December will be the Album Of The Year special. Who will top our list this year?
We do still have ad slots available for those two issues, so if you’d like to put your wares in front of potentially our biggest audience of the year while supporting our work bigging up DIY electronic music please get in touch. I’d like those slots filled so buy an ad for next week and you’ll get the following week for FREE! Chop chop.
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
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DANALOGUE ‘Sonic Hypnosis’ (Castles in Space)
Photo: Fabrice Bourgelle
“Written amidst tumultuous times,” says the notes for this, the debut single from The Comet Is Coming’s Danalogue, “‘Sonic Hypnosis’ is an electronic mantra for a positive state of change.”
Amidst? Amidst? As a journalist, you get used to writing to style for various publications, most of which have their own style guide. The Electronic Sound guide would call “amidst” old-fashioned English. “Please avoid,” the guide says. “Thou is not Shakespeare.” Or as various editors would’ve put it, usually in a raised voice across a full office, “You’re not fucking Shakespeare you know”. After such a public dressing down, you’d never do it again.
So… I feel like that scene in ‘The Life Of Brian’ where the Roman guard schools Brian on his graffiti. “What’s this, then? ‘Romanes Eunt Domus’? ‘People called Romanes they go the house’? “It says ‘Roman’s go home’,” … “No it doesn’t”. Anyway, “Written in tumultuous times” would be just fine. Today’s grammar lesson is now over you will be relieved to hear.
So… ‘Sonic Hypnosis’ then. Damn, this thing is good. It’s described as an acid-electro-dancefloor-dreamscape, where “drum machines and cosmic synths drive a chant for love and healing”.
It comes in hot hot hot with its foot flat on the gas and its ripping acid squidge already teetering on 11. It ushers in a beautiful melody like sound waves crashing on the shores of your mind. Even the vocals are tweaked within an inch of their lives, firstly vocodered and then auto-tuned, but skew-wiffily so.
It has that sort of feel-good rampaging so evident in Snapped Ankles, who of course Dan has worked. This is the first sniff of an album, which is due in May… May! On the strength of this, it should be very good indeed. It comes packing with a nice remix too from Dutch garage/minimal house/breaks DJ/producer Thoma Bulwer.
RAICA ‘If Not Now, When’ (Silver Threads)
You’d have to say that this second release on Jo Johnson’s Silver Threads label really sets down a marker for future releases. Not that we were in any doubt the label would be anything other than essential after the first release, Jo’s own ‘Alterations Volume One’. But by bringing in a third party, by releasing other artists, you can start to feel a gathering momentum.
Momentum for what you might ask. Well, at the start of this year, Jo made a statement, an announcement. As Trump was being inaugurated for a second counting-down-the-days-until-it’s-over term, she wrote “it’s tempting to withdraw, to be quiet... There are genuine feelings of powerlessness and defeat. Making music – like any art – can feel frivolous, self-indulgent, even pointless in this context. But I’ve been thinking that maybe we could say, ‘Fuck it’. Defy the pressure to be small and quiet and instead make more music during 2025. Not less. Share more. Not less. Resistance takes many forms.”
It does, it absolutely does. For those old enough to remember a movement like Red Wedge, where bands of the day would play shows in order to raise awareness leading up to the 1987 election in an ultimately failed bid to unseat Thatcher, you will know that resistance does come in all shapes and sizes.
And while Jo saying she’s going to release more music this year may seem like a small gesture, it all counts. If we all promise to do more, speak up, share more, it all adds up. She is doing what is in her power and those ripples will go a long way. Especially when the music coming at us is this captivating.
With Silver Threads she can bring her friends and acquaintances with her on the journey. First out of the traps is Raica, Seattle’s Chloe Harris, renowned DJ, live artist, producer and big chief over at Further Records, the label and the shop. There’s not been a Raica full-length since 2015’s ‘Dose’, which I don’t have to tell you is a decade.
