quête:electric mind

► One half of duo Lumisokea and persistent sonic explorer ANDREA TAEGGI (Opal Tapes, SM-LL, Type, Präsens Editionen) debuts on OOH-sounds with a new solo album under-the-influence of mushrooms.

► Recorded at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland, Mycorrhiza is a lucid excursion into a new form of 'ritual-computer-music' — gamelan from the future.

►Master + Cut by Helmut Erler, D&M Berlin. Limited Edition of 200, 12" black vinyl housed in gold cardboard sleeve with 'ad-hoc' fluo sticker.

Of course this is not the first album born under-the-influence of mushrooms, but apparentlyTaeggi doesn't take them here as he rather observes the cognitive and intelligent behavior of mycorrhizal fungal roots—one of the great mysteries inhabiting the forest soil, and from which a network of beneficial underground relationships with plants sprouts. Known as Mycelium, this fascinating wood-wide-web very much resembles the intricacy of the human neural system—transporting carbon, water and nutrients from one tree to another. A mutualistic symbiosis that Taeggi similarly establishes with the rather rare arsenal of sound machineries he had access to at Willem-Twee synthesis studios in Holland—a center for experimentation inspired by Berio and Maderna's Studio di Fonologia RAI in 1950s Milan.

In the process of tweaking and feeding electric impulses and sound signals into instruments of the likes of the iconic ARP 2500/2600 and a number of testing/measuring units from the 50/60s—originallynot conceived as musical instruments—Taeggi engages into an exchange of nutrients and information, while abruptly sabotaging un-welcome elements, hence accelerating the sound superhighway towards spectral psychedelic tension—a process he seems to be extremely in control of. Taking a step aside from his usual minimal approach to address more complex structures and augmented mind-sets, Mycorrhiza sounds at times like gamelan from the future: a lucid excursion into a form of "ritual-computer-music" with a conspicuous penchant for detail,alluding to a continuitybetween pseudo-cerimonial and laboratory-like computer music, steering clear from any reference to a specific creed or religion—imagine Stockhausen drinking the Amazonian sacred brew Ayahuasca..

The swarming micro-movements of "Cuttleburrs" multiply in a series of crescendos marked by sudden falls, saturated drums incursions and tense sonic clusters, introducing the more explicit gamelan percussive tones and compositional forms of "Kodama" and "Icaro". Recorded on the ARP 2500, "Mycorrhiza" uses white noise generators, resonant bass and spring reverb to conjure up a magical fungal diorama, which expands into the spooky shadows of skeletons and demons of "Phantasmagoria" and the spectral mystics of "Oculus Cordis"—the Eye of the Spirit — in which Taeggi grapples with the same sine-wave generators that Stockhausen used in his seminal "Studie I" and "Studie II".

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler have been making music as Seahawks for a decade now. Given the sounds they’ve been exploring over those ten years it was a cosmic inevitability that they would be asked to contribute to the catalogue of the legendary library label KPM.

They replied with Island Visions, an exploration of sound for vision where they construct “audio micro-worlds to explore and inhabit”. A way to transport the listener away from the everyday without the bother of getting on an aeroplane. Mind travel is space travel after all, and much better for the environment.

Mostly recorded at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with additional recording at Studio 34 in London, Jon and Pete’s travelling companions on this particular trip were boogie wunderkind Sven Atterton on fretless bass and keys, Nick Mackrory on percussion and the Seahawks live team of Dan Hillman and Alik Peters-Deacon.

From the grooves of Brian Bennett to the moog vibrations of Mike Vickers, the lush textures of Les Baxter to the experimental sounds of Delia Deryshire and David Vorhaus, this new music channels sounds and moods from across the KPM universe.

The spacious “Hot Sand Shuffle” opens the record with some of Seahawks’ familiar “deck-shoegaze”. The slinky digi-dub of “Sky Blue Sky” follows, gently encouraging us to lay back and relax. “Mystic Beach” is a refreshing ocean spray of a synthetic groove that clears the head, priming a pathway to receive “Crystal Forest”, a new age house groove of birds and flutes.

Dense, deep and dreamlike, “Distant Shore” is ambient rainforest house with a 90s vibe, its dense foliage clearing to let us bask in the shimmer and shine of “River Run”. Hang drum, electric gamelan, flute and loon close side A.

Side B bounces into being with “Catch A Wave”, an upbeat beach groover of synthetic guitar, effervescent synth and snappy drums. Equatorial bubbler “Paradise Bird Bath” soon glides in with marimba, crisp beats and fat synth bass. Fender rhodes, space echo and fretless bass make “Smooth Runnings” a laid-back poolside groove.

“Spirits Have Flown” conjures a hazy vibe with marimba, sax, synth funk bass and chilled beats before “Rolling Deep” serves up a light cocktail of sultry rhythms, refreshing textures, cooling sax and fretless bass. Almost-title track “Island Blues” brings the horizontal poolside feels with melodic chimes, oboe and more fretless bass for maximum vibrations. The marina drone of modular electronics, celestial trumpet and jungle ambience pay the album’s final respects to the cosmos on “Sun Salute”.

