quête:acid j
Repress!
Funkiwala Records presents the third in the series of "Lokkhi Terra meets"albums, with the London fusionistas creating another unique sound-clash, this time with ex-Fela Kuti keyboardist and legendary UK Afro-beat ambassador Dele Sosimi, and members of his critically acclaimed Afro-beat Orchestra.
This particular collaboration has been bubbling away for a few years now, teasing audience expectations with a handful of sold out shows each year in between both bands busy schedules.
Featuring the two pianos of Kishon Khan and Dele Sosimi – Cuban percussionists/vocalists Geraldo De Armas (Yoruba Andabo), Oreste Noda (Ariwo), Javier Camilo (Ibrahim Ferrer) - a horn section led by Justin Thurgur (Bellowhead) featuring Yelfris Valdes (Sierra Maestra) and Graeme Flowers (Kyle Eastwood) to name a few – this is an All-star cast.
Kishon Khan's Lokkhi Terra have over a number of years now been quietly establishing themselves as one of London's more unusual heavyweight outfits, described as "Stunning Headliners… A majestic multi-cultural blend of sounds… effortlessly builds bridges between rolling Indian raga rhythms, Afro-Cuban grooves, Acid Jazz/funk and free flowing improvisation" (Timeout London). Included amongst the band members are London's top Cuban musicians, adding their infectious rich musical history to the city's melting pot.
When the band wanted to explore Cuban links with another of their favourite traditions, Afrobeat, who better to bring in then one of the Afrobeat originators – maestro Dele Sosimi – "Sosimi creates some of the most bewitching grooves in modern African music" E Jazz News.
Bringing together two Yoruba speaking musics - with different accents, from different sides of the Atlantic - Havana meets Lagos in London – A Cuban-Afrobeat-Experience. CUBAFROBEAT.
All About Jazz 4star review
A younger version of London's Grand Union Orchestra, founded by world-jazz pioneer Tony Haynes in 1982, Lokkhi Terra was put together by keyboard player Kishon Khan in 2005. Both ensembles have made a specialism of jazz / South Asian fusion, with Lokkhi Terra also giving as much attention to music from Cuba, where Bangladeshi-born, London-based Khan lived for a while in the early 2000s.
Cubafrobeat, as the title foretells, is a blend of Cuban dance music and Nigerian / Yoruban Afrobeat—a fusion rendered seamless by the synergies existing between Afro-Cuban and Yoruban music, language and mythology. The album is Lokkhi Terra's third and partners the band with the keyboard player and vocalist Dele Sosimi .
A young-going-on-child-prodigy member of Fela Kuti's Egypt 80, Sosimi went on to become musical director of Femi Kuti's Positive Force, before relocating to London and setting up Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra, the finest Afrobeat band outside Nigeria, bar none, now with a string of consistently engaging albums under its belt. Cubafrobeat features Sosimi as lead vocalist on all four tracks, and on Fender Rhodes on two of them. His singing plays a prominent role in the Afrobeat Orchestra, but, such is the whirlwind impact of the band in full instrumental flight, that Sosimi is often thought of first and foremost for his keyboard and arranging talents. That may change by the time 2018 is over. Cubafrobeat is the third album in as many months to feature Sosimi as guest vocalist, spotlighting the gravitas, air of mystery, intimacy and ferocity his voice can bring to an occasion.
The first of these albums was the genre-bending spiritual-jazz band Emanative's Earth (Jazzman). One of the stand-out tracks, "Ìyáàmi," features Sosimi making obeisance to the titular Mother Goddesses of the Yoruba spirit worlds. His raw and intense invocations carry the track for nine mesmerising minutes. Otherwordly is not the half of it. Next up was dub / reggae / jazz band Soothsayers' Tradition (Wah Wah 45s), which featured Sosimi as lead vocalist on the compelling "Sleepwalking (Black Man's Cry)." Earth and Tradition are both outstanding albums and have previously been reviewed here.
Cubafrobeat is a total stonking blinder, too. It is an effectively nuanced affair, opening with the fiery "Afro Sambroso" and closing with the relatively reflective "Rumbafro." Sosimi's vocals light up the music, as do the several solos from trumpeters Graeme Flowers and Yelfris Valdes Espinosa and trombonist Justin Thurgur (a member of both Lokkhi Terra and the Afrobeat Orchestra). Sosimi and Kishon Khan's intertwining Fender Rhodes solos on "Cubafro" are also a delight, as is the drum and percussion section throughout.
