Music Mania is proud to present the next instalment in their Reprise series. Following the highly sought after classic 'Elle et Moi' (MMR001), comes the blissful Belgian synth pop anthem 'Crocodile Tears' (MMR002). The track was one of the first singles of Kuruki, the minimal wave project spearheaded by Ghent-based musician Gerry D'Haeyer and Alain Bureau (Sally Joy). In an age of electronic sequenced experimentation, the band managed to find a distinctive sound that easily puts them between the likes of Telex. The original ep 'Such A Liar' was released in 1981 and clearly echoes the new wave of its time. The scenes described by vocalist Sally Joy as well as the melancholic keys of the main track 'Crocodile Tears' breathe tristesse. Nevertheless, it has a playful sound full of catchy synths. A dualism between such beauty and melancholy: this track was undeniably made in Belgium in the eighties, but should also appeal to lovers of Italo Disco.
Be aware: for their second reprise Music Mania managed to include an exclusive instrumental version of this Belgitude. Even more synths for your listening pleasure.
Fresh on Francis Harris' Kingdoms imprint comes Adamo Golán's seven track LP, 'Exile And The New'. Golán is the alter ego of British-German artist Laurens A. Schmidt, who has been pursuing a more club-focused techno project, while developing an ever deeper fascination with experimental music, ambient and film scores. Drawing influence from his adopted homes Berlin and currently London, the 26-year-old has been uncompromisingly trying to develop his own musical voice.
'Exile And The New' expresses this ongoing pursuit and, being the first full-length and first ever release by Adamo Golán, marks the start of his most personal project to-date. Stretching over seven tracks, it touches upon a diverse set of sceneries, moods, and emotions whilst a distinctive sound design gives the work a subtle framework and guiding thread.
'Fis' starts the proceedings, introducing drones and field recordings and enveloping the listener in Golán's distinct sound world. 'Just Friends' merges distant snapshots of disembodied vocals with granular sound design and a sense of both space and creeping claustrophobia simultaneously. It's an approach the young producer has mastered - 'Replica' maintains an ambience of the deeply personal and a wider, hazy focus, realised via exquisite melodic fragments against a backdrop of pads and chiming electronics. Title track 'Exile And The New' unfolds around another cinematic world scored via a single stringed instrument, static interference and oceans of space. 'Lie to Me' brings a piano refrain to the fore, wrapped in luscious ambience and more fragments of a conversation heard through the rain. 'Then Rely On Me' slowly develops out of a haunting atmosphere and finds an uneasy but strangely beautiful flow, before 'The Hungry Years' closes out the album as it started - floating in space.
The 26-year-old artist sees the album as a journey that should captivate but never impose itself on the listener. It´s a gracious and neighborly invitation to dive in, get lost and explore its facets and peculiarities
Clear & White Mixed Vinyl
After a hectic weekend you awake dazed and confused deep in the urban jungle. As the sun starts to rise, in the distance a lush pad starts to drift closer. The sounds of your past... a time when everything in the world was right, perfect. Tearing breakbeats release, kinetic energy moves your body and you start to reminisce about friends, love and music. Days gone by, the vibe never ends.
Jem One kicks off 117 spring with 3 fresh cuts pressed on a special edition clear & white mixed vinyl.
Tape / Cassette
This is Essential Tremor's second and final album of all time. The band broke up after the recording of this record but still managed to play one final show before fully breaking up. The show was one of the most brutal things Nashville, TN has ever witnessed and lead singer Cole K was banished from Nashville forever following the performance. Essential Tremor's work never quite fit in with the rest of what was occurring in Nashville around the time these tracks were recorded, but we're sure that this tape will fit right in with the rest of your collection.
"The kind of melancholia I'm talking about, by contrast, consists not in giving up on desire, but in refusing to yield. It consists, that is to say, in a refusal to adjust to what current conditions call 'reality' - even if the cost of that refusal is that you feel like an outcast in your own time." (Mark Fisher, Ghosts Of My Life, Zero Books 2014, p. 24) In Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures', the author Mark Fisher outlines - to put it in a big way - a resistant melancholy. This stands in contrast to leftist melancholy resignation', as well as something which Fisher does not talk about: its common masculine counterpart, habitual post-left cynicism - as in seen it all before'. Fisher calls this hauntological melancholy. Haunting, spooks, ghosts and apparitions are an almost constant presence on I Started Wearing Black', the second album by the Cologne-based artist Sonae (pronounced so-nah'). The term hauntology shares a fate with retro-futurism when it comes to inflationary overuse and abuse. It's a conceptual container that looks good and can hold a lot, indeed, too much. Furthermore, hauntology has its peak season behind it, a term on the threshold of its expiration date. Nevertheless, I would like to rehabilitate hauntology and use it properly to characterize I Started Wearing Black', because the term is rarely as compelling to describe music as is the case here. The most recent other example could be Asiatisch' by Fatma Al Qadiri, but with a completely different frame of reference. What are the ghosts of this music It rustles, crackles, ruffles, crunches, rattles, scrapes, sometimes a beat emerges from the constant noise, sometimes an obscure voice mumbles incomprehensibly, sometimes a melancholy piano figure is prevented by this noise from coming too much to the foreground. It definitely is eerie - to bring into play another term used by Fisher in the title of his latest book, The Weird and the Eerie'. In British pop-jargon, eerie first occurred to me more often when referring to particularly leftfield, spooky and... well... ghostly dub, a bass-heavy, echoing noise, from Augustus Pablo to Creation Rebel to Burial. Unlike the Wald & Wagner records by Wolfgang Voigt, Sonae is not a kind of neo-romantic veiling with a tendency for escapist nebula. It is more a noise of latency. The noise signals a latent - not necessarily acute - threat, a latent uneasiness about... yes... about what About a System Immanent Value Defect' That's the name of a track on I Started Wearing Black' where something that sounds like a French Horn (or a foghorn) battles for attention through or against the background noise. An email from Sonae: The piece 'System Immanent Value Defect' should actually be called 'I See Turkey'. I wrote it for my fellow student Elif - she is a pianist and Gezi Park activist from Istanbul. Through her I witnessed the inner conflict and agitation that political circumstances can create: her feelings of guilt when there was an attack, with her safe in Germany as a student, watching the events from afar. It was horrible. When her mother begged her not to come home because she feared for her safety, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I started with the piece from this mood, beginning with the piano, then the noise (modulated sinusoidal curves), which reminded me of waves and the then heatedly discussed Mediterranean sea: atmospheric, melancholy motifs. In contrast is the anger, the pressure, represented in corresponding sounds - hopefully audible! - During this time I started to think about world views as they can be found around the globe, in how far they held by societies and their political representation. I realized that I know of no political system that is actually about the people and what would do them good. It's always about positions, power, money. I thought that was a lot more frightening on a global scale than merely viewing Turkey in isolation. That's why the piece is called "System Immanent Value Defect", because our world suffers from precisely that. Everywhere, it's all about the wrong things.' Between the wrong things there are happy moments. In the title track, after 184 seconds of rattling and hissing, a beat is unleashed, like an arrow released from a spanned bow, a beatific relief, if there is such a thing. White Trash Rouge Noir' first meanders along spookily, then after 144 seconds it transforms itself into a distant cousin of Einstu¨rzende Neubauten's Yu¨ Gung', but there is no Big Male Ego to be fed here, and the black in the album title is a completely different type of black from that of the Neubauten. Furthermore, I Started Wearing Black' was finished long before the black dresses were worn at the Golden Globes as a sign of protest against sexual violence. Sonae writes that she herself started wearing black some time ago. Her reasons are so-called personal ones: ... resulting from an individual situation (lovesickness), I started to wear black (gaining weight and feeling ugly).' The political dimension of gaining weight, feeling ugly and therefore dressing in black in I Started Wearing Black' lurks within the noise and never becomes explicit and only rarely manifest - or a manifesto. Sonae writes about the track We Are Here': A piece for minorities... in this case, considering the current pop-feminist discourse, explicitly for women. Female artists have long been saying loud and clear that 'we are here' and 'electronic music is not a boys club!' But this pop-feminist moment should only be seen as one part of the dedication of the piece. It is for minorities, for the oppressed, who didn't belong enough.'
