Поиск:mari
Все
- A1: Vertigogo
- A2: Junglero
- A3: Four Rooms Swing
- A4: Bewitched
- A5: Tea & Eva In The Elevator
- A6: Invocation
- A7: Breakfast At Denny's
- A8: Strange Brew
- A9: Coven Of Witches
- A10: The Earthly Diana
- A11: Eva Seduces Ted
- B1: Hallway Ted
- B2: Headshake Rhumba
- B3: Skippen, Pukin, Sigfried
- B4: Angela
- B5: Punch Drunk
- B6: Male Bonding
- C1: Mariachi
- C2: Antes De Medianoche
- C3: Sentimental Journey
- C4: Kids Watch Tv
- C5: Champagne & Needles
- C6: Bullseye
- C7: Harlem Nocturne
- D4: Torchy
- C8: The Millionaire's Holiday
- D1: Ted-O-Vater
- D2: Vertigogo
- D3: D In The Hallway
Influenced by ‘50s/’60s cocktail culture, the exotica of Martin Denny and a passel of other mid-century thrift-store denizens, Combustible Edison’s music already seemed like the lost soundtrack to some early-’60s Hollywood farce. With its woozy beatnik jazz and seductive bongo beat, this hip-swiveling score gets a first ever vinyl release!
- A1: Sabali
- A2: Mogolu (New Song)
- A3: Beaux Dimanches
- A4: Ce N’est Pas Bon
- A5: Masiteladi (Feat. M)
- B1: La Vie Est Belle (New Song)
- B2: La Réalité
- B3: Bofou Safou
- B4: Sénégal Fast Food 5. Mbife
- C1: Dougou Badia (Feat. Santigold)
- C2: Je Pense À Toi - Eclipse Version (1St Time On Physical)
- C3: Africa (Feat. K’naan)
- C4: Wily Kataso (Feat. Tv On The Radio)
- D1: C’est Chaud
- D2: Coulibaly (Akon Remix)
- D3: Beaux Dimanches - Ever Mihigo Rework (Unreleased)
- D4: Sete (1St Time On Physical)
- A1: Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach
- A2: Never Find A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
- A3: By The Pool
- A4: Roll Over, Beethoven - Out Of The Beach
- A5: In The Shade
- A6: Looking Across The Street
- A7: Long Distance Look
- B1: Hot Afternoon
- B2: Crying In The Sun
- B3: The Next Time
- B4: Miss B B. Walks Away
- B5: Sleep Walk
- B6: Standing There
For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett‘s transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.
A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.
In 1982, representatives from Tokyo’s Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.
Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan’s most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence. Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit Never Found A Girl.
Produced in coordination between Be With, Efficient Space and the artist, this definitive reissue is restored from original masters with vivid reproductions of the Down On The Road By The Beach exhibition catalogue, intended to accompany its original release, and extensive liner notes penned by fellow Steve Hiett obsessive Mikey IQ Jones.
432HERTZ Berlin Unveils its Hypnotic "Space Collective" Debut Vinyl
Prepare to lose yourself in the world of underground electronic music with the arrival of 432HERTZ Berlin's inaugural vinyl release. This meticulously curated collection transcends genres, weaving a spellbinding narrative that will transport you to uncharted sonic territories.
Side A: A Celestial Exploration
•A1: Computational Universe (Rinaldo Makaj): Brace for liftoff as Rinaldo Makaj's "Computational Universe" propels you towards the furthest reaches of the cosmos. Lush soundscapes shimmer with meticulously crafted synth sequences, evoking a sense of awe-inspiring discovery amidst the celestial expanse.
•A2: Mesosphere (Rickie): Descend into the enigmatic depths of "Mesosphere" by Rickie. A sophisticated bassline throbs like a beating heart, guiding you through a soundscape shrouded in mystery. Evocative leads and atmospheric synths create a captivating soundscape that lingers long after the final note fades.
Side B: Where Electro Meets Soul
•B1: Escape from Reality (Electric City): "Escape from Reality" by Electric City ignites a surge of raw energy, pulsating with the primal spirit of classic electro. This genre-bending track seamlessly integrates soulful influences into a driving electro foundation, creating a sonic odyssey that's both exhilarating and deeply moving.
•B2: Mario's Juice (Pumio Space): The journey concludes with Pumio Space's "Mario's Juice," a sonic elixir that washes over the listener in waves of euphoria. This tranquil soundscape provides a perfect descent, leaving you in a state of blissful serenity.
A Testament to Underground Electronic Music
Curated by Rinaldo Makaj, 432HERTZ Berlin's debut vinyl release is a powerful testament to the boundless creativity and diversity of underground electronic music.
- A1: Lee - Crystalline
- A2: Holon - Island Of Solitude
- A3: Titch Thomas - Stalwart Acid
- A4: Cpsl - Goes On
- B1: Scape One - Solsense
- B2: Roel Funcken - Burient Down
- B3: Ir - Charlie
- B4: Antonio Sa - Panteacid
- C1: Fluctuosa - Gecko Feet
- C2: Mopfunk - A4 7December
- C3: Mariska Neerman - Trickster
- C4: Viewtiful Joe - Fast Paced Melodyne
- D1: Sound Synthesis - You Left Me
- D2: Jonny3Snares - Artex Ceiling
- D3: Lloyd Stellar - Forsaken Emotions
- D4: Vertical67 - A Beginning Without An End
2026 Repress
Rain&Shine proudly present ENERGIZE, a band out of Marin County, California in 1979. Previously unobtainable even for top DJs due to rarity, Rain&Shine gives this double A side modern soul/disco 45 an official re-issue treatment. About ENERGIZE (words by Dan Hays - Guitarist, Songwriter):
ENERGIZE came to age in a post-hippie era, where musicians went back to playing covers in bars. However Marin was still inexpensive and it was possible to pool money together to buy studio time.
That's how ENERGIZE formed - working musicians led by the superb producer and guitar player, Archie Williams (son of Archie Williams Sr - a passionate educator, WWII air force pilot and 1936 Olympic champion) Dan Hayes - songwriter and guitarist, and John Isabeau - lyrics and our executive producer.
John is now a successful Hollywood producer, Oscar documentary award winner, and resides in James Brown's former house in Las Vegas.
The record also features a hugely successful blues vocalist who has asks to remain uncredited. Archie, John and I now have grown children and a few grandkids as well and getting a kick that 40 years later, our self-produced record has found an audience. Far Out
This dancefloor-centric release boasts five tracks designed to captivate with their powerful beats and deep vibes, perfect for the summer season. The EP showcases resident artists Nicole (Satz) and Carriego (Over think, Lirica Archives, Cosa Nostra), as well as Italian artist Mariiin (Pleasure Club), Uruguayan artist Alfalfa (Mephis Records), and French artist Sekance (3Mâts Records).
Embracing the fusion of sound and mysticism, the label aims to convey metaphysical and humanistic principles, promoting awakening and connection. Each EP in the series represents a spiritual journey through the chakras, with "Order Behind Chaos" focusing on the sacral chakra's orange hue, symbolizing creativity, emotional expression, and self-esteem.
Launching their new collaborative dancefloor release series, the Bangkok-based duo Chalo and Vell, with support from MetalMetal, proudly presents "Made From Moss." Inspired by the simple, flowerless plants, the EP and release series present a collection of simple and driven club-focused rollers, ideal for any dancefloor.
The lead track, "The Man With No Teeth," opens with a growling bassline and cracking hi-hats throughout, balanced with dynamic vocals that pop and sizzle throughout the many drops, sure to have dancers moving. Followed by "Wrong Portal," Chalo expertly crafts a driving acid bassline and simple yet flowing synths throughout, keeping the pulse and creating a dynamic sense of groove. The B-Side opens with "MarinExp (Club edit)," a track featuring Thai musician MetalMetal. The track cuts with breakbeats and tambourines while keeping Chalo's unmistakable driving kicks and cuts. "MarinExp" is balanced with a breakdown of flowing synths and dynamic vocal shouts. The final track of the EP, "Latency Phantasy" (Chalo and Vell), shows both artists at their best: a techno-flowing acid roller equipped with chopped vocals and surprises throughout the track.
Multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer Calcou is set to share his sophomore album Murmuration on July 5th, 2024 via MfRD+C. Calcou's latest singles were picked by worldwide Spotify editorials for playlists like Fresh Finds, Late Night Vibes, metropolis or by Apple US for focus playlists like Today's Chill. He has received support from numerous blogs and magazines such as CLASH Magazine, Stereofox, Cercle, House Music With Love, Majestic Casual and ElectroPosé to name a few. Calcou finds inspiration in the works of Kiasmos, Bonobo, and Four Tet. TetTethlatest release calls to mind the likes of Four Tet, Maribou State and George FitzGera
Debut EP from Kujo pressed on 180g 12" in a ltd edition of 300 copies w/ inlay artwork by Maria Kassab on Modular Mind. A sonic confrontation of a lost generation narrated by Industrial drums and Oriental noise.
01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101100 01101001 01110100 01110101 01100100 01100101 00100000 01100111 01100101 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110011 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101101 01110011 00101110
- A1: Pig&Dan & Siavash - What You Say
- A2: Spencer Brown - Chair 10
- A3: Johannes Brecht - Float
- B1: Solee - Alegria
- B2: Helsloot & Rose Ringed - Superstition
- B3: Gorgin - Mistral
- C1: Hannes Bieger, Tara Brooks, & Cari Golden - Fear Is Gone
- C2: Mariano Mellino - Ringaro
- C3: Biesmans - Fugazy
- D1: Victor Ruiz & Echo Romeo - Trippin Ballz
- D2: Musumeci - Trig Your Mind
- D3: Brian Cid - Astro
GU presents Unique #2, we have chosen twelve of the most exciting producers in electronic music to create exclusive tracks for this release. With music from Pig&Dan, Solee, Victor Ruiz, Hannes Bieger & Tara Brooks, Spencer Brown, Johannes Brecht, Musumeci, Helsloot & Rose Ringed, Brian Cid, Biesmans, Mariano Mellino and Gorgin. Available as a limited edition double, heavyweight, coloured vinyl format and a special digital album edition.
2024 Repress
Mariah was a Japanese outfit in the field of art pop, way back in the very late 70s and early 80s with 5 albums up their score from 1980 to 1983. The album from 1979 entitled as “Mariah” was actually made before the band Mariah was formed, and was released as a solo album by Yasuaki Shimizu. The album at hand is the fifth and for the time being last album in this row, released as a double vinyl back in 1983. Original copies, that are at least in very good condition, are hard to find. The brand new reissue on Everland, unlike the original and the first vinyl reissue from 2015, comes housed in a thick and artfully designed gatefold sleeve with OBI, which finally does justice to the progressive spirit of the music you will find here.
The musical basement of Utakata No Hibi is a fusion of dreamy synthesizer pop and haunting new wave music, that could be found all around the globe back in 1983. In the vein of TEARS FOR FEARS or more adventurous DAVID BOWIE stuff, with a touch of KRAFTWERK or even BRIAN ENO here and there, but all this gets spiced up with an atmosphere of Japanese traditionalism, with a few bits and pieces from the old music from this Far East island, which sounds so magic to us Westeners. The progressive, wacky art pop of this project was led by the popular Japanese composer and musician Yasuaki Shimizu, a relentlessly exploratory saxophonist who even dared to rework Johann Sebastian Bach’s cello suites for saxophone.
As brilliant as this man is, the music on „Utakata No Hibi“ turns out to be. And the master himself approved and much appreciated the brandnew remastering of this album by assisting a highly professional team of sound engineers who dusted off the ancient tape reels. For certain the record sounds and feels 80s through and through, electronic to the very rhythmical bone of each song sugar coated with catchy melodies that resemble Japanese classic and Enka music, which is a kind of folksy pop music. The listener gets directly drawn into a feverish dream of steaming Far Eastern cities and their darkest and most depraved corners where you find everything cheap in sleazy bars and unlighted backyards and alleys. The next moment he strolls through a beautiful Japanese park surrounded by a sea of blossoms. This change in mood and style you will experience in the sparsely instrumented tune „Shisen“, which indeed comes closest to classic Japanese folk tunes without any too catchy and pop oriented melodies. But we certainly find these harmonies allover the album. Some tunes even feel like ancient BEACH BOYS compositions and Brian Wilson creations played by a then contemporary electronic pop act and sung in Japanese.
An amazingly colorful album with songs that are based on solid substance rather than cheap pop structures. This is music for the bold listeners and music lovers and this awesome reissue should quickly find it’s way into the record collections of 80s synth and art pop aficionadoes.
Yasuaki Shimizu did what he wanted with MARIAH, pushed the borders of popular music further than anybody would have thought. Listen to a track like „Shonen“ with a repetitive rhythm pattern that hypnotizes you and somehow silky melodylines by saxophone and synth piano upon which a female voice sings in a very spiritual way. Praising pop or whatever this can be called, it is sheer magic put in music. I wonder if this would have made it into the charts back then, but you never know. It is a piece of musical art that shall be listened to.
Maria Rita is a musical pioneer that was ahead of her time. On first hearing her song, 'Cântico Brasileiro No.3 (Kamaiurá)’, we thought it sounded like a contemporary remix that an artist such as Carl Craig could have produced. In fact, it came out in 1988 and was taken from Maria's 'Brasileira' album, released on the Brazilian, independent Acorde imprint. The song would go on to gain cult status with its inclusion on John Gomez's superb 'Outro Tempo' compilation, released on the Music From Memory label in 2017.
The album fuses new-age electronics with indigenous vocals and Amazonian rhythms. It is beautiful and unique and takes you on a journey through different moods, textures and ethereal planes. Through the sounds Maria created, you join her on a timeless voyage gazing into the future whilst embracing her powerful roots.
Maria Rita Stumpf was born in the southern inland of Brazil, in the mountains of Aparados da Serra. She started writing music at the age of 14, and through participation in festivals and song contests, she developed her material and sound. A move to Rio de Janeiro in 1985 furthered her career and led to the release of the 'Brasileira' album. The record features the legendary pianist Luiz Eça, alongside the group Uaktí and Ricardo Bordini.
1993 saw the release of 'Mapa das Nuvens (Map of the Clouds)' on CD via the Leblon label, but soon after, Maria would have a hiatus from the music industry, dedicating herself to her cultural and arts agency, Acorde. She left the stage and recordings behind, but quality always shines through and years after its original release, international diggers, producers and DJs rediscovered the greatness of Maria's music. This would lead to a re-issue of the ‘Brasileira’ LP, and later Optimo Music/Selva Discos released a 12” EP of ‘Brasileira’ remixes by Selvagem, Carrot Green and Joakim. Maria also spoke at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in São Paulo, performed at both the Kino Beat Festival and the Brazilian leg of the Dutch festival, Dekmantel. Her two latest albums received critical acclaim, ’Inkiri Om’ in 2020 and ‘Ver Tente’ in 2022. At last, Maria has got the credit and kudos she deserves, inspiring new and future generations of producers and music lovers.
Though previously re-issued, it was after a conversation with Maria that we learned that she wanted to keep this sublime record in press, and this was something that we couldn’t wait to put into action. So here it is, the Mr Bongo pressing of ‘Brasileira’, housed in a gatefold cover.
After the standout success of last year’s maiden edition, Drumcode returns with volume two of its acclaimed Elevate compilation featuring no less than seven label debutants. The compilation’s manifesto is simple. Platform a broader range of emerging artists on Drumcode and help elevate the next generation to make strides in their careers. At the same time, the project gives fans a taste of the future and a sneak peak of some of the names you can expect to see featuring on the label and at showcases over the coming year and beyond.
- A1: Seba Feat Marina Samba - How It Goes
- B1: Seba - Horse Power
- C1: Seba - Etzli
- D1: Seba Feat Collette Warren - All Too Much
- E1: Seba - Sequence 5
- F1: Seba - Outer Worlds
- F2: Seba & Björn Berglund Feat Samuel Lancine - Diamonds
- G1: Seba - Public Beauty
- G2: Seba & Blackeye - Thoughts Run Free
- H1: Seba - Progression
Yellow Vinyl
Seba smashes his way into 2022 with the much anticipated release of his third studio album, "Ingaro".
Prepare yourself for ten brand new tracks of Seba. Secret Operations presents the first LP in almost ten years, from a producer who believes albums are not to be taken lightly.
"Ingaro" takes it's name from the small island outside of Stockholm, which Seba has called home for the last 20 years and is also where he spent his formative years.
The new LP takes the listener on a soaring journey through the entire Seba sound. Whether it's the dark and insistent forces of "Horse Power", which grow and fold in on themselves throughout the track, or the blooming euphoric roller "Public Beauty". A fresh collection of tracks which contain the unmistakeable Seba DNA, which has helped cement the name Seba firmly into the world of drum and bass.
Any album is not complete without some guests joining along the way and Seba has also enlisted some helpers on the journey and the LP includes collaborations with Collette Warren, Björn Berglund, Samuel Lancine and Blackeye.
For many, Seba is a name they are very familiar with. From his early releases on Good Looking right through to the present day Seba has made a name for himself for his exciting and varied production.
His music draws influence from far and wide across the musical spectrum and his work alongside the legendary Paradox and vocalist Robert Manos have gone down in Drum and Bass history.
Not just famed for his work in the studio, Seba's sets have gained a reputation for their energy and emotion. One of the scene's unique veterans. Seba's work is inspiring producers and fans more than ever. An album which sets the bar high for 2022!
Ten years after his first full-length effort ‘Man Is Deaf’ landed him firmly in the runnings for DJ Mag’s album of the year, prodigal son Michael Anthony Wright AKA Brassica returns to Civil Music with a deeply accomplished, painstakingly whittled LP of hydraulic electro slickness, rich synthscapes, and hooky, peak-time tearjerkers for the most discerning front-left lifers. ‘Tribeless Gathering’ is a barnstorming testament to Brassica’s stylistic and timbral deftness, touching down in the elusive epicentre of the club/home listening venn diagram with ease.
From the elastic, neon acid pointillism of opener ‘Hop Kweng’ to the mardy, miasmic plod of closing chugger ‘Changa Hill’, Brassica seamlessly segues between avenues of influence, his notoriously omnivorous musical knowledge roadmapping each turn. Raised on a diet of everything from early rave standards to metal, and schooled in avant garde sonics as a student of sound design at LCC, Brassica does a peerless job of sublimating his countless influences into a record of refined, heterogeneous, and most crucially, catchy, club moods.
Less spartan than his more recent oeuvre on Feel My Bicep, and less baroque than his technicolour experiments in postmodern synth pop with vocalist Stuart Warwick, Tribeless Gathering represents Brassica’s triumphant return to the main room, replete with rushy hooks primed for the planet’s finest soundsystems, and passages of heads-down tension bound to draw listeners right to the edge of their seats. Overall it is a concise and refined testament to Wright’s command of spectral sonics and effortless ability to pressurise a dancefloor. It is no surprise that he has also worked as a prolific mastering engineer, tuning music from a plethora of dance disciplines for maximum club impact. This work extends to his own projects (including this one), cementing them as rare expressions of complete artistry from studio to turntable.
As we delve deeper into the record, we are ushered through a series of accomplished and varied club moods, each channelling a unique cocktail of influences, but retaining a warm, ebullient analogue sensibility unique to Brassica’s work. This playful scope of influence calls to mind James T Cotton or Machinedrum’s experiments in dance music form, but Wright manages it all under one roof, wrangling everything from sashaying wub-laden two step to snarling Dillinja-esque FM damage into something inherently his.
Choice cut ‘Change Yourself’ layers an almost Cerrone-like piano refrain over radiant surges of saturated bass, dubby, strobing chords and a jagged, driving break, building to a jaw-clenching apex of dancefloor elation, while the rude, playful half-step of ‘Elevation’ breaks down the vintage speed garage formula into linear fragments, utilising a tight palette of resonant bass slugs, infectious synth leads and Papua New Guinea-style vocal strobes. The aptly named ‘Hold Tight’ fuses heart-in-mouth UK ‘ardkore pads with glissando acid disturbance and surgical snare fills in a formula which recalls the ethereal grit of Nubian Mindz’ 00s experiments in big-smoke break science, while the questing melodic arcs and arpeggiated squarewaves of ‘Pinball Marinara’ could easily have soundtracked an 80s sci-fi epic, beset with sparkling, bare-bones drum programming and hazy beds of sub sediment.
With ‘Tribeless Gathering’, Brassica both irreverently fuses and pays homage to the many unique and weird permutations of UK dance music. The short lived gathering of junglists, ravers and house hotsteppas of a similar name may have long since dissipated, along with the tribes themselves, but across these 11 tracks, he lays a blueprint for a new sound of togetherness.
- A1: World Standard - Fellini & Rota
- A2: Masumi Hara - Your Dream
- A3: Normal Brain - M.u.s.i.c
- A4: Hiroyuki Namba - Who Done It? (Part 2)
- B1: Yasuaki Shimizu - Crow
- B2: Hiroyuki Namba - Tropical Exposition
- B3: Imitation - Exotic Dance
- B4: Pecker - Sha La La
- C1: Ep-4 - Db
- C2: Earthling - You Go On Natural
- C3: Masumi Hara - Camera
- D1: Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Rinne Kohkyogaku Meikei
- D2: D-Day - Ki·ra·i
- D3: Ryuichi Sakamoto - A Wongga Dance Song
Ever since he made his first trip to Japan to DJ, Optimo Music founder JD Twitch has been bewitched by Japanese music, and particularly the vibrant, imaginative, and often far-sighted sounds which emerged from the island nation during the 1980s. Now he’s put years of digging in Japanese record shops to good use on Polyphonic Cosmos, the latest release on his compilation-focused Cease & Desist imprint.
Subtitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Japan In The ‘80s’, the collection offers a personal selection of Japanese gems recorded and released between 1981 and ’86 – a period when advances in recording and musical technology offered the nation’s artists and producers a whole new tool kit to employ. When combined with the unique musical culture of Japan, where local traditions are frequently fused with Western styles to create timeless, off-kilter aural fusions, this embrace of locally pioneered music technology had spectacular, often unusual results.
Eight years in the making, Polyphonic Cosmos provides an endlessly entertaining musical snapshot of Japanese music of the early-to-mid ‘80s with all of the open-minded eclecticism and sonic twists that you would expect from the Glasgow-based DJ.
Compare and contrast, for example, the gently breezy, morning-fresh folk-plus-electronics bliss of ‘ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota)’ by World Standard – the most familiar alias of long-serving musician/producer Sohichiro Suzuki – and the hallucinatory, slow-motion tribal rhythms, post-punk rhythms and tape delay-laden electronics of Imitation’s ‘Exotic Dance’. Or, for that matter, the tipsy mid-‘80s electronic reggae of Pecker’s ‘Sha La La’, the grungy but melodic post-punk strut of ‘You Go On Natural’ by Earthling (a track Twitch accurately describes as “sheer unrelenting groove”), and the unearthly, swirling sonics, new age instrumentation and flotation tank vocals of prolific (and seemingly mysterious) act Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s ‘Rimme Kohkyogaku Meiki’.
It’s a credit to JD Twitch’s curatorial skills that the quality never dips, and sonic surprises lurk around every corner. Consider for a moment the hard to describe, far-sighted audio immersion of D-Day’s ‘Ki-Ra’ – all languid post-pop guitar, enveloping chords, spoken word vocals, shuffling 808 beats and marimba melodies – and the two contributions from video games soundtrack specialist (and driving instrumental synth-pop specialist) Hiroyuki Namba.
The collection naturally includes some selections that have long been favourites in Twitch’s DJ sets – see Masumi Hara’s ‘Your Dream’ – as well as a handful of tracks from artists who may be more recognisable to those with only rudimentary knowledge of Japanese musical culture. The great Yasuaki Shimizu, whose work as Mariah has become far better known in recent years thanks to reissues of some of his most magical albums, is represented via ‘The Crow’, a picturesque chunk of horizontal, hard-to-define jazz-not-jazz smokiness, while the collection fittingly concludes with a sublimely funky, oddball electronic workout from Yellow Magic Orchestra legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (the frankly incredible ‘Wongga Dance Song’).
Matt Anniss
Loud Enough returns with the third and final installment of the 3-EP series dedicated to Roman Pigna Records, the dancefloor-oriented sister label of Nature Records. Following the releases by Marco Passarani and Mario Pierro, it's now Francesco De Bellis's turn, akaFrancisco / Mr. Cisco.
In line with the previous EPs, LE004 showcases four tracks: two timeless cuts, "Fregna The Age" and "Miss Cha Cha Cha," alongside two previously unreleased tracks from the same era, "Move" and "House." Each piece embodies Francisco's groovy, Chicago-inspired signature style, ensuring a captivating journey on the dance floor. Music produced and written by Francesco De Bellis. Originally recorded in Studio 22 (Pigna Studios) Rome, Italy 2024 – 2008. Remixed in Mondo Studio Rome 2023
For the fifth release called "SAI MATIKA" Rambadu and Claudio PRC immersed themselves into an aquatic landscape and explored its properties.
"Sai", The natural occurrence of ebb and flow, a sacred dance of the earth and our moon.
"Matika", alluring hymns and the rhythmical sounds of air rising up from the deep.
"Aqua", exposes you to the slow churning of the marine blue sea, engulfing us until we are unable to feel the bottom and vortexing sands.
Scan the QR code on the outersleeve for a cymatic experience, visualizing the effects of "Sai" on our fluid bodies.
All sleeves are hand-made with love!
LA goddess Angelyne’s neon-draped sophomore LP Driven to Fantasy steers its way to Dark Entries as part of the ongoing celebration of our 15th anniversary! "Who is Angelyne? Angelyne is a voluptuous, blonde, self-made star who drives a hot pink Corvette; wears her clothes short and tight, and is influenced by Barbie and Marilyn Monroe.” In 1984, a series of billboards popped up in the LA area featuring the lone word “Angelyne” along with a mysterious woman posing provocatively. The campaign created an instant stir, making her one of the first icons who was "famous for being famous", and it led to the recording of her second solo LP. Released in 1986, Driven to Fantasy features 8 tracks of bubblegum-hued new wave with a distinctly LA flavor. On sassy titles like “Sex Goddess”, “Skin Tight”, and “Flirt”, Angelyne fused the glam and grit of southern Californian punk with flashy synth-pop style. This will be the first time that this cult record will be in print since its original release, and comes on pink Corvette-colored vinyl with a 2-sided poster featuring lyrics. Angelyne is more than just a billboard or a rock star; she’s been an actress, a visual artist, and even a political candidate. Celebrate a true Hollywood legend with this historic reissue.
With releases that have been heavily rooted in Glasgow's Southside, Full Dose take things international for the next release and invite Jamaican dancehall artist I Jahbar (SKRS, Duppy Gun) to showcase their talents over two versatile Brollachan productions.
Smokin' is a celebration of marijuana in the truest sense, with I Jahbar's potent delivery perfectly connecting to the bouncy dance floor riddim.
UFO is an altogether different prospect, the spaced out percussive production serves as a blank canvas for I Jahbar to make a call for peace, unity and love to overpower the corrupt forces at large here in 2023.
To close on either side are dubbed out, free-form remixes from Lvchessi, Full Dose's brother in sound."
