Cerca:collective

For fans of Khruangbin, El Michels Affair, Tame Impala and Ezra Collective. Genre: Psych/Funk/Jazz/Breakbeat/Indie. Taken from the forthcoming Lewis Recordings album ‘Another Side of Skinshape’. Will Dorey aka Skinshape is a former member of the band Palace, has played Glastonbury, BBC Maida Vale and Shepherds Bush Empire, to name a few. His ‘I Didn’t Know’ has streamed over 50 million times. Taking inspiration from childhood memories, Ethiopian rhythms, and even calls to prayer, Another Side Of Skinshape gained access to the most esoteric corners of Dorey’s mind. ‘Stornoway’ replicates the same lifeblood heard on albums Nostalgia, or Craterellus Tubaeformis. Speaking on the album, Dorey says “Some songs pay homage to the 90s whilst others the 60s and 70s. Yet you may not perceive all of these in the form that they are presented. In any case I hope that the album is enjoyable and will fit casually into the flow of your day.” Another Side Of Skinshape is due for release just before a run of UK and US live dates, which will be the first time the band has ever hit the open road

Episode three for Leeds-Barcelona collective MASS connects both cities at the heart of their project with two artists from each scene.

A1 features the talented Leeds-based producer Ollie Burgess aka Zuul/R.O.E as he adds another alias to his belt, AS Groove. He is joined by Barcelona-based Driahn, a seasoned artist in the heart of the city and one-half of the DJ Service project.

Monile brings her dreamy visions to the B-side, an artist who continues to blossom with her infectious and spirited taste. Resident Nikol concludes the EP with a timeless breakbeat cut to finish this Leeds-Barcelona connection.

By it's very nature "Radio Chevére", the new album by Rio 18 and their host of guests cannot be categorized simply: at once both a Latin mixtape and a radio show, it's also an internationalist love letter, an offering to the goddess of Tropical Music and all that it encompasses. Ambitious, yes. Foolhardy, possibly. But sincere, committed and FUNKY? Definitely.

With the voice of guest DJ Coco Maria as our guide, "Radio Chévere" takes us on a journey through myriad musical styles and stories. Stopping off at Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, California, New York and countless other sonic destinations via Samba, Salsa, Funk, Cumbia, Joropo, Disco, Psychedelic and Electronic stylings, "Radio Chévere" is also a musical metaphor for migration - a journey from one continent, one life to another.

This album features songs in no less than four languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Welsh and English) and includes collaborations with Brazilian legends the +2's (Moreno Veloso, Kassin and Domenico Lancellotti) on the tender samba ballad, "Oh Minha Querida", transatlantic Yacht Rock gods Young Gun Silver Fox ("She's In LA"), "Sao Paulo's finest" Silvia Machete on the sweaty funk "Maybe Man" and Venezuelan Llanera and Joropo queen Luzmira Zerpa sings "Padre Tiempo", set to an incessant Afro-Venezuelan pulse. Why this torrent of eclectica now? Having recorded three albums in Welsh, predominantly inspired by Brazilian music, Rio 18 founder, Carwyn Ellis had a hard time following 2021's "Yn Rio": "We'd made a concept album with an orchestra. How do you follow that?" he says. "So I retreated to my laboratory, learned as much new music as I could, started learning Spanish too, and ended up writing tunes in a bunch of languages and styles, all of which reflected things I've learned or experienced over the last couple of years."

Since the group's inception in 2018, on the suggestion of Chrissie Hynde when he toured South America as a member of the Pretenders, Carwyn has been on a voyage of musical discovery through the styles of that continent. And in those five years he learnt a lot! But in a radical new move, Carwyn has stepped back from the mic, preferring to focus on writing and producing, handing over the vocal duties to band members Baldo Verdu (Venezuela) and Elan Rhys (Wales) plus a host of collaborators. "They can sing and express what I'm feeling so much better than I can, and both Elan and Baldo bring an authenticity and strength to our songs that surprise and elevate me. Collaborating with so many other inspiring artists on this album has helped us to grow and assimilate more styles - we're halfway through our next album already."

Rio 18 is an internationalist collective with Celtic and Latin roots and love at their core. With eye popping carnivalesque cover art by the brilliant Colombian graphic artist, Yoda, "Radio Chévere" is both timely and timeless.