The sound of summer, for sure, Cubafrobeat has enough depth and variety to make it something for all seasons.
Songlines 4star review
Lokkhi Terra are one of London's most authentic groups. They are a Latin-flavoured collective whose keyboard player and bandleader Kishon Khan segues from percussive montunos to complex Bengali rhythms and back, with jazz chops sparking funky and outward-looking fusions. Their collaboration with Dele Sosimi, Britain's foremost Afrobeat ambassador, has been bubbling for a while; here four tracks at ten minutes see musical conversations that never lose their sense of flow. An extensive line-up of stellar players, including trumpeter Yelfris Valdés, conguero Oreste Noda and trombonist Justin Thurgur, highlights the genre-crossing potential of world traditions. Opener 'Afro Sambroso' showcases batá drums from Gerardo de Armas Sarria before the track links Cuban grooves with Afrobeat. 'Timbafro' crackles and sways via Khan's organ, Sosimi's vocals and Oscar Martinez's timbales. 'Cubafro' features dazzling interplay between Khan, Sosimi and Javier Camillo's Spanish-language vocals. 'Rumbafro' is all rumba choruses, Yoruba vocals and Afrobeat horns. Rooted in their sources, but with musical threads intertwining, separating and reconfiguring – with grooves at a premium – this is a fusion lover's dream
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Only a few copies available... PULZAR Recordings first physical release explores the genres of Acid House, Breakbeat, Electro and Techno. With this EP the Berlin born and raised main artist Smooth Operator declares his love to the Berlin district Neukölln. This area of Berlin is known for its multiculturality and the unconventional and sometimes even crazy experiences you are able to make there because of that diversity. The two original mixes, but also the four remixes by highly talented artists, form a soundtrack for walking the streets of Neukölln.
Lauren Lo Sung returns to LOCUS for her ‘Shroom’ EP, accompanied by a remix from Youandewan.
Heading up LOLiFE and e1even records while dropping music via PIV, Lazare Hoche, and Rutilance, Liverpool- based Lauren Lo Sung’s blend of stripped-back, groove-heavy house has meant early nods as an artist to watch has seen her flourish into a favourite name within the UK minimal-house realm and beyond. Returning to the label for the first time since her classy ‘Miss B’ EP in 2021, and fresh from a string of worldwide dates, including her latest US and Australian tours, the end of July welcomes a return to FUSE’s sister imprint LOCUS as she serves up a pair of quality cuts across her ‘Shroom’ EP - with The Brain and Pure Shores boss Youandewan making his label debut on remix duties.
Setting off via the title track, ‘Shroom’ is a slinking cut built on a rugged bassline and warping low-ends, accented by airy synths and warped vocal interjections for a lively trip. Next, second original ‘Tom & Jerry’ draws for acid stabs, hazy melodies and cosmic tones underneath the track’s alluring vox samples and video game electronics for a vibrant and playful production. Shaping up the package, the B-Side is home to Youandewan’s darker and chunky take on the lead cut, combining oddball electronics, snaking grooves, off-key interludes and neon synths for a trademark offering.
Cyphon is proud to bring you brand new music from one of Europe’s pioneers of techno and IDM, Stefan Robbers aka Terrace and Florence. His early releases for Djax-Up-Beats and his own Eevo Lute Muzique in the early 90’s were hugely influential striking a sweet spot between stark minimalism, majestic analogue lushness and dance floor grooves. In more recent years his own reinterpretation of the Detroit sound can be found on the highly regarded Dutch label Delsin.
Here on his ‘Thermionic EP’ Terrace sings out with such intensity that minds are blown. Listen to the brutal, exhilarating sequences of ‘Territorial’ which leads the new EP, and you will receive that message loud and clear. While the music is as much about the consequence of soulful depth, it is also about edgy machines communicating intimately. Sweet chords fuse and then contrast with grainy acidic sonics, leaving the tempo poised at an irresistible pace like all our futures depended on it.