Known for his pioneering and multi-instrumental blend of jazz and Afro-Eastern musical traditions, Yusef Lateef has never been content to use his music to merely entertain, but has long strived to his encourage his audiences to engage their minds as well as their ears. This approach was evident even on his groundbreaking debut album as leader, the aptly titled, Jazz For The Thinker, released in 1957. Unlike most debut efforts in jazz at the time, this album is made up entirely of Lateef's own original compositions, further proving that this was a man with a vision right from the start! Here Lateef, on tenor sax, is backed by Curtis Fuller on trombone, Hugh Lawson on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums.
Do you like Love songs After spending a lifetime spent avoiding this subject in song, Joel Sarakula finally admits that he does. On his new album "Love Club" Sarakula relives the golden age of Soulful and Romantic Pop music and connects it with a modern aesthetic. While a deeper message of love and peace flows through the record, Joel Sarakula is no old fashioned hippie: ",Love Club' is about connecting to reality and re-framing the idea of romantic love and loss in the present, loveless age ". Featuring eleven songs touching all genres from disco to blues, from soul to soft-rock, Joel Sarakula's "Love Club" is a profound pop statement.
Joel Sarakula has travelled the world in search of his muse, experiencing everything from being a victim of Caribbean carjackings to performing in the remote fishing villages of Norway, via the dive bars of Europe and the US. It was the hodge-podge musical tapestry of England's capital that finally drew him to a settling point, in the wake of seemingly never ending run of shows. With personal tastes that span from the more avant-garde to soul and pop greats like Sly Stone, Todd Rundgren and Hall & Oates, there are clear nods to contemporaries like Unkown Mortal Orchestra, Erlend Oye and Toro Y Moi in terms of ambition and style.
With his last two albums "The Golden Age" and "The Imposter" collecting strong radio plays at BBC Radio 2, BBC 6, BBC London, XFM Joel Sarakula has been play-listed nationally in Europe including Flux FM, WDR 5, Radioeins, Bayern 2, Deutschlandfunk and Deutschland Kultur Radio in Germany as well as in Benelux and Italy and Spain. He is a regular fixture on the live festival and club circuit in the UK, Europe and internationally including appearances at SXSW, Primavera Sound, Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Scala London, Tallinn Music Week, V-ROX (Vladivostok) and Reeperbahnfestival Hamburg.
"Love Club" is Sarakula's bold and unashamedly emotional next step. In essence the album is a homage to the soulful singer & songwriter artistry of the Seventies filtered through a darker contemporary lens - fitting for these uncertain times. "I always shied away from generic love songs," the Sydney, Australia born songwriter admits, "but on this record I embraced the subject wholeheartedly... and intellectually, looking at themes of love, lust, loneliness and everything in-between." Take the first single "In Trouble", co-written with Michele Stodart of The Magic Numbers, as the best example for Joel Sarakula's unique, and honest approach to making music. "We Used To Connect" questions the changing nature of relationships in our social-media addicted world: 'We used to connect in the real world too, now the touch of your hand is a digital cue'.
"Coldharbour Man", on the other hand, examines the identity of the song's narrator and the artist vs. fan dynamic all wrapped up in a disco love song: "There's a lot going on in this particular track. I feel my writing has grown emotionally...", explains Joel Sarakula. "Just best to listen yourself and make up your own interpretation!: 'We met in a song come to life like some fantasy cliché, though I'm known for my moves in the dark you flooded sunshine on my day'. Then there's "Baltic Jam", capturing romantic love and loss in authentic 70s confessional singer & songwriter style and of course "Dead Heat", a song about how there is struggle in the most perfect relationship pairings as the match is so even: "I recall an ex-girlfriend of mine... when we first met, we thought we hated each other but we eventually flipped that emotion and realised we had a deep passion and love for each other, there just was a lot of underlying sexual tension!" : 'It's a battle we could only win, if we lose. We'd be stronger if these lonely ones became two'.
More than a year in the making, Joel Sarakula recorded "Love Club" in various studios around London and Berlin capturing soulful performances from his many musical comrades on vintage analogue equipment. "This record has truly been a labour of love. Recording and privately sharing these performances amongst my collaborators started to feel like a bit like a club - I guess that lead to the album title! I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed the 'love-making process' and I look so much forward to playing these new songs on stage with my band." We can't wait, Joel Sarakula.
Musique Pour La Danse takes a short break from reissuing rare and essential music to bring you a selection of four new and exclusive tracks from the French underground entitled Equipe de Danse. Curated by label co-manager Ed Isar, a DJ and promoter active in the Paris underground since more than a decade, this EP brings together different producers and styles, highlighting the diversity and the creativity currently flowing through the French scene and providing DJs and ravers with quality tunes to work with and dance to.
Automat - Disco Trax
Everyone has a story about how one electronic music experience changed their lives forever, for Ed it was seeing Automat live in Paris in 2006 when he was 18. Automat's Electrospectif LP is still one of the best and most underrated French electro albums of the 21st century. Hearing Disco Trax many years later and realizing this fast-paced banger never got pressed on vinyl was the spark that encouraged Ed to work on this EP. This is irresistible jakbeat with electro and italo influences, timeless and compelling.
Cuften - bgt55ujp0
Cuften is a unique artist from Normandy who prefers being called a musician rather than a producer: he creates and records all his music live on a 100% hardware setup with absolutely no computers involved. With IDM and acid influences as well as a passion for hardcore, his music bridges the gaps between Aphex Twin, Marc Acardipane and Legowelt. This track is a perfect introduction to his world where hard hitting kicks get bodies moving while acid madness gets minds melting and it's actually his first tune ever released on vinyl. Keep an eye out for Purusu, Cuften's own record label which he runs with the help of Ed, a strictly underground affair that is already gathering support from established DJs around the world.
Sina - Faith
This is the very first track by Sina pressed on vinyl and what a belter it is! He is part of the new wave of electronic music activists in Paris with his Subtyl parties that were among the first to encourage today's ravers to side-step the clubs and go party in warehouses half a decade ago. We immediately signed Faith upon hearing it for the first time, spellbound by pounding and dreamy atmosphere, full of dramatic and ecstatic moments. This track exists in a techno universe of its own, as gritty as it is melodic. It never fails to get a reaction from the crowds and has been a staple of Ed's peak time sets lately.
Raymond D Barre - I Don't Know Dave
He's an up and coming producer and live performer from Paris who released a great EP on Nocta Numerica in 2016 and has several projects in the works. Clocking at 108 BPM, this tune is the downtempo cut on the EP. Driven by an 808, structured by FM bass and embellished with some lovely acid touches, this track could be described as 21st century orientalist New Beat or perhaps Egyptian Lover on codeine. Either way, this nod to Belgian vibes and BPM did not go unnoticed by both label managers and this fun and quirky track is often the highlight of downtempo sets.
