An Arturia emulation of the classic Roland TB-303 was all but inevitable. But with plenty of bassline plug-ins out there, can this one bring something new to the table? Let’s get our hands on the new Arturia Acid V.

“Piano” is bookended by sketches on a partly-ruined piano in a war zone – messages over an army radio heard crackling in the background. In between, there is the warmth of a 1920s German instrument in the artist’s Kyiv flat and grandmother’s house before the war. Ukrainian artist John Object is now living mainly as PFC Timur Dzhafarov, deployed to the front. In sounds, images, and words, he has opened up about what that reality means.

Don’t miss this latest LP on Kampala, Uganda’s Hakuna Kulala, as Berlin-based Ziúr takes on a dream roster of international collaborators. In perpetually shifting, explosive rhythms and organic percussion, a fully-blurred hybrid of experimental jazz and club roots, it has plenty to say about the world around in its violence and chaos.

AAS’ Multiphonics CV-2 modular is great; what we want now is more modules. And AAS is delivering, with five new modules for your West Coast, waveshaping, signal sculpting and mangling pleasure. Five may not sound like a lot, but you can do a lot with a couple of these. Here’s a look at what AAS have added in CV-2 version 2.1.

Keyi Magazine has brought together over four hours of bleeding-edge Berlin productions in a compilation – and accompanying live event – organizing artists around hunger, poverty, and conflict. We get to premiere a bracing scorcher from producer Ireen Amnes to set the mood.

We talk about the Mac, but ultimately the Mac was a vehicle for GUIs – icons, mice, scrolling, toolboxes, painting. We talk about the iPhone, but the iPhone turned out to be about mobile photography and apps and touch. Get too hung up on the (very pricey) initial hardware, and you might miss some of the potential of what Apple is doing with what they call spatial computing. And you’ll also miss how some of these threads in interaction design started – as with those other examples – long before Apple.

The pandemic apparently brought together modular house Make Noise, instrument maker Jeff Snyder, and soundhack creator Tom Erbe. Spectral analysis/resynthesis, once just an esoteric software process, is now in a beautiful module. Get your hands on some new sounds.

Arturia has rounded out its Augmented line with Augmented BRASS. It’s like a hybrid brass plug-in even for people who don’t like brass plug-ins – more like the brass tool for synth lovers.

In the mountains of West Papua, a new electronic sound is emerging. It’s fusing traditional sounds with jaunty synthesized beats in a rapid-fire, high-energy dancefloor brew. And just try to listen without your whole body set in motion.

Buy local: the world of gear for musicians is opening up to independent makers in more places. That includes Tbilisi-based Ambient audio, who are making everything from glowing and recycled patch cables to modular kits.