For the past 20 years, NO FORMAT! has been cultivating the idea of an artisanal and homemade label, supporting artists who stand out with unexpected projects. Its motto, "You never know in advance what you"ll fall in love with", has guided its direction from the outset. Its high standards on the quality of the sound has become its trademark, while one of the mainstays of its work is the development of collaborations between artists from diverse backgrounds. For its 20th anniversary, a new guard of electronically-inspired artists takes over the NO FORMAT catalog for an original remix album, specially created for the occasion. 10 iconic tracks from the label are reimagined by 10 young, talented, emerging and/or established producers, carefully chosen on each track. While Pan-African trio Toto Bona Lokua"s music is reworked by British-Ghanaian afro-bass pioneer Hagan, South African vocal duo Msaki x Tubatsi is reimagined through a remix by amapiano heavy-weight Vigro Deep. Blick Bassy"s delicate Cameroon folk turns into an afro-club anthem produced by Moonshine collective leading figure Vanyfox ; Haitian-American neo-jazz artist Melanie Charles electrifies "Kouzen" by Haitian Canadian singer-songwriter Mélissa Laveaux ; renowned sound artist Sofie Birch transforms Koki Nakano"s delicate piano into an ambient soundscape. Japanese house pioneer Shinichiro Yokota gives a new spin on electro-jazz collective Asynchrone, which was inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto"s work. "NO FORMAT! Remixed (2004-2024)" is both a celebration of 20 years of music and creation, bringing this beautiful and curated catalog into a vibrant and festive compilation, and a step towards the label"s next 20 years.

" The myths of our Western tradition have often captivated me, whether they be Greek, Roman, or Judeo-Christian. Myths are a transcendent collective narrative; a buried memory, not intellectual but spiritual, alive to all the senses of another world. These stories often describe forbidding passages guarded by terrifying monster-like creatures, which, if conquered, give access to other planes. 'Door 1 - Door 2' are two of these planes, opening to prophecy and kingship." (Christopher Chaplin)

Following the release of his powerful and dark album trilogy "Je suis le Ténébreux", "Paradise Lost" and "M", British avant-garde composer Christopher James Chaplin has unveiled his latest project in 2021: "Patriarchs", released to critical acclaim. This project is a musical exploration of the Antediluvian patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, and is another captivating and daring work of art that straddles experimental electronic music and the avant-garde. Chaplin has also been wowing audiences with his live performances, releasing the concert album "Patriarchs Live" to shorten the wait for his new studio album "Door 1 Door 2", which will be released on September 20, 2024.

It is another powerful work of art, located between electronic music and avant-garde. Once again, Christopher Chaplin breaks genre boundaries and manages to condense experimental and colorful electronics in chamber music in a unique way, transporting the listener into mental and spatiotemporal intermediate states. A completely unique musical microcosm that can also be experienced in his impressive solo live performances.

The principles of pleasure radiate a knowing, carnal heat throughout the genre-fluid sound of LSDXOXO. His decade of dedication to the sensibility of underground club culture has brought forth club classics interwoven with pop music hooks and subversive, tongue-in-cheek lyrics.

After four years of what LSDXOXO, real name RJ Glasgow, calls a period of “healing and self-discovery,” he is consolidating his multiplicitous sound with one compelling masterstroke: the debut album DOGMA, to be released on his own imprint F.A.G. DOGMA marks a complete paradigmatic shift: it is a poetic and fantastical performance, a route for deep escapism through an expanded musical palette including piano and guitar, and a deeply personal confessional through a fresh approach to songcrafting.

Within DOGMA, RJ meditates on the interlinked qualities of fame, infamy, lust and submission, as he rediscovers a pure, unadulterated approach to music-making, all the while adopting a futurist approach to pop music appreciation. RJ’s unmistakable signatures—the smutty dancefloor caller, the maker of irresistible bangers, the latter-day electroclash and DnB nostalgist—take on even more shades and intricacies. Despite his widespread acclaim as a collaborator with and songwriter for other artists, RJ strips DOGMA down almost exclusively to himself, carving out intentional space as a chameleonic vocalist and performer. He breathes life into the album with private thoughts, external fears and a red thread through personal themes that crystallise the album’s narrative from front to back.

The album’s promo single “Bloodlust” offers angsty, intimate indie-tronica, and musings on the intoxicating nature of love and infatuation. The lead single “Ghost” reaches beyond RJ’s Philadelphia origins to find itself in the deep south, in a sultry fever dream of coquettish R&B featuring backing vocals from close collaborator Kelela. Elsewhere on the album futuristic love, pensive pop earworms, evocative vintage dance styles and sleazy club tracks intermingle. While the DOGMA era will eventually explore remixes and reworks, the album is RJ’s purest embrace of himself and his artistry.

