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Hoshina Anniversary returns to MUSAR Recordings under a new cloak, Shifting Gears.

Toyko's Hoshina Anniversary has risen to particular prominence in recent years with his self-titled brand of 'Watechno'. Stylistically fusing traditional Japanese instrumentation with Chicago and Detroit sensibilities, his works have found homes on ESP Institute, Young Marco's Safe Trip and Amsterdam-based MUSAR Recordings.

Landing on the latter, MUSAR, little over a year ago with 'Zangai' EP, Hoshina returns under a new cloak, Shifting Gears, to present 'Evil' EP.

Named after the 1975 'Gears' LP of jazz and hard bop organist, Johnny Hammond, the Shifting Gears moniker focuses heavily on principles of Jazz and raw musicianship, with a continued exploration of machine-reared club sounds. How the two can take shape as one.

Across 'Evil' EP, Hoshina's native culture remains, as heard on 'Miyatsukomaro', where traditional Japanese strings harmonise with crisp hats and jazz keys. Inspired by the early works of keyboardist and composer, Bob James, all is underpinned by intrinsic Chicago synth work.

A recurrent theme throughout, the Chicago vibe most notably takes hold on title track 'Evil'. An insidious
march, the floor-pummeling kick and shoulder-tickling toms marry seamlessly with dracula-esque chords and dizzying piano arrangements. Nodding to the mischievous bassist Jaco Pastorius of jazz fusion band, Weather Report.

Informed by the pacey creations of a revered duo, The Brecker Brothers and the 70's rock music that soundtracked Hoshina's youth, opener, 'Senor Senorita' wraps swathing reverb around a raucous melody and jiving percussion. Meanwhile, the seedy 'Syndicate' closes out amid eerie synth sneers and quirky, funk-flecked modulations.

Principal is the new solo project by producer and musician Rasmus Allin, who’s first album Treacherous Dub will be released on the Copenhagen-based label StereoRoyal in July 2020.

Best described as an homage to old-school Jamaican dub, Principal’s music features live recorded drums and other instruments. Fused with electronic elements, it celebrates the sound of the original dub pioneers.

Born in 1970, Rasmus Allin has been working as a producer, musician, and songwriter since the mid-nineties, primarily within the realm of electronic music. Inspired by the British trip hop and drum ‘n’ bass scene, he soon gravitated towards Jamaican dub, rocksteady, and reggae. "I found my inspiration in the old Jamaican dub masters like Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, and Scientist. I’ve spent endless hours in the studio trying to replicate their sound, using old tape delays, filter boxes, and modulation effects,” he says.

In 2002, Allin formed the band Junkyard Productions, playing major venues and festivals like Elysee Montmartre, Le Triptyque, Télérama Dub Festival, and Roskilde Festival while touring through Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and France. Alongside this, he continued to hone his skills in producing, co-writing, and remixing music, working with top Danish pop and reggae acts the likes of Natasja, Pharfar, Wafande, Shaka Loveless, and the British girl band All Saints.

Treacherous Dub will be released on vinyl and all major streaming platforms, and will be Allin’s first album of pure instrumental dub tracks —an ambition he’s been wanting to fulfil for years. Marking his debut as a solo artist, the album also marks his premiere as a visual artist, with the album cover lithograph made by Allin himself. For Rasmus Allin, the collaboration with StereoRoyal offered “the perfect opportunity to give the tracks the finishing touches.”

StereoRoyal is a Danish library music label founded in 2010 by and specializes in off-kilter music for film and TV. Originally, the label focused on electronic genres, but over the years has grown to include a broader variety of music produced by some of the most talented composers in Scandinavia.

ANNA HOMLER & ALESSIO CAPOVILLA - VASI COMUNICANTI

Vasi Comunicanti is the oneiric record born from the collaboration between L.A. performer and avant-garde artist Anna Homler and Alessio Capovilla, co-founder of Gang of Ducks.

