Perth-born, Naarm-based duo Special Feelings, aka Naomi Robinson and Poli-Pearl, are stepping up on Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section label with their first long player – released on November 10, 2023. Across its 9-tracks, Special Feelings combines the electrically improvisational feel of live performances, with snappy broken beat-esque percussions and house-inspired looping synth hooks. Tapping into the infectious collaborative spirit of Naarm’s jazz community, Special Feelings are joined by a crew of the city’s rising artists.
Early iterations of Special Feelings’ music drew on psychedelic sun-dappled rock, with Naomi playing guitar and singing alongside Poli-Pearl on the drums. Over the years, this has shapeshifted into Naomi on bass and rhythms, with Poli-Pearl helming synths and keys – rooted in the sounds of Perth’s and London’s jazz of the moment, intertwined with Brainfeeder-nodding electronica. Today, Special Feelings’ influences span from the deep grooves of Moodymann to the freewheeling horns of Emma Jean Thackray to the stepping drums of Kaidi Thatham, and beyond.
Both Naomi and Poli-Pearl are self-taught multi- instrumentalists and producers; Naomi got her start playing in high school dream pop bands, before moving to Naarm to immerse herself in its musical communities, and study classical guitar at the University of Melbourne.
This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1995 Polydor Records UK 2LP release with gatefold sleeve and 12 page booklet and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.
Originally released on Polydor Records in October 1995, All Change reached No 7 in the UK charts, and spawned four Top 20 singles. Cast were formed in 1992 and were something of a scouse supergroup, with leader, guitarist John Power previously bassist in The La's and bassist Peter Wilkinson coming from Shack. Originally a loose conglomerate with various members, Power added guitarist Liam 'Skin' Tyson and drummer Keith O' Neill, and by 1994 Cast were signed to Polydor.
Led by singles Finetime and Alright, Cast's blend of ultra- melodic Merseybeat Britpop proved that they were the right band at the right time. All Change became a runaway success, selling over a million and becoming the fastest-selling debut album in Polydor's history, bolstered by further singles Sandstorm and Walkaway. The catchy, upbeat album closed with the eight- minute epic Two Of A Kind, showing that the band had sufficient skills to take on any Britpop heavyweight.
22D Music presents a soundtrack for the series Marie-Antoinette: First Steps at Court. The album contains the original music for the series composed by Guillaume Roussel.
The 8-part series Marie-Antoinette: First Steps at Court is created by Deborah Davis and stars Emilia Schüle, Louis Cunningham, Jack Archer, Jasmine Blackborow, James Purefoy, Gaia Weiss, Marthe Keller and Crystal Shepherd.
The series begins with the departure of Maria Theresa of Austria's daughter for France, where she is to marry the future Louis XVI. It's 1770, she's only 14 and still menstruating, but she already has to 'give' an heir to her husband, who is a year older than she is.
Marie-Antoinette's first steps at Versailles are painful, and at the start of the series almost resemble a psychological horror film that captures all the cruelty and misogyny of the court at the time.... ( - Canal+ - )
With a voice of pure gold and a startling sensitivity for heartfelt pop songwriting, on No Reino Dos Afetos (In the Realm of Affections), Berle firmly embraces earnestness, through starry-eyed Brazilian love songs, ambient vignettes, warm, home-cooked beats and gentle strokes of MPB genius.
Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state on its sprawling east-coast, is home to pastel coloured colonial houses, white sand beaches and a brilliant young composer, poet and multi-instrumentalist named Bruno Berle.
With a voice of pure gold and a startling sensitivity for heartfelt pop songwriting, on No Reino Dos Afetos (In the Realm of Affections), Berle firmly embraces earnestness, through starry-eyed Brazilian love songs, ambient vignettes, warm, home-cooked beats and gentle strokes of MPB genius.
“It’s an album that was built from my desire to find beauty”, Berle explains - his simple, graceful words mirroring the graceful simplicity in his music. But amongst the simplicity, the compositions, arrangements and productions on No Reino Dos Afetos tingle with nuance and detail.
On the contemporary R&B inspired lead single “Quero Dizer” - produced by Berle and longtime friend and collaborator Batata Boy - the swirling, lo-fi, kalimba and guitar-fronted beat is turned into a feel-good hit by the ingenuity of Berle’s honey-soaked vocal melody.
Powerfully intimate, “O Nome Do Meu Amor” (My Love’s Name) is a guaranteed tearjerker, with Berle’s stunning voice soaring over gently plucked acoustic guitar and the textural flutter of soft movement, as if we hear him writing the song in the moment.
Drawing upon a close-knit, collaborative scene of Maceió artists and musicians, (of which Berle and Batata Boy are vital members), Berle also recorded some of his friends songs on the album, including João Menezes’ “Até Meu Violao”, the album’s beautifully laid back sunshine soul opener, which has all the charm of early-70s João Donato.
Having cut his teeth in soft-rock group Troco em Bala, and more recently finding himself embedded in both Rio and Sao Paulo’s contemporary music scenes - collaborating with the likes of Ana Frango Eletrico, who took the photo for the album cover - No Reino Dos Afetos is as musically diverse as Bruno himself. It’s hazy indie rock (“É Preciso Ter Amor”), calming ambient and field recording (“Virginia Talk”) as well as Berle’s own take on West African High Life (“Som Nyame”).
