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VARIOUS - TERRITORIO DEL ECO:EXPERIMENTALISMOS...PER· ( HIGHLIGHTS
First compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1988, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music. Collect unpublished and loss pieces from artists such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones and Corina Bartra. Rescued from private archives and limited editions on cassette. DESCRIPTION First compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1988, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music, sought to integrate the sounds of Andean, Afro-Peruvian and Amazonian cultures in search of a new musical universe. Native instruments and folk melodies were used in compositions that demanded modern recording techniques and electronic sounds. This generation was articulated in Lima and was made up of musicians such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones and Corina Bartra. But more than a movement, it was a set of individuals from dissimilar origins, who came from rock, jazz, contemporary classical and popular music, but also from the visual arts and poetry, and who had in common the cultural climate of the late seventies and early eighties in a country marked by a series of social and economic transformations, as well as the emergence of new visions and insertions of Andean culture and folklore in the city. The appearance of a mythical substrate connected the work of these musicians and defined an aesthetic, based on the deconstruction of folklore and the exploration of the possibilities that indigenous instruments offered. From there, these musicians immersed themselves in abstract, but also symbolic and conceptual forms. In many cases, they were strongly influenced by jazz and were keen to explore the possibilities of the recording studio. Territorio del eco: experimentalismos y visiones de lo ancestral en el Perú (1975-1989) - The Land of Echo: Experimentalisms and Visions of the Ancestral in Peru (1975-1989) - is a compilation that offers an overview of what was one of the moments of greatest creative intensity for experimental music in Peru in its encounter with indigenous sounds. Collect unpublished and loss pieces, rescued from private archives and limited editions on cassette, these pieces are reissued for the first time in vinyl LP format. The album includes 8 pages booklet with extensive notes written by Luis Alvarado, author of the compilation, as well as much visual documentation. Cover art by Paloma Pizarro. Limited to 300 copies. Beneficiary project of the Economic Stimuli for Culture of the Ministry of Culture of Peru.

The story of Tonic revolves around the longstanding, close brotherhood shared among members Emerson Hart, Jeff Russo, Dan Rothchild and Kevin Shepard. Russo is best known for his work as a soundtrack composer, notably Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard and Fargo. For this latter Russo won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special in 2017.

This Grammy Award-nominated Multi-Platinum trio released their debut album Lemon Parade in 1996. The album was produced by Jack Joseph Puig, who also worked among The Black Crowes, Green Day and No Doubt. The album included the hit single “If You Could Only See”, which became a #1 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Track Charts and reached #11 on the Billboard Airplay Hot 100, where it remained for 63 weeks.

Limited edition of 300 copies. Packaged in a picture sleeve

J.D’s TIME MACHINE presents SPEAK LOVE b/w YOUNG HEARTS.
Songwriter supremo James Day has consistently delivered top notch material throughout his career, amassing an amazing set of collaborations.
The All Star Mix of SPEAK LOVE from five years ago features the mouthwatering cast of Glenn Jones, Tony Terry, Tim Owens, U-Nam, Ian Martin, Lin Rountree & Kevin Flint Jackson. This is one of James Day’s most respected compositions and we are thrilled to give this a vinyl release! YOUNG HEARTS originally from 2013 features the majestic vocals of both Kevin Flint Jackson and Tim ‘Tio’ Owens. Presented here as a '2022 Vinyl Exclusive Mix' with changes in the arrangement, Tim Owen’s EW&F sensibilities really shape this track and the note he hits in the meat of the song is worth the price of the admission fee alone!

Artist/composer/producer and Algebra Records head Casually Here's ambitious second solo album Possible Worlds will be released on the 1st of April on vinyl and digital distributed by Kudos.

Casually Here (Nic Nell) is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, sound designer & record producer with a background in art & mathematics. Recent projects include producing, co-writing & mixing Orlando Weeks' acclaimed 'A Quickening' album (PIAS) with playlisting and 200+ plays across BBC radio and fantastic reviews "Nothing short of stunning" DIY. And a collaborative electronic art/dance album 'Many Worlds' w/ Lawrence Hart (Hotflush Recordings) released as a series of EPs with wide DJ/radio support in the dance world from DJs like George Fitzgerald, Sasha and The Blessed Madonna, and featured in two Radio 1 Essential Mixes.

