quête:cross

The Garden is another timelessly classic album from a seminal electronic band and an essential soundtrack to any laidback listening.

SEATTLE -- Pearl Jam will release their much-anticipated eleventh studio album, Gigaton, on Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records on March 27, 2020 in the US. Internationally, the album will be released and distributed by Universal Music Group. Produced by Josh Evans and Pearl Jam, Gigaton marks the band’s first studio album since GRAMMY award-winning Lightning Bolt, which was released on October 15, 2013.

“Making this record was a long journey,” explains Mike McCready. “It was emotionally dark and confusing at times, but also an exciting and experimental road map to musical redemption. Collaborating with my bandmates on Gigaton ultimately gave me greater love, awareness and knowledge of the need for human connection in these times."

Gigaton’s cover features Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and marine biologist Paul Nicklen’s photo “Ice Waterfall.” Taken in Svalbard, Norway, this image features the Nordaustlandet ice cap gushing high volumes of meltwater.

In support of Gigaton, Pearl Jam will embark on their first leg of North American tour dates in March and April. The 16-date tour kicks-off on March 18 in Toronto and wraps with a two-date stint in Oakland April 18-19. Full tour dates follow.

Pearl Jam's North American tour is in addition to the band's previously announced European summer tour.

Snips is the founder of Barbershop Records and co founder of Livin Proof, with over 15 years experience as one of Londons most prolific DJs and over 10 years worth of production credits across Hip Hops underground. 2018 has seen Snips emerge as a budding solo artist, fusing the production styles of Hip Hop, House, Soul and Funk in the same fashion as he is known to do behind the turntables.

With his debut album "The Barbershop" making waves on both sides of the Atlantic and his Single "The Product" On Classic Records garnering support from a cross genre selection of heavyweights such as Karizma, Benji B, Eli Escobar, House Shoes, J Rocc, DJ Spinna and Henry Wu, Snips returns on his own label Barbershop Records and delves into Edit territory for his second instalment of the "Snips Edits" series. This time cleverly turning a handful of Hip Hop classics into club ready anthems over Snips' original productions.

Two years after the drop of his latest solo effort, 'Strangers', Budapest cross-dimensional vibes trader Imre Kiss clocks in on Dalmata Daniel with the eagerly awaited followup to his widescreen, sci-fi ready sonic adventures. Here again, the Hungarian producer - who's made a name for himself through discerning blends of kosmische-infused nostalgia and uplifting emotional apexes, takes us off to a world of sense-awakening wonders and hidden alien treasures, well supported in his quest by Den Haag's legend Intergalactic Gary, up on the flip with a heat-seeking belter of a remix.

Written during a tour across Japan, the title-track 'Oimachi' breaks things in on a punchy yet immersively emotional note, flexing out the blunt Casio arpeggios and muscular bass leads for what results in a soul-whelming, wildly enjoyable trip away from the gridlocked 4/4 paradigm. The further jagged and wonky 'Whipromance' extrudes a weirdo-friendly piece of stretchin' electronics from its squelchy gangue of acid subs and straightforward drumwork, all set against a refreshingly contemplative dawn of pastel-brushed pads and ample beat-free sequences that shall leave weary dancers in a daze.

Flip sides and here comes 'Soft Obsession' - a fine-tuned assembly of organic envelopes, plurally sourced sample library and that idiosyncratic sense of otherworldliness the name of Imre Kiss has become synonymous with. Opening the sunroof onto a luxuriantly arranged and incredibly deep forest of rhythmic folds and textures, this is the very kind of track to send you off to the zone on a one-way trip. Rounding off the journey in true Moebius-esque fashion, Intergalactic Gary lets his unmatched jockey know-how do the talk through a mind-expanding finisher that'll be sure to please both the lovers of stadium-sized epics and all-night-long chock-a-block sweatbox action.
/Baptiste Girou/

Screaming ‘lo-fi’ Soul / R’n’B crossover and super rare on original press.