Alessio Capovilla (1985, Turin, Italy ) is an Italian composer interested in sound modelling.
Imperfect sounds, unpunctual distortion and unsuitable atmospheres are constantly researched by Alessio.
A dialogue between ancient tools and new technologies through synthesis, computer music and field recording, crossing beats and genres towards something not easily definable.
Co-founder of the collective Gang Of Ducks, on which he's published two releases ("NO" and "Eocity") under the moniker of XIII, alter-ego through which he mainly examines the most tactile and digital part of his sound.


Anna Homler is a multy-disciplinary artist working on a blurred line between music, performance, spiritual and visual arts and giving birth to several different projects.
In 1985 she released, in collaboration with composer Steve Moshier, the seminal album "Breadwoman & Other Tales", shamanic and meditative songs brought to life with astonishing live performances.
The record was then re-released in 2016 by NYC label RVNG Intl, bridging the gap with a new generation of listeners, discovering the universal and unique world of Homler.
Capovilla, who was born in the same year of the original release, is one of them. His work focuses on imaginary landscapes and oneiric feelings. He has released two records on Gang of Ducks with his XIII moniker, dedicated to his digital and more computer-oriented sound.
The two of them met for the first time for an improvised live performance in Torino in 2017, after which they decided to spend studio time together exploring where this connection could lead.

The record flows along 5 tracks, with Capovilla taking care of synths, drums programming and audio engineering, and Homler singing in her melodic phonetic language, mixing unique voice and sound effects .

"De'la cocce" moves around on a slow quasi-dub rhythm accompanied by whistle and vocal interventions. In "Ricordo" Anna's voice is more prominent, travelling through a digital dimension made of flutes, Buchla Music Easel sequences and rainsticks.
The B side starts with "Bread Dance", where different layers of vocals and drums repeat themselves in an obsessive and haunting atmosphere.
"Be'ya Sa'di" is an ambient and cinematic piece, which quietly introduces "Mem", the most emotionally and intense song of the collection, transporting the listener into a different dimension.

The whole record creates a world with no geographical coordinates, where humans meet their primary feelings in a suspended time, escaping the present and the intelligible world.

Fusing dexterous hand-percussion, hypnotic guitar riffs & soaring melodies, Waaju rise from London’s rich cultural palette with their latest album ‘Grown’, proving UK Jazz doesn’t have to sound the way we expect it to. Led by drummer and percussionist Ben Brown (Alfa Mist, Dizraeli, Ashley Henry), the band comprises percussionist Ernesto Marichales (Jordan Rakei, Sigala), guitarist Tal Janes (Nubiyan Twist, Bahla), Sam Rapley (Fabled, Maria Chiara Argiro) and Joe Downard (China Moses, Judi Jackson), each with their own strong presence on the UK’s extensive music scene. Waaju’s refined and divergent sound connects the dots between the likes of Ali Farka Touré, Alain Peters, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Oscar D’Leon and Beth Carvalho. Waaju formed as a means of exploring music’s hidden connections, from trance-inducing Moroccan Gnawa to Caribbean carnival music, and embracing them to reflect different shades of London’s own musical culture. It was the band’s love for Mali’s folk music – and Ali Farka Touré’s stylistic prowess in particular – that first set the project in motion. London’s Jazz Cafe invited Waaju to reinterpret classic tracks from Farka Touré’s catalogue to sold-out audiences in 2018 and 2019. According to Brown: “Ali’s one of the best. He has such a unique sound. His playing is so gnarly. His spirit and attitude are things I always think of when making music.” Waaju (meaning ‘to urge, inspire or influence to take action’ in Malian language Bambara) blends pulsing Latin polyrhythms, psychedelic Malian blues licks and cinematic textures. Following the group’s 2018 self-titled debut record, Grown presents a group more unified and distinctive-sounding than ever with six fresh, bold compositions. The record begins with Moleman, a potent reminder of the intricacy and energy Waaju’s become known for. Gritty, clattering metal defines the landscape for sizzling builds, hinting at rave culture styles like Bashment and Jungle. Listening Glasses follows and it’s clear why this is the album’s lead single – its Afrobeat-like energy and joyful interplay between guitar and tenor sax lies somewhere between Tony Allen’s grooves, Chimurenga guitar and Headhunters’ funk. On late night jam Rollando, Joe Downard’s skulking bass frequencies rule and wonkiness reaches new heights as heavy dub grooves almost tear themselves apart. Time’s Got a Hold was co-written by Waaju and Jordan Rakei for a show together in November 2018. Kicking off side B, this version features special guest vocalist Will Heard over bouncing triplets evocative of 1970’s Sega from La Reunion. A kind of looseness found only at night, the quiet drive of Wassoulou is sparse yet purposeful. Pulling back the tempo and dimming the lights, cavernous percussion fills each corner of the room, springing back as spectral reverbs. The title and final track shows the many dynamic sides of the outfit’s far-reaching sound, with its expansive harmonies and explosive psychedelia, spanning Yoruba Andabo to Hendrix, signing off an exciting and energetic second LP from Waaju at their most scintillating.

