quête:little by little

180 G. BLACK VINYL WITH LINER NOTES IN CREOLE, FRENCH, ENGLISH

Originally released in 1979, "Spiritual Sound" lives up to its name, a soaring, triumphant album, six tracks of spirit magic from Guadeloupe.

Telluric, intense, terribly alive, the gwoka drums of Guadeloupe carry the identity of a painful and fervent island. Marked forever by the crime of slavery, Guadeloupe's créolité cherishes the ka drums and their natural environment: the low-pitched boula drum with male goatskin, the high-pitched soloist makè drum with female goatskin, the chacha, ti bwa, triangle, calabash and other percussion instruments that surround them, and the voices - the fiery, proud, timbred, urgent voices of the gwoka.



This album is also a legend for its voices: in his then dazzling youth, singer Lukuber Séjor was one of the first gwoka artists to largely feminize the chorus of répondè, who converse with his text delivered in a straight and powerful voice.

And everything here sets new standards. In 1979, Mizik Filamonik - Spiritual Sound proclaimed a spiritual patriotism of ferocious intensity. The album by Lukuber Séjor - whose spelling alone is a battle - sets out to give Guadeloupe the intangible weapons of self-respect and self-knowledge, through a singular practice of traditional music.

The genesis of gwoka music is less straightforward than one might imagine... The drums performed the servile task of accompanying the work of slaves in the fields and during the “corvées” imposed by the administration, before being freely practiced by the common people after the abolition of 1848. At the heart of the conviviality of the Guadeloupeans furthest from the cities - geographically and socially - the gwoka drums come out for carnival, funeral wakes and neighborhood celebrations, but also during strikes, fits of anger and armed vigils of the riots and revolts that have punctuated the island's history. For generations, governors of the colony and then the prefects of the overseas department of Guadeloupe have been viewing the gwoka as a potential for turbulence and a threat to public order.

But as the Beatlesmania, “chanson engagée” and rock revolutions unfolded in Europe, young people turned to the drums of mizik a vié nèg (“bad negro music”, in Creole), which Guadeloupeans had learned to despise by following the “assimilation” process advocated by the school system and most of the political class. At the end of the sixties, in a Guadeloupe mourning the deadly repression of the May 1967 social movement, they played traditional music, refusing to wrap it up in tourist prettiness and madras folk costumes. Instinctively, they played a rough and contemporary gwoka, led by the incendiary Guy Konkèt. This was the era of decisive 45 rpm records such as Robert Loyson's Kann a la richès, which brought to light the fieriest words of union rallies.

At his home in Sainte-Anne, Lukuber Séjor played with flautist Olivier Vamur and his brother Claude Vamur, who cobbled together a drum kit from tin crockery and became, a few years later, the most influential drummer in Kassav'.

These were the years of the Bumidom program, when young Guadeloupeans were encouraged to emigrate to mainland France. At the age of twenty, Lukuber Séjor embarked on the liner Irpinia, disembarking at Le Havre and taking the train to the Gare Saint-Lazare - the route taken by thousands of young West Indians who went on to study or looked for work, all the while trying to maintain a link with their homeland. In this case, it's at the Antony university residence, where Lukuber played the drum and participated in a thousand gwoka updates and aggiornamentos, while exile reinforced the need for a spiritual link with the native land.

In 1978, Guy Konkèt played at the Salle Wagram, a historic event for West Indian music. After serving as répondè - i.e. backing vocalist - on one of his home-recorded albums, Lukuber joined his live band. Little by little, he became one of the key artists on a circuit parallel to French show business. At a student party in Caen, he met a young woman from Martinique who, at the time, was more motivated by her ambitions as a visual artist than by her vocation as a musician. Her name was Jocelyne Béroard and, a few years before she plunged into the Kassav' adventure and became the greatest West Indian singer of her generation, she designed the cover of Lukuber Séjor's LP.