Instantly recognisable as a truly special artist, Berle’s character fills every corner of the sound, which is unsurprising considering he played most of the instruments.
Brontez Purnell has been making music since the ‘90s. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based American musician and writer has centered his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train!!! and Younger Lovers as well as in his award-winning books ‘100 Boyfriends’ and ‘Since I Laid My Burden Down’. He is also a dancer, film maker and choreographer.
CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL.
Hot on the heels of recent 7” singles for Sub Pop, PPM and his first solo electronic record ‘No Jack Swing’ (Dark Entries / Papi Juice), Brontez returns in DIY-punk band formation for a new album entitled ‘Confirmed Bachelor’, out Sept 15th on Upset The Rhythm. These twelve songs presented are of the no-time-wasted variety. Fuzzed-out pop songs, hotly delivered from the heart, often sassy, sometimes sappy, always snappy! Brontez’s band includes the multifaceted talents of Vice Cooler (who also produced and mixed the album), Sean Teves (of Younger Lovers) on drums, Kevin Preston (Prima Donna, Green Day) on guitar, Aaron Minton (Prima Donna) on piano and saxophone, and Laena Myers-Ionita on violin. The album was recorded in Los Angeles at The VCR earlier this year.
‘Bachelors Theme’ opens ‘Confirmed Bachelor’ and sets the scene perfectly with the heady, rush along swoon “That's when I heard the doctor singing to me, "Son; you got all those boys in love, I wish I knew what you were saying to them. Their storming castles are coming for you!” It’s a tour de force of bop and bravado. This is what the album does so well, it sweeps you off your feet first, making its lyrical disclosures all the more affecting.
‘Rude Life’ begins in lilting, measured contemplation. “You're the rudest boy I know, and I've a real rude life” confesses Brontez as the violin laces through his vocal. This is all shook up at the halfway mark though when the adrenaline kicks in and the drums pummel. ‘Sky Opens Up’ similarly dials up the tumbling, careening clamour and energy buzz. ‘Hellish Banger’ is more of slow dance meets grunge reverie. The album also boasts an amazing spiraling auto-tuned cover of The Amps ‘Bragging Party’. ‘No Cigarettes / Stay Monkey’ is pulse-grabbing rally of unadorned declarations split into two fleeting sketches.
‘Hey Boy’ and ‘Boy With Butterfly Wings’ are more reflective in intent, both yearning and unapologetically poetic. In fact the little details observed in the lyrics across the whole album are quietly elegiac; winter nights, electric bills, ticking clocks and many allusions to hauntings only lending pathos to the love-drunk / lovelorn axis of the record. ‘Confirmed Bachelor’ is a hot wonder, upbeat, witty and ever-lively only with a forlorn core, a resolute focus and defiant honesty. It’s a rare triumph, a record you can dance your Friday night away to, whilst the songs’ subtly work on your emotions from the inside out.
of it all. Jagged riffs, bubblegum bounce and Brontez’s vocal effortlessly racing to dizzying effect.
Das neue Flamingods-Album 'Head Of Pomegranate' wurde vom Grammy-gekrönten Produzenten Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, M.I.A.) aufgenommen. Die Londoner Band kreiert seit über einem Jahrzehnt unverwechselbare, genreübergreifende Musik. Das Durchdringen von Genres wie Psychedelia, New Wave, Electronica und Punk – oft innerhalb desselben Songs – ist ihre Spezialität, ebenso wie das Talent, Einflüsse aus dem einzigartigen kulturellen Erbe und die Liebe zum UK Rock'n Roll der 70er Jahre zu vermischen. Opener und erste Single 'Dreams (On The Strip)' geben mit stimmungsvollen Synths, düsteren Drum-Machines und dem euphorischen Refrain den Ton vor. Es ist eine neue Ära für die Band und sie möchte, dass wir dies von Anfang an wissen.
"Heavy music for nerdy people", so beschrieb mal jemand die Musik von Mint Mind. "For" oder "from"? Beides naturlich. Nach den ersten "VG+"-Songs hat man ein Gefuhl, wie die Welt von Mint Mind aussieht: Instrumente und Verstarker aus mehreren Dekaden und in unterschiedlichen Aggregatzustanden, teils gestapelt an den Wanden. Davor, daneben und dazwischen Synthesizer und Effektgerate, teilweise groß wie Gullideckel. Im windschiefen Plattenregal zwei Hande voll Comics, Alben von New Order, Devo, den B52s, fast der gesamte SST-Katalog, sowie Krautrock-Klassiker von Can und Faust. "VG+", das dritte Album von Mint Mind, ist ein großes, generationenubergreifendes Indie-Rock-Album geworden.
