For this uniquely personal retrospective spread over twelve vinyl discs, Sven Väth takes us back to the early days of his DJ career. On What I Used To Play we meet great pioneers of electronic music, gifted percussionists, obscure wave bands, and innovative producers of a bygone 'new electronic' era. Rough beats and irresistible grooves from the identification stage of house, techno, and acid remind us not just how far electronic music has evolved over the past four decades, but how great it was to dance to EBM, techno, and house for the very first time.
If there is one protagonist of the electronic music scene who has remained curious, innovative and at the very cutting edge of music for over four decades, it's Sven Väth. His multi-layered artist albums and Sound of the Season mix compilations have been defining the genre for over two decades, and even today, he is constantly on the lookout for the next top tune to add to the highlights of his next set. At least, that's the case when he's not producing them himself as an artist or remixer. "Actually, it's always been part of my DNA to think ahead," and nothing had been further from his mind than looking back at his past, but when in spring of 2020 the international DJ circuit had to be scaled down to virtually zero, the 'restless traveler' suddenly had time. Time to stop and reflect on "how it actually was back then, at the very beginning of my career..."
"It was a great trip and with every track, beautiful memories came flooding back".
In the London apartment, he had just moved into, Sven has set up a "little music room", where he cocooned himself for several days, "to look way back for the first time and review my musical journey through the eighties, so to speak."
The interim result was six thematically oriented playlists with a grand total of 120 tracks from 'early 80s' to 'Balearic late 80s', together with excursions into afrobeat, European new wave, and EBM sounds and a few epochal techno/house tracks from the USA in between. From these 'Best of Sven Väth's favorites', the project What I Used To Play crystallized. Sven remembers how the Cocoon team reacted to his proposal: "They found the idea of making a compilation out of it MEGA from the beginning and everyone said 'Sven, go for it', but then, of course, the work really started, namely, to clear the rights and to get clean sounding masters of the up to 40-year-old tracks. There was also disappointment, of course. We couldn't clear certain titles because the rights holders in the USA had fallen out with each other or simply disappeared from the scene. In short, it wasn't easy, but now I can safely say we got the most important tracks."
Finally, after two years of research, curation, design, and administrative fine-tuning, the "little retrospective" from 1981 to 1990 is available. The exquisitely packaged, and three-kilo heavy box set is not only physically impressive, WIUTP is also the definitive record of Sven Väth's musical development. On each of the twenty-four sides of vinyl, you can trace track by track, what influenced him during which phase, and how he took off as a DJ from his parents' Queen's Pub straight into the spotlight at Dorian Gray. There and at Vogue (later OMEN), Sven became the style-defining player in the DJ booth that he still is today.
1981 - 1990: Future Sounds of Now
In the early eighties, the crowd in clubs like Vogue and Dorian Gray danced to what nowadays we call 'dance classics' - mainly disco, funk, soul, and chart pop. It was up to a new generation of DJs, including Sven Väth, the youngest protagonist in the Rhine-Main area at the time, to create their own club-ready music mix. Good new tracks and potential floor-fillers were rarities that had to be sought out and found, in order to prove oneself worthy.
Without MP3s, internet streaming, or other digital download possibilities, music didn't just gravitate to the DJ, instead, it had to be tracked down. In well-stocked record stores in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden or even in Amsterdam, London, or New York, Sven and friends sourced the material for countless magical nights. On WIUTP we can follow Sven's very personal journey through this wild, innovative era in which synth-pop, funk, hip-hop, and disco were successively replaced as 'club music' by house, techno, acid, and breakbeat. By the end of the decade, it was clear to see that these once exotic 'fringe' phenomena would soon become 'mass' phenomena.
Early 80s
Dirty Talk by the Italian-American duo Klein & M.B.O. represents the most innovative phase of the Italo-disco genre in the early eighties like no other track. Mario Boncaldo (I) and Tony Carrasco relied entirely on the original synthetic drum and percussion sounds of the Roland TR-808, coupled with the raunchy vocals of Rossana Casale and guitar accents of Davide Piatto. Of course, other tracks from this period were also influential in style, most notably Unit by Logic System, which worked as the perfect soundtrack to the laser lighting system at the legendary Dorian Gray club. With stomping beats and robotic rap interludes, Bostich by Yello also belongs on Sven's eternal playlist - after all, it caught the attention of Afrikaa Bambaataa, who invited the Swiss duo to perform at the Roxy in New York in 1983.
EBM Wave - Mid 80s
From today's point of view, the almost ten-minute-long, downtempo track Giant by Matt Johnson's band project The The, would probably not be considered an obvious club classic. However, a closer (re)listen reveals the rhythmic intricacies of the percussion overdubs by JG Thirlwell (aka Foetus) on Johnson's composition, and it becomes clear why this exceptional piece of music is one of Sven's absolute favorites. Other classics from this phase include Kaw-Liga by the mysterious The Residents, the hypnotic-synthetic Our Darkness by Anne Clark (and David Harrow), and last but not least, the somber, monotonous anthem Where Are You? by 16Bit, one of Sven Väth's projects together with Michael Münzing, Luca Anzilotti from 1986.
US House - Late 80s
You certainly can't talk about Chicago house without mentioning Frankie Knuckles. The resident DJ at the Warehouse not only gave the name to an entire genre, but also produced epochal floor fillers on the Trax label like the timeless Your Love, sung (and moaned) by Jamie Principle. Acid house protagonists Phuture also hail from Chicago, and on We Are Phuture (also released on Trax) we hear the chirping acid sounds of the legendary Roland TB-303 in full effect. Another featured classic is No UFO's by Detroit's Model 500 aka Juan Atkins, who is rightly considered the 'Godfather of Techno' even if the genre-defining track from 1985 still breathes with the spirit of hip-hop and electro from the first breakdance era.
Afrobeat
Le Serpent, by Algerian-born Abdelmadjid Guemguem, is a track that sounds completely different from everything else on WIUTP. Made in 1978, it's a monumental, rousing groove created without bass or synths, just with five congas! Even though Guem sadly passed away in 2021, his immortal, acoustic beats are understood all over the world and will continue to enrich many thousands of DJ sets for years to come. Another classic that not only Sven appreciates beyond measure is Hugh Masekela's Don't Go Lose it, Baby. In addition to being one of the most important jazz pioneers, the trumpeter and freedom fighter from Johannesburg was very experimental, integrating electronic sounds into his music in later years, in a similar vein to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Dutch jazz pianist Jasper van't Hof's afrobeat project Pili Pili has also aged well. The trance-like, almost sixteen-minute-long track of the same name, manages to fill a whole side on the seventh of twelve vinyl discs in the WIUTP box.