The reason being she’s had an incredibly difficult time, the most difficult in fact, coming to terms with the loss of both her mother and her son. It’s almost unthinkable what she’s been through, but she is still standing and the power of music does seem to be working its magic. In September she appeared on quiet details with ‘The Absence Of Being’, a deeply personal record, that she describes as “a love note to my mom and son Cameron”. “They both left me much sooner than I would have liked,” she writes in the release notes. “I’ve tried to carry on, but sometimes it’s difficult. So this is for them.”
If you’ve not heard it, it is incredible, both soft and gentle, and yet dark and powerful. It pulls into its orbit the range of emotions you’d expect would come out of utter, heart-breaking tragedy. And yet at the same time it is totally beautiful.
And now here she is again with her second long-player of the year. And ‘If Not Now, When’ is whole different ball game. It still has the light and dark, but it feels less inward looking, it’s more expansive, more hopeful. Chloe admits to making the record not thinking that anyone would hear it. There wasn’t a label waiting for it, no one was expecting or asking for it, there were no queues to buy it. No one even knew it was a thing. Which for any creative is incredibly freeing.
The opening track, ‘dreem light’ sparkles like fairy lights. It begins with bright pings of sound that ebb and flow, and then from deep down a rumble rises and carries the whole thing along. ‘150twinkl’ feels huge. There’s such a bright motif that runs throughout and it’s underpinned by the sleekest bass notes. It feels very light on it feet, very warm. Those synth washes are like a hot bath. ‘urgen ciee’ sounds like its title suggest it sounds. A pitter-patter rhythm repeating over and over, growing and shifting, shifting and growing. It’s something that could find its way onto the more open-minded dancefloors, especially when its ominous shiver of bass arrives.
I love how these tracks set themselves up, and how they grow. ‘urgen ciee’ brings in an almost counter melody to fill the gaps, like a call and response. There’s a cracking breakdown at the end where it changes again, this time shifting itself into film soundtrack territory as the track begins to evaporate. ‘sp1cs 4’ is, likewise, very widescreen. Clouds of sound fluff up like clouds rolling in with gentle chords sitting calmly in the background. The bass chords are menacing, arriving like great monoliths towering over everything, but only for the briefest of moments.
Jo and Chloe go back. Chloe released Jo’s first solo album, ‘Weaving’, in 2014, which was her first foray into modular synthesis. It was a sliding doors moment. If she hadn’t picked up that album, would Jo be returning the favour now? But here we are. Thankfully. In the best place we could be. Raica making and, most importantly, releasing music again.
Roll on 2026, you should expect only good things from this label. And I suspect there’s probably, hopefully, more to come from Chloe.
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GOOD STUFF #1
IAN BODDY & CHRIS CARTER ‘Caged’ (Grey Area Of Mute)
Another week, another belter from Ian Boddy. Last week it was that incredible album from Loula Yorke on his DiN label, this week it’s the man himself with a 25th anniversary reissue of the classic collaboration with the brilliant Chris Carter coming at you from the Grey Area Of Mute reissue label… I don’t think it’s referring to the hair colour of the artists it deals in, but you know, it might do. Seems a bit mean.
Ian does a lot of collaborating, it’s his stock in trade. He works really well with others and has served up some epically good collaborative releases, but this one is a whole another level. And that it was made 25 years ago really does beggar belief. Likewise, in the notes Chris also expresses his surprise at the time that’s passed since they made ‘Caged’. “It was such a laid-back process,” he recalls. “No stresses or dramas, just a good time making some cool music with some classic gear.”
“They say opposites attract,” says Ian in the notes, “and although Chris and I come from different ends of the electronic music spectrum, ‘Caged’ just gelled, and I think we created an album with a timeless quality to it.”
Well, they did. With a new remaster, it sounds as fresh today as it did 25 years ago. Ian is always ready impress that DiN doesn’t deal in dance music, but beats are fine. Here I think the label gets as close as come to the dancefloor. The original was a very early DiN outing and matches Chris dark industrial beat with Ian’s Berlin School sense of melody.