With the collective generosity of all those involved along the way, from mastering, manufacturing, affiliated record stores and PR to the artists themselves and PDD, all profits from this special one-sided Artwork remix of Mildlife ‘Zwango Zop’ will be donated to two charities combatting the bushfire emergency in Australia via Prime Direct Distribution; Wildlife Victoria and the Australian Red Cross.

Their indispensable efforts continue to assist the emergency response, rebuilding homes and habitats, supporting rescued animals and the shelters that house them, alongside aiding the evacuation centres and recovery hubs created in many communities and implementing recovery plans for those who have been devastatingly affected by the bushfires.

Certified man of the people, king of the content and all-round good guy Artwork has been there, everywhere, and done it all - in more guises than many would even know about. From Magnetic Man to Grain, D’N’D to Artwork he’s a master producer, well versed at knowing what dancefloors want and more importantly need.

Now take Mildlife, the boundary pushing, critically acclaimed Melbourne-based space jazz four-piece, who’ve managed to seamlessly blend jazz, funk and disco into one multi-coloured, multi-layered melting pot of auditory excitement. A band whose hype is certainly lived up to, with the likes of DJ Harvey heavily championing them to the point of including ‘Magnificent Moon’ on his ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising’ VA LP.

A wash with improvisation, soaring synths, stratospheric bass riffs, and a fluidity of grooves, ‘Zwango Zop’, taken from Midlife’s debut album ‘Phase’, is kaleidoscopic cosmic gold. For this special non-profit release, Artwork extracts that undeniable funk energy and turns into a 10-and-a-half-minute, highly hypnotic, instantly addictive creation that it is as psychedelic as it is slamming.

Just one of many examples of the dance music community coming together as a power of good to raise funds for those affected by the emergency in Australia. Support the cause, through the medium of music.

Tucked away in their cover, but never for long, Guts' musical eyebrow wands have once again panicked, this time aggressively marking Africa.

Letting his instrument guide him towards the one he felt was the next signature of his label Pura Vida Sounds, the beatmaker-producer found himself face to face with an old acquaintance: Pat Kalla aka the voice of the Voilaaa Sound System, aka the one with which he crossed the funk on his album Philantropiques and the title "Daddy Sweet".

Convinced to follow him in studio, Pat, accompanied by his Super Mojo celebrates this collaboration by decapsulating La "Canette". Long groove in the mouth, acidic notes of synths and attacks of precise guitars, despite the bitterness of his words, a drink that suits every hour of the day and that strengthens the legs most numb. Heckled by her journey to the bottom of Pat’s musical bag, shaken by the syncopes of the beat, she spreads her funk foam from the very beginning into the A-side furrow.

Bartering the beige trench coat of Commissioner Joss against a colorful toghu, Kalla and his Mojo revisit on the B side the "Requiem Pour Un Con" de Gainsbourg. The martial groove, dark and hypnotic leaves its place to a polyrhythmic afrodisco production, surrounded by a low velocity.
More than a recovery, they are making a real diversion.
A hijacking driven by Pat Kalla and his Super Mojo, with Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Gabin sitting in the back seat like two "Pachas".

It is hard to think of many 7” singles where both sides are as heavy as this one! "Change The World" & "Try, Try" were released in 1977 by 'Solat', a Dutch-based funk group made up of Surinamese and Dutch-Antillian musicians.

Formed after ex-band members of Reality/Tony And Reality; Eddy Veldman, Franky Douglas, Ivor Mitchell and Glenn Gaddum teamed up with singer Billy Jones, Solat went on to release two singles for Poker records. With it's crossover nature, it pleases disco, funk and modern-soul collectors and DJs alike, plus due to only been released in the Netherlands, the record has now become an extremely sought-after item with a high price tag to match.

