2 mental progressives tunes on the A Side. The flip opens with a very psychedelic track, naturally sounding as if you were irie... The last track is a dub tune, quiet collector of a style ! A very active processus... Sonic illusion confirmed ! And then will come teh first Reggae track on mackitek ! With Malcom & Jerash, Dub Sensi style !
For Patrick Flegel, Cindy Lee is more than just a recording music project. It is the culmination of a lifelong exploration of art, the electric guitar, queer identity and gender expression. "Singers like Patsy Cline and The Supremes carried me through the hardest times of my life," explains Flegel, "and also provided the soundtrack to the best times."
Following the dissolution of Canadian experimental indie band Women, Flegel would delve deeper into songwriting that bends further toward high atmospherics and bracing melodies – a unique space where splendor naturally collides with experimentation. Delivering moments of sheer beauty through somber reflections on longing and loneliness, Cindy Lee is something to hold onto in a world of disorder.
What's Tonight To Eternity, Cindy Lee's fifth long-form offering, showcases the project's most entrancing strengths: ethereal snowdrift pop and sly nods toward classic girl-group motifs. Recorded at Flegel's Realistik Studios in Toronto and featuring younger brother Andrew Flegel on drums, the album travels hand in hand with a spectral guide.
Flegel found inspiration for Cindy Lee in the form of Karen Carpenter, drawing on the singer / drummer's early recordings as well as her look and style. "I found a deep interest and comfort in Karen's story, which is a cautionary tale about the monstrosity of show business, stardom at a young age and being a misfit looking for connection. The darkness and victimizing tabloid sensationalism she suffered is easily tempered and overwhelmed by her earnest output, her artistry, her tireless work ethic. Something utterly unique and magical takes shape in the negative space, out of exclusion. What I relate to in her has to do with what is hidden, what is unknown."
What's Tonight To Eternity remains a mix of pop culture indoctrination, pain and suffering, hopes and dreams, fierce confrontations and wide-open confessional blurs. Closing with the song "Heavy Metal" (dedicated to the memory of former Women bandmate Chris Reimer) and adorned by Andrea Lukic's Journal of Smack artwork, the album continues the bold and rewarding path on which Cindy Lee has embarked.
Samuel Rohrer CONTINUAL DECENTERING With his Arjunamusic label and a growing catalog of categorydefying releases, Samuel Rohrer continues to quietly, yet confidently, make a name for himself as a genuinely unique Gigure within the European electronic music realm. In the current era, talk of blurring boundaries between musical genres and attitudes is more the rule than the exception, but not always something done with any degree of success. Rohrer is one of those rare alchemical explorers to have truly created a hybrid which is all his own, one that does not just exist to melt distinctions for its own sake, but is a natural result of years of experimentation with both the determination of electronic music and the ludic spirit of ‘free improvisation.’ On his newest offering, Continual Decentering, this vision is applied to a set of mostly in real time (live) performed explorations. In keeping with his many years’ worth of fruitful collaborations, the tonal palette on this new record is one that is expectedly rich for those familiar with his work, yet still surprising in terms of how exactly the differing tonal colors come together. Representative tracks like Spondee and The Fringe are brimming with dub pulses, noir shivers and blooming timbral variations that are in many places carefully isolated / focused and in other places blended together in vivid fusions. In terms of the emotional atmosphere created here, the pensive and questioning tone hearkens back to the ‘wide open’ state of electronic music in the mid-late 1990s, yet with a greater clarity and maturity of vision that makes this music feel like a possible answer to aesthetic questions being raised at that time. As with Rohrer’s most recent solo work, like the Range of Regularity LP, Continual Decentering showcases the artist’s skill in turning the drum kit into a lead instrument. While the term “lead instrument” denotes a kind of exuberant “Glash,” or a clear separation from the rest of the voices in an ensemble, we can take the term to mean something different throughout this listening program of 13 short vignettes: that is to say, everything else within the audible environment exists to complement the character of the percussive playing rather than to stand apart from it. It helps that Rohrer has, in fact, developed a unique and complex hybrid system in which drum hits trigger modular synthesizer processes, the use of which makes for an incredibly fluid response time between distinct sonic events. In contrast to the previous Range... LP, this new offering is propelled less by interlacing threads of intensity and more by a shared sense of deep listening. As displayed on pieces like All Too Human, there is a profound sense of attention to silences or thoughtful pauses that maybe hints at another crucial aspect of Rohrer’s style: over the course of this program, we tend to hear the player not only playing but listening, an activity which makes perfect sense given the sense of instrumental dialogue already mentioned. All of the above come together to give Continual Decentering a “live”-ness that will easily translate from recorded document to dynamic performance.
