Search:myth

The East Coast of England is a land living on borrowed time. Time we borrowed from the North Sea, reclaimed a thousand years ago. But now it seems that sea has come to claim it all back. Michael C Coldwell spent three years travelling up and down this rapidly disappearing shoreline, collecting ghost stories, photographing the roads to nowhere, the monumental sound mirrors and pillboxes teetering on the edges of cliffs, making field recordings of the waves and fog signals, and writing mournful electronic music from static caravans. This hauntological project finally culminated in a short essay film entitled Views from Sunk Island - and this new Conflux Coldwell album. More than just a film score, The Phantomatic Coast stretches beyond the original aims of the documentary, to evoke something deeper about our troubled relationship with the sea – the many towns and ships lost beneath the waves, and ancient forgotten lands lying out beyond the windfarms like some Yorkshire Atlantis. Memory and mythology became obvious themes in the work, as did the ruins and remains of the world wars, now slipping beneath shifting sands forever. The Phantomatic Coast will be released via digital platforms and limited edition pressed vinyl in a deluxe gatefold sleeve.

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. A fascinating counterpoint to its predecessor, Back to the Woodlands brings us even closer to Hood's belief in the transportive qualities of sound; that field recordings could serve as a vehicle for the imagination and liberation, particularly for those with similar mobile disabilities as his own. Across the album's twelve compositions, the rippling instrumental harmonics - shifting between abstraction and playful melody - fold so seamlessly into the birdsong, bubbling brooks, and other environmental ambiences, that they often give the impression of having been recording within the landscapes toward which they whisper. Falling somewhere between the immersive calm of healing music and New Age, the creative field recording practices of sound ecologists world building for Folkways, and the jazz infected ambiences during Obscure / Editions EG's highest heights, Back to the Woodlands sculpts an singular proximity of music for its moment; a form of ambient sonic realism that draws the consciousness toward its surroundings as much as within. Working closely with his estate to maintain his original vision, Freedom to Spend has restored and remastered this never before released, lost masterpiece by Ernest Hood from the original tapes. Ernest Hood's Back to the Woodlands will be issued on vinyl, as well as on CD in combination with its contemporary Where the Woods Begin , with new liner notes by Michael Klausman . On behalf of Ernest Hood and Freedom To Spend, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Oregon Wild, an organization dedicated to protecting and restoring Oregon's wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.

AMRA, the collaborative project between Paul Purgas (Emptyset) and artist and filmmaker Imran Perretta, continue their excavations into syncretic mythologies, diasporic echoes and ancient rhythmic talas. hills/demons ruminates on spectral landscapes whilst bringing together a wider group of collaborators, forming a collection of dense percussive polyrhythms alongside sitar improvisations from British-Pakistani multi-instrumentalist Nabihah Iqbal and guest vocals from Bangladeshi singer Sohini Alam. Developed for a performance with the London based commissioning platform Artnight, the release expands on AMRA's exploration of archival traces and the struggles that marked South Asia's partition, summoning alternative histories and the echo of ancestral voices.

ROOMER is the name of the latest Berlin music sensation. Call it slowcore, shoegaze, dream pop, noise- or indie rock. Whatever way you like! The band's influences are definitely an eclectic lot. Just like with all good bands. But their sound is now! ROOMER are consisting of well-known Berlin scene musicians* who only now start to appear as ROOMER: Ronja Schößler, Ludwig Wandinger, Luca Pusch and Arne Braun. The birth of the band, however, goes back to a session at Kunsthalle Below about a year ago "We recorded a few songs on our own with some equipment that was lying around there and then recorded a few overdubs at home in Berlin," says Ronja Schößler laconically about the founding myth of ROOMER. On this EP they sound like a band that has been playing together for many years and knows exactly where they want to go with their music. ROOMER proves once again that a circle of friends making music is b asically unbeatable as a band formation.

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.

