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The wait is finally over. The greatest living female voice in African music, Oumou Sangare releases a new album "Mogoya" (meaning "people today") on a new record label with an all-new production team and a wonderful new set of songs.

The power of Oumou's voice and the potency of her message remain as strong as ever and, while her sound is rooted deep in the continuity of Malian tradition, Mogoya has a strong new sound. Co-produced by Andreas Unge in Stockholm and by the French production collective A.l.b.e.r.t. (who have worked with among others Air, Tony Allen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Beck, Franz Ferdinand) in Paris, it draws on a rich musical heritage whilst also looking to the future.

"We wanted to emphasise the raw power of Oumou's voice and songs. We wanted to find a new modernity" says co-producer Ludovic Bruni, one of the three members of A.l.b.e.r.t. with Vincent Taurelle and Vincent Taeger.

On the album, traditional African instruments - the kamele n'goni (harp), karignan (metal scraper) and calabash percussion - are augmented by electric guitar, bass, keyboards and synths with Tony Allen on drums. As Oumou puts it, "This time round I wanted to go for more of a modern sound, to satisfy young people in Mali but being careful, all the while, to respect my culture and tradition".

The songs describe what Oumou knows best human relationships. She addresses difficult topics with incredible frankness - jealousy, ingratitude and betrayal never afraid to sing about the day-to-day problems faced by African society, particularly women.

Oumou has a high international profile, touring all over the world, collaborating with artists such as Alicia Keys, Tracy Chapman, Bela Fleck and Dee Dee Bridgewater and featuring on the soundtrack of Toni Morrison's Beloved. She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation and has three businesses in Mali a range of SUVs called 'Oum-Sang', a hotel in Bamako and 'Oumou Sangare 769, Rice', grown in her own fields.

She has released six albums on the World Circuit label: Moussolou, meaning "women"(1990), Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996), Oumou (2003), Seya (2009) and Kounadi (2012).

Music is at the absolute centre of Oumou's life: "without it I'm nothing and nothing can take it from me" and Mogoya represents an exciting new chapter in her career, something which she approaches with a mixture of boldness, humility and confidence."It was new for me because my music has never had this kind of arrangement and sound before. I've been totally in the tradition for years now so to get out of that and have a look around elsewhere was a total pleasure," Oumou Sangare.

Berlin based Mannequin Records pushes out some proper Industrial/EBM bangers. Raised in Pescara on the Adriatic Coast and ow based in Frankfurt am Main Antonio Barbetta is debuting on Death of the Machines as Raw Ambassador.
The heavy four track ep is created to burn every dancefloor with full Industrial vibes and a lot of EBM influences, giving us a small insight into his violent and rough sound. Antonio is also running the Smashing Tape record label, with releases from Violet Poison, Innsyter, DJ Loser and Delivery. TIP!!!

Record Kicks proudly presents "A little taste of Soul" / Unwind Yourelf" a little appetizer of the much awaited new album by James Brown's protégée Martha High produced and recorded in Tokyo by mighty Osaka Monaurail. This 45 vinyl is limited to 500 copies worldwide and anticipates Martha High's forthcoming new album "Tribute to my soul Sisters".

The "funky diva" Martha High has been an integral part of James Brown's life and career for more than 30 years. After a lifetime spent shoulder to shoulder with the Godfather of Soul, she flew to Tokyo and teamed up with Japanese funk ambassadors Osaka Monaurail to pay homage to the great Soul Sisters of the JB Revue.

Born in Victoria, Virginia and discovered by rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley, Martha took off her career with soul band The Jewels, with whom she scored the national hit 'Opportunity" in 1964. Soon The Jewels caught the attention of James Brown in the same year the group joined the "James Brown Revue". Martha stayed with James Brown and continued to work with him as his personal vocalist for 32 years. Mr.Brown produced several Martha's singles on his own label "People" such as "Georgy Girl", "Try Me" and "Summertime",meanwhile Martha launched her solo career in 1979 with the self-titled debut LP for "Salsoul Records". Since then she released five albums under her name and, being one of the "hardest working ladies in the show business", she became as well the lead singer of the legendary funky music machine Maceo Parker. Throughout her career Martha shared stages worldwide with some iconic artists like Little Richard, Jerry lee Lewis, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson and George Clinton to name a few.