"Heavy music for nerdy people", so beschrieb mal jemand die Musik von Mint Mind. "For" oder "from"? Beides naturlich. Nach den ersten "VG+"-Songs hat man ein Gefuhl, wie die Welt von Mint Mind aussieht: Instrumente und Verstarker aus mehreren Dekaden und in unterschiedlichen Aggregatzustanden, teils gestapelt an den Wanden. Davor, daneben und dazwischen Synthesizer und Effektgerate, teilweise groß wie Gullideckel. Im windschiefen Plattenregal zwei Hande voll Comics, Alben von New Order, Devo, den B52s, fast der gesamte SST-Katalog, sowie Krautrock-Klassiker von Can und Faust. "VG+", das dritte Album von Mint Mind, ist ein großes, generationenubergreifendes Indie-Rock-Album geworden.
Der mitreißende Soundtrack zur dritten Staffel von "The Witcher". Komponist Joseph Trapanese wird bei dieser Staffel von der polnischen Folk Metal Band PERCIVAL SCHUTTENBACH unterstützt. Diese verleiht dem Soundtrack mit der Expertise im Bereich der slawischen Musik sein markantes und authentisches Klangbild.Die Doppel-Vinyl wird begleitet von einem doppelseitigen Poster mit zwei von insgesamt vier erhältlichen Motiven (insgesamt vier Poster erhältlich).
Legendary Dublin punk band formed in November 1978 by Maurice Foley (guitar/vocals), which had a number of iterations before disbanding in 1981. The Threat built up a following in Dublin and maintained a heavy reputation through the 1979 and 1980. Playing the legendary Dandelion on a couple of occasions towards the end of 1979 and became friendly with members of the Virgin Prunes and U2. Stano, another friend of the band, bought a synthesizer, purely as a sound generator, and joined them. As a nonmusician, his synth added noise and texture to the band's sound and brought out their experimental side.
This "Lullaby in C" / "High Cost of Living" - their sole single - recorded in 1980 with Irish traditional musician Donal Lunny producing, providing his services for free. Lunny went on tour with Planxty before the recordings were completed. Impatient to get the single out, the band completed the work themselves with cover art from Dave Clifford of Vox fanzine. Self-financed, self-released and distributed by the band around Dublin with a few making it over the sea to Rough Trade. A second single was recorded in 1981 with the Virgin Prunes Danny Figgis producing but the mastertapes are lost to the midst of time. We've added a demo from Stano recorded in 1979.
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Wenn man wie keine andere Band klingt, ist es immer eine Herausforderung, eine Musikrichtung für Presse, Bandinfo und Veranstalter*innen zu definieren. Die Dorks sind zu räudig für Metal, zu melodisch für Hardcore, zu wenig 90er für Crossover, zu anspruchsvoll für Deutschpunk. Unermüdliche Kreativität, Reisebereitschaft und ein Albumrelease - inmitten der von allgegenwärtiger gesellschaftlicher Resignation gezeichneten letzten Jahre - brachten den DORKS im Jahr 2021 mit ihrem Album "Die Maschine von Morgen" genereübergreifende Aufmerksamkeit, sowie hervorragende Rezensionen in renommierten Musikmagazinen ("Meilenstein" - OX Fanzine, Rock Hard, Album der Woche bei Coretex, Süddeutsche Zeitung, u.v.m.). Und weil Stillstand nicht ihr Ding ist, kommt jetzt ihr neuestes Album.
Der neue Thrash-Metal-Geheimtipp veröffentlicht sein Debütalbum auf Indie Recordings (Kvelertak). Eradikated ist eine junge, raue und toxische Thrash-Metal-Horde, die sich als Schwedens heißester und vielversprechendster neue Acts erwiesen hat, und seine Einflüsse aus Slayer, Exodus, 80er Matallica & Co. bezieht. Die Band wurde 2021 als Support für The Haunted ausgewählt. Später supportete man Anvil. Kamran Haq (Live Nation UK/Download Festival): "Eine der besten Thrash-Bands, die ich seit Jahren gesehen habe." 2023 wurden Eradikated wurden für die beiden größten Rock-/Metal-Festivals Schwedens gebucht. Das Album wird von der Band selbst produziert und aufgenommen und vom renommierten Gustav Brunn (Bomber, Obstruktion und Viagra Boys) gemischt und gemastert. CD und klassisch, schwarzes Vinyl!
Xavier Boyer, the lead singer of Tahiti 80 and one of the most distinctive voices in French indie pop, returns solo with a melodic and timeless new EP entitled "Soda Coda".
After "Tutu To Tango" (2007, under the name Axe Riverboy), "Some/Any/New" (2017), and not forgetting Tahiti 80's nine studio albums, Xavier Boyer has composed five songs navigating between soft rock, folk sounds and pop experimentation. "On previous albums, I'd done everything on my own, but this time I was looking for something more lively, more organic, more collective. I also wanted to exchange ideas with other musicians.
This mini-album (the vinyl version will include five alternative versions recorded on a 4-track cassette) was created with the help of three emblematic figures from the French music scene, Mehdi Zannad (Fugu, April March, A Girl Called Eddy) on keyboards, Laurent Blot (Le Superhomard) on drums and Stéphane Laporte (Domotic, Egyptology) on mix.