Für Fans von: Absu, Melechesh, Moonspell, Rotting Christ, Nile.
Unheiliger Black Metal aus dem Heiligen Land, durchtränkt von nahöstlichen Klängen und Mystik! Eine Beschwörung der Jahrtausende alten
Finsternis!
Die fünfköpfige Black/Death-Metal-Band Arallu stammt aus der israelischen Siedlung Ma'ale Adummim in Israel und ist seit fünfundzwanzig
Jahren im Metal-Underground unterwegs.
Der Name Arallu stammt aus der mesopotamischen Mythologie und bezeichnet das Reich der Unterwelt, das von der Göttin Ereshkigal und dem
Gott Nergal regiert wird und in dem die Toten gerichtet werden. Die Musik von Arallu dreht sich um die traditionellen, altorientalischen Melodien
der Landsleute Melechesh, die Hochgeschwindigkeits-Wildheit von Bands wie Angelcorpse und Absu, und dem atmosphärischen Gefühl legendärer Acts wie den zuvor erwähnten Melechesh und Absu.
Im Jahr 2019 hat die Band das Album "En Olam" veröffentlicht, und dieses Werk hat Arralus bereits bekanntes Talent in der Underground-Extrem-Metal-Gemeinde gefestigt. "Death Covenant" ist das siebte Full-Length-Studioalbum der Band und bietet dem Hörer eine atemberaubende
Mischung aus okkultem Black Metal und alten sumerischen und nahöstlichen Klängen. Die Riffs, die hier zu finden sind, werden die Hörer mit
ihrer Raserei von melodischen Tremolo-Riffs, die mit einigen unheimlichen Folk-Instrumenten verwoben sind, zufriedenstellen. Die Elemente in
der Gitarrenabteilung, die mit einigen Folkinstrumenten wie einer Saz und einer Darbuka vermischt sind, zeigen, wie die Band den Metal erfolgreich auf seinen Kern reduziert und das verleiht dem Gesamtergebnis von Arallus Musik einen zusätzlichen Punch und eine gewisse Schwere im
unteren Bereich. Er liegt im Grunde genommen gleichmäßig unter den Gitarren und unterstützt sie mit einigen dicken Linien, die den Streichern
ein tieferes Gefühl verleihen und den Tracks eine bedrohliche Atmosphäre verleihen. Auch die Schlagzeugsektion fesselt die Aufmerksamkeit des
Publikums mit einer Vielzahl von zerstörerisch stampfenden Kontrabässen bis hin zu orientalischem Tribal-Drumming, das viel dazu beiträgt, dass
die Atmosphäre intakt zu halten. Die Platte ist voll von hohen, durchdringenden Schreien und Kreischen, die eine dunkle und raue Klanglandschaft schaffen. Diese bösartigen Schreie werden manchmal mit unheimlichen Backing Vocals, die die Brutalität extremer Death- und Black-Metal-Musik mit den alten nahöstlichen Skalen des Materials verbinden. "Death Covenant" zeigt auch die bisher stärkste Produktion der Band in den
fünfundzwanzig Jahren ihres Bestehens.
Mit "Death Covenant" haben Arallu ein bedrohliches und atmosphärisches Biest in diesem Metal-Stil geschaffen. Die Israelis haben ein grausames
Album vorgelegt, das kaum mit seinen Vorgängern vergleichbar ist.

