End Beginnings released via The Point of Departure on 6 May 2025
Sandwell District, the techno unit anchored by Karl O’Connor (Regis) and David Sumner (Function), have released a new remix of Hidden, taken from their recent album End Beginnings. The rework is by Daniel Avery, who acknowledged the group’s historical weight and connection to the late Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), whose absence shapes the current iteration of the project. The remix precedes a series of live appearances across Europe and North America, including Primavera Sound in Barcelona and The White Hotel in Manchester.
Artist: Sandwell District
Genres: Electronica, Techno
Label: The Point of Departure
Description: Sandwell District release End Beginnings via The Point of Departure with a remix of Hidden by Daniel Avery and confirm 2025 live dates.
Avery’s version of Hidden strips the original down to its rhythmic skeleton, rethreading it with submerged tension and elongated spatial effects. The track, originally positioned deep within End Beginnings, appears here with renewed focus, reinforcing Sandwell District’s shift back into collective production after more than a decade.
End Beginnings was released through The Point of Departure, a label that has managed recent Sandwell-related archival activity, including the 2023 reissue of Feed-Forward. The new material marks the first studio album from the duo since the group’s hiatus. O’Connor and Sumner recorded it separately between London and Berlin, enlisting contributions from Simon Shreeve, Mika Hallbäck (Rivet), Seth Horvitz (Rrose), and Sarah Kranz (Sarah Wreath). The project emerged after a lengthy hiatus, with both O’Connor and Sumner gradually re-entering communication following Mendez’s death in early 2024.
The album takes its title from an unfinished artwork by Mendez, which had been in discussion as the album’s potential cover. Its incomplete status was left unchanged, and the title was retained as a form of acknowledgement. The decision to move forward followed a conversation between O’Connor and Mark Lanegan, who encouraged a reconsideration of the project prior to his own death.
Originally formed around the Downwards label founded by O’Connor and Peter Sutton (Female), Sandwell District operated throughout the 2000s as both label and anonymous syndicate, refusing to adhere to traditional artist branding. Their sparse visual aesthetic, rotating membership, and oblique release strategy stood in contrast to the dominant techno model of the time. Their debut LP, Feed-Forward, appeared without advance press in December 2010 and sold out within days.
The new album aligns with the group’s long-standing interest in techno as abstraction, with allusions to Drexciya, early Detroit minimalism, and 1980s industrial electronics. The inclusion of more recent collaborators extends this approach without necessarily modernising it. There is no obvious attempt to adapt to current trends or circuit rhythms. It is instead closer to a reconstruction, carried out under new terms.
Sandwell District are scheduled for several festival performances across summer 2025, including Electrum Up To Date Festival (Poland), Code Summer Festival (Madrid), and Ratherlost Festival (Amsterdam).
Karl O’Connor is a British electronic music producer and co-founder of Downwards Records, operating under the alias Regis since the early 1990s. He has released solo work on Blackest Ever Black, Jealous God, and Hospital Productions, and collaborated with artists including Surgeon (as British Murder Boys) and Mick Harris.
David Sumner, based in Berlin and originally from New York, records and performs under the name Function. He has been associated with Infrastructure New York, Ostgut Ton, and Hospital Productions, and has worked with Rrose, Vatican Shadow, and Cassegrain. His solo album Incubation was released in 2013.
Juan Mendez, who died in early 2024, was an integral member of the Sandwell District collective. As Silent Servant, he released material via Jealous God, Hospital Productions, and L.I.E.S., and was widely regarded for his stark visual contributions as well as his music.
Tracklist – End Beginnings (PODR012)
Dreaming
Self-Initiate
Will You Be Safe?
Restless
Least Travelled
Citrinitas Acid
Hidden
The Silent Servant
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