RJ first garnered attention as LSDXOXO in New York City with his on-the-pulse Soundcloud edits and then as part of the cult GHE20GOTH1K collective. His DJ sets and productions quickly earned him acclaim across globally-linked underground scenes. His decision to shift from sampled vocals to picking up the pen and microphone pushed his reach out to the stratosphere; his association with XL Recordings via the Dedicated 2 Disrespect EP in 2021 was a turning point for the burgeoning superstar.

This multiplicity of the LSDXOXO sound has led to enviable co-signs. These include being selected as the opening DJ for Beyoncé’s German Renaissance tour dates, remixing Lady Gaga, Pink Pantheress and Shygirl and producing five tracks for Kelela's highly acclaimed 2023 album for Warp Records, Raven. His fully-realised live show has also taken to the stage, serving fierce charisma to huge audiences at festivals including Primavera, Nuits Sonores and Rewire.

Toy Tonics ITALOMANIA Vol. 2 is a compilation dedicated to NEW ITALIAN DISCO. (Not Italo Disco.)
13 young contemporary Italian producers made new organic disco, indie dance, avant pop and house tracks with Italian vocals.

Everything on this compilation has been produced in 2023. Fresh dance music by Italian indie electronic star Myss Keta together with DJ Severino (of Horse Meat Disco) and newcomers Sam Ruffillo, Fimiani, Magou, Tommiboy, Daniel Monaco, Giovanni Damico. And new music by artists Stump Valley (from Dekmantel), Munk (Gomma records), Rodion (Slow Motion Records) and DJ legend Lele Sacchi,

The ITALOMANIA compilation was initiated by Toy Tonics boss Kapote. The idea is to show the status of Italian Disco of today. It’s like a „manifesto“!
Kapote invited the most relevant Italian producers to make new tracks with Italian vocals and show different styles of modern Italian disco, dance and house music.
with Italian vocals. All tracks compiled by Kapote aka Mathias Modica aka Munk. Italo-German producer, DJ, keyboarder and head of Toy Tonics and Gomma records.

Italian Disco is not Italo Disco.
While the last years the slightly trashy pop music of the 1980’s called Italo Disco (with English lyrics) had a big revival. But now also the attention for more quality and organic dance music with Italian language is rising. This compilation is about this Italian Disco,
It’s a fact that not just in Italy but also in France and Germany there are now artists singing in Italian or using Italian words and names - even if they are not Italian.

Let’s not forget: The world’s culture of party, dancing, showbizness and pop music would be unimaginable without the heritage and creativity that Italians contributed.
Italy is not just the country of good food, beautiful beaches and high fashion, but it’s also the original country of dance music. Since almost 3000 years, since the ancient roman times the Italians have been making (dance) music culture, creating popular culture and being the maestros in organizing parties.
Also the disco wave of the 1970ies and the Pop music of the 1980ies has been co-created by Italians (and Italo-americans in New York).

The ITALOMANIA artists & tracklist:

M¥SS KETA
The most famous artist on the compilation is singer M¥SS KETA. The Italian press calls her "the Italian Lady Gaga“. M¥SS KETA is an edgy performer that reached the top of the charts with indie pop songs, but is also well rooted in the Milan art, fashion and LGTB scene.
To create a song for Italomania she teamed up with DJ Severino. The Italian part of London’s Horse Meat Disco DJ collective. Probably the world leading queer DJ team. (M¥SS KETA recently was invited to perform Berghain in Berlin).

Sam Ruffillo
Sam Ruffilo has contributed a new (party) version of his song Mediterranea. A organic disco track with lyrics in Neapolitan dialect. Sam Ruffillo is an upcoming Italian DJ and producer and one of the lead artists of Toy Tonics (along with Coeo, Kapote and Cody Currie). He had a few underground hits combining leftfield disco and Lofi House with Italian vocals creating a new genre that is finding lot of fans right now. One of his songs (Chiamami Subito) made it into the rotation of big Italian radio station M20. On Instrgam you can see his DJ sets where hundreds of Italians sing his songs at Toy Tonics parties.