Unholy Black Metal from the Holy Land, drenched in Middle-Eastern tones and mystique! An invocation of thousands of years of Darkness! Hailing from the urban Israeli settlement called Ma’ale Adummim in Israel, Arallu is a five-piece Black/Death Metal act that has been around the metal underground for twenty-five years. The band got the name Arallu from the Mesopotamian mythology, as it is the name of the underworld kingdom ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and the god Nergal, where the dead are judged. Arallu’s music revolves around the traditional ancient Middle Eastern melodies of fellow countrymen Melechesh, the high speed savagery of bands like Angelcorpse and Absu, and the atmospheric feel of legendary acts like before mentioned Melechesh and Absu. In 2019 the band had released the record called “En Olam”, and that opus has solidified Arralu’s already known talent to the underground extreme metal community. “Death Covenant” is the band’s seventh full-length studio offering and the album offers the listeners a very stunning infusion of occult Black Metal music with the ancient Sumerian and Middle Eastern sound. The riffs found in here will satisfy the listeners with its frenzy of melodic tremolo picked riffs that is intertwined with some eerie folk instrumentation. The elements in the guitar department, thrown in with a few folk instruments such as a saz and a darbuka, reveals how the band had successfully stripped metal down to its core and added a personal touch of their own special flair. them and it provides that extra punch and low-end heaviness to the overall outcome of Arallu’s music. It basically lies steadily beneath the guitars as it backs them up with some thick lines that give a more deep feel to the strings and dispenses an ominous atmosphere to the tracks. The drum section also catches the audience’s attention with a variety of destructive pummeling double bass blasting to some Middle Eastern tribal drumming that helps a lot in terms of keeping the atmosphere intact. The record is filled with high-pitched piercing shrieks and screams which create a dark and raw soundscape. These vicious shrieks are sometimes jacked up with some uncanny backing vocals that tie together the brutality of extreme death and Black Metal music to the ancient Middle Eastern scales of the material. “Death Covenant” also parades the band’s strongest production to date in their twenty-five years of existence. Arallu had created a menacing and atmospheric beast in this style of metal with their release of “Death Covenant”. These Israelis had put out a savage album that is hardly comparable to its predecessors.

…If I Die, I Die was released only weeks before the Heresie box set. The two albums show very different faces of the Virgin Prunes – one that explored mythical worlds and another that showed their surrealistic interest in the creative power of insanity. They also highlight the ways in which the band enjoyed experimenting with different genres, sound forms and recording techniques. As Friday has commented recently, ‘The Virgin Prunes contained four different bands at the same time.’

The album was recorded at the Windmill Studios in Dublin in the summer of 1982 and produced by Wire’s Colin Newman. Rather than adopt an A/B format, the sides of the 1982 vinyl and album cover, which was designed by Steve Averill, were given brown and blue colours, signalling earth and sky respectively. The art work on each side of the sleeve was also inverted so that either side could be read as the front cover. Ursula Steiger’s photography captured, on the brown side, the band running through a forest like a nomadic tribe. On the blue side we then find them in different costumes, performing with fire and mannequins within a derelict building.

This 40th Anniversary Edition of the album sees a full remaster housed in a Limited Edition Special Finish Gatefold Sleeve on Transparent Vinyl. This Deluxe LP also comes with a 16 page booklet featuring sleeve notes by Dr. Jonathan Wood exploring the writing, recording and production of the record. Plus an exclusive 12x12 Art Print. The album is also available as 2CD Mediabook & Digital Deluxe.

Forget your search for a holy grail, THIS is The Lost Ark Of The Covenant.

Walter Gibbons presents 'The Ten Commandments Are The Law Of The Land'
It will melt your face and make you clap yo' hands!
Mythical disco foundations from Sunshine Sound.




Label Info:
Take a journey to the dawn of DJ culture with Sunshine Sound, the NY imprint that through a series of genre defining Disco Edits became recognised as the 'Birthplace of the Edit'.

These 'Disco Adjustments' would become the hottest tracks in a DJ's crate, spawning countless bootlegs & imitations since they first appeared so many years ago.
As influential as these recordings were, most only appeared as acetate discs individually cut in mono & sold direct to DJs.
Some of these were cut in such small quantities it could be debated as to whether they ever really existed at all.
40 years later and all that remains are remakes & rumours...

...or so it was thought.



Sunshine Sound rises again to bring you a series of classic, legendary & mythical Edits.
Travel back with us to re-discover monumental works that helped shape the sound of dance music as we deepen the textures of history with a series of exclusive Digital & limited Vinyl releases selected from the vault.
Sunshine Sound releases are distributed by Moonshine Sound, bringing you antiquities of historical Disconificance.

Italian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI returns with his 4th album on KARL: "Real" is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Borders And Ruins" (2017), "Disappearing In A Mirror" (2018) and "Shards Of Distant Times" which all made it onto several year's best lists.