Long-time collaborators, longer-time best friends, lifelong analog appreciators; the German duo Iron Curtis & Johannes Albert join cosmic forces once again for another LP mission 'Moon II', a heartfelt voyage through the sounds, movements, styles and machines that created this music in the first place.
Think late 80s New York, early 90s Sheffield and the perennial sounds of Italo and Detroit, 'Moon II' is a lunar safari that celebrates the deepest foundations of house, techno and electronic soul while resolutely refusing to get nostalgic. Written and recorded during an intense two-and-a-half month session in Berlin last autumn, there's a consistency and tangible narrative running throughout as the pair play inspiration ping-pong over the course of 10 tracks.
A little Drexcyian glacial nod here, a hazy Boards Of Canada wink there. The Other People Place, Kerrier District, Environ Records, the Hacienda, Sub Club, Heaven 17, classic electro… All these ingredients are constantly bubbling in the mix for both Curtis and Albert (as individuals and even more so as a duo) and the end result is an album that works as a proper album should. Peaks, troughs, dreamy departures and all beautiful things in between.
Taking off where their debut collaborative album 'Industrie & Zärtlichkeit' (soon to be retitled 'Moon I') left us three years ago, the opening modem sounds on the intro track 'Canggu Laundry Club' dial us into a special sense of time and space.
It's a space where anything feels possible; Visual-inspired acid lines on 'Tiger Trek', lino-spinning body pops and windmills to the street sounds electro style of 'The Ultimate Seduction', the club-focused, Traxx-style Cutie Schamuthie collaboration 'Hurting', the melancholy plucks and struts of 'Feingold', the provocative, slinky, smoky finale piece 'Nektar'… The list of intergenerational and cross-genre landmarks on this adventurous body of work go and on, each track complementing the last as they fuse to create a bigger collective picture. A picture that's charmed together through the consistent use of key classic studio machines.
They call it Introverted Electronic Body Music, we call it warm, free-spirited and ultimately timeless. Perfect for your sets, your afterhours or your headphones alike; it's time to let Iron Curtis and Johannes Albert take you to the Moon and back… Once again.

Tyyni is the third album by Finnish-born sound artist and musician Cucina Povera aka Maria Rossi. The second album recorded using a more studio-based scenario – as opposed to last year’s Zoom, a collection of in-situ, spontaneous recordings – Tyyni feels like a slowly unfurling mediation on the clash between nature and mechanical living, a rumination on the complexities of modern life that begin to unveil more about the inner landscape of the artist as it progresses. A Finnish word referring to still, serene weather, the title belies a new note of turmoil in Cucina Povera’s soundworld. Tyyni represents a more detailed focus on the sculpting of sounds that curl around Rossi’s hymnal vocal performances. It’s a more adventurous work than Rossi’s previous output that goes further into noise elements and vocal abstraction while maintaining the balance and ecclesiastical ecstasy of her debut Hilja.