Recorded between tours and studio sessions with his main band, "Soda Coda" once again confirms his talent as a melodist and his appetite for sonic adventures. The power pop of "D Day" or the lyricism of "Children Of The Sun" would not be out of place on albums by Emitt Rhodes or Richard Swift (producer of Tahiti 80's "Ballroom" in 2014). "Oh Liza" is as smooth as an Elliott Smith novelty.
The singer assumes his influences: "My aim has always been to write timeless songs without pretending it's 1975, or 1998. I want my music to remain rooted in its time." "Read The Room" blends Jamaican music and avant-garde pop with its crystalline guitars and soaring synths, while "Soda Coda" brings a touch of Soul to the EP with its distorted piano and slap-back vocals.
More than a journey or a nostalgic trip, Soda Coda is a succession of luminous songs, and as Xavier Boyer sings on the eponymous track: "I'm singing something good, I can hear this tune lighting up my path".
A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter. A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture - and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with." Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "SolutionismÖs careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability - and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonometry," that "white dove is a pigeon - you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."
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Auf R o n i a s zweitem Album 'string along' fordert sie uns auf, ihr in ihr minimalistisches Pop-Universum zu folgen
Nach dem Vorgänger 'waltz' in (hereinspaziert!) ist 'string along' eine erneute Aufforderung von R o n i a an ihre Hörer: Folgt mir! Melancholische Melodien beschreiben darauf filigrane Emotionen in einem reduzierten Klangbild, häufiger Überlagerung mehrerer Stimmen oder auch Melodien mit vielfältigen Tasten-, Saiten- und Blasinstrumenten, die alle von der One-Woman-Band R o n i a selbst gesiet werden.
Chicago's Magic Touch label gets the Numero treatment. Legendary rare groove selector & DJ Red Greg's edit of Disco Holy-Grail "Why Do I Love You" is now available on 7" for the first time and housed in official Magic Touch Double Disco Smash 7" Company Sleeve. This tune has been making waves in the DJ community for years only after Red Greg introduced his crucial edit eliminating the studio fluff and dialing in the raw disco meat. Certified Floor Filler with a groove guaranteed to answer all questions on love.
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What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept.
Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and
dark & dissonant.
As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’ influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the
profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms.
The compositions were written in von Oswald’s Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city’s Kreuzberg district, only few metres down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into anew electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.
The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter’s Dream Sequence in 1991 - which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland.
For von Oswald, Tresor Records and also the participating guest musicians of the choir, this release brings together audiences from other musical areas, cross-pollinating; Silencio is an album that stands for itself beyond the musical genre boundaries.
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In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to circumvent the censorship of the settler regime. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role—as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized.
A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound.
In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighbourhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of a new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice.
Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music.
This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa.
The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices.
In apartheid-era South Africa, gospel music provided solace and served as a tool for covert communication to circumvent the censorship of the settler regime. By the 2010s, South African gospel, deeply ingrained in the soul of Soweto, assumed a new role—as a heartfelt cry against persistent failures and shortcomings, a cry mourning a South Africa that never materialized.
A new South Africa needed a new gospel sound.
In 2016, nine young men from different parts of Diepkloof, a celebrated neighbourhood brimming with talent within Soweto's sprawling township, came together to form the sound of a new South Africa under the name Diepkloof United Voice.
Diepkloof United Voice's music has gone viral multiple times on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, garnering between 60,000 to 2 million views. The comments section displays flag emojis from Brazil to India, showcasing the global reach of their music.
This album was recorded on site in Soweto, in an abandoned classroom of Lebowa Elementary School in Diepkloof Zone 3, where the choir rehearsed for years. Amid rolling blackouts, Diepkloof United Voice poured their heart, soul, and vocal chords into their debut record, combining classic South Africa gospel, Soweto's own kasi soul, American blues, and Zulu flavor, to present the contemporary gospel sound of a changing South Africa.
The promise of a new South Africa might finally be realized, as Diepkloof United Voice guarantees the country's future is guided by the truth, uttered with each gasp of breath from their inimitable voices.
For that new release, we will take you on a trip from the South to the North of Europe.
On the A-Side, Sardinia-based producer ProOne79, known for bomb tracks he released on labels such as Circus Recordings and Kneaded Pains, delivers two catchy acid tunes, influenced by the Chicago and Detroit classic sounds.
On the B-side, Glasgow-based producer Fear-E, head of the label Posh End Music and responsible of some killer EPs on Dark Entries, Zone or Super Rythm Trax, gives us three techno cuts for the floor, with a totally disturbed 303 synth.
Five sick tracks for you, acid junkies !
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First music in 10 years from cult favourites Dark Dark Dark.
B Side is a solo cut from the bands lead vocalist Nona Maie Invie.
10” EP limited to 500 in UK/EU.
Fans of contemporaries Weyes Blood (of which DDD multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements is now a full-time member) and Angel Olsen (in whose live and studio band Invie is now a staple) will find much to love in these songs, as well as the b-side, Invie’s solo piece, “For Now” which, not unlike Invie’s 2017 solo release under the moniker IN / VIA, makes use of seamlessly interwoven piano and swelling, liquid synthesizer.