A few years ago, Ike Release was Chicago’s loss and Brooklyn’s gain. He’s already had releases on stellar labels such as Finale Sessions, Mister Saturday Night, and loads more. Once in Brooklyn, he met Nathaniel Jay of Love Notes (from Brooklyn) and a plan was formed.
Being a producer unwilling to be confined to one sound, Ike switches styles naturally and with great ease, and he’s got his Deep, Spacey House tools out for this EP, which of course is the now signature sound of Jay’s Love Notes. This is an 100% Brooklyn product, through and through.
Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The music of Johnny Jewel, Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Symmetry all articulate different visions for different moments — the pure ecstasy of a Saturday night out; unrestrained romantic devotion between vulnerable people; walks on wet streets on foggy nights; isolated twilight meditations. They make music for all moments, all feelings, all stories — in films & in life. Theirs is natural soundtrack music. Bruce Thierry Cheung brings their cinematic music to celluloid to tell the story of a family’s struggles in Don’t Come Back from the Moon, starring James Franco, Rashida Jones, & Jeffrey Wahlberg. The soundtrack mixes new & beloved work from the Italians family. Classic cuts such as Chromatics’ revered “Cherry” & “The River” (alongside the newer “Magazine”) & the disco-bliss of Mirage’s “Lady Operator” are alongside cues from Johnny’s instrumental solo album Digital Rain, all remastered to articulate the resonance of the visuals. Joining them is new music from Johnny & Symmetry. “Bicycle” finds Symmetry taking their Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter vibes into a haunting modern R&B space. Cues like “Street Lights” & “Dusk” use twinkling piano keys & glassy, minimal synthesizers to craft ambient electronic bliss. “Death Valley” is a foreboding & atmosphere track, laced with spectres of fading memories. Once you go to the moon with these songs, you’ll never want to come back.
Produced & Mixed By Johnny Jewel
Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering
Cut By Bernie Grundman In Hollywood
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.
Releasing his first ever vinyl release 'El Sunset' on James Holden's, Border Community back in 2007, Chilean producer Ricardo Tobar has since been held in high regard by the seminal UK producer. Intricately constructing his way around the parameters of emotionally-lead, highly atmospheric electronic music, Ricardo has brought his sound forward to grace the rosters of Jennifer Cardini's, Correspondant, ESP Institute and MUSAR Recordings. Continuing to extend his already significant discography, he now returns to MUSAR Recordings for a third time with the 'After The Movie' EP.
Ricardo's 'After The Movie' EP forms a selection of cuts that have been held in his locker for quite some time. Uncovered by MUSAR Recordings label head, David on a podcast from way back, it seemed only natural that this unreleased music from Ricardo would find its home on the Amsterdam-Tel-Aviv label.
"This EP is quite special to me because it reflects a long timeline in my work. The 'After The Movie' track had been in the vault for ages until David from MUSAR found it in an old podcast; it really takes me back to those first steps in recording music." Ricardo Tobar
Across his EP, Ricardo plays with varying textures and arrangements that in turn provide a cross-section of his sound that has expanded and developed over time. 'After The Movie' presents the experimental ambience synonymous with his early works, whilst 'Parques' brings an idyllic, cinematic feel with strictly crafted synth arrangements riding high, post-rock influences also show through. 'Regain Your Power' represents a change of course, whilst also channeling a political message punctuated by social unrest taking place in Ricardo's home country, Chile. He abandons experimentalism in favour of tougher 4x4 elements, allowing his machines to run riot.
"The mixture of ideas and feelings on this EP have a politically charged spirit, as electronic music always does. A few weeks after I finished 'Regain Your Power' the whole Chilean social explosion took place with the same ideals I had in mind when recording the track." Ricardo Tobar
Stepping up on the remix is a pair whose names are etched into the history of UK electronic music, Andy Turner and Ed Handley a.k.a. Plaid. Reworking title track 'After The Movie', they produce an emotive, soundscape complete with droning basslines and ex-terrestrial flourishes.
Satin is the first solo EP from Lack, the alias of Manchester based artist Charlie Foy - having previously featured on various twelves for the Cong Burn collective. Recorded between 2016 and 2019, these tracks were started during long train journeys, before being finished in the studio. More introspective than previous material, these tracks offer a unique insight into the window of serenity that comes from movement and being in-between places.