Both amazing cuts are aimed straight for the dance-floor, but retain conscious and positive messages that are as relevant now as they were back then. 'Change TheWorld’ is an anthemic feelgood disco funk gem, whilst 'Try, Try ‘ is reminiscent of a Mizell Brothers golden-era production.

Mr Bongo present a replica edition with dinked centre- and original cover- and also label artwork, for all to enjoy!

Ryan Crosson takes care of the fifth EP on tastemaking Detroit label My Baby Records with a fantastically forward-looking four-track vinyl offering. Ryan Crosson is a complex artistic creature who has roamed far and wide in his storied career. His always innovative music has come on groundbreaking labels including Wagon Repair, M_nus, Spectral Sound, and of course his own Visionquest. Each time he explores a new sound world and draws on things as diverse as musique concrète, Downtown New York funk, and East African jazz. Now he cooks up more beguiling brilliance on this fresh new EP. Opener ‘Speaker Dubs’ is a deep, bubbly rhythm track with dub chords rippling out to infinity. It’s a stylish track full of far-sighted reverence and supple groove that locks you in a trance. ‘Ogilvie’ is a piece of absorbing ambient with found sound recordings of muffled voices that sounds like you’re in an underground station. B-side opener ‘FutureTheory’ is another minimal masterpiece with glitchy sound design and eerie chords peeling off a tight, kinetic groove. Ghoulish voices add more late-night atmosphere and the whole track grows ever darker and more consuming as it unfolds. The excellent ‘OortCloud’ takes you back to the heart of a dance-floor with futuristic menace: the smooth drum loops are militant, the voices are dehumanised and the searching synths speak of a desolate landscape. It’s heady, brilliantly bleak stuff that is utterly infectious. This is another hugely inventive EP from one of the underground’s most consistent talents

ERUPTION is an outburst of creaking energies, unconventional ideas, arhythmic thoughts, cacophonous images and musical phantasms. ERUPTION is also the name of the second album by Kluster, a band project of the musician and video artist Conrad Schnitzler, who died in 2011, together with his colleagues Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. ERUPTION was also the name of a two-day festival that took place in July 2018 at the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. For two days, artists and musicians from different generations and working in various fields met here, who were in one way or the other inspired by the comprehensive oeuvre Conrad Schnitzlers’, as well as by his free-spirited thoughts and actions. The result was a multi-faceted programme of concerts, performances, sound and video installations, which resulted in the release of these two special records on Pudel Produkte, the house-own label of the Golden Pudel Club. The single features a previously unreleased piece by Conrad Schnitzler & Ken Montgomery as well as a story told by Asmus Tietchens about his father and Schnitzler, who unwittingly crossed the Atlantic together on the steamboat Bornhofen in the late 1950s, one as an engineer, the other as a heater. The LP brings together the festival's invited artists, Schnitzler‘s contemporaries

such as Ken Montgomery, Wolfgang Seidel and Asmus Tietchens, as well as young artists who developed works especially for ERUPTION. Among them are Lena Willikens & Sarah Szczesny with fragments from their performance Phantom Con Ballet, the DJ Phuong-Dan who composed a musical collage from the poem About Rhythmus and rhythm studies by Schnitzler, a piece from the performance of Felix Kubin, who uses a light scanner and his modular synthesizer to convert graphic notation into sound, a theatrical sound piece by Carl & Sohn (also known as Les Trucs), the producer and DJ RVDS, who interacted with the piece Tanz im Regen by Conrad Schnitzler and many more. Initiated and curated by Nika Son, a musician and artist based in Hamburg

Deliberately breaking all the rules Mr. Hornby once famously outlined regarding the creation of homemade (tape) compilations, Saroos’ members indeed had the term “mixtape” on their minds while working on their latest full-length – albeit in the hip-hop sense: a sonic snack box, interconnected shots from the hip, something that just came together and immediately felt right.