Points of interest
- Four essential and totally exclusive tracks outside the beaten path and the usual formulas, a great snapshot of the French underground in 2018
- Various Artists, different vibes, something for everyone
- A Musique Pour La Danse release (Frankie Bones, Orlando Voorn, Cron aka Todd Sines, Break The Limits aka Bay B Kane, ..), a label founded and curated by Olivier Ducret of Mental Groove (Miss Kittin, Orbe, Donato Dozzy, Brodinksi...) and Ed Isar (33RPM +8% and Radio Belleville in Paris), releasing forgotten and unforgettable dance music of yesterday and tomorrow.
out of Stock
Last delivered 2 years ago available to reorder, subject to availability
Eat More House welcomes Símple Things label boss, Shyam to the Family!
Shyam already released on great iprints like RAWAX, Houseworx and Lake Placid to name a few.This 4 tracker is an absolute beauty. Worth to check!
Heart throbbing journeys from Leonid Nevermind opens up a flood of soft-focus house tracks with colorful and melting melodies leading directly to the soul love. Raw and naked emotions through spacious and atmospheric sound among Chicago and electro Balearic riffs.
Feedback:
Dan Curtin: ´Quiet Love´ is really great and strongest one! Definitely
my favorite track.
Move D: Very nice!
Anton Zap: As usual with Leo records - I can feel it, thanks!
Brendon Moeller: ool spacey vibes!
Apiento (Test Pressing): I'll definitely play it on the next NTS show.
Melchior Sultana: Thanks for sharing, Good EP!
Alex Downey: I´m really into the track ´Quiet Love´, would love to get
hold of a copy on wax when it comes out.
Tim Toh (Philpot): Sounds fresh as well. Sweetly mind-bending.
Esther Duijn: ´Blossom Chance´ is my favorite.
Duplex: Nice!
Jelly Roll Soul: All good tracks. ´Menotaxis´ is my fave, will def play them.
FIRST EVER VINYL PRESSING OF JOHANN'S 2006 ALBUM - DELUXE GATEFOLD SLEEVE, 2 x CLEAR LP - TWO BONUS TRACKS, DOWNLOAD CODE INCLUDED
Never before pressed on vinyl, IBM 1401, A User's Manual, is one of Jóhann Jóhannsson's most loved works. Released in 2006, the decade since its release has seen Jóhann establish himself as one of the most important composers in the World today, most notably scoring movies such as Arrival, Sicario and The Theory of Everything.
Inspired by the work his father did in the sixties when chief maintenance engineer of one of Iceland's first computers, Jóhann originally wrote IBM 1401, A User's Manual to accompany a dance piece by long-standing collaborator and friend, Erna Ómarsdóttir. For this album release, he rewrote it for a sixty-piece string orchestra, with a new final movement (built around a poem by Dorothy Parker) and incorporating both electronics, and reel-to-reel recordings made by his father and friends in 1971 of an enormous IBM 1401 mainframe computer singing the hymn Ísland Ögrum Skorið by Sigvaldi Kaldalóns as it was being decommissioned.
The first ever pressing of IBM 1401, A User's Manual comes in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, having been reworked by Chris Bigg (v23) from his original design. Pressed on clear vinyl, two album tracks recorded in 2010 with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra at the Rudolfinum, Dvorák Hall in Prague have also been added and are exclusive to this release.
* Paul Bradley is a long time hardcore soldier, someone who has lived and breathed the breakbeat scene since its inception, and who finally took the plunge into producing relatively recently. His music is direct and uplifting, with no time for subtlety or overly clever trickery. Each track on the EP is dedicated to moving the dancefloor into a state of euphoria, frenzy, or both. Pounding breaks and piano lines are compliments by some strange and amusing sample choices, leaving you never quite sure of what will happen next.
Club / DJ Support
Billy Bunter, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker and many others
Sacred Summits returns after a two-year hiatus with an album of interpretations of the music of Eric Satie by acclaimed composer Morgan Fisher.
Active for over 50 years Morgan's career has moved from 60's number one hit wonders Love Affair, to 70's rock'n'roll keyboardist in Mott The Hoople, before finally on to 80's ambient, improvisation and soundtracks, working with the likes of Yoko Ono, Haroumi Hosono and Dip In The Pool.
Based in Japan since the mid-80s, Fisher's long-standing admiration for Erik Satie (1866-1925) led to these Inside Satie recordings. Satie's unique work as a precursor to artistic movements such as minimalism, surrealism and repetitive music are acknowledged but for long periods he not given the accolades his music warranted.
A strange, eccentric, surreal man, he was never as acclaimed as the established masters, but influenced not only the likes of Debussy but also many of the Dada artists. On this album Morgan played his music freely after just a brief look at the scores. Recorded in just three days, it features piano, melodica, synthesisers, and Morgan's favoured tape delay system.
'INSIDE SATIE is one of the first albums I recorded in Japan shortly after moving here in 1985. In three days I improvised on several of my favourite Satie themes. Mostly I played piano as well as the rich, analog-sounding Yamaha GS-1 (precursor of the DX-7), and sometimes used long tape delays to build layers of sound. All the pieces were recorded in single takes - no overdubs (no time!)'.
Includes 12' Vinyl and Deluxe CD album, 30 page hard back book
Now that I've been to Nashville,' Kylie Minogue says with audible affection, I understand. It's like some sort of musical ley-line...'
Golden, Kylie's fourteenth studio album, is the result of an intensive working trip to the home of Country music, a city whose influence lingered on long after the pop legend and her team returned to London to finish the record: We definitely brought a bit of Nashville back with us,' she states. The album is a vibrant hybrid, blending Kylie's familiar pop-dance sound with an unmistakeable Tennessee twang. It was Jamie Nelson, Kylie's long-serving A&R man, who first came up with the concept of incorporating a Country element' into Kylie's tried-and-trusted style. That idea sat there for a little while, with Minogue and her team initially unsure about how to bring it to life. Then, when Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Wadge's publisher suggested Kylie should come over to collaborate in Nashville, a city Kylie had previously never visited, something clicked. You know when you're so excited about something,' she recalls, that you repeat it an octave higher and double the decibels I was like that. 'Nashville! Yes! Of course I would!'. I hoped it would help the album to reveal itself. I thought 'If I don't get it in Nashville, I'm not going to get it anywhere.''
Kylie's Nashville trip involved working alongside two key writers, both with homes in the city. One was British-born songwriter Steve McEwan (whose credits include huge Country hits for Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood), and the other was the aforementioned Amy Wadge, another Brit (best known for her mega-selling work with Ed Sheeran). It was then a truly international project: Golden was mainly created with African-German producer Sky Adams and a list of contributors including Jesse Frasure, Eg White, Jon Green, Biff Stannard, Samuel Dixon, Danny Shah and Lindsay Rimes, and there's a duet with English singer Jack Savoretti.
However, the album's agenda-setting lead single Dancing was, significantly, first demoed with Nathan Chapman, the man who guided Taylor Swift's transition from Country starlet to Pop megastar. If anyone knows how to mix those two genres, Chapman does. Nathan was the only actual Nashvillean I worked with. He's got a huge studio in his house, which is probably due to his success with Taylor... there's plenty of platinum discs of her, and others on his walls.' There's something of the spirit of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is, of Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, even of Liza Minnelli's Cabaret about Dancing, a song which not only opens the album but sets out its stall, providing a microcosm of what is to come. You've got the lyrical edge, that Country feel, mixed with some sampling of the voice and electronic elements, so it does what it says on the label. And I love that it's called 'Dancing', it's immediately accessible and seemingly so obvious, but there's depth within the song.'