Munk
Toy Tonics head honcho Kapote reworked the Munk song ‚La Musica‘ for this compilation. Munk is the former producer name of Mathias Modica aka Kapote. The creative mind behind Toy Tonics and Gomma records. ‚La Musica‘ is an Italo house song that he originally released 2010 when he was doing his former label Gomma records. Now there is this new version of this catchy dance song with the Italian hookline that became almost iconic when first released.
It made sense to include a new version of this track on ITALOMANIA because its a blueprint of italian disco and sounds so fresh again now.

Giovanni Damico
The south Italian DJ, producer made „Tropica“. The song is a tribute to the music of the Italian discos of south Italy of the 1980ies. A Balearic session that can be great at a beach in the afternoon, but also for dancing in the early morning. Damico is part of the new Italian disco scene releasing his dance tracks on international labels like Lumberjacks in hell and White Rabbit records since 2013.

Kapote
His new song „Sono tropical“ is an ironic Latin pop song based on a classic salsa piano riff and a strong Latin soul bassline. It reminds the big tunes from the 1970ies New York Salsa Scene (Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Fania All Stars). The vocals performed by Kapote are a mix of Italian and Spanish. The girl’s voice is also performed by Kapote. But transferred into a female voice by an AI. All instruments played by Kapote who before starting to get into the DJ and label business used to to study jazz piano. Before starting Toy Tonics Kapote he released 3 albums under his former name Munk and produced records with big names from the electronic music scene like James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Peaches, The Rammellzee and three albums of Danish band WhoMadeWho. Mathias/ Kapote also worked with artists like Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture and Asia Argento.

Lele Sacchi
Lele Sacchi is an Italian DJ legend and host of Italy's most important DJ radio show on RAI national radio. He has been djing all around the world playing from Circoloco Ibiza to Avalon LA. He has Besides being on Italian national radio he has been doing shows on NTS Radio or guest on BBC Six. He produced for labels like Soul Clap, !K7, Internasjonal, Nervous, Snatch, Crosstown Rebels, Poker Flat and his own Stolen Goods imprint.
Sacchi teamed up with young vocalist Elasi, a new talent from Milano that is making waves in Italy for a few songs she released in a indie disco style. Their song is an interpretation of late 70’s cult slow disco pop classic ‘Malamore’ by the underdog Enzo Carella. A mix of slow house and playful pop with a slight touch of acid!

Tommiboy
Tommiboy made a nasty, disco rock song called Sfinge. Only 26 years old he is one of the most hyped up Italian disco diggers and collectors. Originally from Rimini, the capital of discos, he is the son of a father who was a regular dancer in Rimini’s clubs of the 1980is and fed his son with all things disco.
Tommiboy started to do parties and compilations under the name Disco Stupenda three years ago. By now he and his parties are a big thing in Italy and has fans all around the country. He also is DJ for fashion brands like Gucci and he is the guy who re-introduced 1980s stars like Pino D’Angio.

Fimiani aka BPlan
The DJ und producer from Napoli is part of the new, vibrant disco scene from Napoli. (NuGenea, Mystik Jungle, Manny Whodamanny )
His collabo with italian 1980ies crooner Angeleri called SessoSpaghetti is a remake of a song originally released in 1983, but never became famous when it came out. The drums on the song are played by Napoli legend Tullio De Piscopo and the guitar by Lucio Battisti guitar player Massimo Luca.
The new version is a ironic summer disco with sexy vocals and Italian fun rapping about beach life, beautiful girls and sex on the beach. Fimiani also does edits of rare italo disco under the name of BPlan

Daniel Monaco
Daniel Monaco is a multi-talented artist, producer, and bass player DJ, bandleader and producer from Napoli - but has been living for many years in Amsterdam where he hosted show on Red Light Radio released on Labels of the likes of Rush Hour and Bordello a Parigi. Is one of the key figures of the scene due to unique fusion of Italo Disco, Proto House, Obscure Disco, and a captivating tropical touch. His latest EPs came out on Slow Rush Hour records and Periodica Records contributed the song ‚Milly‘ for Italomania. Played with a 5 person band.

Stump Valley
The two DJs, producers and vinyl collector are experts in all things Italo Disco and Balearic music. Before joining Toy Tonics they released an album on Dekmantel records. One of the guys (Brain de Palma) is the favorite DJ of Peggy Gou. He is regularly opening the shows of Peggy as a warm up DJ and releases his solo records on Peggy's label Gudu records. For this compilation they made Non dire di no. An old school piano house track with catchy vocals in the finest tradition of the piano house style that Italians invented in the early 1990ies.

