Stereogum: »Here’s a cool new musical project that feels both out-there and extremely mundane. In 2022, the great Colorado experimentalist M. Sage teamed up with Lieven Martens (Dolphins into the Future) under the name Sage Martens. Their album, »Riding Fences«, was an ambient classical exercise designed to explore the idea of ›Western‹ music. They’re back this year with another conceptual offering (...)«
»Chamber Music for Lawn Mowers« is the second album by Sage Martens. This time, Matthew Sage (RVNG, Fuubutsushi) and Lieven Martens (Edições CN, Dolphins into the Future) sing the lawn.
Did you know a clean-cut lawn is a desire we inherited from the British?
Yes, the British dumped this pleasure into our collective consciousness. Those humorless Victorians who enjoyed having their black pudding on the lawn. They came to this uninspired impression while mis-looking at Italian paintings. Yes indeed, while gazing at these paintings they mistook green lanes for green lawns. Thus it became hip. Every stuffed truffle commanded his gardener to cut the grass.
As a result, this Victorian lust for sterile gardens with pretty green lawns nudged our world into water spillage and pesticide clouds. This new priority produced exhaust clouds and prudish monocultural landscapes. Just by looking at Italian paintings.
As with most of Western history, the practice was exported to America and then turbocharged. By shearing clear the prolific brush of pastures, prairies, forests and glens, biodiversity becomes an aesthetic casualty with long-suffering ecological ripples. An inherited practice narrows the bandwidth of experience.
And so, the childhood habit of humming along in key to the drone of a gas-powered mower while trimming a suburban lawn extrapolates into something expanded — an unanswered question about the harmonics of landscape practices.
M. Sage: Bb clarinet, alto saxophone, sine wave, lawn mowing, processing L. Martens: computer, analog synthesis, digital processing With W. Van Gils: lawn mowing
Cerca:bla bla
If this LP exists it is thanks to the vision, energies, work and perseverance of Thomas M. Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton. He is the president and one of the founding members of the ZBS Foundation (ZBS stands for Zero Bullshit), where the audio dramas written by Lopez himself were born. Dramatic programs with stories that blended noir, comedy and science-fiction genres such as Ruby The Galactic Gumshoe or Jack Flanders were produced to critic and public acclaim. It was in Ruby The Galactic Gumshoe that the Android Sisters, who would later have their own spin-off series, first appeared. The characters represent two robotic siblings that Tom Lopez created under big influence from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Philip K. Dick novel that was taken to cinema by Ridley Scott in Blade Runner. The Androids were performed by actresses Ruth Maleczech and Valeria Wasilewski.
The big success of these “cosmic and comic” sci-fi series, as they are described in the ZBS Foundations website, led to the releasing of cassette tapes, CDs, USBs and podcasting of the stories. Along with these, several music albums were also released in different formats. One of them is Songs Of Electric Despair, the first of two released by the Android Sisters. The songs contained are written by Tom Lopez and his long time collaborator experimental musician Tim Clark.
The Android Sisters Songs Of Electronic Despair LP was originally released as a ZBS Foundation cassette and also as a vinyl LP on Vanguard in 1984. It featured 11 compositions (two bonus tracks not on the original LP have been added to the Wah Wah reissue) on which the experimental synthesizer music of Tim Clark finds a perfect counterpoint in the deliciously surrealistic, cosmic social satire of Tom Lopez’s texts, magically performed by the robotic, yet sensual voices of the Android Sisters as performed by Maleczech and Wasilewski. Clark composed and performed the backing tracks on the Synclavier II synthesizer.
The Wah Wah reissue comes with two bonus tracks not on the original 1984 LP, respects the beautiful original album artwork and enhances it with a 4 pages full colour insert with notes and lyrics of the songs.
BARBARELLA MEETS PHILLIP K. DICK!
RIYL : SYNTH POP CYBERPUNK with DEVO’s sense of humor, LOGIC SYSTEM, FRANK CHICKENS or even some 1990s things to come such as LIKE A TIM or ARPANET.