UK-US-Euro - Late 80s
Time for a change of scene, in the truest sense of the word, and from a musical perspective, this section is like landing on another planet. First up is Andrew Weatherall's classic remix of Primal Scream's Loaded, featuring the iconic Peter Fonda sample (lifted from the 1966 biker film Wild Angels) that came to personify the mood triggered by the British Second Summer of Love in the late eighties: "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, and we wanna get loaded...". This period also saw the emergence of M/A/R/R/S whose only single, 1987's Pump Up The Volume, became a club classic with support from DJ legend CJ Mackintosh. In this most eclectic of sections, we also encounter New York house and reggae producer Bobby Konders and his seminal Nervous Acid.
Balearic - Late 80s
Those who know him, know that Sven had already lost his heart to the 'magic island' of Ibiza as a teenager, so with that in mind, the WIUTP project couldn't end without a Balearic chapter. Inspired by Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4, the immortal, eponymously titled Sueño Latino belongs in there without question. Equally popular on the island was, and still is Break 4 Love by Raze, which thinking about it, would also fit perfectly into the house chapter. Last, but not least, there's an overdue reunion with Sven Väth himself, in his role as frontman of the successful Frankfurt trio OFF. Together with Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti (later of Snap!) this 'Organization For Fun' created the off-the-wall club hit Electric Salsa in 1986 which incidentally turned into an international chart smash, putting Sven in the enviable position of having to decide between pop stardom and a DJ career. Well, we all know how that decision turned out and the rest, as they say, is history. A not insignificant part of his story is What I Used To Play. Enjoy!
Glasgow’s Seated Records return with more archival Scottish New Wave material; this time, in the form of Pop Wallpaper’s disco-not-disco interpretation of the Shuggie Otis classic, “Strawberry Letter 23”. And interpretation is the right word, guitarist Evan Henderson confesses that the lyrics sang by Audrey Redpath on the record were, “err inaccurate due to pre-internet home recording translation”.
The Edinburgh band first released “Strawberry Letter 23” in 1986 as a double A side 12” alongside original song, “Nothing Can Call Me Back". The 1986 record’s sleeve states that the original - “Strawberry Letter 23" has been “re-modelled for special pleasures, namely on the dance floor”. Here the re-model has been re-modelled once more. The track is recontextualised for 2022 playing on a four track 12” that includes an unreleased instrumental demo version of the track, as well as mixes from label founder Pigeon Steve and close friend of the label, Useful Tom.
Wallpaper’s first EP “Over Your Shoulder” was released in 1984. The release received a considerable amount of radio support, not least from Radio 1’s John Peel and Janice Long, which culminated with a live session for Long’s show at the BBC’s studios in London. Released a couple of years later, Strawberry Letter received similar levels of radio play. Despite (much to the band’s confusion) being tracked by Motown UK at one point, Pop Wallpaper did not go on to receive commercial success and eventually went their separate ways.
“Strawberry Letter 23” sits in the singular historical, cultural context of mid-80s Britain. Following the explosion of punk at the end of the 1970s, in the 1980s many British bands began experimenting with new styles and instruments - always keeping an eye firmly on their punk roots. The loose percussion and synthesiser melodies have an almost new-age, balearic mood, while the falsetto vocals of singer Audrey Redpath are an unmistakable embodiment the Post-punk style of the time. The prominent bass-line suggests a reggae or disco inspiration, and bass player Myles Raymond admits that he obsessed over a Sly & Robbie Taxi records compilation around the time the band put the tune together.
This reissue includes an unreleased, unheard instrumental demo-version of the cover, “SL23”. The band recorded the demo during an nighter at Wilf’s Planet studios in Edinburgh, just after Wet Wet Wet had just finished up their own demo for “Wishing I Was Lucky” (Pop Wallpaper all insist they thought it would never be a hit). In this version, we hear the band messing around with drum machines and synths which, in a similar style to Kevin Low and Fiona Carlin on Seated 001, creates a stripped back dance floor work-out that bares almost no resemblance to any version of “Strawberry Letter 23”. In an attempt to emulate the Trevor Horne production style of the time, the band’s drummer Les Cook recalls pushing for more and more reverb on the drums during the session to a reluctant producer Chic Medley, who “eventually obliged, but needed a lot of persuading”. Much to Cook’s disappointment “the reverb was toned down when we got to the final release”.
On the B side, label boss Pigeon Steve delivers a dubbed-out and acid drenched, cosmic rendition of the track with “SL24”, before Useful Tom (son of Pop Wallpaper bass player Myles Raymond) brings the EP to an end with spacey de-construction of fractured vocals and gliding synths on the B2 with “SL25”.
"Sounds sublime" - Gilles Peterson
"What a delightful, excitingly beautiful album. From "At Once Familiar " all the way through to "Same as Before" everything song feels and sounds sonically glorious. A modern day classic" - Nightmares On Wax
Taking a short sabbatical from their journey into the spiritual stratosphere and beyond, Work Money Death landed on terra firma just long enough to record a follow up to the critically acclaimed "The Space In Which The Uncontrollable Unknown Resides Can Be The Place From Which Creation Arises". The new album "Thought, Action, Reaction, Interaction" explores many of the meditative motifs that mould this unique group in their quest for the perfect sound and space. Those who are familiar with Work Money Death will know their output is as much an adventure for the listener as it was for the musicians.
"Thought, Action, Reaction, Interactions" is a salute to the now sadly deceased master of the spiritual sound Pharoah Sanders, and in particular the spontaneity of his recording process.
Each of the four tracks on "Thought, Action, Reaction, Interaction" were recorded in one take with no rehearsal and while the players may have known where they were starting off none of them were sure where they would end. As much as it is entertainment, and have no doubt this LP is an unctuous, spirit-smoothing joy from beginning to end, this is an experiment of making music in the moment. Spontaneous and spiritual in its truest sense, "Thought, Action, Reaction, Interaction" is a work of innovation and unsurpassed beauty.