The experience of simply being in Nashville was an overwhelming one, before Kylie had even arrived. Once I knew I was going to Nashville, people talked about the place with such enthusiasm. They said without doubt I would love it and, I would come back with songs. They were sending lists of restaurants, coffee shops and bars. It really was a beautiful and genuine response and it felt like I was about to have a life changing experience and in a way, I did.' The reality came as something of a surprise, when she found a far more modern metropolis than the vintage one she'd envisaged. I thought it would be like New Orleans: little houses and bars, with music spilling out onto the street. It reminded me more of Melbourne: apartment blocks going up everywhere! The main strip, Broadway, where the honky tonk bars are, that's where the street was filled with music and it was just amazing.' Mainly, Minogue remembers the heat and humidity. It was 100 degrees. It was like it was raining with no rain.' She also relished the chance to wander around unrecognised, visit a few venerable music bars and soak in the atmosphere. I didn't get to the Grand Ole Opry or the music museums but I managed to go to a couple of the institutions there like The Bluebird Cafe and The Listening Room, and just by being there, through some kind of osmosis, you get this rejuvenated respect for The Song, and the writing of The Song. There's no hoo-hah around it. There's a singer-songwriter there, talking about the song and singing the song, to an audience who are there to listen. Although, I have to confess I was guilty of starting to clap too soon during a long pause at the end of one of the songs. The guy made a bit of a joke out of it and got a laugh from it, but I thought 'Of all people in the audience, no...''
It's probably no coincidence, therefore, that every track on Golden is a Kylie co-write, making it arguably her most personal album to date. The end of 2016 was not a good time for me,' she says, referring to well-documented personal upheavals, so when I started working on the album in 2017, it was, in many ways, a great escape. Making this album was a kind of saviour. I'd been through some turmoil and was quite fragile when I started work on it, but being able to express myself in the studio made quick work of regaining my sense of self. Writing about various aspects of my life, the highs and lows, with a real sense of knowing and of truth. And irony. And joy!'
The songwriting process allowed Kylie to get a few things out of her system. Initially, she admits, it was cathartic, but it also wasn't very good. I think I was writing too literally. But I reached a point where I was writing about the bigger-picture, and that was a breakthrough. It made way for songs like Stop Me From Falling and One Last Kiss. It also meant I had enough distance to write an autobiographical song, like A Lifetime To Repair, with a certain amount of humour. The countdown in that song: 'Six-five-four-three, too many times...'. I don't know if that will be a single, but I can just imagine a girl with framed pictures of past boyfriends, and kind of going 'Oh god, when am I going to get this right'' When she listens back to Golden, Kylie can vividly hear the Nashville in it. It is, she'll agree, probably the first time that a Kylie album has sounded like the place it was made. You wouldn't normally relate my songs to the cities. Can't Get You Out Of My Head sounds more like Outer Space than London. But Shelby '68, for example, was written in London but it was done with Nashville in mind. It's about my Dad's car, and my brother recorded Dad driving it! I don't think I'd have written a number of the songs, including Shelby '68 and Radio On without having had that Nashville experience.'
The latter, she says, is about music being the one to save you.' Throwing herself into the making of the record, she says, crystallised that idea. If there's one love that will always be there for you, it's music. Well, it is for me, anyway.' That song, in particular, carries nostalgic echoes of the golden age of Country, as heard through Medium Wave transistors and tinny home stereos in the distant past. Like any child of the Seventies, Kylie had a basic grounding in Country music, mainly absorbed from older family members. My Step-Grandfather was born in Kentucky and though he lived most of his adult life in Australia, he never stopped listening to his beloved Country artists.' If there's any classic Country singer whose imprint can be heard on Golden, it's Dolly Parton.
Kylie saw Dolly live for the first time at the end of 2016, at the Hollywood Bowl. It was like seeing the light,' she beams. It was incredible. Everyone, whether they know it or not, is a Dolly Parton fan. When I was in Nashville, I did pick up a T-shirt that said 'What Would Dolly Do' Maybe that should be my mantra.' And, whether consciously or otherwise, there's a timbre and trill to Kylie's vocals on Radio On that is distinctly Parton-esque. My delivery is quite different on this album,' she says. A lot of things are 'sung' less. The first time I did that was with Where The Wild Roses Grow. On the day I met Nick Cave, when I recorded my vocals, he said 'Just sing it less. Talk it through, tell the story.' This album wasn't quite to that extreme, but a lot of the songs were done in fewer takes, to just capture the moment and keep imperfections that add to the song. I remember on my last album, a lot of producers were trying to take out literally every vibrato they heard. And that's not natural to my voice. I mean, I can make myself sound like a robot, but it's nice to sound like a human!' Working within the Country genre also gave Kylie permission to write in the Nashville vernacular. Because we were going there, I wasn't afraid to have lines like 'When he's fallen off the wagon we'd still dance to our favourite slow song', 'Ten sheets to the wind, I was all confused', 'I'll take the ride if it's your rodeo'. The challenge of bringing a Country element to the album made the process feel very fresh to me, kind of like starting over. I started to look at writing a different way, singing a different way.'
If ever Kylie lost confidence in the Country-Pop concept, and found herself pondering This is great, but back in the real world - my real world - how will this work', Jamie Nelson was there to badger her into sticking to the path. We found a way to make it a hybrid with what we'll call my 'usual' sound. It had to stay 'pop' enough to stay authentic to me, but country enough to be a new sound for this album. The closer we zoomed in, and the more we honed it, I knew Jamie was right. We sacrificed good songs that weren't right for this album, because we wanted it to be as cohesive as possible. The songs that were hitting the mark were these ones, so we decided to be strong, and that's how we wrapped up the album. What he said, that stuck with me, was that 'I'd hate to get to the end of this and really wish we'd gone for it.'' Having worked with Kylie for so long, Nelson was able to put this latest shift of direction into perspective. He said 'You've traditionally done it throughout your career. You had your PWL time, then you did a complete turn when you went to deConstruction, then another complete turn with Spinning Around, and R&B dance-pop, and then another turn with Can't Get You Out Of My Head, icy synth-pop, and this is another one.' He was right. It felt like the right time to have a change sonically. New label, new stories to tell, and a new decade almost upon me.'
Kylie Minogue will, it's scarcely believable, turn 50 this year. This looming milestone is partly behind the album's title, and title track. I had this line that I wanted to use: 'We're not young, we're not old, we're golden' because I'm asked so often about being my age in this industry. This year, I'll be 50. And I get it, I get the interest, but I don't know how to answer it. And that line, for my personal satisfaction, says it as succinctly as possible. We can't be anyone else, we can't be younger or older than we are, we can only be ourselves. We're golden. And the album title, Golden, reflects all of this. I liked the idea of everyone being golden, shining in their own way. The sun shines in daylight, the moon shines in darkness. Wherever we are in life, we are still golden.' One of the album's shiniest moments is Raining Glitter, an exuberant banger which ventures closest to Kylie's traditional dance-pop comfort zone. Eg White, who is one of the producers and writers and a great character, was talking about disco one day. I said 'I love disco, but you know the brief.' We needed to be going down the Country lane, so to speak. But we managed to bring them both together. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the Jacksons video for Can You Feel It where they're sprinkling glitter over everyone. And I think there's a Donna Summer record that's got that feel to it. I think that's my job: I basically leave a trail of glitter after every show I do anyway.'