As you move next onto the more subtle electro pulse of ‘Thermon’, shimmering keys dance around a frame-by-frame remembrance of robotic disco in the 23rd century. The uplifting brilliance of ‘Woodward’ follows filling the void with an explosion of colour that is all about life-affirming instrumentation, hitting you fast and loose with a cascade of arpeggios, tough drums plus an incendiary surge of melodic distraction causing the airwaves to crackle with celebration.
Completing this stunning release from Terrace are the fierce, hotwired grooves forged by ‘Ritual’, conjuring up endless combinations of an analogue model rediscovered. The sheer dancefloor animation found within each of Terrace’s productions on this EP purposefully point to and enhance Cyphon Recordings own mission to explore, propelling the emphasis forever forwards.
DJ Support:
Sean Johnston, Kevin Reynolds, Vince Watson, Gareth Sommerville, Daniele Baldelli, Dj Rocca, Massimiliano Pagliara, Craig Smith, Jason Kendig, Rarish & Yoshi Horino
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Don Glori, a.k.a multi-instrumentalist Gordon Li, returns with a remix EP that tears open five tunes from his groundbreaking debut, Welcome.
Taking an opportunity to sink into some of the ideas explored on the original album, the five remixes featured here sees some of Europe and Australia’s finest throw open the shutters and shine a light on Li’s inventive compositions and remarkable instrumentation.
Rosie from the Block, a.k.a Belgian multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ Roselien, leans right into the percussion and drum kit playing that made Welcome so infectious, layering this with cheeky bubblegum-beat bass lines that lend the whole affair an incredibly smooth, street-soul styling.
Other key players include Swedish duo Mount Liberation Unlimited, lending their take on things an introspectively dark, brooding atmosphere that evolves into one of their trademark acid-house extended journeys; Australian radio DJ and producer Ennio Styles working alongside Liam de Bruin, hip-hop/soul duo Man Made Mountain, led by MC Cazeaux O.S.L.O, and an insanely infectious organic house take on hit single Dlareme by one of Melbourne’s finest, Teymori.
A perfect companion to an album that broke open the Melbourne scene and laid out new parameters for the quality of jazz, samba and funk-inspired music emerging from that city, Welcome Remixes breathes fresh life into this incredible album and reminds us just how goddamn fun making, playing and performing music can be.
S Transporter is Izaak S and Ryan Spencer, a pan-American duo of exact origins unknown. With roots spanning from Detroit to San Francisco, the project is somewhere around four years old, though no one remembers exactly when it started. The songs were initially demoed in Ryan's bedroom and promptly forgotten about in the chaotic whirl of both members’ efforts in other music projects, DJing, and party-throwing ventures until Ryan played them at his weekly, Monday Is The New Monday (co-founded with PGS' Ben & Zach). Immediately, the songs burst with new life into our ears, and we excitedly requested to hear more. In a tale every creative can relate to, Ryan simply didn't know if they were any good. We found them extraordinary.
What followed were several months of additional recording sessions in a collective effort to finalize the tracks, done at Ryan's apartment in Southwest Detroit, Izaak's in SF, and the Portage Garage in Hamtramck. Bay area DIY underground luminary Anya Ghiorzi joined the group and contributed her vocal talents to the songs, which began to exhibit a sound representative of the genre-collisions featured at MITNM– from krautrock and boogie to trance, acid, and house– in a way other PGS releases have hinted at, but have not fully expressed until now.
S Transporter is the name of the EP, the project, and all four songs. A maximalist sound with a minimalist presentation, naming the songs - so many years after their inception - would, perhaps, take away from the feeling that struck all three of us the first time we heard them on a club-grade sound system.
Izaak S and Anya Ghiorzi are San Francisco residents, musicians, and DJs in the Loveshadow dance collective.
Ryan Spencer is a Detroit resident, DJ, co-founder of Monday Is The New Monday, and is a member of Freakish Pleasures.
"S Transporter 1"
Uptempo, backspin-laden electro/acid with a winding 303 bassline that reveals itself slowly over the pulsing breakbeat backbone. Immersive, haunting and enchanting.
"S Transporter 2"
Downtempo electro. Slap bass. Heavy boogie. Sensual vocals reminiscent of early Chris N Cosey carry you through this industrial funk heater. Heavy synth lines and rhythmic grooving guitar that is club-ready for dance floors of all kinds.
