Samurai Music

Samurai Music returns to the evocative sound world of Ancestral Voices for an album that splits the difference between cinematic sound design and deadly restraint at 170 BPM. Nemeton continues Liam Blackburn's exploration of ancient Celtic mysticism through snaking rhythms and snarling sound design, conjuring a high-definition sonic image of sacred groves and the druids practicing amongst them.

Blackburn's Ancestral Voices project tracks back to 2015, when he debuted on Samurai Horo with the Night Of Visions album. In stark contrast to his celebrated 140 work as Indigo, this project leaned on the inspiration of pagan spirituality to charge his vivid, advanced production style with a rich and mysterious atmosphere. While he's channelled this approach into a variety of tempos and styles, on his 2016 EP Old Earth Voodoo on Samurai Music he applied the concept to a drum & bass framework, which he returns to on Nemeton with rigorous focus.

Far from a straightforward collection of breakbeat tracks, Blackburn uses negative space and pointillist production to carve out an immersive, tense sound world around the 170 grid. He takes a widescreen approach to percussion, running from pin-prick synthesised one-shots to tumbling, organic drums you'd more readily associate with a Hans Zimmer score. Scene-building is the foremost mission across Nemeton, casting otherworldly forces in sweeps of low-end friction and dramatic melodic blooms amidst tangible real-world field recordings of flora and fauna.

Casting the mind back some 2000 years is an exercise in imagination as much as research, and Blackburn ably summons dark fantasy as he delves ever deeper into Welsh mythology with a studious zeal and avid fascination. It's that drive that makes Nemeton burst forth and take shape so powerfully, bristling with kinetic energy and a barely-concealed, strangely seductive menace that leaves a lasting impression long after the last snatch of bass has bared its teeth.

Nemeton - out now on 2x12" & Digital

1. Ancestral Voices - Nemeton

2. Ancestral Voices - A Heart Of Oak

3. Ancestral Voices - Annwn

4. Ancestral Voices - Mist Of Avalon

5. Ancestral Voices - Arawn

6. Ancestral Voices - Stanzas Of The Graves

7. Ancestral Voices - Keltia

Samurai Music returns to the evocative sound world of Ancestral Voices for an album that splits the difference between cinematic sound design and deadly restraint at 170 BPM. Nemeton continues Liam Blackburn's exploration of ancient Celtic mysticism through snaking rhythms and snarling sound design, conjuring a high-definition sonic image of sacred groves and the druids practicing amongst them.

Blackburn's Ancestral Voices project tracks back to 2015, when he debuted on Samurai Horo with the Night Of Visions album. In stark contrast to his celebrated 140 work as Indigo, this project leaned on the inspiration of pagan spirituality to charge his vivid, advanced production style with a rich and mysterious atmosphere. While he's channelled this approach into a variety of tempos and styles, on his 2016 EP Old Earth Voodoo on Samurai Music he applied the concept to a drum & bass framework, which he returns to on Nemeton with rigorous focus.

Far from a straightforward collection of breakbeat tracks, Blackburn uses negative space and pointillist production to carve out an immersive, tense sound world around the 170 grid. He takes a widescreen approach to percussion, running from pin-prick synthesised one-shots to tumbling, organic drums you'd more readily associate with a Hans Zimmer score. Scene-building is the foremost mission across Nemeton, casting otherworldly forces in sweeps of low-end friction and dramatic melodic blooms amidst tangible real-world field recordings of flora and fauna.

Casting the mind back some 2000 years is an exercise in imagination as much as research, and Blackburn ably summons dark fantasy as he delves ever deeper into Welsh mythology with a studious zeal and avid fascination. It's that drive that makes Nemeton burst forth and take shape so powerfully, bristling with kinetic energy and a barely-concealed, strangely seductive menace that leaves a lasting impression long after the last snatch of bass has bared its teeth.

Nemeton - out on 2025-05-02

1. Ancestral Voices - Nemeton

2. Ancestral Voices - A Heart Of Oak

3. Ancestral Voices - Annwn

4. Ancestral Voices - Mist Of Avalon

5. Ancestral Voices - Arawn

6. Ancestral Voices - Stanzas Of The Graves

7. Ancestral Voices - Keltia

Samurai Music returns to the evocative sound world of Ancestral Voices for an album that splits the difference between cinematic sound design and deadly restraint at 170 BPM. Nemeton continues Liam Blackburn's exploration of ancient Celtic mysticism through snaking rhythms and snarling sound design, conjuring a high-definition sonic image of sacred groves and the druids practicing amongst them.

Blackburn's Ancestral Voices project tracks back to 2015, when he debuted on Samurai Horo with the Night Of Visions album. In stark contrast to his celebrated 140 work as Indigo, this project leaned on the inspiration of pagan spirituality to charge his vivid, advanced production style with a rich and mysterious atmosphere. While he's channelled this approach into a variety of tempos and styles, on his 2016 EP Old Earth Voodoo on Samurai Music he applied the concept to a drum & bass framework, which he returns to on Nemeton with rigorous focus.