Kylie is looking forward to the challenge of incorporating the Golden material into her live shows. Mixing these songs in with my existing catalogue is going to be fun. And it could be fun to do some of those songs with just a guitar. It'll make my acoustic set interesting...'Her incredibly loyal fans - to whom one Golden song, Sincerely Yours, is intended as a love letter' - will, she believes, have no problem with her latest stylistic shift. My audience have been with me on the journey, so I shouldn't be afraid that they won't come with me on this part. I've had fun with it, and I'm sure they will too.'
The time spent making Golden has, Kylie says, been a time of creative and personal renewal. I've met some amazing people, truly inspiring writers and musicians. My passion for music has never gone away, but it's got bigger and stronger.' And if there's an overriding theme to the record, it is one of acceptance. We're all human and it's OK to make mistakes, get it wrong, to want to run, to want to belong, to love, to dream. To be ourselves.'
I was able to both lose and find myself whilst making this album.'
DJ Katapila's Aroo EP is the latest addition to the iconoclastic producer's catalog of fast-paced, pan-West African-influenced dance music. From a young age, Ishmael Abbey was a beloved local DJ in Accra, Ghana's competitive and rapidly-evolving music galaxy. DJ Katapila's debut release with Awesome Tapes From Africa, 2016's reissue of Trotro, ignited international acclaim for the Ghanaian DJ and producer: The New York Times, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor and FACT heaped praise on his work. Katapila launched a touring career beyond his grueling schedule of all-night parties around Ghana's southern coast and neighboring countries, heading to Europe and the UK, where he performed at festivals and clubs the pasty two years. Katapila brought Ghana's street party culture to audiences overseas, a wave of joy and happy dancers were left in his wake. The song Aroo' uses his earlier song Cocoawra' as a jumping off point and expands upon its endearing quick-rhythmed interplay of vocal hiccups and percussive clinks. Katapila thinks of Aroo' as a simple math equation: Francophone rhythms plus techno equals so hot and danceable.' While traveling this past summer in Europe, he continued to work on the minimalist electronic music steeped in his hometown rhythms that has made him a growing and singular voice in West African music. Having never travelled outside his region before, the contemporary sounds of London impacted his sonic palette, triggering new song African Techno.' He explains, In Europe and the UK they like these techno songs and house music. They have songs that sound like African music, and we have songs that sound like house music and techno music.' Ghana Baby DJ' references his ongoing development of Ga dance music style gbe ohe. It also conjures his daughter's voice and inimitable vibe and blends it with the characteristic clave rhythm of this. The EP's final cut is a track released with a an eye-catching music video this summer called "Monkey." Following radio play in Ghana and demand from fans online, this track makes its debut on vinyl. Awesome Tapes From Africa is proud to present new music from this unmistakably original artist with an honesty and unpretentiousness that feels good at this current point in history.
Yemenite-Jazz legend Tsvia Abarbanel, celebrated on this much anticipated 12" by Fortuna Records. Including two previously unreleased tracks! Throbbing spiritual jazz touched by ancient Yemenite tradition, these 1970 recordings are amongst the rarest of the rare. Until now! Privately pressed by Tsvia in 1970, this was the first ever attempt at combining traditional Yemenite compositions with Funk and Jazz. Two tracks were previously reissued on a long out-of-stock 7" by Fortuna, now gloriously re-released with two other never-before-heard tracks! Essential.
Gitkin sold guitars. To be precise, he re-branded, sold and traded knock-off Gibsons. A lone, travelling salesman, he toted his counterfeit wares to guitar stores and music emporiums. His trade took him to most corners of the USA, passing through big, smoggy cities and nowheresville small towns. His nights were spent at not-so-salubrious motels. It was at those nocturnal stop-offs that he'd often cross paths with newcomers to the States. His fellow travellers were mostly immigrants, newly-arrived, from places like Ethiopia, Mexico, Indonesia.
Or at least, that's the story as Brian J Gitkin has been able to piece it together. This album, '5 Star Motel', is by a different Gitkin, an ode to the one described above. Or to put it another way, this is the younger Gitkin's homage to his elder relative: the elusive, guitar salesman uncle he never met. A steady drip of anecdotes have construed an image of his relation's itinerant, huckster lifestyle. Finding a cassette of his recordings, it spoke of the effect of those encounters: lo-fi and scratchy, the music leaped seamlessly, in difficult to discern ways, between different far-flung styles.
On '5 Star Motel', that younger Gitkin (henceforth referred to simply as Gitkin) has sought to expand the philosophy he encountered on that tape. The guitar is common thread, the raft to navigate a sun-dappled stream of ideas. It's an embrace of cultures where folkloric stringed instruments still rule, or where they've led to a more recent embrace of the electric guitar. He traces the loose, meandering paths which join them together.
It's about America, the world outside its borders, and the inscrutable, inevitable dialogue that exists between them. Take 'Cancion Del Rey', where the sound of Peruvian chicha - steady-moving, alluring, and lyrical - winds its way through Gitkin's fuzz-filtered licks, and the rhythm underpinning it. Or 'Yama', where Middle Eastern influences echo out of grooving, cyclical riffs. Touching on the distinctive tones of Tuareg music and the Sahara, too, 'Grand Street Feast' charts a sand-dusted, melodic misadventure.
* Still Circles announce the release of their debut album, 27:36, available March 30th via Killtone Records.
* Currently at 7 in the chart on the Josh Hannen show Amazing Radio
* Session for Alan Raw BBC Introducing on Sat March 3rd 2018
* Comprised of Natalie Kolowiecki and Jack Donnison, the Bradford based duo bridge the worlds of trip-hop and ambient music: splicing slo-mo beats, grainy atmospherics, haunting melodies and soft-wax drones. Their first single, 'Only Noise' is testament to this - with its manipulated vocals, heavy bass line and lurching percussion, the track's stark surrealism evokes the thrum of their northern English town.
* Upon the surface, 27:36 has the indelible markings of the band's influences: Brian Eno, Poliça, Adrian Sherwood (to name a few) - but the duo never settle into pure pastiche. Instead, they contort the sounds of these artists into something all their own. 27:36 is an alien vision of what pop music could be.
Portuguese artist Ka§par gives Parisian label Escapade its third release. The four tracks span across a wide range of electronic sounds, telling a story that calls on many emotions. 'Wail Of A Loon' opens the record with an experimental atmosphere. After this laid back introduction, Ka§par goes into a much stronger style: 'Rigged's energy and catchy, twirling melody make it a total banger. On the B side, the mood gets much warmer and groovy. 'Vital' is the perfect tune to warm up a dancefloor, thanks to a swinging rhythm, mesmerizing vocal samples and funky synth lines. 'Alma D'Ouro' rounds up the record with strong jazzy vibes. Beautiful chords and piano solos never dissapoint!
The X Vinyl Series continues with label head Florian Meindl at the helm with the upcoming release Metaphysics. Synonymous with deep, dark techno, Florian does not disappoint with this 4 track EP, enlisting in demand producer and Rabe label boss Denise Rabe on remixing duties. Playing live with his Modular Synth set up, Florian began working on the concept for what would become these three original tracks while playing shows over the last month. The live jam character can clearly be felt in the first two tracks Metaphysics and Holomorphic Function. Florian's original Bell's Theorem has a deep melodic structure. With Denise Rabes interpretation, the track is contorted through some serious distortion pedals and broken beat to match her dark take on the synth line. The outcome is an impressive piece for one of those never ending nights in concrete walled rooms with oversized loudspeakers.