"S Transporter 3"
A fast paced, percussion forward adventure with balaphone melodies and bending synth pads. Spoken words guide the journey, arriving at a movement inducing Juno ascension that dances into a calm end.
"S Transporter 4"
Encompassing the seemingly disjointed, individualistic styles of S Transporter 1-3, ‘4’ combines elements of the entire release into one final gesture. ‘4’ could be Byrne/Eno ("Regiment"), but it's something else - the product of decades of dance music history, distilled by two musicians & DJs into one song.
credits
releases July 19, 2019
PGS 010
S Transporter
"S Transporter"
EP
2015-2019
Written, Mixed and Produced by Izaak S & Ryan Spencer
Vocals by Anya
Bass on “2” by Lucas De Leon Turner
Percussion & additional production on "3" by Shigeto
Percussion on “3” by Julian Spradlin
Mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering
Recorded at Izaak's apartment in San Francisco, Ryan's apartment in Southwest Detroit and the Portage Garage
Records Pressed at Archer Record Pressing, Detroit, MI
Design by Will
MMXVIX
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Anlässlich des 30-jährigen Jubiläums ihres Debüts 'Dad Man Cat' und des Nachfolgers 'High Havoc' melden sich Corduroy mit einem neuen Mini-Album zurück: 'Men of the Cloth'.
Corduroy, die 1991 aus der Asche der Kultband Boys Wonder hervorgingen und drei zunehmend brillantere Alben auf Acid Jazz veröffentlichten, bewegen sich perfekt an der Schnittstelle zwischen Acid Jazz und Britpop. Außerdem wurden sie zu einem der besten Live-Acts ihrer Generation. Nach einer 18-jährigen Pause kehrten sie 2018 mit 'Return of the Fabric Four' zurück und sind auch live nach wie vor eine beliebte Attraktion.
Neben 'No More Me Me Me' und 'Hypnotoad' - zwei Songs die bereits im letzten Jahr als limitierte 7"-Single veröffentlicht wurden - bietet 'Men of the Cloth' vier neue Cuts aus dem gleichen Corduroy-Stoff - eine berauschende Mischung aus swingenden Sixties-Soundtracks, Pop-Art-Bildern und Jazz-Funk.
Voitax continue their forward thinking, explorative musical and visual output with the latest release on the label from the dynamic and multi-talented DJ and producer Giordano. Italian-born and Berlin-based, Giordano has established himself as a genre-defying selector whose vibrant, charismatic sets deliver unsurpassable energy via old-school rave, retooled UK bass wobblers, acid-dripped electronica and clever club experimentalism. On this six-tracker his sophisticated production skills and vast musical knowledge burst to the forefront, forging an irresistible path to all four corners of the dancefloor and beyond. Following previous releases on the likes of Soma and Savy Records, here Giordano reaches a new production zenith with "Transmute", crafting a metamorphosing set of breaks-infused bangers and carefully-sculpted rhythmic grooves.
The first legendary Pink fairies album: a real must for all psychedelia and garage fans. Contains 'Do It', 'Heavenly Man' and the manifest-track of the band: 'Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", 10 long minutes of anarchist rock, rich of feedback and acid guitars.
This really was 'proto-punk'!
The packaging is just like the original one, with an external artwork on plastic sleeve.
In 1990, a friend was thinking about acquiring a synthesiser...
Synthesisers... mysterious keyboard instruments with lots of knobs that made strange sounds. Something we’ve always known about but never really had an opportunity to experience up close. Most of the music we grew up listening to and loved featured synths.
So we trawled through the Trading Post and found an old Roland JX-8P going cheap. I had a car, my friend had the cash - now we had a synth! We wanted to make electronic music, but something was missing...
Shortly after, a drum machine was acquired. Like the synth, we had no clue about them but very soon a Roland TR-707 was acquired. Pooling our remaining funds, we purchased a 4-track tape recorder and began to learn how to use these instruments to compose music.
Fast forward to 1991, SWLABR was born. I'd fallen down the techno rabbit hole and amassed several more electronic devices... synths, samplers, sequencers and began composing tunes with a techno flavour in my bedroom studio - some of which feature on this EP in all their original glory, tape hiss included!