Plafond continues, taking center stage after the mother label BAKK ceded. Here, two long-time collaborators, Ekolali, originating from Sweden, and Tala Drum Corps, from the Netherlands, await their returns. The former reappears with a characteristic approach earlier heard on 'Doggerland'. The latter did multiple dance releases yet now debuts for this series, expanding on his stylistic spectrum. Despite shared tempo, the energies of the track are each of their own. Pulsating with energetic urgency, Ekolali, towards hypnotic movement, Tala Drum Corps. 'Totem Mollusca' shoots for the sun, like a budding landscape, yellow rays, waterdrops - kraut-inspired yet club-like without seeking a climax. 'tokyo subway' has a marimba-ridden, timeless approach - a clock-ticking, crude atmosphere, as a dream long passed, slowly ascending. Known for its two-sided, two-songs approach, Plafond offers two artists or artist combinations the freeform room for exploration and elongation of their respective sound and practices. This is the eighth in the series.
Mood Child Presents 'Various Moods Vol. 2' VA; six multi-mood tracks from artists including DJ Sneak, Antss, Marian (BR), and more.
Mood Child, the brainchild of Manda Moor and Sirus Hood, is back with ‘Various Moods Vol. 2’, a captivating collection of six tunes, each possessing its own distinct mood and power.
The VA kicks off with ‘Pakit Ban’ a timeless percussive and funky anthem. Brazilian talents Marian (BR) and Freenzy join forces to create this highly requested track, which has graced not only Manda and Sirus’ sets but also those of Jamie Jones and The Martinez Brothers.
House legend DJ Sneak returns to Mood Child with ‘Wemen’s Groove’. Prepare to be hooked by Sneak’s bouncy rhythms and to feel a masterclass with the massive buildup and incomparable vibe. Making his debut on the label, Barcelona-based artist Dafgal delivers ‘Gozando’. This high-energy tune features a universal groove and a captivating female vocal that will undoubtedly get anyone in a good mood.
UK rising star Antss drops ‘La La Lala’, a simple yet immensely effective track. Its powerful bassline, combined with playful voices, is tailor-made for electrifying crowds.
Brazilian duo Rokke & Techin present ‘Diamonds’, a shiny gem. Its addictive bass-led loop is complemented by an unforgettable bubbly synth, leading to a drop that etches memories.
Riffel & Jack Baron’s ‘Flute’ boasts an irresistible groove, complete with wonderful flute melodies. It’s auditory candy for discerning listeners.
‘Diré’, Idrissa Soumaoro new album, comes as a surprise to Malian and international audiences. Composer, singer, guitarist and master of the kamalen n’goni Idrissa Soumaoro presents here a beautiful collection of songs on his third album, Diré, named in honor of the town where he met his wife and where his first daughter, who is no longer with us, was born.
In 1971, after his studies at the INA in Bamako, Idrissa was transferred to Diré to teach music at the lPEG (Pedagogical Institute of General Education). He was 22 years old when he arrived in Diré. Idrissa has always been nostalgic for this beautiful place in the 333 Saints of Timbuktu region. As Idrissa sings in ‘Diré taga’ (Going to Diré), the track that opens the album, the city evokes deep emotions for the artist, as if it were a long-lost friend or lover. Celebrating the memory of the city of Diré leads the artist to retrace stories and lived situations that marked and animated him in years gone by: ‘I really miss the people, the colleagues, the friends and that period. Despite the time that has flown by, I would ardently wish to see Diré again’. Today, at the difficult time Mali is experiencing, remembering the city of Diré in the 1970s also means for the artist not giving up hope for peace: ‘The memory of Diré, a beautiful town in northern Mali, strengthens my hope for peace, union and real independence for the happiness of my people’; as he sings in ‘Sababou’, ‘Without hope, there is no life. Together we will succeed’.
The ten highly original compositions of the album are strongly based upon traditional music of Mali, but Idrissa’s life experiences, travels, education, collaborations and personal musical career have led him to compose and perform music with other influences. As Idrissa quotes: ‘My inspiration generally comes from the donso n'goni, a Bambara instrument played by and for hunters throughout Mali. This is a pentatonic instrument, similar to the blues exported to the USA by black African slaves. I've also spent so much time playing a variety of music that my music also reflects rumba, salsa (as well as Bamanan blues and a few derivatives: jazz, country, soul, rhythm and blues) etc. I have looked for and hope to have found my own form of expression from these influences’.
Throughout the album, his strong, clear voice sings in French, Bambara and English. It rides seamlessly upon a complex rhythmic sea of distinctly West African stringed instrumentation and percussion with accents of flute and balafon. There are keyboards in a few songs, but these, happily, do not dominate the music as we hear so often in today’s music. This album presents the music of a mature artist who has ‘been there, done that’ and returned to celebrate his country, his roots and his dreams in a flawlessly produced collection of songs of love, reassurance, fatherly advice and hope.
The album already has a long history: it was initiated in 2012 by Marc-Antoine ‘Marko’ Moreau, former producer and manager of Amadou and Mariam. Moreau had plans to produce the album and invited Idrissa Soumaoro to start recording in Manjul's studio in Bamako. When Moreau suddenly passed away, work on the album was still missing. The pandemic still added time for the production to continue. With the help of Climax Orchestra, arrangements and orchestrations were finalized in France. At the artist's behest, 'Diré' will finally be presented to the public by Mieruba, the independent label based in Ségou, the home of the blues in Mali. 'Let's stand together so that Mali can flourish': from conception to production and distribution, this is the message that 'Diré' carries.
LTD Color Repress
After a completely sold out first release by Tom Carruthers and Mario Liberti. TCR. is back with one of the secret weapons inside many DJ bags. Heavily supported by Ricardo Villalobos, Tini, Anthea, Arapu, Alexandra, Velasco, Liquid Earth, Bill Patrick, Josh Baker, Lis Sarroca and many others TCR.002 by ‘Unknown Artist’ has been played on some of the top dance-floors around Europe.
The whole EP is a tribute to an Ibizan band from the late eighties and early nineties.
Extremely limited copies, don’t sleep on this one and remember… Pon, Ponte Bien, Pon Selo, Pon Pin Pon, Pon Amor, El Party Que No Pare.
Glasgow based Seated Records return with more 1980s Scottish Post-Punk / New Wave material. In this 8-track mini compilation the label introduces the work of Stirling band 22 Beaches, offering a deep dive into music recorded between 1980-1984 - the majority of which has never seen the light of day!
22 Beaches formed in Stirling in the late 1970s as an evolution of the short lived group ‘Alone at Last’ - drummer Fred Parson’s and guitarist Stephen Hunter being the two who spanned the divide. Out of the six members of 22 Beaches, many were school friends, and the rest naturally fell together. The band toured extensively and played at a truly diverse set of venues across the UK: from a local swimming pool boiler room, to small nightclubs and university parties, to several fundraisers for the miners strike. Maybe most notably of all, drummer Fred Parsons described playing at what he calls “the Grangemouth International”, organised by local promoter Brian Guthrie and which featured an all-star lineup of 22 Beaches, The Exploited and the first incarnation of The Cocteau Twins. A coach was hired to ship the audience to Grangemouth from Stirling, the cost of which was included in the ticket. The gig then paused halfway through for a 'help yourself' buffet. Young promoters take heed. This is how it's done!
Over the course of the 80s the band released music on three different, and now sought after, various artists compilation cassettes. “What Day Is It?” and “Sadie When She Died” were released on a compilation of local Stirling artists 'The A.N.K.L.E File'. The track from which the current record takes its namesake - “Dust” - was initially released on a compilation-tape for the fanzine 'Another Spark'. And ‘‘Zoo” (also featured on this record) was first released on Glasgow label Pleasantly Surprised via compilation, 'An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds', where 22 Beaches rubbed shoulders with early music from Scottish names Primal Scream, Cocteau Twins, The Wake and Sunset Gun. Unfortunately, 22 Beaches never met the same level of commercial success as these others and decided to retire the project in 1984 - leaving their recordings and demos to gather dust (hehe)…until now!
This compilation, “Dust: recordings 1980-1984” follows the band's journey and the changes in their sound over the years. It moves from the raw, punk energy of early DIY recordings through to the A Certain Ratio style Balearica of their later pieces. The record's opener and title track “Dust” is perhaps the most shining example of the latter. Characterised by the plenitude of sonic space in the mix, “Dust” has an almost dub sensibility that is communicated through centrality of Parsons’ drums, McChord’s percussion, and Fildes’ Bass while the harmonising vocals of Sharkey and McGregor chant over the top to give the track its distinctive psychedelic edge. This is an atmosphere only exacerbated by the lofi quality of the recording which sits the vocals in the same aural realm as much 1960s psych-folk. On “Cartoon Boy”, the band strips things down further. A droning bass line persists through the tape fuzz and is accompanied by the sounds of a sole looping guitar chord sequence and McGregor and Sharkey’s vocals - respectively and carefully dancing around one another before harmonising in the most beautiful way. The result is a haunting and abstract Marine Girls style heartbreaker. ‘That Girl’ again delivers a dub adjacent rhythm section similar to that of “Dust”. However, on this instance crisp guitar chords, a distant, phased organ and blue-eyed soul vocal delivery, produce a track that could easily have been a lost Orange Juice recording from their sessions with Dennis Bovel. On “Somebody Got It Wrong” and “One Of Us” the band employ a more macro approach where a jangling guitar with an almost highlife-influenced tone, vocal ad-libs and syncopated percussion give the music a Talking Heads-esque swagger.
Taken together these tracks illustrate a clear trajectory in the band's sound, moving from from the high energy no-wave quality of early recordings towards a more dub influenced, and stripped-back sound - a sonic trajectory followed by so many bands of the time, not least those emerging from the diaspora of Manchester’s Factory Records.
On “Breathing’’ we hear the beginning of this transition, with the strong influence of the oddball NYC disco styles of Was (Not Was) and ZE records. All of this is meshed together with the residual punk rock energy of 1980s UK. This combination is employed to excellent effect with the addition of the distinctly Scottish (and what the band confirmed to me to be spontaneous) vocal delivery of: “Do you love me? Do you want me?” “Aye!” “Do you love me? Do you need me?” “Naw!”.
On the record’s closing tracks, “Zoo” and “Talent Show”, we hear early examples of the band’s work, playing with their rawest all-in-one-take live energy where Hunter’s spiralling guitar riffs and McGregor's distorted vocal exclamations lead the charge. The band recalls that these initial-forays did not always translate so well into multitrack recording and overdubbing: “the deconstruction took away some of the band's natural feel”. On “Talent Show” the record ends with Sharkey delivering an almost unintelligible spoken word section over the top of the track, making for one final, disorientating, almost manic slice of post-punk.
These tracks from 1980-1984 chart the progress of a unique contribution to the world of Scottish Post-Punk and New Wave, encapsulating not only the musical trajectory of 22 Beaches but also echoing the broader sonic landscape of 1980s UK, a testament to the adaptability and creativity of the UK’s underground music of the time.
Following his debut EP ‘En clair-obscur’ and a series of singles earlier this year cementing his place as a rising name in the world of cinematic soul & funk, Hamburg’s finest cinematic soul artist ‘The Offline’ announces his debut album 'La couleur de la mer'.
Reminiscent of film scores from the 60s and 70s, The Offline worked with co-producer Tim Liztenberger to channel the influence of film composers such as Francois de Roubaix and Brian Bennet, creating his own soundtrack on ‘La couleur de la mer’. Inducing images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the sea's edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of an imaginary hero, the record is a masterfully composed sonic journey. Experimenting with themes and atypical song structures, the music moves from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism. It incorporates psychedelic spaciness, retro soul and hip-hop sensibilities informed by The Offline’s extensive record collection and crate-digger status.
“Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, and I always wanted to make an album in the film score direction. I wrote about 30 demos, kicked half of it and stuck to the ones that felt right in the dramaturgical structure of the ‘movie'. Interestingly the main theme was set early on while writing the album, which made the writing process much easier.”
Aptly named, ‘Thème de la couleur de la mer’ opens proceedings, establishing the core motifs of the record. Haunting flutes and xylophones lead the way into Khruangbin-esque guitar lines, which sit against a hip-hop canvas that returns on boom-bap head boppers like ‘Quelque chose reste’. Retro soul revival takes precedence on deep cuts like ‘Un bout de chemin’, with wah-gated guitars interacting with emotive cello lines and symphonic string & horn sections.
The Offline came to life when composer and photographer Felix Müller travelled the Atlantic coastline in the south of France with his analogue camera, capturing beach life on film. After coming back to Hamburg, he started writing songs as the sonic counterpart to the analogue visuals. His Debut EP ‘En Clair-Obscur’ includes five tracks that capture the essence of his journey and the feeling of a cool summer soundtrack.
- A1: Teresa Winter - No Love Is Sorrow
- A2: Susu Laroche - Black Is The Colour Of My True Love S Hair
- A3: Alex Zhang Hungtai - Me And My Shadow
- A4: Aya - Lovesong
- A5: Maria Minerva - The Storms Are On The Ocean
- A6: Christina Vantzou - Hot Springs (Feat Ezra Fieremans)
- B1: Spivak - Just As You Are
- B2: Flora Yin Wong - The Roof
- B3: Salamanda - La Fille Aux Yeuh De Lin
- B4: Claire Rousay - Breakfast In Bed
- B5: Wild Terrier Orchestra - Cool Waves
- B6: Dania - No Need To Argue
Commissioned and curated by Flora Yin Wong for her label and publishing house Doyenne, ‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ is a collection of love-themed cover versions featuring Teresa Winter, Susu Laroche, Alex Zhang Hungtai, aya, Maria Minerva, Christina Vantzou, Spivak, Salamanda, clare rousay, Wild Terrier Orchestra, Dania and Flora Yin Wong herself covering songs by The Cure, Robert Wyatt, Mariah Carey, The Cranberries, Pentangle, The Carter Family, Spiritualized, Debussy and more.
‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ takes its cues from the classical deity Aphrodite - whose name literally means “sea foam” - for an ever necessary expression of love in the modern age. The label asked friends and collaborators to interpret “love” in whichever way they saw fit, be it obsession, self-love, unrequited, unconditional, whatever. But despite the open brief, and the vastly different modes of execution, all the artists involved somehow ended up linking hands with a shared determination to smudge the original songs into bleary-eyed, uncanny traces of the originals.
To open, Pentangle's jaunty 'No Love is Sorrow' is puffed into stormy clouds by Teresa Winter, who retains the original’s unmistakable bass twang and teases Jacqui McShee's siren song into a saturated buzz of layered, obfuscated words. Verses twist into verses, lines into echoed-out lines, capturing the song’s boundless yearning, rather than tracing its exact contours. Next, Susu Laroche yields one of the set’s highlights on a brilliantly nuanced, highly impactful version of Nina Simone’s take on folk standard ‘Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair’, turning the original’s multi-faceted Appalachian/Scottish routes into a heart-stopping, Nico-esque fuzz we haven’t stopped playing for weeks. Christina Vantzou (the CV ov CV & JAB) is joined by pianist Ezra Fieremans in the absorbingly filmic scenes of ‘Hot Springs’, while Maria Spivak's interpretation of Robert Wyatt's 'Just as You Are' finds her singing Brazilian vocalist Mônica Vasconcelos' words with reverence, smearing them into a hypnagogic fantasy.
Flora Yin Wong takes an inconspicuous approach on her love-letter to Mariah Carey's 'The Roof (Back in Time)', itself a melodramatic interpolation of Mobb Deep's Herbie Hancock-sampling 'Shook Ones, Part II'. The unmistakable piano line is frayed into a granulated gurgle, fleshed out by gauzy cries; Mariah's ecstatic diva logic haunts the edges like a furtive glance, hanging beautifully behind Wong's dense soundscapes. Alex Zhang Hungtai's take on the 1927 standard 'Me and My Shadow' is even more atomised, reduced to a disembodied vocal that oozes around a clattering woodblock.
Always a standout, aya's tribute to The Cure's 'Lovesong' infuses the 1989 classic with the same self-investigatory charm she exhibited on 'im hole', slowing it down to a giddy, infatuated lurch, and replacing the guitars with eerily-tuned oscillations and drums with hollowed-out, electrically charged thuds. "I will always love you," she moans through a wall of static, like some lost “Pop Artificielle” addendum. The album’s biggest surprise is saved for last, however, a cover of The Cranberries' 'No Need To Argue' from Paralaxe Editions boss Dania Shihab. Already a poignant memory of a faded romance, Dania's version is even more glacial, her tender voice gusting over inverted guitars and looping, wordless moans, guiding us ever so gracefully into the nether-world.
‘Venus Rising From The Sea’ is a gooey, emotionally raw set of recollections and affirmations from some of the scene's most open-hearted operatives. In the end, the love that's most evident is the love each of the artists has for their source material, somehow binding loose threads into a rich tapestry that will leave you gasping, perhaps a little tearful too.
- A1: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 1 - Titoli) 2 10
- A2: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 2) 3 34
- A3: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 3) 1 52
- A4: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 4) 5 07
- A5: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 5) 3 19
- B1: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 6) 5 10
- B2: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 7) 3 21
- B3: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 8) 3 48
- B4: Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese (Seq 9) 2 14
Musica Per Immagini is glad to present the first vinyl release of Detto Mariano's “Delitto Al Ristorante Cinese”, the second original Soundtrack in the so-called 'delitti' series. It's another classic iteration of the crime-comedy films that came out of the partnership between director Bruno Corbucci and actor Tomas Milian, a special connection that had started with the great success of “Squadra Antiscippo” and was followed by eleven more pictures, all centered on the character of Nico Giraldi, a former criminal who, while having become a cop, was unwilling to give up his in your face attitude and the Roman slang of the city's thieves. The score by the Italian composer is a mix of sounds characterized by a unique investigation of musical timbre. Nine tracks that cross the entire sound spectrum: electronic pulses,
funk rhythms, jazz and Mediterranean sounds and some oriental atmospheres. A brief summary of the artist's creativity passed away a few months ago.
The limited 7" edition of Marine Eyes' latest full-length ambient record 'To Belong' hears a distilling of the original fourteen-track record down to just four selections. Though every track on the digital version of the album works in its own right, the choice on offer here - 'Hushed', 'Of The West', 'Bluest' and 'Call & Answer' - are particularly deserving of the study on wax. Something static, nigh time-crystalline is achieved on the B2, with its held root note evincing something of the quality of an infinite dream; the A1 recalls some mix of DJ Healer, Malibu or David Motion with its three note tenor-pad lilt; the A2 gets at the best of both worlds, sounding like a paradisiacal bathhouse vision set in slow motion; the B1 is the tensest, opting for a moodier key, but its reversed guitar taps and sustained choir-synth working in a no less lachrymose aesthetic.
- A1: Just A Child Feat Chiara Castello
- A2: Assai Giassai
- A3: No Fun Feat Daniel Richards
- A4: On And On Feat Egeeno And Elea
- A5: Nun Tengo Chiù A Te Feat Maricaclemente
- A6: Melancolia
- A7: Fior Di Veleno Feat Egeeno
- B1: La Verità Feat Toco
- B2: Common Questions
- B3: Genova Nervi
- B4: Stone (My Heart) Feat Chiaracastello
- B5: Eclisse
- B6: A Song To Make Love To
“Songs to Make Love To” is the 10th studio album by The Dining Rooms (Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti), extending the Milanese duo’s classic sound legacy among psychedelic folk, cinematic atmospheres and hip hop-inspired downtempo rhythms. As always divided into instrumental and vocal tracks, it is entirely played and produced by Stefano and Cesare and features guest appearances on vocals by Chiara Castello (I’m Not a Blonde), Egeeno (of the Roman collective Tropicantesimo) and labelmate Tomaz Di Cunto aka Toco. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings. “Songs To Make Love To”, whose artwork was made with works by artist Tatjana Zonca, talks about love and the explicit act of loving each other, but also and especially about the construction of love, the dynamics of love relationships inside and outside the couple, free and liberated love, without constraints and outside the concept of possession. A further peculiarity that contributes to the uniqueness of “Songs To...” is the in-depth exploration of anthropological and ethnomusicological themes, particularly dear to Alan Lomax: the classic TDR sound therefore blends, especially in the instrumental tracks, with classic field recordings of sounds from the Genoese carruggi, the Milanese dockyard, the Spanish quarters of Naples and cities such as Istanbul and São Paulo.
"Born in Poti, near Lake Paliastomi in Georgia, Nino Gvilia is a singer-songwriter whose lyrics offer up meditations on what it is to be human in the 21st Century, and aim to carry us beyond into ecology and the politics of the non-human world.
Her songs are influenced by folk and minimalism and make use of magnetic tapes, field recordings, vocal samples of contemporary thinkers and philosophers, and an array of strange instruments and vintage textures, drawing for us an intense dreamlike atmosphere.
Now I should tell you that Nino Gvilia does not exist. She is a purely fictional character invented in order to help us reflect on the place of the songwriter in times of global crisis."
Nino Gvili: songs & lyrics, vocals, toy guitar, harmonium, field recordings.
Zevi Bordovach: arrangements, synth, hammond, harmonium, vocals.
Pietro Caramelli: arrangements, electric guitar, electronics, vocals.
Giulia Pecora: violin.
Clarissa Marino: cello.
Recorded by Paul Beauchamp at O.F.F. Studio, Turin, March 2023.
Mixed by Paul Beauchamp and Pietro Caramelli.
Long awaited new record YOIONWAXOO9 is finally here!
We've been preparing for it for a really long time.
But there's a reason for that.
First of all, meet a brand new kind of records in our series - printed vinyl! Let's tell you a secret, our distributor made it exclusively for YOI, for which we thank him for such support and faith in our art! Now the incredible artwork made by our boss Alexey Mikheev is even easier, more exciting and fun to watch! So YOI becomes the first and only dance music label who makes printed vinyl with animated artwork.
Secondly, of course, the whole situation in the world cannot go unnoticed, and we cannot and do not want to remain silent about it, because we are as always, as from the very beginning, for unity and art, creation and development, friendship and love, happiness and peace. So this record once again brings together artists from different countries: Mariche from Argentina, Italian Sbruf, label boss Watsche from Russia and Englishman Yogi P, and the artwork reflects our planet, which is spinning thanks to our dancing day and night everywhere where the best house music is played!
Coral Morphologic and Nick León’s Projections of a Coral City marks a series of collisions between distant
worlds: the organic and the artificial, the Eocene and the Anthropocene, sea and cement—and even, perhaps, ambient music and activism.
Coral Morphologic are the Miami duo of marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay; since 2007, they have used a variety of multimedia projects to generate environmental awareness of marine biodiversity—most notably Coral City Camera, an underwater webcam streaming live from an urban reef ecosystem in PortMiami.
Their citymate Nick León is a linchpin of South Florida’s contemporary leftfield electronic scene, with releases for Tra Tra Trax, Future Times, and NAAFI, and credits on records by Rosalía, GAIKA, and Iceboy Violet, among others.
This collaborative project dates back to 2022, when Coral Morphologic mounted a monumental projection-
mapping installation on Biscayne Boulevard. For five nights in late November and early December, macroscopic films of corals played out across the exterior of Knight Concert Hall. The installation was, on the one hand, a glimpse into a possible future, imagining how the city’s skyline might appear if unchecked global warming and rising seas led coral reefs to colonize the built environment. But it also represented a look back into the deep past, a reminder that Miami is literally built from marine limestone mined from the Everglades. Its concrete foundations began life, eons ago, as a marine ecosystem—the same ecosystem that may one day reclaim them. As above, so below.
As an album, Projections of a Coral City is a suite of interconnected movements spread across two sides of vinyl. The tones are watery, the mood elegiac, the colors a washed-out pastel. Forms that appear static on the surface gradually open up to reveal hidden depths teeming with microscopic movement. You might detect resonances with other aquatically minded works—Jürgen Müller’s Science of the Sea, Harold Budd’s liquid piano compositions, even the slow-moving melancholy of Dr. Roger Payne’s Songs of the Humpback Whale. But ultimately Projections of a Coral City creates the impression of a world unto itself—a hauntingly beautiful space at the meeting point between sorrow and hope.
——-
Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.
“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.
222 Units Ltd as F*K.
Abstract wonky vibes from the mountain peaks with Luv*Jam & Maria Slovakova
++Plus++ Ridiculously advanced reversions from the one and only Ruf Dug
(as Ruffy himself says “Detroit going off in ya caravan for the weekend”)
++Plus++ A spaced out to the high hills take from sound pioneer Special Characters
3000.10 is the 10th instalment of 14 highly collectable records.
Carnedd Dafydd (David’s Cairn) - 3425ft (1044m).
OS grid SH6628 6305.
Far Out Radio Systems, the musical project by Thomas Neyens, is set to make waves with the release of his anticipated second album, "Mariana No Death." This transformative musical journey invites listeners to explore the depths of the Mariana Trench, where the protagonist seeks solace amidst the chaotic realities of our world. Drawing inspiration from the roots of early techno and lo-fi electronica, Thomas Neyens showcases a unique sound palette, embracing a DIY and raw production style. "Mariana No Death" is a testament to pure machine music that delivers a powerful message of honesty and a hopeful outlook for brighter days ahead.