If this LP exists it is thanks to the vision, energies, work and perseverance of Thomas M. Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton. He is the president and one of the founding members of the ZBS Foundation (ZBS stands for Zero Bullshit), where the audio dramas written by Lopez himself were born. Dramatic programs with stories that blended noir, comedy and science-fiction genres such as Ruby The Galactic Gumshoe or Jack Flanders were produced to critic and public acclaim. It was in Ruby The Galactic Gumshoe that the Android Sisters, who would later have their own spin-off series, first appeared. The characters represent two robotic siblings that Tom Lopez created under big influence from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Philip K. Dick novel that was taken to cinema by Ridley Scott in Blade Runner. The Androids were performed by actresses Ruth Maleczech and Valeria Wasilewski.
The big success of these “cosmic and comic” sci-fi series, as they are described in the ZBS Foundations website, led to the releasing of cassette tapes, CDs, USBs and podcasting of the stories. Along with these, several music albums were also released in different formats. One of them is Songs Of Electric Despair, the first of two released by the Android Sisters. The songs contained are written by Tom Lopez and his long time collaborator experimental musician Tim Clark.
The Android Sisters Songs Of Electronic Despair LP was originally released as a ZBS Foundation cassette and also as a vinyl LP on Vanguard in 1984. It featured 11 compositions (two bonus tracks not on the original LP have been added to the Wah Wah reissue) on which the experimental synthesizer music of Tim Clark finds a perfect counterpoint in the deliciously surrealistic, cosmic social satire of Tom Lopez’s texts, magically performed by the robotic, yet sensual voices of the Android Sisters as performed by Maleczech and Wasilewski. Clark composed and performed the backing tracks on the Synclavier II synthesizer.
The Wah Wah reissue comes with two bonus tracks not on the original 1984 LP, respects the beautiful original album artwork and enhances it with a 4 pages full colour insert with notes and lyrics of the songs.
BARBARELLA MEETS PHILLIP K. DICK!
RIYL : SYNTH POP CYBERPUNK with DEVO’s sense of humor, LOGIC SYSTEM, FRANK CHICKENS or even some 1990s things to come such as LIKE A TIM or ARPANET.
Premier on GAMM for Californian producer Coflo whose probably THE most in demand producer on the house scene right now...
But on this EP we gave Coflo a carte blanche and to go musically freestyle.
The result are 3 reworks in various styles. The first track ;Canto De Alright' is what we call a "transition mix" where we go from house to hip hop and back to house, a proper club tool.
On 'Fly Like The Payback' Coflo goes more rare groove with a blend of Steve Miller Band and James Brown.
Last but not least Nas gets a stompin' boogie treatment that just works.
Enjoy the dance!
- A1: Africa (3.39)
- A2: No More Will I Roam (3.33)
- A3: Blood Sun (3.17)
- A4: Tribulation (3.08)
- A5: Run Too Late (2.44)
- A6: Only A Smile (3.16)
- B1: Silver Words (2.47)
- B2: Funny Feeling (3.17)
- B3: Go Now (3.23)
- B4: Shame (3.08)
- B5: Let Love In (Bonus Track) (4.06)
- B6: Black Magic Woman (Bonus Track) (3.29)
- Hang Em High
- Two Seven
- Bitter
- 4: Priest Hunter
- Little Paths
- Rumble Shake
- Black Asphalt
- Black Man's Gold
- Jessie Mae* (Written By Ray Wylie Hubbard)
- Sit With Satan
Das zweite Album des irischen Bluesrock-Trio jetzt auf Vinyl! 2014 stieg es auf Position 12 in die irischen Albumcharts ein und ist eine brillante Reise voller Blues-Rock Power! Als Nachfolger zu dem 2012 veröffentlichten und von Kritikern vielbeachteten Debüt "Electric Soup"baut das zweite Album der Band, "Rumble Shake" auf diesem Erfolg auf und liefert 10 Bluesrock-Songs aus dem tiefen Süden Irlands. Wahre Geschichten und sündhaft gute Musik mit Gästen wie zum Beispiel der texanischen Legende RAY WYLIE HUBBARD. Aufgenommen wurde das Album in den Westland Studios in Dublin, während das Trio die Historie des Ortes in sich einsog - denn in diesem Studio haben schon Größen wie BOB DYLAN, HORSLIPS und THIN LIZZY ihre Platten machen lassen - und abgemischt in Texas von George Reiff (TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND, THE BAND OF HEATHENS, RAY WYLIE HUBBARD). Christy O'Hanlon (Gitarre, Vocals), Stephen McGrath (Bass) und Gev Barrett (Drums, Background-Gesang, Perkussion) schrieben bis auf "Jessie Mae" (RAY WYLIE HUBBARD) alle Songs selbst und lassen den Bluesrock weiter Unvergänglichkeit atmen, ohne ihn dabei verstaubt klingen zu lassen.