The 10 minute ‘Coriolis’ would seem to be the prefect blend of the pair’s skills. The first half shows off some incredible thrumming rhythms, while the second half takes us deep into drifty ambient territory. I really love the opener ‘Concussed’. The bassline is absolutely immense, it’s almost synthwave, so tuneful, and dancing around it comes some wonderful synth lines. There’s also two new tracks that come with this reissue, reimagined from the original audio files. ‘Claustrophobia’ is reworked by Chris Carter, and ‘Uncaged’, tinkered with by Ian Boddy, which gives each track either a Chris or Ian edge. The former buzzes like a barn of bees. It’s utterly full of menace and has the feel of a dub track, while the latter is a squally, haunted sort of piece that likewise shivers with menace.
The word ‘classic’ is bandied around far too easily these days. This is the real deal.
GOOD STUFF #2
THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF INFORMATION ‘Cabinet Of Curiosities’ (Shady Ridge)
Alex Cargill’s Central Office Of Information pops up on Minnesota’s Shady Ridge label. It’s such an interesting label, with a roster drawn from all over the world. They’re released work by artists from Melbourne, Mumbai, Paris, Zurich, Antwerp, Rome, Milan, Portsmouth and right across The States. Here they embrace Devizes in Wiltshire for a first offering in a while from Alex.
Inspired by an exhibition he saw in Glasgow last year that had artefacts displayed in “cabinet of curiosities”, Alex found the concept fascinating and did some further reading upon his return home. The origins of the cabinet of curiosities dates back to the 1600s where the rich and happy would display their wealth via a collection of often unconnected objects collected in everything from an actual cabinet with a glass doors to show off their contents to an actual entire room.
“The objects were chosen to tell a story about the world and its history,” explains Alex in the release notes. “They served not only as collections to reflect the particular interests of their curators, but also as social devices to establish and uphold rank in society.”
These collections – that could contain anything from rare antiquities, scientific tools and artwork to exotic natural specimens – are considered forerunners to the modern museum. All good (stately) homes would have one. I’m thinking there’s a lot of stuff in the Moonbuilding office that needs to go on display. Perhaps we should reprieve the cabinet of curiosities.
So anyway, Alex celebrates these not so humble cabinets with a whole album about them featuring tracks “alluding to the type of objects that could be found within a cabinet of curiosities”. It sounds cracking from the moment opener ‘Apothecary Bottles’ opens up. It has a really resonant full-blooded synthline, all deep and rich and warm. Indeed, throughout, the sounds coming off this release are pretty chunky. It feels very well rounded, sonically, which I think is partly down to Alex predominantly using a hardware sequencer rather than a DAW.
“I was introduced to this way of working by Lo Five’s Neil Grant at an Emotion Wave event called ‘A Day In The Sun’ in July 2023. Neil really encouraged me to invest in a hardware sequencer with the eventual aim to play a live gig. That gig still hasn’t happened, but this album came about as a direct result of that wonderful day of live music, dancing, sunshine and lovely people on the south coast.”
It shows, you can hear the physical machines here. ‘Cabinet Of Curiosities’ has a smearing of the dancefloor about it. The title track is full-blown mellow synth funk, channelling the ghost of Parliament/Funkadelic perhaps. There’s the distinctly electro vibe of ‘Automaton’, while ‘Fossils’ introduces acid squidging to a 70s TV theme melody. ‘Distorting Mirrors’ holds its bassline a gnat’s chuff aways from getting all acid, leaving it as a malleable splurge and ‘Animal Furniture’ (which I do need to know more about) is really perky, it has lovely skip in its step.
This is such an enjoyable record, one of those that you find yourself appreciating for its sound as well as the infectious tuneage within. Within? Is that old fashioned English? Need to check my old style guides… I’m on high alert now aren’t I?
shadyridgerecords.bandcamp.com
GOOD STUFF #3
LIA KOHL ‘Various Small Whistles And A Song’ (Dauw)
We’re big fans of Lia Kohl, the Chicago-based cellist/composer/sound artist, here at Moonbuilding Weekly. She makes and releases such interesting work and writes a really good, chatty newsletter called Various Small Noises that tells you all about it. She really is well worth exploring if her name is new to you.