- A1: The Second Dreams (Theme From House On The Sand)
- A2: The Torture (Theme From Time Of Heroes)
- A3: Motorcycle (Theme From The Exile)
- A4: The Opening Night (Theme From Ljuba Par Lui Meme)
- A5: In The Beaubourg Gallery (Theme From Ljuba Par Lui Meme)
- A6: All And Nothing At All (Main Theme From All And Nothing At All)
- A7: All And Nothing At All (Unused Theme From All And Nothing At All)
- A8: Jere And Marija In The Room (Theme From Marjuca Or Death)
- A9: The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant I (Theme From The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant)
- A10: The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant Ii (Theme From The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant)
- B1: Cassandra (Theme From The Trojan War Will Not Take Place)
- B2: Peace (Theme From The Trojan War Will Not Take Place)
- B3: Fourth Choir - Sun Ray (Theme From Biedermann Und Die Brandstifter)
- B4: Second Choir - Marching Step (Theme From Biedermann Und Die Brandstifter)
- B5: The Beginning Before The Beginning (Theme From Fool For Love - Savage Love)
- B6: She Runs Away (Theme From Fool For Love - Savage Love)
- B7: Eddie Enters (Theme From Fool For Love - Savage Love)
- B8: A Jerk (Theme From Fear And Hope Of The German Federal Republic)
- B9: Song 3 (Theme From Fear And Hope Of The German Federal Republic)
- B10: Chernobyl (Theme From Fear And Hope Of The German Federal Republic
A collection of music for the various films and theatre plays by Mirko Krsticevic, Croatian and Yugoslavian composer and musician active since 1970s. All and Nothing at All (Film and Theatre Music 1978 - 1988) focuses on his work for the underground and avantgarde cinema from the era: directors Ivan Martinac, Svemir Pavic, Lordan Zafranovic, Aleksandar F. Stasenko and Vanca Kljakovic are all part of the Split Cinema Club association; their work explores art, death, sexuality and eroticism. Pavic's portrait of surrealist painter Ljuba Popovic, made in the same year as its counterpart by Walerian Borowczyk, features scenes form Beaubourg Gallery in Paris and Udo Kier as a guest. Side B of the record is all about theatre: plays by Sam Shepard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jean Giraudoux were all produced in Sarajevo and Split in the 1980s, with the rare electronic takes by Mirko Krsticevic and his subtle minimalist soundings of the themes from the Cold War era. This unique and diverse compositions by founder of the rock band Metak and sound studio Tetrapak from Split, are document of the time that is, especially in the closing Chernobyl theme, relevant again. Composer, musician and musical arranger Mirko Krsticevic was born in 1948 in Sibenik. He graduated in music theory at the Pedagogical Academy in Split and then at the Music Academy in Sarajevo. He studied composition with Josip Magdic, Mladen Pozajic and Miroslav Spiler. He is the co-founder of the Tetrapak music studio in Split, where numerous performers and musicians have recorded (Animatori, D'Boys, Haustor, Oliver Mandic, Gibonni, Srdjan Marjanovic, Stil, Trotakt Projekt and others). The first group he founded was the rock group Che, which performed his own songs, in which he played bass guitar. It was founded in the summer of 1969. Together with Ranko Boban and Momcilo Popadic, he founded the Metak group in the spring of 1978 in Prigradica on Korcula. In the group, he is the author of songs and lyrics, and he also plays the bass guitar. "Da mi je biti morski pas" is the group's most successful single, which in 1980 became one of the most played songs on radio and television. Metak performed in Belgrade in front of 70,000 people, and the media declared them the best group along with Macedonian Leb i sol. In compositional work and arrangements for other pop and rock artists, Krsticevic had high commercial success with Tutti Frutti Balkan Band, Biljana Petrovic, Seid Memic Vajta, Pepel in kri, Osmi putnik, Oliver Dragojevic , Djordji Peruzovic, Henda and others. Parallel to his pop and rock career, Krsticevic composed stage and film music for 45 films, mostly collaborating with the circle of experimental and amateur directors of the Split Cinema Club (Kino klub Split) as well as the rest of the local underground scene. He is the author of stage music for 130 theatre plays, and also records his own compositions in the field of contemporary music. He wrote over 30 works for solo instruments, chamber and symphonic music. At the end of 2007, he founded the Split society for contemporary music and the contemporary music ensemble Splithesis. In 2015, he founded his own orchestra The Highway to Well Family, composed of fourteen musicians and three singers. In 2021, he founded Arthesis, an artistic organization for contemporary music and visual arts. He is the author of four operas: "Krvava svadba" (1997), "Halugica" (1999), "Atlantida - Legenda o Dan'zoru" (2018) i "Atlantida II - Lu'blis Kaoamos" (2020). He is the winner of numerous awards, lives and works in Split. Gatefold LP with extensive liner notes, Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) from original tapes, pressed at Record Industry. File under: Soundtrack, Stage, Electronica
Voodoos and Taboos unveil their highly anticipated new series with ‘Human Aventura,’ the debut album from promising Corsican producer.
Right from the start, his talent captivates listeners. The record boasts exciting collaborations with fellow artists and friends, including Noiro and Blinkduus Dischetto (Solid State).
With its esoteric and melancholic atmospheres, interwoven with nods to the Chiptune scene, the album seamlessly blends elements of electro and house music. “Defined as ‘libidinous Mediterranean spoken disco,’ the album promises an immersive journey into a unique sonic landscape, where sultry rhythms meet hypnotic melodies.
Ozone were a group on Motown between 1980 and 1983. They were put together by Charles Alexander Glenn from Nashville where he had a band The Endeavors. He then brough his best musicians to Los Angeles where Billy Preston recommended to Motown they become the touring band for Teena Marie. They also played for Luther Vandross and then recorded five albums for Motown. “(Our Hearts) Will Always Shine, also credited as “Our Hearts (Will Always Shine)” on Motown has become a timeless and in demand modern soul record, copies of the 7” original now commanding in excess of £300. It has a Gene Page (of Barry White fame) string arrangement and is produced by the group with Michael Stokes (Creative Source, Enchantment, Magic Lady, LTD, Active Force etc)
Ghastly and hallucinatory – 'last liasse' is a sign of the times, alternative pop record by helen island. Within this debut album, the artist captures the saccharine gaze of digital escapism through characteristic filtered high notes, cut-up genres, and processed vocals. Providing a comprehensive overview of helen island’s self-distributed initiatives, with the ethos of the Parisian Simple Music Experience collective, the twelve tracks set a solid musical score that resonates with the age to come.
Archeo Recordings is a record label. Old, lost, obscure and forgotten gems and a boundless focus on the new Balearic scene for a wider audience of collectors, DJs and music lovers. All releases are limited edition.
This release is 350 copies limited edition: 12"" with 4 new special Remixes by Hear & Now, Manu Archeo, Mushrooms Project and Ocean Moon + CD with 6 previously unreleased Original songs + Insert.
For the latest essential offering from Archeo Recordings, Infradisco harness the power of the Po, serving a six-part suite inspired by the life giving power and natural beauty of water. An immersive journey through balmy downbeat, Balearic melancholy, smooth jazz and subtle house, the ‘Aqua Cheta’ CD comes accompanied by a diverse 12" of remixes from Hear & Now, label head Manu Archeo, Mushrooms Project and Ocean Moon. Album opener “Caduca” evokes the energy of an Umbrian waterfall, its spheric bassline growing ever more acidic before falling away as focus shifts onto the misty pads and plangent guitar.
The gentle bossa rhythm of “Dulcis” transports us to the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon, where a snaking bassline underpins beguiling horns and subtle Sade-sque chords progressions. On “Fluminea”, the trio return to the heart of Reggio Emilia, following the fluctuation of the river Po, which runs past their studio, in an exquisite example of tension and release. Awash with emotion, both via the piano and redolent woodwind, this heady track intersects melodic house and Balearic trance, prompting horizontal dancing and skyward gazes. The tone shifts through the pensive and propulsive “Marina”, a sax led masterpiece accented with gorgeous acoustic guitar, before the tabla beat and emotive sitar of “Pluvia” add intensity to a slow-flowing piece of progressive house.
The CD closes with the cinematic splendour of “Surgiva”, an expansive ambient composition which sees delay-drenched fretwork tug at our heartstrings.
California's James Bernard is a much-loved regular on this label as well as being a veteran of the wider ambient scene who has been hard at it for more than three decades. His latest outing on Past Inside The Present with Anthene (aka Brad Deschamps of Toronto) is Soft Octaves, an album that finds them crafting a series of sounds using electric six-string bass.
It has a huge range from the deepest depths to the wispiest of highs and each of the tracks here was recorded in one single take. The results are spellbinding indeed and the range of the bass's sonic ability is astonishing as it sounds at times like a cello, at others woodwind and is always intriguing.
The project to found this new independent label, owned by the Italian DJ and producer Alessandro Baglioni, stems from the intention of promoting top and emerging artists on the international scene linked to the contemporary electronic music movement.
The predilection for deep sounds, the search for new percussion and the care of harmonic sounds, represent the distinctive signs of this newborn Italian label from Milan.
Habitat Recordings L.T.D presents its second various artists of a series dedicated to contemporary electronic music created through a careful selection of sounds and grooves in line with the recording project.
Dima Disk is back in action & on the shelves with six tracks of dark & moody takes on jungle/breaks on freshly registered Surve Records. Our informants reported that the duo of Robert Nikolajev & Ragnar Rahuoja might have been sitting on this for a while.
We last heard of them on Rubadub’s white label series in 2017. The wait is easily forgivable though –– take “Maribo” with its propelling bass-engines, high flying synth stabs & hi–hat skelter for starters. Sweaty! Or “Pahakas” full of mischievous funk & rumble plus that firm “Woooh!” sample. Smokey, energetic dance equipment for you & yours.
- A1: Dreamlover
- A2: Hero
- A3: Anytime You Need A Friend
- A4: Music Box
- A5: Now That I Know
- B1: Never Forget You
- B2: Without You
- B3: Just To Hold You Once Again
- B4: I’ve Been Thinking About You
- B5: All I’ve Ever Wanted
- B6: Everything Fades Away
- C1: All I Live For (Extended Version)
- C2: Endless Love (Duet With Luther Vandross)
- C3: Do You Think Of Me
- C4: Workin’ Hard
- C5: My Prayer
- D1: Hero (2009 Version)
- D2: Anytime You Need A Friend (Extended Mix)
- D3: Music Box (A Capella)
- D4: Dreamlover (Live From Top Of The Pops)
- D5: Without You (Live From Top Of The Pops)
- E1: Dreamlover (Def Club Mix)
- E2: Anytime You Need A Friend (C&C Club Version)
- F1: Anytime You Need A Friend (Soul Convention Remix)
- G3: Smeday (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- G4: Without You (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- G5: Make It Happen (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- H1: Dreamlover (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- H2: Love Takes Time (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- H3: Anytime You Need A Friend (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- H4: Vision Of Love (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- H5: I’ll Be There (Featuring Trey Lorenz) (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- F2: I’ve Been Thinking About You (Terry Hunter Remix)
- F3: Workin’ Hard (Terry Hunter Remix)
- G1: Emotions (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
- G2: Hero (Live At Proctor’s Theater, Ny – 1993)
Reissue of the 1997 album from Britpop outfit Salad
RIYL Elastica, Echobelly, Sleeper
Critically received as one of their best albums, the album shows a clear development from theirearlier playing days and imbibes a more refined, skilled sound palette
Produced by veteran musician and producer Donald Ross Skinner, guitarist for Edwyn Collins and Julian Cope
Features the tracks ‘Cardboard King’ and ‘Yeah Yeah’
Pressed up on 140g black vinyl
Comes with an exclusive signed print from lead singer Marijna Van Der Vlugt
Marina Herlop is often described as a pianist, a lingering remnant of her classical training. But what strikes the listener on Herlop’s breakout track miu is the intricate trickery of her voice, tracing rhythmical clusters around the subtlest of musical beds, in a technique inspired by Carnatic music of Southern India.
miu, the opening track of Herlop’s new studio album Pripyat, was among the first songs that the young Catalan artist made on a computer, after two albums – 2016’s Nanook and 2018’s Babasha – that brought spectral elegance to the sound of piano and voice. This spirit of adventure continues into Pripyat, Herlop’s first full album produced on a computer, and her most intensely emotional work to date.
Listening to Pripyat you can feel the emotional toil and creative endeavour that went into the record. Fans of Nanook and Babasha will recognise the combination of melancholic piano and elegant vocal lines that is found on Pripyat tracks like abans abans. But Pripyat has a far fuller, almost chaotic sound when compared to Herlop’s previous work, with the addition of electronic drums, electric bass lines and a wealth of sublime production effects.
The 80s Italo disco /proto-house classic 'MBO Theme' by the mighty Klein & MBO, repressed! Comes with an heavy (and unheard) South African version on the flip. Huge Tip!
The MBO Theme' (1983) has been a dance floor favorite since decades, created by Mario Boncaldo and Tony Carrasco - the legendary Italian/US duo Klein & MBO. The track got support in NYC and Chicago by greats as Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy.
The rare version on the flip is created by a South-African band called Warrior. Rush Hour explain how they came across the track: We bumped into this version on a South African record digging trip. It took us a few months to realize the scarcity of this version. Ian Osrin, a well respected engineer in South-Africa who was involved in many 80ties and 90ties Bubblegum, Kwaito and South African disco records, explained us about music distribution in South Africa during apartheid. Because the country was culturally banned at the time, a lot of releases weren't imported or exported. Even when a track was huge, like The Klein & MBO Theme'. So South African musicians would create their own versions which were sold locally.
We got in contact with Tony Carrasco from Klein & MBO. He also hadn't heard Warrior's version before, but he liked it as much as we do!'
A new label straight from Ukraine, called Frequencies, is ready with its first joint. For this VA release they decided to gather 4 artists all around Ukraine for the unforgettable house journey.
A-side is starting with Odesa-based guru Rayo (All Inn, Fabric, Propaganda, Body Parts) and continues with a high-quality vinyl selector and producer Vinaya (Wex, Telomere Plastic, Black Pony Orchestra Records) from the capital of Ukraine.
On the flipside we’re having the youngest one from the list – Peshka (Visionquest, Banoffee Pies, Alien Recordings), who was born in Mariupol + last, but not least, the owner of the label, also member of the Aimed trio – Dibe (Adult Only, Drumma, Serialism), who’s currently based in Switzerland.
Marino Scarabelli, the creator of unforgettable progressions in “Are You Loving” and “Love In A Summer Night”, so characteristic and unique that can still give us goosebumps, sat down in the studio again and composed another italo banger. Traditionally, he was joined by Stefano Brignoli, who wrote the lyrics and lent his voice, and that’s how we witnessed the creation of new bomb by Some Bizarre.
But this is not the end of the sensation, because Linda Jo Rizzo joined the band as a guest and you will hear her in female vocal parts, as befits real, indigenous Italo disco. The whole thing was produced by A.P. Mono in collaboration with Marino Scarabelli. For dessert, a very nice remix by Electro Potato.
Future Romance unveils their exclusive vinyl release series called „Collector“, featuring the labels most wanted and most sucessful tracks. This collector's release is a sonic journey through the realms of melodic house & techno, featuring four captivating tracks by different distinct artists. Each composition has already garnered widespread acclaim and massive DJ support from across the globe. "Collector" is a testament to Future Romance's commitment to delivering unparalleled musical experiences on the beloved vinyl medium. Part I gives us wonderful tracks by Einmusik & Solee, Several Definitions, Gai Barone and Emiliano Demarco & Maxi Vega.
Originally released on the seminal self-titled Nucleus Roots album at the turn of the millennium, Under De Kitchen is finally getting a well-deserved vinyl pressing with new dubs and remixes!
Vocals come courtesy of Manchester's Des Nia Lashimba, accompanied by Moses, Dub Dadda and Maria
Bristol's Sasha Steppa steps up on remix duties with her debut production, elevating the track even further with her trademark high-energy peak-time stepper style
Normandy via Glasgow dubber Stalawa strips everything back for his futuristic interpretation, channeling plenty of Rhythm & Sound inspiration
As usual, Dub Junction isn't doing things by halves, with three separate records being pressed to house all six mixes, all with their own unique two-colour marbled effect.
Originally released on the seminal self-titled Nucleus Roots album at the turn of the millennium, Under De Kitchen is finally getting a well-deserved vinyl pressing with new dubs and remixes!
Vocals come courtesy of Manchester's Des Nia Lashimba, accompanied by Moses, Dub Dadda and Maria
Bristol's Sasha Steppa steps up on remix duties with her debut production, elevating the track even further with her trademark high-energy peak-time stepper style
Normandy via Glasgow dubber Stalawa strips everything back for his futuristic interpretation, channeling plenty of Rhythm & Sound inspiration
As usual, Dub Junction isn't doing things by halves, with three separate records being pressed to house all six mixes, all with their own unique two-colour marbled effect.
Unleashing a sonic tempest, "Infected Frequencies" by DisX3 marks a pivotal moment for the first release of SE records. A tribute to the artist who ignited the label owner's techno odyssey in Berlin in the end of the 90s, this release is a manifestation of a dream come true. From the moment the needle touches vinyl, the pulse of underground subculture reverberates through your soul. DisX3's mastery crafts a raw, primal energy that's destined for heavy rotation. With each track, "Infected Frequencies" carves a path through uncharted sonic territory. Get ready to be infected.
The release doesn't stop here, as the enigmatic MasCon, delivers remixes with Tresor's resident Mario Berger and SYER, who adds a dark techno version.
Hannah Archimbault is a multidisciplinary French artist based in London. Hannah opens up her inner deep emotions throughout minimal sequences and loops of sustained and touching organ notes, with reminiscences of Philip Glass, Eva-Maria Houben, Harold Budd or Kali Malone and a contemporary vein that questions love in current times. "The EP came after a break up as I decided to compose in the process of going through this love grief and how you could grow from it, learn to love oneself after the break-up. Each song represents a different stage on this life chapter.". Indeed moving anger, sadness and acceptance are well represented on this sonic, brave redemption of the grief through the artform.
2023 Repress
Outstanding Italo classic from The Countach project, covering Carlos Santana's "Aqua Marine" song and fitting them successfully into that typical italian ambient style and late eighties house formula. Did anyone say balearic
Here you can finally find in the flip side the original studio version instead of the unnecessary radio cut.
The A side 'Lip Locked' is an animated collaboration between Parris and Untold, is certified fast house compatible and comes stripped back to the classic raw elements of synth stab, vocal, sub bass and kick drum.
Early support by Ben UFO and Marie Montexier.
'Just Look at the Rain' sees a rare solo outing for Untold spinning crunchy breakbeats and guitar stabs into something both old school and new.
ORO was set up in 2014 as a sub-label of Hemlock for the more 'out there' material and has released music from Brian Routh (R.I.P), Untold, IVVVO and Lord Skywave.
Parris runs the label Can You Feel The Sun with Call Super and has just wrapped up a busy summer with performances at Love International, Houghton and Glastonbury festivals, as well as touring the US and Columbia.
In 2023 Untold founded and began running the modular synth brand Laine.
Kamai Music’s 26th release comes from the Electronic producer duo and live act Kon Faber.
A1: “Ambiguity” is a bouncy, groove- and percussion-heavy collaboration between established producer Iorie,
including a vocal duet.
A2: “Cheer” is an emotional, atmospheric track with a mesmerizing interplay of synth lines and jazzy melodic
licks from professional jazz saxophone player Marius Dick.
A3: “Weberwiese” is a large space with choirs and wide synth pads. The track opens up through a virtuous,
acoustic lead guitar embedded into a hypnotic and bouncy groove.
B1: South African producer Fka Mash gives a deep Afro House twist including a rich bass lead synth.
B2: Kamai’s own Jacob Groening shows a simplistic interpretation of “Cheer” and adds a new depth through a
non-metrically played lead synth.
B3: “Weberwiese” is remixed by Joep Mencke, who adds trance-like melodies and creates a melodic house
spin for the big stage.
Sept duos pour guitar acoustique et piano préparé is the second duo recording from Stephen O'Malley and Anthony Pateras. Their first together, Rêve Noir (2018), took an electro-acoustic scalpel to a 2011 duo concert for electric guitar and piano, using Revox and digital treatments to twist and smear gig documentation into ghostly echoes and fractured drones. Here, in contrast, the music is entirely acoustic and presented as it was performed, without overdubs. Both players’ choices of instruments are notable: this is O'Malley’s most extensive recording on steel string acoustic guitar (playing an instrument whose previous owners include Marissa Nadler and Glenn Jones) and Pateras return to the prepared piano, which he has rarely employed in recent years, after spending much of the first decade of the 21st century exploring its possibilities.
Recorded during O'Malley’s residency at La Becque on Lake Geneva in the summer of 2021, from the first moments of the opening ‘déjà revé’ the music immediately establishes the distinctive landscape of chiming tones and hovering clouds of resonance explored throughout its one-hour running time. Pateras’ preparations create tolling bell-like tones alive with complex overtones, alongside which O'Malley’s open strings and natural harmonics add a sparkling clarity. While Pateras’ music often uses a densely chromatic harmonic language, these duos are remarkable for their modal simplicity. However, the interaction between the pure intervals of O'Malley’s just-intoned strings and the unstable harmonies created by the piano preparations suspends the music in an oneiric state of hazy ambiguity. Without obvious reference to tempo or meter, the music floats in what the composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler has called a ‘bottomless sound space’, the temporal placement of events determined by bodily rhythms and the performers’ own listening to (and enjoyment of) the sounds being made.
Heard one way, this music can seem striking in its consistency, almost environmental. Attending more carefully, the listener hears the pitch sets and tunings changing throughout the album’s length. Each piece has its own character, subtly distinguished from the others through mood, pacing, and timbre. On ‘déjà voulu’, for instance, O'Malley makes prominent use of slide, the woozy, bending pitches weaving through a series of lush arpeggiated chords from the piano. ‘Déjà senti’, on the other hand, is particularly spare, the gestures spaced out to the extent that they often float in isolation against the background of fading resonance. Much of ‘déjà su’ is built around a slowly pulsing single prepared piano tone, creating an almost ominous tension, whereas the sparkling guitar harmonics and arpeggios of the closing ‘déjà raconté’ have a gently triumphal air. While the music’s calm, rippling surface is immediately entrancing, these seven duos – in the tradition of the best improvised music – also reward close listening, which reveals sonic details and focuses the listener’s attention on how the music unfolds spontaneously from decision to decision, from gesture to gesture.
Recorded during a period when O'Malley and Pateras were grieving the loss of recently departed friends and collaborators, these seven duos possess a reflective, at times almost mournful quality. More importantly, though, they are imbued with other qualities that can arise from personal loss: a clarity that allows one to clear away the inessential, to begin again, to renew one’s faith in friendship and music.
As a complete artist, Luna Maria Cedron gently and melancholy brings together the influences and facets of her existence. Behind her alias, Fiesta En El Vacio, the artist summons a number of Latin musicalities that make her career: Castilian flamenco, popular ballads from Venezuela meet the new generations of urban music: reggaeton rythms and sharp electronics. The uncompromising texts leave no alternative: this record claims the emancipation of women, the fight against this order of things that no longer suits anyone. Fiesta En El Vacio is a cry from the heart for and an encouragement to hope.
Halbert kicks off "OUR STORY“ EP with no fear and no compromises to his sound legacy. It has been produced during the last year in the neighborhood of Santa Catalina - where everything is happening - under the experience and influence of local parties such as private villas and small sweaty clubs.
A1 "OLEEVA" features a weird half-tempo break, grooving along a 4x4 kick and Bmore loop style. The "Spanish" trumpets act as an irresistible hook, leaving a long lasting impression. A fusion of folklore and timeless sounds, "Oleeva" is a true party anthem that defies genres. Continuing the journey, A2 "WHAT IS IT?" is a playful cocktail-Molotov made of fat FM rolling bassline, slap bass guitar, arabic strings, and other mind-bending surprises. Get ready to let loose and immerse yourself in this freaky gem.
On the flip, B1 "SECRET PATH" delivers a functional old catchy house jam with a non-directional arrangement where organic meets dark electronic synth sound. An ideal companion for a pool party or daytime vibes. Wrapping up the EP, B2 ”POWER UP!" shines as a high energy breakbeat tune influenced by Plank Records sound. Featuring an evolving big guitar synth stab, lively percussion, uplifting trancy synths and robust old school bass.
Mixed by Halbert and Hamid at MariaDiaz Studio. Mastered by Marco Pellegrino at AnalogCutMastering Berlin.
The first solo excursion on Half Grand Records comes from label boss, Jon Doppler. Clocking in at 37 minutes, this collection plays more like a mini album than a 12”.
The Artifact is full of the cavernous electro vibes that Doppler hinted at on the previously released compilations from the label. And if this record is an Artifact, it belongs at the bottom of the Mariana Trench with its alien percussion and deep, fluid bass.
It’s hard to pick a favorite as any one of these tracks would add atmosphere and color to a set. “Sapphire” sounds like it would perfectly underscore the discovery of an ancient Atlantean civilization. While Tar Like Gold’s driving, arpeggiated basslines and vocal samples “tomorrow holds the key” look to the future.
Take a listen and see for yourself, there’s a lot to love on this one.
For fans of Morphology, CPU records, Versalife
- A1: Mind Against & Sideral - Criseide
- A2: Remcord - Entourage Effect
- B1: Dyzen - Talk To Me
- B2: Read The News - A Space
- B3: Losless - Ground Echoes
- C1: Ivory - There Would Come A Day
- C2: Beswerda - Out Of The Blue
- D1: Ae Ther - Disco Biscuit
- D2: Vaert - High Hopes
- D3: Momery - Ophelia Ft. Running Pine
- E1: Marino Canal - Ample
- E2: Nandu - Ygi
- F1: Enos - Supernova
- F2: Sam Shure - Plus Ultra
- F3: Laroz - Don't Touch Ft. Sheera
Mind Against launch their eagerly awaited imprint Habitat with a 15-track compilation titled “METAFLORA”, available as a deluxe transparent vinyl 3LP box set including a 24x12” fold-out poster.
Suitably, the compilation features new and emerging artists with whom Mind against have relationships, and recurrent motifs of subtly unsettling melodic house/techno building alternate worlds in soundscapes.
Mind Against & Sideral – ‘Criseide’ heralds this new world with portentous pounding beat/bass, the melodic synth singing beneath like beauty surviving under threat, the vocal/lyrics with an edge of alarm: ‘if you think it couldn’t happen to you…’
‘Talk To Me’ by Dyzen (who also collab’ed with Mind Against on their fabric presents compilation) has stately chords riding a prancing beat while sombre piano and sweet high vocal create a heraldic, post-apocalyptic nu-medieval world, whereas Sam Shure’s ‘Plus Ultra’ has rattling percussion, with melody like a coded message from an abandoned spaceship to which something replies in stark tones…
Marino Canal, whose debut album was released by Nicole Moudaber’s MOOD, and who has support from many big names including fabric’s founder Keith Reilly, features plangent notes veering up, down and off the scale for a disturbing effect in ‘Ample’, while Swiss duo Read The News in ‘A Place’ set a fast, kicking beat against a female voice yearning for ‘a space where I can just be’.
Remcord, often played by Black Coffee, Tale of Us and more besides MA, show us why in ‘Entourage Effect’ while Laroz gives a lively melody and raucous chords in ‘Don’t Touch’ feat. Sheera as her cool, raunchy, layered vocals come to the fore.
The debut release from Sofia Grant delves into the topic of environmentalism, a subject close to her heart and a topic foremost in the minds of many. With smoky vocals and accompanied by spectacular musicianship from the likes of Poppy Daniels, Ernesto Marichales, Lorenz Osengor Okello, Sofia has created a five track EP that introduces a noteworthy talent to the Jazz re:freshed catalogue. In keeping with her values, Sofia specifically requested that the physical format be pressed on eco-friendly vinyl which produces a uniquely coloured product that utilises recycled materials and offsets carbon emissions created in its manufacture....
The wax is hot. The tunes are massive. Oath’s sub-label, Last Year at Marienbad, dispenses a foursome of punchy house tracks for its fifth release, lovingly crafted by some of the genre’s finest producers.
‘The Way We Flow’ by Sam Paradise pairs detuned, lo-fi samples with thumping kicks, and muffled drums. Just when those innocent lo-fi elements simmer, the drums slam back into your periphery harder than ever, making for an absolute dancefloor smasher.
‘De Nuit (3 A.M)’ by Nu-Cleo descends deeper. Swinging drums and chocolatey, indulgent keys lay the basis for a hypnotic acid bassline. Real tension builder.
Flipping over to the B-Side – careful, it’s hot – is ‘She Wrote’ by Gloved Hands. Seemingly just a ride through a well-made bouncing synth and house groove combo at first, this track soon shows off Gloved Hands’ knack for leftfield flavours. There’s an unexpected trap-esque vocal that gets re-contextualised for the club alongside piercing synths and a bulging broken beat.
‘Hard Deep’ by Rick Wade is an obvious one. The stalwart of the house scene serves up another of his zesty, masterful grooves. Shimmering, effortless keys steer a tight drum groove while a subtle bassline nestles between the kick’s low end.
Four cuts from four house experts. Is there much more a dancefloor could ask for?
Repress.
Back in 2015, Japanese DIY house pioneer Soichi Terada stepped back into the limelight courtesy of Rush Hour's 'Sounds From The Far East', a Hunee curated retrospective of material first released on his own Far East Recording label in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buoyed by the positive response and renewed interest in his work, Terada went back into studio to record his first new album of house music for over 25 years, Asakusa Light.