These exceptionally balanced and well-crafted compositions use production techniques that explore the relationship between the natural and synthetic, using transients from field recordings to trigger machines, as well as granular synthesis and resampling techniques that further blur this distinction. Equally suited to listening at home or in a club context, these tracks reward deep listening and continually reveal details with each listen.
unning Back Incantations present Yogtze!
A joint venture of Daniel Helmer - musician, producer (Mantra Mantra, Gudrun von Laxenburg)and filmmaker from Vienna and Daniel Meuzard - (Feater, Skymax, Vallay) and a headstrong trip deep into the tune-in-turn-on-drop-out-mentality of European minds outside of their natural environment. Helmer and Meuzard met around 2005 in Peru where they both participated in an ayahuasca ceremony.
After this experience they decided to travel and discover South America together for some weeks. During that journey, the idea of a musical project (Yogtze) was born.
Two years and many miles later, Helmer and Meuzard saw Alejandro Jodorowsky’s „Montana Sacra“ at a small film festival in Paris. The movie inspired them to create a musical composition that reflects its spirit and atmosphere. In order to do so, they decided to travel Morocco and record music on a small 8-track tape machine at a friend’s home studio in Essaouira. "The artistic process felt very natural. All we had to do was to open up to the cosmos and let the music flow through our bodies“, said Meuzard. Neither Meuzard nor Helmers intented to release those recordings, since the sessions were more of a personal nature and meant to create a musical experience for themselves.
A decade later, their moroccan friend, who stumbled upon the tapes while cleaning his storage, urged them to release their recordings so everyone could experience the same musical journey as they had back in 2007. "It would be a grand act of selfishness not to share this work of art with others“ he told them. Luckily for thew world, Helmer and Meuzard decided to finally edit, mix and master the rest of the material in 2018/2019 and named their project „YOGTZE“. Expect a record full of wondrous soundscapes, haunting melodies and capturing themes that would fit in many categories or definitions and none at the same time. Music from and for memories, tangerine dreams and chessboards.
Direct from the Midwest CLEAR is proud to present four tenacious hardware workouts from Juzer.
In theory the 12” starts slowly, with the 100 bpm rattle of Old Reliable, although it’s fitful energy is anything but, while the following track September coils itself into a tightly wound circuit freak-out. Busy Bees and We Work Hard We Play Hard are the buildup and climax of the record’s machinedriven anxiety, fit for a chase scene in a post apocalyptic megacity thriller.
Juzer is the joint project of two artists central to the underground musicscene in Chicago, Beau Wanzer and Dan Jugle. The work of both straddles the fault-lines between, noise, techno, industrial, EBM, and the more frenzied shades of house. In addition to a prolific number of solo releases, Wanzer is a member of Mutant Beat Dance with Traxx and Steve Summers, Civil Duty with Shawn O’Sullivan, and many more. Like Wanzer, Jugle was a habitual collaborator and his untimely passing last year shocked Chicago’s electronic music community. Jugle was a natural collaborator, the sort of person for whom creating music was a daily act, and even better with friends. In addition to Juzer he was also a member of Dar Embarks, Chandeliers, and Ghost Arcade. Previous Juzer material was issued on The Corner and Dog In The Night.
The 888 Miles E.P. includes two original tracks, 888 Miles and 777 Miles, which both develop a psychological tension that leads to moments of euphoric liberation where the synths soar and allow the mind the wander, accompanied by a rhythmic groove. There is a slightly different sensitivity between the two tracks that you'll can easlyer constat. Then, don't forget, even if the approach sounds different, the soul remains the same. The other original track, 000 Miles, places you on a spacecraft, with ambient musicality sounding like it could have been generated by hydraulic pipes or air conditioning. This E.P. release also includes '888 Miles XXX Reshape', a deep techno remix by none other than the awesome Francois X. He's probably the best person to describe it: "I've known David & Kevin (Klash Point duo) for a while now and when they suggested that I produce a remix for them, it was natural to say yes. It's funny how this piece of music saw the light, as it has a completely altered tone from the original. It's definitely one of my funkier tracks, with trippy and bluesy vibes - like a trip deep into the wild."