His music has been featured by The Guardian, Pitchfork, FACT Magazine, The Fader, Dummy, The Sunday Times, Dazed etc. Other projects include being half of both Young Colossus & art pop duo Rainer. His music & productions have been streamed over 15 million times & released on labels such as XL Recordings, Play It Again Sam, Hotflush Recordings & Bella Union.

Nic founded and runs Algebra Records with a focus on supporting emerging artists practically, technically and collegiately to help foster artistic community and context. Recent Algebra releases included the two debut EPs from Heavenly Stems, artist/composer/architect Emma-Kate Matthews' 'Far Flung EP', Liam Hutton's Trials EP, ELY's debut album 'Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love?', Lake Turner's Prime Mover EP and Sunplus' debut album 'More Colour'.

Artist/composer/producer and Algebra Records head Casually Here's ambitious second solo album Possible Worlds will be released on the 1st of April on vinyl and digital distributed by Kudos.

Casually Here (Nic Nell) is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, sound designer & record producer with a background in art & mathematics. Recent projects include producing, co-writing & mixing Orlando Weeks' acclaimed 'A Quickening' album (PIAS) with playlisting and 200+ plays across BBC radio and fantastic reviews "Nothing short of stunning" DIY. And a collaborative electronic art/dance album 'Many Worlds' w/ Lawrence Hart (Hotflush Recordings) released as a series of EPs with wide DJ/radio support in the dance world from DJs like George Fitzgerald, Sasha and The Blessed Madonna, and featured in two Radio 1 Essential Mixes.

His music has been featured by The Guardian, Pitchfork, FACT Magazine, The Fader, Dummy, The Sunday Times, Dazed etc. Other projects include being half of both Young Colossus & art pop duo Rainer. His music & productions have been streamed over 15 million times & released on labels such as XL Recordings, Play It Again Sam, Hotflush Recordings & Bella Union.

Nic founded and runs Algebra Records with a focus on supporting emerging artists practically, technically and collegiately to help foster artistic community and context. Recent Algebra releases included the two debut EPs from Heavenly Stems, artist/composer/architect Emma-Kate Matthews' 'Far Flung EP', Liam Hutton's Trials EP, ELY's debut album 'Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love?', Lake Turner's Prime Mover EP and Sunplus' debut album 'More Colour'.

A surefire Afro-Funk classic, long treasured by collectors across the globe, the fantastic self-titled LP from Ghanaian singing/percussion sensation Sidiku Buari nevertheless remains a criminally hard-to find gem. We're honoured to present the first ever officially licensed vinyl reissue of this undoubted masterpiece. Limited to just 500 copies.

Originally released on RCA in 1975, this is, quite simply, a ridiculous record. This super-rare album boasts an all-star cast of top funk instrumentalists playing alongside Buari as he blends heavy African rhythms with American soul-funk grooves. The arrangements and the playing are incredibly tight and the album is stacked with killer tracks including "Advice From Father" (sampled brilliantly by Kenny Dope) and "Ku Ka Maria", with its intense, neck-snapping breaks and funky drumming from legend Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie. Purdie is in the pocket for the entirety of this stunning LP - the drumming is just straight out of hand; so varied yet so precise.

It's not hard to fathom why these tracks have always been huge on the b-boy/breaking scene. Other standouts include the wonderful disco-tinged afro monsters "Karam Bani" and "Iro Le Pa" plus the cool laidback groove of "Them Yebtheyet".

With access to the original analogue tape transfers, Simon Francis' stellar mastering elevates the sound throughout and, as ever, it has been pressed at a reassuringly weighty 180g.

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Analog Africa delves deep into the scene of the Mexican's sonideros (sound-system operators) to present the "Rebajada" movement they've created using locally made pitch controls, speakers and sound effects.

"In 2010, I had asked Eamon Ore-Giron - aka DJ Lengua - if he would be interested in compiling a Latin project for Analog Africa, and if so, if he had a theme in mind. He replied, “Have you ever heard of rebajada?“ The question mark above my head, together with the wall of China, must have been the only other object visible from out of space because Eamon, probably noticing I got paralysed, continued, “Rebajada in Spanish means “to reduce, to lower”. It’s basically Mexican sonideros (soundsystem operators) slowing down the beat of a Cumbia to create a much more tangible music to dance to. I’ll send you a mix I made last year and let me know what you think.“ And so he did.