Whereas hip-hop folks nowadays often use the vacuous term “project” in order to steer clear of the ontological debate caused by the almost synonymous use of album/mixtape, Florian Zimmer, Christoph Brandner, and Max Punktezahl, otherwise busy with The Notwist, Driftmachine & Lali Puna, stick to the classics: their new 16-track project “OLU” (Off Label Use) is, officially, still an album. But it’s wild and vibrant like a mixtape, interwoven like its cover: a seamless burst of ideas, impulsively combined to form a split-screen snapshot of recent moments and momentums.

Re-appropriating the term “Off Label Use” – which actually means: using prescription drugs in ways that aren’t mentioned on the instruction leaflet – in their own “off-label” way, Saroos never sounded more loose-limbed and elastic. Whereas the trio’s earlier releases were rather conceptual and homogenous, “OLU” indeed has a more loose, spur-of-the-moment feel, a spontaneous force at its core. Checking the weighty sci-fi inspirations at the door, they use that Bomb Shelter-type of freedom to reinvent themselves at every turn, chasing sounds that happened to emerge in the group’s triangular energy field.

Kicking it off “with a killer, to grab attention” (Hornby/Cusack, after all), the massive reverb-stumblin’ adjustment between beats and bass of opening track “Quarantaine” cross-fades smoothly into “Humdrum Rolloff,” an early hint at the group’s off-label practices: the underwater creepers floating around here were really voices (mostly). From majestically built oriental sound-pieces (“Looney Suite Serenade”), synth-based “End House Mario” and a triptych of speaker-boxxxing gas lamp experimentations entitled “Cord Burn 1-3,” Saroos have rarely sounded this playful and unrestricted: there’s a new energy at work that welds all the different sonic playing fields together to create one continuous 40 minute mix.

For the B-side descent, “Tatsu Jam,” at less than 4 minutes still the longest cut, billows over the kind of sizzling hi-hats you’d expect to hear on real trap tapes from Hotlanta. A prelude to a bunch of quicker-paced instrumentals (“Scratch Pets”, “24h Love Gumbo”) and ambient sun showers, until the next “Plateau” (Mo’Wax vibes!) brings the beats to the fore once again (“Tomorrow’s Kudos”), and the ultimate “Whirligig” sounds like a mix of Oktoberfest 2020 and Johnston’s “Casper The Friendly Ghost” coming apart at the seams.
Whatever you wanna call it – album, LP, mixtape, project, who cares? –, it’s definitely a double A-side tour-de-force.

Alfonso Bottone debuts on Dailysession Records, with 4 tracks
incl. Monchan Remix! Hot mixture ny house, broken beat and
jungle grooves.

Starting from the assumption that polyrhythmic music is a political statement,
Wang inc. developed this 12” focusing on the stories of the past years taking place in the
central Mediterranean Sea. Stories of hope and despair, often tragic by the will of
powerful and egoistic people.

Each track describes a fase of the crossing of the Sicilian channel: Fuga is the escape from
the Libyan prisons, Gommone is the crossing on an inflatable raft that often finds a tragic
epilogue, Approdo is the battle between humanitarian aids and governments to find a
place of safe, Abbraccio is the tragic history of mother and son found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea still hugging each other.

It’s harsh techno, slow, with vivid images, lot’s of tension and bleak atmospheres. All titles are in
Italian because this story is part of the history of Italy.

Desmond Foster´s first solo 45 on Soul Tune Records! Desmond is definitely no rookie, especially not to the European scene. The A side gives you the impressive "Wheels Keeps On Turning", a powerful ballad and a future classic where Desmond sings his heart out! The B side "Attitude" is a crossover winner with the message don't run around with an Attitude and talk sh*t, be yourself ... and what a good message that is!