Far from a straightforward collection of breakbeat tracks, Blackburn uses negative space and pointillist production to carve out an immersive, tense sound world around the 170 grid. He takes a widescreen approach to percussion, running from pin-prick synthesised one-shots to tumbling, organic drums you'd more readily associate with a Hans Zimmer score. Scene-building is the foremost mission across Nemeton, casting otherworldly forces in sweeps of low-end friction and dramatic melodic blooms amidst tangible real-world field recordings of flora and fauna.

Casting the mind back some 2000 years is an exercise in imagination as much as research, and Blackburn ably summons dark fantasy as he delves ever deeper into Welsh mythology with a studious zeal and avid fascination. It's that drive that makes Nemeton burst forth and take shape so powerfully, bristling with kinetic energy and a barely-concealed, strangely seductive menace that leaves a lasting impression long after the last snatch of bass has bared its teeth.

Nemeton - out on 2025-05-02 on 2x12" and Digital. Exclusive collector's Vinyl edition available only on Bandcamp and voidvinyl.eu

1. Ancestral Voices - Nemeton

2. Ancestral Voices - A Heart Of Oak

3. Ancestral Voices - Annwn

4. Ancestral Voices - Mist Of Avalon

5. Ancestral Voices - Arawn

6. Ancestral Voices - Stanzas Of The Graves

7. Ancestral Voices - Keltia

Full album previews - https://voidvinyl.eu/products/ancestral-voices-nemeton

We wanted to celebrate the music of integral Samurai family member Last Life by revisiting his Samurai contributions with remixes from artists Mauro saw as best candidates for adding a new perception.

The second and final collection of remixes of tracks from Last Life's Samurai Music catalogue has now taken it's final form.

Label regulars Sam KDC, Ancestral Voices, Torn and Presha take their scalpels to Mauro's constructions and turn up the intensity, rebuilding them into 4 sinewy exercises in sinister force.

Remixed: 2 - out on Limited 12" and Digital

1. Last Life - Offside (Ancestral Voices Remix)

2. Last Life - Troglodith (Sam KDC Remix)

3. Last Life - Elements (Presha Remix)

4. Last Life - Curse (Torn Remix)

We wanted to celebrate the music of integral Samurai family member Last Life by revisiting his Samurai contributions with remixes from artists Mauro saw as best candidates for adding a new perception.

The second and final collection of remixes of tracks from Last Life's Samurai Music catalogue has now taken it's final form.

Label regulars Sam KDC, Ancestral Voices, Torn and Presha take their scalpels to Mauro's constructions and turn up the intensity, rebuilding them into 4 sinewy exercises in sinister force.

Remixed: 2 - out on Limited 12" and Digital

1. Last Life - Offside (Ancestral Voices Remix)

2. Last Life - Troglodith (Sam KDC Remix)

3. Last Life - Elements (Presha Remix)

4. Last Life - Curse (Torn Remix)

We wanted to celebrate the music of integral Samurai family member Last Life by revisiting his Samurai contributions with remixes from artists Mauro saw as best candidates for adding a new perception.

The second and final collection of remixes of tracks from Last Life's Samurai Music catalogue has now taken it's final form.

Label regulars Sam KDC, Ancestral Voices, Torn and Presha take their scalpels to Mauro's constructions and turn up the intensity, rebuilding them into 4 sinewy exercises in sinister force.

Remixed: 2 - out on Limited 12" and Digital

1. Last Life - Offside (Ancestral Voices Remix)

2. Last Life - Troglodith (Sam KDC Remix)

3. Last Life - Elements (Presha Remix)

4. Last Life - Curse (Torn Remix)

Taken from Vardae - Flaming As A Cloud [SMDE50]

Available on Limited Edition Coloured 12" and Digital 🌀

Taken from Vardae - Flaming As A Cloud [SMDE50]

Available on Limited 12" and Digital

https://vardae.bandcamp.com/album/fla...

https://voidvinyl.eu/products/vardae-...

The latest transmission on Samurai tunes into half-time intensity with a psychedelic edge courtesy of leading French practitioner Vardae. Applying techno hypnotism and cinematic atmospheres to his snaking beat constructions, the Lyon-based artist delivers a pitch-perfect exercise in mystical meditation that follows a natural path from the Ancestral Voices LP.

Since first emerging around 2017, Vardae has been determined to establish a sound unbound by genre restrictions. To date he's successfully moved between cult labels such as Non Series and Ooda while pivoting from linear 4/4 to crooked broken beat without disrupting his immersive, finely sculpted production style.

Alongside his releases, Vardae is also responsible for the ouroboros festival that takes place every year in central France. Last summer, after the dancefloor closed on the final night of the the event, fabled Dutch transcendental ambient group Son Of Chi made an acoustic concert around the campfire that cast a spell over everyone present. This experience formed the inspirational basis for Vardae's new EP, drawing on the instinctive power of insistent rhythm and the spiritual intrigue that lies behind subtly dissonant tones — shadows cast by refined, restrained synthesis flickering in the imagined light of the flames.