A/B Side Effect, Black & Gold, limited to 200 copies. More than 4 years after "Sculpture Of Violence," GIVER from Cologne, Germany, announce their third album "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" for September 20, 2024, on End Hits Records. In recent years, GIVER have not only refined their hardcore sound to be more brutal and atmospheric with elements of metal and post-punk, but thematically, it's clear that their new album serves as an even more drastic political manifesto. Capitalism, culture wars, the climate crisis, and their societal implications and consequences are central themes on "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation." GIVER critique the prevailing neoliberalism and its ongoing agitation for the uncompromising pursuit of happiness and satisfaction. The band explains: "What neoliberalism has established is a lonely place. Its driving force is the individualized pursuit of constant fulfillment, altering the way we interact with each other. Whatever we do to achieve satisfaction, there's always a lingering sense of something missing. Happiness and contentment are never the goal; they've been replaced by profit margins and excess. These are endless and extremely unevenly distributed. Anger arises in this vacuum. With this album, we want to remind that it's the economic conditions and inequalities that should be the target of our collective frustration. They create depression, despair, and a downward spiral. Being anti-fascists is not enough; we must also be anti-capitalists." This anger is also reflected musically in the furious 11 new tracks. Filled with powerful guitar riffs and sometimes bilingual lyrics, some of the songs also introduce a new, deep style of spoken word for GIVER, making the eventual eruptions that much more impactful. With the release of their third album, GIVER venture into fresh and melodic territory, integrating elements of post-punk, black metal, and hardcore into a sound that sits somewhere between bands like Oathbreaker, Converge, or Chelsea Wolfe. Although "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" builds on a foundation of biting, powerful metal, it also incorporates dark vocal lines that could be found on a Fontaines D.C. or IDLES record. "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" was produced by Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Employed To Serve, Funeral For A Friend).

Permanent Parts is the second album released by visual artist Katharina Grosse (synthesizer) and musician Stefan Schneider (synthesizer; So Sner, To Rococo Rot). Grosse and Schneider were joined at Galerie Max Hetzler on 29 April 2023, performing as part of the Spectrum without Traces exhibition, by three artists who all generally work within improvised music – Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Tintin Patrone (trombone and electronics), and Billy Roisz (noise generator, piezo and mini cymbal). Permanent Parts is an extraordinary set of recordings that inhabits multiple zones at once: within its thirty-five minutes, we can hear the interactions of non-idiomatic collective music making, and the electronic glimmers of electro-acoustics, while, at the same time, the music remains untethered to genre.

This capacity to work within liminal zones makes perfect sense when thinking about both Grosse’s and Schneider’s prior work, whether the energetic diffusions and spatial explorations of Grosse’s artistic practice, or the slippery texturology of Schneider’s recent work with electronics. Khorkhordina, Patrone and Roisz all find their own ways into this dynamic, too, and Permanent Parts feels like an equal exchange of presence and contribution; there are no hierarchies here. This might explain the music’s curious sense of development, where several elements are allowed to exist alongside each other, not in direct contact but in a mode that’s somewhere between carefree layering and unconscious juxtaposition. The musicians are listening, but not just with their ears – their skin, their bodies are hearing, too.

When talking about Permanent Parts, Schneider is careful to place it within contexts that are specific, to some degree, but which allow for difference to blossom. “Although it was recorded live, it somehow was not meant to be a documentation of a live event in the first place. The five piece line up that appears on the record had met for the first time only a few hours before the concert took place.” While it might take a leap of faith for all parties to walk together, and so willingly, into a place of such freedom, of such risk, there is clear sympathy here between the musicians, and a shared appreciation of the immediacies of the situation.

It also throws some of our preconceptions about this music out of the window. “The record does not feel like a document of a performance as the music was not pre-composed and there was no reference,” Schneider continues. “Perhaps it was not even an improvisation?” For Grosse, her musical relationship with Schneider similarly shakes free from expectation: “My sound does not exist without Stefan’s. It is neither written down nor is it improvised. It is instantaneous.” When thinking about the five-piece exploration on Permanent Parts and asked to expand on what each musician brings to the table, she continues, “We all love the thrill of an unknown encounter and we seem to have a need for building connections through the thicket of our voices.”