Techno Album of the month March 2018 in Mixmag UK!
Central to the Israeli club scene, Deep'a & Biri have long been defying expectations even within a community they helped construct. Serving as resident DJs, activists and bookers for Tel Aviv's legendary Barzilay Club, the pair helped build a transcendent club scene. Hugely influential artists such as Robert Hood, Derrick May, Rødhad, Ben Klock and Moritz Von Oswald passed through the club, enjoying legendary crowds and what they could surely sense was a genuine air of anarchy, rebellion and unadulterated rave pleasure.
As the duo held down dozens of parties with dozens of DJs, there was no 'eureka' moment for their emerging sound; just a steady stream of brilliant, inspiring electronic music, much of which left an indelible imprint on the pair. Now based in Berlin, for Deep'a & Biri, things are much the same, even if the landscape and the city is different. Always rooted in the fertile ground between machines and emotion, on their second full-length LP, 'Dominance', the duo demonstrate their unique grasp of the sensitive, unfolding relationship between man and machine. Steadfast in their insistence never to remain in one lane in terms of their sound, 'Dominance' flawlessly segues between forcefulness and weightlessness. From beginning to end, this is not a record afraid to show its teeth with an uncompromising, instantly recognisable techno palette that kicks the foundations of any sound system with menace, anger and determination, particularly on tracks such as the dense 'Voltage' and pulsing throughout the more industrial flourishes of 'Ecole De Nancy' and 'Seeking Solace'.
Beyond these grittier, although never mindless, moments of authority, a sense of escapism and curiosity imbues the album. 'Alpha Cephei' offers the first hint of Deep'a & Biri's more wistful concepts, producing a smoke trail of twinkling electronics out of a smudged but distinctive bassline. That understated sense of emotional catharsis carries throughout, to be found between the complex-yet-familiar bells that drive 'Flow Diverter's' rhythm to a Detroit-indebted landscape that will surely instantly elasticate any keen dancers, while 'False Memories' offers big-room techno fulfillment with none of the character or sincerity removed for cheap thrills. Saving the most remarkable moments for last, the pair sign off 'Dominance' with the poignant and purifying 'Astral Trails', fusing an ethereal, ambient landscape with the more pronounced rhythms of their hardware.
The album's distinctive artwork comes from the studio of Jewish orthodox artist Avraham Guy Barchil, who forged a powerful connection with Deep'a, both was immediately drawn to 'weird atmosphere, amazing technique and emotions involved with his work'. Perhaps one of the most interesting painters from Israel, Avraham is known for his unique perspective, taking his inspiration from the Zohar - the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. The ambiguous figures represent mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses), as well as material on mysticism and mythical cosmogony.
Ensuring their natural, conscious touch always remains at the forefront of this unapologetically machine-driven music, Deep'a & Biri have produced an album in the lineage of their heroes and greatest influences. Cerebral yet satisfying, deep yet always engaging, 'Dominance' both reasserts and evolves Deep'a & Biri's forward facing and singular sound.
This iconic LP was originally released by Incus in 1974. Recorded at a private house in West London, the side-long title track is a masterwork: a twenty-two-minute, starkly personal, freely expressive, itchily searching re-casting of orders of rhythm and sound into a new, quicksilver kind of affective and musical polyphony. Never mind the guitarist's championing of 'non-idiomatic improvisation', the poet Peter Riley gets the ball rolling in his identification of the various hauntings of Bailey's playing at this time: 'mandolins & balalaikas strumming in the distance, George Forby's banjo, Leadbelly's steel 12-string, koto, lute, classical guitar... and others quite outside the field of the plucked string.'The five pieces on side two were recorded back home in Hackney around the same time — with the exception of Improvisation 104(b), from the year before (and issued by Incus in its TAPS series of mini reel-to-reel tapes) — opening with ventriloquised guitar feedback, and taking in some cod banter about colleagues like Mervyn Parker, Siegfried Brotzmann and Harry Bentink. Crucial.
the first release of our new project studio mule' is a cover of japanese 80's dance classic carnaval by taeko ohnuki'.
is studio mule a band unit we never have fixed member except kuniyuki takahashi as a track maker.
we invite who we love.
the first gest is our beloved miyako koda aka dip in the pool.you remember the reissue of on retinae' on music from memory.
miyako koda is one of the most carisma model in japan in 80's and the vocalist of experimental pop band dip in the pool'.
dance edit on a side is true to the original.off course more playful than original.
extended edit on b side is more club friendly house version.
more talking all that jazz, more high aiming music by fumio itabashi: mule musiq is ready to release another record by the legendary japanese jazz pianist, born in ashikaga, tochigi in the year 1949.
this time his first solo record ever: the heavy jazzing 'nature', which has never been reissued on vinyl since its birth in 1979. it has been recorded at nippon columbia 1st studio, tokyo from march 13 to 15 in the year of its release.
it features itabashi making feverish love with the piano and sharing the studio with the great bass players hideaki mochizuki and koichi yamazaki, drummers kenichi kameyama and ryojiro furusawa, soprano saxophonist yoshio otomo and vibraphone wizard hiroshi hatsuyama.
they all joined him to perform his very own songs, composed by itabashi himself and produced by ryonosuke honmura, who also produced japanese jazz heroes like saxophonist keizo inoue during his career.
but enough background information. what counts is sound. it is fresh, propulsive, twitchy and melodi-ous from the first to the last tone. sometimes the instrumentalists play a classic solo in an overall deep modal jazz atmosphere that seems to be made for cats that love the good old stars and inventors - from john coltrane to mile davis, from thelonious monk to art blakey.
'nature' also shows how deep itabashi studied the history of the genre, while keeping his very own vision of jazz alive. the man that made his professional debut as a member of the sadao watanabe quintet in 1971 and that also was a member of the elvin jones jazz machine world tour from 1985 to 1987, plays the piano in all tempos: nervous high-flying quick, deeply blue blues style slow.
besides the traditional jazz flavours, you get a feeling of mind-expanding spiritual jazz, that grand mas-ters like pharaoh sanders or gary bartz turned into a sacred music genre. a master-class record in ravishing big city jazz music, adventurous, sometimes meditative, sometimes faster than the speed of light, always grooving with a bright, pure-toned sensibility and deeply soulful melodic imaginations.
it extends the jazz history with a fine balance between tradition and innovation. and it stays infectious all the time while sounding surprisingly fresh due to a lot of thrilling musical spontaneity that touches profoundly even though all notes have been written down by fumio itabashi before he and his combat-ants entered the studio.
and maybe that's the mystery of these timeless five at times epic recordings: all notes been written on paper but each musician had the freedom to dance with them in his very own unique way. so, turn the volume loud and get ready to be steamrolled by fumio itabashi's 'nature', an inebriant album that is talking all that jazz deeply!
Leonid Nevermind is back with a new sophisticated detroit house EP. 4 groovy soulful tracks with storytelling titles, hazy vocal elements, slapping funky basslines and bluesy piano patterns enswathing with mysterious chords and thrilling lucid melodies.
Feedback:
Anton Zap: Independent sound, another great record by Leo!
Move D: Very nice! Really cool!