Like many KPM suites, this is a record of two distinct sides. The sunrise of side A brings a deep meditation, a journey within to renew the jaded self. Side B refreshes with cocktails by the pool and a chance to groove away the evening at some sunset beach party before dancing under the stars in the house of dreams.

Pete’s front cover for the LP is part map, part postcard: “the record has five different sections and I wanted to reference those in the worlds they created, musically and physically. From beach campfire, to poolside hanging and nighttime dancing. A kind of portal to those places and the pictures they inspired in my mind. All places we’d like to be in this turbulent year”. The track descriptions on the back help guide the way.

2020 marks 10 years since Ocean Trippin’, the first Seahawks release, and Island Visions is the perfect distillation of the sounds, sights, textures and moods that Jon and Pete have been exploring over the last decade. Sunrise to sunset condensed to two sides of an LP. The normal rules of space and time don’t apply here.

This is the first time Be With has worked with Seahawks, but individually Jon and Pete have been members of the extended Be With family since forever (Pete did those posters for our Ned Doheny tour and we worked with Jon on the vinyl version of Hatchback’s Colors Of The Sun). Of course we were going to put this out on vinyl.

Mastered by balearic engineer of choice (and Be With’s regular audio co-pilot) Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, the sonic frequencies of these Island Visions have been precision tuned and encoded for optimum travelling conditions. Take the trip.

M Parent brings us a soundtrack of American dystopia, one that gives a pointed sonic voice to the bubbling frustrations and anxieties of our time. While American politics play out like a circus on the world stage, M Parent responds to the question of what it means to be American through dirty acid riffs
and eerie electro synth stabs. The album opens up with the title track where a deep voice bellows, “The American Dream was a lie,” setting the stage for what comes next. A warped sense of reality bubbles over in Lose Your Mind, as a wailing electric guitar plays a distorted rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. On the track They Gave You What, a glitched out 808 breakbeat unwinds as
psychedelic paranoia sets in over a stiff melodic hook.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, as it wouldn’t be a complete encapsulation of the American dream without a sense of hope. Balancing the LP out are playful tracks and aural details that keep the American tradition of funk alive. Fucked Acid offers a bright acid track with a funky falsetto synth line.
At the album’s cheeky climax, Electric Snake, a reptilian beast is lured out with 808 toms and beat back by unrelenting snare rolls. Maniacal laughter and an acidic bubbly lead race towards the album’s conclusion in the track Get In. The LP finishes with Groovy, an uplifting track that adds a fragile sense
of optimism.

Mix 1 (20:00)
1.1 Don Shelley– Dance To The Music 1:24
1.2 Lee Marrow– Cannibals (Baa-Bou - Baa-Bou) 0:37
1.3 Panorama – War In Love 0:37
1.4 Brian Auger– Night Train To Nowhere 0:54
1.5 Sylvi Foster– Hookey 0:39
1.6 Mike Cannon– Voices In The Dark 0:18
1.7 Steel Mind– Bad Passion 1:15
1.8 Brian Ice– Talking To The Night 0:39
1.9 Valerie Dore– The Night 0:58
1.10 M Basic– OK. Run 0:18
1.11 Mac Jr.– Elephant Song 0:26
1.12 Scotch– Disco Band 0:56
1.13 Koto– Japanese War Games 0:34
1.14 Miko Mission– How Old Are You? 0:51
1.15 Silver Pozzolli*– Around My Dream 0:36
1.16 Baby's Gang– Happy Song 0:17
1.17 Sky Creackers– You Should Be Dancing 0:12
1.18 Marzio Dance– You Can Do It 1:09
1.19 N.O.I.A.– True Love 0:28
1.20 Kano– I Need Love 0:25
1.21 N.O.I.A.– Stranger In A Strange Land 0:33
1.22 Miko Mission– The World Is You 0:45
1.23 Torrevado– Living In The Shuttle 0:35
1.24 Electric Mind– Can We Go 0:33
1.25 Kano– Another Life 0:34
1.26 Flexx – Love Theme From Flexxy-Ball (You´ll Never Change No More) 0:49
1.27 Duke Lake– Dance Tonight 0:26
1.28 Doctor's Cat– Feel The Drive 1:24
1.29 Cheaps– Moliendo Cafe 0:42


Mix 2 (20:00)
2.1 Koto– Visitors 0:05
2.2 Ken Laszlo– Tonight 0:23
2.3 Time– Shaker Shake 0:16
2.4 Diviacchi– Waiting For Heaven 0:33
2.5 Brand Image– Are You Loving? 0:38
2.6 Fred Ventura– The Years (Go By) 0:23
2.7 Koto– Jabdah 0:28
2.8 Capricorn – I Need Love 0:56
2.9 Duke Lake– Do You 0:37
2.10 Doctor's Cat– Watch Out! 1:13
2.11 J.D. Jaber– Don´t Stop Lovin´ 0:48
2.12 Marzio Dance– Rap-O-Hush 1:13
2.13 Tommy Bow– Dance Tonight 0:53
2.14 Ryan Paris– Dolce Vita 1:03
2.15 Stopp– I´m Hungry 0:24
2.16 Baby's Gang– Challenger 0:06
2.17 Charlie– Spacer Woman 0:21
2.18 Chris Luis– The Heart In The City 0:32
2.19 Fun Fun– Colour My Love 1:05
2.20 Stylóo– Pretty Face 1:11
2.21 Faxe– Time For Changes 0:34
2.22 Scotch– Money Runner 1:32
2.23 Nico Band– Let It Show 1:24
2.24 Baby's Gang– Jamin 1:03
2.25 Den Harrow– A Taste Of Love 1:24
2.26 Baby's Gang– My Little Japanese Boy 0:55

