Diagonal Records share details of three new releases: Russell Haswell

RUSSELL HASWELL – DEEP TIME – 18 APRIL

SCOTT GORDON – METALS – 7 FEB

JONUS ERIC – DIODE EP – 24 JAN

DIAGONAL RECORDS, who recently celebrated 13 years of the label with a 4 x LP compilation and UK tour have shared details of three new releases to launch 2025.

Russell Haswell will release a new album, Deep Time, on 18 April 2025. This new album is his sixth outing for the label, and is, explains Haswell, “…a reflection on the current state of the nation and of the world”.

Like all works by Haswell, Deep Time explores and ponders a variety of themes. Haswell’s long held preoccupation with minute-by-minute geopolitical developments picks up where his previous Diagonal album, Reality Therapy, left off. The album’s main musing however is the incomprehensible scale of time. Namely, how we measure and record our Earth’s history and beyond – from mere nanoseconds to the universe’s suggested 13.8 billion years of existence.

https://soundcloud.com/diagonal-records/russell-haswell-unconformity-from-deep-time-lp-diag066?si=12ab7a42172e4bf89338786c3b3a32f3&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

 The track derives its name from 18th century geologist James Hutton’s views on the immense age of the earth. At sites such as Siccar Point, he was able to show how rock formations help us to track the age of our planet. A graphical representation of this concept features in the typography used for the album’s sleeve design which was devised by MuirMcNeil.

Scott Gordon will release a new album, Metals, on 7 February 2025. At the heart of Scotland-based producer, composer and instrument maker Scott Gordon’s Metals is his custom-made, self-built SPI (Spinning Plate Instrument), an instrument he constructed from industrial scrap metal bars, which are hung from a large vertical wooden frame, the metal struck by mechanical beaters driven by small motors. The bars spin when played – manually or by MIDI – emitting warmly resonating drifts of sound, sympathetic tones that resemble electronic sources, tintinnabulations in an electroacoustic lineage with Harry Bertoia’s architectural sound sculptures. The SPI is not tuned, or cut to scales, so each set is a study in pitch, rhythm and texture via unexpected objects and instruments.

Metals is his first release on Diagonal, joining their clutch of rebel electronic music innovators with this two-part album. It operates in a near binary: the first four pieces on Side A, titled And Away I-IIII, settle as introspective works, while the second suite of tracks on Side B, titled Tilts I-IV extol more extroverted forms of electroacoustic music.

Jonus Eric will release a new EP on 24 January 2025. Diode inaugurates the Australian upstart into the Diagonal roster with six tracks of gloriously lumpen funk and off-kilter club punk that sound as if it was excavated from a 1980s DAT tape of demos by pre-techno post-punks with drum machines and basic synths.

At once like classic lo-fi house music (Darkwhirl), with slobbering of acid rave elements (Tripwire), raw industrial electronic punk (Polarity) and occasional palettes from early computer game music (Crimewave), Jonus Eric’s Diode EP is awkwardly pumping, utterly charming, and totally brilliant – an ideal new class member for the now teenage Diagonal Records following the label’s recent 13th birthday celebrations.

Russell Haswell high res artwork and press photographs HERE

Scott Gordon high res artwork and press photographs HERE

Jonus Eric high res artwork and press photographs HERE