DJ QU: Super nice EP. Feeling it!
Delta Funktionen: High-quality fresh stuff! Very happy to hear it!
Laurent Garnier: Many thanks for the great release. I love the mood of
the 4 tracks very much.
Duplex: This EP is a gem!
Brendon Moeller:´Inner Hub´ and ´Poetry of the Heart´ for me! Dope.
Marco Shuttle: Nice sound, ´Inner Hub´ is the one I like best :)
John Heckle: This is great, liking all 4 of these, thanks.
Or:la: Sounding nice
Dubbyman: It sounds powerful and nothing conventional!
Nocow: Good sound, go on!
Dasha Redkina: Good music
Jelly Roll Soul: "Poetry Of The Heart" is great!
André Kronert: it's a very nice record. Love it
Vidab X returns with a new artist, Faltin, who chooses to remain anonymous, plus a stepping rework by Gowentgone aka label owners Oliver Deutschmann and Stephan Hill.
Faltin's 'Phobos' is a stripped down analogue masterclass. Rolling and snaking, its arpeggiated lead growls with a hot headed tension, climbing while never losing balance and poise.
The 'Gowentgone Stepper' translates the original into a heavyweight, early-morning trip - a certain hybrid of broken beats and techno attitude that melts between genres. Waves of euphoria are carried by rumbling drums in this essential version.
In the late 1990's label manager Nik Weston was working for Island Records and in particular the label imprint Island Blue set up by Ross Allen. It was here that he first heard the timeless jazz version masterpiece of Amalia from Kirk Degiorgio's As One. The track featured on a promo cd but never made it to a commercial release for Island Blue and was later featured on the full length album release for San Francisco label Ubiquity Records a few years later in 2001. 'Amalia' is a sultry jazz classic featuring gorgeous keys from Jamie Odell aka Jimpster. As relevant today as it ever was when initially made and here presented as a single in it's own right for the very first time. On the flipside another track that never made it to single in this version was the unique jazzual 'Spiritual Rotations' by Butti 49 from Norway. Nik had later worked with Butti 49 whilst working for Exceptional Records for the Habit album in 2004 but 'Spiritual Rotations' itself initially featured as an exclusively album only track for Future Sounds Of Jazz Volume 8 in 2001 for German label Compost. So there you have it... two welcome killer Jazz classics that deserve a revisit for your attention cut on limited 180 gram vinyl for your ears, your turntable and your dancefloor....
Strata-Gemma's eponymous debut album is set to provide a soundtrack to 2018.
The trio hail from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city. As with the Ferrari and Maserati cars that are designed and manufactured in Modena, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry.
Strata-Gemma create jazz for the head, the heart and the body. Their sound is shaped by the ambient adventures Miles Davis and Ron Carter engaged in alongside the electronic pulse Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune carved out of clubland. Add to this a touch of Nino Rota's Fellini film scores, employ a pinch of Balkan and klezmer brass arrangements, and you have an instrumental trio who create music so fresh it stimulates the senses.
Strata-Gemma are a collaboration between Billy Bogus, Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti. The trio first took shape as a club jam between DJs and musicians. Their ability to create atmospheric music, pulsing with rhythm but never solely reliant on beats, music that breaks free and explores sonic possibilities, quickly won notice and lead to the trio playing their freeform music in clubs, music venues and festivals across Italy.
Strata-Gemma consist of producer Niccolò Bruni (aka Billy Bogus), horns player Luca Cacciatore, double bassist Andrea Moretti. Bruni is a DJ, producer and founder of Pizzico Records. Over the past two decades he has striven to mix jazz, beats, soundtracks and funk. Coming together with Luca and Andrea allowed Bruni to explore a vision of post-club jazz that is as rich as Modena's food and as elegant as Modena's cars. Strata-Gemma create a sensual sonic storm, music to be savoured and explored, the opposite of much of today's fast-food music.
Lorenzo Bandiera, the London-based Italian founder of Fly By Night Music, heard a Strata-Gemma demo via friends and was immediately impressed. "I thought 'this is great!", he says. "Music as strong as this can't be ignored. I'm excited about releasing Strata-Gemma."
Off the back of Rudeboyz follow up EP entitled Gqomwave, Goon Club Allstars are back with an EP from UK Funky producer KG. In 2007 Karen Nyame, otherwise known as KG, was at the Nottingham Trent University producing beats on Fruity Loops. Slightly isolated in Nottingham - away from the UK Funky scene's London epicentre - KG posted her tunes on popular UK Funky message boards and Facebook pages, but never had an opportunity to properly stake her claim as one of the scene's heavy hitters. 808 and Midnight (Flute Riddim) are two lost anthems from that era, although receiving support from the likes of Marcus Nasty and others, they were largely forgotten amongst the numerous stand out tracks of the era, appearing rarely in mixes of those lucky enough to have digital copies. 808 is the party anthem, it's joyous, quivering melodies ascend above the thumping kick drum, while relentless crashing snares and carnival whistles rain down - guaranteed to heat up the coldest of dancefloors. Midnight (Flute Riddim) on the flip side is the softer, slinkier bubbler. Built for smouldering club action and hot sunny days. BSNYEA is a new addition to Goon Club Allstars' burgeoning family of artists. Hailing from the Bronx he is a veteran of the Borough's Litefeet genre that soundtracks the performances of subway dancers cross New York City's transit system. On his remix of 808 he focusses on the whistles and gutter synth lines adding in booming bass drums and lock inducing chants. Hitmakerchinx comes fresh from his anthemic Night Slugs compilation. Bringing his signature FDM energy he drops the tempo and builds on the light, airiness, letting the flutes play out softly underneath the thumping drums.
This is the first album of Borusiade, in which she takes her music to a new level, finding her very own expression, that is making us first shiver then sweat, then chill and finally melt.
Cómeme starts 2018 by proving again to be a safe haven and a sanctuary for sensitive plants and unique characters devoted to music - just like Miruna Boruzescu aka Borusiade - from Bucharest - who conquered the radio stations of our parallel worlds and utopian desire. 'Dream catcher' was the name of the show, and 'Jeopardy', a nocturnal EP, her first release on vinyl.
Now, after adventurous travels through night clubs, theatres, windy cities, snowy fields and merciless deserts her desires and imagination have manifested themselves in her very first album, carrying the intriguing title: 'A Body'
The record sleeve features the back of her head, making us wonder what she sees, on the other side. Her visions unfold through 8 pieces of music that follow a dreamlike narrative of associations and transformations. Somber synthetic atmospheres, sparse and spatial rhythmical arrangements, strangely seductive melodies and lysergic ally pulsating bass lines lead us away from a dystopian present towards a sensorial experience we long to repeat as soon as it's over.
'A Body' is a deeply poetic work in which again and again you will hear Borusiade's voice, sometimes dissolving and recreating meanings in mantra-like repetitions, sometimes layering itself to pagan choirs of smooth ecstasy. Then again you will also hear that voice close to you, singing, sharing an experience or a thought. It is always soft, effortless and unpretentious, but always strong, clear and precise, like the voice that speaks to you in an altered state of consciousness. It seems to come from the same person that is holding your hand, when everything else seems to fade into uncertainty while wandering through strange times and places...