It is with great pleasure that Public Possession and Cascine present to you the debut album of Bell Towers. Elev-en singles deep into his catalogue, his first LP is finally ready, an „Ode to escaping into (and out of) the emo-tional pits of dance floors – about finding a place in one night’s fantasy¹”. Musically it’s all we’ve ever wanted from a Bell Towers production: ear worm melodies, sharp baselines, wild cross-references in between genres and at last sees him explore his abilities as a singer/songwriter to full extent. Junior Mix is the sort of pop music that one is always looking for, but rarely finds - bright, charming and a little bit mad.

We sincerely hope you enjoy.
PP, Nov. 2019

¹Hayley Morgan, Oyster Magazine 117

The journey continues for Nuage as the Russian beat smith proudly unveils his superb debut EP on the coveted Microfunk Music. A sophisticated bouquet of audible delight from across the electronic spectrum, the "Romantic OD" EP is a 5-piece wonder showcasing Nuage at his very best. Featuring the Microfunk commander-in-chief Bop, expect a world of ambient-jungle crossed with lo-fi electronica with sprinklings of everything in-between.

It has been a LONG time since Bushwacka! released any music on his original label, Plank Records. Its apt that the label started 25 years ago, and now, for its 25th 12 inch release Bushwacka! has delivered a killer 4 track EP, pushing boundaries of time signatures and paying homage to his rave breakbeat days as well as turning up the heat with the electro cuts.

A1. All Night in Heaven actually started out as a rave house track, with the killer breakbeat drop in the middle, but Bushwacka! changed the arrangement specifically to play the track at the Return To Rage event at Heaven, where he first went raving every Thursday from 1988 to 1992. The track sounded so massive on the dance floor that he decided to keep the breakbeat vibe throughout the track and release it on his Plank Imprint.

A2. It’s The Five O is a piece of music that defies gravity. Its a fusion of percussive assault, tribal chanting frenzy, and a bassline from the depths of Hell… but the magic of the track is its 5/4 time signature. Incredibly challenging to mix in and out of, yet so unique in its rhythm that people bust shapes they didn’t know their bodies were capable of.

B1. Feng Shui is a piece of filthy Electro Breaks that pulls you inside out and upside down. Bushwacka! has his signature Plank sound all over this, with raw rhythms and deep melodies and twisted warped sounds.

B2. Whiplash was written three years ago in Bushwacka’s Ibiza Studio. Its a cross between Electro and 4/4 dance music, with a beat so powerful the floors feel like an earthquake has hit them. This is the most pure of the tracks in its direct line to the early 80s Electro sounds, yet sounds like it was made yesterday. It has been destroying the clubs in his sets since 2017 and now needs to be shared.

Plank Records has had a devoted cult following and second hand the tracks have been changing hands for big bucks, and many vinyl labels have been re releasing some of the cuts. It’s so exciting that the label is launching again for 2020, with a sound often imitated, yet never replicated.

Any botanist will extol the virtues of cross-pollination, and musical hybrids are a Growing Bin speciality. For the latest release Parisian outfit Maât splice jazz with Balearic, dub, house and Afro to create a free thinking LP dedicated to world fusion fore-runners Codona.

If Singu found calm amongst the chaos of Tokyo for ’Siku’ (GBR017), then Maât map out a Sunday stroll through the sun dappled streets of the Parisian banlieue on ’Solar Mantra’. Humming reeds converge into a pre-dawn chorus before dewy sequences and drifting syncopation signal sunrise over La Vilette, a perfect place to start ‘The Walk’. Skirting the Périphérique, the Parisian ensemble pick out a street percussionist by Boulevard d’Algérie then detour to Pré-Satint-Gervais to draw a bassline out of the Metro Area, adding an Environ cool to the uptempo ‘Jaki & Bryn’. With icy bells, brooding guitars and melancholic vocals, ‘Feuglace’ transports Miko’s garten to the 20th arrondissement while the polyrhythmic patter and micro-tuned guitars of ‘Solar Mantra’ see out the A-side with a fourth world hymn.