Here she takes field recordings of, well, various small whistles, and turns them into delightful minute-long compositions. There’s 16 tracks here so the whole thing is over, start to finish, in…. yup, 16 minutes. It’s inspired by a 1964 photographic book by Ed Rushcha called ‘Various Small Fires And Milk’. Lia’s album echoes the book with features 15 images of fire and one of a glass of milk and she’s produced, as she calls them, “16 micro-compositions”. She recently discovered the book and was immediately struck by “its simplicity, its humour, its subtle depth”, all of which she manages to repeat in her response.
It’s a real delight. ‘Walking Home, Los Angeles (feat Patrick Shiroishi)’ is exactly what you’d expect. It’s that kind of melodic none-tune whistling people do out of habit, a few snatched notes, probably a happy melody from some tune stuck in the whistler’s head. Lia’s backing is almost plinky music box, and then there’s a rattle of keys as they arrive. Lia has worked with claire rousay, and she features here on ‘Home, Los Angeles’.
There’s several train tracks that I like – ‘Amtrak, Hudson Valley’ with its synthy squiggle backing and ‘Antwerp Central Train Station, Antwerp’, has a guard’s whistle and the cacophonous echo of voices in what you’d imagine is a big, old train station, and ‘Train, Antwerp to Amsterdam’ sees Lia’s wonderful cello playing over boarding a train and guard’s whistle and closing doors.
Lia seems to have a thing about stations, especially the buildings they’re housed in. Earlier this year she performed a large-scale piece called ‘Music For Union Station’ in Chicago’s main train station. There’s also an album with Zander Raymond called ‘In Transit’ released in June, which is based around recordings made in “liminal spaces”, spaces of transit, bus stops, train stations (again), taxis, all augmented by Lia’s cello, Zander’s accordion and the pair’s synthy arsenal. Like I say, an artist well worth exploring and keeping tabs on.
GOOD STUFF #4
MICROGAMMA BOLD EXTENDED ‘2’ (Cruel Nature) / THE POCKET DIMENSION ‘TheFurther Adventures In The Pocket Dimension’ (Cruel Nature)
I don’t know what’s going on this week, but there’s so many releases. You’d think the pre-Xmas rush would be next week’s Bandcamp Friday (which, you know, it is. You should see how many releases are coming next Friday!). Maybe people are just tired of disappearing in the Bandcamp Friday bunfight. Get in early. Anyway, Northumberland’s Cruel Nature are getting in early with this double bill.
First up is the second instalment of Pete Gofton’s Microgamma Bold Extended project. It’s called ‘2’, of course it is. Never underestimate Pete. You will recall we featured the first part when it was the debut release on Woodford Halse offshoot Luddite Tapes back in April 2024. So that’s the label with rules, the rule being it only released music made with kit available in 1983 or before. We described that outing as “two sprawling home-recorded monsters”. Pete said it was “the sound of a 1990s north-eastern tweenager cosplaying as Hood, The Dead C and Faust”. It was a lot of fun.
And this new set, again, two 15-minute sprawling home-recorded monsters” is likewise, much fun. The influences are listed as ranging from indiepop to industrial noise. “Expect a lot of direct guitars into four tracks, Casiotones, Walkman mics and feedback, stirred together into a two track audio collage that one moment is twee folk, the next squealing cello and drums”. Each side works more like a mind-melting mixtape than one track. There’s a fair bit of guitar on this one, albeit mixed up with what sounds like the telly on in the background and the like. I really like the second track, which is called ‘Part 2’. There’s what sounds a long-lost early MBV jangle pop tune at the beginning of the flip side. It’s really very good indeed. Like Pete says “anything can happen in the next half hour”.
Next up, and in some very pleasing symmetry, there’s a collection of work from Charlie Butler’s Pocket Dimension. Charlie is also Colossal Letdown who, like Pete, released on Luddite Tapes. Recently, he had some new stuff out too, a two-tracker on Rat Run, which we talked about in Issue 88 a couple of weeks ago.