This album was recorded during Thollem's 2017 residency at Brooklyn-based multi-discipline mecca Pioneer Works. It's the second by Radical Empathy, which combines three uncategorizable improvisors. Michael Wimberly has been astonishing folks since his days in Charles Gayle bands and Steve Coleman & Five Elements in the early '90s, and has gone on become a composer and educator of note. Nels Cline has spent decades changing people's ideas about the role of the electric guitar in multiple contexts, ranging from Wilco to Anthony Braxton (think about that!) as well as many projects as a leader; this is his fourth album in trio with Thollem, and a fifth will follow next year, also on ESP. Some people have given ESP-Disk' flak (and "flak" was not the first word choice here) about putting out Thollem McDonas albums. "He's not in the jazz tradition," they say, and even though their idea of the jazz tradition includes Albert Ayler, we like to think that this album will make their little, closed minds explode.

LP IN STOUGHTON JACKET, PRINTED INNERS, OBI STRIP WITH FOUR OF SAMANTHA KEELY SMITH'S INCREDIBLE CONSCIOUSNESS MEMORY LANDSCAPES GRACING THE ALBUM SLEEVE.

The Pyroclasts album is the result of a daily practice which was regularly performed each morning, or evening during the two week Life Metal sessions at Electrical Audio during July 2018, when all of the days musical participants would gather and work through a 12 minute improvised modal drone at the start and or end of the day’s work. The piece performed was timed with a stopwatch and tracked to two inch tape, it was an exercise and a chance to dig into a deep opening or closing of the days session in a deep musical way with all of the participants. To connect/reconnect, liberate the creative mind a bit and greet each other and the space through the practice of sound immersion. The players across the four pieces of Pyroclasts are Tim Midyett, T.O.S., Hildur Guðnadóttir, and as always Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson.

The music on Pyroclasts is inextricably woven to Life Metal. It exists on the very same tape reels, was explicitly recorded by Steve Albini. The brightness and vividity of that glorious session glares through these four tracks, the precision and radiance, prismatic lustrousness of the saturation, the elemental sculptural shapes, the abstract renderings. It is a sister, or perhaps a shadow album. Or perhaps the now apparent miasma or aether. But it also exists in a form of a pause, a time space which exist in between and around the compositional structures of Sunn O)))’s titanic works. 

For the listener or recipient/participant there are deep rewards within the patience of pulling down the walls and letting the music feel, and feel the music. To be immersed will reveal great detail and colour, clarify image, encourage a depth of focus and stillness which may lead to a quite profound experience. Sitting inside the space of time. A deep form of elementalism, even atomism, and connection with presence moment, time and reality.

Sunn O))) would invite their audience to consider these points of perception when experiencing and listening to Pyroclasts. Sunn O))) would also invite and encourage the audience to use Pyroclasts as a lens to review and reexperience the complexity of the Life Metal album, and even to interrupt its sequence with Pyroclasts. This elaboration can bring the astute listener both abyssal, hallowed rewards.

Pyroclasts was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio on two inch tape July 2018, and mastered by Matt Colton through all analogue AAA process at Metropolis July 2019.

Stephen & Greg would like to dedicate this album to the memories of Ron Guardipee, Kerstin Daley & Scott Walker.

As electronic musician Lorenz Brunner sketched his vision for the first Recondite full-length on Ghostly in five years he took a step back to assess who and where he was as an artist. 2013’s Hinterland accelerated a progression — he’s since been touring around the world and releasing music with labels such as Hotflush and his own Plangent Records — yet, for him, the album cast a shadow of pressure that widened over time. As with most art forms, perhaps especially music, there is an expectation to change, to creatively pivot elsewhere with each project. After careful consideration, Brunner rejects this notion with his new work, opting alternately to use the icy Hinterland as an aesthetic and tonal template for a like-minded map of evocative compositions aptly titled after the German word “stillstand,” now presented as Dwell.

“I am coherent with what I do, even if I’m not reinventing myself,” Brunner says contentedly. In regards to the album title, he adds, “It’s like when you’re on a hike and you stop and look at the scenery; you may know which path you want to go next but right now you are dwelling.” The title also doubles as a reference to everyday domestic life, a restorative haven for Brunner between tours. Like Hinterland, he incorporates a subtle range of field recordings to intensify the textural atmosphere. While he worked at home on “Mirror Games,” Brunner noticed the buzz coming from across the room, where his wife was using an electric toothbrush, naturally harmonized with the track. He decided to push that frequency further and record the device directly, syncing vibrations for added urgency across the propulsive piece as well as parts of the ambient “Interlude 2.”