Developed over 18 months, Terada tried to recreate the mental and physical processes that led to the creation of his acclaimed earlier work. Those familiar with Terada’s celebrated, dancefloor-focused sound of the 1990s – a vibrant, atmospheric, and emotive take on deep house powered by the twin attractions of groove and melody – will find much to enjoy on Asakusa Light.
“I tried to recall my feelings 30 years ago, but when I tried it, I found it super difficult,” he explains. “I didn’t even know what I thought about myself five years ago, and the mental metabolic cycle seems to be faster than I thought. I tried different methods, including digging up my old MIDI data and composing by remembering old experiences. With the help of Rush Hour, I found some of the light from my heart that I had 30 years ago. I nicknamed the light I found in my heart, ‘Asakusa Light’.”
Produced using the very same synthesizers and drum machines that powered his 1990s work, the album is a joyous, colourful and life-affirming collection of timeless house music that not only recalls Terada’s own impeccable back catalogue, but also that of similarly celebrated contemporaries such as the Burrell Brothers or Ben Cenac (Dream 2 Science, Sha-Lor).
Terada, who has spent much of the last two decades writing video game music, has always had a gift for combining warm, undulating synthesizer basslines and perfectly programmed machine drums with stirring chords, smile-inducing melodies and mellow musical flourishes. It’s this immersive, sun-kissed and tuneful trademark style that takes centre stage on Asakusa Light, an album for the ages.
The set begins with the alien-sounding chords, soft-touch percussion and dawn-friendly warmth of ‘Silent Chord’ and ends on a high via the bouncing string stabs, starlight chords and thickset grooves of ‘Blinker’; in between, you’ll find a deluge of effortlessly feelgood music that’s the aural equivalent of a dopamine rush at sunrise.
There are subtle variations aplenty throughout the album – see the 8-bit lead lines and pulsing electronic textures of ‘Takusambient’, the vintage Tony Humphries flex of ‘Diving Into Minds’ and the effortlessly funky ‘Marimbau’ – but it’s the uniquely atmospheric, vivid and tactile nature of Terada’s loved-up sound that resonates. After well over 30 years in house music, the light in his heart is shining brighter than ever.
Two mavericks, out on the weekend, trying to make it pay...
"Maverick was the word that came to mind when I listened to this music. A slightly wayward independence of spirit and outlook. The word originally referred to an unbranded male calf that had become separated from the herd (because Texan rancher Sam Maverick was so negligent in his branding - ‘if it ain’t branded, it’s a Maverick’). But Sam’s grandson Maury Maverick gave it a different twist in his short but stormy Congressional career as the only liberal member of the Southern Democratic caucus. Maury was so out of step with his own folks that he not only voted in 1937 to make lynching a federal crime, he even addressed the House to condemn the practice as barbaric. His attempt to ban racist mob murder sadly failed, but it’s that refusal to march in step which distinguishes the two ‘mavericks’ who made this record.
Who would attempt to combine cunning ethnological forgery, Scottish folk songs, claw-hammer guitar, untutored horn-tootling, elastically relaxed drumming and garage electronic fuckery? Only Greg and Stefan, high on sea, sunshine and mis-judged micro-dosing – that’s who. ‘Don’t drown’ was offered as practical advice during the self-described ‘Yellow Submarine’ phase of making this record. And while they managed to avoid literally doing so (phew), they sound here like they got pretty ‘deep in’ to an Octopus’s sound world all their own. This surprisingly clear analogue recording has just enough Bikini Bottom grit to ensure traction. The tunes are inviting, and the sonic disruptions are too good-natured and goofy to upset even the most delicate digestion.
The sessions have had a couple of years to marinate, courtesy of some pandemic, and are here offered in that most Archducal of vinyl formats, the double ten inch. What are you waiting for, a side of Crabby Patties? Get your water-wings and dive in (unless you’re tripping)!" - Bruce Russell (The Dead C)
Pumice is the long-running, endlessly inventive project of New Zealand native Stefan Neville (1974), whose shambolic music is equally reminiscent of Kiwi pop groups such as The Clean and Tall Dwarfs as well as the country's experimental noise-rock bands like the Dead C. Largely recorded solo by himself on junky equipment, his songs typically feature blown-out guitars, wheezing chord organs, and vocals disguised by tape hiss and static.
Greg Malcolm (1965) is a guitarist from New Zealand who has played everywhere on the globe and with all most everyone, including Rosy Parlane, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama and Bruce Russell, as well as solo releases on his own label, Corpus Hermeticum, Kraak and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon.
Melts In Your Mind is the mercurial new LP by Healing Force Project, aka Italian producer Antonio Marini.
An amorphous, shapeshifting, intangible proposition, Melts In Your Mind represents Healing Force Project at it’s most fluid and alchemical yet, a melon-twisting amalgam of jazz, dub and acid house tropes mulched and rearranged in inimitable style. Seemingly live and erratic polyrhythms, liquid basslines and expressive roving keys combine with kitchen sink sample hits and rogue licks for a thrilling, constantly shifting, alive sound. It’s music that’s difficult to grasp on first or even fourth listen, and as such continues to reward on repeat. Rather than going somewhere, tracks just go, rarely repeating motifs but riffing on, digging into and working out.
Behavior Of Waves sets the scene discretely enough, a simple bass refrain that is eventually overcome with an urgent rhythm that stumbles over itself into a post-dub cavern. The title track resembles a scramble of disparate earthly sounds - lurking synthesizer, restless popping drums, West African balafon and a muted vocal sample - sucked into the same swirling black hole and dropped into another dimension, completely cohesive. Equator acts as loose-limbed palette cleanser, an unmoored drift gently driven forward by an insistent snare roll and improv piano stabs. Inharmonious Layer stands out on the record for being less reliant on samples and by it’s relatively predictable unfolding, a queasy acid lope from the darkest corner of a deviant dancefloor, while on Diaphonization Marini flexes his aptitude with drum sampling, a bouncing excursion in sampled loops interrupted by unironic jazz cliches, the product of an omnivorous lover of the genre’s high and low. Melts In Your Mind closes on the droning tambura, ethereal pads and scattered rhythm of Two Waves In The Dark, a suitably metaphysical and ultimately peaceful resting place for a record that challenges perceptions from the outset.
Marini has released records as Healing Force Project on Firecracker, Berceuse Heroique, Bedouin and most recently Beat Machine Records. He’s based in Treviso, Italy.
Melts In Your Mind was written, produced and mixed by Antonio Marini. It was mastered by Chris Wang. Art and design by Ginji Kimura.
Drumcode is set to release ‘Elevate’ a 10-track compilation showcasing cuts from a fresh array of label family and friends, including BEC, Juliet Fox and rising talent Chelina Manuhutu, Tini Gessler and DJ Dee. The project is also testament to techno’s global appeal with artists coming from Japan, China and Australia, as well as across the UK and Europe.
Always with an eye on the future, ‘Elevate’ sees a total of seven artists make their Drumcode debut split across three vinyl EPs. The third and final part sees Tini Gessler, Marie Vaunt and BEC let loose three future Drumcode classics.
Blistering come-back from Culted with five multi-tempo’d bangers, something for every tribal gathering from chic Tulum rituals to the brutalism of Eastern-European underground clubs, rounded off by doses of Italian Rasta and Japanese re-imagining of Hungarian folk song. Cult wizardry at it’s finest, once again!
What A Funky Night! Now officially remastered from the original analogue master tapes and pressed onto wax in its full length as a super sound single with the original artwork and extensive liner notes. Right in time for the 40th anniversary of this killer boogie funk tune straight outta Vienna.
On the flipside you got a previously unreleased version of Marihuana that surfaced during the reissue process. This earlier version was recorded during the 'Camera' LP sessions - slower than the familiar version on the 'Tight' LP.
Freestyle Records presents Albert "Alchemist" Thompson's Promise Land, an EP featuring vocals from reggae & dancehall greats Frankie Paul, Joseph Cotton, Prince Malachi & Anthony John, representing a musical collection that has gradually evolved, matured & marinated over the course of the past 32 years - now finally seeing it's first ever release.
Albert Thompson (brother to the great Peter Chemist) was chief engineer at the storied I&I Sound Recording Studio after it moved it's base from Los Angeles to Jamaica in 1989, working with a wide range of heavyweight artists such as Dennis Brown, Bunny Wailer, Mighty Diamonds, Gregory Isaacs & many many more. During some studio downtime in early 1991, Albert laid down the rhythm track (itself a take on Aswad's Love Fire riddim, made most famous by Dennis Brown's iconic Promised land vocal track) with musical assistance from Tony Thomas.
16 years and a move to London later, Albert had founded his Alchemist Recording Studio on Brixton's Acre Lane in a space above the legendary Supertone Records - recording dubplates with talented local artists and touring Jamaican artists alike. Digging out the Promise Land tape, he proceeded to cut these 4 vocals on the version during the course of 2007. Another 16 years gone, and after hearing the tracks following a chance encounter with Albert in South East London, we felt they were finally ready to see release!
8 years almost to the day after releasing his unique re-interpretation album of his field recordings made in the late 90's in Tanzania, Kink Gong is back with another volume of bushmen madness. Here’s what Kink Gong aka Laurent Jean-neau has to say about his end of millennium trip:
‘’My experience in Tanzania is now over 20 years and most of the so called remix was started in Tanzania and left un-finished, then eventually retouched in Vienna, Paris, Shanghai, Kunming, Dali or Vientiane. 20 years later I searched my Tanzanian files and rediscovered unfinished tracks which are being now refreshed on this new record.
Back to the early days of the XXI century, when I lost my health trying to survive with the HADZAs, the last bushmen in northern Tanzania. In 1999 James Stephenson from NYC invited me to join his Hadzas friends. I would leave the bush to rest in a place with enough food and electricity and start to edit, loop and work on the original recordings, to trans-form them into organic abstract compositions, the only instrument I had recorded a lot with the Hadzas was the malimba and I bought different malimbas in Arusha to take back with me to Europe, I used either the original record-ings or me playing malimbas on some tracks and applied some electronic treatment to it, at that time I used Roland synths for some tracks.
The original recordings are related to scenes at night by the fire with the Hadzas, but also 3 different types of celebra-tions, Epeme Men was recorded on a moonless night with men and women singing and dancing in complete dark-ness in Mangola, an Hadza camp. Irawk Drum Under the Rain was recorded during daytime at a Multi ethnic gathering at the Franciscan Spanish catholic mission with a crowd dancing and singing under heavy rain while an IRAWK large (and wet) drum was being played, Northern Tanzania. Makonde Island was recorded in southern Tanzania at the boarder with Mozambique and is a pure scene of trance taking place on an island where the MAKONDE fishermen off the coast of Mtwara, get wild, hitting plastic containers for the sound, drunk and stoned men and women are hysterical-ly jumping and falling on each other, ending up with a few wounded.
Once again I'm responsible for this act of multicultural sabotage, but don’t forget that you can always listen to the origi-nal recordings on the Kink Gong recs collection. ‘’
Laurent Jeanneau, Berlin 2023
Drumcode is set to release ‘Elevate’ a 10-track compilation showcasing cuts from a fresh array of label family and friends, including BEC, Juliet Fox and rising talent Chelina Manuhutu, Tini Gessler and DJ Dee. The project is also testament to techno’s global appeal with artists coming from Japan, China and Australia, as well as across the UK and Europe.
Always with an eye on the future, ‘Elevate’ sees a total of seven artists make their Drumcode debut split across three vinyl EPs. The third and final part sees Tini Gessler, Marie Vaunt and BEC let loose three future Drumcode classics.
Bingo Club demands no rules for entry. Everyone knows your name. The hours are endless and the dress code remains
unspoken.
Martin Rousselot opened the doors to the Bingo Club at the dawn of the 2020's. Joined by Neysa Barnett, Vassili
Yatchinovsky, Marie-Paule Bargès and Emile Larroche, Bingo Club puts down its signature sound-stamp and juggles with
styles of different kinds; if five songs throb to the clank-clank of New York trains, five more drift lazily like Marseille's sailspotted waves.
Group signifiers and visual tropes are reduced to a molten wash of melodies and images that, whether heard or seen, unite
kindred spirits.
Whether as a duo or as a soloist, in English or in French, a warm mix of soothing voices is blanketed by soft rock
instrumentation. The videos are filmed with an analogue camera across the four corners of the globe.
A first EP, "Separated," released in 2020, sees a collaboration with Al Carson (Weyes Blood, Ariel Pink, Jessica Pratt...). In
2021 the single "Someday," featuring Annie Lime & Jonas San, comes out. In 2022, Bingo Club presents its debut album «
Better Lucky Than Beautiful », produced and mixed in Paris at Studio CBE by David Mestre (Sebastien Tellier, Chassol, ...).
The album is a collection of ten songs, written in different times and places, like a musical travel diary or sound-postcards.
- A1: Roman Holiday
- A2: Come On A Cone
- A3: I Am Your Leader (Feat Cam'ron & Rick Ross)
- A4: Beez In The Trap (Feat 2 Chainz)
- A5: Hov Lane
- B1: Roman Reloaded (Feat Lil Wayne)
- B2: Champion (Feat Nas, Drake & Young Yeezy)
- B3: Right By My Side (Feat Chris Brown)
- B4: Sex In The Lounge (Feat Lil Wayne & Bobby V)
- B5: Starships
- C1: Pound The Alarm
- C2: Whip It
- C3: Automatic
- C4: Beautiful Sinner
- C5: Marilyn Monroe
- D1: Young Forever
- D2: Fire Burns
- D3: Gun Shot (Feat Beenie Man)
- D4: Stupid Hoe
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, also known as Roman Reloaded, is the second studio album by Nicki Minaj. Looking to transition from her debut studio album, Pink Friday (2010), Minaj wanted to make a follow-up record about “just having fun”. Stylistically, the album is divided by a first half of hip hop tracks and a second half of dance-pop songs.
Internationally, the album peaked at number one in Canada and the United Kingdom, and reached the top five in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.
The album was promoted with six singles. Its lead single “Starships” peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up singles “Right by My Side” and “Beez in the Trap” experienced moderate success on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs component chart. “Pound the Alarm” and “Va Va Voom” peaked at numbers fifteen and twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. “Automatic” was released as single only in French. The album was additionally promoted through the Pink Friday Tour and the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour, which visited North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania throughout May and December 2012.
The decade of the 80s is revived through recordings like "Eyes" that allow you to travel through the music and trigger those old emotions of innocence, joy and adventure. It's possible you don't understand a word of what they're singing in the chorus, but the song is very catchy! Maybe not even Maria Chiara Perugini knows what she sings about, but she makes you hang on to every word of her like a nursery rhyme of synths, beach and bubblegum. "Eyes" is so amazing, so mesmerizing and more and more people are discovering this italo-disco masterpiece that usually satisfies and makes fun of you at the same time. If you try playing it at 75% speed gives a hypnotic vapor wave vibe! And even more, the song would have fit well in the dance club scenes from Scarface. Beyond the words - difficult to find a text that makes sense, sometimes out of context, unundestandable even for a French listener - the piece is so surprisingly likeable for the unique tone of Clio's voice, a strange cross between teenager and adult, and the part where she spoke another language, with some really cool synthesizers, are people's favorite parts. 0:31 "Je suis bien heureuse" , 0:47 "La nuit a ses merveilles", 0:57 "Il y a de quoi y perdre la tete, pour toi, sha, pour toi", 1:36 "Je n'ai plus de bulles", 1:52 "Je vous prie applaudissement". "Eyes" by Clio contains all the emotions that a dance-pop song should contain plus the essential element of mystery, a kind of magic that takes place between the chorus and the bass line, a shot in the dark drizzly night of the Italo-Disco. made by Roberto Ferrante, a guarantee for the perfect productions of the 80s, when he was only 20 years old.
Drumcode is set to release ‘Elevate’ a 10-track compilation showcasing cuts from a fresh array of label family and friends, including BEC, Juliet Fox and rising talent Chelina Manuhutu, Tini Gessler and DJ Dee. The project is also testament to techno’s global appeal with artists coming from Japan, China and Australia, as well as across the UK and Europe.
Always with an eye on the future, ‘Elevate’ sees a total of seven artists make their Drumcode debut split across three vinyl EPs. The third and final part sees Tini Gessler, Marie Vaunt and BEC let loose three future Drumcode classics.
Originally recorded in 1978 in Belgium, Un homme dans l'univers was composed by Janko Nilovic.
This album was intended to describe musically the world events, a look at the news in sum. It's the most cinematic album
he ever made , and it was used in a lot of tv shows and movies such as "Le Daim" , "Ovnis" or "les papillons noirs".
Recently created Guatemalan label Identidata is extremely proud to present Sacratávica, the very first collected survey of Joaquín Orellana’s compositions. With a career spanning over 50 years of activity across contemporary art, performance, theater and sound art, Orellana is a highly singular figure in Guatamalan culture. Often considered to be the sole avant-garde composer in the country, his work has a deeply interdisciplinary quality. Most of his music was created using an orchestra of his self-built instruments, also known as Útiles Sonoros. Sitting at the border of sculpture, sound installation and musical instrument, these Útiles Sonoros, which he’s been building and developing since the late ‘60s, are at the center of his artistic activity.
Aside the obvious formal aspect, his compositions also have a strong political message, while being deeply rooted in Guatemalan history, folklore and various identities, both indigenous and modern. Playful opener “Híbrido a presión” was one of the first of his compositions to be performed entirely using the Útiles Sonoros. However, due to its technical complexity the piece was seldom reproduced, except for a later staging that Orellana directed in Louisville, Kentucky. “Ramajes”(1984), initially titled “Evocación profunda y ramajes de una marimba” , tracks the many incarnations of the marimba across history, before reaching its final form as one of Orellana’s instruments by combining vibrational percussion with melody and poetry fragments.
The title track, ‘’Sacratávica’’, represents one of the most ambitious and emotionally charged pieces from the album. An expansive 22 minute composition mixing textures that mimick field recordings and multi-layered vocal melodies culminating in choral catharsis, ‘’Sacratávica’’ deals in baroque maximalism without ever feeling cluttered. For the casual listener, the track immediately stands out, not only because of the moving vocal layered harmonies, but also through its epic scale and strong sonic narrative. Dubbed “Las voces del Rio Negro”, the piece references the massacres that took place in Coban during a period where the army massacred numerous towns, throwing the bodies in the nearby Rio Negro (the Black River).
Final track, “Fantoidea”, a glistening, metallic ambient improvisation, was a reimagining of Disney’s Fantasia using Paul Dukas’s “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” as inspiration.
Despite his work being presented in numerous exhibitions and concerts in various prestigious museums and theaters across the world, very few quality recordings exist to date. The only previously available recordings so far or either of very poor quality or did not receive enough attention. This is why, although The compositions presented not being previously unheard, having them all together in a high quality audio object represents a key moment In Guatemalan and Latin American culture.
Recorded on August 31st 2016 during a historical concert attended by over 1000 people at the Centro Cultural Miguel Angel Asturias, designed by Efrain Recinos, one of Guatemala’s leading contemporary artist from the last century, the four pieces were performed by a selection of over 90 musicians (including 60 vocalists) who were already familiar with Orellana’s instruments, cherry-picked from the Guatemalan Conservatory.
For the people behind Identidata, it has been a long and arduous process to put together these pieces. Trying to offer a panoramic view of Orellana’s work, the curators have selected pieces ranging from different decades and artistic periods. Sacratávica is a portrait of a singular artist whose work speaks not only to his culture, but carries strong aesthetic sensibilities that resonate universally.
- A1: Green Light Go! (Feat Andy Cooper)
- A2: Mash Up The Sound
- A3: Stanky Funk (Feat Bootie Brown)
- A4: Tear The Place Up (Feat Andy Cooper)
- A5: Hypnotise
- A6: Reconcile (Feat Charles Morgan)
- B1: Never Gonna Let Go
- B2: Interpretación De Mamá
- B3: Vamonos (Feat Andy Cooper & Marietta Smith)
- B4: Sometimes I Wonder
- B5: Push Right Through (Feat Andy Cooper &Amp; Marietta Smith)
- B6: Treat You Right
- B7: Take Another Look At It (Feat Marietta Smith)
In the fall 2021, Belgian saxophone player Robin Verheyen was invited by Kunstencentrum KAAP and W.E.R.F. records to play a solo concert during AMOK festival in the beautiful Bruges baroque church Walburga. The haunting concert was recorded in its entirety and additionally an extra recording session was scheduled in the Chamber Music Hall of the Bruges Concertgebouw. Both rooms have one thing in common: special acoustics. The playful dialogue Robin created with both spaces created an extremely unique sound and formed the basis for the title of this first solo album: Playing The Room.
Over the past two decades, Robin Verheyen has proven to be not only one of Belgium's brightest saxophonists of his generation, but also that he is a musical jack-of-all trades. Within his band with dEUS frontman Tom Barman - TaxiWars - he demonstrated his ability to rock, while with Bach Riddles he showed that he is no stranger to baroque music either. In his own bands he was often surrounded with illustrious American jazz greats like Joey Baron or Marc Copland, but with 'Playing The Room' Robin proves that he can hold his own as well and what an exceptional musician and improviser he is.
Playing The Room offers the listener a musical journey full of discoveries on the edge of spirituality and virtuosity. The album will be officially released on W.E.R.F records on Friday, May 5, and will be available in a limited edition on vinyl. An absolute must-have for any musical connoisseur.
Cole has provided vocals and percussion for Joey Bada$$ (“Curry Chicken”), Chiddy Bang (“Ray Charles"), Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, Aloe Blacc, Nickodemus, Little Jackie, and more. -William's vocal performances have been featured on television shows as prominent as Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America, The Jools Holland Show, and The Craig Ferguson Show. Cole Williams debut 7" single on the Soul Tune imprint known for launching Maria Sanchez career, and for having a genuine and classic soul sound. This 45 is certainly no exception! "A Better Woman" brings you back to the golden age of soul in the 60´s. Cole´s voice is described by many as hypnotizing and unique. Fantastic Soul music! Look out for the album!
La Monte Young was a primary influence on Minimalism, the Fluxus movement and performance art through his legendary compositions of extended time durations and the development of just intonation and rational number based tuning systems. With wife and collaborator, artist Marian Zazeela, they would formulate the composite sound environments of the Dream House. Seeing reissue for the first time since its initial 1969 release, Young and Zazeela's first full-length album is often referred to as »The Black Record« due to Zazeela's stunning cover design, complete with the composer's liner notes in elegant hand-lettered script.
- A1: Euphoria (Feat Liz)
- A2: Everybody (Feat 10K Caash & Zelooperz)
- A3: Dreams 1000000 (Feat Milk)
- A4: Slip N Slide
- A5: Bite That 2 (Feat Trinidad James)
- B1: Sideroom
- B2: Bunny Lava (Feat Virgen Maria)
- B3: No Antidote (Feat Ripparachie)
- B4: Static (Feat Banshee)
- B5: Ya! (Feat 645Ar)
- B6: Never Leave (Feat Milk)
JIMMY EDGAR's latest release for Innovative Leisure, LIQUIDS HEAVEN, is a psychedelic canvas of future R&B, euphoric bass, mutant tear-theclub-up rap, foundation-splintering noise, and gossamer soul.
On a surface level, it is a starburst of avant-garde fusion, collecting a diverse cast of eccentric geniuses and re- configured into an anthology of n - musique concrete.
As with all of his work, there is a deeper and subversive intent.
Do not mistakenly believe that LIQUIDS HEAVEN is merely a technicolor dream of ethereal abstractions. It bangs as hard as anything to ever bump from a subwoofer.
Over a polychromatic blast of crunk, bounce on Everybody like a rap
rave inside a 31st century space station. Bite That 2 finds Trinidad James spitting flames over booty- shaking, wall- crumbling bass. On Ya, 645AR chirps over a metallic chassis of booming industrial funk.For all the high energy propulsion, there is a counter-balance of melancholic beauty.
The album's opener, Euphoria features a Liz Y2K vocal that levitates with plaintive longing. The Milk- aided Dreams 1000000 sounds like the chimerical soundtrack to a manga utopia that needs to be imagined. Milk also appears on the finale, Never Leave, which
captures a bittersweet sadness, the wistful emotion of the tide slipping away.
Jimmy's career has been a series of fascinating left- turns. Signed to Warp Records as a teenage electronic music prodigy, his work needs a scholarly bibliography to properly assess. He's recorded for the world's most respected imprints (Warp, K7, Hotflush, Innovative Leisure and his own New Reality Now).
Raised in Detroit, there have been stints soaking up inspiration in Berlin, Atlanta, LA, and New York. His list of close collaborators includes the most innovative musicians of the millennium, including Hudson Mohawke, Danny Brown, SOPHIE, DAWN, Mykki Blanco, Vince Staples, and several full projects with Machinedrum
as J-E-T-S.
Frankfurt's celebrated producer, Philip Lauer returns to Especial, this time teaming up with Berlin based vocalist Dena for a special collaboration, covering Julie Stapleton's soulful House classic with a modern interpretation across a number of versions (vinyl and digital).
After the success of the Hotel Lauer EP on Especial way back in 2016, Lauer has continued his ascendency with albums for Permanent Vacation and Running Back, as well as releasing a string of sure-fire, dancefloor friendly EPs for the likes of Cin Cin, Futureboogie and Skatebard's Digitalo Enterprises.
Born and raised in Bulgaria, before making the move the music mecca of Berlin, Denitza Todorova has a carved a path with her electronic, dance pop stylings across releases for the likes of K7 and Kitsune Music. First appearing on Make It Stay from Lauer's last album, it jumped out as the perfect partnership to bring the raw, soulful and uplifting sounds of the cult V4 Visions label up to date. Founded by Alex Palmer, the label was part of the UK's early 90s club sound, releasing street soul, deep house and more, in Where's Your Love Gone, Palmer and 18-year-old writer/vocalist Julie Stapleton hit on the perfect marriage of Lovers Rock and Street Soul yearning with the haunting sounds of US House. Presented as a new take on the classic, but with utmost respect, the EP starts with the Club Mix, a Larry Heard bassline joins a marimba melody, lifting Dena's vocals of youth's lost love and pain. This is followed by the Demo Mix, a warm, beautiful string laden original take that Lauer and the label felt had to be included.
DJ Slyngshot is welcomed to provide a deep, tech remix. A name to watch via his releases on his YAPPIN label and recent EP for Workshop, his remix is an analogue twist of hypnotic, raw dub techno percussion and counter breaks builds as string and piano join. The EP ends in the Synthapella, as bongos, cowbell and whistle are added to create a drifting Balearic version for late summer nights and dawn that highlight Dena's vocals in a 'sunrise' light.