This ambition was obvious and imposed its will. A more or less regular band was formed, with Roger Raspail, Rudy Mompière and Éric Danquin on ka drums, Claude Vamur on ti bwa, Olivier Vamur and Françoise Lancréot on flutes and Annick Noël on keyboards. Lukuber Séjor is set on wanting to extend the gwoka palette to other instruments, as the jazz-rock revolution opens a thousand new doors. Annick Noël will play a wide range of timbres and textures on electric piano and synthesizer. Another novelty: the répondè are two men and two women, Roger Raspail, Olivier Vamur, Françoise Lancréot and Maryann Mathéus ...

Mizik Filamonik - Spiritual Sound is a self-production in which the singer and leader sank all his savings, allowing him no more than a single day in the studio. The first side is more of a musical manifesto, with the first two tracks, Éritage and Penn é plézi, being instrumentals. The third, Son, forcefully celebrates the need for Guadeloupeans to connect with the gwoka. In fact, Jocelyne Béroard's cover shows a tambouyé in the shadow of a cloudy sky, against which a radiant sun is rising and whose light will soon flood the entire landscape. The silhouette and face of this man strongly evoke the immense Vélo, master of the ka, rejected at the time on the fringes of society.

The second side of the LP is surprising. Formally, three tracks are explicitly linked like the three parts of a triptych. Primyé voyaj evokes the appalling tribulation of Africans deported as slaves to Guadeloupe; dézyèm voyaj speaks of the Bumidom program and the economic, political and social forces driving young Guadeloupeans towards the mirage of prosperity in France; twazyèm voyaj closes the cycle with the emigrants' return from Europe after years away from their island...

This gwoka, obsessed with the need to save Guadeloupe spiritually, appeals far beyond the politicized audience. Mizik Filamonik - Spiritual Sound instantly became a classic, although Lukuber Séjor never really made a career for himself as a musician.

After all, the album was released in 1980, with no promotional resources in France or Guadeloupe - and therefore no concerts. The thirty-two-year-old author, composer and performer made his own third trip back to Guadeloupe. He set up a small woodworking business, which he lost in Hurricane Hugo in 1989. His other activity, teaching in a medical-educational institute, became the core of his professional life. He continued to be an active campaigner - a campaigner for the Creole language, a campaigner for the reawakening of identity, a campaigner for special education, a campaigner for a thousand causes that he ignited with his generous and perceptive enthusiasm, such as the defense of breadfruit fries...

The echoes of his 1979 album have not died down. Of course, the use of Penn é plézi as the theme tune for Radio Guadeloupe's funeral notices from 1980 to 1992 kept him in the collective memory, but he continues to sing and compose sporadically, as with his all-female

vocal group Vwapoulouéka... Still convinced that music is a means of liberating the spirit, he continues the journey of a young man eager to deploy the power of Creole music and language.

Bertrand Dicale

Prick up your ears everybody: Uluru number 3 is ready to take off!

This time Little Beat More's sub-label Uluru, featuring highly acclaimed remix/mash up series, sees the participation of living legend Jstar.
The west London reggae hero delivered a smoothly bouncing rework of the classic “Eye of the tiger” by the Survivor, that originally gained fame through being the anthem of Rocky III.
The flip sees the debut of an Italian duo called “The Dynamates” (The Rebel and Dibba). They put their hands on another precious song that made history, namely “You got to love” from Candi Staton.
Pull up guaranteed!

Pressed on high quality black and yellow lime vinyl (48 gr.)
Edition of 350, coming with “hand stamped” vintage yellow paper sleeve.

ULURU 2020
“Mind Control, Modern Slavery”

We all remember with mixed feelings the past two years of domestic isolation: a temporary anomaly in which the world had to adjust to a new routine, a new rhythm. In these daunting yet precious circumstances, Italian producer Markeno has found his rhythm back, dusting off old records and re-approaching his past musical love affairs that he believed to be long forgotten. Here, in the fertile limbo that connects past and future, “Dock lown (exploring)” is born: a 3-tracker release with a chameleonic nature and an undeniable groove, in which Markeno is able to tactfully combine different genres such as indie, post-rock, African mu- sic, electro and funk.