Windswept, moody, and melodic, moments on Dwell linger with emotional resonance. The title track sends an eerie synth loop through a field of techno kicks. The beats recede for a breather four minutes in as if to survey the surroundings. If Brunner pivots anywhere — possibly just a new perspective afforded by being confidently stationary in his craft — it’s by leaning more into hip-hop structures. He’s an avid rap fan and his love for those production techniques is notably present on “Nobilia,” a queasy shuffler (titled in reference to the Super Nintendo game Secret of Evermore), “Interlude 1,” which skitters in lockstep with contemplative synth chords, and “Surface,” an isolatory, ruminative sequence. The closer “Moon Pearl” soothes and shimmers like its namesake, a cherished gem in The Legend of Zelda series that allows carriers of the gem to retain their shape and essence in the Dark World.

In an era where constant reinvention and highly self-reflexive brand awareness reigns supreme in the music industry, Brunner as Recondite does something many artists try to avoid, he dwells in his own established identity, one that has garnered him a devoted fanbase. His murky electronic productions, built around mirage-like pads and clipped drum programming, have proven to be highly functional and spectrally enveloping; Dwell is not a return to form, it is a further study of the shapes, it is the modes, and the structures Brunner has trademarked.

As electronic musician Lorenz Brunner sketched his vision for the first Recondite full-length on Ghostly in five years he took a step back to assess who and where he was as an artist. 2013’s Hinterland accelerated a progression — he’s since been touring around the world and releasing music with labels such as Hotflush and his own Plangent Records — yet, for him, the album cast a shadow of pressure that widened over time. As with most art forms, perhaps especially music, there is an expectation to change, to creatively pivot elsewhere with each project. After careful consideration, Brunner rejects this notion with his new work, opting alternately to use the icy Hinterland as an aesthetic and tonal template for a like-minded map of evocative compositions aptly titled after the German word “stillstand,” now presented as Dwell.

“I am coherent with what I do, even if I’m not reinventing myself,” Brunner says contentedly. In regards to the album title, he adds, “It’s like when you’re on a hike and you stop and look at the scenery; you may know which path you want to go next but right now you are dwelling.” The title also doubles as a reference to everyday domestic life, a restorative haven for Brunner between tours. Like Hinterland, he incorporates a subtle range of field recordings to intensify the textural atmosphere. While he worked at home on “Mirror Games,” Brunner noticed the buzz coming from across the room, where his wife was using an electric toothbrush, naturally harmonized with the track. He decided to push that frequency further and record the device directly, syncing vibrations for added urgency across the propulsive piece as well as parts of the ambient “Interlude 2.”

Windswept, moody, and melodic, moments on Dwell linger with emotional resonance. The title track sends an eerie synth loop through a field of techno kicks. The beats recede for a breather four minutes in as if to survey the surroundings. If Brunner pivots anywhere — possibly just a new perspective afforded by being confidently stationary in his craft — it’s by leaning more into hip-hop structures. He’s an avid rap fan and his love for those production techniques is notably present on “Nobilia,” a queasy shuffler (titled in reference to the Super Nintendo game Secret of Evermore), “Interlude 1,” which skitters in lockstep with contemplative synth chords, and “Surface,” an isolatory, ruminative sequence. The closer “Moon Pearl” soothes and shimmers like its namesake, a cherished gem in The Legend of Zelda series that allows carriers of the gem to retain their shape and essence in the Dark World.

In an era where constant reinvention and highly self-reflexive brand awareness reigns supreme in the music industry, Brunner as Recondite does something many artists try to avoid, he dwells in his own established identity, one that has garnered him a devoted fanbase. His murky electronic productions, built around mirage-like pads and clipped drum programming, have proven to be highly functional and spectrally enveloping; Dwell is not a return to form, it is a further study of the shapes, it is the modes, and the structures Brunner has trademarked.

“Osondi owendi. What is cherished by some is despised by others. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Different strokes for different folks. To each their own. Osondi owendi.

It’s a conventional aphorism in the Igbo language but if you utter the word “osondi owendi” in Nigeria today, the first thing that comes to anybody’s mind is the cucumber-cool highlife music maestro Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and his legendary album that takes its name from the adage. Released in 1984, Osondi Owendi was instantly received as Osadebe’s magnum opus, the crowning event of an exalted career stretching back to the early years of highlife’s emergence as Nigeria’s predominant popular music.

Stephen Osadebe first appeared on the music scene in 1958 as a spry, twenty-two year-old vocalist in the Empire Rhythm Skies Orchestra, directed by bandleader Steven Amechi. With his dapper suits, urbane Nat King Cole-influenced vocal stylings and jaunty, uptempo, calypso-scented dance tunes, he personified the frisky spirit and anxious aspirations of a young, educated generation that had come of age in the wake of the Second World War, in a Nigeria that was rapidly shaking off British colonization and marching towards an independent future. 1959 would be the year that he truly made his mark in the business with his debut solo single “Lagos Life Na So So Enjoyment.” A giddy exhortation of the music, sex, fun and freedom availed by life in the big city, the song became a sensation and an anthem, and Stephen Osadebe became the leader of his own popular dance band, the Nigerian Sound Makers.