- A1: Cosmic Neman & Prins Emanuel - La Plainte Du Pouce
- A2: Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Nabihah Iqbal - Nab
- A3: Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Maria Spivak - Messy
- A4: Maria Spivak & Prins Emanuel - Kiriaki
- A5: Prins Emanuel & Cosmic Neman - Le Chant De Teodosia
- A6: Maria Spivak & Cosmic Neman - Ne Oxi
- B1: Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Maria Spivak - Sadcrying
- B2: Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Prins Emanuel - No One Knows
- B3: Maria Spivak & Prins Emanuel - Allazo
- B4: Jaakko Eino Kalevi & Cosmic Neman - Adieu Spatial
- B5: Nabihah Iqbal & Prins Emanuel - Eels In The Auditorium
- B6: Nabihah Iqbal & Maria Spivak - Ritual
Extra Muros is an annual itinerant artistic residency initiated in 2017. The third edition was co-organised during the winter 2021-2022 by the FLEE art collective in collaboration with the Music Department of the Museum of Ethnography, Geneva (MEG). Five artists participated in this residency including: Prins Emanuel, Nabihah Iqbal, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Cosmic Neman, and Maria Spivak.The residency was held at the MEG in two phases. The first part of the residency and encounter represented an opportunity for the artists to explore the museum’s archives, collections, and exhibition spaces. The second phase was dedicated to the composition and production of original musical content in an ephemeral studio set up in the auditorium of the Genevan institution.
In this context, the pieces presented in this album were all conceived during this residency. Having never worked together, the five artists and musicians, each with their own distinct musical path, discovered a variety of sound resources at the Museum. These included eleven traditional instruments from the African continent, Asia and Oceania from the MEG collections, as well as synthetisers, audio effects units, amplifiers and several other vintage emblematic analog electronic devices from the collection of the Swiss Museum and Center for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM) in Fribourg. In addition, recordings of traditional music from the five continents belonging to the museum’s International Archive of Folk Music (IAFM) were also made available to the artists.
In pairs, the residency’s participants were able to combine their respective creative worlds with the museum’s historical instruments as well as sound archives. This compilation is the result of this rich dialogue.
"Le Disque De l'Art Gué" highlights in a 10-track compilation the avant-garde and dreamlike work of Fizzè, in between medieval ballad, acoustic industrial and psychedelic world music. It includes original tracks from "Kulu Hatha Mamnua" and "Manoeuvres d'Automne" albums released in 1987 + unreleased materials and remixes by Fizzè.
Compilation, concept and production by Fizzé, Orsett & Fischer
Analog mastering by Tim Stollenwerk
Drawings, obi strip and insert layout by Anne-Marie Gratton
The record cover represents the acrylic painting "Till" by Alex Rabus
Arp Frique returns to the scene with a new album after a string of releases, leaving the cratediggers and dancefloor tastemakers with underground classics like Nos Magia, Voyage and Nyame Ye. On ''Analog People Digital World' he embraces the digital coldness of Yamaha’s classic DX7 synthesizer to create a refreshing listening experience using only the FM synthesis-based sounds from this machine to find new heat for an analog world, reflecting on the digital revolution we are living through. The album features Ghanaian songstress Mariseya (Omampam, Jah Kingdom, Digital World, Roi Salomon), Cape Verdean OG Americo Brito (Go Now Wetiko) and Surinam funkstar Sumy, who joins the record on the opening track “Spiritual Masseuse”. Arp Frique closes the album with “Duncan Truffle”, a very intense and wobbling instrumental echoing Bootsy and Bernie Worrell on a solo exercise. Expect an analog-digital exploration of lofi funk, highlife, zouk and reggae. Does that DX7 sound hot or cold to you?
repressed !
From samba and bossa nova through to baile funk, with carioca expressions of jazz, rock and hip hop in between, the sound of Rio de Janeiro, while continually evolving, has always held an unnameable quality which reflects the magic and mystique of the city itself. Multi-instrumentalist and arranger Antonio Neves is the city’s newest trailblazer: the enfant-terrible of Rio’s music scene, leading a vital and diverse constellation of both emerging and well-known artists advancing the city’s musical legacy.
“It all started one sleepless night, after watching a Quincy Jones documentary”. Inspired by the legendary music magnate, Neves began writing a list of artists residing in Rio de Janeiro “people that I admire, that I consider geniuses of their instruments, who share with me affinities, anxieties and projects.” The list included some of Brazil’s most revered living musicians who Neves has worked with in recent years: Hamilton de Holanda, Leo Gandelman and Dorival Caymmi. Neves also called on some of Brazil's most exciting emerging talents including Alice Cayymii and Ana Frango Eletrico.
A Pegada Agora É Essa (The Sway Now) is Neves’ second album: a vibrant portrait of the current Brazilian music scene. From the regional to universal, popular to erudite, samba to rap, Latin rhythms to jazz, MPB and pop to good old rock'n'roll, Neves walks with fluency and mastery amongst all the musical genres that Brazil has to offer.
“My offer to the musicians was complete freedom to express themselves through the songs I proposed – classics like “Summertime”, “Luz Negra” and “Noite de Temporal”, and compositions of my own – creating a space of authorship for the band and the guests. A space for inventions, purges, delusions, laughter. The idea was to bring the freedom of jazz crossed by Brazilian rhythms, such as the traditionals Partido Alto (A Pegada Agora É Essa) and Jongo (Jongo no Feudo and Luz Negra); rhythms of African-Brazilian religions like Candomblé (Noite de Temporal) and Umbanda (Forte Apache); and a tribute to newest Rio de Janeiro’s contribution to Brazilian music, the Funk Carioca (Simba)”.
Coming from a musical family, Antonio’s father, Eduardo Neves, was a renowned conductor and a professor at Juilliard School of Music and the California Jazz Conservatory. In the bohemian neighbourhood of Lapa, aged 14, Antonio began his career as a drummer, before experimenting with brass. He would soon become a skilled trombonist and arranger achieving the recognition of his teachers and peers. It wasn’t long before he would be playing with some of the biggest names in Brazilian music, such as Hamilton de Holanda, Leo Gandelman, Moreno Veloso, Kassin and Elza Soares.
His debut album as a trombonist was PA7 (2017, Rock It), released at the same time he was travelling the world playing with artists like Moreno Veloso, Kassin and Leo Gandelman, and recording the albums Jobim, Orquestra e Convidados (2017, Biscoito Fino), with Mário Adnet and Paulo Jobim; and Elza Soares Canta e Chora Lupi (2017, Coqueiro Verde Records). More recently, Neves was the arranger for the acclaimed Little Electric Chicken Heart album, by Ana Frango Elétrico, which has been nominated for a Latin Grammy and voted 2019’s ‘Brazilian Music Revelation’ by The Art Critics Association of São Paulo.
In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) began to realise their own potential.
With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally free and expressive music - in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground.
Just like Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som from the following year, Starting Point was recorded over two days at Vice-Versa Studios, by revered engineer Renato Viola. The studio was one of the best in Sao Paulo and musicians communicated with engineers through cameras and a monitor, allowing the group complete immersion in the process. They also made use of the studio’s hemispherical tiled room, which served as an acoustic reverberation chamber.
The album begins with Zé Eduardo Nazario’s thunderous drum solo on “Porão da Teodoro”, before clearing the clouds with the lone Berimbau which opens “Onze Por Oito”. Built around a hypnotic electric bass line, heady Fender Rhodes improvisations, and more rip-roaring drums, it’s a rapturous, electrifying freak-jam in 11/8.
Like some invertebrate deep-sea curiosity, the free-form “Organica” is made up of Lelo Nazario’s playfully eerie prepared piano, with Zé Eduardo’s percussion flurries darting around Assumpçao’s double bass. The equally non-conformist, percussion-only piece “Jardim Candida” features many of Zé Eduardo’s home-made instruments, including a long saw blade played with vibraphone sticks and violin bow. While working with Hermeto, Zé Eduardo famously built his own all-in-one percussion set-up known as the “Barraca de Percussão” (Percussion Tent) - the first of its kind in Brazil, which he would also use on Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som and throughout his career.
“Suite Orquidea Negra'' (Black Orchid Suite) was written by Lelo Nazario as the score for an imaginary movie - the story of a rare, black orchid which produced a substance meant to cure all diseases, but which had mysteriously disappeared from the laboratory… “As a screenplay it’s not very good” reflects Lelo in jest, “but the music ended up being very interesting, the way its parts are chained to one another carries a little of the mystery I imagined for the movie.”
The album closes with the triumphant “Cortejo dos Reis Negros” (Procession of Black Kings) - a groovy variation on the Maracatu rhythm, with a two-note bassline underpinning piano improvisations, exultant wordless vocals, cuicas, slide-whistles and a very special guest appearance from Zé’s dog Bolinha.
Starting Point was to mark the inception of one of Brazil’s most daring instrumental groups. Their debut now sits in the lofty echelon of otherworldly 70s Brazilian music, alongside the likes of Marcos Resende & Index’s self-titled debut, Cesar Mariano & Cia’s Sao Paulo Brasil, Azymuth’s debut and indeed Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som. But just like all of those titles, which were either shelved or largely ignored at the time, Grupo Um - so radically ahead of their time - struggled to find a label to release their debut album. So Lelo kept the tapes safe in his archives, which is where they sat for almost half a century. Finally, almost fifty years later, this mesmerising piece of history is here, and it was only the beginning...
Grupo Um’s Starting Point will be released by Far Out Recordings, on vinyl LP, with an insert featuring unseen photos and liner notes by the Nazario brothers, as well as a CD on 17th February 2023.
You Can Can is an echoed affirmation, an album which traces song forms around silence, field recordings, and degraded analog memories. This is folk music transmogrified and mutated, as if recorded and reconstructed in Pierre Schaffer’s GRM studio.
Not your typical Mariposa folk duo, the group is comprised of Toronto avant-music scene stalwarts, vocalist Felicity Williams (Bernice, Bahamas) and bricolage artist and synthesist Andrew Zukerman (Fleshtone Aura, Badge Epoch). The album feels like a somnambulant conversation, fragmented and half-remembered with Williams’ vocals traveling through a landscape of field recordings and Zukerman’s saturated concrète topographies. It is an electro-acoustic assemblage, both analog and digital, comprised of air, electricity, minerals, wood, and water. Although the album nods towards traditional forms of folk and musique concrète (if at this point it can be called a traditional form), it is outwardly and inwardly contemporary; non-linear, citational, opaque, and sui generis. In a way it feels like a sonic index of the narrative experiments found on the infamous Language school-related publisher The Figures, in the work of Lyn Hejinian, Clark Coolidge, and Lydia Davis. In the musical continuum, the album picks up where Linda Perhacs left off in the early 70’s—explored by Gastr Del Sol in the ‘90s—a convergence of rural acoustic idioms and urban avant-electronics. This is country music for the discerning cosmopolitan citizen of the 21st Century.
RIYL: Luc Ferrari, Brannten Schnüre, William Basinski, Oval, Eric Chenaux, Emmanuelle Parrenin About Everything In Time and Failure Figures, Felicity Williams says:
Everything In Time is indebted to the language of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (as translated by Alison Entrekin). Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, we trace the roots of melancholy to render them available to consciousness; words from the ghostly realm of the transpersonal filter through dreams and shine a beam of light onto a lone trillium in a forest at night. Other influences include the experience of not knowing, of being subject to a gestation outside of one’s control. This is an ode to the power of naming to obliterate, to set free.
Failure Figures is a meditation on the radical contingency of reality and the vicissitudes of the will. With Slavoj Zizek as my guide (think: “Hegel for dummies” - I’m the dummy in this scenario), I wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and take heart. The last verse refers to an experience I had recording at a studio in Brussels. I was singing in French, with which I have some fluency, and the producer was complaining to the artist whose song it was that my delivery was not convincing. Thinking I was out of ear shot, he said in French, “c’est comme elle n'est pas là”; I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I failed to express anything. So what or whom is responsible for conveying meaning, if not the form of the word itself? And if the connection between meaning and form is broken, how do we fix it?
Gratitude to Thom Gill (guitar) and Daniel Fortin (bass) who joined us on the recording of Failure Figures. Thanks as well to my old roommate Christopher Willes, who unwittingly left behind his hand bells deep in the hall closet. We unearthed them by accident, and the bells became an important sound element. Thanks to other past roomies Robin Dann and Claire Harvie, whose childhood piano and guitar respectively still reside with us, and were used in the recording. Field recordings were made in Toronto, Canada and Celestún, Mexico in 2020.
- A1: Report From The Frontlines
- A2: Ask Believe Feel Receive
- A3: Lost In Solitude
- A4: Art Is The Only Real Translation Of Living For Me
- B1: We Belong To Never
- B2: Pain
- B3: Superrare
- B4: We Want To Feel Love
- C1: Musik Ist Meine Sprache
- C2: Equalista
- C3: Mirrors
- C4: Skin
- D1: Free
- D2: Still Feat Pascal Schumacher
- D3: Afterhour
ENARCHY is the debut album by Leipzig-based producer and singer Maria die Ruhe. It is the result of a deep and thorough look the
artist took into both her own inner workings and the world around her. In 14 tracks, she explores different types of energy,
oscillating between head and heart. Final destination of this sometimes painful process of self- exploration is the embodiment of
her own power and creativity; the realization, that she manifests her role as catalyst, healer, and fighter for freedom and equality
by reporting on her experiences. These songs are about nothing less than that. And you can also dance to them.
In a musical sense, Maria surpasses herself compared to previous releases. She is bolder, more explorative and dissolves genre
boundaries. Acoustic instruments like the cello and the piano unite playfully with electronic beats. Her expressive voice speaks and
sings from the lowest lows to the loftiest heights. Her self-disclosing lyrics communicate the deepest messages of the soul. One can
tell right away: something is at stake here, this is about a real human living through something real, and now reporting from the
front lines of the human experience.
With lines like „Things are changing all the fucking time“ (ENARCHY) she posts a reminder for the current zeitgeist and the resulting
global uncertainty. „Some things need to be destroyed before they can heal“ is a demand for openness towards change, even if it is
challenging, requires energy, and leaves behind some scars.
In ART IS THE ONLY REAL TRANSLATION OF LIVING FOR ME, Maria uses sentences like „I’ve been trying to please you, I got headaches
and I still don’t fit“ to express her desperation with existing structures of injustice and the lack of livability of the artist lifestyle.
„Ah, you’re an artist - and what do you do professionally?“ Everyone loves music and art! When, o when, will the understanding
follow that there need to be people who make this art as a central part of their lives?
Frustration takes turns with hope and a growing acceptance of the self. In EQUALISTA, Maria discusses antiquated conditions like the
inequality between the sexes in a kind of manifesto, with a simple proposal for solution: „Let’s both be selfish and raise our
energies, to create a whole world with all the things we need.“
In WE BELONG TO NEVER, Maria sings about the everyday horror of toxic relationships. Lines like „Disengagement and rage, I’ve become such a slave.“ express the despair of the emptiness that results from a lack of affection. She also describes treacherous
narcissistic manipulation: „You cut me small just to feel tall.“
In SKIN, she confesses: „I’m not as enough as everyone else.“ and describes the long and painful way from rejecting her own body
to loving herself unconditionally. „I hate what I feel, while I pretend to be free“ means she doesn’t want to be reduced down to
her body, doesn’t want to be seen as an instagrammable, thoroughly designed product; she wants to be acknowledged as an
individual.
In LOST, she poses a question that many are currently forced to ask themselves: „What do we do with all this solitude?“ Maybe
making use of the reclusion by exploring the shadow self. „Can you cope with the truth?“
The conclusion: energy is being freed up through the means of self-experience and living through the personal darkness -
ENARCHY. The realization: every human being is self-determined and should simply do what they feel. It is everyone’s right to
choose their own life’s path. Here, intuition serves as a signpost. This is both feminine and strong.
ENARCHY celebrates an embodied anarchy by working through the personal shadow and the genuine, healthy integration of the
struggle survived - not as a destructive rebellion, but as a testament of shameless, joyful self-empowerment.
„In the end, I want to be alive, because in reality, I’m free.“
Last year the Atlanta artist releaed her debut EP Swan, made with producer Marshall Vore who is known for his work with folk dynamo Phoebe Bridgers. The five song col¬lection found a supportive home with Royal Mountain Re¬cords, and drew remarkable acclaim for a debut EP, earning praise from outlets like NPR, FADER, Nylon, Paste, Under The Radar, Coup De Main and Line of Best Fit among many others.
When I’m Alone is the debut album from Girlpuppy. Across the record, Harvey weaves in several cinematic allusions: a Keanu Reeves look alike pops up in “Teenage Dream,” named for the alternate title of an ‘80s movie he stars in;
- A1: Bonobo Feat Innov Gnawa - Bambro Koyo Ganda
- A2: Moullinex & Selma Uamusse - Ngoma Nwana
- A3: Bonga - Mona Ki Ngi Xica (Pablo Fierro Remix)
- A4: Vaudou Game Feat Roger Damawuzan - Pas Contente
- A5: Philippe Cohen Solal Feat Angélique Kidjo & Mo Laudi
- B1: Leeroy & Seun Kuti - Beasts Of No Nation (French 79 Eve
- B2: De Gama - Afrika (Radio Edit)
- B3: Daniel Rateuke - Marimbo
- B4: Cesaria Evora - Sangue De Beirona (Main Pass By Francoi
- C1: Guts - Kenke Corner
- C2: Lanu Feat Aloe Blacc & Quantic - Mother Earth
- C3: M, Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté Feat Fatoumata Di
- C4: Oumou Sangaré - Kamelemba (Pouvoir Magique Remix)
- D1: Anchorsong - Ancestors
- D2: Daniel Haaksman Feat Spoek Mathambo - Akabongi (Kapo
- D3: Nyaruach - Gatluak (Hyenah Dub)
- D4: Manu Dibango Feat M.c. Mell'o - Mincalor (Dance Mix)
After last year’s Black Clouds Above The Bows, Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ, fatally wounded in a climate related event.
All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk due to the effects caused by receding coastlines around the globe. Wailing odes tell the story of the catastrophic activity of eroding waves and winds shaping the land that are enhanced by the climate crisis. First hand experiences and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject of these receding coastlines inspired Wanderwelle to compose these albums.
During their travels, the artists stumbled upon a small church in a town on the east coast of Scotland. The building was quite damaged, the roof was being stabilized and the ancient walls showed great tears running vertically down the structure. One of the church’s volunteers told Wanderwelle that the damage had been caused by a nearby cliff that collapsed in the sea. An event increasingly common in the region.
The church organ was ruined in such a way that it was deemed unplayable, as most of the pipes were gravely damaged and in dire need of restoration. Musical instruments directly affected by the environment -and especially the climate crisis- are quite rare. Despite the damage, the artists were allowed to record a few tones of the instrument with their equipment, which was actually meant to be used for field recordings later that day.
In Black Clouds Above The Bows, antique cavalry trumpets were recorded and manipulated by Wanderwelle to sound an environmental alarm in the same manner as they were once used to warn men on the battlefield. Similar processing was used on the recordings of the dying organ, resulting in spectral, deconstructed tones beyond recognition. In addition to the damaged organ, the artists recorded piano, cello and harmonic additive synthesizers in later stages of the composition process, manipulating these sounds to mimic the perpetual activity of the sea shaping the land.Furthermore, a great deal of inspiration was found in maritime superstition, lore and mythology.
As told in the legend of Aspidochelone, a legendary sea creature of enormous size, was once mistaken for an island. After sailors docked and lit a fire, the beast submerged resembling a land mass sliding into the sea. The album’s title is derived from the saying ‘All Hands Bury The Dead’, a maritime burial phrase, as the duo likes to think ‘All Hands’ refers to all of mankind since we are all responsible for these impending catastrophes.
Cello, violin, voice, pipe organ (damaged), bowed guitar, EBow, Prophet-6 synthesizer, modular synthesizer, field recordings.
RIYL: Oliveros/Deep Listening, Arvo Part, Lambda Sond, Sarah Davachi
Die Nautik Doom Metal Meister AHAB stechen endlich wieder in See!
Acht Jahre nach ihrem von Fans und Presse gefeierten, letzten Studio Album „The Boats Of The Glenn Carrig“, welches 2015 als erstes Nautik Doom Album ever die deutschen Album Charts enterte, sowie der Veröffentlichung von „Live Prey“ (2020), wird die Doom Metal Größe AHAB im Jahr 2023 ihr 19-jähriges Bandjubiläum in glorreichem Stil feiern. Dieses Mal inspiriert von Jules Verne’s Meisterwerk 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, kehren die Wegbereiter eines ganzen Genres am 13. Januar 2023 mit ihrem fünften Studioalbum, The Coral Tombs, über Napalm Records zurück!
Die Meister des Nautik Doom Metals interpretieren musikalisch wie seither einen maritimen Roman. Doch Album Opener „Prof. Arronax’ descent into the vast oceans” entpuppt sich zunächst als Überraschung, als ein Sturm aus Blastbeats über den Hörer herein bricht, bis er in die epische Erhabenheit unendlicher
Melancholie-meets-Heavyness eintaucht, die AHAB’s unverkennlichen Sound definiert.
Auf dem Album geben sich hochkarätige Gäste wie Chris Dark von ULTHA sowie niemand Geringerer als der Meister des extremen Dooms höchstpersönlich, Greg Chandler – Sänger und Mastermind von ESOTERIC – die Ehre.
AHAB haben vor rund 19 Jahren nicht nur das Schiff ihres Genres erbaut und steuern es bis heute, doch mit The Coral Tombs werden sie ohne Frage unerreicht als eine der besten Funeral Nautik Doom Metal Bands die Top- 2023- Album Listen des Jahres anführen!
- A1: Super Violao Mashup
- A2: Who Can Say Which Way
- A3: Night Time In The Backyard
- A4: Cira Regina E Nana
- A5: Recado Para Pio Lobato
- A6: Amor Em Jacuma
- B1: Hold Me In
- B2: I Can't Live Far From My Music
- B3: Ca Pra Nos
- B4: O Violao De Mario Bros
- B5: Ripple Of The Water (Para Nana) (Para Nana)
- B6: Natureza No 1 Em Mi Maior
Very limited numbers of this old LP have surfaced from 2001!! Rising from the tragic demise of Heavenly, Marine Research are a revelation in pop music, swinging with rich, aquatic clarity. Sounds from the Gulf Stream is a much more languid approach than anything previously attempted by Amelia and co., warmly oscillating between Ursella Andress in Dr. No and Carroll Baker in Baby Doll. Diving bell deep to coral sands, breathtakingly lush reef to seashore with pail in hand. 1. Parallel Horizontal 2. You And A Girl 3. Hopefulness to Hopelessness 4. Queen B 5. Chucking Out Time 6. Glamour Gap 7. At The Lost And Found 8. Venn Diagram 9. End Of The Affair 10. Y.Y.U.B.
RAMZi's 'hyphea', the new album by Montreal based artist Phoebé Guillemot. It is her latest sonic quest containing 10 new tracks, of which some are versions of the score she made for a documentary about mushrooms called 'Fun Fungi' (directed by Frederic Lavoie).
Recorded between November 2021 and May 2022, writing 'hyphea' started off somewhat as an attempt to escape boredom and frustrations imposed by the severe restrictions during the pandemic. For Phoebé it was a way to reconnect with RAMZi who's spirit brought her back to mystical feelings and gave hope for future magical adventures after having felt disconnected for a while.
RAMZi is a wild spirit from the forest and refers to a parallel autonomous world that keeps evolving. In her own words: “The music remains as a doorway to that world. It has never been about me, I always see that entity bigger than myself. The process of writing 'hyphea' was rather intuitive. I don’t think about styles of music before producing tracks. Those are more like an adventure in itself, each one set in a different ecosystem.”
Artwork by Marinka Grondel.
'Water Temple' is the debut album of the Berlin-based group Property. Comprised of Marijn Degenaar (NL) and Vivant de Non (AUS), the group use the theme of hydromancy to straddle the poetics of reverb from a post-punk perspective. The album wanders through dense end-of-world sensations without keeping away from piercing melodic instrumentation. As hazy as 'Water Temple' can get, Property just as easily trade the murky side of their post-punk sound for analogue synthesisers that feel almost celestial. Used to striking effect on 'Water Temple', the chorus-heavy bassline is interwoven with a strident melody that punctures the rhythm and accents the Neue Deutsche Welle energy that the pair play on at certain moments. Similarly, the vocals on 'Water Tempel' flirt with our cracked times from another angle, rendering a remarkable first transmission from this new duo. Foggy synthesisers fill the cavities of every track, though the driving leads ensure the ambience never overtakes the song-structures across the album. This tendency is best captured on the downer-anthem Blood Cube with its sharp drum machine rhythm, just as Clear Boys reprises this rowdy pop edge for a forceful album closer. The burning melancholy of 'Water Temple' is as shadowy as it is enlivening Track list: 1. Empty Leather Spell 2. Diet Of Worms 3. Water Tempel 4. Sea Wall 5. Blood Cube 6. Verbreek d Eed Niet 7. Het Oerslijm 8. Clear Boys
- A1: Prelude; The City; Marion & Sam; Temptation
- A2: Flight; The Patrol Car; The Car Lot; The Package; The Rainstorm
- A3: Hotel Room; The Window; The Parlour; The Madhouse; The Peephole
- B1: The Bathroom; The Murder; The Body; The Office; The Curtain; The Water; The Car; The Swamp
- B2: The Search; The Shadow; Phone Booth; The Prch; The Stairs; The Knife
- B3: The Search; The First Floor; Cabin 10; Cabin 1
- B4: The Hill; The Bedroom; The Toys; The Cellar; Discovery; Finale
Since his Beat Diary debut (a 12xLP box set comprising 365 beats recorded daily over the course of a year), Julian Sartorius has immersed himself in unique and ambitious projects - trekking the path not travelled to arrive at rhythmic life forms through found objects and prepared instruments. Equally as mighty are his two other escapades, the most recent being Locked Grooves - 112 beats cut as endless loops on vinyl spanning 56 dense 1.8 second compositions per side. Preceding that is his auditory hike into the mountains (Hidden Tracks: Basel - Genève), wading through and playing the landscapes around him like a lithophone.
While Julian’s previous releases focus on innovative and conceptual approaches to realizing an album, his new venture on Marionette (titled Mux) is a culmination of all his efforts thus far to mimic a synthesizer and drum machine. This seemingly impossible feat challenges Julian to experiment and develop a musical language that bridges the gap between organic timbres and electronic music. When listening to Mux, one might simply forget that the seemingly electronic sounds are only constructed organically via hand movements. The common thread in all his works thus far is that the drums are treated as resonant bodies - free to flow and form rhythm and harmony in spacetime.
This is Julian’s second outing for the label, the first being (the long out of print) Sulla Pelle with Valentina Magaletti in 2019. Other collaborations include prolific artists such as Matthew Herbert, Sylvie Courvoisier, Gyda Valtysdottir, Dimlite, Shahzad Ismaily and Dan Carey (Speedy Wunderground).
AVNU (UK) follows up his fantastic recent single on Ellum Audio with a long-awaited and hugely adventurous new album, ‘Tough To Love But Worth The Effort’.
AVNU (UK) is based on the East Coast of Scotland and has been deeply immersed in music for twenty plus years. He has a love of everything from rock, soul and blues to disco, electro, techno, trance and rave. All of that comes out in his innovative sounds, which range from sweat-inducing club tracks to hooky and feel-good grooves. This album finds him working his magic across 15 tracks that bring plenty of fresh perspective to house, electro, synth, techno and pop. They add up to a storytelling record filled with left turns and tracks that work in a range of different contexts.
'Surprise!' opens with a glossy electro beat and shimmering 80s synths that set the tone for the whole record. 'I Love You' brings a French touch influence with plenty of filtered synth loops and crisp drums under a soulful vocal, then 'Supaflake' cuts loose on an old-school funk vibe with nods to early Daft Punk. This most colourful of records plays out through the likes of sombre cosmic techno offering 'Bad Karma,' the longing chords and heavy-hearted electronica of 'Odyssey Jam' feat Mariel Ito and distorted bass of 'Phlegm In The Street' which comes with laser-like synths and menacing vocals.
