Always great to see what NNA Tapes has in store for listeners. Fans of left field electronics will want to keep Ahnnu‘s upcoming LP Special Forces on their radar. Due out December 1st, this is Leland Jackson‘s second release for the label and follows up his 2013 effort, Battered Sphinx. The LA-based producer has been active since 2011 with several releases on Leaving Records, including 2015’s Perception LP, and he also makes footwork inspired dance music under the moniker Cakedog. As Ahnnu, though, Jackson explores his more experimental inclinations crafting searing ambiance from discarded sound fragments and haunted rhythmic loops. In recent years, the musician has turned his sample-based productions increasingly “inward” to focus on his own creations, and the label reports that Special Forces continues that trend with very few outside samples used. Instead, Jackson turns to his own recorded experiments with sound synthesis and patch creation to craft his mysteriously drifting compositions.
On “Return of Junkman,” a disembodied and forlorn melody ghosts around the sonic space while a crackle of mechanical voices transmit themselves out of thin air. The album trailer visuals for the track were created by Peter Nichols, and he uses computer-generated animations of a red curtain, textured cube, and neon light stick to interact with the NNA Tapes logo. The results have a dream-like logic perfectly suited for this brief cut, and they are a great introduction to the spectral world of Special Forces.
You can check out the album art and tracklisting for Ahnnu’s Special Forces LP after the video embed below. Pre-orders are available now, with the first 100 records shipping on colored vinyl…
Watch: Ahnnu “Return of Junkman”
1. Passing through a horizontal slit (6:00)
2. The terrible one (4:47)
3. Senseless (1:05)
4. Two squares (3:30)
5. Cat shoe (1:36)
6. Laughing (3:03)
7. Pluck-jump-freeze (3:18)
8. Striker sound (0:33)
9. Latro (2:29)
10. Return of junkman (1:02)
11. War stage (2:45)
12. Bubble horn (1:12)
13. Daydream/Blink edit (3:12)
