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OVERVIEW: Following both a global pandemic and an acclaimed, landmark debut album, inimitable Irish Alt-Folk act Junior Brother returns today with details of his
new album The Great Irish Famine, and a new single titled “No Snitch”. The album follows his much lauded 2019 Pull The Right Rope and is out 2nd September via multidisciplinary Irish label Strange Brew.

The Great Irish Famine leaps boldly forward into an exciting new chapter, and into a shaken new world - staggeringly profound, brutally beautiful in its epic sweep. The lead single “No Snitch” - which is released digitally with a 7” release to follow – is an intoxicating first taste of this new material. A track of towering, bruised catharsis, Kealy’s emotive and powerful vocals fluctuate across the tracks temperamental instrumentation which is both at once tumultuous and calming. The single is also accompanied by a dark and surreal new video

Speaking about the themes across the album Kealy further explains, "I was very conscious to bring each element of the debut into this follow-up, but dramatically dig ten times deeper and stretch ten times further down into each avenue”. “No Snitch" soars amidst darkly comic self-reflection ("This Is My Body"), anxious reflexes on modern living ("No Country For Young Men"), and the painful role the past plays in a nation's present ("King Jessup's Nine Trials").

“The Long Meadows is the endless stream never getting to the sea, through the lens of a couple in love unable to buy a home. It's the Now and the Past both melding into one cry of confusion, unanswered and forever in pursuit, “locked out of the next life”.

Following both a global pandemic and an acclaimed, landmark debut album, inimitable Irish Alt-Folk act Junior Brother returns today with details of his new album The Great Irish Famine, and a new single titled “No Snitch”. The album follows his much lauded 2019 Pull The Right Rope and is out 2nd September via multidisciplinary Irish label Strange Brew.

The Great Irish Famine leaps boldly forward into an exciting new chapter, and into a shaken new world - staggeringly profound, brutally beautiful in its epic sweep.

Speaking about the themes across the album Kealy further explains, "I was very conscious to bring each element of the debut into this follow-up, but dramatically dig ten times deeper and stretch ten times further down into each avenue”. “No Snitch" soars amidst darkly comic self-reflection ("This Is My Body"), anxious reflexes on modern living ("No Country For Young Men"), and the painful role the past plays in a nation's present ("King Jessup's Nine Trials").

Both startlingly dynamic and profoundly accomplished, The Great Irish Famine reflects fall-out of trauma both personal and universal, national, and international, minor, and mountainous, historic, and contemporary - all uncompromisingly conveyed through the magnetic, emotionally potent vision of a one-of-a-kind artist at the top of his game.

Extremely limited edition 7” vinyl pressing of Red Rum Club’s infectious new singles Vanilla and The River.

After recently kicking up a dusty, desert-pop storm on their US tour, Liverpool’s funk-infused, brass-driven rock sextet are offering their new wave of American fans a chance to take home a slice of Scouse swagger in the form of a super limited two-track 7” record.

Armed with unapologetically catchy melodies and oozing with an instantly likeable charm, the band have captured the true essence of their personalities on these two new singles. ‘Vanilla’ takes a vicious side-swipe at mundanity and provides the perfect antidote to “vannilla” living with its infectious hook, vibrant brass melody and brooding vocal delivery. Meanwhile, unreleased track ‘The River’ sees the band delve into their emotive side and produce an uplifting and heartwarming song that radiates a feel-good party atmosphere that will make you forget all your troubles in an instant.

Never afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeve, Red Rum Club have distilled the rock and roll flair, endearing lyrical honesty and hip-shaking musical energy of their wide-ranging discography into two tracks that epitomise them as a band. After releasing three albums in as many years, the group have truly refined their unique sound, combining the authentic grit of their native northern England with an eclectic, groove-laden funk sensibility and this exclusive new 7” is the perfect way to sample that concoction in its truest form.