"At Once Familiar" is a rising salute to the day, meditative, moving and fierce. An introduction to Burkill's emotive style, at once sweeping and succinct. It fills a room, and your head, with a very real sound, rich in texture and spirit.
"Freedom As A Heartfelt Song" is buoyant with harp, the spirit of the Yorkshire Pharoah is never more to the fore. Visceral sax rides over and uplifting backing, symbiotic and pinioned with power and beauty. Think Sun Ra horns meets Don Ellis brass.
"Song Of Healing" drifts on a river of music, guided through the rapids with a heartbeat bass line. This is temple sombre, with Eastern flavours and an overarching calm. A communion of sound, a master class in the understatement and power of the slow note, deceptively light.
"Same As Before" is spoken word playing foil to the call and response of the brass, dancing alongside and against each other. Spiritual vibrations cement ethereal forms to substantive sounds. A prayer to change."
As with the previous Work, Money, Death release (which was recorded in difficult conditions due to the Covid pandemic) the aim was to recreate a situation, in this case the impromptu and unrehearsed recording sessions of Sanders in the late 60's and early 70's, everything recorded in one take, creating a body of work that is a strong nod to a certain time and ethos but not a pastiche of it.
““Sounds sublime””
Gilles Peterson — BBC6, WorldWideFM
““What a delightful, excitingly beautiful album. From “At Once Familiar “ all the way through to “Same as Before” everything song feels and sounds sonically glorious. A modern day classic””
Nightmares On Wax —
What humbly began as the amateur strums of a 10-year-old on the
ukulele, catapulted into an expansive 60-year long career that has taken Athens stalwart, Davis Causey, everywhere from playing with Marvin Gaye, Jerry Butler, and Jackie Wilson to Derek Trucks, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson, just to name a few
Next in the long line of his musical contributions is his second album on Strolling Bones Records: New Things From Old Strings, a perfect collection of songs that have followed him through time. This album is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to loving and making music or, in Davis' words, a great way to almost make a living! The album features old friends Randall Bramblett and Chuck Leavell plus a special appearance from Duane Allman's 1961 Gibson Les Paul
(SG).)This started out as a form of musical therapy to get through the pandemic, but soon became something more. Most songs began with just a chord progression and grew from there with the help of the other musicians. Some songs came fully formed while others had to be coaxed into existence. These songs reflect my many influences. From Chet Atkins and Johnny Smith to Duane Allman and Mark Knopfler to Martin Taylor and many others. My mom was a
great believer in me and my music being herself a writer. Once heard it said that if you steal from one source it's called plagiarism, but if you steal from a lot of sources it's called research. Consider me a researcher
Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into sixties rock. Her upstate New York environs don’t stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern.
Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production.
Like most paths of self-discovery, the journey started with displacement. In October 2019, Goodman set out to record the album on her own, while cat-sitting at a friend’s empty Brooklyn apartment. Rather than recording, she was drawn to the overgrown garden, where she spent her days listening to music and reading old journals. Charlie Megira, The Incredible String Band and Roy Montgomery invoked the spirit of the album, as she realized that a new, more collaborative approach would be necessary to bring the songs to life.
In March 2021, after a pandemic year immersed in sound experimentation and writing, she entered the upstate New York studio of recording engineer Rick Spataro (Florist). Together, Spataro and Goodman dove into creating the album, recording one song a day, letting the spark and excitement of spontaneity be their guide. “I've always been fascinated with ‘automatic’ arts,” Goodman says, “where things are created intuitively and without premeditation, from the subconscious.” In this light, they worked with abandon–pushing through the heaviness of songs written years earlier with the same energy as songs which were not yet fully developed. Taking chances, improvising, they sought to strip away pretense, and elude perfectionism at all cost.
Among their experiments, the duo manipulated tape speeds–slowing or speeding up different instrument tracks, imbuing passages with altered perspectives. Improvisation was the key in track five, ‘The Way,’ a song about “the magical act of carving out a path through life, amidst all possibility.” After a long day of recording, the song was feeling heavy and uninspired. As night fell, Spataro picked up the Stratocaster and, in one take, laid down a rolling, roiling guitar line that defined the track.
This spirit of surrender weaves through the album. “Break free from time, and sink in the pool of the mind,” begins ‘Garden of Delight’, an energetic highlight, propelled by 60’s-era organ and Jefferson Airplane-esque vocals. The song was accidentally deleted after the first day of recording. By luck or fate, the one surviving file captured the song’s loose and free-wheeling essence. Inspired, Goodman encouraged her circle of collaborators to work similarly: “I gave everyone trust and total freedom to contribute as they felt called to, encouraging an intuitive approach of simply improvising, playing through the song a few times and then sending over the results.” Synth, cello, violin, saxophone and flute all appear, but often in unconventional ways.
Keeper Is the Heart reflects Goodman’s process towards greater creative freedom. The first words she sings: “Lift the veil of all of this hate/To see the fear at its base.” Her last lines: “We’ll follow the fates across the great expanse of time/To the source of the light within our mind.” In between is a work of art awash in personal awakenings that revel in the freedom of intuition, the lifting of veils, and the beauty of transformation. As Goodman states, “What is it you find when you look inward to see beyond, past your fears, to your heart's true desires?”
New York’s very own JW Francis announces his brand new album ‘Dream House’ – his third with London based label Sunday Best Recordings. Coinciding with the announcement is the gloriously up-beat new single ‘Casino,’ which offers a glimpse into what to expect on his forthcoming feel-good LP. When JW isn’t writing songs about his own life or surreal imagery, he writes about other people – most notably around the month of February when he writes valentines songs on his fans’ behalf. ‘Dream House’ encapsulates all of this and forms a collection of glorious tracks written for other people: “Every year, about 6 weeks before Valentine’s Day, I make the following post on social media: “If you send me the name of your Valentine, and the reason you love them, I’ll write a song for them on your behalf.” That is how Dream House was born, 3 years ago. Over the past three years, I have received over 300 requests from fans to write songs for their loved ones. All of the songs on Dream House come from this project, some of them have been reworked to speak more to the artist’s life, others have remained exactly as they were first written. Ultimately, this is an album about caring for others, and the way we express it.” Written and recorded at the start of 2021 in NYC, ‘Dream House’ is slightly reminiscent of The Strokes and even has hints of Lou Reed, however the project is still quintessential JW Francis with its blissful melodies and dreamy instrumentation; perfectly fitting given the album’s title. Along with the announcement comes ‘Casino’, a track about pursuing your dreams, as JW explains, “This song is about taking a gamble on myself as a musician, quitting my job, and living the life I want to be living. The video explores the two lives I was living before I got the opportunity to follow my dreams and doing music full time.” ‘Dream House’ follows the hugely well received ‘WANDERKID’ and ‘We Share a Similar Joy’ and once again proves why JW is the king of laid-back and effortlessly cool song-making.