Jackie Edwards voice can be heard on 100's of Ska, R&B. Soul and Rocksteady records.
In fact all the in carnations that evolved from Reggae.
He was at the birth of Island Records and his distinctive soulful voice has rightly given him the moniker of the Original Cool Ruler.
Jackie Edwards (b. Wilfred Edwards 1938,Jamaica)was a renowned singer from the early days and by 1959 had presented future Island Records owner Chris Blackwell with two outstanding tunes.
The first a sentimental ballad 'Your eyes are Dreaming' and a Latin beat tune 'Tell me Darling'.
His song writing skills were much in so demand and his popularity of such importance that when Chris Blackwell went to London in1962 to set up his record company he took his top Balladeer Jackie with him.
This would pay dividends when a UK group Blackwell had signed called The Spencer Davis Group went on to release two of Jackie's compositions 'Keep on Running' and 'Somebody Help Me', which topped the British charts in 1966.
We have compiled some of Jackie Edwards finest songs..all cool tunes in different Reggae styles but all sung to perfection..
Hope you enjoy the set....
- 01: Don’t Go Alone
- 02: One Good Thing
- 03: Grow Together
- 04: Breakthrough
- 05: My World
- 06: Love In Control
- 07: Not On My Watch
- 08: Daddy Told Me So
- 09: Shine
- 10: What’s Going On
- 11: Never Let You Down
- 12: Stand Together
Brown Vinyl[26,85 €]
Mit 'Stand Together' kehrt Aloe Blacc eindrucksvoll zurück - ein Album voller Soul, Hoffnung und Haltung. Der US-amerikanische Sänger, der mit Songs wie 'I Need a Dollar' und dem Welthit 'Wake Me Up' (mit Avicii) internationale Bekanntheit erlangte, zeigt sich auf seinem neuen Werk gereift und zugleich so relevant wie nie.
'Stand Together' ist eine musikalische Hommage an Menschlichkeit, Empowerment und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Jeder Track ist inspiriert von einer Organisation oder Bewegung für sozialen Wandel - getragen von Aloe Blaccs unverwechselbarer Stimme und seinem Gespür für mitreißende, zeitlose Melodien.
- Man Under Erasure
- Murmur Within The Skull Of God
- New Creatures Replace Our Names
- Decider
- Sunkindling
- Invocation
- Until It Goes Away
- Kindred Spirit
Man was meant to replace God as the universal measure. The events of the 20th and 21st centuries, however, have brutalized the creature once known as Man beyond recognition. There is no going back. We are left with an erased image, a misnomer-a sacred animal wasting away in a profane world. Man is both insufficient and irreplaceable. Man Under Erasure is a musical exploration of this new, uncertain universe, where the last remnants of humanist hopes and dreams have been reduced to embers-barely legible carvings etched into eroding earth. Our trust in ourselves has been misplaced. Everything we ever knew will be erased. Feversea is a post-metal band from Oslo, Norway drawing on influences from black metal, sludge metal and shoegaze. Their music lies in the intersection of fast black'n'roll ferocity, heavy and fierce metal riffage and ritualistic and ethereal soundscapes. Musically, their debut album Man Under Erasure draws from various forms of metal while incorporating influences from neofolk and post-punk. The album is melancholic, despairing, and cathartic. Haunting and melodic while maintaining a strong sense of structure with recognizable riffs-an element often lacking in atmosphere-driven music. Fluctuating between song and scream, the voice is both from beyond and from below. Lyrically, it is deeply personal but delivered through impersonal images, parables, and riddles-like a spiritualist or Orphic medium carrying messages from beyond. A muffled scream buried under several inches of ice. The album begins in sardonic despair and ends with uneasy, desperate acceptance.