In the contemporary music scene, overly saturated with catchy melodies and seductive lyrics, it is refreshing to encounter a composition like “Fase 01”, which starts from a purely percussive structure. Just when the ear is settled and well inserted into the tangle of drums, here comes the melodic twist, no less than at the fourth minute, injecting an unexpected groove and chalking out the contours of a track with multiple personalities: a little esoteric, a little synth-wave, quirky and badass. The temperature rises with “Zona Ros- sa”, in which the electro hint sketched in “Fase 01” becomes more pronounced, opening the doors to a dense psychedelic scenario. A shamanic loop accompanies the electric bass and escorts us through the smoke of the bonfire, veils swayed by the wind and colored lights that sparkle in the night. The ritualistic humming of ‘’Zona Rossa”’ is still hearable, floating in the rarefied atmosphere, while the last track “Limbo” makes its entrance and confirms once again the poliedric but congruous essence of this release, whose percussive attitude lures you in and whose hypnotic and groovy body makes you stay. At least for one more dance.

Sara Berton

From the same recording sessions as Bézier's first EP on Körperspannung records 'Negative Velocity', 'Contraption' channels a few moods and scenarios.

On the a-side 'Contraption' is an insignificant droplet darting through the sky. Soon it joins a disarray of objects positioned above the atmosphere, maneuvers in formation to reveal randomized, decentralized nodes packed for mayhem.

On the b-side Bézier shows a slice of his lived experience. Back in 2004 he used to go to house parties around East LA with friends they grew up with every weekend to listen to music. Winding through the Southern Californian roadway sprawl they'd drive 1/2 an hour to 1 hour on the I-10 (sometimes diverting to Route 60 if gridlock is expected) to get to the location, usually in a residential neighborhood. Being respectful of the communities and the struggle of the progenitors of this music, Bézier presents 'Blue Halo' as an homage to that sound with a twist: Cumbia-Synth to provide a little sauce for your ears. Dave Easlick joins the milieu to provide a percussive framework for this tune.

Lastly, 'Bit by an Electric Wire' showcases Easlick's drumming with an overlay from Bézier. As Dave rips and shreds through his drum kit the OCD machine living inside Yang's brain switches on and organizes, collates and files that dataset into a hardcore rhythm track.

WRWTFWW Records is honored to announce the first ever vinyl release of Joe Hisaishi’s original soundtrack for the critically acclaimed and all around classic 1993 Japanese yakuza/crime/thriller movie Sonatine. The legendary album comes in a limited edition housed in a luxurious heavyweight sleeve with selective varnish printing and a special paper obi belt.

The celebrated Sonatine was directed, written and edited by Takeshi Kitano, who also takes center stage as the main protagonist of the thrilling yakuza film. Director, screenwriter, comedian, actor, tv personality and icon, 'Beat' Takeshi is also known for Boiling Point, Hana-Bi, Battle Royale, Johnny Mnemonic, Ghost in the Shell and many many more.

Considered one of the greatest ever, Joe Hisaishi is a composer, musical director, conductor and pianist behind over 100 film scores including Kitano’s A Scene at the Sea, Kikujiro, and Brother, as well as his famed work for director and animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli masterpieces Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and the list goes on. Little known fact: his first ever produced-album is a collaboration with percussionist Midori Takada (Through the Looking Glass): MKWAJU Ensemble’s MKAWJU also released on WRWTFWW Records.

The Sonatine movie score showcases the composer’s more contemplative, minimalistic, and intimate side in a superb and deeply evocative neo-classical and ambient musical journey. The depth and emotional resonance of the compositions make for an exceptional and timeless soundtrack. It is known to be one of Hisaishi’s own favorites.

Sonatine (Original Soundtrack) by Joe Hisaishi follows the release of the soundtrack of Takeshi Kitano’s Violent Cop (1989), as well as music from another groundbreaking Japanese movie, Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s Tokyo Fist (1995). Collect them all on WRWTFWW Records!