Osadebe would ride this wave of acclaim through most of the nineteen sixties, but a change in direction would be called for at the dawn of the seventies. As Nigeria emerged from a devastating civil war, so did a new generation of youth inspired by rock and funk, confrontational sounds reflective of a more violent, less idealistic era. All of the sudden, the idioms of the post-WWII dance orchestras that nurtured Osadebe’s cohort seemed quaint, the stuff of nostalgia. Osadebe needed to evolve to respond to the new tumultuous, turned-up times.

His response? He cooled it down.

Abetted by a new crop of fire-blooded young players, Osadebe slowed his music to a mellow, meditative tempo, brought forward the lumbering, Afro Cuban-accented bass and percussion, from the rockers he borrowed searing lead lines on the electric guitar. Over this musical bedrock, doesn’t so much as sing as he dreamily muses, coos, sighs aphorisms, words of wisdom and inspiration. “When one listens to my music, all I say appears meaningful,” Osadebe explained his lyrical approach, “at times they are in the form of proverbs which provoke much thought afterwards.” The result is a blend that is both rollicking and soothingly languid. Osadebe christened the style Oyolima—a tranquil, otherworldly state of total relaxation and pleasure. Osondi Owendi represents oyolima at its finest, and possibly Nigerian highlife in epitome.

Osondi owendi. What is cherished by some is despised by others. In some way, the album’s title constitutes a paradox. Because Osondi Owendi is a record that it’s almost impossible to imagine being despised by anybody."

Vinyl Only. Produced by Ollie Marland of De-Lite and Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart fame Label logo by manga legend Shintaro Kago. Archival reissue of rare 1984 jazz-funk fusion diamond in the rough by German-Australian-British madcap ensemble Bells of Kyoto, produced by Ollie Marland of De-Lite and Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart fame. Fusions grooves with Orient-funk detours and looking out the window of a Swissair aircraft moments of cool mid 1980s contemplation.

Highly recommended to porthole dreamers, seasoned mind travelers, inventive dancefloor adventurers, and dogs who like to stick their head out the car window.

Drums - Alex Friedrich
Electric Bass - Peter Drefahl
Mastered By - Rico Sonderegger
Piano, Bells - Peter Waters
Producer - Bells Of Kyoto, Laurie Carls, Ollie Marland
Recorded By - Laurie Carls, Ollie Marland
Synthesizer, Guitar, Percussion - Ollie Marland

Beyond Space And Time is the new record label from Japanese music festival, Rainbow Disco Club (RDC). RDC has been welcoming music loving people to Japan for over a decade. Throughout the festival's history, RDC have been fortunate to constantly encounter performers and DJs who've collaborated with them in establishing a beautiful dance floor year in, year out. These relationships have lead RDC to start their own label, and now gives them the opportunity to reveal one of the best-kept secrets: What is in a DJ's record bag?

This time around, festival regular DJ Nobu kindly opens up his collection and shares the music he loves with us all. On visual duty we welcome Senekt - his representational yet contemporary drawing illustrates the emotion we feel from DJ Nobu.
We have much more music to come in future from artists that we trust and respect.

▼ DJ Nobu describes 10 tracks this way ▼

A1. Laurent Garnier - Water Planet
Highly respected French DJ/Producer Laurent Garnier has been releasing tracks for decades capturing the very essence of Detroit Techno and Breakbeat. He always manages to create something truly emotional. This is not his biggest hit, but it's my favorite.

A2. Mono Junk - Beyond The Darkness
This track represents the very early days of Techno with it's ravey atmosphere. It has a primitive feel, and the obscure mixdown sounds almost unbalanced. That said, this one really stands out when DJing. Very cool.

B1. Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - The Valley
It was always my intention to include this track in a compilation if were I ever to do one. It has a fat underlying groove, with some indigenous spices thrown in. The whole thing is put together beautifully. No complaints!

B2. Melody Boy 2000 - Plenty Of Love
I wanted to include a track that had Jacking feel to it - that is my definition of dance music. This track mixes well in both Techno and House DJ sets.

C1. Drax Ltd. II - Amphetamine
This is my all time favorite track by Thomas P Heckman. It asks questions and strikes down all the boring 'wanna be cool' techno tracks. It is obviously a well known tune already, but I include it here because I'm often asked for it's track ID from new kids in the game. This is a classic that should be passed down.

C2. Dan Curtin - 3rd From The Sun
Curtin's refined synth grooves and bass lines make this a true timeless classic. It do not get tired of listening to his rhythms and melodies - he always gets it just right.

C3. Front 242 - U-Men.
The originator of Electric Body Music. Their husky vocals, hard rhythms and strong synth basslines made the group very popular at the time, and they are still to this present day. To me, this track represents what the Belgian New Beat scene is all about.

D1. The Prince Of Dance Music - E3 E6 Roll On
This is the track I played the most up until around 2006. It is a genuine house track that cuts through trends in music. A hidden floor killer.