- Los Dioses Ausentes
- Amisus
- Voragine
- Germinal
- Sombras
Debut album from Durango's Tenebrae. A blackened-doom post-metal meditation on the silhouettes of existence. Ltd ed of 250 eco mix colored vinyl. All new vinyl LP from Durango's TENEBRAE, featuring members of Sementales Salvajes and Saturno Grooves. A blackened-doom, post-metal meditation on the silhouettes of existence. Ltd ed of 250 on eco mix colored vinyl. Includes 11x17 poster, printed insert, and stickers. For fans of Neurosis, Godflesh, Anathema
While continuing in the spirit of Dope Jams NYC Volume 1: 2005-2012, which compiled some of the shop’s most cherished tracks from its seven-year run in Brooklyn, here 10 years later we present the collection’s second addendum EP. It moves partially beyond the title’s timeframe – pulling together a couple of the store’s more recent favorites since its 2013 reopening upstate, along with two older gems from its Myrtle Ave days.
Kicking things off is a full-sided pressing of aptly titled techno stormer “Direct Contact.” Bursting forth with a no nonsense, party rockin’ swagger, Greek producer June’s blistering monster of a tune swiftly unleashes an arsenal of arpeggiated synths, jackin’ percussion and out-of-nowhere flourishes with the single-minded purpose of movin’ the crowd. Gracing the B-side are a trio of selections that occupy far moodier terrains. “Imprints,” the lead-off track from T.E.A.L.’s debut LP Cuttings, is a fine example of Dope Jams’ long-held but largely overlooked penchant for dark and dynamic ambient musics. Heavily textured with ripping distortion and space-enhancing tape delay, the piece offers up a brief yet haunting dispatch from a doomed and desolate mind-state. In a more upbeat vein, “Music on My Mind” looks back almost 25 years to the creative apex of Garden State garage royalty Smack. Operating under their Mental Instrum alias, the low-profile production unit crafts an elegant blend of feather-light chords and bumpin’ kicks to firmly underscore guest collaborator Storm’s sincere vocals. Fittingly capping the record is “Blast Knuckles,” the first completed – and hitherto unreleased – track by Dope Jams friends Beige. Rawly produced yet intricately layered, it sketches a fleeting picture of the unique style of lo-fi deep techno the duo developed over the course of their woefully brief partnership.
- A1: Hurricane
- A2: Rain
- A3: Blackout
- A4: High Note
- A5: Bodyguard
- B1: Potential
- B2: Breeze
- B3: Cliffhanger
- B4: Ns:lc
- B5: Polarised Feat. Our Mirage
Crystal Clear Vinyl[30,88 €]
Stripping away all expectations, constraints, pressures, and limitations, there’s a certain purity and allure to art crafted simply for the sake of genuine expression. The desire to unleash one’s unencumbered ingenuity and unique vision into the world is an attitude embraced by those often celebrated for pushing boundaries, and it’s under this same premise that German newcomers SENNA were formed.
Drawing their name from the Arabic word for brightness, shine, or glow, bandmates Simon Masdjedi (vocals), Tobias Stulz (guitar/ vocals), Marcel Dürr (guitar), Fabian Cattarius (bass), and Leon Dorn(drums), never intended for SENNA–a musical outlet originally established as a studio side project–to come into its own as a fully-fledged unit. Yet, tackling a luminous blend of playful but technical instrumentation and edgy hard rock meets progressive post-hardcore styling, it’s only fitting that both the innovative outfit and their introductory work have entered the limelight for all to enjoy.