While tension at the core of Cucina Povera is always prevalent, previously it was organic sounds that were used to counterpoint Rossi’s singing but on Tyyni these are often replaced with aggressive synths and distortion, profane clashes with the seemingly sacred hymns. Whether close mic’d and intoning in a loop or in full flight, Maria Rossi’s voice remains in the foreground, set here against a more synthetic backdrop. This development builds new worlds for Cucina Povera, a digital environment which brings in a sense of the alien for Rossi’s vocal to duel. The effect is often dazzling. On Salvia Salvatrix, an ode to the medicinal plant used to ward off evil spirits, Rossi’s invocation is encircled by a distorted synth sound tearing at the fabric of the composition. It’s an inspired juxtaposition, leaving the listener to appreciate both sounds as separate and as a duet. Anarkian kuvajainen embraces a sense of chaos, an accidental transmitting mobile phone’s pulse is swept up gently with looped synth swells as Rossi’s prayer-like vocal rhythmically teases the composition into loops that embrace and then drift apart. Teerenpeli flirts with a minimal beat rendered by sampler and processed, layered field recordings of capercaillies, while Side A ends with one of Rossi’s most beautiful, simple tracks yet recorded. Varjokuvatanssi is an a cappela recording built on top of a wordless glossolalia, a shadowy interplay which foregrounds the solo vocal.

Pölytön nurkka is the most melodic song yet recorded by Cucina Povera. While it still maintains an off-the-cuff performance style, the synthesized chimes and 4/4 beat are smothered by a distorted synthesizer which almost replicates the bravado of an electric guitar feedbacking into the night. Rossi’s subject matter talks of trying to start anew, getting rid of extraneous material, perhaps still feeling powerless to affect positive change. On Haaksirikkoutunut, the protagonist vocal is lost, a vessel rudderless on the ocean, buffeted by waves metaphorical or real, digital, atonal chords gurgling and splashing against the bow, a storm forever brewing on the horizon. Saniaiset recalls Coil in its eldritch, nocturnal tone and digital-bell like synth, Rossi’s half-spoken/half-sung voice attaining a creepy tone before flipping into flight. Album closer Jolkottelureitti uses an escalating, sequenced synth that splinters into both abrasive tones and harmonising chords creating a kosmische effect, reminding the listener of Kluster or synth-era Popol Vuh, all the while elevated by Rossi’s searching vocalising.

For an artist with such a singularly unique musical language, Cucina Povera is continually teasing new strands and emotive tones from an evolving palette. Most importantly, Tyyni appears to be pulling back the veil to uncover an artist finding a synergy between her own emotional inner world and practice. As such, on her third album, Maria Rossi has found a third way between abstraction and extraneous emotion, personal experience turned inside out to reveal more about the listener.

Very limited 12" (200 copies worldwide).

In a perfect world one would expect to find the music of Klaus Waldeck in the genre of electronic music. With his new project "The Waldeck Sextet" he leaves this stereotype behind and surprises us with a very pleasant acoustic experiment.

It all began with an analogue recording session in Vienna´s legendary supersense studios.And although it is hardly a perquisite to form a new project for these kind of recording ventures, Waldeck - quite obviously enthused by the idea of this analogue adventure - founded his new project "The Waldeck Sextet". Such was his excitement that he lost track of the number of musicians and thus founded the worlds first sextet that consists of 10 members, including his main vocalist Patrizia Ferrara.

Scottish trumpeter Malcolm Strachan is a founder member of top UK funk/jazz-funk band The Haggis Horns as well as being one of the busiest session musicians in the UK today. In a professional career spanning 20 years, he's recorded with the likes of Mark Ronson, Amy WineHouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jamiroquai, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Jesse Glynne, The Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Band, Black Honey, The New Mastersounds and Blue Note saxophone legend Lou Donaldson. Now he's finally releasing his first solo album, aptly titled "About Time", on Haggis Records and he's going back to his original roots... Jazz.

The album is a collection of original compositions, all written and arranged by Malcolm, which are firmly rooted in the classic acoustic modern jazz style typified by the great 60's and 70's recordings on the legendary Blue Note Records label. A nice variation of themes and tempos feature throughout the album. From full-on latin vibes to beautiful ballads, soul jazz grooves to cinematic soundtrack flavours, all woven together by a great group of experienced musicians.