Written and recorded between 1972 and 1982 in Western Oregon, Back to the Woodlands is a previously unreleased, and nearly lost, album made by Ernest Hood during the same era as his near mythical album Neighborhoods. A visionary combination of field recordings, zithers, and synthesizers, Back to the Woodlands offers an unprecedented depth of access to this singular artistic mind.

Born into a musical family, Ernest Hood began a promising career as a jazz guitarist during the 1940s, touring internationally with his brother Bill Hood and the saxophonist Charlie Barnet, before contracting polio in his late twenties. The disease left Ernest unable to play the guitar and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It also forced him to adapt and innovate around his musical practices in the face of adversity; Hood’s value of sound matured with a remarkably democratic and nonhierarchical approach and application.

Taking up the zither, a less physically-demanding stringed instrument to the guitar, embarking upon the unprecedented process of incorporating field recordings into his work as early as 1956, and eventually discovering the synthesizer, Hood’s music became imbued with optimism and subtle cultural critique. This ethos and technique - refined over the coming decades - would lay the groundwork for a sprawling body of radio work, mail order recordings for homebound listeners, and Neighborhoods, self-issued as a small vinyl edition in 1975.

Where Neighborhoods, a nostalgic opus, drawing from a well of collective memory of the 1950s, is defined by traces of human activity, Back to the Woodlands leaves the modern world behind, delving into Hood’s love for nature. Only recently discovered in his archives, the album dramatically expands his concept of “musical cinematography,” imagistically triggering states of sensory memory from within its zither and synthesizer melodies, intertwined with field recordings made during Hood’s extensive travels throughout Oregon. If Neighborhoods is a retreat into the gauzy joys of a romanticized past, Back to the Woodlands is an immersion in the timeless sanctuary of the natural world.

Since its formation in 2010, the Melt Trio has become one of the world's most innovative guitar trios in contemporary jazz. And way beyond. Stylistically speaking: If you like Tortoise, Khruangbin, but also Philip Catherine, Bad Plus or Marc Ribot, you can already look forward to one of the outstanding albums in November of this crisis-ridden year.

On their countless concerts and tours all over the world, the three Berliners have refined their special style more and more and show an even stronger will to create in details. Their combination of acoustic and electronic sounds seems more subtle and at the same time more powerful than ever, specific influences from jazz and classical modernism to post- and prog rock can at best be made out dimly, because the music simply sounds like Melt Trio. It is and remains a guitar trio that does without any comparison. "Melt is neither Nirvana on jazz, nor Bill Frisell Trio in rock, nor Massacre in ambient. Melt is Melt, unique, individual, gripping and moving," it was once said elsewhere.

Her Shadow offers dreamy pop music with moonlight melodies, heavenly hooks and Lynchian twists. The ethereal soundscapes come to life in a dream noir universe oozing with catchy choruses, Morricone motifs and vintage sounds interweave with state of the art production. The birth of Her Shadow was inevitable. Old friends, guitarist-songwriter Tomi Henttunen (Royal Lips) and keyboardist-lyricist (Kuolemanlaakso) had a versatile but very different background in making music but a shared obsession with Twin Peaks and Lana Del Rey. The original idea in 2016 was to combine the best of both worlds, and spice up the mix with film noir and dream-like elements – to make music that they love, but had never done before. They recruited the enigmatic singer Anna Carolina (Royal Lips), drummer extraordinaire Toni Ronkainen (Kuolemanlaakso) and producer-engineer Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun, Lord of the Lost etc.), and recorded a four-song demo. They instantly got signed to Svart Records, and started working on their debut album. After five long years of hard work, it is finally ready to be released upon the world. As they say, good things come to those who wait: The Ghost Love Chronicles will be released on November 11, 2022. The album was produced by musical and visual mastermind Henttunen, mixed by Sampsa Väätäinen (Ismo Alanko, Neøv etc.) and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost, Opeth etc.). The songs range from the mellow Motown mood of Fifth Season to the modern pop banger Kinda Love You, from the Morricone-inspired Vigilante to the nightmarish haunted house thriller What Hides in the Dark and from eerie playfulness of White Lane to ghoulishly beautiful Devil Inside. It remains to see, if The Ghost Love Chronicles will grow into a hit album or a cult classic, but it sure has the potential for both. Slip into something comfortable, open the doors of your perception and enter realm of Her Shadow. HER SHADOW Anna Carolina – lead vocals Tomi Henttunen – guitar, bass, keyboards Markus Laakso – keyboards, backing vocals Toni Ronkainen – drums and percussion Harri Hyvönen – live bass Otto Daavitsainen – live guitar