2024 Repress

Hotel Record is the second release from the duo/couple of crys cole and Oren Ambarchi, following on from Sonja Henies Vei 31 (Planam, 2014). Where their debut recording presented a disquieting portrait of the erotic dimension of romantic intimacy, the follow-up continues to explore the pair's simultaneously musical and romantic relationship in a more subtle fashion, presenting four long-form pieces that touch on the variety of forms the life of this couple takes: as a musical duo, as a pair of travelers to exotic locations, as opponents in a game of cards...
Each of the double LP's four sides presents a distinct sound-world, yet each manages to attain the same suspended, half-sleeping feeling, outlining a space where improbable combinations of the electronic and the acoustic, of extreme closeness and amorphous distance, occur with the gentle insistence of a dream.
The opening Call Myself calmly unfolds a fabric of long tones from electronic organ and guitar, combining the sliding, aleatoric effects of classic David Behrman with a more hands-on feel. Over the top of this slowly shifting tonal bed, cole's voice mutters unintelligibly into a Buchla synth, teasing the listener by suggesting a meaning that remains always out of the ear's reach. Francis Debacle (Uno) builds on the foundations of a heavily amplified session of the titular card game, overlaying vocal murmurs and exhalations and mysterious room-sounds to create an impossible aural environment. On Burrata, a palette of vintage 1980s digital synthesizer sounds combined with guitars create an irregular texture of lush chords and bubbling melodic details, into which cole's voice processed by a vocoder, is interwoven, reading fragments of romantic correspondence. Finally, on Pad Phet Gob, field recordings made in Thailand become an ambiguously acoustic/electronic rainforest, eventually giving way to a mysterious, wavering electronic tone-field punctuated by sibilant, popping mouth-sounds.
Carving out an intimate and human sonic space across a diverse array of compositional approaches, sound sources, fidelities and textures, Hotel Record is the latest dispatch from the continuing explorations of a unique duo. Ambarchi and cole reimagine electro-acoustic music, not simply as 'abstract' sound, but as a diary, a love poem, a dream.
Deluxe gatefold sleeve with photography by crys cole and LP design via Stephen O'Malley
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin February 2017

Rune returns on his own Drum Island imprint, this time very ably assisted by UK House turned ambient ambassador Chris Coco
Weekend Billionaires, in its original form is a delightfully lolloping Balearic builder.The Chris Coco Sunshine mix immerses those guitar licks and synth pads in a sea of dubbed out, ultra-violet light. Already rumoured to be included on Harvey's eagerly awaited Mercury Rising comp. Anton Klint (Tryck & Ton / Public Possession) steps up on the flip with a no-less psychedelic, but decidedly more laser-lit interpretation.
Finally Alta Lab wraps things up with a pacier interpretation, Housing up the elements into a hypnotic, emotive rendition...
Quite a package

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Reverse Tree, the new LP from the acclaimed duo of Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney, two musicians who have established themselves as powerful voices working at a unique intersection of contemporary composition, improvisation, and Asian traditional music forms. Either individually or as a pair, they have worked in contexts ranging from performances of traditional Persian and Javanese music to collaborations with Sunn O))), but their work together as a duo (documented on The face of the earth and Aestuarium, both released on Ideological Organ/Editions Mego) most clearly represents the central concerns of their diverse practices: a music of the inner life of sound, demanding ritualistic focus and promising heightened sensations.
On Reverse Tree, the duo expand their work together into the realm of the chamber ensemble, presenting two side-long works that feature Kenney's voice and Kang's viola alongside a multitude of other instrumentalists. Kang's Thoughts on Being Exiled to the Frontier, for Lord Wei, inspired by a text by the Tang dynasty poet Hsueh T'ao, features an all-star international ensemble: Kang, Kenney, maverick Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov on violin, Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, and guitarists Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. The piece is primarily composed of irregular patterns of pizzicato notes and guitar harmonics, gently falling in and out of sync and providing a subtly unstable support for Kenney's voice, which sings long, wavering tones, at times reminiscent of Michiko Hirayama's classic performances of Scelsi. Drawing on 20th century instrumental techniques, alternate tuning systems, non-western music and the experience of nature (the irregular rhythms of the piece calling to mind nothing so much as drops of rain), the piece opens a space both serene and subtly uneasy.
Kenney's 'Elm features Kenney and vocalist Nova Ruth (of Filastine & Twin Sista) alongside an ensemble of strings and Seattle's Gamelan Pacifica, performing on Javanese instruments tuned to the slendro scale. An uncanny timbre created by bowing the keys of the Gamelan's instruments, supported by bowed harmonics from the strings, is heard consistently throughout the piece. After a long introductory section in which this harmonic cloud slowly descends from shimmering high notes to rumbling bass, the vocalists enter, singing a slow and stately setting of a 19th century Surakarta poem (attributed to Mangkunegara the IV). The melody is sung as a rich and wavering heterophony, with the ensemble sometimes rising up to support individual notes. The poem deals with the idea of a form of knowledge achieved through deeds, as a practice and state of the heart. This is music in slow motion, in which, in Kenney's words,