Invie sounds a bit like an alternate dimension Sharon Van Etten here and elsewhere. The three song set has the understated intensity of Nick Cave’s The Boatman’s Call and the promise of emotional liftoff that characterizes Kate Bush’s The Sensual World.
Dark Dark Dark’s rich history is punctuated by house shows and train hopping; touring as support for The National in Portugal;
playing both the National and TV on the Radio’s ATP Festivals, and years of indefatigable coast-to-coast U.S. touring. It’s a
history rich with recordings, including a pair of celebrated full-lengths produced by Tom Herbers (Low, The Cactus Blossoms),
three EPs, and a feature film score. Now, ten years later, –– surprise –– a new 10” single.
In 2013, when Dark Dark Dark released the What I Needed EP, anyone might have guessed it was a bridge between the previous year’s lauded LP Who Needs Who and the next big venture. The band had closed out 2012 as part of Australia's touring Harvest Festival, during which they stepped up to fill an unexpectedly vacant slot much later in the day, enchanting thousands of unsuspecting festival goers. Alas, after that, the band went silent.
The release of these new songs is certainly delightful and perhaps startling, as is the promise of more solo work from singer Nona Marie Invie. On the gorgeous and stately “Didn’t I Try,” Invie’s voice is elegant as ever, couched in the familiar sounds of Marshall LaCount’s distorted banjo and Mark Trecka’s rolling drums. The loping and haunted “Something Was There” follows –– a staple of Dark Dark Dark’s live sets in the last year of their touring.
Considering this band's history, their distinctive and dramatic sense of identity, this music is really and truly for fans of Dark Dark Dark.
Udo Jürgens, wohin man auch hört! Nach dem Chart-Stürmer "da capo, Udo Jürgens - Stationen einer Weltkarriere" und dem kürzlich veröffentlichten Kinderliederalbum "Die Blumen blühn überall gleich" erscheint am 10. November die Edition "Die schönsten Lieder zur Weihnachtszeit". 3 CDs mit 55 Songs in 5 Sprachen, darunter deutsche und internationale Weihnachts-Klassiker, ein Duett mit José Carreras und einer von Pepe Lienhard neu arrangierten Version des spaßigen "Merry Christmas allerseits". 14 der Titel sind erstmals digital verfügbar, 2 bislang unveröffentlicht. Die einzigartige Sammlung liegt auch auf Vinyl vor. /// CD1 - Weihnachten zu Haus - Beinhaltet vierzehn Kompositionen von Udo Jürgens, darunter den Titel "Schneerose" aus dem Jahr 1967, der nach längerer Zeit wieder digital verfügbar ist. Dazu fünf absolute Klassiker: "Leise rieselt der Schnee", "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" (das berühmteste Weihnachtslied der Welt), "Oh du Fröhliche", (ein Lied aus Deutschland zu einer Melodie aus Sizilien), "Süßer die Glocken nie klingen" und "Der kleine Trommlerjunge" (1941 in den USA entstanden). Als Bonustrack "Merry Christmas allerseits", eine Live-Aufnahme aus Udos letztem Konzert in Zürich. Mit einer humorigen Einleitung des großen Meisters. /// CD2 - Weihnachten in aller Welt - Enthält internationale Weihnachtsklassiker wie "Jingle Bells" und den Welthit "White Christmas", geschaffen von Irving Berlin, 1947 von Bing Crosby zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht. Dazu zwei Songs auf Französisch, "O Tannenbaum" und "Minuit chrétiens", auch bekannt als "O Holy Night". Ferner alle Lieder von Udos Weihnachtsalbum "Buon Natale da Udo Jürgens", das in den 70er Jahren in Italien veröffentlicht wurde und hier erstmals digital verfügbar ist. Als Bonustrack "Yo creo", die spanische Version von "Ich glaube". /// CD3 - Zeit der Lieder, Zeit der Stille - Die Botschaft von Christi Geburt geht weit über das eigentliche Fest hinaus. Getragen von der Hoffnung, dass es Frieden werde, dass wir Menschen Freunde sind, ein Lächeln uns verbindet, dass Liebe regiert. Und dass jedes Jahr alles besser wird. Udo hat viele Songs über diese Themen geschrieben. Die emotionalsten davon gibt es auf der dritten CD zu hören. Darunter auch ein Duett mit dem Klassik-Star José Carreras "Mein größter Wunsch". Zum guten Schluss noch einmal das amüsante "Merry Christmas allerseits", neu arrangiert und eingespielt von Pepe Lienhard, selbstverständlich mit Udos unverwechselbarem Gesang. Ende gut - alles Udo!