“Lugar Alto presents their very first release: the incredibly rare and absolutely stunning “Homenagem”, by Leonardo V. Boccia. This is a forgotten gem from the eighties that examines traditional Brazilian themes such as choro, northeastern folk, and capoeira with touches of eighties electronics and new age.
Leonardo Boccia is a musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer, researcher and university professor of Culture and Society at the Federal University of Bahia, whose interests include sound studies, manipulation of sound media, audiosphere and aesthetics, musical theatre, audio culture and neuromusic.
Born in Italy, this respected academic studied music in Berlin, moved to Rio de Janeiro and established himself in Salvador where he was invited to research the northeastern music of Bahia. There he created the experimental group Macchina Naturale, an eclectic combo that performed regularly during his stay. In November 1980, Boccia participated in the first Instrumental Music Festival of Bahia as a soloist where he performed works of his own.
But it was in 1983 that Professor Boccia composed, directed and produced the LP Homenagem. With photos by renowned photographer and artist Mario Cravo Neto for the front and back cover of the booklet, the album presents new and original compositions for instrumental ensembles, such as: Choro Fantasia – for guitar and berimbau -, Canção para Iracema, Homenagem and Lenda do Sertão. The LP was originally released on January 3rd, 1984, with a live performance in the main hall of the Castro Alves Theatre under the title Tribute to Brazilian Music, with the participation of vocalist Sueli Sodré, who contributes to the album, instrumentalists Zeno Millet and Onias Camardelli, accompanied by choreography and visuals.
Much of Homenagem examines the genre of Brazilian music known as Choro, or Chorinho, a genre which appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century. Choro is regarded as the first typically Brazilian urban music and, over the years, it has come to be considered one of the most prestigious genres of national popular music. Stylistically, it originates from Lundu, a percussion-based rhythm of African inspiration but also influenced by European genres. The instrumental composition of choro was based on the trinca flute, guitar and cavaquinho. Over time, other wind and string instruments were incorporated.
Here, in Homenagem, Professor Boccia deliberately mixes the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative; the album is the environment of Chorinho reconsidered and recontextualized, and its melodies and harmonies still capable of surprises. Just listen to “Terra e Povo” – it has an almost proto-acid-house quality to it, while the synth washes on “Mãe Natureza” with the ethereal vocal stylings of Sueli Sodré ushering in the progressive quality of the album.
Too long out of print, new label Lugar Alto now offers you the chance to reappraise this fascinating reissue of yet another forgotten chapter in Brazilian music.”
Sound has the ability to heal. This is the primary tenet that has been driving Karma Moffett for over 35 years. Pure tones, resonant harmonics, the sounds of the earth. At the dawn of the 80’s, as the burgeoning movement of privately-issued New Age was taking hold, Karma Moffett was a pioneer. Eschewing the use of synthesizers and other increasingly-available electronic technology, Karma crafted his meditative, introspective music using ancient instruments. Primarily utilizing Tibetan Bells, and Singing Bowls, Karma Moffett crafted sounds that led the listener on an inward journey.
1982’s Sitting Still Within/Sitting Still Without s Karma Moffett’s earliest triumph. Combining the aforementioned Tibetan Bowls & Bells along with naturalistic field recordings, Karma’s first album is a testament to the power of minimalism and repetition. An ambient voyage that truly draws the listener inwardst, and outwards, Sitting Still Within/ Sitting Still Without is music for healing.
Ism opens audaciously with the spiritual mic-check “You Are Free To Choose,” a track that features bassist Junius Paul alongside Vincent Davis (drums), Justin Dillard (piano), and Corey Wilkes (horns). This is by no accident. In many ways, “You Are Free To Choose” captures the spirit of Junius Paul’s artistic roots. Corey, Justin, and Vincent were among the multigenerational cadre of Chicago musicians present when Junius chose to follow his own path of creative discovery at the storied Velvet Lounge on the South Side of the city in 2002.
Though he began learning his craft playing in church, Junius’s creative voice really developed during jam sessions at clubs like The Velvet alongside members of the AACM. It was iron sharpening iron, the most natural form of knowledge transfer. He explained The Velvet’s vibe in 2018: “It’s like in Africa.... If you had this society of diviners or medicine people, or you know, sages… The Velvet stuff is not secret; but there are certain aspects of it… if you weren’t there, you weren’t there.” The Velvet Lounge closed in 2010. But, of course, the spirit of the Velvet Lounge is not dead. “Tune No. 6,” recorded live at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago, is a sweet interlude here to remind us that jazz is alive, bristling with what’s yet to come.