The future styles continue on 'Yo E, Check This Out' which collides jungle breakbeats with brain-melting sine waves, while 'Wilkie' is a moment to catch your breath amongst bright and shiny synths and deeper drums that suspend you in a celestial sky. 'Proud You’re Mine' is a perfect electro-dance-pop gem that has potential to be a summer festival anthem and the title track closes down with six minutes of enchanting and mystical synth lines and hypnotic drums.
‘Tough To Love But Worth The Effort’ is a spectacularly broad and accomplished album that lives in a world of its own.
Following on from his debut album ºs on AD93, conceptual artist Aboutface presents a new vaporous LP– a vital climate emergency-themed project which utilises poetry collected from his dreams alongside glaciology research and sound recordings captured during polar expeditions c/o the Alfred Wegener Institute – a centre for polar and marine research. Featuring long term Violin collaborator Taro and dream prose reciter Leyla Pillai, the album explores a surreal and abstract intersection between the collective dream realm and the disappearing polar cryosphere, evoking the interconnectivity between environmental change and the collective subconscious.
A self-release, all profits will go towards Extinction Rebellion’s legal fund to help provide counsel to those protesting against contributors to the climate emergency. Limited to 300 Eco renewable-energy recycled gatefold vinyl produced with Deepgrooves, NL. Downloads and streaming limited to one of Earth’s revolution of the Sun only– an ephemeral release for an ephemeral existence.
Having crested the west coast modular-ambient wave in just a few releases - including 2018's Sharing Waves on the influential LA experimental imprint Leaving Records - Sean Hellfritsch has swapped the mossy analog synth improvisations of his prior output for refined melodic arrangements dressed in sprightly dawn-of-digital textures. Big Earth Energy plumbs the depths of Hellfritsch's multimedia mind and naturalist heart, spinning an impressionistic narrative world off of cultural touchstones like the PC game MYST, and the work of Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi. Inspired by the aforementioned, and guided by Hellfritsch's experience as an animator and filmmaker, Big Earth Energy is the soundtrack to a hypothetical video game with a pointedly ecological premise, and a twist of psychedelic charm. In Hellfritsch's imagined virtual journey, the player assumes the perspective of a treefrog sixty-five-million years ago, hopping epochs with each new level, forming a comprehensive picture of the massive changes the planet has gone through over the eons. The ultimate goal of the game is not to amass resources, defeat enemies, or gain power, but to fully witness the unfolding of one of the biggest systems of energy imaginable - or as the album's creator puts it - "to explore the incomprehensibly vast energetic expression and mystery that is Earth." Big Earth Energy is steeped in exploratory RPG intrigue, possibility, and contemplation, lovingly overlaid with Miyazaki-an sentiments and aesthetics. The through-composed, organic, meandering synthesis heard on previous Cool Maritime albums has been fully replaced by meticulous polygonal arrangements that recall the computerized sheen of late 80s work by composers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa - using true-to-period gear no less. Even given its referentiality, Big Earth Energy comes off as forward-facing where so much reminiscent music remains fixed to a bygone moment in pop culture. Hellfritsch has created a musical world where the endless verdancy of the biosphere finds its parallel in the golden age of early 1990s video games, and late 80s Japanese environmental music, all while pointing to a hopeful planetary and artistic future that vindicates the motives of all of these muses.
- A1: Child Revolution (Feat Mr Mike)
- A2: Across The Universe (Feat Lolly)
- A3: Voice In Harmony (Feat Csilla - Jtv Remix 2022)
- A4: Children
- B1: Doctor House (Moreno Pezzolato Club Remix)
- B2: Paradise (Cassimm Remix)
- B3: Paradise (Federico Scavo Remix)
- B4: Put Your Hands Up Everybody (With Mr Mike - 2022 Remix)
- C1: Where Is The Man (Feat Eartha Kit - Angelo Ferreri Deep Vocal Remix)
- C2: House Disco Funky Beat (Feat Saturnino)
- C3: Paradise (Jtv Remix 2022)
- C4: Hyper Topaz
- D1: Boom Bigga (Feat Scott Foster & Silvano Delgado)
- D2: Harlem (Angelo Ferreri Remix)
- D3: Across The Universe (Feat Lolly - Reboq Remix Edi)
- D4: Yoga House
“God Is A DJ” is the new full-length by Joe T Vannelli, an album the DJ and producer has been working on for years, 13 to be exact, since his latest LP came out. The album features sixteen unreleased tracks and features huge names from all over the musical scene, both italian and international. God Is A DJ is already a cult musical project, that the house music lovers all around the world have been waiting for for years.
The two LPs take the listener through a musical journey mixing different sounds and styles: the first four tracks on Side A lean towards a melodic house sound, the very same genre that JTV took to the top of the game with his “Live On Tour” series of streaming – 62 streamed gigs from different places in Italy, from April 2020 throughout the pandemic. Fifteen million views with a valuable representation of the italian territory.
Amongst the tracks on Side A, the 2022 remix of “Voice In Harmony”, one of JTV's biggest hits, and the long-awaited new version of “Children”, by Robert Miles, which was taken to the top of the charts by the same Joe T Vannelli in 1996.
Side B features collaborative works with some italian producers fresh off the top of international house charts: Moreno Pezzolato for “Doctor House” and “Paradise” remixed by Federico Scavo e Cassimm, licensed worldwide by Happy Music and Kontor Records.
Side C opens with the Angelo Ferreri remix of “Where Is My Man”, #1 on Traxsource, then moves on to two big featured artists: the first one is Saturnino. His bass is perfect, on this 70s funky style piece which echoes the biggest and boldest productions of music history. The second one is the remix of “Paradise” by Mario Biondi, made by JTV
himself who gives the track a soul/funky mood and an international sound inspired by Alicia Myers, who already worked as a muse for “Thank You” by Busta Rhymes. A song like “Sacrifice” by The Weeknd works along the same lines.
Side D, instead, is pure, distilled Vannelli-sound: house music for house music lovers, led by the afro-house beat by Silvano del Gado for “Booma Beat” and followed by the “Harlem” remix by Angelo Ferreri, and “Across The Universe” reinvented by the young producer from Veneto Reboq. The album closes with “Shavasana”, a meditative yoga number inspiring total relaxation.
Lee Burridges’ All Day I Dream Presents Jim Rider’s Fantastic New EP, The Final Straw
The UK-Producer Revives the Labels’ Heavier Melodic Sensibilities Across 4-Originals
The title track opens an EP led by intention, accenting a time in the producer’s life where he was disillusioned with his day job and intent on pursuing music full time once again. “The Final Straw'' includes a romantic, husky narrative delivered by Namibian vocalist “Black Soda” (AKA Annely Ickua). Here we find him pulling from his musical upbringing - melodic elements afforded to him by his Mother, a folk musician and singer, and his focus on percussion fueled by his background as a drummer.
“Rascals” is a follow up to “Fools” from Jim’s 2021 Beatport category #1 EP “Popcorn & Politics”. It pays homage to the classic 1950s American TV show “Little Rascals” with eccentric keys and playful percussion alongside dazzling, eccentric elements from keys to tropical-inspired marimbas. “Los Que Caen,” as the name suggests, is inspired by Rider’s love of latin music and percussion and includes a heavy bass guitar riff, bouncy synths and a harp-led rhythm section. EP closer “The Cypriot” blends lead flute lines with plucky synths and a driving bassline while sporadic haunting vocal ad-libs and delayed keys add decoration to the track.
Freda Payne’s two-step classic rare groove “Tell Me Please” gets it’s long overdue first release on 7” single. Since first recorded and released in 1978 it has remained only as an album track from Freda’s “Supernatural High” LP that year. This Skip Scarborough composed song also featured on Expansion’s ‘Skip Scarborough Songbook’ but a 7” edition has never appeared before. It is accompanied by a Pam Sawyer/Marilyn McLeod song
“I Get High (On Your Memory)” produced by Tony Camillo. Originals of this on Capitol Records from 1977 exchange hands for small fortunes making both these songs on one 7” single an essential purchase. Both high quality definitive luxury soul.
- A1: Scooter - The Logical Song
- A2: Blank & Jones - After Love (New Short Cut)
- A3: Music Instructor - Hymn (Radio Edit)
- A4: Dj Sammy - Prince Of Love (Radio Edit)
- A5: Enrico - Water Verve (Dj Quicksilver Radio Edit)
- B1: Mauro Picotto - Proximus (Medley With Adiemus) (Claxixx Video Mix 1)
- B2: Atb - Don T Stop! (Airplay Edit)
- B3: Kai Tracid - Liquid Skies
- B4: Kosmonova - Danse Avec Moi!
- B5: Mario Lopez - The Sound Of Nature (Plug N Play Video Cut)
- C1: Cascada - Everytime We Touch (Hardwell & Maurice West Remix)
- C2: Brooklyn Bounce - Born To Bounce (Music Is My Destiny) (Video Edit)
- C3: Starsplash - Cold As Ice
- C4: Rocco - The Sign (Radio Edit)
- C5: Groove Coverage - God Is A Girl (Radio Edit)
- D1: Twocolors - Lovefool
- D2: A7S - Your Love (9Pm)
- D3: Futuristic Polar Bears - Café Del Mar 2016 (Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Vs Klaas Radio Mix)
- D4: Vize - Stars
- D5: Don Diablo - King Of My Castle (Don Diablo Edit)
Over the past few years, Luca Binatti released a steady stream of quality EPs that showcased a remarkable talent with a clear understanding of what makes dance music unique. Also known for his guise as D:fferent Place, where house music is the main topic, Luca's boldest experiments belong under the Pressure Point project.
Pressure Point's debut on Pluie/Noir is no different — a collection of four ultra-personal tracks drenched in honest emotion and playful psychedelia. And it sounds as human as it sounds outer-worldly. Inspired by music genres unrestricted by the club ecosystems, "Ghost on Tape" features compositions that span from deeply spacial house to low-swung finely-detailed minimal.
Cover artwork features a stunning painting by the exquisite London-based artist David Surman. "Mask of a King / Midas" is inspired by Agamemnon's mask found in ancient Mycenae and Picasso's last self-portraits, furthering the emotional impact of the release as a whole. Limited pressing.
Since he started producing music, Berlin-based American sound artist Jake Muir has been obsessed with sampling. His 2018 album "Lady's Mantle" was based on manipulated chunks of vintage Californian surf rock, and its follow-up, 2020's midnight symphony "The Hum Of Your Veiled Voice" was sourced from a wide variety of old records, and inspired by the work of experimental turntablists like Marina Rosenfeld, Janek Schaefer and Philip Jeck.
On "Mana", Muir looks back to a misunderstood musical movement. Around 1995, a group of New York producers and DJs - including DJ Olive, DJ Spooky and Spectre - pioneered a genre-dissolving sound by unifying hip-hop techniques with ideas pulled from dub, jungle, ambient music and industrial noise. Badged "illbient", it was a short-lived genre that felt like a high-minded psychedelic cousin of the UK's trip-hop.
Muir uses illbient as the springboard for "Mana", utilizing a selection of samples to inform his frothy drones and foreboding atmospheres. He ushers the material into 2021 by diverting it through his own contemporary worldview, attempting to recreate the hyperreal fantasy histories of Japanese RPGs (think "Dark Souls" and "Final Fantasy") and nod to sensual, tactile soundscapes of European industrial labels Staalplaat and Soleilmoon. The result is a magickal, sensory journey that's as physical as it is representational.
If the illbient producers were encouraging a burgeoning experimental music landscape to emphasize the tactile feeling of turntablism and sample manipulation, Muir is doing the same with "Mana". Each track heaves and breathes not just with his cultural reference points, but with layered, complicated emotions. We can hear joy, sadness, desire and anguish, obscured by disintegrating noise, hallucinogenic harmonies and sub-aquatic bass. It's electronic music that's rooted not in technology, but in touch.
- A1: Sky Is The Limit Feat. The Beloved
- A2: Amazing Feat. Steve Van Velvet
- A3: Wasteland Feat. Inga Humpe
- B1: C´est La Vie Feat. Richard Judge
- B2: Du Schneidest Mir Mein Herz Auf Feat. Ben Becker
- B3: We Could Be You Feat. Yasha
- C1: Job Of Dying Young Feat. Marian Gold
- C2: White Boy (Percy Tech Remix) Feat. After Life 3000
- C3: Time Marches On Feat. Henning Wehland
- D1: Goldelse Is Burning ( Album Dub Mix)
- D2: No Melody Feat. Dieter Meier
- D3: No Crap Feat. Beccy Boo
On his new album "Famous Last Songs Vol. 1" Westbam presents himself as a brilliant curator of his own music. With unerring instinct, the legendary techno DJ and producer succeeds together with guests such as Dieter Meier (Yello), Inga Humpe (2raumwohnnung) and Jon Marsh (The Beloved) in paying homage to the spirit of the Eighties and making the ultimate statement about the current time: music for the club in your head.
Electronic four-piece Big Yawn invites five revered artists to reconstruct their debut album No!, originally released in March 2020 through Research Records.
The remixes convey a unique combination of darker textures and brooding sounds, clearly indebted to their source material.
The release features interpretations from Sleep D, Jay Glass Dubs, Maria Moles, Bullant and Raymond Scottwalker.
Rhythm merchants Sleep D (Butter Sessions) up the tempo and weave their signature expansive production in their fearless take on 'Reflex'.
Prolific producer Jay Glass Dubs (Bokeh Versions) flavours the 'Body Double' refix with looping clattering drums and glitchy murk, creating a compelling arrangement.
Like a drift into a warm gorge, percussionist Maria Moles (Nice Music) inserts gentle sustained synth work into 'Doodle Damage'.
Bullant (Flightless Records) pulls the listener out abruptly with a rework of 'Skinrat', a house-streaked churner.
Raymond Scottwalker (Fallopian Tunes) wraps up the record with another rework of 'Reflex', creating a mind-bending, aggressive industrial rejig.
Big Yawn's remix EP is a dynamic pairing to No!, entrusting an exceptional group of musicians to adhere to the spirit of the record, yet take it in a totally re-imagined direction
The Parisian jazz / funk collective The Big Hustle returns with the release of their third LP titled For Life published by Betino’s records. The Big Hustle here definitively asserts its identity, once again demonstrating the strength of the collective, and positions itself as the guardian of "real" organic music from the US jazz / funk tradition of the 70's.
The group has chosen for this new opus to refocus on the musical core of the band. However a few selected guests are present, for example the virtuoso saxophonist Baptiste Herbin, and Marie Sané, rising star of the Parisian soul scene.
The group returns to a musical approach close to their first LP, favoring instrumental titles to vocal pieces. The artistic orientation here has been to favor mastery and precision over spontaneity and the raw side of the beginnings. Funk in all its forms remains the essence of this album, especially on « 78 Funk ». We can also identify influences from jazz, afro pop, hip hop, modern gospel to rock. The overall sound of the album is marked by a more advanced and worked production. We can discover new sounds brought by the post production work that evoke the sound of dub, hip hop etc ... Nicolas Gueguen (Beat Assailant, NTM, Booster…) is once again in charge of the mixing process and brings his savoir-faire to reveal the best of each track and highlight all the subtleties of the arrangements and the interpretation.
For Life stands as the continuation of the artistic path of The Big Hustle : an odyssey in the making through the African American musical tradition of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Big Hustle is definitely ready to evolve in the current musical world and well beyond. For Life!
- A1: Ryuichi Sakamoto - The End Of Asia
- A2: Mariah - Shinzo No Tobira
- A3: Chika Asamoto - Self Control
- A4: Jun Fukamachi - Treasure Hunter
- B1: Yumi Murata - Watashi No Bus
- B2: Hitomi 'Penny' Tohyama - Rainy Driver
- B3: Yumi Seino - La Maison Est En Ruine
- B4: Kyoko Furuya - Tokyo
- C1: Kazue Itoh - Chinatown Rose
- C2: Kazumi Watanabe - Tokyo Joe
- C3: Juicy Fruits - Jenie Gets Amgry
- C4: Haruo Chikada & Vibra-Tones - Soul Life
- D1: Colored Music - Heartbeat
- D2: Akira Sakata - Room
- D3: Yasuaki Shimizu - Semi Tori No Hi
- D4: Shigeo Sekito - The Word Ii
Repress!
A MAJOR EXPLORATION OF TOKYO'S CUTTING EDGE 80S SOUND THROUGH THE MUSIC OF CULT JAPANESE LABEL NIPPON COLUMBIA AND ITS BETTER DAYS IMPRINT, SELECTED BY BRITISH RADIO PRESENTER AND DJ NICK LUSCOMBE.
‘Tokyo Dreaming’ is a superb selection picked from the highly collectible Nippon Columbia label and its Better Days sub-label. For the occasion, we’ve teamed up with journalist and Japanese music expert Nick Luscombe who was granted rare access to the much-guarded Nippon Columbia's vaults for a masterful selection encapsulating the fascinating sound of Tokyo in the late 70s and 80s. The selection mixes electro, synth-pop, funk and ambient and features such artists as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mariah, Shigeo Sekito, Juicy Fruits, Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama and Yumi Murata. The tracklist includes many sought-after rarities and hidden gems which have never been released outside of Japan and the set has been newly remastered by Nippon Columbia. The album has been designed by famed London-based designer Optigram and is annotated by Nick.
Nippon Columbia, one of Japan's oldest music labels is also one of its most collectible thanks to its sub-label Better Days which, in the late 70s, became a hotbed for Tokyo's new generation of pop artists eager to experiment with ambient, electro and funk. Armed with a string of new Japanese-made synthesizers and drum machines that would soon take the world by storm, they made cutting-edge music, which has since become highly sought-after by a new generation of Japanese music lovers. Nick Luscombe, who has long been a leading advocate of Japanese music from this era, has handpicked a selection of some of the sharpest music released on these labels at the time.
According to Nick, “Tokyo Dreaming is a look back to an incredible era of Japanese music, that still sounds and feels like the future. It was a moment when brand-new music tech from Japan helped forge new ideas and experiments that permeated pop, soul and jazz and helped create new forms of music including electro and techno. The perfect meeting point that would help create a new soundtrack for modern living.“
?The selection starts with "The End of Asia" by Ryuichi Sakamoto from his 1978 ground-breaking debut "Thousand Knives Of" (reissued last year by Wewantsounds). The track became a staple of Sakamoto's and YMO's live shows and was even re-recorded by the group for their 1980 album 'X Multiplies'. The track is followed by Mariah's cult Armenian folk flavoured synth pop classic "Shinzo No Tobira" (1983), which first spread outside of Japan when the Scottish DJ duo Optimo started playing the track regularly at their shows.
?Chika Asamoto's "Self Control" (1988) and Jun Fukamachi's "Treasure Hunter" (1985) are perfect songs in the synth-pop canon, while Yumi Murata's rendition of Akiko Yano's "Watashi No Bus" and Hitomi "Penny" Tohyama's "Rainy Driver" both from 1981, move closer towards the slicker, funkier sound of City Pop.
?'Tokyo Dreaming' superbly showcases the breadth of 80s Japanese music and the way electro pop was a playing ground for musicians to experiment with many styles, as showcased by Akira Sakata's dub-enfused "Room" from 1980, Kazumi Watanabe's discoid "Tokyo Joe" (1980) and Juicy Fruits' "kawai" robotic Techno pop song "Jenie Gets Angry".
?The selection flows effortlessly between many shades of synth and ends with two cult classics in the form of Yasuaki Shimizu's "Semi Tori No Hi" and Shigeo Sekito's ambient-jazz masterpiece "The Word II" from his highly sought-after album "Kareinaru Electone (The Word) Vol.2" which, although recorded in 1975, perfectly announces the synth revolution to come. Tokyo Dreaming showcases the groundbreaking sounds of a city turned giant sonic lab which was restlessly inventing the music of the future.
Nick Luscombe is a highly respected and in-demand music influencer who discovers great music from all over the world and shares it internationally through his many radio shows and DJ sets. He has been in charge of music selection for various radio programs since 1999, and from 2010 - 2019, was the DJ for the popular BBC Radio music program "Late Junction”. He has also curated and presented music shows for Monocle and British Airways radio stations. He has worked as both Chief Music Editor at iTunes and Director of Music at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and is the founder of MSCTY.
Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.
Now a revered composer, musician, and arranger, Caiphus left apartheid South Africa in the 60s for self-imposed exile in Southern California together with his wife, Letta Mbulu. Settling in Los Angeles he started working with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba and other exiled and semi-exiled South african artists, as well as, of course, his wife Letta.
Caiphus also found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. His facility with both jazz and African forms served him well. His LA stay also the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, the fruits of which can be tasted in Caiphus’s African compositions for the scores to Roots and Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple.
Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.
The Afro-Cuban grooves of “Mamase” open the record. Continuing where Listen To The Wind left off, this is another horn-heavy call-and-response ode to a positive life. Life as an invitation to party, to take part, to “get involved”. But only if you’re willing to let in the transcendent power of music. “There’s gonna be a Mardi Gras, there’s gonna be a carnival; there’s gonna be a jamboree, there’s gonna be a bacchanal”. Who can resist that? Vibrations everywhere.
It’s followed by the joy of “Aida”. Gleeful, dayglow keys and synths *just* on the right side of mid-80s sleaze are accompanied by a killer bassline, slick, skipping drums and proud horns. Infectious funk.
The tempo is taken down a few notches for the powerful “Nomalanga” and the lamentations of a heartbroken man who must leave his wife Nomalanga and their children to join the fight against apartheid. It’s an emotional song, no question, but it doesn’t bring you down. The uplifting music and optimistic vocal delivery from Caiphus and his backing singers in the second half offer hope.
Breezy drums and contemplative keys act as a backdrop for the stunning backing vocal harmonies in the intro of “Moshanyana”. This gives way to stuttering beats, a bassline to die for and Caiphus giving it his all, over guitars, marimba and synth strings. Another slo-mo winner.
Side two opens with “Dial Your Number”, an uptempo English-language boogie-funk workout, complete with mid-song cutaway to a random telephone call. Whether or not this propels the song into “key track” status, we’ll let you decide.
What’s not up for debate is the brilliance of “Matswale”. This was a hit in South Africa in the mid-80s and you can still hear why. It might just be our favourite Caiphus hit. Wow. This is some damn fine breezy, beautiful, emotional pop. The restrained playing, the guitar licks and the gentle keys are out of this world. The beats? Thundering, direct and slick. The singing? It’ll give you goosebumps. As for the sentiment? This is Caiphus singing to his in-laws about their daughter’s adultery, begging them to intervene and help him save his marriage. Not your typical pop single story-telling!
The ferocious “Ndi-Kulindile” closes the set with a nod to the coming sound of the States. The hard-edged, electro-influenced drum patterns and bouncing, elastic bassline are something of a departure from the album’s predominant sound, yet one wonderful constant, Caiphus’s exceptional delivery and his sparring with his backing vocalists, is satisfyingly present and warmly deployed.
With Simon Francis handling the mastering of this Be With edition, you know it sounds as fantastic as ever. The stunning sleeve has been restored, with its painting of a dream-like cosmic vista, as a lone figure takes in a scene that’s part distant planet, part urban sprawl. One listen and you’ll be transported.
Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.
Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.
One listen and you’ll be transported.
Hidden in a world of anonymity we are craving for intimacy.
AI. The second output in the MAT editions series on CLIKNO is a double 12" separated into "Anonymity" and "Intimacy". The digital world and social media in particular change our perception and behavior; our values and morals undergo a transformation and
shift. How much are we still anonymous? How much are we still intimate (with us/with others)? What does anonymity and intimacy mean to us today?
MUSIC. Dr.Nojoke shows on AI his deeper, darker and trippier side.
A. Petar Plet Plete is a Bulgarian tongue twister sung by anonymous voices, which hypnotize through endless repetitions over a straight Maurizio-esque groove with odd melodic percussion. Nivin grooves elegantly with typical Dr.Nojoke clicks and sophisticated loops of a mysterious female voice reminding slightly to Kraftwerk's Man-machine era.
I. EOW and Nuknot are both intimate orgies of thick textures of reverberations and reflections as if space is folding in itself and time is on hold. EOW seduces with a heavy kick-drum groove and a triplet bassline underneath crawling through unconscious memories. Woe! Nuknot is carried by transcending atmospheres, a dubby low end bassline and a repetitious glassy sound, that can drive a crowd into madness - inspired by Moritz von Oswald and Deadbeat. Nuknot ends with an ambient lock groove.
ART. CLIKNO curates artworks from living artists. On MAT ed.02 CLIKNO is proud to present digital artist Lucas Gutierrez and his work "Your Mesh.sgl", originally part of the exhibition - Knowledge Of - at Aperto Raum Berlin, 2017. An exhibition and dialogue exploring the term "knowledge" and the manner in which self-studies are structured within contemporary artistic approach.
TEXT. MAT02 comes with writings to anonymity and intimacy from the Danish philosopher, actress and choreographer Marianne Kjaer Klausen.
The album celebrates also the 15th CLIKNOversary of Dr.Nojoke.
Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it'll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges' hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. The state is vast, crisscrossed with rugged expanses of road flanked by limestone cliffs and granite mountains, forests of pine and mesquite, miles of desert or acres of sprawling grassland, all depending on what part you're in. And it's all baking under the Texas Sun that lends its name to Bridges and Khruangbin's new collaborative EP. "Big sky country, that's what they call Texas," Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee says. "The horizon line goes all the way from one side to another without interruption. There's something really comforting about that." On Texas Sun, these two members of the state's musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas' past, present, and future-a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. It calls equally to the cowboys boot-scooting at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth, the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, the art-school kids dropping acid in Austin, the cross-cultural progeny who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso. All of these things, overlapping in a multicolored melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state's rightfully celebrated sunsets. A journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances, and late-night contemplations, the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Like the highways that inspired it, Texas Sun is guaranteed to get you where you're going-especially if you're in no particular hurry to get there.
This is the First Volume of Illegal Alien LTD new Various Artists Compilation Series called 'Between Lands & Oceans' this series will become an annual compilation and it will be presented in Vinyl, CD, Cassette and Digital format. For our first Volume, we are proud and delighted to count with all this great artists, some of them already with a very successful career and others with a very promising future. Nothing but quality Techno music inside this Various Artists and we thank everyone that is involved on the first Volume of Between Lands & Oceans.
DJ Deep's Deeply Rooted label once again spotlights rising French talent Marina Trench for the second instalment of 'Signature featuring remixes from the boss and Hugo LX. Arriving on Deeply Rooted in March with the slick sounding 'Signature EP1', since then Trench has debuted at Rex Club where she played alongside Kerri Chandler, further bolstering her rising reputation as one of the Parisian scene's most exciting names. She now returns to Deeply Rooted bringing another instalment of classy House music - perfectly suited to the respected label's aesthetic. She shows off her knack for jazzy keys on the lively, raw-edged 'Thema Urbain' which oozes late night soul and effortlessly intimate house vibes. The equally excellent 'Ahead' is a surging house cut with well-crafted synth stabs fleshing out an off balance groove while a twanging bass riffs props things up from below. It's perfectly propulsive but has a real sense of heart. The third sublime original is 'Navigo', a bottomless track with splashy hi hats and suggestive string stabs up top. A rasping bassline brings texture to the smooth grooves as they keep rushing over you to make this another fresh and original offering from Trench. Remixing 'Ahead' is Hugo LX, who cruises from downtempo beats to soulful electronic sounds on the likes of Balance and NDATL Muzik. His classy version is a dubbed out classic with a musical bassline tumbling down the scales as you're sunk ever deeper into his pillowy pads. Deep himself then steps up to flip 'Navigo' into a driving deep techno number that surges on soaring synth smears and prickly percussion. This EP is set to take Trench to the next level and confirms she is one of 2019's brightest new stars.