Chakras cleansed and ready for a B-side rebirth, Maât take us dancing through Père Lachaise via organic house bomb ‘Quetzal Pacino’, an emotive exploration of rhythmic mallets, dreamy pads and propulsive bass, which moves like the Innerzone Orchestra re-arranged by Jon Hassell. Rest comes with the soothing pianos and swelling sine waves of the pastoral ‘Clarière’, a hazy homage to the noon sun on a clearing. Circular motifs, limber grooves and dubby bass mean we’re on the move again, slipping into Montreuil with the echo-drenched scat and firm back beats of ‘Mount Beuvray’, before ‘Llomé Dub’ takes us home in time for a cool beer and much needed smoke on the balcony. Acoustic guitar, lilting piano and a gorgeous female vocal ride the punchy bass and clattering drums to perfection, keeping us company until the day fades into a contented haze.

Patrick Ryder

Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Container first appeared at the turn of the decade with a slew of freakish tapes for various small labels. In wake of thesereleases, Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools –run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds –took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated Techno tracks simply titled ‘LP’.

The record gained attention quickly in the Electronicmusic scene largely thanks to Schofield’s unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within the genre and is functional enough to blow apart the walls of any club, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield’s brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground.

His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and anarray of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well received, and literally titled, LP’s. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts likeFour Tet, The Body, Panda Bear and Fucked Up plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent.

His exhilarating live show has hit pretty much every major electronic music festival andclub in Europe, as well as tours and gigs with a diverse range of acts such as Wolf Eyes, Zola Jesus, Daughters, Pharmakon and Ryley Walker.Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on ALTER with his first non-”LP” titled album called ‘Scramblers’. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father.

Schofield elaborates: “The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition.” The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums.

‘Mottle’ sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like ‘Trench’ and ‘Nozzle’ work alongside the nauseous slink of ‘Duster’, which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time.

A frenzy which may be linkedcosmically to the fact that ‘Scramblers’ was recorded, mixed and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.

Yes, we know the soul and funk world of the glory days, big labels, radio shows and bands amid a social context of segregation. A context that starts becoming less important when this music genre enters the mainstream in the late 70’s to eventually fade away at a fast pace in the 80’s until its complete disappearance in the 90’s and beyond. This time though, we dive a bit deeper into the hoods, because the social context of today ain’t no greatly different and it has its very own music, deeply rooted in the sounds of the early days, although more immediate and dense of beats and urban feel.

We are in Chicago, a place where every 2 hours someone is shot, and every 14 hours someone is murdered. It ain’t no Iraq or Afghanistan but one of the biggest and most sophisticated cities in the world. In the city’s west and south sides, which are considered the heart of Black America, gang rivalry is tearing its people apart. It has become so brutal that both police and perpetrators agree that this urban warfare is out of control. I started this release process after Yann sent me an heads up on this song and it took me most part of last year to build some mutual trust with Lay Lemons aka Biggz from North Lawndale, main area in the west side of the city and one of the most dangerous places in the world. When I first contacted him, Lay was having a hard time (and still does) as his daughter Raven was caught innocent in a gang shooting crossfire.

After the following investigation, the FBI (yes, big gangs are federal business) arrested and charged some members of The Four Corners Hustlers, yet Raven’s murder has no responsible and Lay suddenly lost his daughter overnight in the summer of 2017. He simply couldn’t concentrate on music, and the silly requests from a mad Italian with his crooked english were probably sounding to him like aliens speaking from outer space. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Lay’s cousin, sound engineer and recording studio owner living today in Detroit, so accept my gratitude Mr. Tony Amos.

Lay Lemons has never been involved with gangs nor was Raven, nowhere near that business. They are people of music, family and religion trying to survive in one of worlds toughest places. This song, its vibe, the beats, the voice... Are coming straight out of their hood, written around a fire bin on the side of the street and put together with 3 instruments. It has no chorus, it’s verses all the way through, it is a kind of prayer to the unknown in the hope of salvation through everyday strength.

Lay Lemons I salute you.