“It was really liberating,” guitarist Marcel Dürr recalls the group’s mindset leading up to their SharpTone debut. “Because we weren’t pursuing SENNA as a proper band at first, we had a lot of time to experiment with our sound. Our goal was to simply write the music that we enjoyed, without being boxed into any one genre.
Stripping away all expectations, constraints, pressures, and limitations, there’s a certain purity and allure to art crafted simply for the sake of genuine expression. The desire to unleash one’s unencumbered ingenuity and unique vision into the world is an attitude embraced by those often celebrated for pushing boundaries, and it’s under this same premise that German newcomers SENNA were formed.
Drawing their name from the Arabic word for brightness, shine, or glow, bandmates Simon Masdjedi (vocals), Tobias Stulz (guitar/ vocals), Marcel Dürr (guitar), Fabian Cattarius (bass), and Leon Dorn(drums), never intended for SENNA–a musical outlet originally established as a studio side project–to come into its own as a fully-fledged unit. Yet, tackling a luminous blend of playful but technical instrumentation and edgy hard rock meets progressive post-hardcore styling, it’s only fitting that both the innovative outfit and their introductory work have entered the limelight for all to enjoy.
“It was really liberating,” guitarist Marcel Dürr recalls the group’s mindset leading up to their SharpTone debut. “Because we weren’t pursuing SENNA as a proper band at first, we had a lot of time to experiment with our sound. Our goal was to simply write the music that we enjoyed, without being boxed into any one genre.
- Idag
- Drömmar Av Is
- Drömmen Om Död Och Förruttnelse
- Om Du Vill
- Gläntan
- Burning Cross
- Irreligious Flamboyant Flame
- Christmas
- Spirit
- Om Du Vill (Slight Return)
More than 20 years after their debut, Witchcraft's seventh album, 'IDAG,' is an awaited full accounting of who they are as a band. Those who have clamored for the return to an earlier sound rooted in '70s classic progressive and heavy rock will delight to the strut of "Irreligious Flamboyant Flame" while the eight-minute opening title-track is the heaviest the band have ever sounded, and a succession of interspersed acoustic-based pieces helps create a vision of a new, soulfully folkish doom taking shape as they continue to move inexorably forward. Founding guitarist/vocalist, Magnus Pelander, says of 'IDAG': "This album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones." These enigmatic few words from the Swedish band's main songwriter give clues as to the songs' intentions; a reference dropped to Coven's 1969 album, 'Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls.' Coven also had a folkish, proto-doomed take at that point in their history, and that multifaceted nature has been a part of Witchcraft all along. On one level, Magnus is winkingly telling you it's a Witchcraft record. The actual meaning of that becomes clear when you hear the album and find out just how much 'a Witchcraft record' can encompass. The storyline of Witchcraft's growth, from Pelander's starting the band in Örebro in 2000 in the wake of his prior outfit Norrsken's disbanding. A generational landmark of a 2004 self-titled debut helped spark a retroist movement that has become its own subgenre, but Witchcraft never stopped growing. 2005's 'Firewood' and 2007's 'The Alchemist' introduced more progressive sounds, and five years later, the pointedly modern 'Legend' established in 2012 that they had moved beyond the analog worship they had been a part of pioneering within the contemporary heavy rock and doom scene. In 2016, the 2LP 'Nucleus' introduced fuller-toned doom, and 2020's 'Black Metal' diverged into moody acoustic minimalism familiar to some fans from Pelander's early solo work, but different from anything Witchcraft had done prior. 'IDAG,' then, is the tie that draws all of this - more than two decades of exploring and growth - together. Whatever they've done in the past and whatever they'll do in the future, 'IDAG' feels like a nexus for defining who and what Witchcraft are. Even crazier, that might be the point of the thing. JJ Koczan
