Fxpansion Dcam: Synth Squad

Strobe2 is a software polysynth which puts diverse new sounds effortlessly within your reach. It builds on the original's realistic analogue modelling and deep but intuitive synthesis with a slew of enhancements and requested features. Highlights include a stunning effects section, revamped arpeggiator, deeper modulation processing, preset-morphing, randomizing and a scalable vector interface for retina and 4K displays.

Cypher2 is designed for deep sonic exploration and expressive performances. It features a vast range of sound design tools and over 1300 sounds, including 500 MPE-optimised presets. Experience an unparalleled level of expression through analogue-modelled oscillators, waveshaping and thru-zero FM.

People's Park is the 1992 debut album by American rap duo The Mod Squad, who consisted of Sam Burton and Julian Brooks. This was released on TNT Recordings through Priority.

The way Mia can nod to her influences, be they of the iconic 60's girl group, characters from a John Waters film, or cutting edge fashion from today, while simultaneously spinning a beautiful and original story in her songs, is absolutely thrilling. This is the kind of record that makes you not only excited to see what you can do with an artist in a post-pandemic future, but also how you can build their career in the present circumstances. We cannot wait for you to hear this record in its entirety!

For a swinging intro to contemporary Japanese jazz, look no further than this five-man supergroup. Fronted by trumpeter Takuya Kuroda, who has performed with the likes of José James and effortlessly incorporates anything from world music to indie rock in his utterly groovy compositions, J-Squad also counts pianist Takeshi Ohbayashi, Juilliard graduate Yasushi Nakamura and Snarky Puppy's Keita Ogawa among its members.

Future Funk Squad (AKA Glen Nicholls) is a Dance Music and Sound Design icon and has been in the industry for over 20 years. He has released 3 albums to date: Audio Damage (2006), Disorders of Skill (2009) & the award-winning Darker Days (2014), and has remixed the likes of The Prodigy, Massive Attack, UNKLE, Nine Inch Nails, The Crystal Method, Hybrid to name but a few. Alongside this, he is a Sound Designer working in TV & Film, having produced music & sound for such projects as TNT’s The Alienist and many independent films, and frequently collaborates with Composer Rupert Gregson-Williams, who has scored many Hollywood blockbusters.

Starting in the 1930s, urban police forces from New York City to Montreal to Vancouver established youth squads and crime prevention programs, dramatically changing the nature of contact between cops and kids. Gone was the beat officer who scared children and threatened youth. Instead, a new breed of officer emerged whose intentions were explicit: befriend the rising generation. Good intentions, however, produced paradoxical results. In Youth Squad Tamara Gene Myers chronicles the development of youth consciousness among North American police departments.

Released in 1984, Idioblast is a lost classic, a future shock narrative ahead of its time, and yet completely of its era, like few artifacts before or since. The cover tips you off from the jump—a crude but effective collage featuring classic Fekner slogans like Toxic Junkie, Growth Decay and Soft Brains Watch The Screen And Buy The Jeans. In an uncanny and tragic coincidence, the very first lyric on the album—“The place to be is on the space shuttle/if you’re brave enough to get on it”—seems to anticipate the Challenger disaster just two years later. But for the most part, the tracks on Idioblast directly reference the concepts that inspired Fekner’s visual art.