Special collaborative project ARUM lands on the ESHU imprint. Something that every ESHU release has in common is that each project originates from friendship or a cooperation between like minded souls. This release is no different from that. "Guus" refers to the owner of a little cabin studio where a group of friends came together to create some beats. ARUM consists of Kaap (De Lichting), Jasper Wolff (Indigo aera), Luna Ludmila and ESHU head honcho Ivano Tetelepta himself. After an extended weekend of studio sessions this was the last jam created on a hazy Sunday afternoon when the crew headed into deep dub territories. The result is a five minute long smooth dub techno ride honoring Guus and the perfect Sunday ethos. If you talk dub techno, you talk about Deadbeat. Nothing would suit this release more than a remix by this true icon in dub techno and a close friend to the ESHU family. Happy Sundayzzz.

Introducing Griffith’s debut release, "Nineteen EP" by Romanian artist Mihai Pol. Known for his instinctive approach to groove and atmosphere, Mihai crafts music that feels organic and immersive, drawing subtle influence from the world around him.

At the heart of the release is "Nineteen", a long-awaited gem produced in 2020. Defined by a hypnotic groove and a striking synth that almost sings like a human voice, the track has become one of Mihai’s most anticipated cuts, impossible to forget once heard. Alongside it, three equally refined productions complete the EP, each carrying his signature rolling energy and deep, immersive flow.

A great first step for Griffith, with plenty more to come.

South Londons’ indomitable Medlar delivers an ambitious new album

The long-time underground favourite has collaborated with the likes of Dele Sosimi, Rebekah Reid, Deevoenay, Finn Peters, Sam Virdie, Afla Sackey and Arnau Obiols on an album that finds him taking his production to new levels.
From roots playing illegal raves in the South West to building up a cultured catalogue that bounces between house and garage, Medlar has long been part of the underground conversation. He has dropped a previous album and many innovative remixes and edits for the likes of Billy Cobham and Shirley Lites, worked in the studio and on stage with Afro legend Dele Sosimi and most recently released an album under his own name that collected myriad different sonic sketches from the past 15 years.

Islands is an altogether different proposition that comes after establishing himself as a mix engineer and producer of other people's music. In that time, Medlar has honed his skills, learnt new tricks and grown more able to express himself in sound. The result is an album that explores a more electronic palette inspired by '80s fusion sounds whilst maintaining a loose, organic flow through his use of live instrumentation. “The idea for the LP was for a collection of music which could sit alone as club tracks, but would work equally well as part of a whole. The name Islands came from this, as there's some connecting ideas but the tracks sit independently in their own little sonic worlds. I took a lot of inspiration from early 80’s electronic music produced during early years of MIDI technology… proto house, jazz fusion, electronic disco and experimental ambient. I wanted to juxtapose some of these methods with more contemporary production and make something that's ultimately quite fun!” says Medlar of the record which could easily soundtrack a summer road trip.

Across 11 tracks, he blends old-school techniques like a fusion of live instruments, FM synthesis and MIDI triggered vocal samples with more contemporary touches such as punchy, club-friendly drums and dub inspired, speaker-wobbling low end. The result is less reliant on samples than his previous works and makes for a perfect blend of retro authenticity and future freshness.

Red Pig Flower brings you her sensational debut album Practice Love, available on Sound Of Vast from 10th April. Her unique sound sits upon the apex of a three-sided pyramid. With Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul as the base, Red is a third culture kid, greater than the sum of her parts. The centre is filled with her incredible appreciation and knowledge of house and electronic music from every pin drop through history.

So taken with Red Pig Flower’s sound, Honey Dijon invited Red to her Southbank Centre show to play alongside her. Moxie loves her that much, that she invited Red to record a mix and to guest on her NTS show. Alan Fitzpatrick, and Just Her are amongst Red’s growing posse of followers.

Practice Love is a culmination of all of Red Pig Flower’s life experiences, brimming with her positive energy and an outlook on life of pure love. Red has collaborated with like-minded artists at every level: the music, the cover art and video all produced with talented friends, who get Red as the wonderful person she is and understand her vision. Her label partner and good friend, Knock in particular helped make Practice Love the incredible album it is. So intuitive is their musical symbiosis, they made 20 tracks and carefully curated and ordered nine of these, making an album of tracks that stand out on their own, yet flow perfectly as an album. Practice Love will make you feel joyous when you play it. By the end, you will feel like you know Red like a friend.