New York’s very own JW Francis announces his brand new album ‘Dream House’ – his third with London based label Sunday Best Recordings. Coinciding with the announcement is the gloriously up-beat new single ‘Casino,’ which offers a glimpse into what to expect on his forthcoming feel-good LP. When JW isn’t writing songs about his own life or surreal imagery, he writes about other people – most notably around the month of February when he writes valentines songs on his fans’ behalf. ‘Dream House’ encapsulates all of this and forms a collection of glorious tracks written for other people: “Every year, about 6 weeks before Valentine’s Day, I make the following post on social media: “If you send me the name of your Valentine, and the reason you love them, I’ll write a song for them on your behalf.” That is how Dream House was born, 3 years ago. Over the past three years, I have received over 300 requests from fans to write songs for their loved ones. All of the songs on Dream House come from this project, some of them have been reworked to speak more to the artist’s life, others have remained exactly as they were first written. Ultimately, this is an album about caring for others, and the way we express it.” Written and recorded at the start of 2021 in NYC, ‘Dream House’ is slightly reminiscent of The Strokes and even has hints of Lou Reed, however the project is still quintessential JW Francis with its blissful melodies and dreamy instrumentation; perfectly fitting given the album’s title. Along with the announcement comes ‘Casino’, a track about pursuing your dreams, as JW explains, “This song is about taking a gamble on myself as a musician, quitting my job, and living the life I want to be living. The video explores the two lives I was living before I got the opportunity to follow my dreams and doing music full time.” ‘Dream House’ follows the hugely well received ‘WANDERKID’ and ‘We Share a Similar Joy’ and once again proves why JW is the king of laid-back and effortlessly cool song-making.
A Quiet Normal Life: The Best Of Warren Zevon is a greatest hits album by American musician Warren Zevon released in 1986.
This compilation covers Zevon's four studio albums with Asylum Records. It was mastered by Barry Diament.
A Quiet Normal Life highlights the best of Warren Zevon's Asylum albums. Includes "Werewolves of London" and
Remixes by Moodymann, Potatohead People, Moodorama.
Kenny Dixon Jr. acuminates it deep and groovy, well, it’s his holy trademark sound. Potatohead People from Vancouver have been championed by Soulection, Nightmares on Wax, Questlove, Big Boi a.o. and have releases on Jellyfish Recordings, or NY label Bastard Jazz. The duo has worked with artists such as Moka Only, Kaytranada, Pomo, Phife Dawg a.o.
On top Moodorama’s remixes are trippy dubby jams. Moodorama have a long recording history, starting in the 90s on Stereo Deluxe, but even before that Martin Sennebogen was the DJ and co-producer of Knowtoryus, the legendary first hip hop outfit on Compost.
Inkswel & Colonel Red started out writing together more than decade ago & over the time have developed quite a unique sound when recording together,..a chemistry that blends music melody & lyric into every verse chorus & hook. So when Inkswel approached Colonel Red to create the 'Holders of the Sun' album, Redz response was to move his hectic schedule around & start immediately. Inkswel dropped the beats Colonel Red dropped the vocals & some fine musical tuning & 'Holders Of The Sun' Vol1 was born….while they promise a Vol. 2.
The fantastic artwork comes from Our Machine, Netherlands, who designed a lot of sleeves for Kindred Spirit, Tom Trago, Versatile, Build An Arc and m.o.
Colonel Red is a groundbreaking soul singer, musician, producer and performer, often referred to as one of the most powerful voices in the UK soul music community, a champion in equal parts of the original Broken Beat scene, as well as the UK soul scene. Working with and writing for the likes of Teddy Pendergrass, Amp Fiddler, Maurice White, Bugz In The Attic, Tony Allen and countless others. His track 'Belive In Me' was awarded the WORLDWIDE award from Gilles Peterson in 2014.
Colonel Red’s foray into the music industry began when Epic Record company giant Sylvia Rhone signed the then lead singer, Nikki Romillie, of Pride n’ Politix, to Atlantic Records. An accompanying publishing deal with Warner Bros. established the artiste, now known as Colonel Red, as one of the UK’s top cutting edge singer/songwriters.
Inkswel has been heralded as one of the busiest and most prolific beat based producers from Australia, a true master of his craft he has worked with the likes of Talib Kweli, Lee Scratch Perry, Andrew Ashong, Dwight Trible, Amp Fiddler and countless others as well as putting out timeless musical projects on labels such as BBE, Sonar Kollekiv, Rush Hour, Warner Music, Boogie Angst and others. He hovers evenly between Hip Hop and Club sensibilities, blending new age approaches with nostalgic leans. 'Holders of The Sun' is the audio melting pot of two musical aliens, future directive soul music drenched in the nostalgia of what once was.
Meg Baird’s songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the
medium. With ‘Furling’, Meg’s fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of
her musical fascinations and the environments around them - the edges of memory,
daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under
stars. ‘Furling’ moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a
dream - guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable.
Since co-founding the beguiling and beautiful Espers in the mid-aughts amid Philadelphia’s
fertile underground music community, Meg’s solo recordings have constituted just a fraction of
her work.
