Numbers brings Hallucinator’s Landlocked to vinyl for the first time ever, remastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk and available to pre-order now via Inverted Audio Record Store.
The 1999 debut from Anna Piva, Edward George and Trevor Mathison was originally released on Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald’s Chain Reaction — an imprint that shaped a decade of dub techno but rarely sounded quite like this. Despite standalone singles from the sessions circulating on Chain Reaction 12″s at the time, the compiled Landlocked album itself was only ever pressed to CD, leaving one of the label’s most enduring word-of-mouth records permanently out of reach on wax – until now. Landlocked is dense where much of the label’s catalogue is spacious, driving where it’s often becalmed, and ambient in a way that constitutes most of its enduring appeal.
Twelve tracks move through the full Chain Reaction vocabulary while sounding like nobody else on the label. Black Angel remains the record’s clearest statement of intent, its beat gradually building in intensity as it emerges from weaving, layered rhythms. Red Angel counters with a melodic line broken by rhythmical pauses that keep the structure restless. Sethos and Moonshot dig into dubwise rhythm and bass at their deepest, before Wipeout I and Recall descend into something closer to menacing abstraction. Rocket closes the record out with lush soundscapes set against a raw, unpolished bassline.
Dedicated to the memory of Stephen Lawrence, Landlocked carries its context in the music rather than stating it outright – felt more than told, soothing to some listeners and disturbing to others depending on what they bring to it. This edition arrives debossed on the front cover with a matt finish, printed black on both sides, housed in a clear archive bag with a card for digital download.
Landlocked is released 18th September via Numbers. Buy vinyl from Inverted Audio Record Store.
A1. People
A2. Black Angel
B1. Red Angel
B2. Phebes
B3. Sethos
C1. Goldcoast
C2. Dusk
C3. Moonshot
C4. Wipeout I
D1. Recall (Wipeout II)
D2. Rocket
D3. Hallucinator