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»Blank Vault / White Stains« is the new solo album by Franz Joseph Kaputt (DRNTTCKS, Otomatik Muziek, Hager/Kaputt). Under his S.U.V. alias, he presents nine highly personal, improvised synthesizer miniatures, accompanied by heavily delayed drum machines and enveloped in clouds of feedback. The music unveils a background rooted in years of noise exercises and ventures into the territories of dark, psychedelic folk, while showcasing a fondness for delicate synthesizer sounds and repetitive song structures. Layers of sound and rhythms collide and arrange themselves to create an idiosyncratic ambient/kraut music that explores the borders of when intimacy becomes toxic. It also delves into how relationships involving kink strategies can be used in a way that don‘t render one powerless or hurt, but ultimately leading to empowerment.
Side A is kind of an utopian dark room, filled with peculiar beats, drones, and dreamy synth arpeggios. Pleasure and joy are subversive acts that challenge and upend stereotypical role models. The pieces revolve around the mutual and consensual exploration of individual boundaries and the transformative states that emerge within these encounters – a unique entity, a »Body Of The Mind« if you will, is formed between individuals. Side B then represents the counterpart. Acid synths, distortion cascades and looped pianos evoke the regression from this playful and subversive approach on to sheer brutality and perverse destruction.
Hailing from Seoul but now firmly based in Amsterdam, Naone delivers a superb EP on Warning, mixing her emotional background with her more contemporary roots, the perfect bridge between both worlds, Asia and Europe, or perhaps between her inner self and the outside world. Starting with Perfectly Harmless, the mysterious track develops into deep feelings that really unfold and expand in Hondon-Ui Kaosu (Chaos of Chaos), where the electro breakbeat responds to a melody with hints of pop consciousness.
On the flip side, the Korean artist unleashes her passion with the deep psy-trance infused enigmatic techno groover Haengjin (Marching), followed by a sensitive downtempo acid closer aptly titled What's Happening. Ultimately, this is about the process of making music, channelling emotions and perceptive energies to create a balanced representation of past emotions and memories.
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The sleeve from Lilas Dupont is a pure jewel.
The music opens with our praised IND and a mystic Acid Tribe tune, thinlace of acid glass bubbles... The l'Art Cene and Severus tunes brings a sweet kick experimentation. The flip is in the same vein : mental and delicate acid fairy tales.
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Tresor is proud to present the debut split 12" from Chloe Lula and Ireen Amnes. Meeting in the darker, harder-edged side of the Berlin techno scene in 2019, the pair have regularly collaborated and performed together, but Synergy marks the first time they've shared a record sleeve. Amnes describes Synergy as "the world we built while thinking about our journey as friends and the connection we share as people and artists," and while the record highlights their relationship and shared influences, it also showcases how each has grown into their respective lane.
Amnes' tracks lean into significantly more distorted territory, characterized by a dense fog of grainy pads punctured by sharp, expertly-programmed percussion. On "Our Bodies," these fragments are sculpted into driving hardware gear, replete with distant vocals and acidic squelches, where "Fragments of Desire" makes space for a more somber attitude, descending into murky, psychedelic electro.
In counterpoint to Amnes' deep atmospherics, Lula's contributions are driven by intricate sound design and a focus on dancefloor
impact. Taking cues from Regis and the Birmingham techno sound, she reins in the distortion of 2021's Errant Bodies for aufnahme + wiedergabe in favor of rolling techno and breakbeat-inspired rhythms that nod to her EBM influences. Making use of the extra space, she builds tension through heaving, textured basslines and crescendos of noise, and on EP closer "Event Horizon," she carves through the beat with her own metallic vocals.
Synergy includes a digital bonus track from each artist. Lula's sees her pushing deeper into finely-tooled techno territory, her drums at a swift, driving gallop, surrounded by ominous swaths of reverb. In contrast, Amnes crafts a gritty warehouse trip, sharpening the angles of her drums and detuning her synths until they sound bent and alien. Complete with the EP's physical cuts, these tracks are a testament to how the pair can simultaneously complement and contrast with each other, departing from their shared sonic origins and ending up in wildly dierent destinations.