Starting with the song CLUSTER the effect is kicking in, we sink into the universe of the album through this throbbing ambience that seems populated by a reverberated ant colony that broke into a synthesizer. The introduction of this album is a complex emotional soundscape that is followed by a song: BREATHE, which sounds like a classic you never heard. With its catchy melancholia, it creates a déjà vu like strange familiarity of the unknown - a memory from the future. And though our minds were just twisting and turning in an overflow of information, we suddenly leave our bodies and observe ourselves breathe.
Other tracks, like DORMANT are more focused on the narration of the body and its state. Words, describing it in many ways, softly and incessantly repeated, are mixed deeply into the soundscapes of a track that features a bass drum so soft it could be a heartbeat. Foggy moments like these dissolve in a track like AN ACUARIAN FEELING, which is queer synthesizer love, shifting in shape and momentum, a ray of light that pushes itself through the nightly atmosphere that was preceding these moments, a similar landscape in different times - a choir enters, cheerful drums, climbing and descending melodies and rhythms of hope. Just like the utopian vision in the title track A BODY, that stands at the end of this journey, which in itself just opens another new horizon.
'Intimate Connetion' by Kleeer on US 7' single is one record that's been indemand in recent times and has seen it's value soar in price. The rare 7' mix has never been previously released in the UK. 'Intimate Connection' is one of the smoothest of cuts of the early 1980s and that has a groove that glides effortlessly with great ease. For us in the shop it epitomises the changeover sound from full live bands to electronic based recordings with the amazing Deodato at the production helm overlording the groups synthesisers & drum machines. On the flip with 'Tonight' the jam continues with great aplomb and features it's distinctive vocoder lead. This was always one of the finest double headers of the 1980s and one that we're proud to be re-releasing in 2018
Neue 6-Track-EP des supertalentierten Jungproduzenten Suicideyear aka James Prudhomme aus Baton Rouge, Louisiana, der nach seiner Split-Single mit Kaytranada auf Bromance (2013), seiner "Remembrance EP" auf Oneohtrix Point Nevers Label Software (2014) und einem Remix für Jacques Greene nun der Lucky Me-Familie beitritt.
This is the third EP by Dutch post-techno project Monocorpse... his style is evident by now: minimal and dark... a sort of doom techno for the freaked-out dance floor... but this new EP also feels like a soundtrack... rather moody and haunting music which would fit perfect in thrillers and psychological dramas... despite all of this there are some real dance floor tracks on this EP... stuff Monocorpse never delivered before in this way...
Females have never figured strongly in the ranks of blues and rock guitar players, but the woman featured on this LP can claim to be one of the formative influences on modern rock 'n' roll guitar. Sister Rosetta Tharpe is remarkable, not just because she was an acclaimed gospel singer from the late Thirties to her death in 1973, but because she was also one of the earliest exponents of the electric guitar. In fact she helped to invent the whole concept of rock lead guitar. Her guitar-playing, which featured a fingerpicking style unusual at the time, strongly influenced Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Etta James, Little Richard and Bonnie Raitt. Enjoy some of those moments on this collection selected from her prolific first recording decade.
A generation younger than the founders of the Teklife crew, DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn, DJ Taye was originally a rapper and beat maker before hooking up with the collective and jumping into the world of footwork production and DJing.
However, it was Rashad's untimely passing in 2014 that was the unlikely catalyst for developing the sounds and ideas for this album. He says, "When Rashad passed away I felt inspired to continue evolving the music that I loved so much coming up in this world. So, I had to do something...make something brand new."
100% committed to pushing further the potential of the footwork template, Still Trippin' is ambitious in its range and scope. Taking two years to formulate, the record broadens the possibilities of the sound, forcing it to adapt to songwriting, and also revives Taye's talent for MCing and producing beats to which he can rap and sing. Furthermore Taye definitely ups the ante with his complex and precise drum programming, never losing sight of footwork's ability to confound. The album features a range of guests that span contemporary music, the eccentric, instructive rapping of Chuck Inglish of Detroit duo the Cool Kids is featured on 'Get It Jukin', Odile Myrtil, a young vocalist from Montreal, lends her smokey soul to 'Same Sound', Fabi Reyna, the editor of the celebrated women's guitar magazine She Shreds, sings and plays bass and rhythm guitar on 'I Don't Know' and Jersey club queen UNIIQU3 offers production and rapping on 'Gimme Some Mo'.Also, Teklife members DJ PayPal and DJ Manny assist on production, and DJ Lucky is a guest MC on 'Smokeout'. Taye is ambitious in his hopes for the album, "I took this as an opportunity to not have boundaries with footwork. Different approaches to our 'underground' sound to make it broader. It's only underground until it crosses that visible threshold.' This album brings all of this to the forefront.
For over 20 years, your irrepressible host Rex and his legendary Fool's Paradise radio show on WFMU has held a grudge against the whole square world. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location in rural New Jersey in a fur-lined fall-out shelter located miles below the earth's crust, this weekly "excursion to nowhere" continues to proudly play nothing but greasy grooves from inane 45s, non-hit misfires, curveballs and oddballs from the Rock & Roll era. Yes sirree, those weird and warped ones about monsters, beatniks, chickens, apes, stewed moonbeams and mosquito knees...
And now, in the tradition of free love and nickel beer, Jazzman Records has teamed up with Rex to bring together a fabulous collection of his top spins! These are the songs that, by virtue of Rex's dogged persistence, have now achieved a kind of classic status that was surely never previously thought imaginable - The Fool's Paradise Favourites.
Gatefold LP includes 18 tracks with extra special chicken-themed twin spin bonus 45 single!
Described by Clash Music as one of America's best songwriters', Brendan Benson has consistently unfurled unparalleled melodies and lyrics in his acclaimed career. Over twenty years in, he's still wowing folks and Half a Boy, Half a Man' is a powerful dollop of power chords wrapped into a tale of split personalities. Backed with an astute cover of Jules Shear's Big Kid Face' from his 1989 album The Third Party' in which Benson helps shine a light on this oft-overlooked but seminal songwriter.
Best known as half of the songwriting team at the heart of the Raconteurs (along with Jack White) Brendan Benson's career has never slowed across six solo albums, two Raconteurs full-lengths, countless collaborations and placements and a seat as one of the most respected and reliable writer, performers, producer, engineer and musical jack-of-all-trades.
MOC's Alek S returns to the mothership with his third full EP, dropping just in time for the label's third birthday.
Kicking off the release in style, - Consciousness Outline' lays down the groundwork for a solid slice of punchy techno. Featuring a minimal array of elements, which aptly intertwine instead of seeing new layers pile up, it's a gradual build up of a powerful groove.
Hypercolour & Soma Records alum Roberto Clementi takes on remix duties, revamping - Consciousness Outline' into a cavernous techno affair. Switching the main focus on the percussive leads proves a good venture, as it results into a piece with major dance appeal.
- Penny Drop' dives in with a spacious loop, which keeps centre stage throughout the entire construction. Overall, it's an airy track, with ample pads and a loose yet gripping melody.
- Neverending' rounds off the pack in an atmospherical, upbeat fashion. Ascending synth pads make for an uplifting ambiance, all set on a backbone of electrifying percussion.
Between stints in JA for legends like Glen Brown and Junjo Lawes, WJ commuted to the Bronx from Connecticut. With Clive Hunt in full effect, Showcase follows the six-track dubwise format of Dance Hall Style (Wayne never sounding more like Horace), including four utterly lethal Studio One versions — Azul's killer Rockfort Rock, Sleepy's Every Tongue (with outrageous Isleys fuzz), yet another Wackies' Heptones via Leroy Sibbles, and a murderous Drum Song.