Inventing Importance - With its third vinyl release CLIKNO starts the MAT editions, which brings together contemporary art with profound texts and deep techno music equally, a conceptual and collectible series for heart, soul and mind - conceived by Dr.Nojoke.
music - Dr.Nojoke throws in three tunes in his unmistakable style hitting the dancefloors of a parallel universe. Stomping beats with gravitational bass-lines are folded with deep textured moods, dub delays and a plethora of subtle sounds and strange loops all in an intricate and organic production build from diverse noises and field recordings. This music aims as much for the dancefloor as it is enjoyable at home.
art - "You Brew Stew" is a digital painting by Denver-based artist Jonathan Canupp. The painting was created in 2018, took 25 hours and is made of 28,000 strokes, original size: 24" x 24". Jonathan is a multi-faceted artist also working as sound designer for video games and films and producing music under diverse monikers such as Ten and Tracer and Petrichoir.
text - Over the course of the MAT editions, philosopher, actress, director and performer Marianne Kjaer Klausen will contribute writings about humanity, society and freedom. Sample from MAT ed.01: "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk. The paradox, to know when she has landed, would be one true turning point for the wisdom of humanity."
MAT 01 is a strictly limited vinyl-only release with a 12" x 12" inlay in a thick transparent PVC sleeve.
Artwork and text are reproduced in an offset print on offset paper for a premium look and feel.
Four years on since the landing of his immersive debut full-length "Marianne Brandt", Noorden main operator Alex Ketzer returns with his second studio album, "OTC"!
Perpetuating the non-linear narrative arc initiated by its forerunner, all the while establishing further club-functional bridges over the course of its eleven tracks, "OTC" weaves a fine tissue of lushly textured electronica, downtempo elegies and spacious tech-mospheres and old-school rave motifs through intricate combinations of sorts, marrying the entrancing primal power of the beat with a pastel-coloured palette of Rephlex-nostalgic electronics.
True to his genre-busting, non-formulaic standards of composition, Ketzer once again opted for the fragmentary rather than the straightforward, putting on a collection of variedly contemplative, dark, energetic and motion-inducing cuts in exploded-view.
repressed !!
Following the success of the last Parquet Most Wanted EP´s, here comes the 10th volume with four beautiful melodic-techno hymns by SOLEE, RANCIDO, MARIUS LEHNERT, SUPACOOKS and DOUGLAS GREED! Already massive international DJ support by STEPHAN BODZIN, , KÖLSCH, KOLLEKTIV TURMSTRASSE, GUY J, MACEO PLEX, FRANKEY & SANDRINO, HERNAN CATTANEO, EELKE KLEIJN and many more...100% Must-Have!
West Africa's most iconic dance-band are back. A decade on from their last album and almost half a century since their formation, Senegal's Orchestra Baobab return with a timeless set of classic, swaying tunes fusing Afro-Cuban rhythms and African tradition in the group's trademark style.
2x12" Special Edition[43,07 €]
Palto Flats & WRWTFWW Records are ecstatic to announce the highly-anticipated reissue of Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's sought after and timeless ambient / minimal album "Through The Looking Glass", originally released in 1983 by RCA Japan.
Considered a Holy Grail of Japanese music by many, "Through The Looking Glass" is Midori Takada's first solo endeavor, a captivating four-song suite capturing her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language and exploring contemplative ambient sounds with an admirably precise use of marimba. The result is alternatively ethereal and vibrant, always precise and mesmerizing, and makes for an atmospheric masterpiece and an unparalleled sonic and spiritual experience.
The fully licensed reissue is available as a single 33rpm LP and a limited 45rpm DLP, both cut directly from the original studio reels (AAA), at Emil Berliner (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon) for the 45rpm DLP, and at the equally famous Frankfurter SST Studio for the LP. It is also available in CD format for the first time. All versions come with extensive liner notes.
- A1: Piry Reis - O Sol Na Janela
- A2: Nando Carneiro - G R.e.s. Luxo Artezanal
- A3: Cinema - Sem Toto
- A4: Os Mulheres Negras - So Quero Um Xodo
- A5: Fernando Falcao - Amanhecer Tabajra
- B1: Anno Luz - Por Que
- B2: Andrea Daltro - Kiua
- B3: Os Mulheres Negras - Maoscolorida
- B4: Bene Fonteles - O M M
- B5: Carlinhos Santos - Giramundo
- C1: Priscilla Ermel - Gestos De Equilibrio
- C2: Carioca - Branca
- C3: Marco Bosco - Sol Da Manha
- C4: Maria Rita - Cantico Brasileiro No 3 (Kamaiura)
- D1: Marco Bosco - Madeira Ii
- D2: Priscilla Ermel - Corpo Do Vento
- D3: Luhli E Lucina - E Foi
2023 repress
For their first multi-artist compilation, Music From Memory take us on a trip to the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Outro Tempo: Electronic and Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1978-1992 is a double LP that explores the outer reaches of Brazilian music, where indigenous rhythms mix with synthesizers and where MPB mingles with drum computers.
As Brazil faced the last years of its military dictatorship and transition to democracy, a generation of forward-thinking musicians developed an alternative vision of Brazilian music and culture. They embraced traditionally shunned electronic production methods and infused their music with elements of ambient, jazz-fusion, and minimalism. At the same time they referenced the musical forms and spirituality of indigenous tribes from the Amazon. The music they produced was a complex and mesmerising tapestry that vividly evoked Brazilian landscapes and simultaneously reached out to the world beyond its borders.
The product of extensive research, this compilation is a unique introduction to this visionary music and features many fresh discoveries in a country well trodden by record diggers. It gathers tracks from obscure albums that have for too long been neglected by even the most avid collectors of Brazilian music. It includes now highly sought after music by Andréa Daltro, Maria Rita, and Fernando Falcão, as well as unknown gems like those of Cinema, Carlinhos Santos, and Anno Luz. This is an essential release that reveals a broader spectrum of Brazilian music, striking a unique sonic signature that is full of innovation, experimentation, and beauty.
Compiled by John Gómez and featuring extensive liner notes, Outro Tempo showcases this overlooked corner in Brazil's rich music history for the first time.
- A1: Children (Dream Version)
- A2: One And One Feat. Maria Nayler (Radio Version)
- B1: Fable (Message Version)
- B2: Fable (Dream Version)
- C1: Children (Original Version)
- C2: Freedom (Rdio Edit)
- D1: Fantasya (Radio Edit)
- D2 4: Us
- Cd-01 | Children (Dream Version
- Cd-02 | Fable (Message Version)
- Cd-03 | Fantasya
- Cd-04 | Landscape
- Cd-05 | In My Dreams
- Cd-06 | Princess Of Light
- Cd-07 | Fable (Dream Version)
- Cd-08 | In The Dawn
- Cd-09 | Children (Original Version)
- Cd-10 | Red Zone
- Cd-11 | One And One Feat. Mary Nayler (Radio Version)
- Cd-12 | 4 Us
After 20 years of onset record of Robert Miles Self and Smilax Publishing have no exclusive for the World "Dreamland" in a special double LP "Deluxe Edition" which includes the most successful singles like CHILDREN, FABLE, ANE AND ONE and FREEDOM with the old so-called "Dreamland" in homage. unique debut album that holds the record as the most Italian dance 'album sold in the World of all time, but also as a representative of the only Italian manufacturer to have won the prestigious British award !!!!!!
This label is a product from the famous Cosmopolar Club (based in
Erfurt, Germany) who wants to present their residents & friends.
Polar001 was the formerly known OPENDOORS001 - so this is the
official debut release by Raycoux & Stefan with remixes from
workaholic Beatamines and Fabian Reichelt who just released his
debut Album as MARIAN (together with Marek Hemmann).
- A1: Infinito Em Nós
- A2: Segredo
- A3: Transe
- A4: Retrato De Maria Lúcia
- B1: Da Menor Importância
- B2: Morena
- B3: Essa Confusão
- B4: Hexagrama 28
Mr Bongo proudly presents, ‘AFIM’, the second solo album by one of Brazil’s most exciting new talents, Zé Ibarra. You may be familiar with the hypnotic, entrancing tones of Ibarra’s vocals through his work with the Latin Grammy award-winning, four-piece, Bala Desejo and the band Dônica. He has also toured with the musical titan, Milton Nascimento, performing guitar and vocals, which is quite the honour and a testament to Ibarra's craft. As a solo artist, he has performed headline solo shows in Japan, Portugal and the US, as well as recently completing a support tour with the great, Seu Jorge.
‘AFIM’ is comprised of eight tracks, featuring Zé’s own compositions as well as cover versions of tracks by contemporaries and friends, Sophia Chablau, Tom Veloso, and Dora Morelenbaum. It combines elements of MPB, jazz, pop and progressive rock in a bold, authoritative style. The album represents the intersection between different facets of the artist, from the stripped-down, intimate, guitar singer-songwriter, to dense arrangements with sweeping strings sections. Writing this album allowed Ibarra "to explore sides of myself that had not yet been organized in an album: a certain darkness, a more cinematic musicality, a desire for new soundscapes.
The album features the single, 'Transe', a song with an instantly comforting tone reminiscent of classic Brazilian songs of the past (think Caetano Veloso). It is built on a rhythmic guitar that supports dynamic sound layers, opening space for Ibarra's intense interpretation. Cinematic atmospheres that lend an air of mystery come courtesy of string arrangements by Jaques Morelenbaum.
His unique cover version of Sophia Chablau's 'Segredo' is equally compelling, taking Sophia's punky-indie original in a different direction and making it feel like his own. 'Essa Confusão', a song celebrating the intensity of love and co-written by Dora Morelenbaum, is steered into epic, 70's AOR, singer-songwriter territory with wind arrangements by Ibarra, Jorge Continentino and strings by Jaques Morelenbaum.
The album is the result of the collaboration of experienced musicians and long-time partners of Ibarra. Fellow Bala Desejo and Dônica member Lucas Nunes co-produced the album. The core band featured on the record consists of Lucas Nunes on organs, Alberto Continentino on bass, Daniel Conceição and Thomas Harres on drums and percussion, Rodrigo Pacato on additional percussion, Chico Lira on Fender Rhodes and Guilherme Lírio on guitar.
The overall feel of the record is archetypically quintessential without slipping into retro mode. It is a stunning album from one of the finest musicians of his generation. A true star of Brazil’s blooming contemporary scene.
First time reissue of JP / US free jazz rarity.
The 1970s were Marion Brown’s most searching decade, a period during which he sought to move beyond the free jazz of the previous era and find more personal approaches to structuring improvisation and composition. After leaving New York for Europe in 1967, Brown began reshaping his music into what he described as “a more deliberate kind of music that had more structure to it,” pacing it so that moods and modes could develop over time. Albums such as In Sommerhausen, Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, Geechee Recollections, and Sweet Earth Flying trace this evolution: rhythmic structures moved to the foreground, harmony receded, and composition became a matter of orchestrating interlocking rhythmic parts as one would polyphonic lines.
Released in 1976, Awofofora is an overlooked but crucial entry in that sequence. At the time, its use of funk and reggae beats, electric guitars, and grooves drawn from contemporary Black popular music led some to misread it as a jazz-rock detour. In retrospect, it is entirely consistent with Brown’s methodology. As he admired in the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the stimulus comes from within the community. Here Brown filters Afro-Caribbean rhythms and funk through his own sensibility, abstracting their structural qualities rather than adopting surface style.
“La Placita,” making its first recorded appearance, layers distinct rhythmic phrases in a manner reminiscent of African drum ensembles, over which Brown and trumpeter Ambrose Jackson spin extended improvisations. The standard “Flamingo” is reshaped through diasporic rhythm and lyrical soloing, while “Pepi’s Tempo” and “Mangoes” harness crisp funk and reggae grooves to generate what Brown called a “manifestation of community” through collective improvisation. Even the overdubbed solo feature “And Then They Danced” reflects his structural thinking, ingeniously re-voicing a duet composition for two alto saxophones performed by one player.
This was the only recording by a short-lived band that briefly polarized audiences during festival appearances in 1976. Yet Brown consistently sought unity across change: different sounds, same principles — rhythm as structure, melody as architecture, collective improvisation, and above all, the primacy of tone. Awofofora stands not as a departure, but as a vivid synthesis of the elements he had been refining since the late 1960s, its grooves and golden alto lines conveying a sound drawn, in his words, “from life and from the world of experience.”
- 1: It All Depends On The Pleasure Man
- 2: Watching Heroes Come And Go
- 3: Slide On
- 4: So It Goes
- 5: Let's Start Over Again
- 6: Taoist Tale
- 7: Welcome To Mass Media
- 8: Song
- 9: Advertisement For Amerika
Orange Vinyl with exclusive illustrated notes/lyric insert ltd to 300 w/w.“Zimmerman conjures up a kind of Arcadian folk surrealism that is utterly his own” MOJO Never released before collection featuring Ian A Anderson & Maggie Holland recorded 72-80 is among Tucker’s finest - Free-ranging, Playful, Intimate - his Songpoet imagination unbound and in full bloom now on colour Vinyl for first time with (exclusive to this version) illustrated lyric insert with notes from Tucker.Recorded between 1972-80 this is the first ever release for ‘I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True’ a stunningly beautiful, homegrown collection by Songpoet Tucker Zimmerman and friends. The range and depth is astonishing. From the heady surreal journey of ‘It All Depends’ Upon the Pleasure Man’, to the uplifting Gene Clark-esque 'So It Goes’, to some of his most beautiful & touching love songs in ‘Let’s Start Over Again’ & ‘Song’. Only one song has seen the the light of day before now - ‘Taoist Tale’ from his 1984 album ‘Word Games’. This recording from a decade earlier loses no power in its folkier stripped down style driven by Tucker’s strong narrative.
While living in bucolic seclusion in Belgium with Marie-Claire, Tucker invited visiting musicians (Derroll Adams, Wizz Jones, Maggie Holland, Dave Evans, Ian Anderson) into his home studio to play and live tape whatever songs he had at hand. Maggie Holland and Ian A Anderson feature, while Tucker found a freeing simplicity in just guitar, ’70s organ, bass and piano. We are so grateful to Ian A Anderson, who carefully kept and curated these recordings from 50 years ago. “Every time I would leave, Tucker would hand me another tape full of songs”. Ian worked with Tucker and ourselves to present this wonderful album. The collection is among Tucker’s finest - free-ranging, playful, intimate - his Songpoet imagination unbound and in full bloom. The ethos, the playing, the freedom, feels like Ronnie Lane’s time in the Welsh Borders. Unhurried, liberated, down-home and cosmic. Extraordinary music made among friends.
"Startling collection of intimate, home-recorded songs from the cult singer-songwriter adored by David Bowie and Big Thief alike.
When I first interviewed Tucker Zimmerman back in 2015 neither of us had any idea that, a decade later, he would be venerated by a new coterie of young fans, touring with maximal folk-rockers Big Thief and recipient of a concerted reissue campaign by the wonderful Big Potato Records. Last year I eulogised the “Arcadian folk surrealism” of his 1974 LP *Over Here In Europe but, if anything, this informal collection of intimate home-studio recordings is even better. Recorded between 1973 and 76 whilst living in Belgium and hosting such visiting folk musicians as Derroll Adams, Wizz Jones, Maggie Holland, Dave Evans, and Ian A. Anderson this is the kind of assured, organic freewheeling folk music that has the mellow, introspective rough-edged feel of some lost private-press LP, the kind rightly revered by Endless Boogie’s Paul Majors as “real people” music. A true find.” Andrew Male MOJO 4/5
“Here's a charming oddity: an unreleased album dating from the mid-Seventies by an American-born songwriter beloved of David Bowie and, more recently, Adrianne Lenker of the folk-rock band Big Thief. Zimmerman's a bohemian type who eschewed the big time for a life of gigging around Europe. He, his wife, Marie-Claire, and a handful of friends recorded these songs in seclusion in the Belgian countryside, and what songs they are. Slide On could have come from the Byrds when they discovered country music, Let's Start Over Again captures the dreamlike experience of being in love with unsettling clarity. This is a real unearthed gem.” 4/5 The Times
- 1: Reichpop
- 2: Lady Blue
- 3: A Woman's Wisdom
- 4: Japanese Alice
- 5: Life Of Pause
- 6: Alien
- 7: To Know You
- 8: Adore
- 9: Tv Queen
- 10: Whenever I
- 11: Love Underneath My Thumb
White vinyl. Signed Print Edition. When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran Pelle Jacobsson, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan's home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of "Reichpop" to the sugary howl of "Japanese Alice" to the hallucinogenic R&B of "A Woman's Wisdom," the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. "I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me," he says. "There's definitely a different kind of `self' in the picture this time around. There's no real love lost, it's much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have_your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new."
2026 Repress
Lisa Decker returned with her second studio album "Soliloquise" one year after her debut album "Serendipity" in 2021 with Japanese Jazz trio Nautilus from Tokyo and a superb single remix of "Everytime" by Pat Van Dyke featuring rapper John Robinson.
For this project she worked on eight new songs. Half of the album is arranged by Nautilus and the other half is produced by SaturnVybz who is known for his works with/and projects like Slick Walk, The Ruff Cats and Jazzanova.
Getting a step forward and conceptually a bit different this release gets the "Oonops Drops" FLIP SERIES treatment which means: Side A and Side B are made by different artists or differentiate from each other like the first volume with Nautilus X Anna Sato & Toshiyuki Sasaki (OD006LP).
Songs like "Free", "Let's Wake Up" and "Summer Child" with their feel warm note of groovy, jazzy pop and the more swing-jazz tune "Rimy Whitewater" meet guitar-electronic touched songs like "Love And Hope", "On My Way" and "True Blue" or her dreamt away track "Stay With Me" with smooth bouncy beats and with an atmosphere for being the perfect soundtrack for a night ride on deserted streets.
Lisa is careful about the artwork and after working together with renowned artist Lindsey Kustusch from San Francisco on her first album she collaborates with local artist Sebastian Maria Otto who is known for his signature art style and exhibitions from Germany to Japan.
Lisa will perform live in Hanover, the 20th May at roof top of the Historical Museum together with Nautilus. Japan meets Germany. Lucky coincidence or: "Serendipity".
A cocktail of rebellious queer vocal fragments, deceptive percussive granules and swaying hammered vibrations, upsammy and Valentina Magaletti's first collaboration trembles with suspense. The seeds of 'Seismo' were sown following a commission from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum to soundtrack an exhibition of work from the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the duo didn't want to approach their collaboration flippantly. So, wandering the museum's maze of rooms, they recorded various improvised percussive sounds with their arsenal of microphones, using the space to inform various rhythms and textures that were sculpted later into electroacoustic vignettes. This was just the starting point, though; as Magaletti and upsammy began performing together, the project evolved and 'Seismo' began to take shape. The duo had struck on a salient aesthetic concept, using mostly digital and acoustic mallet instruments to blur the boundary between their roles and create friction between the synthetic and the authentic. And the finished record is a phantasmagoric push-and-pull between its various conflicting elements: harmony and dissonance, randomness and predictability, openness and constraint. 'Seismo' isn't the first time that upsammy has studied her environment in search of revelation. On her acclaimed second album, 2024's 'Germ in a Population of Buildings', the Amsterdam-based DJ, producer and multidisciplinary artist erected her complex, unorthodox rhythms and eerie melodies around a modernist frame of field recordings collected in various cityscapes, countering heavyweight basslines with subtle, microscopic sounds. London-based Italian vanguard Magaletti, meanwhile, has applied her unique logic to innumerable projects at this point, working with everyone from batida icon Nídia and hardcore-dub outfit Moin to French writer Fanny Chiarello and British bass scientist Shackleton. For years she's approached the drums with criticism, attempting to challenge any preconceptions, something that's most visible on 2020's 'A Queer Anthology of Drums'. And both artists' thoughtful perspectives are welded together seamlessly on 'Seismo', a dizzying suite of eight eccentric statements that's fragile but never insecure, gauzy but not indistinct. An unnerving sense of space characterizes 'It Comes to an End' as Magaletti's in situ improvisations herald for upsammy's microscopic glitches and chiming pitch-bent melodies. It's almost unbalancing to witness the track's impossible dimensionality, the interplay between reverberant marimba hits and bone-dry synths, or percussion that's been recorded and processed in consciously different settings. A new architecture emerges in the sound itself that the two artists scan and explore meticulously, testing its boundaries with undulating hybridized rhythms on the invigorating 'Superimposed' and offsetting the powdery drums with liquified smacks and alien voices. The duo's vibrations are knotted with piano flourishes on 'Hyperlocalize', balanced with artificial clanks and clangs that disappear into the track's sonorous atmosphere, replaced by whispers and half-hallucinated insectoid chirps. 'Seismo' is an album that feeds off the energy generated by its juxtapositions: the tension and anticipation that's melted by rapid, hyperactive movement and the finely drawn rhythms disrupted by a layer of indistinct, barely perceptible microsounds. It's a collaboration that sounds like two minds challenging each other but not wrestling, each peering from their own distinct vantage point and imagining a third landscape shaped by optimistic, queer vibrations.
FELICIA ATKINSON & CHRISTINA VANTZOU
REFLECTIONS VOL. 3: WATER POEMS
Auf ,Reflections Vol. 3: Water Poems" bringen Félicia Atkinson und Christina Vantzou ihre Freundschaft und ihre atmosphärische Kunstfertigkeit in einem feierlichen Fokus zusammen. Gesprochene Worte und orchestrale Fantasie fließen wie Nebenflüsse in einen einheitlichen Strom und ergeben eine Sammlung traumhafter Lieder und Klanglandschaften, die im Meer, im Himmel und in den Steinen verankert sind. Mit elektroakustischen Instrumenten, Gesang und Umgebungsgeräuschen lädt Water Poems die Zuhörer in einen unbewussten Raum ein, irgendwo zwischen alltäglicher Intimität und dem Geheimnis des Ozeans, aus dem alles Leben entsteht. Atkinson und Vantzou haben sich 2009 kennengelernt und seitdem immer mal wieder zusammengearbeitet, aber ein Konzert 2019 in der Philharmonie in Paris hat dieses Projekt richtig in Gang gebracht. Da beide jetzt an der Küste leben (Félicia am Ärmelkanal, Christina am Mittelmeer), wurde das Meer natürlich zu ihrer Muse. ,Das Meer wurde nicht als monolithische Postkarte betrachtet", erklärt Atkinson, ,sondern eher als eine Person an sich; eine Energie, ein Geheimnis, ein komplexer Charakter, dem wir als Menschen, die am Meer leben, jeden Tag begegnen." Im Dialog mit dem Land und der Küste nahmen ihre Sprache und ihre Klänge einen sakramentalen Charakter an. ,Ein feierliches Gefühl, ein Gefühl des Dienens, zieht sich tief durch dieses Album", bemerkt Vantzou, ,ich habe das schon einmal gespürt, aber hier, in der Zusammenarbeit mit Félicia, ist es stärker." Stimme, Atem und wässrige Texturen prägen den Ton des maritimen Mysteriums von Water Poems. Neu in Vantzous Praxis und seit langem ein prägendes Merkmal von Atkinsons Werk, gewinnen ihre gesprochenen Worte hier an relationaler Intimität, indem sie sich gegenseitig und die Uferpromenade ansprechen. Die Texte wurden über zwei Jahre hinweg gemeinsam zusammengestellt. Mit radikaler Unschuld lenken sie das Bewusstsein auf die verborgene Auftriebskraft und die unbewussten Strömungen, die durch das Leben fließen: ,Wie kann ein Boot schwimmen? Wie kann ein Flugzeug fliegen? Wie kann ein Körper schwimmen? Wie kann ein Mensch träumen?" Was mit nah aufgenommenen Stimmen und Feldaufnahmen begann, wurde um Synthesizer, Gongs und Metallophone, Klavier, Vibraphon, Rhodes, Gitarren und Mellotron erweitert. Das Gezeitenklavier des Eröffnungstracks ,Film Still / The Sea" zieht uns in die unbewussten Gewässer des Albums. Enthalten sind Feldaufnahmen, die Vantzou in Delphi in der Nähe des legendären Orakels von Pythia aufgenommen hat - ihr griechisches Erbe verleiht diesem Ort der Vorfahren eine zusätzliche Dimension. Dieser Track und ,Water Poems" als Ganzes sind Ausdruck unseres geologischen Erbes und rufen zum Schutz der Küsten und zu einer Vertiefung unserer Beziehung zu unseren Küsten auf. Ein Teil der Einnahmen aus dem Album geht an Arion, ein gemeinnütziges Naturschutzprogramm für das griechische Mittelmeer. Der langjährige Freund und Mitstreiter John Also Bennett hat bei ,Scorpio Purple Skies", dem kosmischen Finale des Albums, mit E-Gitarre, Lap-Steel-Gitarre und Gesang mitgewirkt. Diese üppige Instrumentierung passt super zu den Science-Fiction-Visionen und der feierlichen Atmosphäre des Albums. Water Poems wurde in The Old Carpet Factory, einem Herrenhaus aus dem 18. Jahrhundert auf der griechischen Insel Hydra, in der Villa Medici aus dem 16. Jahrhundert in Rom und in Les Dunes, Atkinsons Heimstudio in der Normandie, aufgenommen. Mehr als das historische Prestige dieser Orte war es die spürbare Geschichte ihrer Landschaft, die die Musik geprägt hat. Atkinson sagt, dass sie sich zu ,Orten mit seltsamer Anziehungskraft" hingezogen fühlten. In der Villa Medici ,haben Steine und Mineralien das gesprochene Wort beeinflusst", bemerkt sie. ,Wir beide legen Wert auf Gefühl, Atmosphäre und Klang", fügt Vantzou hinzu, ,was er hervorruft und was er bewirkt. In unserem Fall konzentrieren wir uns auf die grundlegenden Elemente: Wasser, Luft, Fels, Kosmos - allesamt lebenswichtig.» Von der Insel Kreta aus arbeitete Vantzou den finalen Mix fertig und tauschte dabei Dateien mit Atkinson aus. Immer noch mit der Küste verbunden, verlief der Mixing-Prozess geduldig und wurde von wichtigen Pausen geprägt. Water Poems spiegelt wider, was die Meeresbiologin Rachel Carson uns in Erinnerung ruft: ,Am Rande des Meeres zu stehen bedeutet, Wissen über Dinge zu haben, die so nahezu ewig sind, wie es das irdische Leben nur sein kann." Es zelebriert rituell dieses ozeanische Gefühl als wichtige Quelle der Gelassenheit und Intelligenz. In einer Welt, die von hitzigen Meinungen und ökologischer Vernachlässigung geprägt ist, lenkt Water Poems unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf ,die Quellen der Quellen". Damit schafft es Raum, um uns wieder mit unseren elementaren, animalischen Instinkten zu verbinden und uns auf tiefere Strömungen einzustimmen. Water Poems von Félicia Atkinson und Christina Vantzou ist der dritte Band von Reflections, einer Reihe zeitgenössischer Kollaborationen von RVNG Intl..