A viral phenomenon reissued. After 23 million YouTube views, multitudes of tattoos, dozens of cover versions, eight sold-out 7" pressings, comes this NINTH vinyl version.àSpread by word of mouth, click of mouse and without radio play.àThe entrancing romantic love song (murder ballad?) with guest vocalist Sparky Phillips of Demented Are Go counterpointing HME's Emanuela Hutter, hits the sweet spot for obsessive lovers“
The Hillbilly Moon Explosion continue with their gigging schedule across Europe this fall and plan a new album next year.àThe band - two Englishmen, a Frenchman and a Swiss/Italian chanteuse - reside in Switzerland and are one of the classiest exponents of rockabilly alive today, subtly mixing in swing, ska, country, Europop and more without compromising their roots.àTheir widely-sourced rock"n"roll is exciting and enduring; this song is a proven earworm and a worldwide infatuation
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Five groups, one mythical studio - documenting the emergence of a generation!
The initial postulate was simple: five groups, one emblematic studio and 24 hours for each to imagine and record two unreleased tracks with one objective - the will to document a French jazz scene in the midst of renewal.
In these last few years, several innovative currents have shaken up the world of jazz and attracted new fans. They have bubbled up from Los Angeles, impregnated with hip-hop culture (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Thundercat), or from London, tinged with African rhythms (Nubya Garcia, Kokoroko, Ezra Collective). Meanwhile, in France, a new scene is emerging, carrying with it more of a dancefloor-oriented sound influenced by electronic music - an obvious kinship with the French Touch explosion of the late 90s.
Historically, every movement has been assimilated to a certain neighbourhood, to specific clubs where late at night, young guns stayed up to imagine the jazz of tomorrow - the Cotton Club for the jazz of the 20s, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem for Be-Bop, the Black Hawk in San Francisco for West Coast jazz, Birdland in New York for Hard-Bop or a lot more recently, the Total Refreshment Centre which has been the playing field for the new London scene.
In Paris too, this new sound is associated with actual venues, places which have allowed these groups to form, create a repertoire and forge an aesthetic - Le Baiser Salé for Monsieur Mâlâ, La Gare/Le Gore for Photon, La Pêche in Montreuil for Ishkero, La Petite Halle for Underground Canopy and also le Duc des Lombards and le 38 Riv’ for Alex Monfort; it’s in a live context that this music will always continue to evolve.
Keeping this “live” spirit, with all its spontaneity, was actually the guiding line for the elaboration of this Studio Pigalle compilation. Each take was recorded in the most organic way possible, bringing all the musicians together in the same room to limit post-production alterations before the final cut was assembled, in just one day, by studio in-house sound engineer, Felix Rémy.
A feeling of urgency permeates a record guided by an artistic production taking care to crystalise the essence of this artistically free-range generation whose childhoods were rocked just as much by Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove as by J Dilla and Jeff Mills. One of the two tracks recorded is geared towards the dancefloor, and the other, more cosmic/ambient gives freer rein to individual interpretation.
There were therefore many possible ways of interpreting these guidelines for the five formations which number among the most distinctive on the current French musical landscape, and the occasion, for some, to rummage through their archives! With Transe (Mbappé) and Da Verdere (Vella), Monsieur
Mâlâ present us with two unreleased tracks issued from the very first rehearsals of the quintet reworked especially for this compilation. “Seen the aesthetic range of this group, it all worked out very naturally in the studio”, recounts keyboardist Nicholas Vella “Recording like they did in the sixties with all the channels live and working with small imperfections was a very interesting task, even when it came to the mix, we had to make do with the takes we had... “
“Our group is very recent, and with this session, in just two tracks, we had the opportunity to present the entirety of our musical universe,” says Photons pianist Gauthier Toux. “All too often, we assimilate this fusion between jazz and dance music to computers and post-production modifications. For “Dessine”, we kept the first take, and we must have recorded just three or four for the other track with more of a techno bent. In one day, we understood that we could play our entire repertoire live, from A to Z”.
“When the Komos label offered me this project, it immediately spoke to me”, remembers Alex Monfort “Straight away, I thought of “Since I Met You”, a track with a nine/four time signature which really is reminiscent of a new- soul groove, but with this extra cosmic vibe! I wrote the words to the chorus and Nina Tonji placed her voice on the track, adding her own verses. For “Tonight”, the up-tempo track, I wanted to head off in more of a hybrid direction inspired by Kaytranada or the Black Radio series by Robert Glasper. A cross-over between jazz and hip-hop which really does represent my world, and I also tried to place vocals centre stage (Emcee Agora)”.
“We truly resonated with the way Antoine Rajon imagined this compilation and the recording session”, confide Warren Dongué and Jérémy Tallon from Underground Canopy. “When arriving in this studio we felt as if we had gone backtothe70s! Inkeepingwiththespiritofthisera,heknewhowtoletus keep our spontaneity, without recording in too many takes, and that’s how we like to work”.
“We managed to adhere to the themes of the compilation without changing our instrumentation, we wanted to remain faithful to the sound of Ishkero on these new compositions and take them somewhere else” – says drummer TaoEhrlich -“Withoutaddinganyelectronics.Thesessionwassupervisedin a truly subtle and benevolent manner. From a human perspective, it was also a wonderful experience”.
Whether turned towards hip-hop, ethnic or electronic music, the artists featured on this Studio Pigalle compilation represent the eclecticism of a new generation in the process of writing the first chapters of its history. Open to experimentation, these artists continue to hold high an immutable love for improvisation and creation in the moment... another definition of the word Jazz!