For those of you wondering what Adesse Versions was doing at our Heist Boiler Room this summer in London, the answer is here. The "Push it along" EP for Heist is Adesse Versions first appearance on our label and features 4 stunningly raw and warm originals, and an amazing remix by New York's ambassador of funk: Ge-Ology, together with multi-instrumentalist Marc de Clive-Lowe on keys.
After having released numerous records for Jackmaster's Numbers, Local Talk and Toy Tonics, we're happy to welcome Adesse Versions to the Heist family. When he sent us his demo's we had the tough job to choose the right tracks, cause there were just too many. The selection on the "Push it along EP" features what we feel are his purest work up to date. With only a small amount of elements, he manages to create such a big and warm sound, finding a great balance between gritty percussion, rich analog synths and funky sampling work.
Opening track Tout it is built around an ever evolving arpeggiated synth, a dancehall-esque percussive riddim and lovely pad work. It builds up slowly, without ever becoming dull, changing small elements and adding momentum with each step.
E to E is based on a chopped vocal looped to bits (only shouting: (E, E, E, E, E..), dancing hihats and a rolling bassline, whereas Geology flips the high energy original into a classic deephouse tune that fans of Larry Heard will love. The steady bassline and trianglework form a perfect canvas for MdcL's work on various synths, adding layer after layer of melodrama.
The title track goes for the same recipe as Tout it, with fierce snares laying down the rhythm and a far away disco sample adding the right dose of funk. Ebony Roses is the final track of the EP: A beatless groove built around a spoken word vocal with dreamy piano work around it building up suspense as the track evolves.
We've been playing this EP over the course of the last few months and it's been getting great response, so we're happy to finally share it with you.

Sincerely yours, Lars & Maarten

Yet again, LabelOwner Gaze ill joins forces with the Danish Dubstep ambassador RDG, this time for a 4 track collaborative EP. On the Aside the artists' minds melt together in two pieces of Dubstepscience. As the title suggests, RDG and Gaze ill show what Dubstep is made of with 'Keepin' It Real' that's characterized by a pressuring hardness, and uplifting energy. 'The Zone' follows with its progressive universe that evolves in just the right way with perfect timing. The Bside shows off the two artists' individual skills with immense, paranoid vibrations on RDG's 'Shapeshift', and thrillingly deep basslines on Gaze ill's 'Combo'. The EP is a refreshing showcase of the genre's finest offerings original sound with a wellbalanced diversity. RDG and Gaze ill keep it real for this first vinyl release on Cue Line Records.

Y-Bayani is Ghana's uprising Fanti-reggae artist. He was discovered by Philophon in Ebo Taylor's hometown Saltpond, where he survived as a clock doctor. With his song "Asembi Ara Amba" he was featured on the highly acclaimed debut "Invisible Joy" by the Polyversal Souls. The success of that song opened the door for his first release under his sonorous own name: Y-Bayani.

"Get Away" is a swinging up-tempo beat with a bouncy bass and a haunting vocal performance on top. "Obar No Ni" on the other hand brings you down with a slowly driving rub-a-dub beat. Both tunes have been produced by Max Weissenfeldt and Stibbo Spitzmüller at Berlin's Joy Sound Studios.

