One of the reasons we love doing LWE is that at any time, someone we admire could send us something incredible out of the blue. Recently we were graced with an exclusive mix from Arnaud Rebotini, the analog giant behind Black Strobe and well-versed solo producer, whose churned out raw house, banging techno and leather-clad electro for labels such as Versatile Records, Artefact and Source Records. Tomorrow his debut solo album, Music Components (which if you haven’t heard, do yourself a favor and check out this album mix), arrives digitally on iTunes and in American shops. In this mix, for which we haven’t even yet received a tracklist, Rebotini jumps from disco flavors to more chugging beats and back again. It’s a great mix and we’re excited to share it with you. We’ll post a tracklist when we receive it.

Few artists come from as genuine and distinct a perspective as Finland’s Aki Latvamäki. In his bio he speaks of dirt, and in the following interview, he speaks of love. Working at the distant boundaries of what can only ostensibly be described as “tech-house,” Latvamäki (who also records as Artificial Latvamäki) offers up sounds that are more closely tied to experience than invention. Latvamäki’s esoterically titled tracks have appeared on Cocoon’s G compilation, Ellen Allien’s Fabric 34 mix; EPs for Trapez, Mezzotinto, and Budenzauber Recordings; as well as split recordings with LWE favorite Mark August and Dub Kult on Curle Recordings. Latvamäki is also a member of the “junk percussion” group Transistori, who have recently posted to Youtube a documentary of their live work, Transistori Play Toppilan Tehdas, at the factory of Toppila in Latvamäki’s home town of Oulu, Finland. What Latvamäki specializes in is a sound that combines melodic daring, dizzying introspection, and propulsive movement, and this talent is on display both here in this stunning exclusive “mixtape” of unreleased/forthcoming material.

Alan Abrahams maintains that traditional African music and house music are much the same thing. In his music as Portable and Bodycode, Abrahams acts a living link between the indigenous sounds of his youth in South Africa and the first Chicago house records whose futuristic aesthetic broadened his horizons. Since leaving South Africa for London, Lisbon and now Berlin, Abrahams launched the Süd Electronic label with Lerato and released on ~scape, Spectral Sound, Karat and Perlon (among others). Tomorrow sees the release of his second album as Bodycode, the spectacular Immune on Spectral Sound. Full of fuzzy organ chords, needling percussion and Abrahams’ emotion-filled vocals, the album finds his sui generis sound in its most realized state. Our 22nd podcast pits Abrahams’ Portable and Bodycode monikers against each other, providing an exclusive look into the sounds bouncing around this talented producer’s head and computer.