Her Shadow offers dreamy pop music with moonlight melodies, heavenly hooks and Lynchian twists. The ethereal soundscapes come to life in a dream noir universe oozing with catchy choruses, Morricone motifs and vintage sounds interweave with state of the art production. The birth of Her Shadow was inevitable. Old friends, guitarist-songwriter Tomi Henttunen (Royal Lips) and keyboardist-lyricist (Kuolemanlaakso) had a versatile but very different background in making music but a shared obsession with Twin Peaks and Lana Del Rey. The original idea in 2016 was to combine the best of both worlds, and spice up the mix with film noir and dream-like elements – to make music that they love, but had never done before. They recruited the enigmatic singer Anna Carolina (Royal Lips), drummer extraordinaire Toni Ronkainen (Kuolemanlaakso) and producer-engineer Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun, Lord of the Lost etc.), and recorded a four-song demo. They instantly got signed to Svart Records, and started working on their debut album. After five long years of hard work, it is finally ready to be released upon the world. As they say, good things come to those who wait: The Ghost Love Chronicles will be released on November 11, 2022. The album was produced by musical and visual mastermind Henttunen, mixed by Sampsa Väätäinen (Ismo Alanko, Neøv etc.) and mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost, Opeth etc.). The songs range from the mellow Motown mood of Fifth Season to the modern pop banger Kinda Love You, from the Morricone-inspired Vigilante to the nightmarish haunted house thriller What Hides in the Dark and from eerie playfulness of White Lane to ghoulishly beautiful Devil Inside. It remains to see, if The Ghost Love Chronicles will grow into a hit album or a cult classic, but it sure has the potential for both. Slip into something comfortable, open the doors of your perception and enter realm of Her Shadow. HER SHADOW Anna Carolina – lead vocals Tomi Henttunen – guitar, bass, keyboards Markus Laakso – keyboards, backing vocals Toni Ronkainen – drums and percussion Harri Hyvönen – live bass Otto Daavitsainen – live guitar

16)- return with their heaviest and most devastating record to date, Into Dust. The new album, a collection of cautionary tales of survival and redemption, is set to an amalgamation of sludge, punk, metal, hardcore, and stoner riffs, that could only be built through 30 years of commitment to their dark sonic craft, which -(16)- continues to improve upon. From the frantic opening of "Misfortune Teller" to the undeniable pounding and swagger of "Scrape the Rocks", Into Dust lives up to its name, as -(16)- beat the listener into submission through the lowest of ends and the sour, palpable malaise prevalent throughout the album's dozen tracks. "There's a story arc in the lyrics that start with an eviction notice served amid the ruins of Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys, to running aground metaphorically and drowning in midlife, bearing witness to the modern suffering of hunger and poverty on the Mexico California border," guitarist and vocalist Bobby Ferry says. The negativity persists on tracks aptly titled "Null and Eternal Void", and the dizzying, pill-induced "The Floor Wins". Elsewhere, "Born on a Bar Stool" sends the listener off with a sobering album closer; ending on a foggy and rainy jazz-tinged San Francisco night, with an anti-drinking drinking song, proclaiming "Raise your glass all things pass".