Here he is as Pocket Dimension, which is his space synth offshoot. ‘Further Adventures In The Pocket Dimension’ features two brand-new cuts (‘Mind’ and ‘Bridge’) along with a full 20-minute version of ‘Dechmont Law’/’Capsule Damage’, which was previously available only on the long sold-out lathe-cut Feral Child seven-inch, and two lengthy tracks that featured on Charlie’s self-released ‘Galactic Shift’ EP. The release, says the notes, “captures Pocket Dimension investigating intergalactic shuttle accidents, UFO sightings in Scotland in the 1970s and telepathic contact with alien races.” It is certainly trippy in a Spaceman 3 sort of way. You can see what Dom over at Feral Child likes about all this. Right up his street. And if it’s up Dom Martin’s street, it’s up our street too.
cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com
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THE ROUND UP’S ROUND UP
The latest from Castles In Space’s Lunar Module CD label comes from… you know, it looks like I plan this stuff, but I really don’t… Neil Grant’s Lo Five who we were only talking about a few minutes ago (see The Office Of Information review above). ‘Super Dank’, it says here, is “packed to the green gills with heavy dubs for sleepy schlubs”. It is, says Neil, a collection of “hardware stoner jams, structured in the form of an hour-long edible-induced psycho-narrative, taking the listener on an aural voyage”. To where? From where? Well… “kicking off at pleasant buzztown, calling past existential paranoiaville, then landing back in the relative safety of sofaborough in time for tea and crumpets.” he release notes are good, very funny. Do check the notes out. The album is lovely, proper mellow. Loving the slo mo chops of ‘Living Room’. And interesting that Neil too has highlighted the fact that these are hardware jams. He’s clearly a man on a mission (see again The Office Of Information review). You can feel a movement starting can’t you?
Dudal & De Roover’s ‘Pivot Rotations’ (Viernulvier) came to me via a Belgian PR company named after the band Telex, arguably the country’s finest export. You can’t ignore people who understand that sort of heritage. And I’m glad I didn’t ignore them because this is excellent stuff. So this is Pieter Dudal and Adriaan De Roover with a weave of tracks drawn from two years of live recordings made at the Meakusma Festival in Ghent, Brussels and the Meakusma Festival in Eupen, which, geography fans will know is also in Brussels. The notes say the recordings form “a slowly revolving constellation of layered loops, analogue imperfections, and warm sound textures”. They really do. It’s one of those recordings that goes on at Moonbuilding HQ either late at night or very early in the morning (yeah, I know. Sleep). You can listen closely as the sounds slowly shape and evolve, you can even hear the tape hiss which is a joy or you can let the lot just wash over you and soak up its utter calm in your chosen moment. Another interesting newsletter connection this week is that Pieter Dudal runs the ambient label Dauw, which releases the Lia Kohl record I was just writing about above. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Pieter also has a new imprint, Blickwinkel, which I must check out and not just because it’s got a great name.
Far be it from me to be a total humbug in November, but ‘Yule 25’ (Subexotic) is a “Yuletide winter curiosity courtesy of the Home Current and friends”. It’s a track a-piece from The Home Current, Heron & Crane, Listening Center and Rural District Lo-Fi Recording Project. Moonbuilding officially refuses to bat an eyelid at Xmas until at least 1 December, but this is on pre-order for on-demand CD and vinyl and those orders close on Sunday. Call this a public service announcement. While I was over at the SubExotic Bandcamp page I did notice there is a new one by onepointtwo, which I will endeavour to cover next week.
A quick mention for Audio Obscura’s ‘The Lost Weekend (Fragmented Version)’ (Mortality Tables). We covered the original version back in September. It’s quite a tale and involves the label’s Mat Smith talking openly and honestly about having a breakdown and leaving the family home for three months to work through his issues. He refers to that period as his lost weekend. Which is considerably shorter than John Lennon’s famous 18-month “lost weekend”. The original work was 70 minutes across two sides of a cassette, this version is seven new tracks, plus the original pieces, on one CD. Think of the new “fragmented” versions as ambient remixes. “There is no definitive version of ‘The Lost Weekend’ album,” says Audio Obscura’s Neil Stringfellow. “Rather, the music and field recording are like different moods or states of mind, and are never fixed.” As always with Mortality Tables a lot of thought has gone into this, you’ll enjoy listening to all the versions and trying to pick out what comes from where no doubt.