Her first solo LP, the disarmingly out-of-time ‘Dear Companion’ (2007), saw her carve a quiet,
sunlit space away from the flickering swirl of Espers. Since her last solo releases, ‘Seasons on
Earth’ (2011) and ‘Don’t Weigh Down the Light’ (2015), Meg has lent thunderous drumming,
lead vocal, and poetry to Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop) on an album that garnered praise from the
New York Times and made Mojo’s Top Ten Albums Of 2016 list. She collaborated with harpist
Mary Lattimore on the mesmerizingly hazy ‘Ghost Forests’ (2018). She’s played drums with
Philadelphia scuzz-punks Watery Love (In The Red, Richie Records) and explored her deep
familial folk roots in the Baird Sisters (Grapefruit Records). She also contributed her vocal
arrangements to albums from Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Will Oldham and Steve Gunn, and
toured with Angel Olson, Dinosaur Jr., Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore and Bert Jansch, among
others.
Yet ‘Furling’ is the album that most irreverently explores the span of her work and musical
touchstones. It showcases her natural tether to 1960s English folk traditions. But it also reveals
her deep love for soul balladry, the solitary musings of Flying Saucer Attack and Neil Young
shackled to his piano deep in the foggy pre-dawn, dubby Bristol atmospherics, the melancholy
memory collage of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, and the delicious, Saturday night promise of
St. Etienne.
‘Furling’ was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green (Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses,
Melvins, Wooden Shjips). Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic
Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever (Papercuts). It was mastered in Brooklyn by
Heba Kadry, who mixed Bjork’s ‘Utopia’ and mastered albums for Slowdive, Cass McCombs
and Beach House.
For all its adornments, ‘Furling’ remains deeply intimate. The entire album was performed by
Meg and her long-time collaborator, partner, and Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley.
While her prior solo work hinted at more expansive horizons, ‘Furling’ explores the idea of Meg
Baird as a band much more freely. Venturing beyond the musical confines of fingerstyle guitar,
she plays drums, mellotron, organs, synths, and vibraphone over her piano and guitar
foundations. Her distinctive, simultaneously elegiac and uplifting vocals, meanwhile, connect
surreal dream montages, graft sunshine sonics to swooning mediations on romantic solidarity
in trying times, and weave odes to the simple gestures of friendship - and the loss of family and
friends.
This rich sound world makes the songs a varied bunch: ‘Twelve Saints’ mates Pacific sunset
ambience and Pink Floyd pastoral to a meditation on mortality and escape. The infectious and
kinetic ‘Will You Follow Me Home’ contemplates hope and longing through the looking glass of
a Jimmy Miller-era-Stones strut. And in the closing piece, ‘Wreathing Days’, language
disintegrates over tone clusters that feel somewhere between falling and flying.
‘Wreathing Days’ also reveals much about Meg’s mastery of contrast - situating the dear and
delicate adjacent to chaos. And while it’s true that some songs on ‘Furling’ grapple with
humanity’s existential unknowns in stark terms, they primarily revel in the mysteries that hide in
nature and humanity at their most ordinary. ‘Furling’ lives in the notion that whole universes of
experience, enlightenment, elation and ecstasy can bloom in these corners.
* 2022 Repress ** Profondo Nero compiled by Cinema Royale
Profondo Nero narrates a storyline that goes beyond the borders of Italy’s musical legacy. Cutting across the face of Italo disco’s leftfield musicians between the early and late ‘80s, Profondo Nero champions a multi-faceted sound that nods to the blueprint of Italo disco but tries to dig deeper. The music is unmistakably Italo disco but moves away from the familiar classic sound. Amsterdam based collector Cinema Royale stitches together eleven tracks from 1983 – 1989, celebrating a sound he fittingly describes as ‘leftfield Italo’.
The compilation connects the dots between soulful disco (Louise Freeman – Mirage), synth-pop (Mark – Dreamland), electro-rap (Loukas Thanos – Jazzburger), breaks (Santoro – Lover Message), 80s dub disco (Jet Set – Love Break), Balearic (Isamar & Compañia - No Estas), boogie (Tom Hooker – Talk With Your Body) and proto-house (International Music System - An English ’93).
Profondo Nero’s title salutes the legendary oeuvre of Italian horror director Dario Argento. His Profondo Rosso (1975) is a classic example of exquisite cinematic storytelling, boasting courageous colors, expressionist camera angles and an unforgettable Goblin score forming the ingredients for an intriguing piece of art. Profondo Rosso’s music, created the spark for a new Dekmantel Records endeavor led by Amsterdam based experimental film score connoisseur, record collector and DJ Cinema Royale.
For those in the know of underground Amsterdam music culture, Arne Visser aka Cinema Royale is among the city’s longest standing record collectors. Born to an Italian mother and Dutch father, Arne was brought up on a diet of Italo disco in the 80s. Cinema Royale explains: ‘For Profondo Nero I took a plunge into the lesser known fringes of Italo disco. From there I tried to connect, among others, San Francisco boogie, Balearic, Japanese late era Italo-electro and synth-pop funk. I hope you can hear what I had in mind: an infectious showcase of my take on traditional Italo disco that will hopefully get a lot of listeners itching for a spin. It’s fair to say that lately this particular sound has seen a reappraisal and renewed interest.
As a party-starting collection for entry-level connoisseurs or suave but lazy types, I hope Profondo Nero can be an education. I’m not claiming I’m the first DJ or collector to do so, but I did try do present something special by digging deep.’ It wasn’t my goal to unearth the most obscure tracks, instead I wanted to compose a compilation that takes you on a journey.
‘In my opinion the best DJs create something extraordinary out of illogical selections by combining music against all odds and showing different kind of moods along the way. There’s a certain amount of arrogance involved: you take the music out of its original context. But by doing so in a very conscious way, you might be able to enhance the power of the individual records. Hopefully each song on Profondo Nero provides an intimate and memorable experience.’
Vol.3[11,56 €]
Booty Haul returns to Alloy Cuts with more of his Boom Bap goodness. Blending multiple choice samples and breaks, most notably the Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long”, to create a hip hop instrumental that sounds like it was forged in a NYC basement in the mid-90s.
This time Mr Haul draws for a ragga acapella on the A Side, clashing with the Canadian Dancehall Queen “Carla Marshall” and her 1990 hit “Champion”.
Violet Vinyl[25,84 €]
For nearly 60 years, John Cale has been reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. MERCY, Cale’s first full album in a decade, moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic torment toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; MERCY is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.