Practice Love kicks off with I don’t care, it makes you feel good: a dreamy, tribal mantra of a track that does exactly what it says on the tin. Next up is I Love To Dance. Red’s beautiful soft vocal is sweet yet poignant, leaving you in no doubt of her sincerity. Thirdly comes Feel Good Music. Are you getting a feel from the track names yet that this is an album of warmth and positivity? You can imagine this one at a Café Del Mar sunset, where those who get the spirituality of Ibiza come together, in the moment to appreciate the beauty of a sunset and understand that no matter how many you see, each is magical and unique.

The three tracks so far have taken you to twilight. The titular Practice Love takes you by the hand onto the dancefloor. There is a double meaning to ‘Practice Love’- The first is to make love your practice. The second is that you need to practice love to be able to become a practitioner of love. The video, shot by her friend Jelly, features Red Pig Flower in Brick Lane, London, wearing a little piggy mask and offering free hugs. The first passersby ignore her sign, but Red isn’t disheartened, spreading the right message, dancing with joy. Her optimism is rewarded, making peoples day better on a cold English afternoon.

Fifth track Sax and Drugs takes things a little sleazier, the beat is filthy and the synths are sexy. Your body starts to move to this one before your brain even realises. The incredible Declan McDermott joins on saxophone, the funkiest synths and Red’s sultry vocal washing your soul with Laurent Garnier inspired sunlight. On Thisiz House Music, again featuring Declan, Red takes you even further back. About Frankie Knuckles O’Clock, with a portal straight to 2025.

By now, you will agree with me that Practice Love flows so, so well. I Wanna Meet Somebody follows incredibly, continuing the feeling that if you close your eyes, you’re dancing with David Mancuso at the Loft. No Money completes this EP-within-an-album. Perfect vocal samples, valve synth riff and 808 drum patterns showing that producers as good as Red Pig Flower make it sound effortless. The best albums finish memorably and No Genre is one of those perfect finishers. Think Andrew Wetherall’s production on Screamadelica. The lights are up in the club, nobody wants to go home, arms in the air wanting more.

Red Pig Flower explains: Practice Love resonates deeply with me because house music has always been a sanctuary—a place for unity, joy, and self-expression. As a nomad and outsider, club culture and house music became my shelter. The cities I’ve lived in—Seoul, Tokyo, Berlin, and London and more—nurtured me and shaped who I am today. That’s why the cover, by the incredible Carlos Sulpizio features their skylines, and the album is multilingual, representing the diverse influences in my life.

Practice Love is like a meal that has been prepared lovingly. They always taste better. And there’s plenty more to come from Red Pig Flower. How was your appetizer?

50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Heavyweight Vinyl 45 RPM Cut / Original glued prints on Thick Cardboard 700 gram / 2 Separated parts hand-glued / Glossy lamination / PVC outer / 30x30 cm insert with interview to Steve Kuhn by Tony Higgins printed on 250 gram Favini Lanilla Yellow / 20 Pages 21 x 30 cm "Real Book" with transcripts of the songs in the "Real Book" style, handwritten by The Maestro Carlo Spanò with main theme, chords and lyrics printed on 120 gram Shiro Eco paper, 100 gram Favini Crush Alghe. Carlo also edited an introduction with technical analysis of the session, which solves some of the little mysteries around this music gem.