Another double bill to finish with this week, what is it with all the releases today? This one comes from our pals at Whitelabrecs. The Volume Settings Folder is Italian artist M Beckmann, who started out making prog and nu-metal, then folktronica and post-rock and finally ambient. I can’t imagine what his nu-metal sounded like after listening to ‘Corporate Shamanism’, He says he draws inspiration from the more dancefloor end of things, so Aphex BoC and Autechre to drone pioneer Rafael Anton Irisarri and new classical masters Max Richter and Nils Frahm. He not only has impeccable credentials, but here he has created an album well worth listening to. The themes are of tracing connections to landscape that he associates with childhood memories. The corporate shamanism of the title “hints at the pressures of modern life” and the record seeks to offer “a quiet antidote to an overstimulated world”. Next up is ‘Where Do Your Dreams Fly?’, the debut outing from pianist and composer Catherine Tang. Based in Berlin, she was born in Switzerland to a Serbian mother and Chinese father and her music reflects her “richly varied cultural background”. With a background in classical piano and extensive jazz experience, she is a seriously accomplished musician and you can hear that here. ‘Where Do Your Dreams Fly?’ for example is a slow, slow burn, but when that piano kicks in you can’t help hear the spector of Ryuichi Sakamoto. It’s seriously good stuff.
MOONBUILDING ISSUE 6 … SOLD OUT
Holy cow. MOONBUILDING Issue 6 is completely sold out, so it isn’t available from moonbuilding.bandcamp.com Sure someone will try cash in via Discogs soon.
Let’s look at what you missed, although it is still available digitally of course. Our cover star, illustrated by the peerless Nick Taylor, is the unstoppable force that is LOULA YORKE. In our bumper interview we talk about how she got here and where she’s going. As usual, it is an in-depth piece that lifts the lid on the brilliant mind behind the excellent music.
We meet Loula at her home in Suffolk where we have a proper rummage around in her world, musically, humanly, psychologically, probably even a bit metaphysically. It is a cracking read and really opens the doors on what makes this most remarkable artist tick.
As always the issue comes with an accompanying CD. This one is a Loula Yorke collection called ‘How Did We Get Here’, which is compiled by artist herself and charts her rise and rise. The resulting 11-tracker will take you on a journey through her career to this point and it is utterly, totally, absolutely, exclusive to Moonbuilding.
Elsewhere, there’s a great chat with Clay Pipe Music supremo Frances Castle as we profile her wonderful label, A’Bear gets in on the There’s A First Time For Everything act, we round up an absolute mountain of recent releases and serve up our thoughts on the best albums from the last few months, which feature Loula Yorke, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan’s Gordon Chapman-Fox, Cate Brooks, 30 Door Key and Sarno Ultra.
We talk to ‘This Is Memorial Device’ author David Keenan about ‘Volcanic Tongue’, his debut collection of music writing. He is one of the last generation of music writers who could actually call themselves as journalists. He talks a lot of sense and his work is a shining example of what music writing should be. It’s an unmissable interview.
Elsewhere, we round up an absolute mountain of recent releases and point you in the right direction of some mighty fine independent magazines and books. The Orb’s Alex Paterson tells us about his ‘Top Of The Pops’ experience when he appeared on the legendary show performing ‘Blue Room’ in 1993. I say performing… There’s a new Captain Star cartoon strip from the brilliant Steven Appleby. I constantly have to pinch myself that this strip, that I first read in the NME in the early 1980s, is now in my little magazine.
Find us at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com. This issue had a short print run and is now sold out. If you hung about, you missed out. We are sorry.
Moonbuilding Weekly is a Castles In Space publication.
Copyright © 2025 Moonbuilding
”Pivot Rotations” - wonderful! Thank you for this recommendation!