With now his 4thalbum for Karl, the sound artist from Siena / IT has proved a steady and prolific artist on the label roster. And each time, GIULIO ALDINUCCI delivers a new ambient masterpiece that clearly carries his signature as composer / producer and yet reveals a slightly different approach to his modus operandi. ALDINUCCI's massive layers of sound, built from field recordings and an array of electronic gear, blend droney ambient with heavenly voices / sacred music that create an atmosphere of a consolatory melancholy – alien, but with a graspable presence of human souls. And each album deals with a topic that ALDINUCCI came across in his observations of and reflections about today's society.

In the words of GIULIO himself:

"The digital media we live with shape and define reality by filtering it, letting us run the risk of living without our personal and unique one. My new album expresses a need of something unmediated and authentic. "Real" is a reflection on the endless possibility of sonic transformation, the ability we have to create new realities transmuting the soundscape around us and the inner soundscape inside us, even only by imagining it. A (deep)real experience permeated by dreamy lyricism."

Black & Opaque Silver vinyl. ZZK Records Presents Uji's TIMEBEING. A prehistoric tribe dances around the fire. Young revelers lose themselves on a packed dancefloor. Explorers fly a rocket toward another galaxy. In the TIMEBEING universe, these things are all connected. From the earliest days of humanity, people have strived to expand their reality beyond the limitations of the here and now and have used technology to make it happen. Their methods and machines may have changed across the centuries, but the drive remains constant, vibrating through history and occupying a space where time loses all meaning. "The art of making music is the art of manipulating time," says Uji. "I have had experiences where time shifts dramatically; sometimes it slows down to a halt, while moments seemingly become infinite. This is where the magic happens. This is when the fabric of what we call reality begins to show its seams." An Argentinian electronic producer and ethnomusicologist, Uji has been navigating those seams for more than two decades, initially as one half of the pioneering duo Lulacruza, but more recently with his own solo work. TIMEBEING continues that lineage, but also elevates it, taking shape as a interdisciplinary multimedia journey that includes a new album, an accompanying short film, an immersive live show and the birth of a new decentralized community of like-minded artists, creators, seekers, and dreamers. Mesmerizing and deeply psychedelic, the TIMEBEING LP certainly reflects the rich sound palette of Latin America and its intersection with various strains of electronic music but Uji taps into traditions both musical and spiritual that can't be hemmed in by borders and boundaries. Transcendence is the goal, and the album moves through fantastical spaces that may or may not exist: a metallic jungle, a Balkan spaceship, a cloud that morphs into a tumultuous whirlpool. All the while, Uji criss-crosses history, consulting elders and futurists alike as he throws open the doors of perception and pens a new mythology about what it means to be human. Some of that mythology takes shape in the TIMEBEING film. Written by Uji himself, the eight-part opus has been brought to life by Jazmin Calcarami, who makes her directorial debut following years of working as an experimental make-up artist with the likes of Björk and Cirque de Soleil. On stage, the transportive TIMEBEING live show is set to premiere at the Artlab Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, where it will be debuted as a part of a weekly residency this spring. More than just a concert, it's a dazzling theatrical experience, complete with dancers, costume changes, arresting visuals and even an on-stage "ship" (shaped like mollusk) where Uji himself will perform. "What we see on the surface, is only that the surface," says Uji. "There is so much more. Music is the bridge and the possibilities are limitless." Track listing: 1. Mito 2. Oropo 3. Truenatruena 4. QuemaQuema (feat. Nyaruach) 5. Kinto 6. Lunay (feat. Zola Dubnikova) 7. Flechas 8. Sirios (feat. Kristine Barrett)

For most of us, life is a series of human interactions; some good, some bad, some happy, some sad. But what would life be without those peripheral characters who plant themselves into our worlds through the sheer force of their presence? Whether we speak to them or not, those vibrant contrasts to the everyday tide of ordinary people are a magical part of the human experience. Oddballs and misfits, flamboyant instigators or low-key game changers, we all clock them on our own hectic journeys, and they make the day a little brighter. Everyone has their favourite people.