D2. Pan Sonic - Lähetys / Transmission
Electronic music has existed for decades, and if you are to choose some of the best from all scattered & hidden places, Pan Sonic's 'Lähetys / Transmission' must be considered. The track emerges beautifully - breaking structures and transcending the past. Every layer of the piece is produced with such delicacy and care, that as a whole it magically drags you into the world of the unknown.

D3. Burial - Archangel
This track merges melancholic emotions with technological prowess at the highest level, and deeply impacted the dance music scene on it's release. I recently played this track at the end of my set at the forward thinking Terraforma Festival in Milan. It faded out to huge applause from the open minded crowd. A moment to be remembered.

Originally a Library oriented Music label, Apollo Sound by the mid 70s commissioned contemporary musical pieces from new composers, aiming presumably to provide atmospheric backgrounds for film, television and advertising, and to feed the burgeoning demand for ‘New Age’ music. Therefore comes Following The Light.
While certainly melodic, Owen’s music makes no concessions to mid-afternoon mindfulness or commercial use and reuse. Instead, Following The Light - whose title is taken from the Tao. Number 27 - is a deep and immersive listening experience, clearly the work of a singular musical imagination following its own rules in its own way.
With the help of Katherine Sweeney on violin and Milada Polasek on electric piano and organ, Albert Alan Owen recorded Following The Light in “live” condition, taking profit of a strong use of the digital effects which were in its infancy at this time; the music was written to make the most of what technology was available, resulting a singular piece of music of sheer beauty
The record demands to be considered as a stand-alone unit, its three sections unfolding elegant and propulsive by turns, as reoccurring themes answer each other through the layers. There are echoes of Reich and Riley in the use of delay, that warm rolling repetition and those bass pulses. But this is not in the service of a system. There is something more lyrical, more humane at work in the music.
With Following the Light, Albert Alan Owen has given us a record that stands outside of time and place, it’s familiar elements made strange and new, all bathed in magic hour light.

“Stop here!” exclaimed Robert Oumaou as we passed a mango tree on the side of the road just outside of Point-a-Pitre, the balmy capital of Guadeloupe. He filled a plastic bag with ripe fruit, and we set off on our journey across the small Caribbean island in search of musicians he hadn’t seen in years. On the way, we shared stories in broken French and English, stopping at truck stops to eat delicious fried fish. Robert took me to his hometown, and placed a mango and a flower on the grave of his teacher and mentor, a local poet. The seeds of Vwayajé (Traveller) were sewn on this trip, but shortly after returning home, I heard that Robert was ill, and he sadly passed away in 2018. This compilation was originally intended as a way to share Robert’s brazen work with a wider global audience, but it now also serves to immortalize his indomitable spirit.

Gwakasonné is the ecstatic articulation of Robert Oumaou’s artistic and political vision, a unified expression of his interests in American jazz, pre-colonial rhythms, Guadeloupian independence, and Créole poetics. Over the course of three albums, all released in the 80s, Robert piloted a revolving cast of musicians, a venerable who’s-who of Point-a-Pitre avant-jazz pioneers, to deftly intone his creative communal concepts. The songs on Vwayajé are compiled from these three releases, Gwakasonné, Temwen, and Moun, along with an electronic mantra taken from his 2007 solo album Sang Comment Taire. Viewed from our current artistic and cultural landscape, Robert’s work is exceptionally enduring, grounded in its declarations of freedom and foundational use of the Ka (drum) and voice, and prescient in its borderless explorations of protest folk, electronics, ambient atmosphere, music from the African diaspora, and spiritual jazz. The long-form hive-mind expression of the group has parallels with similar explorations by The Grateful Dead, electric
Miles, Pharaoh Sanders, and even the Boredoms, but these are only oblique references for a truly peerless sound. Like other conceptual children of Gérard Lockel, the group was part of a progressive movement of like-minded musicians, such as Serge Fabriano, Dao, Erick Cosaque, and Gaoulé Mizik, who embraced Lockel’s modernist ideals, fusing Gwo Ka drumming and tuning systems with contemporary jazz and vanguard recording technologies. Robert’s ecstatic phrasings, embrace of electronic instruments, and daring lyrics set the group apart as the beatific expression of a sagacious soul.

Yeketelale is the third album from Franco-Ethiopian group uKanDanz, combining a heady brew of rock energy, saxophone zigzags and Ethiopian melodies, all fronted by veteran singer Asnake Gebreyes grooving harder than ever.

In Ethiopia, sons follow fathers and, together, their names tell a story. Some discographies are the same way. After Yechelal (''It's Possible''), Awo (''Yes!''),here's Yeketelale (''It Continues''), the third album from Ukandanz.
The adventure that links Damien Cluzel (guitars) and Lionel Martin (tenor sax), the two founders of the group, with the Ethiopian singer Asnake Guebreyes continues and, with this album, takes on new colors and a new dimension. It is a polished synthesis that keeps the rock energy of their first recordings and gives even more space to the subtle vocal ornamentations that mark great Ethiopian singers. Add to that a groove that is more danceable than ever, carried by Adrien Spirti's synth bass and Yann Lemeunier's drums, and you have the magic formula of Yeketelale.