Repress in soon, note new price. For Fans Of:The Lawrence Arms, Into It. Over It, The Menzingers, RVIVR, Modern Baseball, Sundowner, Topshelf Records. Deanna Belos has been a fixture in the Chicago punk scene since she was in Junior High, attending shows, singing along, and raising hell in general. But she was more than just a face in the crowd, Deanna was a radiant friend to all, and at some point she picked up a guitar and made a different contribution the Chicago underground scene: her own music under the name Sincere Engineer. Over the last couple years we've encouraged her to keep writing songs and she surprised us all by assembling a great band and recording an impressive album. Her debut, "Rhombithian", was Produced by Matt Jordan (You Blew It!, Dowsing, etc.) and pairs the sounds of Chicago punk and the youthful Midwest "emo revival" movement. No one is more excited about music than Sincere Engineer, and Deanna plans to play a lot of shows and bring her infectious energy to the rest of the planet in support of "Rhombithian".

Robert Groslot's Concerto for Bass Guitar and Orchestra represents the
next step in the evolution of the bass guitar
Groslot's composition pushes the instrument to its technical limits, while creating
a unique symbiosis between the soloist and the orchestra. Although he may not
be the first composer to write for the bass guitar in a symphonic setting, Groslot
brings a level of artistry and sophistication to the composition that will continue
and accelerate the legitimation of the bass guitar within contemporary classical
music. "The idea of a concerto for bass guitar is something that I have been
dreaming of for decades. Since its invention, the bass guitar has firmly
established itself as an essential and integral part of practically every genre of
music. The bass guitar, as we now know it, was invented and produced by Leo
Fender starting in 1951. The more portable bass guitar, in comparison to the large
and unwieldy double bass, was capable of playing at higher volumes via
amplification and satisfied the new sonic demands created by the widespread
use of electrification in popular music. By increasing the overall scale of the
electric guitar and only using the lowest four strings (E, A, D, G), Fender gave birth
to a new instrument. Traditional double bassists could quickly adapt, with the
added benefit of more accurate intonation due to the frets. Hence the original
name: The Precision Bass. At the same time, guitarists could also become bass
players when called upon. As a result, many of the early bass guitarists began
their musical life as guitar players, with the most well-known example being Paul
McCartney of The Beatles.
The fact that the bass guitar had no direct lineage like the evolution of the piano
or violin over time, led to a variety of disparate playing styles without any
fundamental methodology. Unlike the more traditional instruments, the bass
guitar does not sit upon a foundation of centuries of proven methods and
established schools of playing. The evolution of the bass guitar has been a
patchwork of trial and error by active musicians. This has led to a plethora of
personal approaches and hybrid-styles, effectively leading to the rapid evolution
of bass guitar technique. Given its relatively young history, it is remarkable how
the bass guitar has grown from being an instrument taken up out of necessity, or
as an afterthought, to being as respected and vital to modern music as any of the
older, more established instruments." - Thomas Fiorini

This collectors' special edition on 180g yellow vinyl presents 17 seminal
tracks featuring Vincius De Moraes' poetic lyrics set to music composed
by Antonio Carlos Jobim, longtime collaborates and icons of Brazilian
music
Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist and playwright, Vincius de Moraes (1913-1980)
became a seminal figure in modern Brazilian music and literature. He served as a
national diplomat, composed his own bossa nova music and recorded several
significant albums. Along with his longtime collaborator, composer, arranger,
singer, and pianist/ guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim, he composed hundreds of
songs that have become true classics and have transcended the bossa nova, as
they continue to be played and recorded by countless singers and
instrumentalists within Brazil and throughout the world.