Personnel:
Steve Kuhn - Vocals, Piano
Airto Moreira - Percussions
Billy Cobham - Drums
Ron Carter - Bass
Gary McFarland - Arranged by


Notes:
The album features the group playing Gary McFarland arrangements of Kuhn's compositions, accompanied by a string section on several tracks, with Kuhn delivering stream of consciousness lyrics in an unplanned and largely improvised fashion in the studio. However, that wasn't the only surprising aspect to the session. Airto Moreira's appearance was more by chance than design, he having just popped by the studio, again, unplanned. The 'Steve Kuhn' album is all the stronger for these extemporaneous and serendipitous elements and showcases a band at the top of their game; tight and funky yet relaxed and flowing like molten gold, with stabs and washes of keyboard from Kuhn. Splashes of free playing enter the session, but the band never stray too far from a melodic and harmonious centre of gravity. Kuhn's deft keyboard skills provide melodic embroidery to the impressive rhythmic textures and tonal colours of Carter, Cobham and Moreira. As if the music wasn't enough, the album is given extra significance by the fact that, within a few months of the recording, McFarland would die after being mysteriously poisoned by methadone in a New York bar. In a sense, it is a valedictory album from McFarland, channeled by Kuhn and the band.

It's among the hardest of Kuhn's albums to find so this reissue is most welcome. Luxuriate in the glow of Kuhn's Fender Rhodes and the pliant funky bass of Ron Carter; immerse yourself in the percussive interplay of Moreira and Cobham, a pairing that has rarely sounded so good. This is such an exquisite album; you will lose yourself in its delicate power and find yourself coming back to it again and again.

Side A’s “Intergalactic Love Song” by the Diddys & featuring Paige Douglas is a vocal version of the Charles Earland's instrumental classic (who also produced the track) & is a disco-tinge jazz-funk groover that you will want in your bag. It glides across the dancefllor with a breezy ease & pulls you in.

B. side
On the flip, we have“Searching The Circle” by Barbara & Ernie from the classic psyche-folk soul album “Prelude To …” (Ctollion - SD 9044), produced by Joel Thorn. It’s a wonderfully weird little record that has a sound that's unlike anything else I can think of.

This trippy early-70s folk-jazz-soul nugget featured here from guitarist Ernie Calabria & singer/keyboardist Barbara Massey (back-up for Cat Stevens, amongst others). Arrangements are by the pair, but Deodato also had a hand in the record too along w/ Grady Tate on drums, Ralph McDonald on percussion, & Sam Brown on guitar.

It holds a righteous groove undercurrent that recalls Richard Evans or Charles Stepney. Massey’s vocals have a flanged-out quality that's clearly overdubbed, creating a double-voiced sound that's almost a bit like Brasil 66! Completely

Written and recorded in singer-poet Karsyn Henderson, guitarist-banjoist Paul Lecours and percussionist Ryley Klima’s basement alongside bassist Chris Clegg, then mixed and mastered by longtime collaborator Noah Baxter, this self-produced introductory effort from the Montréal four-piece stylishly amalgamates elements from hardcore, punk, shoegaze, sludge, and folk.

Violence is a brazenly poetic homage to small town roots, a mashing of modern Western Canadian hardcore and folk. Extensive in scope, this debut full-length by Truck Violence takes the listener through wide-ranging dynamics, from solemn acoustic ballads to wrathful electric anthems. Deftly fractured rhythms and breakdowns, complex harmonic entanglements, emphatic screams of discontent, are met with hopeful, melodic tracks musing about the steady grip of a tight-knit community.

From somber, deceivingly happy banjo sequences to crashing noise and cries, Violence uses expression as a mirror, looking upon oneself with clarity, aiming to attain a sense of unadulterated truth of the matter. There is little modern music taking an honest look at the Western Canadian countryside, tackling themes such as addiction, abuse and dysfunction.

Truck Violence’s first album does just that, uniquely capturing this involuted setting through a wide lens to both contextualize and emphasize what it means to be overwhelmed, to feel shame, to struggle with self-destructive ways, to thrust oneself into art as an escape.

Next stop... Second reference in the PHASELAB catalog and twenty-third of our PHASE IMPRINT label! What a satisfaction to finally present this project (vinyl and digital) by Aizikovic, the yout from Madrid who is trying to bring an especially fresh, as well as profound, vision to our city. This EP transmits us; altered visions in music, many experiences linked to the dance floor and feelings of light in a dark space. And in case anyone wanted a little more, Comissar Lag aka Lag has prepared a melting remix for us.