Malcolm's core quartet is himself on trumpet/flugelhorn, fellow Haggis Horns members George Cooper (piano) and Erroll Rollins (drums), plus Courtny Tomas on double bass. Featured guests are Atholl Ransome on tenor sax (The Haggis Horns), Rob Mitchell on baritone sax (Abstract Orchestra) and Danny Barley on Trombone. Strings are courtesy of Richard Curran and the percussionist is one of the finest session players in Europe, Karl Vanden Bossche (Incognito, Robert Palmer, Joss Stone, The Gorillaz, Sade, Blur - He and Malcolm met while touring with Mark Ronson)

Malcolm's love of jazz comes from his parents. Aged 7, his jazz musician father gave him a trumpet. From then on, jazz was his life. His musical education came via music teachers, youth jazz orchestras and jazz summer schools but mostly from his dad's record collection listening to Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie records and learning to improvise and solo by ear. At 18, he enrolled at Leeds College of Music and quickly immersed himself in the city's vibrant acid jazz, funk and soul scene and from making his recording debut in 1999 with The New Mastersounds, jazz was his musical passion but took a back seat to funk/soul/pop which were the day job. Until now.

Jazz is back. The wait is over. It really is "About Time" for Malcolm Strachan.

LIMITED EDITION 300 ONLY WHITE VINYL

There was a terrible egregious shift in vibration the day the transmission arrived. It came to me in a dream, as was natural for these particular occurrences, and left no time for preparation. The sound was unmistakable, a low baritone that echoed wildly and reeked of ancient fumes. A deeply monumental and monolithic apparition stood before what appeared to be a crowd of hexagonal beings. The vibrations worked through them in an apparent communicatory way, though would be impossible to translate in any logical linguistic fashion. I don’t know how but I knew they were aware of me, though their disposition was imminent of their consciousness as being collective, rather than individual; and were largely unbothered by my presence.
 
Once the transmission had finished it was clear that there had been a tamper. The kind of which Id seen  before, and had resulted in definite yet undefinable change in the fabric of reality.
 
I initially stumbled upon the odd and highly dangerous musical practices of Perhaps while on an assignment in Bermuda. There had been rumors of a local tribesman partaking in occult practices, of which I knew was native strictly to the Goat Bleeding Bad Men of the Congolese jungle. These rumors intrigued my journalistic nature, so I took the afternoon off in the hopes to possibly glean something that would be an easy pitch to a tabloid back home.
 
Upon arrival it was clear there was a strange foreign intervention within the community of the tribe, which was largely uninhabited upon first glance. Much of the surrounding foliage had been strung with the entrails of various animals and there were several disturbing fixtures composed of bones and various organs lining the commune. I managed to track down the tribesman, who appeared to be in some deep trance and was entirely unable to communicate, though seemed to be fixated on a single task: the drawing of a peculiar symbol. My researching the symbol resulted in only one hit, a piece of musical literature by a band Perhaps, who I later found to be recording in the area just weeks before.
 
It didn’t take long for me to become fully fixated on Perhaps, who were anything but coy about their whereabouts and metaphysical practices. Wherever they went a small commune followed, which was typically composed of deranged acid freaks, occultists, and Norweigian dairy farmers who had sold all their assets to follow the band after “hearing their music speak from the mountains”. After managing to crack into one of their camps that was stationed in an abandoned motel, I spoke with Jim Haney of Perhaps regarding their cultish practices, who gave little in way of detail but claimed to be working towards a deconstruction of reality through a linguistic utilization of vibration.
 
My stint with the cosmic beings through the telekinetic transmission had lead to one conclusion; that Perhaps have been in the works on something new. It seems as if they may have landed on the result which Haney had mentioned years ago. Through my continued interest I’ve procured the names of other members of this current project, which include: Sean Mcdermott, Tom Weeks, Ricky Petraglia, David Khoshtinat, Ben Talmi, Makoto Kawabata, Lucas Brode, Isiah Mitchell, Olivia Kieffer, Tyler Skoglund, Chang Chang. Though I can’t say exactly what is to come, it seems as if the ideas that were proposed during my initial meet may have been surpassed. Perhaps’ plans have begun to surface, and we are all at risk, for whatever that means. The great column and the vibrational prismic beings have shifted their attention to earthly matters, it would be foolhardy to not heed their warning. Though, self-preservation may be an impossibility.
 