There’s a curious phrase on the back cover of the album, before the artists are listed: “Wir sind eine Batterie / We are a battery.” This sums up the spirit of Permanent Parts. Schneider recalls that Grosse said this phrase to the musicians at the start of the performance. Grosse explains further, “The figure of the battery referred to our placement in the space building out a small circle facing one another from where the sound could spill into the impressive volume of the gallery.” The battery as an arrangement of similar devices; but I also think of charge, and the conversion of chemical energy, and of fortification. It’s a poetic metaphor that sums up much of the febrile pleasure of the music contained on these Permanent Parts.

– Jon Dale, Melbourne

For as much as Sammy Rae & The Friends may be a band, this collective of dreamers and artists considers themselves a family first. That all-for-one and one-for-all camaraderie ignites their unforgettable and can’t-miss live shows, which serve as a catharsis for both the musicians and their fervent audience. Fronted by singer/songwriter Sammy Rae and honed through years of touring, the group is capable of flourishing in any spotlight thanks to its signature blend of palpable chemistry, deft virtuosity, and vocal fireworks.

Their sound, which has attracted new fans by the thousands in the past few years, is a unique mélange of Sammy’s influences: classic rock, folk and funk and sprinkled with soul and jazz. Rae has been building toward this moment since moving to NYC from Connecticut in her early 20s. Finding herself without a built-in peer group, she simply built it herself: the literal and proverbial Friends. When she started playing shows, she made sure the audience was part of the family too. Everything that’s happened since, from the EPs The Good Life (2018) and Let’s Throw a Party (2021) to sold-out shows in major markets and secondary markets alike across North America and the UK & Europe, to high-profile festival sets around the world, including Bonnaroo’s main stage, Sound on Sound and more, has been based on friends telling friends. As they prepare for the release of their long-awaited debut full-length album in 2024, Something for Everybody, Sammy Rae & The Friends have come to represent more than just a band: they are a full-on movement being adopted with a refreshingly diverse clientele.

By the time Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - went into Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles to record the third album with his Elektric Band, the lineup had been solidified through constant touring the previous year. Dedicated to his father Armando, a trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, Eye of the Beholder reflected a tightening of the ensemble playing and a greater showcasing of the individual solo prowess of these consummate musicians.

With this fresh sounding five-star recording, it is clear that Corea was more open to showcasing this band’s collective muscle and individual virtuosity. The group rips, in no uncertain terms, on showcases like “Cascade, Part II,” “Trance Dance,” and the staggering “Amnesia.” There are experimental excursions into the kind of atmospheric, ambient music realms that Brian Eno pioneered on “Cascade, Part 1” and may be the most profound musical statement of the collection, on par with past Corea high points, “Beauty.”

Originally released on GRP Records in 1988, the album is a high-water mark for Corea and his Elektric Bandmates.

Permanent Parts is the second album released by visual artist Katharina Grosse (synthesizer) and musician Stefan Schneider (synthesizer; So Sner, To Rococo Rot, Mapstation). Grosse and Schneider were joined at Galerie Max Hetzler on 29 April 2023, performing as part of the Spectrum without Traces exhibition, by three artists who all generally work within improvised music - Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Tintin Patrone (trombone and electronics), and Billy Roisz (noise generator, piezo and mini cymbal). Permanent Parts is an extraordinary set of recordings that inhabits multiple zones at once: within its thirty-five minutes, we can hear the interactions of non-idiomatic collective music making, and the electronic glimmers of electro-acoustics, while, at the same time, the music remains untethered to genre.

After their internationally successful releases 'Mosaic' and 'Babel', Dutch band Lesoir launches their new full-length album 'Push Back the Horizon'. With this album, the band shows its most melodic side. 'Push Back The Horizon' is characterised by traditional song structures, catchy hooks and a groovy rhythm section, with the pinch of prog this five-piece is known for. The 10 songs are inspired by the collective challenges humanity faces and the glimmers of hope from which we draw positive energy to push boundaries. 'Push Back The Horizon' was produced by John Cornfield, known for his work with Muse, Kashmir, Razorlight, Supergrass, New Model Army and Ben Howard.