Many thanks for the designs to the snowboarder of the strokes @judyisangry, to Mario Castillo for the Master and to Pedro O'Connor for the Mix.

After a long wait, we are happy to anounce the first release of our record label side project : Suave Sounds.

This first release is a V.A tailored for the club, made by some of the « Friends of the pavillon » .

A1 is a electro house groover with a gritty bass and a vocal love duo between a woman and a robot, made by none other by our man Welwert Aka Man/ipulate.

A2 is a cosmic discoide house journey manufactured by Merov, our new electronician. A wonderful combination of emotions and a « sacrée balle » capable of bringing arms in the air & love to the floor.

B1 is Pierre Marty’s special blend of tech-house, funk & shimmering synths, perfect to energize a crowd after a break or calm things down during peak time, a little toy you keep in the pocket just in case.

B2 is a sexy tech house roller by Gab Jr featuring Lourène. A introspective club track with a massive bass line built for the middle of the night, asking the audience an important question.

Deeply Armed announce release of debut single, ‘The Healing’.

Release features remixes by Andrew Innes (Primal Scream) & Brendan Lynch (Lynch Mob/Paul Weller) and Keith Tenniswood (2 Lone Swordsmen/Radioactive Man).

Belfast’s Deeply Armed have been making subterranean waves for a while now, with tracks being passed around serious heads via various samizdat channels. Andrew Weatherall was an early booster. David Holmes dropped an incredible psychedelic remix that was played out live on specific ritual occasions – but now the trio finally break cover with a three-track 12” that combines deep soul with Krautrock grooves and a rock and roll heart.

With their debut 12” Deeply Armed announce themselves as a singular presence on the fringes of electronic underground sound, hallucinating the kind of phantom dancefloor moves that would reconcile the version, the loop and the live jam with the kind of audacious pop elan of a dream Phil Spector/Dennis Bovell/Conny Plank mega mix.

At times like these we could all do with a little healing, and Deeply Armed are the ones to bring it.

2025 Repress

Running Back’s Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler.
Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.’s Undaground Therapy outlet, Destination Heaven by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt’s Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, we unfortunately have never heard from the duo again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy ‚Jack“ Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. Intervoles is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dance floors can hope for.
The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US-role-models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York’s JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the Edit Mix of I Have Been Wanting You to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house.
Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. We don’t have enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK’s house scene wouldn’t be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, In My Mind is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and – if you will – a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore Deep House!

“Sonically, the Swedish duo SHXCXCHCXSH distort the club context they work from by rendering functionality with an exceptionally refined and idiosyncratic palette. As logophiles, they contort the little descriptive context they afford audiences by imploding language into splintered and barely comprehensible character sequences. The impression is that each is the result of mutual process-driven experiments.

This is all true of '......t', their new album and debut recording for Northern Electronics.

However, working at this scale, SHXCXCHCXSH play with wider parameters and explore broader functions to produce their most comprehensive and focused work to date.

Across fifteen tracks, their bespoke dark matter is stacked with drone pyrotechnics, shredded vocals, and oblique, snatched sounds that eddy into frantic melodic storms. Sublime intensity is spiked with effervescent yet brooding intermissions throughout, staking '......t' as the most crucial volume of their catalogue as it gestures toward new references. ”

Born in 1989 in Bamako, Mali, Nfaly Diakité is a member of the Donsow, Bambara animist hunters. Nfaly Diakité is named after his grandfather, the late Nfaly Diakité, one of Mali’s most respected donso chiefs. His grandfather did not play, but as a leading figure in the donso brotherhood, he was always accompanied by musician Yoro Sidibé. Nfaly grew up alongside Yoro Sidibé, who became his first master of the donso ngoni, a type of eight-stringed antelope skin harp. After leaving school to devote himself to his instrument, Nfaly continued his apprenticeship with Diakaria Diakité and Oumar Sidibé, two donso masters from the Wassolo region.