John Cale announces MERCY, his first new album of original songs in a decade, out January 20th via Double Six / Domino. For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and formed The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. There was the bewitching chamber folk of Paris 1919 followed instantly by the gnarled rock of Fear, the provocative and spare song cycle Music for a New Society followed more than 30 years later by mighty and unabashed electronic updates. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronics toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future.
On MERCY, Cale enlists some of music’s most curious young minds: Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress. They’re only some of the astounding cast here, brilliant musicians who climb inside Cale’s consummate vision of the world and help him redecorate there. Cale turned 80 in March, and he’s watched as many peers have passed away, particularly during the last decade. MERCY is the continuation of a long career’s work with wonder. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; MERCY is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.
The writings and recordings that shaped MERCY piled up for years, as Cale watched society totter at the brink of dystopia. Trump and Brexit, Covid and climate change, civil rights and right-wing extremism—Cale let the bad news of the day filter into his lines, whether that meant contemplating the sovereignty and legal status of sea ice melting near the poles or the unhinged arming of Americans. Lessons from a life (still being) richly lived floated to the fore, too, nodded to on the previously released “NIGHT CRAWLING.” If we’re always regretting our past, aren’t we conscripting ourselves to permanent disappointment?
During “STORY OF BLOOD,” after the piano prelude gives way to a frame-rattling beat and synthesizers that feel like sunshine splashed across a snowfield, the voices of Cale and Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering slide past one another, two phantoms trying to find a partner amid the modern din. “Swing your soul,” they both sing in aspiration. In the final verse, Cale remembers this existence is not just about himself. “I’m going back to get them, my friends in the morning. Bring them with me into the light.” The accompanying video by Emmy-winning director Jethro Waters is a mix of disturbing and serene featuring both Cale and Weyes Blood. Its deep tones and religious images emphasize the track’s dark, spiritual mood.
Cale elaborates: “I’d been listening to Weyes Blood’s latest record and remembered Natalie’s puritanical vocals. I thought if I could get her to come and sing with me on the ‘Swing your soul’ section, and a few other harmonies, it would be beautiful. What I got from her was something else! Once I understood the versatility in her voice, it was as if I’d written the song with her in mind all along. Her range and fearless approach to tonality was an unexpected surprise. There’s even a little passage in there where she’s a dead-ringer for Nico.”
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cloud Nothings' seminal album, Attack On Memory, the band has announced a very special limited edition vinyl pressing. 3000 copies worldwide.
It’s housed in a foil jacket with all new colorized artwork, is pressed on Sky Blue vinyl, and includes two bonus flexi 7"s with two never-before-released tracks, "You Will Turn" and "Jambalaya" from the original sessions at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio.
In 2009, Cleveland’s Dylan Baldi began writing and recording lo-fi power-pop songs in his parents’ basement, dubbing the project Cloud Nothings. His music quickly started making the Internet rounds, and fans and critics alike took note of his pithy songcraft, infectiously catchy melodies, and youthful enthusiasm. Baldi soon released a string of 7”s, a split cassette, and an EP before putting out Turning On—a compilation spanning about a year’s worth of work—on Carpark in 2010. January 2011 saw the release of Cloud Nothings’ self- titled debut LP, which, put next to Turning On, found Baldi cleaning up his lo-fi aesthetic, pairing his tales of affinitive confusion with a more pristine aural clarity. In the interval since the release of Cloud Nothings, Baldi has toured widely and put a great deal of focus on his live show, a detail that heavily shapes the music of his follow-up album, Attack on Memory.
After playing the same sets nightly for months on end, Baldi saw the rigidity of his early work, and he wanted to create arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road. To accomplish this desired malleability, the entire band decamped to Chicago—where the album was recorded with Steve Albini—and all lent a hand in the songwriting process. The product of these sessions is a record boasting features that, even at a glance, mark a sea change in the band’s sound: higher fidelity, a track clocking in at almost nine minutes, an instrumental, and an overall more plaintive air. The songs move along fluidly, and Baldi sounds assured as he brings his vocals up in the mix, allowing himself to hold out long notes and put some grain into his voice. Minor key melodies abound, drums emphatically contribute much more than mere timekeeping, and the guitar work is much more adventurous than that of previous releases.
For all of early Cloud Nothings’ fun and fervor, Baldi admits that it never sounded like most of the music he listens to. With Attack on Memory, he wanted to remedy this anomaly, and in setting out to do so, Baldi and co. created an album that showed vast growth for a very young band.
Hot off the heels of Official UK no.1 and soundtrack to the first summer after lockdown Afraid To Feel, skyrocketing duo LF SYSTEM satisfy fans' cravings for a powerful disco anthem with follow-up single Hungry (For Love).
Still relishing in the success of Afraid To Feel, the duo have now earned over 150M total global streams, landed Clara Amfo’s ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1 and certified Platinum, all before being crowned the Official UK no.1 after rocketing past Beyonce, Harry Styles, Drake, George Ezra and knocking Kate Bush off the no.1 spot.
Remaining there for eight consecutive weeks as the longest running no.1 record of 2022 behind Harry Styles, Afraid To Feel is the longest running dance no.1 in chart history, matching Calvin Harris’ One Kiss and cementing the nation’s appetite for a credible dance smash.
Now set to share a slice of Scotland across the UK with their new release, LF SYSTEM will host the ultimate pattie parties with pop up raves at independent fast food chains across Edinburgh, Manchester, and London. Meanwhile, later this month LF SYSTEM will give 100 fans a chance to hear Hungry (For Love) for the first time in an exclusive live set at Metropolis Studios with a special vinyl pressing that features Afraid To Feel on the b side, marking the first time the smash hit will be available on vinyl since its release.
For Conor Larkman and Sean Finnigan of LF SYSTEM, their success follows humble beginnings in the Scottish countryside, playing football against each other as teenagers on rival teams and raving at Scotland’s best clubs. They give credit for their dance hits to home village parties, soundtracked by Motown where Sean's Dad would share classic 70s records with them to dig into. Naturally, LF SYSTEM soon dropped disco edits of their own in 2020 including Dancing Cliché, which Danny Howard discovered and played for nine weeks on his BBC R1 show, earning over 4M streams and further plays from Sarah Story and Charlie Hedges.