Mystic, member of the legendary rap collective Digital Underground, is releasing her 3rd album Dreaming In Cursive: The Girl Who Loved Sparklers on Vinyl. She is most known for her classic Cuts For Luck and Scars for Freedom which was released on vinyl last year. This new album find a return to her roots working with long time collaborator Walt Liquor to create the sonic landscape she's most known for. There was a crowd-sourcing campaign to create the visuals for this project that was successful and from it came three visuals that will be the foundation for a short film released this summer called A Black Love Trilogy. This project is the healing balm the world needs in these trying times.
GRAMMY-nominated rapper, singer, and Bay Area legend Mystic (affectionately known as the “DU Goddess of Digital Underground”) has returned to bless the world with a new album like only she can. "Dreaming In Cursive: The Girl Who Loved Sparklers" is Mystic’s first new release from her label, Beautifull Soundworks, and is produced by herself and Walt Liquor. With song and voice that resonates with the beauty of unadulterated womanhood, Mystic’s new album is what she coined, “Healed Black woman music.” As a seasoned veteran in the music business, Mystic reminds us of her ability to seamlessly weave together harmonies and vivid lyrics that invoke thoughts of love, community, and healing. Always on time with her offerings, this new project warms the soul as only Mystic can—a perfect reminder to long-time fans of their love for her and a welcoming invitation to music lovers around the world looking for high-quality, meaningful, and banging music at once.
Quote: “I am known for moving in between the intersections of trauma and healing--the beauty and the pain. My healing journey and life journey have brought me to a place where the art reflects my level of healing and the knowledge, wisdom, and joy I passionately pursue. My fans have healed and grown with me, and I look forward to the joy and conversations this album will encourage.”

Mermaid Chunky. It's all in a name, sometimes. The danceable, costumed, curiosity rich duo of artists Freya Tate and Moina Moin are as imaginative as they profess. Or, to get more to the point, as we all need them to be. Freya and Moina are two visual artists and musicians from Stroud and South London, places where they importantly found communities (Stroud's SVA and the capital's Total Refreshment Centre) of like minded people just as willing to chase down an idea to its possibly illogical conclusion. And it is in the collective and the idea of participation that Mermaid Chunky really clicks. This is a party, a collective dance, made all the better with more: people, ideas, layers, kick drums, recorders, saxophones, frogs. To wit, the album's first track and first single, "Céilí," named after a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering and dance, which builds from a simple recorder line into a swelling, warm burst of major chord dance music. Goosebumps or check your pulse. Further down the rabbit hole, "Chaperone" is almost boardwalk electro, like Fischerspooner on a ferris wheel; "Frogsporn" and "Nature Girl" are mucky, trippy dirges filled with stalactites of synth and squelch; "Tiny Gymnast" is a kaleidoscopic waltz into the night. Hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen. You might be wondering how we, DFA Records, all the way over in cynical Brooklyn, entered the picture. There was a day a few years ago, sun shining in full Springtime splendor, when James heard something while waiting for a coffee down the street from the office. It sounded simple yet deceptively complex: a dance track, but one where the one - that anchoring first beat in a measure - could be heard a thousand different ways. Frustrated and interested, he Shazamd the song, playing at the shop from an episode of Zakia's Questing show on NTS, and brought it back to the office, where we all listened to it about fifty times. (The song was "Friends," from Mermaid Chunky's VEST EP, released in 2020. It led to an invitation to open for LCD at Brixton Academy in 2022. Mermaid Chunky has also played live alongside The Comet Is Coming, Alabastair Deplume, Snapped Ankles, and many others.) Thus began our search for Mermaid Chunky. A quest it has been and a quest it will always be.

DJ Support: DJ Sabo, Gordon Invisible Inc, Ground Chill Mountain, Roe Deers, Thomas Von Party, Vidis

Multi Culti serve up a full-length treat from Peruvian artist Aristidez. Cofounder of Lima-based party collective Casa Locasa and the non-profit label Behua Icara (translated as Healing Rhythms), in support of indigenous culture, Aristidez has recently relocated to Berlin. With releases on Calypso, Disque-Discos, and Kebrada, as well as remixes for Amplio Espectro, Ida Sound, Discos Aquelarre, Rotten City Files, and Playground Records, Aristidez has quietly made a name for himself with a growing catalog of low-key dance tracks that have been championed by the likes of Matias Aguayo, Andrew Weatherall (RIP), and Inigo Vontier, to name a few. With an emphasis on the hypnotic power of rhythm, Aristidez channels indigenous influences in subtle fashion, alluding to visionary experience without resorting to pastiche or obvious tropes. There are freaky tribal rhythms but no shaman samples, just expertly produced tracks than reveal an expansive set of electronic influences that range across tempos and decades, from breaky 90s rave, 80s proto-trance, cult dub, downtempo and more. It’s listenable, danceable, heady and kaleidoscopic stuff that should stand the test of time.