Renowned fiddle player and tireless musical adventurer Sam Sweeney
returns with the passionate, raw and expressive new album 'Escape That'
The record ties together the threads and footpaths of all of Sam's musical loves;
an honest and fearless expression of himself, combining pop hooks and
aesthetics with his pioneering work in the world of traditional dance tunes.
'Escape That' simultaneously presses the reset button on what a folk record
should sound like while marking a major stride forward for Sam into the world of
composition. Written without ever touching the violin, Sam retreated to his attic
during the lockdowns of 2020-21 and created over twenty pieces of
music. Composed almost entirely on synths and guitars, with snapshots of loved
ones and memories as inspiration in a time of isolation, he devised a way of
writing where he'd lay down a chord sequence and then record an improvisation
over the top. On listening back, anything that could be considered a hook would
be kept, everything else was deleted and tracks developed by linking the hooks
together to create dance tunes. Sam then translated the melodies back to the
fiddle, an instrument of which he is considered a modern master. Nominated four
times, and winner in 2015, of Musician Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk
Awards, Sam has been at the forefront of the revival in English music for the last
fifteen years.
He is a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, former and inaugural Artistic Director of
the National Youth Folk Ensemble, a founder member of ground- breaking trio
Leveret as well as a passionate and experienced educator. He has collaborated,
recorded and performed with The Full English, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Jon
Boden, Fay Hield and Emily Portman as well as creating his own theatre
production Made In The Great War.

Renowned fiddle player and tireless musical adventurer Sam Sweeney
returns with the passionate, raw and expressive new album 'Escape That'
The record ties together the threads and footpaths of all of Sam's musical loves;
an honest and fearless expression of himself, combining pop hooks and
aesthetics with his pioneering work in the world of traditional dance tunes.
'Escape That' simultaneously presses the reset button on what a folk record
should sound like while marking a major stride forward for Sam into the world of
composition. Written without ever touching the violin, Sam retreated to his attic
during the lockdowns of 2020-21 and created over twenty pieces of
music. Composed almost entirely on synths and guitars, with snapshots of loved
ones and memories as inspiration in a time of isolation, he devised a way of
writing where he'd lay down a chord sequence and then record an improvisation
over the top. On listening back, anything that could be considered a hook would
be kept, everything else was deleted and tracks developed by linking the hooks
together to create dance tunes. Sam then translated the melodies back to the
fiddle, an instrument of which he is considered a modern master. Nominated four
times, and winner in 2015, of Musician Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk
Awards, Sam has been at the forefront of the revival in English music for the last
fifteen years.
He is a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, former and inaugural Artistic Director of
the National Youth Folk Ensemble, a founder member of ground- breaking trio
Leveret as well as a passionate and experienced educator. He has collaborated,
recorded and performed with The Full English, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Jon
Boden, Fay Hield and Emily Portman as well as creating his own theatre
production Made In The Great War.

On April 29, MCC Magna Carta Cartel broke the 5 years silence with the
new speaker-breaking single "Silence", the first from their long awaited
second album "The Dying Option" - An album best described as rock
music from the world of dreams
Led by Martin Persner, one of the Nameless Ghouls of Ghost. MCC create
cinematic sounding themes with captivating melodies and poetic lyrics. Their
upcoming album "The Dying Option" offers a ticket into a state of mind seldom
seen or heard in modern music. Here they manage to use classic rock to create
an ambience beyond the regular riffs of today's rock and deliver ten fantastic
songs far beyond what anyone could have expected. "The Dying Option" is
produced by Niels Nielsen (In Flames, Ghost, Dead Soul) together with MCC. The
album artwork is created by the renowned film director Claudio Marino
(Behemoth, Watain, King Dude) and David M. Brinley (Ghost). MCC teamed up
with acclaimed Swedish film director Sebastian Jern for the Silence-video.