The funky, atmospheric, evocative and sometimes downright weird output of companies such as DeWolfe, Cavendish, Burton and the ubiquitous KPM have always been a guiding inspiration for ATA Records, as evidenced in the spooky soundtrack vision of The Sorcerers, the big band brass of The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and even in the soul-jazz of The Lewis Express & Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble. It only seemed natural for the team at ATA Records to scratch their own Library itch and so "The Library Archive Vol. 1" was born in 2019. Recorded over a series of sessions in the Aladdin's Cave of vintage recording equipment that is ATA studios, it featured many of the ATA stable of performers. Released in 2021, "The Library Archive Vol. 2" still had the golden age of European Library music squarely in it's sights, but this time the focus was drawn more to the off-kilter soul organ sound of Italian quartet I Marc 4. These two volumes garnered praise from Library aficionado Shawn Lee ("Holy...
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Originally released in 2008, MACHINE 15, celebrates it"s 15th anniversary with a long awaited vinyl repress, remastered for vinyl by Dan Swanö. With an impressive string of releases behind them, nearly two million records sold worldwide and having shared stages with the likes of Blink 182, the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, the Orebro based quartet of vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic, guitarists Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Farm and drummer Fredrik Larzon show that they are on top of their game. While upholding the classic Millencolin sound, they chose to diversify, evolve and progress on the new album The explosive result is pop infused punk at its all-time best with driving beats, anthemic choruses and irresistible melodies that prove the band is back to kick ass and take names. For Machine 15, Millencolin re-teamed with producer Lou Giordano (Sugar, Taking Back Sunday, Plain White T"s), who previously worked with the band on 2003"s Home From Home. "We wanted the kind of crisp sound that Lou is notorious for. Plus we have a great chemistry with him," guitarist Erik Ohlsson adds.
All Over You is a forgotten gem, remastered and presented here for the first time on vinyl, nearly 25 years to do the day after its original release. Recorded raw with a band pulled from the ranks of Austin’s legendary Antone’s Nightclub, this session finds an older, laid-back Lester revisiting his classic Excello sides and distilling them to their essence. The remastered album features a bonus live recording of the Lightning Slim track, “Nothing But The Devil.”. The audio was remastered from original source material and pressed at GZ Vinyl in the Czech Republic. Tasting notes: leather, freshly-oiled gunmetal, boiled crawfish.
A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter.
A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."
Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."
[f] Kyanite Toothpick [feat. Hanni El Khatib]
[k] Bermuda [feat. Lealani Teano]
[n] Forward Compatibility Engine [feat. Rob Sonic]
Hidden Orchestra is an imagined orchestra created by multi-instrumentalist composer/producer Joe Acheson. The releases feature a wide variety of guest musicians from different musical backgrounds, recorded separately, and combined by Acheson in his studio to create an ‘imaginary orchestra’ that doesn’t really exist.
New full-length album 'To Dream is to Forget' will be released this September on Lone Figures.
Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.
Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.
Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.
That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.
Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.
Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.
Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.
Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.
That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.
Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.
Yearly compilation album RADAR by KEROXEN returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.
With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions – in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago by way of handpicking friends and colleagues working in the further most regions we can think of. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana - a true connection of likeminded minds whom demonstrate once again that you do not need to be in an western hipster mecca to make interesting work.
The presentation format sticks to its breakable rules, with each artist offering one track per side and the full thing of course wrapped up in Pura Marquez dizzying post-tropical art.
The album opens with the Julee Cruise inspired project Akane by Tenerife’s Carolina Machado where synth arpeggios intertwine organically with her soothing voice, setting the tone for Reunion Island’s Jako Maron and his unique take on local Maloya music by way of electrifying it into a trance like looping beat. Enter French Guyana’s Daryanna Jean unique sound artistry with sampling, cutting and pasting local(?) sounds into a disorientating needle jump glitch fest. Side A eventually closes with a very Azorean take on the very English hauntological sound by borrowing those pastoral melodies and synth riffs of yesterday and transposing it to the remote Sub-Tropical fields of São Miguel island, in the Azores, courtesy of Flipping Candy.
Side B emphatically reinforces the compilation’s original concept that no matter where you are, in this post internet, post everything world, outsider music thrives and keeps raising the invisible bar, true that!
Clear vinyl, limited to 700 copies. Upon hitting play on the opening prologue track of BATS, it's safe to assume that we're about to embark on quite the journey - with GAMA BOMB as our intrepid tour guides. From the tombs of Egypt to the faded glamour of old Hollywood, Philly, Domo, John, Joe and James lead us through new sonic landscapes and all manner of novel adventures on what they themselves call their "weirdest" album yet. Sonically, GAMA BOMB manage to stay true to their distinctive thrash sound, honed to perfection over two decades at the frontline of headbanging and fist-pumping. There are nods to heavy metal titans such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, there's even a sliver of Bad Brains-esque punk attitude, and more familiar influences such as Tankard and Sodom are still evident. But if you think GAMA BOMB are serving up something run of the mill then you've clearly not accounted for a blazing saxophone solo (courtesy of Irish sax man Gavin Kerins) or a star-turn from hip hop pioneer The Egyptian Lover who raps on - naturally - Egyptron. BATS is an album that could only be borne from GAMA BOMB; on this, their eighth studio album, they have embraced their inner absurdities, they've taken a trust fall into each other's arms, relying on the idiosyncratic glue that has bound them together over the last 21 years to propel them forwards.