This came about slowly over the course of a dialogue that began in the early 2000s when Damien Cluzel, arriving with a circus in Ethiopia, met up with the occupant of the next room in their hotel. A stroke of luck: this was Francis Falceto, high priest of the Ethiopiques collection (Buda, 30 volumes to date) which had introduced to the West the treasures of swinging Addis, the capital that vibrates to the sound of big brass orchestras. With him, he dives into the capital's nightlife and meets a galaxy of musicians. The singer Asnake Guebreyes is among them.

Recruited by the famous Police Orchestra at the tender age of 16, he already had all the power, energy and class of his role model, Tlahoun Guessessé ''the Ethiopian James Brown''. He began his solo career at the beginning of the 1990s with several major successes, most famously an explosive duo with the singer Fekker Addis.

This experience made a big impact on the French guitarist. Having learned how to blend in with a uniquely Ethiopian groove, he was now ready to take it to other places and in other directions. In his old friend Lionel Martin, he found an ideal partner to engage in such experiences. But they needed a singer. The idea of Asnake Guebreyes was mentioned. Then Francis Falceto called and suggested going to see him at the Addis Music Festival. Ukandanz, a rock version of Ethiopian groove, was born.

Some pieces, like the disturbing Yene Hassab, call to mind Herbie Hancock's experiments in the seventies, as well as the Juju guitars of the Gulf of Guinea. Others, like the dark Fetsum Deng Ledj Nesh, allow Asnake's voice to soar above the synthetic waves, like a siren song for a freighter in distress. Dance and trance are not left out, with inspiration from the inexhaustible Ethiopian traditional repertoire. In a nod towards Asnaké's first album (Ahadu, also reissued by Buda) Ukandanz returns to its track Ajiré, transfigured by the guitar, claps and synthetic bass and takes us back to the glory days of breakdancing. Listening to the two versions gives the key to understanding the unique touch of Ukandanz and of the rich musical colours of Yeketelale (''It Goes On''), a fusion musical journey that brings the electric spark of the Frendj (Westerners) to Ethiopian lyricism.

‘Autonomy’ is a fiercely independent album and serves as a testimony to the united couple’s instinctive DIY attitude; for 10 years now, everything The Golden Filter has done from, producing, mixing, releasing, to shooting videos and press shots is a sovereign endeavour. Here, the duo finds themselves at a point of fearless positivity and an unbreakable creative synchronicity. This is undoubtedly one of their most focused and ambitious releases so far.

Born out of their own self-contained studio in Peckham, free from external influence, Penelope and Stephen set about on a mission of self-searching and solipsism drawing influence from their love and unity that sternly defies the damage caused by the ever-growing daily trauma of capitalism and politics. Staunchly feminist and optimistically reflecting on the growing human disconnect from reality, ‘Autonomy’ pulls subtly from the gloomier sides of British life and culture, The Golden Filter’s home now for the last four years.

‘Autonomy’ mines dark and experimental electronic tones; simultaneously conjuring dystopian synthscapes, EBM, post-punk, motoric electro and minimal wave. ‘Coercion’ is a mournful new wave cut that places Penelope’s recent brand of “inky dream pop” underpinned by Stephen’s pulsating synths as the perfect soundtrack to the rapture.

Tracks like ‘Autonomy’ and ‘Infinity’ find The Golden Filter in more familiar territory, thrusting post-punk electronics that straddle the gap between Panorama Bar staples and wayward, thought provoking art-pop. ‘Electric Light’ is an updated homage to old-school sounds of Siouxsie and New Order that take on the duo’s message of finding light in the dark and remaining open minded to each other as humans. Album closer ‘All The Queens’ is the most front-facing example of the duo’s political inspirations; imagining a new world, reborn under the rule of divine femininity.

Long time underground innovator Illja Rudman returns with "Sagittarii", a fourth fantastic studio album and his second on Bearfunk.

As boss of both Red Music and Imogen Recordings, as well as being a skilled DJ and diverse producer, Rudman has been an integral part of dance music for years. The Croatian effortlessly veers from electro to disco to house with his own colourful sense of melody and club-ready grooves and has done so on more than 70 releases on labels like Classic, Rong, Electric Minds and Is It Balearic Recordings. This superb new album lands just a year after

his last, "Paradigma", and is another subtle evolution in his style but one that continues to deal in authentic analogue textures with flashes of throwback funk and disco gold and a slick sense of boogie.

Things open up with the glistening future-retro chords of "Dreamscape Planet" a quick,upbeat cut that is ready made for dancing in the sun with its majestic strings and nimble basslines. "Cosmia (Regal Mix)" is another bit of engagingly urgent disco funk with clipped drums racing along beneath heart melting chords. The stylish "If I Keep My Eyes Closed (Mezzanine Mix)" slows things down, with a snaking bassline and wallowing chords making for more cosy and intimate listening while "Synthia 2000" is a more playful cut with wiggling bass and withering chords that bend space and time as you get down and boogie.