Sam Hailstone Dec 24/ 2019

‘Rejoice’ is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz.

Having first met in the 70's thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018.

With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with it's roots firmly in Afrobeat.

Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland/The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.

Ryan Crosson takes care of the fifth EP on tastemaking Detroit label My Baby Records with a fantastically forward-looking four-track vinyl offering. Ryan Crosson is a complex artistic creature who has roamed far and wide in his storied career. His always innovative music has come on groundbreaking labels including Wagon Repair, M_nus, Spectral Sound, and of course his own Visionquest. Each time he explores a new sound world and draws on things as diverse as musique concrète, Downtown New York funk, and East African jazz. Now he cooks up more beguiling brilliance on this fresh new EP. Opener ‘Speaker Dubs’ is a deep, bubbly rhythm track with dub chords rippling out to infinity. It’s a stylish track full of far-sighted reverence and supple groove that locks you in a trance. ‘Ogilvie’ is a piece of absorbing ambient with found sound recordings of muffled voices that sounds like you’re in an underground station. B-side opener ‘FutureTheory’ is another minimal masterpiece with glitchy sound design and eerie chords peeling off a tight, kinetic groove. Ghoulish voices add more late-night atmosphere and the whole track grows ever darker and more consuming as it unfolds. The excellent ‘OortCloud’ takes you back to the heart of a dance-floor with futuristic menace: the smooth drum loops are militant, the voices are dehumanised and the searching synths speak of a desolate landscape. It’s heady, brilliantly bleak stuff that is utterly infectious. This is another hugely inventive EP from one of the underground’s most consistent talents

»Alchemy« is the debut album from 22-year old singer-songwriter Tara Nome Doyle, following the singles »Heathens«, »Neon Woods« and »Mercury«. Doyle’s 2018 EP »Dandelion«, featuring her breakthrough-hit »Down with You«, has so far amassed nearly two million streams. Recently, two of her songs featured in Sophie Kluge’s feature film »Golden Twenties«. Doyle is a member of Kat Frankie’s choir on whose a capella EP she features.

»Alchemy« deals, in two songs each, with the four phases of development of the pre-modern natural philosophy, the alchemy. The album can be read psychologically or as a portrait of someone coming of age. Experience and reflection are closely entwined which is as beautiful as it’s threatening.

Doyle, whose middle name is pronounced just like »Naomi«, is from Berlin-Kreuzberg, her parents are from Ireland and Norway. She speaks (and sings) both languages without accent. Is it permissible to recognize the biographical background of these landscapes in her art? The stored heat and the fog from the Irish peat bogs, the magic of the the Norwegian forests?

The concept album was recorded in large parts with David Specht (bass player and producer of Isolation Berlin) and Doyle's newly founded band in Berlin. Specht remains reserved, keeping the band in check. It’s the interiors that we should hear – acoustically, but also thematically. The drums sound more like a knock on the window pane than the city noise outside the door, the guitar controls the harmony and not the power supply. The first instrument remains Doyle’s voice, which is always working and is looking for a way. Inward, outward. All songs were written by Doyle, for the arrangement for »Neon Woods« she worked with Max Rieger (Die Nerven, producer for e.g. Drangsal and Ilgen-Nur).

The compilation "Celestial Birds" reveals and focuses on the widely unkown electronic compositions of the AACM founder and jazz pianist MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS. #5 in the Perihel Series, curated by zeitkratzer director REINHOLD FRIEDL.