Following the runaway success of their first one-shot single in 2020, Favourite People reconvene for a full-length of blues-tinged cuts stemming from sessions at Selva Studios in Brooklyn. The project’s roots predate the studio, from scattered jams and sweaty nights in New York nightspots to impromptu recordings on cruise ships, but the flashpoint of inspiration that truly set the album in motion was the arrival of a blonde 1960s Fender Telecaster. From there, the motley crew of sharp-shooting string slingers and sticks men set about crafting paeans to those striking souls who make the world a more colourful place.

The emphasis here is on the kind of forward-facing, electrically charged mix you felt (whether you realised it or not) hearing early Sabbath or Priest for the first time. With their undeniable bias towards vintage soul, Favourite People are far from heavy metal, but the same lineage of blues and by extension jazz informs the music, while the tonal crunch of that 70s era guides the sound. Feasting on tasteful overdrive and leaning on the unmistakable flavour of tape for much of the recording, the deal was sealed on this purposeful exercise in vibe thanks to the near-mythical texture of Guy Davie’s EMI Nigeria console at Electric Mastering.

Across the album there are mellow shades and bursts of good-time get-down exuberance, but the lead singles capture the essence of the band in no uncertain terms.

‘Promise Of Nibbles’ brings the Favourite People MO into sharp relief with a low-slung, hard swinging blues confection full of overheating organ and duelling guitars in pursuit of Southern-stewed boogie (im)perfection.

‘We’ll Be Late To The Party’ turns up the tempo and dials in the fuzz, striking an anthemic note which lands somewhere between urgent highway escapism and euphoric communal revelation.

‘Mass and Mustiness’ leans in on the funk dimension of the group’s sound with the sweetest licks and chops on that fabled telecaster backed up by an acutely angled beat and the slinkiest of b-lines.

These are but three of the vibrant vignettes laid down by this quietly unassuming collective of heads down jammers, loose groovers and vintage sound freaks –heavy grooving instrumentals pulled from their own moments of pure musical magic and captured on disc for your listening, dancing, living, loving pleasure.

Emerging from a live recording at St.Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in 2021, Alliyah Enyo’s ‘Echo’s Disintegration’ is a transformational project; a coded reflection on loss, metamorphosis and rebirth.

It’s a work of two parts, each incarnation informed by the parameters of the recording environment. In the initial live performance, Alliyah harnesses the organic echo and reverb formed by the vast open space of the cathedral. Her luminous vocals break through a dense sea of layered noise, a reverberating wailing drenched in heartache.

Her words are fractured and frayed, broken into segments, and enshrouded in mysticism. Yet through the ambiguity, there’s an innate spirituality to the work; iridescent melodies are heightened by the imposing presence of the surroundings.

The five studio tracks, made in retrospect, carry the live performance within the DNA of their reinterpreted sounds and loops. Recorded in Glasgow’s renowned Green Door Studio, constructed reel-to-reel tape loops further fragment and transform compositions, evoking the intoxicating tape feedback of Eliane Raidgue and the harrowing loops of William Basinski.

There’s a radiant clarity to the recordings, Alliyah’s voice implemented as the guiding instrument, the heady sensuality of her vocals layered and echoed in enchanting formation. Through the agony and longing, we reach reincarnation in the culminating euphoria of ‘the healer’. We’re left amongst the blissful reverberations of an awakened soul.

Echo’s Disintegration is the debut album by Alliyah Enyo. The work has received early support from Jack Rollo (NTS), Lucinda Chua (NTS), Pako Vega (Fade Radio, Athens), Elina Tapio (Radio Radio, Amsterdam), Conna Harrawy (INDEX:records) and Martyna Basta (Unsound festival).