- A1: Chairman Of The Board - Life And Death In G&A (Part 2)
- A2: Curtis Mayfield - (Don't Worry) If There Is A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go
- A3: The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
- A4: The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today - Single Version
- A5: Brutal Force - The Number For Groove
- B1: Isaac Hayes – Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic **
- B2: Bobby Womack - California Dreamin
- B3: The Five Stairsteps - Dear Prudence
- B4: Ebony Rhythm Band - Drugs Ain't Cool
- B5: Doris - You Never Come Closer
- C1: Terry Callier -You Goin' Miss Your Candyman
- C2: Rodriguez - Sugar Man
- C3: Patti Drew - Hard To Handle
- C4: Marlena Shaw - Liberation Conversation
- C5: El Michels Affair - Murkit Gem
- C6: Janko Nilovic - Drug Song
- D1: Kylie Auldist - Nothin' Else To Beat Me **
- D2: Khruangbin - Maria También
- D3: Christian Madden & The Enemy Chorus - Twice As Thick
- D4: Gabriels - Love And Hate In A Different Time
- D5: Michael Kiwanuka - Black Man In A White World
- D6: Mrcy – Purple Canyon
‘Soul Psychédélique’, released on Two-Piers, takes you on a journey into the world of Psychedelic Soul & Funk, from its early beginnings in the 1960s and 1970s to the current crop of artists championing the more Psychedelic, Trippy end of the Soul sound today.
‘Soul Psychédélique’ brings together legends of the Soul Psych scene, such as Curtis Mayfield, The Chambers Brothers, Marlena Shaw, The Temptations, and the brilliant ‘Sugar Man’ by Rodriguez. Place alongside Soul Titans like Isaac Hayes, Bobby Womack, Chairman of the Board, Terry Callier all delivering stunning Psychedelic Nuggets for your Listening pleasure. Throw in some covers like ‘Dear Prudence’ by The Five Stairsteps, ‘Hard to Handle’ by Patti Drew and ‘California Dreamin’’ Bobby Womack and finish with some brilliant modern-day exponents of the scene like Khruangbin, Gabriels and Michael Kiwanuka. The result is a crazy ride through the world of Psychedelic Soul and Funk. If you ain’t dancing and smiling by the end - what the hell is wrong with you!
‘Soul Psychédélique (The Best of Lounge & Exotica 1954-2022)’ is the fourth instalment in the ‘Psychédélique’ Compilation series on Two-Piers, following the critically acclaimed ‘Pop Psychédélique (The Best of French Psychedelic Pop 1964-2019)’, ‘Garage Psychédélique (The Best of Garage Psych and Pzyk Rock 1965-2019)’ and ‘Lounge Psychédélique (The Best of Lounge & Exotica 1954-2022)’ and is available on 2LP Coloured Vinyl
Wendy Eisenberg hat die letzten zehn Jahre als feste Größe der Independent-Musikszene und als Künstlerin von inspirierender Vielseitigkeit verbracht. Als Singer-Songwriterin, Improvisatorin und virtuose Gitarristin sind die Koordinaten ihrer Kunst ständig im Wandel, von Art-Rock über Jazz bis hin zu mitreißender freier Improvisation und ausdrucksstarker Folk-Musik. Mit Höhepunkten wie dem 2020 erschienenen Album Auto" und dem 2024 Free-Jazz-Album Viewfinder" hat sie sich einen Namen als ambitionierte Künstlerin gemacht. Nachdem sie die letzten fünf Jahre damit verbracht hat, in verschiedenen Bands, Genres und kreativen Herausforderungen zu experimentieren, und nach einer Phase der Selbstkonfrontation, die sie mit einem persönlichen Exorzismus vergleicht, hat Eisenberg einen Meilenstein erreicht. Die poetischen und formal gewagten Folksongs von Wendy Eisenberg sind ihre bisher klarste Vision. Die Songs begannen 2020 Gestalt anzunehmen, als Eisenberg aus West-Massachusetts wegzog, wo sie nach ihrem Studium am New England Conservatory in Boston einige Jahre gelebt hatte, und nach Brooklyn zog. Aus Sehnsucht nach der ländlichen Atmosphäre ihres früheren Zuhauses fühlte sich Eisenberg zu den warmen Klängen von Country und Folk hingezogen. Die Songs sind echte Folk-Lieder", sagt Eisenberg über ihr Album. Bei der Produktion geht es weniger darum, zu sehen, was die Gitarre leisten kann, sondern vielmehr darum, die inhärente Fremdartigkeit der Sprachen zu akzeptieren, die sie seit anderthalb Jahrhunderten spricht." Auf Wendy Eisenberg schafft die Künstlerin ihr eigenes Paradigma mit einem eng verbundenen Kreis von langjährigen Freunden und Mitwirkenden, darunter Bassist Trevor Dunn, Schlagzeuger Ryan Sawyer und Co-Produzentin Mari Rubio (more eaze), die für Pedal Steel, Synthesizer und Streicharrangements zuständig war. Die Aufnahmen fanden oft in Eisenbergs Haus statt und verliehen jeder Note eine wunderschöne Ensemble-Textur. Endlich war ich von Menschen umgeben, die mich akzeptierten", sagt Eisenberg. Viele der Songs auf diesem Album sind in diesem neuen Gefühl entstanden. Ich wollte, dass es unglaublich beruhigend wirkt, da es einige massive Veränderungen im Selbstverständnis und Selbstwertgefühl beschreibt. Es geht um Erleichterung."
- Story’s End
- Shades Of Blue
- Sorry I Was Yours (Feat. Conor Oberst)
- Tricky
- Never Thought I’d Feel
- New Powerlines
- Nathaniel
- Be Careful What You Want
- Everything Is Fine (My Loves)
- Change Is Coming Soon (Green Butterfly Sequel)
Acclaimed songwriter Maria Taylor, best known for her work with Azure Ray, returns with her forthcoming album ‘Story’s End’, a hushed,
cinematic collection that unfolds like an intimate narrative of loss, healing and quiet transformation.
Featuring contributions from Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst, Nate Walcott and Ben Brodin, the album pairs Taylor’s intimate vocals with widescreen strings, bell-like piano and atmospheric arrangements
Relapse presents a remastered reissue from the undisputed king of Japanese noise-MERZBOW. "Pulse Demon" is one of the most celebrated releases of Masami Akita's storied 4 decade long career. Composed entirely by live noise concrete and the use of a fuzz box, "Pulse Demon" eschews all overdubs and studio trickery, laying MERZBOW bare. What follows in these recordings is the pure essence of unfettered noise. The rawness in "Pulse Demon" is palpable; praised as "genuinely extreme, downright torturous sounds that are strangely compelling in their shredding intensity." (A.V. Club) upon its original release in 1996. Remastered by James Plotkin (ISIS, ELECTRIC WIZARD, FULL OF HELL, and more,) the "Pulse Demon" reissues features "Extract 1", a never-before released track that was recorded as part of the original "Pulse Demon" sessions.
- A1: Ocean Side
- A2: Shadow Surfer
- A3: Blind Curve
- A4: Summer Eyes
- A5: Futari No Night Dive
- B1: Seishun No Ijiwaru
- B2: Evening Break
- B3: So Many Dreams
- B4: I Will
WRWTFWW Records is very excited to announce the first release from its new City Pop Series with Japanese singer, actress, entertainer, scholar and all-around legend Momoko Kikuchi’s sun-drenched classic Ocean Side album, available now as a limited-edition transparent vinyl LP in a heavyweight sleeve with obi.
A cult classic among Japanese music collectors, Ocean Side was originally released in 1984 by mythical label VAP and features lush compositions and arrangements by J-Pop icon Tetsuji Hayashi (Mariya Takeuchi, Miki Matsubara, Omega Tribe, Junichi Inagaki, Urusei Yatsura anime, soundtrack…). Momoko Kikuchi’s city pop gem is a flawless mix of heartwarming beachside funk, breezy grooves, and silky-smooth vocals - the feel-good music we all need in our life right now.
The 9-track summer-is-forever adventure notably includes the ultra-funky megahit “Blind Curve”, the fan-favorite title song, and the insanely romantic ballad “Futari No Night Drive”. A vibrant reflection of summer in 1980s Japan, Ocean Side masterfully balances nostalgia and elegance, and provides part of the origin story for revered modern music genres such as chillwave, and future funk, and vaporwave.
The official reissue licensed from VAP, Inc. is sourced from the original masters with an audiophile-cut by Sidney Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios.
WRWTFWW’s City Pop Series and its Lopetz/Büro Destruct-designed logo also includes jazz-fusion-AOR-mellow-funk treasure Safari (1984), a limited capsule collection of merch, and much more to come in the near future.
John Andrews has spent the past few years tucked away in Red Hook, Brooklyn - a neighborhood that sits just beyond the natural drift of the city. Once shaped by maritime industry and later a haven for artists in search of vast warehouse space, its history and isolation give it a quiet magnetism. Streetsweeper, the fifth album by John Andrews & The Yawns, reflects that vantage point-tranquil, self-contained, and curious about the movements most people overlook.
Just a few cobblestone blocks from the freight-ship-lined harbor, Andrews wrote dozens of new songs at his electric piano. Nine of them found their way to Los Angeles to be recorded with Luke Temple, who played guitar and some bass. Drummer Noah Bond and bassist Kevin Louis Lareau, both longtime members of The Yawns and Cut Worms, form the rhythm section. Will Henriksen of Florry played fiddle on “Something To Be Said,” while Emily Moales of Star Moles sang harmonies recorded remotely by Kevin Basko at Historic New Jersey.
Red Hook may not be the easiest neighborhood to reach, but that distance gives it a singular glow-one Andrews sneaks into every note of Streetsweeper. The Super 8 video for “Something To Be Said,” shot by Hilla Eden, wanders through its streets like a hazy love letter. The album offers a similar invitation: step off the main road, linger a little, and notice the small, overlooked moments that make a place-and a life-rich. Andrews has swept those margins with care, leaving songs that listen, observe, and stay with you.
John Andrews has spent the past few years tucked away in Red Hook, Brooklyn - a neighborhood that sits just beyond the natural drift of the city. Once shaped by maritime industry and later a haven for artists in search of vast warehouse space, its history and isolation give it a quiet magnetism. Streetsweeper, the fifth album by John Andrews & The Yawns, reflects that vantage point-tranquil, self-contained, and curious about the movements most people overlook.
Just a few cobblestone blocks from the freight-ship-lined harbor, Andrews wrote dozens of new songs at his electric piano. Nine of them found their way to Los Angeles to be recorded with Luke Temple, who played guitar and some bass. Drummer Noah Bond and bassist Kevin Louis Lareau, both longtime members of The Yawns and Cut Worms, form the rhythm section. Will Henriksen of Florry played fiddle on “Something To Be Said,” while Emily Moales of Star Moles sang harmonies recorded remotely by Kevin Basko at Historic New Jersey.
Red Hook may not be the easiest neighborhood to reach, but that distance gives it a singular glow-one Andrews sneaks into every note of Streetsweeper. The Super 8 video for “Something To Be Said,” shot by Hilla Eden, wanders through its streets like a hazy love letter. The album offers a similar invitation: step off the main road, linger a little, and notice the small, overlooked moments that make a place-and a life-rich. Andrews has swept those margins with care, leaving songs that listen, observe, and stay with you.
- 1: A Morning Star
- 2: Foam Rubber Wedding
- 3: Vertical Take-Off And Landing
- 4: Crow Crow
- 5: Jelly Babies
- 6: From Head To Phones
- 7: Johnny Seven
- 8: Hak Utopia
- 9: Water Ev'rywhere
- 10: Saved By The Warts
- 11: Tele Visions
- 12: Au Rora
One of the first punk bands to set up an "indie" label, they were also pioneers of "alternative" music, mixing punk with experimental sounds. Swell Maps released four singles and two albums in a brief but eventful career, in partnership with Rough Trade, topping UK indie charts and influencing acts including Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Stereolab, and Blur. The original line-up split in 1980, but still their studio albums, A Trip to Marineville and Jane From Occupied Europe, attract new generations of enthusiasts. In 2021, Jowe organised performances
with ten musicians to play a diverse selection of Maps material over two consecutive nights at London's Cafe Oto, and did it again at the Rough Trade launch for Jowe's book on Swell Maps in 2022. Concerts followed across the UK and Europe, with more planned. This ongoing project has resulted in a new studio album, C21, released through Tiny Global Productions. The material was composed at various times between 1979 and the present, including older songs never recorded professionally, a remake of Soundtracks' astonishing Jelly Babies and plenty of surprises. C21 offers memorable melodies, wild riffs with super hooks, yet never veers from their adventurous spirit, radical ideas and eccentric musical shapes. The current collective of musicians features: Jowe Head, David Callahan of Wolfhounds / Moonshake / solo fame, Jeff Bloom out from Television Personalities, Alternative TV's Lee McFadden, Lucie Rejchrtova (Crazy World Of Arthur Brown), Chloe Herington from chamber rock faves Chrome Hoof, and Luke Haines, who led Auteurs and Black Box Recorder and plays with REM's Peter Buck. SWELL MAPS will be performing throughout 2026 across the UK and Europe and are proud to present this stellar document, which maintains the group's devotion to D-I-Y ideals and impulses. The vinyl album covers were hand-screened and stamped by a feminist cooperative in Valencia, Spain and are offered in three randomly picked variants. The Guardian is going to run a 1400-word piece on the release.
- A1: Uptown Top Ranking With Eva Lazarus
- A2: Gideon Boot With General Levy
- A3: Session Haffi Cork With Mr Williamz
- A4: Indian Sun With Biga Ranx & Ruffian Rugged
- A5: Jump Around With Cheshire Cat
- A6: Rainbow Country With Cian Finn
- B1: Amsterdam (Flight Mode Mix) With Eva Lazarus
- B2: Bubble N Wine With Solo Banton
- B3: Searching (Stepper Mix) With Marina P
- B4: Got The Vibes With Charlie P
- B5: Ice Cream Gal With Gardna
- B6: Rise And Gravitate With Kenny Knots
Glasgow reggae collective Mungo’s HiFi celebrate 25 years of pulsating music with a follow-up to game-changing second studio album Soundsystem Champions. Released in 2008, the original Sound System Champions became an instant 21st century classic - thanks to its industrial strength basslines, blazing horns and lineup of scorching microphone talent. To commemorate a quarter century of rocking dances and building rhythms, Mungo’s have created Soundsystem Champions 2. They’ve lovingly assembled some of their biggest dubplates, previously only heard in a soundsystem situation, now available to the world. Fans of the first Sound System Champions will hear musical echoes in the new version. Irrepressible Junglist General Levy rides the Belly Ska riddim that kicked off the 2008 edition, with the militant Gideon Boot. Italy’s Marina P returns to the new record on the expansive Searching, as does Kenny Knots, closing the track list with heartfelt roots anthem Rise and Gravitate. For Soundsystem Champions 2, Mungo’s have invited many more voices from their epic journey. Bristol’s Eva Lazarus revisits Althea and Donna’s immortal Uptown Top Ranking. Reading’s Solo Banton turns his lyrical versatility to hip hop banger Bubble N Wine. The beautiful grainy tones of Ireland’s Cian Finn reimagine the Wailers’ Rainbow Country. With this historic sequel album, Mungo’s look back while going forward, the exclusive becomes the inclusive, and the Sound System comes to you!
Seven years after their debut ‘Gulden Onversneden’, Klein Volk once again puts bread on the table with ‘In Weelde Verbrast’, a tribute to the important afterthoughts of everyday life in times of utter seriousness. Amidst the vestiges of things taken for granted, Klein Volk felt the need to take root and delicately tend to their kinds of whim and naïveté - all balanced out in a garden of opportunity, for seasons to come.
Klein Volk is Marie Baeke, Timo Bonneure and Wesley Buysse.
- 01: Maanitus &Amp; Tšiižik
- 02: Markka
- 03: Melkutus
- 04: Letška
- 05: Kuuen Parin Hoirola
- 06: Brišatka
- 07: Tšiižik
- 08: Kirkonkellot
- 09: Kirkonkellot Korkea
- 10: Hoirola, 3 Parin
- 11: Lippa
- 12: Kyngäkiža
- 13: Ristakondra
- 14: Vanha Polkka
- 15: Viistoista
- 16: Vanha Valssi
- 17: Kiberä
- 18: Maanitus Kuokan Kanteleella
- 19: Tuuti Lasta Nukkumahe
Vinyl[22,65 €]
Death Is Not The End present a further volume of Arja Kastinen's eerie amalgamations of 110 year old wax cylinders with her own meticulously transcribed takes, this time focussing in on Armas Otto Väisänen's field recordings of kantele player Iivana Mišukka (b. 1861 d.1919).
"Ivana Mišukka (1861–1919) was one of the Karelian kantele players recorded by the folk music researcher Armas Otto Väisänen on wax cylinders in 1916 and 1917. In the early 20th century, the remote areas of Border Karelia were undergoing the final phase of a transformation in musical culture, with the ancient runo song tradition giving way to newer forms of music. This transition is reflected in Mišukka's repertoire and choice of instrument. The ancient small kantele, hollowed out of a single piece of wood, was already rare at the turn of the century. Mišukka's kantele was a new type of instrument with 26 strings, constructed of several parts, but he played it using the traditional plucking technique. Like other Border Karelian kantele players, his repertoire consisted of music rooted in runosong culture, as well as newer dances and songs from the east and west. Most of the recorded material falls into the latter category.
Ivan Bogdanov Mišukka was born out of wedlock in Suursara village, Suistamo, on 1 May 1861. He began playing the kantele at the age of five or six, quickly mastering the instrument. In adulthood, he was considered one of the area's best master players. Mišukka was landless for most of his life and lived in different parts of the Suistamo parish. His first wife, Tekla Markintytär, died in 1897 at the age of 40, and his second wife, Jevdokia Filipintytär Jeminen, died in 1907 at the age of 50. Seven children were born from the first marriage, two of whom died young. The third wife, Maria Ignatintytär Gurnan (Kuurnanen), was a well-known master of lamentations. Together with Maria, Iivana Mišukka worked as a tenant farmer in the village of Suursara. Mišukka suffered from rheumatism, which prevented him from participating in physical work like Maria. This was apparently partly the reason why Iivana Mišukka went to earn extra money by playing the kantele on gig trips. He often had other traditional artists from Suistamo as his travelling companions, such as the runosingers Konstantin Kuokka and Iivana Onoila. Iivana Mišukka died in Leppäsyrjä village, Suistamo, on 18 May 1919 at the age of 58, and his kantele was donated to Teppana Jänis.
Mišukka only used 14 of the 26 strings on his kantele, playing the same tunes either a fourth higher or lower. He tuned his kantele to the major scale using fifths, except for a low seventh scale degree on the upper strings, but not below the fundamental. Since he did not use the seventh note of the scale on the upper strings at all, he could use the major scale both lower and a fourth higher with this tuning. According to Mišukka, the sound of higher, or 'finer', strings is 'more beautiful', while that of lower ones is 'greater'. Among runosingers, the size of the thirds varied, ranging from major to minor to neutral. A similar phenomenon can be observed in kantele tunings, where the third, sixth and seventh scale degrees vary in a comparable way.
During a meeting, Väisänen suggested that Mišukka play the smaller kantele belonging to Konstantin Kuokka. The idea was to bring it closer to the horn to improve the recording quality. However, the kantele was completely out of tune, and now Mišukka tuned it to the Lydian scale (track 18).
Using the old plucking technique, Mišukka placed his right middle finger on the fundamental tone, his right index finger on the second scale degree, his left middle finger on the third scale degree and his left index finger on the fourth scale degree, and his right thumb on the fifth. The thumb also played the notes above the fifth note of the scale. As Mišukka remarked to Väisänen: 'Peigaloll' tuloo enemb ruadoa' (the thumb has to do more work). However, he did not use the seventh note of the scale on the upper strings at all. Below the fundamental note, he played the seventh and sixth notes of the scale with his right middle finger of and the fifth note of the scale with his right ring finger. This fifth scale degree below the fundamental is almost always used as a drone. Sometimes, when the melody required it, Mišukka, like other players, also varied the fingering. He would also occasionally strike the same string with the side of his fingernail after plucking it.
The wax cylinder recordings of Karelian kantele players are kept in the archives of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki, Finland. Copies were made of them onto reel-to-reel tapes in both the 1960s and 1980s. The 1960s copies are mono and the 1980s copies are stereo. However, not all kantele recordings from these decades have survived.
The sound of the kantele is difficult to hear in wax cylinder recordings due to its low volume, and it occasionally becomes completely obscured by noise. During the copying process, the cylinder sometimes rotates unevenly, resulting in breaks or jumps in the music. Additionally, the rotation speed of the cylinder in the copies does not correspond to the performance speed of the original music, which alters the pitch. However, since Väisänen's precise notes are available in the archive, it is possible to deduce the melodies, their speed, and the tuning level of the kantele in the recordings. Of the copies of the original recordings from the 1960s and 1980s, I have selected the one that best met the requirements of this publication and adjusted the speed of the recording to align with Väisänen's notes. To enhance the listening experience, I have replayed the songs, which now partly overlap the old recordings on this release."
— Arja Kastinen
- 01: Maanitus &Amp; Tšiižik
- 02: Markka
- 03: Melkutus
- 04: Letška
- 05: Kuuen Parin Hoirola
- 06: Brišatka
- 07: Tšiižik
- 08: Kirkonkellot
- 09: Kirkonkellot Korkea
- 10: Hoirola, 3 Parin
- 11: Lippa
- 12: Kyngäkiža
- 13: Ristakondra
- 14: Vanha Polkka
- 15: Viistoista
- 16: Vanha Valssi
- 17: Kiberä
- 18: Maanitus Kuokan Kanteleella
- 19: Tuuti Lasta Nukkumahe
Tape[16,39 €]
Death Is Not The End present a further volume of Arja Kastinen's eerie amalgamations of 110 year old wax cylinders with her own meticulously transcribed takes, this time focussing in on Armas Otto Väisänen's field recordings of kantele player Iivana Mišukka (b. 1861 d.1919).
"Ivana Mišukka (1861–1919) was one of the Karelian kantele players recorded by the folk music researcher Armas Otto Väisänen on wax cylinders in 1916 and 1917. In the early 20th century, the remote areas of Border Karelia were undergoing the final phase of a transformation in musical culture, with the ancient runo song tradition giving way to newer forms of music. This transition is reflected in Mišukka's repertoire and choice of instrument. The ancient small kantele, hollowed out of a single piece of wood, was already rare at the turn of the century. Mišukka's kantele was a new type of instrument with 26 strings, constructed of several parts, but he played it using the traditional plucking technique. Like other Border Karelian kantele players, his repertoire consisted of music rooted in runosong culture, as well as newer dances and songs from the east and west. Most of the recorded material falls into the latter category.
Ivan Bogdanov Mišukka was born out of wedlock in Suursara village, Suistamo, on 1 May 1861. He began playing the kantele at the age of five or six, quickly mastering the instrument. In adulthood, he was considered one of the area's best master players. Mišukka was landless for most of his life and lived in different parts of the Suistamo parish. His first wife, Tekla Markintytär, died in 1897 at the age of 40, and his second wife, Jevdokia Filipintytär Jeminen, died in 1907 at the age of 50. Seven children were born from the first marriage, two of whom died young. The third wife, Maria Ignatintytär Gurnan (Kuurnanen), was a well-known master of lamentations. Together with Maria, Iivana Mišukka worked as a tenant farmer in the village of Suursara. Mišukka suffered from rheumatism, which prevented him from participating in physical work like Maria. This was apparently partly the reason why Iivana Mišukka went to earn extra money by playing the kantele on gig trips. He often had other traditional artists from Suistamo as his travelling companions, such as the runosingers Konstantin Kuokka and Iivana Onoila. Iivana Mišukka died in Leppäsyrjä village, Suistamo, on 18 May 1919 at the age of 58, and his kantele was donated to Teppana Jänis.
Mišukka only used 14 of the 26 strings on his kantele, playing the same tunes either a fourth higher or lower. He tuned his kantele to the major scale using fifths, except for a low seventh scale degree on the upper strings, but not below the fundamental. Since he did not use the seventh note of the scale on the upper strings at all, he could use the major scale both lower and a fourth higher with this tuning. According to Mišukka, the sound of higher, or 'finer', strings is 'more beautiful', while that of lower ones is 'greater'. Among runosingers, the size of the thirds varied, ranging from major to minor to neutral. A similar phenomenon can be observed in kantele tunings, where the third, sixth and seventh scale degrees vary in a comparable way.
During a meeting, Väisänen suggested that Mišukka play the smaller kantele belonging to Konstantin Kuokka. The idea was to bring it closer to the horn to improve the recording quality. However, the kantele was completely out of tune, and now Mišukka tuned it to the Lydian scale (track 18).
Using the old plucking technique, Mišukka placed his right middle finger on the fundamental tone, his right index finger on the second scale degree, his left middle finger on the third scale degree and his left index finger on the fourth scale degree, and his right thumb on the fifth. The thumb also played the notes above the fifth note of the scale. As Mišukka remarked to Väisänen: 'Peigaloll' tuloo enemb ruadoa' (the thumb has to do more work). However, he did not use the seventh note of the scale on the upper strings at all. Below the fundamental note, he played the seventh and sixth notes of the scale with his right middle finger of and the fifth note of the scale with his right ring finger. This fifth scale degree below the fundamental is almost always used as a drone. Sometimes, when the melody required it, Mišukka, like other players, also varied the fingering. He would also occasionally strike the same string with the side of his fingernail after plucking it.
The wax cylinder recordings of Karelian kantele players are kept in the archives of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki, Finland. Copies were made of them onto reel-to-reel tapes in both the 1960s and 1980s. The 1960s copies are mono and the 1980s copies are stereo. However, not all kantele recordings from these decades have survived.
The sound of the kantele is difficult to hear in wax cylinder recordings due to its low volume, and it occasionally becomes completely obscured by noise. During the copying process, the cylinder sometimes rotates unevenly, resulting in breaks or jumps in the music. Additionally, the rotation speed of the cylinder in the copies does not correspond to the performance speed of the original music, which alters the pitch. However, since Väisänen's precise notes are available in the archive, it is possible to deduce the melodies, their speed, and the tuning level of the kantele in the recordings. Of the copies of the original recordings from the 1960s and 1980s, I have selected the one that best met the requirements of this publication and adjusted the speed of the recording to align with Väisänen's notes. To enhance the listening experience, I have replayed the songs, which now partly overlap the old recordings on this release."
— Arja Kastinen
















































































































































![WILD NOTHING - LIFE OF PAUSE (LENTICULAR SLEEVE) [SIGNED PRINT ED]](https://www.deejay.de/images/l/9/4/1227394.jpg)















