As previously hinted at, Sandwell District‘s artists will release their debut collaborative album under that name in early November.

The album, entitled Feed-Forward, will be issued on 2×12″ vinyl (cover art pictured above), and will not be repressed. A mixed version of the album is likely to be out digitally in due course, but there are no plans to make individual tracks available online or to released a CD. The 2×12″ will be accompanied by a 2-track bonus 7″ and a fanzine designed by Juan Mendez.

Feed-Forward‘s nine tracks were written and produced principally by David Sumner (AKA Function), Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) and Karl O’Connor (Regis), with additional contributions from Peter Sutton (Female). A techno record though and through, it nonetheless has to it a scope and a depth beyond the shark-eyed dancefloor efficacy of the label’s celebrated past singles.

The entire A-side is taken up by the three-part ‘Immolare’, which builds out of a dolorous cold wave ambience into punchy 4/4 minimalism, then string-laden syncopations, then heads-down, Chain Reaction-style warehouse techno.

Strings are prominent throughout the album: ‘Grey Cut Out”s arrangements are reminiscent of Gerard Hanson’s best work as Convextion and ERP, while the spaced-out arpeggios of ‘Svar’ evoke Harmonia and even RD Burman’s ‘Dil Lena Khel Hai Dildar Ka’. ‘Double Day’ is a gushing ambient interlude par excellence, and the album concludes with ‘Speed + Sound (Endless)’, equal parts torrid noise and shatteringly pretty, elegiac synth melody that wouldn’t sound out of place on the second side of Low.

Regis spoke about the origins of Feed-Forward in an interview with FACT earlier in the year:

“Juan Mendez suggested we should make a record to accompany the Where Next fanzine he was doing and we all found the idea appealing: buy a fanzine get a free comp. I think we’ve been influenced by his artwork so I guess [the music] will have a very heavy, hypnotic theme.

“Technology has made it easy to collaborate without having to sit side by side in the same room. Although we all live in different countries and have very different ways of producing, I think we are aware for the need to pin down a common ‘sound’  for this label, to make it interesting for ourselves.”

Tracklist:
A1. Immolare (First)
A2. Immolare (Second)
A3. Immolare (Third)
B1. Grey Cut Out
B2. Hunting Lodge
C1. Falling The Same Way
C2. Svar
D1. Double Day
D2. Speed + Sound (Endless)

Limited bonus 7″ tracklist:
A1. Readymade – 1
B1. Readymade – 2