As Junius pushes forward as a creative musician, he is careful to carry with him the spirit and the knowledge he’s gathered from those who have come before him. He is very literally a bridge between generations of the Chicago vanguard, currently playing in a handful of combos with Makaya McCraven (who produced several of the tracks on Ism) as well as a few of Roscoe Mitchell’s working groups – most notably the Art Ensemble of Chicago – in addition to fronting his own band.
I remember the first time I read W.E.B. DuBois eclectic masterpiece The Souls of Black Folk. The way in which this Weberian scholar flowed from personal account to prose to sociological analysis to music and even political intervention has had a lasting impact on my own work as a cultural anthropologist. It made me understand that as scholars we must use different means in order to give expression to the totality of the lived experience: There is only so much in an academic text.
The experience of alienation has always been at the heart of my scholarly and artistic practice. I have used academic writing, lecturing, theatre performance and electronic improvisation to understand and represent it as a theoretical concept, postcolonial condition and lived experience. I believe, some issues need to be told like a story, some analyzed in most abstract terms and others need to be sung like a gospel. The medium changes the message.
In this sense, I guess, I’m a singing cultural anthropologist.
For some time now I have been engaged in the use of dystopian themes and sounds to paint a sonic picture of structural racism and whiteness of our present. But recently I have grown weary of this Ballardian idea of Future Now and the resulting phantasmagorian aesthetics myself and others have been invested in. The widespread availability of Digital Audio Workstations, sequencers, loopers and delay pedals has lead us into a futuristic cul de sac best described by Mark Fisher as the very absence of future.
Likewise, I am most skeptical of the “naturalist” countermovement, the return of folk. Especially in Germany, I am convinced there is no such thing as an innocent or progressive folk musical expression as it is always connected to the idea of the homeland (“Heimat”) which in turn produces the colony. It seems to me, the current zeitgeist is stuck between a “museum of a dystopian future” and a “museum of an idealized past”, but I wanted to sing about the present.
So, I involuntarily returned to pop music in its two-folded meaning of something popular and addressing not an essentialist notion of “Volk” or its woke cousin “communities”, but society as a whole.
I entered the studio just with a few lo-fi sounding melodies and rhythms from my circuit bent CASIO synthesizer. I had no clue what the finished product would sound like. But as soon as Markus started drumming, in a way strangely reminding me of CAN’s Ethnographic Forgery Series, my uptight sounds were suddenly embedded within a warmer global sound spectrum. The alien at home and abroad and the strange overlapped: We were seeing one and the same sound differently but were gently held together by Tobias’ producing.
Making music is about building coalitions. It’s about suggesting an articulation of styles, sounds and people, that hasn’t materialized, yet, but may help us in the current crisis: I wanted Amon Düül II to send their drug induced archangel thunderbird to rescue the refugees, that had tried to escape the police by climbing up a tree in Munich in 2016. I wanted Sun Ra to taunt far-right protesters in Chemnitz in 2018. And I wanted to mourn the loss of a former kebab shop cum discotheque that served as proof that there is such a thing as a minoritarian universalism.
SCHLAND IS THE PLACE FOR ME is a pop album featuring songs of alienation, not only as a tragic experience, but as a pop-cultural promise. Maybe Bill Callahan sung it best, “I am Star Wars today, I am no longer English grey”. I want those who suffer from alienation to stand in alliance with those who seek alienation, and vice-versa. A coalition, that tolerates the possibility that we are moved by the same groove for contrary reasons.
Fehler Kuti
Munich, Autumn 2019
Music by Julian Warner, Markus Acher & Tobias Siegert
Saxophone on RINDERMARKT by Franz Brunner
Trombone on RINDERMARKT and IL by Matthias Götz
Recorded and mixed by Tobias Siegert in Munich.
SONTAGSFAVORIT mixed by Dario Albiez in Dusseldorf.
Mastered by Duphonic in Augsburg.
Artwork by Atelier Grande, Munich.
"The Red" EP by Dominique Fils-Aimé released on vinyl for the first time with new cover art. Special edition Black Friday 2019 pressing.
Dominique Fils-Aimé is a Polaris Music prize-nominated singer-songwriter from Montreal who draws inspiration from soul icons of the 40's and 60's such as Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Nina Simone. While her musical roots are grounded in early soul and jazz, her sound transcends contemporary urban soundscapes.