Anybody interested in jazz knows that Chicago has always been an impressive hot spot for new talents – and still is. One essential landmark in the history and development of jazz was the founding of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in May 1965. This non-profit organization was a melting pot (and starting point) for artists like ANTHONY BRAXTON, ROSCOE MITCHELL, GEORGE LEWIS or LESTER BOWIE and his ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO but one of its actual founding members is known only to the deep connaisseurs: MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS (1930 – 2017).
The autodidact pianist and composer left music school and university, deciding to learn music by himself.

From 1961 on, the EXPERIMENTAL BAND was his first ensemble, but it soon turned out that ABRAMS' interests went beyond jazz and that he was open to the avant-garde and new music and most of all: electronic music. Which led to a double problem: On the one hand, black musicians had almost no access to the rare electronic music studios located in and funded by universities or broadcasting corporations. On the other hand, there were strong reservations regarding electronic music in the black music community.

In his important book "A Power Stranger Than Itself – The AACM and American Experimental Music" GEORGE LEWIS writes that "the use of electronics … proved controversial and widely misunderstood in a world of jazz in which acoustic instruments became conflated with musical, and eventually, cultural and even racial authenticity." ABRAMS' response was to actually "hide" his electronic pieces on the B-sides of his albums, and this compilation focuses on some of his best electronic experiments: the 22-minute long epic "The Bird Song" from 1968 in its original version incl. the reverb that was removed on the later CD reissue on DELMARK, the synthesizer compositions "Conversations With The Three Of Me" (1989) and "Think All, Focus One"1995) plus " Spihumonesty" (1980) with a 2nd synthesizer played by GEORGE LEWIS and YOUSEF YANCEY on theremin.

"Celestial Birds" casts a new light on the underrated experimenter MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS, his innovative approach to composition and pieces that lay dormant for way too long!

Bram De Looze is a Belgian pianist and composer whose distinct musical vision has found its way through both solo projects and collaborations. His unique technical skill and musical maturity have earned him considerable critical acclaim back home as his work spotlights his far-ranging interests - from traditional classical piano music, to solo improvisations that have often been compared to Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran. On the 21st February 2020, Sdban Ultra will release his highly anticipated new solo album, 'Colour Talk'.

De Looze made his entrance onto the national jazz scene with LABtrio, formed in 2007 with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck, and he immediately impressed, flirting with urban jazz, electronics and hip hop.

After a period of studying abroad at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where he studied with Uri Caine and Marc Copland, in 2014, De Looze launched the international septet, Septych, that once again stressed his affinity for jazz, classical music and improvisation. With diverse and astounding improvisors like Daniel Levin, Lester St-Louis, Robin Verheyen, Gebhard Ullman, Bo Van Der Werf and Flin Van Hemmen, it was the start of an explorative musical journey.

Over the past few years, De Looze could frequently be heard with kindred spirits like Stephane Galland, Dre Hocevar and Antoine Pierre but it was a visit to the historical collection of pianofortes of Chris Maene that inspired De Looze to release his first solo album 'Piano e Forte' (2017), and it received critical acclaim for its creativity, spontaneity and passion. He would later garner further acclaim working alongside fellow Belgian Robin Verheyen and American rhythm painter Joey Baron with whom he recorded 'MixMonk' (2019), a tribute to the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

Bram De Looze's solo career took off in an unexpected way with 'Piano e Forte', a project for which he approached historical instruments from a contemporary perspective. The switch to the Chris Maene Straight Strung Grand Piano for 'Switch The Stream' (2018) indicated a renewed search for movement, evolution and introspection. His latest solo project 'Colour Talk', continues this trajectory with another revolutionary piano model, designed by lauded architect Rafael Vinoly, and a continued attempt to renew from within.

On 'Colour Talk', what you hear is a musician who has freed himself from stylistic constraints and limitations. While still rooted in jazz, classical music and free improvisation have found a new balance, a coexistence that enables the pianist to express himself with a new vigour. Switching between shorter pieces that feel like curious, unresolved puzzles and more extended explorations, 'Colour Talk' is once again an ode to (re)invention in the grey zone were the classical idiom and improvisatory urges meet, with the 13-minute tour-de-force of 'Hypnosis' as one of several undisputed highlights.