Mick Jenkins, lyrical hip-hop mastermind and Chicago's Finest, returns with the album "The Patience." He chose to title it "The Patience" because it was that patience that he needed to get to the point in his career where he is now.
Waiting to get free from a label that didn't share his vision was very frustrating, especially since he had to consciously hold back his musical gems in order to release them in collaboration with a partner and team that believed in his art and supported him in his vision for his music.
During this time, Mick worked on his upcoming amazing body of work that has evolved into something very special. Mick at times compares himself to a star chef, brewing up lyrics, seasoning each line to perfection. The album is bursting with offbeat rhymes, sophisticated grooves and complex metaphors. On 'The Patience', the artist shows in an impressive way that he is one of the best in his genre.
Features on the album include JID, Freddie Gibbs, Benny The Butcher and Vic Mensa, who are no less eloquent as rappers and round out the record excellently. Also the production, peppered with live instruments and many jazz influences, makes the hip-hop hearts beat faster.
Rotes Vinyl. Ach du schöner Schreck! Wie ein unverhoffter Fuffi-Fund in einer lang nicht getragenen Jeans, haben Schmutzki unter ihrem roten Teppich eine ganze Kolonie von unveröffentlichten Songs gefunden. 30 verschollene Lieder aus 12 Jahren Rumpelei haben die drei Punkrocker aus Stuttgart liebevoll vom Parket gekratzt, von Staubmilben und Mäusekot befreit, um sie dann der ahnungslosen Masse als brandneues Album vorzusetzen. Und wäre das nicht schon dreist genug, ist diese fragwürdige Anthologie auch noch Aufhänger für eine Konzerttournee durch deutschsprachige Lande. Da kann man nur raten: Danach Händewaschen nicht vergessen!
In late 2021 the JUBG gallery (run by Magazine's Jens-Uwe Beyer alongside Albert Oehlen and Alexander Warhus) showed the German brothers Schaufler. Matthias, a painter, and Aksel, a musician and DJ (Superpitcher), came up with an exhibition soundtrack that was released back then as one half of an ultra rare drawing / vinyl combination only. (https://jubg.space/editions)
Subsequently, the music caught Barnt's and Crato's ears. The bittersweet pulsating ode to being an artist, sprawling and boundless, complete with voices from the sky, seemed perfect for our label. We are happy to announce that the regular release of schaufler vs schaufler part 1 & 2 will indeed come out on Magazine now.
„Gut malen kann jeder Depp.“
Favourite Artists, DJ Koze, Robag Wruhme, Superpitcher etc.
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On For Annette, singer-songwriter ronja summons forth a certain unbridgeable void within our existence and the acceptance of the deafening silence that comes with it. Weaving the strands of her previous release something about us with multiple openings towards more abstract territory, this 5-track EP marks her debut under the forward-thinking Unguarded label, astutely situating her music well beyond the confines of the genre.
The opening track “Nothing Makes Me Feel” beckons the listener into a discreet moment amid the early light of dawn, commencing with an up-close acoustic guitar, soon to be graced by ronja’s hushed voice, softly whispering, as if to avoid waking someone near. “Just Once”, with its weeping waltz, is about losing one’s place in the world, about choosing the imaginary over the real. Behind the strummed chords hides a soft dither of sine tones that attempts to fill the gap that cannot be filled, only to transform into quavering distortion ever after. Where language may falter, ronja turns to choral-like instrumental pieces (“Light” & “Grass from Below”), characterized by her distinctive and multi-layered flute arrangements. The absence of words here allows for a sensible stage of introspection, a fleeting and diaphanous pause, forging a passage to a more hopeful outlook. Yet, these pieces are not isolated; hints of fluttering air and cavernous depths are subtly alluded to in the earlier, more song-based tracks. In just under 18 minutes running time, the theme of loss, or the anticipation of its arrival, lingers solemnly before transcending intermediate states in “Almost There”.
Admirers of the dreamgaze band Roomer, which made waves in and around the Berlin music scene this past year, might detect faint resemblances. Nonetheless, ronja—a pivotal presence in said band—unveils a distinct effort here, striking subdued but enticing tones, a foreshadowing of what is yet to come from this luminary artist. – Luka Aron
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The tracks on this album may arouse a number of emotions; they were not sung purely for the pleasure of making music, but to convey, with drama and joy, that life is stronger than ever and continues with a live Spirit... Recorded in New York after 9/11 in front of a small audience, Espíritu Vivo marries Susana Baca"s wonderful vocals and Peruvian backing band with the downtown sounds of John Medeski and guitarist Marc Ribot-for a recording that transcends time and place, with Baca giving every iota of herself to the music. This is the 20th anniversary edition, on vinyl for the very first time.