Dominique's self-produced debut, "The Red" EP, was originally released in 2015. This new version from KingUnderground has been fully remastered and includes a live version of "Love of Yours" as well as two bonus instrumentals.
Sultry vocals follow melancholy guitar and organ on "Like Mama Said." Dominique's calming voice is akin to a meld of Sade and Amy Winehouse. While the edgy 'When You See Me'' has a hypnotic, catchy groove and chorus, she shows off her versatility with a stripped down, acoustic blues-tinged piece on "Ok With You."
The songs were recorded live in the studio in only a few takes with minimal overdubs to capture the unconstrained depth of expression and natural impulse. The faintest of imperfections in the recordings were preserved in an effort to speak the truth, as the nature of her songs reflect on the vulnerability and strength in each of us and their delicate balance. Dominique unifies each song on the record with empowering lyrics, bringing such a commanding voice and precise delivery, you could almost imagine her singing the theme for a new Bond movie.
This cinematic RnB & jazz-inflected debut by one of Montreal's finest soul singer-songwriters is available for the first time on high-quality vinyl.
Minimal, elegant and supercharged with latent energy, Cop Envy & DJ Plead’s ‘Hinged’ EP consists of 3 tracks written over the course of two Melbourne summer nights. Luscious drums, sparse melodic elements and midnight-hued atmospheric flourishes are masterfully sequenced for maximum DJ enthrallment and dancefloor enjoyment. The release exudes depth and a natural balance of both artists’ respective styles that belies their long-standing friendship :) :) :) Rounding off a year that saw well-received solo EPs from both Cop Envy and DJ Plead (on Hypercolour and Nervous Horizon, respectively), their collaborative debut ‘Hinged’ will be released digitally and as a limited hand-stamped 12” vinyl on Friday 8 November.
WRWTFWW Records is insanely happy to announce the first ever vinyl reissue for both volumes of Yoshio Ojima's superb environmental music project Une Collection des Chaînons I and II: Music For Spiral, originally released in 1988 on CD only. Each volume is sourced from original masters and comes as a double vinyl LP with liner notes in English and Japanese . This marks the inaugural release from the ESPLANADE SERIES by WRWTFWW Records which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima and friends.
Une Collection des Chaînons II (along with its complementary predecessor Une Collection des Chaînons I) gathers selected music pieces conceptualized and produced for sound-designing the Wacoal Art Center in Aoyama (Tokyo) also known as Spiral, a hub for a wide range of sophisticated cultural proposals spanning visual arts, theatre, music, design, fashion, and lifestyle.
Named after its superb curled-shaped structures laid in a vast atrium, Spiral is a monumental work of architecture by Fumihiko Maki, designed according to the principles of Metabolism, a movement advocating the fusion of the notions of megastructures and organic biological growth - in essence, evolving designs and constructions, adapting to human needs naturally.
Evolving, organic, adapting, these are notions that perfectly describe Yoshio Ojima's divinely designed brand of environmental music. Continuing, embellishing and bringing the Collection des Chaînons (which translates as collection of links) full circle, this second volume approaches sound design in relation to various contexts, sizes, and shapes. The nanoscopic neoclassical lullaby "Les Trois Grâces" brings attention to the importance of small details, "Pulse at Soothe" starts with the minimalism of a Satoshi Ashikawa piece and slowly drifts into mystical landscapes and cavernous echoes, "Entomology" and its melancholic artificial forest feels like a Twin Peaks mirage, and "Atrium" literally feels like a floating visit of a gigantic open space structure. With each timbre selected with extreme precision, each element placed in space with the utmost care, and textures worked to allow a wide canvas of emotion for the listeners, Yoshio Ojima's music is the constantly transforming connecting point between humanity and architecture.
Sitting alongside Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass, Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, or Yutaka Hirose's NOVA, Une Collection des Chaînons is a pivotal work of Japanese environnmental/ambient/minimalist music.
A note from Yoshio Ojima: "Please listen to this album at around the same volume as daily life sounds such as air conditioners and refrigerators."
After two compilations and a split EP, Oscillate Tracks present their first solo EP. Having played dynamic DJ performances at Oscillate events as well as releasing top-notch productions on Livity Sound and Man Band, Toma Kami seemed the perfect fit. With 3 tracks of percussive body music, sharp rhythms and precise arrangements which build to hard-drum energies as well as a confidently layered and commanding remix from atmospheric techno icon Forest Drive
West, this EP packs a patient yet satisfying punch.