Rare Italo disco pop project Galvanica gets a beautiful re-issue! This is what the label writes about the release; "Galvanica, a voice with unusual qualities, refined, balanced, also high-pitched, sensual, embellished by an orgasmic inspiration with fluid and spaced solo's in hypnotic rhythms that often change scenery. 'Nightlights in Japan': an extraordinary piece of pure and profound creativity where each version seems to have been built apart and where the West meets the East. A splendid interpreter for a truly stunning piece, as fresh and far-sighted as the day it was recorded in Calenzano at Studio Emme by Marzio Benelli with the Yamaha DX7 synth and Linn 9000 drum sequencer that are at the base of the piece, made and re-interpreted in the four original versions, all sung in the Eastern Asian pentatonic scale. 'Nightlights in Japan' was also written by Massimiliano Orfei, at the time collaborator in the advertising projects from label Smash One Music of Pino Toma, the producer who drew new inspiration to venture into the record market which in 1987 became every day more difficult and this song was considered out of fashion, even if each version of this song was expertly arranged by the talented Giorgio Costantini. We've clarified as to whom Galvanica's velopendulus belongs, in order to be able to rightly consider this artist as a contributive voice of disco music, despite being part of the "second wave" of the Italo-Disco scene, has strongly contributed to it as Otero, Belen Thomas, Angelby and previously with the disco-project Plustwo creating 'Melody' (which after 40 years gets a new extraordinary success with over 134 million plays on TikTok and around 18 million streaming). However, it's clear as day that the gorgeous artist behind Galvanica was Antonella Bianchi and that Giorgio Costantini was not only her producer and composer - as in 1985 for 'I Know', a sweet synth-pop ballad sung with her stage name 'Angel', but above all her ... 'guardian angel'. For many artists using a stage name is a custom. The absolute record of pseudonyms as a true equalizer of identity is held by Stendhal having used 350 throughout his career. This multifaceted artist who, until now has never used so many 'a.k.a.', in a wonderful game of musical mirrors, has represented an opportunity to challenge the market, a trait of non-acceptance of the role that the discography attributes to certain artists. So also Galvanica was an invitation to reflect, with a pinch of provocation, a behavior that Antonella Bianchi has in the DNA of her family. Ultimately, Best Record is not at all worried about the modernization that surrounds it, sure that 'Nightlights in Japan' will be one of the most coveted vinyl reissues in the second half of 2022.

The fifth release of the CiM re-issues is his debut EP for the deFocus-label dating back from 2000. With 'Service Pack' Simon Walley subtly moved away from the dancefloor, creating a pack full with ear tickling and mind twisting electronica. Pure bliss. Now re-mastered and re-cut on Delsin Records.

Patterns of Perception returns with a snapshot of the Finnish scene: a collection of fast psychedelic techno from Helsinki artist HOMI with a slow-burning remix from VC-118A. Recorded at his studio space in Helsinki, HOMI's V?litila EP begins with three tracks of percussive, acid-tinged techno, primed for peak time. The B-side features a remix of the title track V?litila from Dutch-born and now Finland-based VC-118A, delivering a winding, slow-burning counterweight to Homi's dancefloor-oriented original. The digital edition includes a bonus fifth track of quirky breakbeat techno from HOMI titled SmallBisnes. Inspired by fast '90s techno in the vein of Detroit legend Rod Modell, the record is at turns delicate yet powerful, high energy yet melancholic. It also marks a turning point for the artist, coinciding with a shift away from a pure jamming approach and an expansion of his music-making techniques in studio, adding greater depth and complexity to his output.

Heavy-duty Colombian salsa group The Latin Brothers were formed in 1974 by the Discos Fuentes A&R team as a sibling band of Fruko Y Sus Tesos in order to provide the local market with a trombone-heavy ensemble in the mode of the popular Nuyorican Willie Colón orchestra. The band was led by Julio "Fruko" Estrada on bass, featuring basically the same musicians as Los Tesos, minus the trumpets and highlighting the cutthroat trombone work of Gustavo "La Pantera" García. At the time Fruko's Tesos were going through a transition and his talented former lead vocalist, Píper Pimienta, left to sing lead in The Latin Brothers while Joe Arroyo and Wilson "Saoko" Manyoma took over vocal duties in Los Tesos. "El Picotero" was The Latin Brothers' debut album and remains to this day a favorite of salsa dura fans the world over. The album established The Latin Brothers as a bona fide contender in the crowded field of trombone-centric salsa bands taking over the airwaves and dance floors around Latin America. With this bold and brassy record The Latin Brothers would inspire future Colombian salsa orchestras as well as helping establish Medellín as a center of salsa almost as famous as Cali.