Since then they have captured the attention of the whole industry and have played a bucket list headline Boiler Room set in Edinburgh, marking a full circle moment for the lads who were previously club residents for its promoters FLY CLUB. Continuing a flourishing tour schedule across the summer, LF SYSTEM graced BBC Radio 1’s Dance Party Weekend in Ibiza, played b2b with Danny Howard at Amnesia and sold out their first headline show at Night Tales in London.
Hungry for their next anthem, LF SYSTEM demonstrates a soaring dexterity of two ambitious producers deep in their creative prime, now whisking up a weapon exuding vibrancy and disco-edged orchestral joy. Sampling Sandy Gang’s bubbly 70s record Hungry and featuring warm sonic textures blended with rousing strings, Hungry (For Love) is set to leave fans drooling for more.
Over the last decade-and-a-half, C Joynes has ploughed a singular furrow through solo guitar, with a body of work incorporating English folk-tunes alongside North & West African music, and lifting proto-minimalist and improvised techniques from the European classical and avant-garde traditions.
His new release, ‘Poor Boy On The Wire’, is his first full album dedicated wholly to the electric guitar. Through a typically wide-ranging set, Joynes exploits the instrument’s potential by placing intricate parlour music alongside overdriven garage blues throw-downs, wiry electric folk and the brittle ringing tones of free improvisation. However, these explorations of the tones and timbres of close-mic’d guitars and amplification retain an overall coherence and unity through the deliberate use of a limited palette of budget instruments and vintage equipment.
With ‘Poor Boy On The Wire’, Joynes has released 9 albums to date, including ‘The Borametz Tree’ (2019), recorded with long-term fellow travellers Dead Rat Orchestra, and ‘The Wild Wild Berry’, a collaboration with singer Stephanie Hladowski (MOJO Top 5 Folk Albums 2012, fROOTS Editors Choice Album Of The Year 2012). He has played extensively across the UK, Europe and the USA, sharing bills with performers including: Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Marc Ribot, Alasdair Roberts, Richard Dawson, Jack Rose, Josephine Foster, Sir Richard Bishop, Six Organs Of Admittance and 75 Dollar Bill.
“As much Conlon Nancarrow and Ali Farka Toure as Blind Lemon Jefferson, the compositional mind at work here can take apparently disparate threads of modernism and ethnic tradition and treat them as though they were all archaic blues styles learnt from dusty 78s.”
BRUCE RUSSELL, THE WIRE
“An inheritor to Davy Graham; a lone operator prone to unexpected collaborations, with a repertoire that crosses continents and timezones with consummate ease, and dashed off with a phenomenal, yet lightly applied technique.”
ROB YOUNG, THE WIRE
“His epigrammatic re-castings and re-readings of widely-travelled folk melodies and rhythms from a variety of traditions suggest shared memories that might be intensely universal while seeming strangely out of reach.”
KEVIN MACNEIL BROWN, DUSTED MAGAZINE
The Belgian minimal synth band's three releases – a cassette and two vinyl EPs – were all titled »Against The Dark Trees Beyond«. This compilation collects the songs from these records.
"They were interesting times, the early eighties. Against a backdrop of cold war and economic crises, the DIY attitude of the earlier punk movement had spawned near countless new genres where artists and bands broke the three-chord guitar mould and experimented with new content matter, singular song structures and – in many cases – new instruments. Synthesizers became affordable and were no longer the sole privilege of rock millionaires. All around the globe, musical creativity boomed as never before, and Belgium was no exception: Digital Dance, Snowy Red, The Names, Pseudocode, Marine, 1000 Ohm, De Kommeniste, M.Bryo & D.M.T., De Brassers, Struggler, Siglo XX are but a few legendary names of bands and artists who started making a name for themselves.
In Leuven, things were happening as well. Until then, the music scene in this rather provincial town had been dominated by straightforward rock and blues acts. Not for much longer, though: in places like Arno'z and (later) The Gladhouse, where young budding artists met with kindred spirits, bands were often formed on the spot and, more importantly, started to make ripples.
Ludo Camberlin and Karel 'Bam' Saelemaekers already had a certain track record in Leuven's burgeoning music microcosm. But what they shared would become the cornerstone of A Blaze Colour (Against The Dark Trees Beyond): a fascination for new forms and instruments, a penchant for sonic adventure and a profound love for gripping songs. The full band name, by the way, was inspired by a phrase from the Irish-American novelist J.P. Donleavy, a writer who belongs in the definitely-worth-checking-out section.
After appearing on the first No Big Business LP (1981) with the instrumental 'Fisk', A Blaze Colour's first proper release, as was so often the case in those days, was a self-produced cassette. The music – which would later be dubbed 'minimal' – was characterized by the use of basic rhythm machines (Boss Dr. 55, mainly) and analog synthesizers (for the synth geeks: Korg Delta and MS20, Roland SH-2 and Jupiter IV, and the infamous Casio VL-1). Camberlin’s vocals, meanwhile, displayed an aloofness totally in sync with the zeitgeist. Equally important, though: all five tracks on this cassette were bona fide songs with a clear sense of structure, aided by a sonic mastery that demonstrated a high level of experience: 'Means To An End' started out as a proto-industrial track before bursting out into a moroderesque finale. The remix of 'Fisk' was as sprightly as the next river salmon, while 'Or Lie Again' proved the perfect soundtrack to a nightly walk through wet deserted streets. On the other hand, 'Through With Life', rife with disturbing sound effects countered by a slow portamento, could have been a prize track on a post punk 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. And in true dramatic fashion, 'Follow The Signs' was the perfect ending of this five-song cycle: a driving sequencer and gripping chord progression coupled with a simple but powerful vocal line. Considering the limited technical means the duo was working with, this was no less than a triumph.
A few months later, the band released a seven-inch single on its own ABLACO label. 'Dark Trees Beyond', a quirky pop song, was coupled with 'Addict Of Time', a dark and brooding spoken word piece. Not the kind of single to storm hit parades, but it didn't go unnoticed. The Minny Pops' Wally van Middendorp, who had founded the Plurex label in 1978, invited A Blaze Colour to his studio in the Netherlands, to record an EP. It would prove to be a massive step forward: recording in a semi-professional studio offered great possibilities, the recently acquired TR-808 drum machine allowed for a broader rhythm palette, and the three new tracks (next to the re-recording of 'Through With Life') showed a band on the top of their game: 'The New Ones' was a wry and haunting song built around a live drum loop and an ominous bass pattern, while 'Nowhere Else' was a near-pop track with very un-minimal vocal harmonies. And it's a mystery why 'Altitude' – another instrumental – was never used in a stylized, high-profile detective soundtrack.