From the rattle of timbale on 'The Light Motion' to the laser-focused ripples that charge through 'Voices Of Dispossession', Vardae bends and shapes his drum work with exacting intention across this EP. Treading the line between 85 and 170BPM, he approaches fierce peaks in his tracks with an exacting patience, building to the arp-soaked climax of 'Flaming As A Cloud' and its ecstatic, melodic crescendo.

Proudly individual and drawing from the deepest of musical experiences, Vardae's latest statement promises similarly profound moments when these pieces come into contact with the right souls and the right sound in the right setting.

www.instagram.com/vardae__/

Released on 12" and Digital 28.03.2025

- https://tamen.bandcamp.com/album/onyx

We’re delighted to welcome these two Australia based producers to the Samurai family with Onyx - a 4 track EP that delivers a blend of tight edits, chest heavy bass, and intricate sound design. Pugilist & Tamen combine nostalgia with forward-thinking production and Onyx traverses a rich landscape of jungle-rooted moods.

Onyx introduces a step forward in the duo's production, utilising sculpted distortion as an instrument. Seen on 3 of the 4 tunes, this approach adds a temperative tension as the tunes give the impression they have gone too far into the distortion no go zone but ultimately finding a balance that compliments and enhances the tunes overall sound pallette perfectly.

Raw and direct with rich layers and honed grooves that ultimately mark the tunes as memorable, Onyx is on a new level for Pugilist & Tamen.

https://www.instagram.com/pugilistmusic/

https://www.instagram.com/djtamen/

Ahead of the release of their debut Samurai Music EP 'Onyx', Pugilist and Tamen drop an eclectic and immersive mix.

Tracklist:

Muslimgauze - Opiate and Mullah - Staalplaat

Autechre - Glitch - Warp Records

Synth Sense - Alien Transmission File #1 - Auxiliary

Sciama - Charon - OODA

Martsman - Krine - Nullpunkt Rec

Pugilist - Rhaum - Unreleased

Pugilist - Pyre - Unreleased

Ruff Cherry - Exonda - Midgar Records

Pod & Tamen - Lek - Unreleased

Priori - Hazard (FDW 85 Remix) - Midgar Records

dgoHn - Daisy Takes Two - Love Love Records

Andy Odysee - Papillion - Odysee Recordings

Pugilist & Tamen - ESS - Samurai Music

Pod & Tamen - Off Grid - Unreleased

Sciama - Indignation - Auxiliary

LEVL - Nullpunkt #4 - Nullpunkt Rec

Sam KDC - Indra's Net - Samurai Music

Vardae - Sunud - Annulled Music

Ancestral Voices - Stanzas Of The Graves - Samurai Music

Last Life - Elements (Presha Remix) - Samurai Music

Overlook - Tarot - DROOGS

Alaska - Perimeter Two - 13 Music

Pugilist & Tamen - Mise - Samurai Music

https://www.instagram.com/pugilistmusic/

https://www.instagram.com/djtamen/

Pugilist & Tamen - Onyx [SMDE48] https://tamen.bandcamp.com/album/onyx

Subscribe to the Samurai Music Official Podcast on iTunes - http://found.ee/samcast

ASC delivers a potent history lesson centered around the era and sound that helped shape his House Of Leaves release and the previous trilogy for Samurai Music.

01 - Dom & Roland - You're Something Else [Moving Shadow] 1996

02 - Arcon 2 - Unorthodox Activity [Reinforced] 1997

03 - Bounty Killaz - Silent Voices (Tango Remix) [Creative Wax] 1995

04 - Nookie - Only You (Remix) [Reinforced] 1995

05 - Bay-B-Kane - Jungle Warriors '95 [White House Records] 1995

06 - ASC - Waveform 01 [waveforms] 2023 0

07 - Dr. S. Gachet - Remember The Roller (The Meaningful Mix) [Audio Maze] 1997

08 - Lee & Tango - Solutions [Legend Records] 1994

09 - Trace & Nico - Amtrak [Nu Black] 1996

10 - DJ Rap - Digable Bass (Heaven Remix) [Proper Talent] 1994

11 - Rhythm For Reasons - The Smokers Rhythm [Formation] 1994

12 - Dillinja - Silver Blade [Prototype] 1997

13 - ASC - Voiceprint [Samurai] 2021

14 - DJ Rap & Aston - Get Rushed [Suburban Base] 1994

15 - ASC - The Navidson Record [Samurai] 2023

16 - Acro - Superpod [Force Ten] 1993

17 - DJ Crystl - Let It Roll [Dee Jay Recordings] 1994

18 - Badman - War For '94 (Tango Remix) [IQ Records] 1994

19 - Brass Wolf - One [Audio Couture] 1998

20 - ASC - Waveform 12 [waveforms] 2024

21 - Foul Play - The Stepper (Remix) [Moving Shadow] 1995

22 - Hokusai - Red Lights [Source Direct Recordings] 1996

23 - DJ Trace - Final Chapta (Rollers Mix) [Dee Jay Recordings] 1995

24 - Technical Itch - Explored [Moving Shadow] 1998

https://www.instagram.com/ascaux/

https://asc77.bandcamp.com/album/house-of-leaves

Subscribe to the Samurai Music Official Podcast on iTunes - http://found.ee/samcast