Introducing Jaisiel; The Canary Islands’ answer to Bacalao. After years modestly honing his craft in Madrid and Tenerife and re-appropriating forgotten dollar bin gems for his label Ears On Earth, Jaisiel has found a home on Antinote with his shimmering ‘On the Universe’ EP. Tinged with a late 80s sound are 3 tracks of convertible top down, shirts unbuttoned, neon glow dance music.

Opening the Maxi 12” is the ecstatic ‘Talk To Nature’ replete with chirps, coos and woofs. Its catchy melody a subtle nod to ATB’s seminal anthem 9PM (Till I Come) which was once quoted as sublimating sexuality with its “purring titillation”. There is an equally evocative fluidity to ‘Talk To Nature’ found in Jaisiel’s use of pitch bent guitar, climaxing snare rolls and pounding kick drum. However it’s all very lighthearted when compared to ‘Embrace The Unknown’ a driving and mystical track filled with vocoder commands, tinny drones and synth stabs whose accompanying pointed bass line makes this the perfect song for peak time transitions. Raving into the sunrise on the Carretera El Saler is ‘On The Universe’ a contemplative and melancholic closer. Still vibrating with residual dance NRG, the central vocoder breakdown beckons you to reach for trance, to consider The Universe, as it were.

What ties together this On The Universe EP is Jaisiel’s penchant to upcycle 80s and 90s trance dance sounds in a clear and fresh flavour, distinctly Spanish, while simultaneously using just-enough-cheese catch phrases without being too cliché or pastiche. Talk To Nature, Embrace The Unknown, On The Universe…

Sunda Arc are brothers Nick Smart and Jordan Smart. Best known as key members of folk and jazz influenced minimalists Mammal Hands, their Sunda Arc project takes inspiration from the likes of Jon Hopkins, Rival Consoles, Moderat and Nils Frahm as well as their own music world. Their debut EP 'Flicker' was released in December 2018 and now the duo are set to release their debut LP, 'Tides' on 7th February 2020.

Named for a volcanic arc in the Indian Ocean, created by the process of massive tectonic plates colliding, Sunda Arc strives to mingle electronic and acoustic sounds until they become almost indistinguishable from each other. It's a process where they draw the acoustic properties and quirks out of electronic sounds and find the electronic potential in acoustic sounds. "Finding the ghost in the machine or blending the human elements of playing live is something we are always trying to explore in our work.

Experimentation is a large part of our process and we tend to combine carefully composed material with chaotic ideas to find the balance between the two" — Sunda Arc 'Tides', their debut album, takes its name from the idea of unseen forces that can affect our lives in myriad ways, being pushed and pulled and at the whim of powerful forces outside of our control as well as offering a nod to things such as the tides on our planet, tectonic plate movements and weather systems. There are often chaotic elements in these systems that function in a way that produce a type of controlled randomness on a large scale. This is something they try to reflect in their music by adopting some of the ways these systems work into musical sequences, and using ideas such as chaos theory to control musical parameters. "Tides is a reference to themes we were thinking a lot about during the making of this album. These include the similarities between macro and micro systems, or the circulatory and nervous systems in the body. Things that produce a type of controlled randomness on a large scale". — Sunda Arc 'Hymn', the first single from the album, uses Nick's voice sampled and played back through a keyboard to create a human yet electronic feel.

It mixes soft vocals with heavier electronic elements to create a danceable yet human sound world. 'Dawn', is best described as uplifting-techno, its use of repeated phrases building in intensity and variations to put you into a hypnotic state whilst also being industrial and danceable. 'Daemon' is one of the tracks that really resonates live. Drawing on the sound of UK dubstep it's intense but fun and the bass clarinet blends with synths at the end to create a sound almost like a vocal. 'Secret Window' brings forward another side of the band, focusing around a lo-fi recording of felted piano and bass clarinet.

These are blended with granularised and processed versions of themselves which emerge like ghosts of the instruments throughout the track. 'Cluster' is another key track. It utilises a small group of notes looped in an unusual way to create a sense of cascading patterns over a solid danceable drum groove. It emphasises soprano sax blended into the sound world half-way through to lift into the final section.