There’s something magical about a label like Skam, who by rights could have dined out on their prescient role in the development of UK electronica but instead stubbornly maintained a stealthy presence which rewards the dedicated followers and shuns hype. The latest in their deep cover endeavours is AMKS, a self-hosted, live-streaming broadcast session which pops up intermittently, with the next show scheduled for this Sunday, October 31, 2021.

You might never be sure exactly who’s on the buttons, although some names are given. It’s no surprise to see a Skam fixture like Gescom popping up, but rumour ‘pon net is there are plenty of other ‘names’ tucked away in the mysterious shows, which have been airing since lockdown began last year. It would figure, given Skam’s heritage, but equally they’re always bringing fresh names into the mix too. Whatever the case, you know the quality of the sonics will be utmost at all times.

You can look over the details of previous transmissions via the label’s Instagram, or if you want to dive into the quintessentially crunchy ‘lectronix the label still proudly carries, a useful YouTuber named Leisure Complex has unofficially archived many of them for your listening pleasure.

Out to Nate from Organic Analogue for the tip-off.

You know we don’t care about timing too much here at IO. So why not shout out the beautiful December 2020 edition of Legowelt’s Shadow Wolf cyberzine? It’s still a thing of beauty… Loads of shade thrown at ‘the scene’ with deadpan sass, some cool music tech how-tos, reams of beautiful ASCII art, Ron Morelli interviewing Huren, a free compilation featuring the likes of Chupacabras, and loads more besides. Basically a tour around Danny Wolfers’ brain, which is always thoroughly pleasant and a bit strange. Check it out here.

In the interests of being at least slightly contemporaneous, here’s a call for contributions to the next issue, which is in production RIGHT NOW:

“I am slowly putting toghether [sic] a new Issue of the SHADOW WOLF CYBERZINE! If you have any letters, hatemail, studiotips, poems, ramblings, ideas or stuff you think would be cool for the zine please send it to: shadowwolfeditor // AT // gmail.com

Stefan Ringer has to be one of the best operators in the Atlanta house music game, capturing some stunning, bumping grooves on his own FWM Entertainment label, moonlighting on Kai Alce’s NDATL, and collaborating with Ash Lauryn amongst others. But here’s something a little different – a snappy, broken beat / electro flavoured number on his latest, all-killer EP.

Check out the rapid-fire, cycl-o-delic webs being spun by Ko-Ta, Don’t DJ and DJ Nobu on this crucial new drop on Nobu’s own Bitta label.

Point n’ click over to the Jahtari Bandcamp page to cop a FREE (or rather, pay what you want) download of some cheeky dubs of the Secret Of Monkey Island soundtracks. For those unfamiliar – Jahtari is the label helmed by German 8-bit dub maverick disrupt. He’s moved on as an artist now, but he made his name building up a community of chiptune soundfolk pursuing a niche but perfectly realised vibe. From the label themselves:

“Nerdcore Dub versions from ‘The Secret of Monkey Island I & II’ adventure game soundtracks (1990/91), the forgotten Voodoo-Reggae classics from the floppy disc age. The original game soundtracks by Michael Z. Land, in all their uncanny 16bit-Soundblaster FM-synth glory, were a massive influence for Jahtari (weird computer game reggae!) – but could those soothing and somewhat wimpy tracks be translated into a heavyweight dub context, something that might work on a sound system?”