Die vierköpfige Band aus Ithaca (New York) X Ambassadors besteht aus Sänger und Gitarrist Sam Harris, seinem blinden Bruder Casey Harris am Keyboard, Gitarrist Noah Feldshuh und Schlagzeuger Adam Levin. Ihren bereits veröffentlichten EPs - Love Songs Drug Songs' (2013) und - The Reason' (2014) folgt nun ihr Debütalbum - VHS'. - Mir war wichtig, dass sich das Album insgesamt wie ein Film anfühlt', sagt Sam Harris. Wie in einem Film, geht es in den Songs um Bewegung, um Geschwindigkeit, um den Wunsch, irgendein Beziehungschaos und die Enge des Kleinstadtdaseins hinter sich zu lassen. Die erste Single - Renegades', ist bereits auf Hitkurs! Am Radio belegt die Single nur wenige Wochen nach Radiostart bereits #26 der Airplaycharts. In den USA chartete sie an die Spitze der Alternative Airplay Charts und der Triple A Radio Charts, sowie auf #8 der US Top 40 Radio Charts.
Die Single hat sich schon jetzt weltweit über eine Million Mal verkauft und verzeichnet über 45 Millionen Streams. In Kanada, USA und Italien wurde - Renegades' bereits mit Doppel-Platin ausgezeichnet. Die Band tourte mit Bands wie Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers und Panic! At The Disco und eröffnet im Januar 2016 acht US-Shows für Muse! Das Album erscheint als CD und Vinyl.l

If we have press-agent, you can read now something like "smashed drums", "ultra fast broken beats", "sharp guitar riffs", "earfucking duel of vocals", "wall of noise", "absolutely dancefloor killers", and again about guitars - "hard, speedy, motorbike sounding", and again about drums - "punchy hammerbeats", and again about noise - "king size",
and again about vocals - "mouth full of nails, unique, sexy".
If we have press-agent, you can read: "industrial", "hardcore", "breakcore", "gabber", "noise", "digital hardcore".
If we have press-agent, you can read: "must have", "strongly recommended", "you can love it or hate it, but you can not stay in the middle".
But we have not.
We made this album, just because we are. We believe one hundred percent everything we says.
We don't make music - we are the music. It's sound of underground. It's our rock'n'roll.
Are you ready for blowjob, suckers Bon courage!

Deep and organic analog tracks. Features interpretations by Sisterhood & Ben Sun. 300 copies pressed. Tip!!
The second instalment from the ensemble imprint offers four tracks courtesy of Belgian house ambassadors, Gratts and Xan Xoda, under their cheeky 'De Ambassade' guise.

On A1, Belgian ambassadors in Berlin Xan Xoda and Gratts treat us to some delicious 'Gebakken Lucht', a Belgian expression that you'd have to look up yourself.

Next up is Raw Sketches aka. Eklektiker, one of Belgium's finest DJs and a resident of the ensemble nights. His analogue workout 'Intiem' pushes all the right buttons and charmed us straight away when we first heard it.

Our favourite Australian poster boy of house music Ben Sun then gives a fresh perspective on 'Gebakken Lucht'.

And finally the great Sisterhood lads from London round off the EP with their rework of 'Intiem', turning it into a trip into space, where bass is the place!

This release blows the trio's instrumental palette wide open for a single continuous piece.
Begun as a one-off collaboration in 2009, the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi has now become a solid working group, refining its craft through a series of annual concerts at Tokyo's legendary SuperDeluxe.  Much of their recorded work has focused on their intense, ritualistic take on the rock power trio of electric guitar, bass and drums, with last year's 'now while it's still warm let us pour in all the mystery' (BT09) containing a series of instant compositions of stunning power and concision that demonstrated how familiar and attuned to one another the three have become.

Presenting the entire first set of the trio's March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe (the second set will follow on Black Truffle later this year), 'only   wanting to melt   beautifully away is it a lack   of contentment  that stirs affection   for those   things  said to be as of yet unseen', their fifth release,  blows the instrumental palette wide open for a single continuous piece focused on acoustic strings, synth, flute and percussion. Featuring one of Haino's most delicate and moving recorded vocal performances, the opening section of the record takes the form of a spare duet between O'Rourke's 12-string acoustic guitar and Haino's kantele (a Finnish variant of the dulcimer), behind which Ambarchi provides a hovering backdrop of wine glass tones. While on previous releases the listener has often sensed that Haino was firmly in the driver's seat, here O'Rourke takes centre stage with an acoustic guitar performance that takes the lyricism of John Abercrombie or Ralph Towner and refracts it through the free improvisation tradition of his mentors Derek Bailey and Henry Kaiser. The atmosphere of meditative, abstracted song is reminiscent of some of Haino's greatest recordings, such as the legendary 'Live In The First Year Of The Heisei' volumes recorded with Kan Mikami.