More than 20 years after their debut, Witchcraft's seventh album, 'IDAG,' is an awaited full accounting of who they are as a band. Those who have clamored for the return to an earlier sound rooted in '70s classic progressive and heavy rock will delight to the strut of "Irreligious Flamboyant Flame" while the eight-minute opening title-track is the heaviest the band have ever sounded, and a succession of interspersed acoustic-based pieces helps create a vision of a new, soulfully folkish doom taking shape as they continue to move inexorably forward. Founding guitarist/vocalist, Magnus Pelander, says of 'IDAG': "This album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones." These enigmatic few words from the Swedish band's main songwriter give clues as to the songs' intentions; a reference dropped to Coven's 1969 album, 'Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls.' Coven also had a folkish, proto-doomed take at that point in their history, and that multifaceted nature has been a part of Witchcraft all along. On one level, Magnus is winkingly telling you it's a Witchcraft record. The actual meaning of that becomes clear when you hear the album and find out just how much 'a Witchcraft record' can encompass. The storyline of Witchcraft's growth, from Pelander's starting the band in Örebro in 2000 in the wake of his prior outfit Norrsken's disbanding. A generational landmark of a 2004 self-titled debut helped spark a retroist movement that has become its own subgenre, but Witchcraft never stopped growing. 2005's 'Firewood' and 2007's 'The Alchemist' introduced more progressive sounds, and five years later, the pointedly modern 'Legend' established in 2012 that they had moved beyond the analog worship they had been a part of pioneering within the contemporary heavy rock and doom scene. In 2016, the 2LP 'Nucleus' introduced fuller-toned doom, and 2020's 'Black Metal' diverged into moody acoustic minimalism familiar to some fans from Pelander's early solo work, but different from anything Witchcraft had done prior. 'IDAG,' then, is the tie that draws all of this - more than two decades of exploring and growth - together. Whatever they've done in the past and whatever they'll do in the future, 'IDAG' feels like a nexus for defining who and what Witchcraft are. Even crazier, that might be the point of the thing. JJ Koczan
Purple Vinyl, limited to 450 copies. More than 20 years after their debut, Witchcraft's seventh album, 'IDAG,' is an awaited full accounting of who they are as a band. Those who have clamored for the return to an earlier sound rooted in '70s classic progressive and heavy rock will delight to the strut of "Irreligious Flamboyant Flame" while the eight-minute opening title-track is the heaviest the band have ever sounded, and a succession of interspersed acoustic-based pieces helps create a vision of a new, soulfully folkish doom taking shape as they continue to move inexorably forward. Founding guitarist/vocalist, Magnus Pelander, says of 'IDAG': "This album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones." These enigmatic few words from the Swedish band's main songwriter give clues as to the songs' intentions; a reference dropped to Coven's 1969 album, 'Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls.' Coven also had a folkish, proto-doomed take at that point in their history, and that multifaceted nature has been a part of Witchcraft all along. On one level, Magnus is winkingly telling you it's a Witchcraft record. The actual meaning of that becomes clear when you hear the album and find out just how much 'a Witchcraft record' can encompass. The storyline of Witchcraft's growth, from Pelander's starting the band in Örebro in 2000 in the wake of his prior outfit Norrsken's disbanding. A generational landmark of a 2004 self-titled debut helped spark a retroist movement that has become its own subgenre, but Witchcraft never stopped growing. 2005's 'Firewood' and 2007's 'The Alchemist' introduced more progressive sounds, and five years later, the pointedly modern 'Legend' established in 2012 that they had moved beyond the analog worship they had been a part of pioneering within the contemporary heavy rock and doom scene. In 2016, the 2LP 'Nucleus' introduced fuller-toned doom, and 2020's 'Black Metal' diverged into moody acoustic minimalism familiar to some fans from Pelander's early solo work, but different from anything Witchcraft had done prior. 'IDAG,' then, is the tie that draws all of this - more than two decades of exploring and growth - together. Whatever they've done in the past and whatever they'll do in the future, 'IDAG' feels like a nexus for defining who and what Witchcraft are. Even crazier, that might be the point of the thing. JJ Koczan