Blood Smoke Vinyl. The Instrumental version of the underground classic El Michels Affair & Black Thought collaborative album Glorious Game When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their ­rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later_all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry_Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two ­rst met in the 2000s when Thought was ­rst getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective_Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax _are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy." Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most

Through X Scroll Era, Gabo Barranco, aka AAAA, conducts a rigorous overhaul of the aesthetics and statements of low-profile IDM, trance, and progressive-acid music typical of the early 2000’s. In addition to this inherent and undeniable veneration for the era, the pieces on this album — which originated from recordings and experimental exercises with gear and accidentally became an album — serve also as a kind of retrospective inspection of Mexico City's suburbs (Lomas de Sotelo), with landscapes full of indiscriminate concrete, highways of two and three levels, factories, and parking lots that have supplanted nature with their own detached beauty. It is a sound memory, a specific melancholy that praises skate squads of the area, friends from the past, parties, and substances. It reviews the decline of rave culture but also its resilience and capacity for transformation. What AAAA offers us with X Scroll Era is an almost multigenerational soundtrack, a memory that feels collective and recollects euphoria, ecstasy, and nostalgia.

After several LPs and EPs (Acid Test, Omnidisc, Janushoved) and several years active in the dance and contemplative electronic music circuit (MUTEK, BERGHAIN, iii Points, RBMA), X Scroll Era is the first album by Gabo Barranco, aka AAAA, published on the Mexican label Umor Rex.

Brussels is a highway where rainbow-fuelled melancholia kids race its track, mountain and road bikes. Endless summers cherish the collective chosen chaos of the city; every corner displays wild micro-natures, buzzing insects, and rare weeds fourishing organically; tape hiss and AM radio compression are the soundtrack of everyday life. And hear! Originated in the Brussels DIY, indie rock and noise scene, a new kid on the block appears: Another Dancer.

They deal in utopian music - of the open, welcoming and whatsoeverish kind. It’s fresh, snotty, neurotic art-rock deeply rooted in 80s/90s DIY aesthetics. The songs on their debut album balance gently between forgotten pop hits and broken sound experiments. In their world, any shitload of weird, random, and badly synchronized sounds unveil broken-hearted pop mastery. In the Another Dancer universe, radios are stuck to WFMU and Soulseek is a self-conscious AI producing 80ies psychedelic FM-rock.

Brussels-based Another Dancer is outdated, wild at heart and elegantly shy. Their full album I Try to Be Another Dancer is out September 10th on Bruit Direct Disques and Aguirre.

"Flashes of the shambolic post-punk of Good Sad Happy Bad and the goofy, fraternal synth-pop of the blog-era gem Teenagers can be seen, often simultaneously, across the new single from the Brussels-based band Another Dancer. Vocals are layered on top of each other to a conversational near-cacophony, like you’ve been placed at the center of a Dry Cleaning show where everyone is, improbably, in a good mood. Sunny synth sweeps jostle next to bent, jangly guitar lines for a song that finds a special kind of vibrance in its mess. — Jordan Darville”

LA-based singer-songwriter Lily Kershaw returns with Pain & More, her new concept album that is a collection of exquisitely heartbreaking, proof-of-life ruminations about existing behind a pall of melancholia. Collectively, they feel like a lifetime of repression, suddenly liberated. Central to Lily’s narratives is the idea that others will probably relate to, or benefit from, her pain. Humbled yet highly melodic, the facetiously named Pain & More is an emotionally tactile album that confronts the many incarnations of the prolonged, persistent depression that has shrouded Lily’s life for decades. It may be her third full-length, but it’s her defining moment -- a vivid, if sometimes uncomfortable, whirl of the angst and hope.Lily released her debut album Midnight In The Garden in 2013, featuring break-out single “As It Seems.” The album scored millions of streams and critical acclaim, and in the following years she landed multiple syncs on shows like Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, Finding Carter, Ted Lasso and more. She followed it up her 2018 EP Lost Angeles and her 2021 sophomore album Arcadia, which received acclaim from Nylon, American Songwriter, Vulture, Earmilk, Refinery29, CNN and more. Along the way, Lily cut her teeth on tours alongside Radical Face, Mason Jennings, The Weepies, and Joshua Radin, to name a few, and today has amassed more than 80 million streams.