That mix was called Rebajada Mota Mix and I began listening to it on a loop. Although I was not immediately hooked it was intriguing from the get-go, and so I kept listening until magic began unfolding. Slowed down music allows you enough time to hear right through it, revealing itself in ways I had rarely experienced before. Everything became more transparent and I was noticing sounds normally only perceptible by bats. A near psychedelic experience. That mysterious mix included a few Ecuadorian songs by Junior y su Equipo - aka Polibio Mayorga (a cult figure in the sonidero scene), a couple of Mexican tunes, one Colombian, and various Peruvian songs, undoubtedly the driving force behind this project.

The sonidero who brought Peruvian and Ecuadorian music to Mexico was the legendary Pablo Perea from Sonido Arco-Iris, and although his fingerprints are all over the compilation Saturno 2000, this selection of songs in rebajada is exclusive to DJ Lengua. With the exception of a few classics from Polibio Mayorga and La Sampuesana – the queen of all rebajadas – most of these songs were probably never performed as such before, let alone released.

So how did rebajada come to be? In a nutshell; Rebajada started with two families of brothers – the Pereas and the Ortegas – who travelled all over Latin America and returned to Mexico with heavy loads of records which they would sell to the various sonideros always on the lookout for new tunes. Colombian beats especially seemed to fit almost perfectly with the Mexican dance steps – but they were just a bit too fast. As a result some sonideros began experimenting with equipment, and Marco Antonio Cedillo of Sonido Imperial created a revolutionary pitching system that could slow records down to an extent other players could only dream about. And so rebajada was born . . . or so we thought.

At the same time in north of the country, in Monterrey, sonidero Gabriel Dueñez almost got electrocuted by a short circuit that nearly set his record player on fire. As a result the platter started spinning in slow motion for the rest of the party, turning Cumbia into a different affair altogether. The youngsters went crazy for it and started harassing the sonidero with requests to record cassettes for them. Reluctant at first, Dueñez finally began recording a series of pirated cassettes called “Rebajada” which included mainly Colombian cumbia and porro in slow-mo exclusively. Those tapes took the city by storm and turned rebajada into a celebrated and defiant movement of the youth.

Of course it would not be a Mexican urban legend if it didn’t include dramaturgical elements, and so for nearly 30 years, until this day and probably for ever, both cities have been arguing and claiming ownership the creation of rebajada for themselves. But sonidera Joyce Musicolor, who never has time for such trivial arguments, got straight to the point: “Rebajada, and the equipment to perform it, is from here Mexico City but it was Monterrey that popularised it.“

The 4th full-length by Tokyo Metropolis electronica entity UNKNOWN ME, Bishintai, is a sublime synthetic suite of cosmic wellness transmissions exploring “the unknown beauty of your mind and body,” appropriately named for a kanji compound meaning “beauty, mind, body.” Crafted with software, synthesizer, steel drum, rhythm boxes, and robotic voice by the core quartet of Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai, the album unfolds like a holographic guided meditation, soothing but cybernetic, framed by subways and sky malls. Latticework electronics flicker with texture, glitch, wobble, and mirage, themed around sensory perception and body parts.

A diverse cast of collaborators assist in actualizing the collection's uniquely urban expression of new age ambient, from psychedelic footwork riddler foodman to multi-instrumentalist institution Jim O'Rourke to Japanese underground shape-shifters MC.Sirafu and Lisa Nakagawa. Although the group cites a therapeutic muse (“made for the maintenance of the minds of city dwellers”), Bishintai shimmers with an alien strangeness, too, like decentralized relaxation systems obeying sentient circuits. This is music of utopia and nowhere, channeling worlds within worlds, birthed from a sonic ethos as simple as it is sacred: “in pursuit of beautiful tones.”