Neon Orange Vinyl[28,15 €]
- Who This World Is Made For
- Thickskinpeel
- Tenterhooks
- Elsewhere
- The Bad Dream
- Sad Chord
- Spellbound
- Problem Child
- Kingsway Bouquet
- Sweet Twenty-Three
Weisheit, Disziplin und unbändige Kreativität prägen den smarten Electro-Soul von Ellen Beth Abdi. Die renommierte Livemusikerin wird mit ihrem Debütalbum auf dem eigenen Label zur überragenden Solovirtuosin. Poppige Synth-Sounds, sich langsam steigernde Backgroundklänge und feinfühlige Worte von kraftvoller und persönlicher Bedeutung: Manchesters am schlechtesten gehütetes, genreübergreifendes Multiinstrumentalisten-Geheimnis steigt aus dem Schatten ins Licht. Vor fast einem Jahrzehnt wurde ihr aussergewöhnliches Talent entdeckt, was zahlreiche Support-Slots für u.a. Lady Blackbird, Courtney Pine und Angelique Kidjo einleitete. Diese Live-Erfahrung fliesst nun in die Konzerte zur Feier des lang erwarteten Soloreleases von Ellen Beth Abdi ein.
- "Something of a masterclass." - Louder Than War
- "Sharp lyrical insight with a distinctive sonic identity." – Backseat Mafia
Black Vinyl[26,85 €]
Vinyl[22,27 €]
In the vibrant streets of Tembisa, South Africa, amidst the sprawling urbanity connecting Johannesburg and Pretoria, the story of Moskito began. Formed in 2001 by Mahlubi "Shadow" Radebe and the late Zwelakhe "Malemon" Mtshali, the group first emerged as a powerhouse of pantsula dancers. However, their undeniable passion for music soon led them down a new path_ one that would cement their place in kwaito history. Spending countless hours on the street corners of their township, where they were born and raised, Shadow and Malemon danced and sang with an infectious energy that attracted crowds. It wasn't long before the duo decided to channel their talents into a kwaito group, and after adding friends Patrick Lwane and Menzi Dlodlo, Moskito was born. (Pantsula dancing emerged in the 1950s among Black South Africans in townships and continually evolved until it became intertwined with kwaito music culture. The stylized, rapid foot movements and characteristic low-dancing became associated with kwaito as it took over South African urban culture into the early 2000s.) With limited resources, the group displayed immense creativity, recording demos using two cassette decks and instrumental tracks from other artists. They would rap and sing over an instrumental playing on one deck while the second deck records their performance. Their determination paid off when they submitted their demo to Tammy Music Publishers, who were captivated by Moskito's style. "Kwaito was the thing `in' at the time. If you did music you did kwaito. We wanted to fit in and actually it was easy," says Radebe. "We didn't have engineers in the group, so the first time in a real studio was with Percy and Thami to record Idolar." That same year, the group released their debut album, Idolar, under Tammy Music. The album was an undeniable success reaching gold status selling over 25,000 units and earning them a devoted fan base across South Africa and neighboring countries like Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Moskito collaborated with industry legends such as Chilly Mthiya Tshabalala, who was known for his work with Thiza and Spoke "H." They drew inspiration from Thami Mdluli a.k.a Professor Rhythm, who had dominated the disco scene back in the 80s and 90s. Mdluli helped with musical arrangements and executive produced the album and signed on producer-engineer Percy Mudau, while Shadow and Malemon took pride in composing most of their songs. Like many of the rising kwaito artists of the time, they didn't have music production or engineering backgrounds so they required support from engineers together their ideas down on tape. They were inspired from South African kwaito icons like Trompies, Mdu, Mandoza, and Arthur Mafokate, alongside international heavyweights like Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2Pac, and R. Kelly, Moskito created a sound that was uniquely theirs_a perfect blend of local flavor and global influence.




