He quickly made a name for himself in the donso community and was much asked to play at the traditional ceremonies of his brotherhood. He then met percussionist Ibrahim Sarr and joined the BKO Quintet, with whom he recorded an album and toured Europe and the United States. His virtuosity on the donso ngoni soon attracted attention, and he took part in numerous music and dance festivals in Mali and abroad, with the aim of raising awareness of this little-known traditional instrument.

Nfaly Diakité is also a Kônô, meaning that he is responsible for passing on the history and culture of the Bambara people through music and song. He pursues his mission by combining tradition with more contemporary sounds and by collaborating with artists from a wide range of musical backgrounds. For him, music is a means of conveying messages of peace, love and harmony, and his compositions evoke the values of respect, tolerance and open-mindedness.

‘Tribute to Toumani Koné’ is Nfay Diakité’s first solo album, recorded in Bamako in June 2020. On the album, Nfaly is the only singer, providing backing vocals and playing the donso ngoni and keregne. The album is a tribute to the storyteller and poet Toumani Koné, the greatest donso ngoni player since N’gonifo Bourama. Nfaly Diakité is a representative of the new generation of donso ngoni players and he wishes to pay tribute to Toumani Koné, who throughout his long career has been a symbol of courage, daring, loyalty and honesty.

The nine-track of this solo album leaves no room for hesitation. Three instruments (donso ngoni, voice and keregne) manage to carry one into another dimension without ever tiring. The fitting and precise rhythm is a deep but melodious transe. Nfaly’s voice plays between expressive urgency and calm wisdom, and the choruses with his own voice multiply the planes of dimension of the music. The donso n’goni, of which Nfaly is an excellent player, sounds rough and earthy but always clear and sharp. All the strength of a music that does not belong to a single musician but to a long cultural tradition of which he is the spokesman is expressed here. The young Nfaly, thanks to his experience and sensitivity, succeeds on his own in pushing us into this world without feeling the weight of tradition but only the liberation of music that sounds all the more contemporary. This album is to be listened to in its entirety as one tight journey between repeated formulas, highlights and moments of rest within the same relentless rhythm. The densest moment is probably found in the heart of the album, between the tracks Nankama (the predestined one) and Mogote Diabeye (no one can please everyone). Here, the message, which can be deciphered from the translation of the lyrics, seems to transcend language barriers and intepret us directly about our human condition, urging us to move our bodies to the dense rhythm of life.

Born less than an hour from Chicago but now based in Detroit, Rick Wade cut his DJ teeth in Michigan's Nectarine Ballroom in the 80s and early 90s, at the same time as a certain Jeff Mills was also making giant strides at the venue. Wade's sound is more rooted in deep house but, as this four tracker demonstrates, there's a cosmic spirituality and otherworldliness to his music that it shares with the best of UR and other notable Detroit greats. We kick off with 'Groove Tool', powered by a beautifully pliable, funky bassline and embellished with floating chords and subtle bell sounds way up in the high frequency range. 'Pimp Prophecy' boasts a little more disco swagger, with its niggling guitar riff and some excellent bongo bashing. 'Jazzy Tears' revolves around a sturdy kick and a processed, timestretched vocal refrain, played off against jazzy guitar chords and strings ascending to the heavens. 'Ooo Ahh' is probably the catchiest of the lot, with a shuffling beat undercarriage and an infectious hook, all wrapped up - as all four tracks are - in some understated but still lush musicality. 'Deep Incantations' indeed.

Control 333 is the E.P. of Uruguayan artist Leo Mendez a.k.a Jardines Sin Explorar, who has left this earthly plane at the beginning of 2024.

This release features 2 super powerful EBM tracks, with infernal bass lines and melodies that achieve a rave atmosphere, 2 pieces of music that takes us on a ride to the true essence of the Underground culture of electronic music.

"Heridas", a track with a classic Ebm sound with a strong bass that marks the hypnotic of the track, accompanied by melodies in their leeds with influences of the punk sound that characterized Jardines, a track loaded with many feelings that are transformed into pure fire. "Turbio" is the second track of the ep, which is more characterised by the electro industrial sound with post punk influences, rhythmic leads and break drums with crashing vocals that lead you to explore your darker side.