The gorgeous glossiness continues with another tight bit of disco-funk lushness on "6th Floor Entrance (Guardians Gate Mix)" and "S.O.S. Flight Theme" serves up some rugged bass lines and mad xylophone patterns on top of corrugated drums that will get any club in a spin this summer. Closing things down in the tropical tinged exotica of "Techniques & Tactics (Nocturnal Mix)" with its long legged drums, blissful Balearic vibes and superb sunset stylings.

This is an album that brims with cosmic disco energy, emotion and excellence from start to finish.

rendon Moeller is an artist that needs no introduction. The South African born living in the US, like few of his generation constantly challenges himself with new concepts and ideas, has incorporated techno, dub, jazz, ambient, sound design, to his works throughout the years. Never chased the limelight, but instead the work, one idea after the next, one project after the other, restless. He has collaborated with labels like Echocord, Third Ear, Electric Deluxe, Prologue, Mord to name some. "Materialize" is his first work for Vibrant Music.
From his early days in various bands in the 80's and 90's, Brendon liked indie, shoegaze, ambient, moody, cinematic scapes.
With Materialize he came full circle, reaching out to his early influences, but with the knowledge and experience of many years of exploration of modular synths, to create a concept space that feels intimate, and at the same time vivid evoking visual imaging.
It explores the time space through a minimalist, stoic approach.
It tells the story of how we are all linked into this tree of music we call electronic music, wherever each one is coming from.
A celebration of life through the mind of one of today's scholars of electronic music.
A liberation from the strictness of tempo and metronomes, to reach to a more creative state.
Vibrant Music continuous the quest, to bring to you unique collaborations and sides of artists that we like.

“The year is 1982. Rita Mitsouko has not yet recorded its eponymous debut album. The pile of ashes that once was Disco is still smoking on the field of Comiskey Park. New Wave is a phrase, Post-Punk Rock a thing. In France, young musicians dream of New York City – some with more devotion than others. Lapassenkoff are to early 1980’s downtown New-York what seminal New Wave act Marie Et Les Garçons (who met John Cale on their way to CBGB) are to the city’s musical scene in the late 1970’s: an unexpected cousin from Lyon.

Indeed, going through Shing ‘n’ Tsé! sometimes feel like an impromptu meeting between John Lurie and Tom Tom Club in the basement of some French record store. If we press pause for a minute, a question comes to mind: how on earth such a unique blend of funk, post-punk, jazz fusion & hip hop (!) – more easily associated with, say, The Mudd Club, than with Les pentes de la Croix-Rousse – made its way to the brains of three French musicians?

The answer probably lies in a Swiss chalet, some 40 kilometers away from Zurich. Sent there by the wise people from Mosquito (the label which also gave Ramuntcho Matta and Carte de Séjour the opportunity to record their first album), the band experiences Alpine ennui and mysterious neighbours (a certain Carlos Peron, for instance). That is probably during this stay in Swiss meadows that they opened a Pandora’s box called experimental music, leading them into recording the mind-blowing sample-based – and accidentally proto-everything – M Le Maudit,, that would later grace Belgian airwaves via the famous Liaisons Dangereuses radio show.

But if we’re looking for a bigger picture, M Le Maudit is just an example of how inventive their approach to music was. This compilation is a testimony of a decade-long feverish flirt between the Lyon trio and dance music. From the infectious electric boogie cuts Shing A Ling and Roadie to the somehow euro-house-fuelled Ma Poubelle Angelina, via many unclassifiable yet iconic songs like Bossi Le Bosseman or Fièvres, Frissons, the compilation demonstrates one thing: Lapassenkoff took the road less traveled by and contributed to a different history of French Pop music.”

Pierre-Arthur Michau.

Booming and banging, crashing and smashing, wriggling and writhing: the 'Black Snake Whip' cracks and out come the bats. INDEX:005 is a continuum of electrical fields that will psychologically ensnare and physically coerce you. Feel the tension from your ears to your toes; only dance will set you free.

This is a body of music, made for your body. Its Influences have been cultivating in the minds of industrial space enthusiasts and warehouse ravers for years. The sound of peaky synth leads and trebly harsh drums will make you grit your teeth as you succumb to the urge to move.
Take a whiff of this sonic bouquet from Black Snake Whip.

WYLLOWE is Anna Sheard and Rory More – a nascent writing duo with a shared enjoyment of all things folky and groovy (think early '70s Sergio Mendes, '60s sunshine pop and modal jazz versions of Scarborough Fair). The new 7-inch release Fortunate Fool is a rolling and loping affair with a lilting melody accompanied by a chiming 12-string Fender, electric piano and Lowrey organ; its soaring lament and understated groove is an open-road elbows-in-the-wind driving song.

The B side, Berwick Street Blue, brings to the fore Anna's alluring lyricism and Rory's oscillant motifs calling to mind the compositions of continental soundtrack composers and the sonorous femme-fronted productions of the late 1960s. Lush choral harmonies, layered guitars and resonant piano and organ ebb and flow over a soulfully intoned lyrical paean to a part of London lost and changed forever.