Visibility Is A Trap is the new EP by Dalhous, comprised of four originals together with a masterfully understated Regis remix of 'He Was Human And Belonged With Humans'. The EP heralds the arrival of the Edinburgh-based project's sophomore album, Will To Be Well, due out on Blackest Ever Black in early Summer 2014. Dalhous first announced its existence in 2012 with the Mitchell Heisman 10', and last year released its debut full-length: An Ambassador For Laing. Both Visibility Is A Trap and the upcoming Will To Be Well LP reflect writer-producer Marc Dall's continued interest in the language and imagery of self-help, R.D. Laing and the anti-psychiatry movement. Though recorded after Will To Be Well, the tracks on Visibility Is A Trap at first appear to have more in common with the blue ethereal drift of Ambassador. While 'Information Is Forever' and 'A Change Of Attitude' are firmly in the ambient mode, 'Active Discovering' fizzes with arpeggiated energy, and a battery of percussion disrupts the calm surface of 'Sight Of Hirta'. Something is up. All is not as it seems. The Regis remix of Ambassador highlight 'He Was A Human And Belonged With Humans' finds Karl O'Connor in unusually pensive mood. In fact this near-beatless, dubwise version is unlike anything he has put his name to before. Discarding the rhythmic skeleton of Dalhous's original, he gives their weeping saxophone more space to roam and resonate, adding off-beat, sleep-deprived keys, murmured vocal fragments and swells of sub-bass pressure. It could be construed as a love letter to his former home in West Berlin; certainly it evokes and effortlessly updates the drugsick grandeur of later Neubauten or Low side 2.

'Many Things", released in 2008, and 'From Africa With Fury: Rise' in 2011, 'A Long Way To The Beginning' is the third album by Seun Anikulapo Kuti with Egypt 80, the 14 musicians big band he's been leading since the death of his father Fela Kuti in 1997. It's actually the third part of a triptych in which Fela's youngest son, direct descendant of the afrobeat music style created by his father at the end of the 60's, is back on the offensive regarding injustice in his country, Nigeria, where it still grows, with an intact anger and a music more powerful than ever. The ingredients that have contributed to the success of the first two albums are warring beats, triumphant brass sections and burning lyrics but 'A Long Way to The Beginning' is also distinguished by jazz pianist Robert Glasper's contribution as a producer. While opening the spectrum of the sound, Glasper has made the participation of guests from the conscious American rap scene such as M1 (Dead Prez) or Blitz The Ambassador, a Ghanaian in New York, possible. The voice of German-Nigerian singer Nneka can also be heard on the track 'Black Woman". Finally, the French vibraphonist David Neerman adds his personal touch on two tracks ("I.M.F.' and 'Black Woman"), enhancing his attention to details that, allied to its firepower, allows 'A Long Way To The Beginning' to be a sophisticated and strong album. The message of this record is political. Its mood is offensive. When asked about his commitment, Seun answers: 'Being African means being politically involved. From the moment he wakes up in the morning, an African has a political attitude as everything he'll be doing during the day will have something to do with survival.'

*Presenting a new collaboration featuring Oren Ambarchi on guitar, the electronics of Robin Fox, and both performing on various other instruments. The music on this album came about as the result of the two being asked to co-compose the soundtrack for a new production by renowned Australian contemporary dance company Chunky Move for their Connected production.
" Chunky Move's artistic director Gideon Obarzanek was drawn to the organic and deeply musical qualities of Ambarchi's work and the digital, almost scientic quality of Fox's sound. Over a process of many weeks these two aesthetics were merged. Working both in the Chunky Move studio and Head-gap studio in Melbourne, new works were forged from both digital and analog sources. 
" This release brings together two of the most extraordinary artist/musicians working in Australia today. Both are renowned internationally for their individual practices, and here they join forces to produce powerful music that fuses Ambarchi's legendary guitar sound with Fox's mathematically rigorous tones and textures. This fusion results in sound works that stretch in scope from the sublime and spacious to the intensely dense and foreboding. Treading a precarious line between music and abstract sound, between organic and inorganic tones, this collaboration is a must listen for anyone interested in contemporary soundworks.

Like hardly any other ambassador of modern Rhein Main House music, Christian Burkhardt has experienced a true rocket-like takeoff in the last year. Burkhardt's Cocoon debut EP "Stopover Goa" has, after one year, still a place of honour in many DJ's record cases.