"Half a Klip" is a Vinyl Reissue of Kool G Rap's first solo release It was originally released in 2007: As is to be expected, G Rap fills out the lyrics sheet here with banana clips and stacks of body bags -- certainly not a disappointment (he played a big part in inventing this agenda after all), though the MC's steady, workmanlike approach and topical sameness leaves a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of his producers. t's open to debate as to whether there has ever been a rapper more influential, yet somehow less celebrated, than Kool G Rap. From his seminal work on Marley Marl's Juice Crew productions and Cold Chillin' Records, to the major contributions he gave to the blueprint of gangster storytelling in rap, the Kool Genius has remained relevant and consistent despite heaps of record label drama and the ever-diminishing attention span of the listening public. It's unlikely that the new Chinga Chang Records EP Half A Klip will do much to elevate G Rap's legacy, but there are still shining moments to remind us why the legendary MC is more than deserving of the little reverence he receives.IThus, the EP's best moments come when he is united with a strong hand behind the boards. Marley Marl's sinister keys and kettle drum composition for "With A Bullet" (inexplicably buried at track eight on this 11-track offering) is probably the best canvas for Rap's gangster mentality. DJ Premier contributes a strong track (merely serviceable by Premier standards, but a standout here) and the lesser-known Domingo also seems to be able to give G Rap room to run. Unfortunately, the rest is just middling with one true mistake, Critical Child's dismal "Turn It Out", which sounds like a cast-off from a Jim Jones studio session. In any event, this collection of new and unreleased material is not the next Road to the Riches. On the bright side, the MC behind Road to the Riches is still here (in every sense) and still doing it 20 years later.

KGLW made the colloquially-dubbed 'Timeland' furtively and in semi-secrecy around the time of their 2019 Red Rocks show, and intended it for use as an intermission piece for said three-hour marathon set. Made up of a thoroughly different palette of inspirations to their usual speedy psych-rock, the LP operates in strange surrealist dance music and instrumental beats, oddly peppered by Gizzard's classic nasal vocal twirls and hooks. Guitar rarely features. Now, this weirdo's oddball remains shrouded behind secrecy and conspiracy theories, and as such, will not feature on any DSPs. So get on it while you can, because this cream coloured vinyl version won't be around much longer before the heads snaffle it up. Just in case you vomit at its glory, it comes in and with a brown paper bag.

Repress!
R.A. The Rugged Man is one of the most fascinating figures in hip-hop history. His career spans decades, and defies simple narratives. The Rugged Man has been an up-and-coming star, an industry outcast banished and forgotten, an underground cult hero, an independent success story, and an influential master of the art form.

Now, R.A. The Rugged Man is back with ""All My Heroes Are Dead"", a brand new album that stands as his best work to date. “So many of the greats are gone, and the legends who made it out alive are cast aside,” R.A. explains. “Society left our heroes and their culture for dead. We have to dig that greatness out of its grave, and bring it back with an angry vengeance.” "All My Heroes Are Dead" features an all-star lineup of hip-hop heavyweights, including Atmosphere, Chuck D, Ghostface Killah, Immortal Technique, Vinnie Paz, Ice T, M.O.P., Kool G Rap, Brand Nubian, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Chris Rivers, Onyx, Inspectah Deck, A-F-R-O, Masta Killa, and more.

This album doesn't blurt it out: There is no loud "Ta-Dah!", no exclamation mark. "The ghost that carried us away" flatters in a rather unobtrusive way. However, it has encircled you after the third song at the latest. Fragile hymns of nonchalant casualness, created by the 24-year-old Sindri Már Sigfússon. Guitars, piano, his almost bashful and yet so present voice. "Nature, mortality, love", these are the topics of his debut album. Even the one who listens only briefly, is able to make them out within the sounds. "Do you remember how the things look when you were young."

Reykjavik again. Iceland, the musical heartland. On top of that, there is a violinist with her voice in the clouds: Gudbjörg Hlin Gudmundsdóttir (violine, vocals, harmonica). There further are musicians Sindri shared his hometown and his passion: Orn (guitar, lapsteel) who forms together with Sindri and Gudbjörg the inner triangle of Seabear. Or Eiki, Orvar, Gudni and Dóri. One plays the flugelhorn, the slide-guitar or upright-bass. One belong to the live line-up of Sigur Rós (Eiki). Another is part of the sensational múm (Orvar). Some are stage members of Benni Hemm Hemm's Band - the other Icelandic artist on morr music. Sindri Már Sigfusson has invited them into his small studio, placed them in front of the only microphone, let them think about his musical thoughts. He likes the notion and the feeling of LoFi, Sindri says. Only for the recording of the drums three microphones were used. The result is reminiscent of the reduced stereo recordings of the 1960ies.