Alliyah Enyo - Bio
Alliyah Enyo is an Edinburgh-based artist. She comes from a visual-arts background which is evident in her theatrical live performances that encompass elaborate stage design and choreographed dance. She recently performed her 9-month collaborative project ‘Selkie Reflections’ for Hidden Door festival, working with dancers and classical musicians to explore Siren and Selkie myth. She has performed at multiple venues across Scotland and previously supported Erika De Casier.


Somewhere Between Tapes - Bio
Somewhere Between Tapes is a Glasgow-based record label, formed in 2022 via connections made at local community radio station Clyde Built Radio and at Green Door Studio’s sound workshop.

The label is primarily drawn to working with artists who use experimental processes, often as part of an interdisciplinary practice, where live performance and visual accompaniments are intrinsic to the work. Our focus is on diaristic, sensitive approaches to sound, from ethereal ambient to avant-folk and psychedelic-infused electronics.

The label is run by Lizzie Urquhart and Tim Dalzell. Both are residents at Clyde Built and have contributed to Mutant Radio, Refuge Worldwide, Lyl Radio and Rinse FM. Collaboratively and independently their shows are characterized by their reflective nature, designed for deep listening. This is supplemented by their online mix series ‘Somewhere’, and involvement in co:clear; a new collaborative listening series formed with Conna Haraway of INDEX:Records that commenced with a performance by Berlin-based artist Perila.

Tongues North Star Remixes stretches out the vast musical universe of Tanya Tagaq, which encompasses experimental, avant, electronic, industrial and more, into a collection that features remixes by Daedelus, Kronos Quartet, Ash Koosha, The Halluci Nation and others, including many frequent collaborators. Tongues, produced by Saul Williams and co-produced by Gonjasufi, is Tanya Tagaq at her most explicit and specific. Delicate, poetic passages from Split Tooth, Tagaq’s bestselling, award winning mythobiography, crash against an industrial, electronic exoskeleton. Tongues is a journey into a psychic place of healing, rebirth and artistic Power with a capital “P” that will shake the world.exp

Puckered with ruggedly pointillist swagger and evoking discrete worlds hidden in plain sight, »Traditional Music of South London« is a riveting masterwork by experimental music’s distinctive and cherished modernist, Dale Cornish. It is a concrète grimoire of recent and ancient folklore that binds Dale’s music, lyrics, and background into a strikingly personal synecdoche of South London.

Since emerging as part of London’s shouty electroclash movement in the mid ‘00s, and assuming the role of deconstructed rave pioneer and poet in 2011, Dale Cornish has been (lo)key to new movements in electronic music’s underbelly for the best part of this century. His 12th LP, proper, »Traditional Music of South London« is Dale’s definitive record; a confident testament to artistic maturity that comes with doing your thing against the grain over decades, and a potent expansion on ideas chiselled during his run of releases with the inspirational (now sadly defunct) label, Entr’acte, who helped foster Dale’s explorations of concrète rave and industrial pop tropes during the ‘10s.

On one level the album reads as a deep topography or psychosexual-geography of London’s lost gay club haunts, with the meat-motoring deep house of ‘Great Storm’ recalling DJ Sprinkles taking Loefah to the darkroom in its concrète carved and flesh trembling 8:08 perfection; or more literally in »Foxhole«, with Dale’s deliciously Croydon-toned accent describing urban gay mythologies with pungent lyrics about rotten fox cadavers synced to drily ricocheting hand claps, while the tight swinge of his “requiem for all the dead gay venues” in the gut-level bass of »Hoist Crash Fort«, and the playful evocation of “internecine conflict within the gays - live!” on »Palace Intrigue« just utterly slap like nothing else.

Yet it’s in the LP’s slower, bloozier and folky vocal bits that Dale’s dare- to-differ character comes into its own. The clandestine skulk of ‘My Geography’ portrays him like a modern Jandek traversing London’s brutalist- meets-semi rural meridian, and at its gooier core flashes of folk-classical brilliance such as the groggy ‘Norman Lewis’ give way to the writhing foley orgy of »Crowd Scene«, while the naked, one-take end of szn paean of »SCY BFR HNH« and slurred, Tricky-esque confessional »Shout Outs« consolidate and temper the conflicting aspects of his persona with a deep burning pathos in the LP’s fading phosphorescence.