Another song from these sessions, the revved-up 'Cold As Ever' turned up on the high-profile Plurex "Hours" compilation, where it shone brightly, next to songs of a.o. X-Mal Deutschland, Nasmak, Minny Pops and Section XXV.
Meanwhile, Camberlin had already carved out a bit of a reputation for himself as a producer, while Saelemaekers was a respected graphic designer. It remains uncertain if this played a big part in the end of A Blaze Colour, but the fact remains: as studio recordings go, 'The Ultimate Fight' on the "No Big Business 2" compilation, was to be their swan song. What a way to go, though: maybe their best song ever, this was a synthetic bastard funk groove, complete with shout-out chorus and punch-drunk middle-eight. It shut a door, for sure, but it did so with a resounding bang.
So there it is and there it was. Short, sweet, visionary, pioneering and highly influential. And as anybody listening to this first ever compilation will be able to assess probably one of the most colourful electronic acts of its time.
On a more a personal note, A Blaze Colour proved to be instrumental in my own coming of age as a lyric writer, when Ludo and Bam graciously adopted some of my earlier writings, warts and all. To hear them translated into songs was no less than magic, and it certainly gave me the confidence to start our own band a bit later. And the magic continued when Ludo became our producer and Bam designed our record sleeves. But that’s another story, obviously. Because this is the place and the time to dive back into the wondrous world of A Blaze Colour!"
Bart Azijn (Aimless Device)
"Meat. The story needs meat. (And blood ... coagulated blood (Gore)). The substance we are seeking here lies beyond the bare bones of fact, thewhen and the where (founded in 1988, Mülheim an der Ruhr) or personneland instruments (a trio since 2016, built around keyboards, saxophone, bass & drums). The story is more than the sum of its facts. Mysteries may very well lurk here or there along the way. What keeps the final two foundermembers going after all this time Do Morten Gass and Robin Rodenberg have skeletons locked in their closets How dearly we would we love to know the answer to that one, alas the most beautiful puzzles tend to remain unsolved.Including their debut Gore Motel' (1994), BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE have amassed an impressive eight longplayers. Four album titles allude to the night - their debut was followed by Midnight Radio' (1995), Sunset Mission' (2000), and Black Earth' (2002), whilst the most recent instalment carried the name Piano Nights' (2014). The nocturnal quartet was punctuated by Geisterfaust' (2005), Dolores' (2008) and a mini-album entitled Beileid' (2011), adding rather eerie overtones to the after hours ambience. The BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE legend has grown stronger both at home and abroad with every record they have released and every show they have played. Strange as it may seem, there is a uniform consistency to their reception. Whatever the band does, critiques are unfailingly positive, yet repetitious. References, links and associations recur almost word for word. Consider the arrival of Christoph Clöser in 1997, by way of illustration. When he joined the group, his saxophone replaced the departing Reiner Henseleit's guitar as one of the defining instruments in the band. This was arguably the sharpest break in their sound to this day and a significant marker in terms of the band's reverence for Dutch instrumentalists GORE (the clue is in the name), whose repetitive riffs paved the way for how the guitar would be deployed in a post-everything future. Nevertheless, this fissure in the BOHREN continuum has barely merits a mention in the greater scheme of things. Similarly conspicious by their absence in the BOHREN chronicles are the numerous instruments which they added to the mix - vibraphone, organ, tuba, bass trombone to name just a few. The introduction of choirs at least had a clear visual impact. Since Thorsten Benning left at the end of 2015, the band has continued as a trio, sharing shifts on the drums (although they have equipped themselves with mechanical brushes). A decrease in personnel was conversely accompanied by quantum leaps forward in the group's musical development - or more precisely, minor adjustments triggered major effects. Such changes may not get any easier to spot in the future, such is the intensity of internal imagery sparked by the music, a maelstrom of distractions so powerful that its promises are too sweet and too dangerous in equal measure. The music of BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE opens up remarkable rooms of association, from a warm burrow to a pristine secret lodge, from a
dusky woodland tavern to a smoky quayside dive. Individual and collective floods of images rush forth irresistibly. Loneliness is not at all problematic: empty multi-storey car parks, nighttime drives, remote bridges to nowhere. All in your mind. This is the temptation, a sweet, guilt-free addiction. It's all in your mind - and only there. These sinister crackling songs are invitations to secrete oneself in darkness. With track titles such as 'Maximum Black', 'Zombies Never Die' or 'Dandys Lungern Durch Die Nacht', the mind wanders inexorably into filmic spaces.
Echoing the masters of midnight cinema, stories evolve all by themselves. As the American Film Noir Foundation observed so smartly: 'the vivid co-mingling of lost innocence, doomed romanticism, hard-edged cynicism, desperate desire, and shadowy sexuality.' Their definition of Film Noir serves just as well as an appraisal of the group, 'Bohren For Beginners'.
Which says it all really, doesn't it A final word of warning! Sources close to the band describe the double CD
released in October 2016 as a gateway drug to the Bohren universe. Enter at your own risk, some have never found their way out again."(by Lars Brinkmann)
Rising from the berliner underground, Longhair have earned with the years a notorious reputation on the scene supported by some of our favourite imprints. Amsterdam's Italo-tastemakers "Bordello a Parigi", "Permanent Vacation" and Paramida's "Love on the Rocks" have found a place for the trance-spacey sound of the berliner based duo.
"Axis Mundi" is a space oddity that rises from our living room all the way to the solar system, Earth, Saturn and Pluto until the end of the Galaxy, no borders, the limit is set by yourself. Hammering and corrosive basslines, full of small little details and shining hidden stars in form of brilliant melodies that will make an exciting journey thru the Milky way.
Longhair show here their great versatility blending different subgenres that vary from Indie dance, leftfield house, Nu-Disco and everything in between and adding their particular cosmic touch and some trancy elements. A record that will work great either at the club wearing our favourite dancing shoes or chilling at home at our sofa.
Get ready for a cosmic trip, to the infinity and beyond..