Libraries is the most direct promise that pop music is able to make. Tiny and gigantic, unobtrusive and exciting at the same time. A song like a blink into the most beautiful sunrise. A tumbling piano, swinging drums. Melodies, melancholy: "My little bird flew away from me". Or "hands remember", the singing being close to one's ear. "The voice of an old friend", a murmur, two violins. There is later "summer bird diamond", birds twitter to the accords of an old banjo, a glockenspiel. It is almost a radio play, chamber folk. And "seashell" at last, a pocket symphony, arranged around jumping drums. Sufjan Stevens would have done it in a very similar way.

Spectacular live recording from 1986 of two seminal figures of the Japanese avantgarde - Akira Sakata on saxophone and Takeo Moriyama on drums. Mitochondria captures the reunion of the two free jazz masters, who started playing together in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in 1972 until 1975. For both, the experience with the trio was an important step in the development of their own career and musicianship. The recordings are a remarkable performance in which each successfully highlights the essential elements of his playing while giving of room for the other musician. Recorded at Kashiwa Church Chiba Pref. In Japan on 24 May 1986 by Yukio Tezuka on Sony stereo cassette recorder. Mixed by Jim O'Rourke, Mastered by Martin Siewert. Graphic design/cover photo by Lasse Marhaug. Liner notes by Kazue Yokoi

After a 20 year wait, Detroit rock band The High Strung finally share their long lost album 'HannaH' on vinyl! Originally recorded in 2002, the album is finally seeing the light via Park The Van

In case you're not familiar with the group, they're fronted by Josh Malerman, author of New York Times best seller 'Bird Box'. The band is renowned for their rigorous touring, having played 250 shows a year for 7 years, touring with the likes of Guided By Voices, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Son Volt, etc."These guys make instantly memorable music." - Pitchfork "Upbeat melodies, ever- shifting tempos, catchy choruses, and standout bass lines." - NPR
"Forget all that you know about the other hardest working bands in show business." - Paste

Nothing is explained in the mysteries around us, but some art touches their soul: last year, Justin Tripp, one half of the US-American impro electronic duo Georgia and London-based electronic artist Zaheer Gulamhusein man behind projects like Waswaas and XVARR -joined forces as STRING. Together they went on a virtual vacation and never came back. As the virtual is fully real due to its virtuality, they created a truly authentic aural hardware journey, hauntingly adventurous, calm, and surprising.

Without defining the scope, STRING tumbled through a dark musical zone that stretched to the horizon, letting the sound shape itself while falling discreet into an appealing abstract space. Hovering clockwise shortly above the ground, they formed impossible geometric musical figures - weightless, fluid clouds, made up of relations between asymmetrical elements. Like in nature, their collaborative work avoids identical characteristics. In an expression of respectful admiration, they softly celebrate the irregularities between their specific genetic musical fingerprints, creating eight light binding clouds of dawn. A meditative musical voyage that transports cosmic particles of idealistic Berlin school ambient right into the heart of their electronic machines. All tunes swing calm but constitutive, dancing around synthesized surfaces that form obsessed flaming orbs of fear and hope, of matter and antimatter.

A shared love for hardware and the ethos of improvisation guided STRING into an experimentation, in which each party aligns closely to the core ideas of co-operative, in-the-moment electronic music, tied across the eight tracks in a sequence.

Finding a home with the highly esteemed Hamburg based label V I S, STRING’s debut “Last Index Of...“ will enter the earth in double vinyl and cassette format, plus tripping on at the digital platforms.

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. One of the throughlines that create that distinctive sound is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters follows in this line as Tortoise turned their iconic early songs over to their friends to play with. The remixes by other legends including Bundy K. Brown, Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke, Brad Wood (Liz Phair), Casey Rice, Mike Watt (Minute Men), and Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) create a sense of community, and unlimited creativity. It's been out of print since 1995. Tortoise...have spent the past 25 years and seven albums fusing dub, jazz, prog, and indie into an instantly recognizable and much-loved trademark sound. - Pitchfork As with the best of Tortoise, these tracks can be enjoyed on many levels, but when listened to carefully, they reveal seemingly infinite sonic treasures. - Pitchfork