In an era of overproduction and imitation-not-innovation, Dale’s strikingly original, sensually brutalist industro-folk-dance-pop critically cocks a snook at conventional, careerist music while embracing its heartical truths. An extremely personal record certain to resonate with those who believe art in music still matters.

“This is an album inspired by British-Guyanese poet Fred D’Agiuar’s ‘Mama Dot’ sequence (1985). It explores the different strands of a mighty, mythical grandmother figure who has the task of creating a place away from (but rich in the memories of) Africa. I have taken the idea of an Oracle figure watching over a mythical place, but all is not well. There is disharmony and threat and the real and metaphorical landscape is tainted with nostalgia - a longing to be understood as a place of hope and dreams where everyone, regardless of their origin is welcome.” Lee Pylon (Dogs versus Shadows).

As sculpted shards of guitar tumbling, tolling, squalling shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener “Human,” it’s obvious that Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf’s first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina’s ’90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers’ hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. But this, the distilled shudder of “Human” (as in “It’s hard to be human / When only death can set you free”), is an entirely different noise. In fact, it’s a startling revelation. In short, this is not your father’s Archers of Loaf, even if you’re a father now who was a fan then. (If that’s the case, congrats on surviving the Plague and getting to hear this fearlessly poignant record, you alt-geezer!) Otherwise, thank your youthful fucking lucky stars, kids! Enjoy Reason in Decline with fresh ears and do as the Archers have been doing: Stay humble, stay informed, express yourself creatively, and try not to lose your goddamned mind while the polar ice caps melt.

VÉVAKI ist eine Folkband, die aus dem nordischen Heidentum und animistischen Traditionen schöpft. Mythen, Rituale und die Verbundenheit mit der natürlichen Welt prägen die Musik von VÉVAKI, die sowohl einen zeitgemäßen Klang als auch eine breit gefächerte Instrumentierung aufweist. VÉVAKI setzen in ihrer Musik verschiedene Saiteninstrumente und Perkussionsinstrumente ein, deren Dynamik durch die sich ergänzenden Gesangsstile von Will, Sigurboði und Hrafnhildur und die von Gísli Gunnarsson geschaffenen cineastischen Klanglandschaften unterstützt wird. Dies kommt auf "Fórnspeki" besonders zur Geltung.

VÉVAKI ist eine Folkband, die aus dem nordischen Heidentum und animistischen Traditionen schöpft. Mythen, Rituale und die Verbundenheit mit der natürlichen Welt prägen die Musik von VÉVAKI, die sowohl einen zeitgemäßen Klang als auch eine breit gefächerte Instrumentierung aufweist. VÉVAKI setzen in ihrer Musik verschiedene Saiteninstrumente und Perkussionsinstrumente ein, deren Dynamik durch die sich ergänzenden Gesangsstile von Will, Sigurboði und Hrafnhildur und die von Gísli Gunnarsson geschaffenen cineastischen Klanglandschaften unterstützt wird. Dies kommt auf "Fórnspeki" besonders zur Geltung.

Public Possession proudly presents Aiden Ayers debut album „Venus Copper Rose“. A few words by the artist himself: „ Venus Copper Rose came to me in a dream. The three words are all the same thing, symbols of beauty and material formations of love. Together they are a VCR (videocassette recorder) - a memory machine, a portal into fantasy and myth + a transcriber of dreams. The songs on the album represent the past five years of my life. The oldest of them were written and first recorded in 2017 and the youngest barely made it to the mastering session on time. I am always writing and recording, travelling to and fro, on little islands off the coast of BC, down to the California desert, or in makeshift basement studios throughout Vancouver. Every song has grown up and been captured in a different way - the album is a wild garden of misfits, flowers and weeds. I hope that people feel nourished by this album - I believe that is the ultimate role of music, like another kind of food, light, or love. I hope these songs and this album can help people see the beauty and poetry that flows through their own lives.“