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. One of the throughlines that create that distinctive sound is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters follows in this line as Tortoise turned their iconic early songs over to their friends to play with. The remixes by other legends including Bundy K. Brown, Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke, Brad Wood (Liz Phair), Casey Rice, Mike Watt (Minute Men), and Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) create a sense of community, and unlimited creativity. It's been out of print since 1995. Tortoise...have spent the past 25 years and seven albums fusing dub, jazz, prog, and indie into an instantly recognizable and much-loved trademark sound. - Pitchfork As with the best of Tortoise, these tracks can be enjoyed on many levels, but when listened to carefully, they reveal seemingly infinite sonic treasures. - Pitchfork

Even in trying times, “there is no love without electricity.” Electricity is the fourth and most progressive album from Ibibio Sound Machine, and like all good Afrofuturist stories, it begins with an existential crisis. “It’s darker than anything we’ve done previously,” says Eno Williams, the group’s singer. “That’s because it grew out of the turbulence of the past year. It inhabits an edgier world.”

Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award and Mercury Prize nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, Kae Tempest, Keith LeBlanc, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World,” and Bootsy Collins.

The hook of opener “Protection From Evil” has Williams wielding a massive synth line from Hot Chip’s Al Doyle like a spiritual shield against unspecified, malign forces unspecified because Williams is speaking in tongues. Her lyrics are onomatopoeic: their meaning is defined in her energetic delivery. As Electricity takes off, so do Williams’ words towards a brighter future, alternating between English and Ibibio, sometimes within verses, and propelled by Joseph Amoako’s unabating afrobeat. She digs into this sentiment further on single “All That You Want,” coolly assuring her romantic interest while also requesting reciprocity. Meanwhile, Scott Baylis’ playful Juno synth guides the listener’s feet along the dancefloor.

Electricity is a deep and seamless realization of Williams’ and Grunhard’s ambitious founding manifesto to combine the singularly rhythmic character of the Ibibio language which Williams spoke growing up in Nigeria with a range of traditional West African music and more modern electronic sounds. While the band enjoys veering further into electronic territory with the help of mutuals like Hot Chip, Grunhard emphasizes, “For us, it’s not just a matter of embracing new technology. What’s key is to keep the music grounded in African roots.” Ibibio Sound Machine best exemplify this on Electricity’s “Freedom.” That track was inspired by the water-drumming rhythms of Cameroon’s Baka women, which in turn fueled its lyrics, which in turn prompted Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine to layer joyfully kinetic electronic counterparts on top in the studio. As the track culminates with the mantra of “rage, hope, cope, soul,” it’s clear that Ibibio Sound Machine have channelled, harnessed, and distilled these words as guiding principles, both for the album and for the turbulent world that awaits it.

French artist Trudge returns to Lobster Theremin with his debut LP No More Motivation arriving on March 18th with a genre-bending and original masterstroke; charged as it is cerebral. The album's concept points to the artist's tumultuous relationship with music; plagued by life events and the looming shadow of tragedy. That same relationship however, has led to an album of nuance, a cathartic whirlwind that pushes and pulls from one part of the psyche to the next.

From the laden house sounds found in his earlier work, to the hard-hitting emotive techno we hear today, both Trudges’ personal and artistic evolution runs parallel, drawing between the lines of introspection and dance music’s modern functionality. Bangkok Radio kicks off proceedings with a reminiscent drive through the city's bustling landscape, as space unfolds the further we travel from the hustle and bustle of daily life. No Motivation, Meaningless is a nod to the producer's headspace - burdened by the unpredictability of reality and it’s governing influence on art; echoing throughout the entire album.

Mazzomba explores the duality of light and dark; heavily submerged sounds can be heard melting below the surface, as airy synths create an ethereal glow - acting as our torch through the crud-infested trench. The album's interlude Berserk provides a rest bite, an ambient dreamscape laced with deeply layered textures - casting warm fluorescent light amongst the clouds as balance is restored.

Dead Orange and Gradient demonstrate the artist's knact for intelligent sound-design and world-building soundscapes, while Unghosted and Punishments sees Trudge venture into raw and unwavering compositions created for the dance-floor. Closing the album is Blue Ritual, a thought-provoking piece that has the ability to transport and heal. It’s introspective layers point to the changing winds to come - rounding off an album not binded by genre, but an eclecticism that characterizes an artist true to his craft.