If you asked De Looze about his current position as an artist, he would probably tell you that it's all about forward movement and the need to keep evolving, about a trajectory as work-in-progress. However, if you consider 'Colour Talk' as a freeze frame of where De Looze is at, it is hard not to consider it a highlight in a career that should have some more surprises in store.

White Vinyl 10"

A new release this winter marks a landmark moment in an important musical story. Way back in little 2009, the label hfn music was born in Hamburg, and made its introduction to the world with the release of the Trentemøller compilation Harbour Boat Trips: 01 Copenhagen.
Founder Tobias Lampe wanted to start a label that was more broad in scope than his previous, more electronic-focused projects, and the compilation provided the perfect opportunity to launch one. In the 10 years since then, the label has survived the whirlpool waters of the early 21st century’s constantly changing music industry, and released everything from pop to art-punk, with artists ranging from New York to the Faroe Islands.
Now, they’re about to put out their 100th release. Fittingly, given the label’s focus on new and innovative music, and the historic aspect of the release, hfn100 sees one of hfn’s best songs of 2019 put into the hands of the man it all started with, Anders Trentemøller. His Danish compatriots Blaue Blume’s new album Bell Of Wool is one of hfn’s standout releases this year, and so hfn100 sees Trentemøller remix one of that record’s standout tracks, the fragile, but soaring “Lovable”.
In Blaue Blume’s original, “Lovable” is an airy, tormented song, a gossamer-delicate composition that carefully stitches together layers and layers of shining synths that gradually build up and up into a peak, before crashing into a subtle beat, a musical journey that mirrors vocalist Jonas Smith’s trip from anguish to numbness. Whereas the original’s music sounds woven together from light, Trentemøller takes it into darker territory. He hooks the song to a harsh, sparse beat leaving Smith’s vocals bare and isolated in the burnt-out, dystopic musical landscape he creates.
Trentemøller mirrors the original’s careful building up, adding new elements to fill in the song’s sound, before it collapses into a tough, noir disco groove. It’s a perfectly realised remix – Trentemøller keeps the original song’s skeleton and soul, but fills in the space with sonic touches that could be no one else’s but his.Ultimately, it’s a fitting song for hfn’s hundredth release. For a label that’s always been a platform for its boundary-pushing artists, a collaboration between two of them, that sees an already innovative song pushed into a bold new shape is the perfect way for hfn to step into the next 100 releases..

Vinyl Only

Obrani Records goes back to business with the new release "Test" EP from label's founder Kristina and TC80's remix. Starting with references to the vintage sound, - through some psychedelic patterns and haunted beats to a delicate surreal tech landscape. It may bring you to a parallel reality of hidden cyber worlds, so don't miss the opportunity to join this fascinating trip of twisting groovy house, minimal, techno, and electro into exciting new forms.

Mythology for the posthuman age. From "The New Kind" to "Posthuman Wonderland", Simon Grab's album "Posthuman Species" is a sonic journey through an astonishing land of fragile feedbacks, pulsating drones and opulent outbursts of noise.

Recorded on a no-input-mixing setup consisting of low frequency oscillators, filters, analogue effects and a mixer patched with itself, the album sneaks up on dub and leftfield electronica from the side. Over time, the self-oscillating setup falls in and out of tune with itself, emphasising its transient nature. The album is a work of science fiction, telling the story of a time when "The New Kind" shapes its own wonderland.

Swiss sound artist and musician Simon Grab explores new grounds by negating assumed borders. In his recent work, he focuses on reduction, and the peculiarity of self-referential systems.
The album "Posthuman Species" follows his recent EP "Extinction" on -OUS. His "Diamonds EP" in collaboration with Togolese rapper Yao Bobby and Asian Dub Foundation's Dhangsha releases on Bristol's LavaLava Records in September 2019. Simon Grab's recent works includes "Hirnmusik 1 & 2", in which he dives deep into musical imagery by transferring his sonic ideas directly from his brain to vinyl.

The vinyl LP comes with a printed inner sleeve designed by Hammer and a download card that includes the digital only tracks "Transformation" and "Posthuman Wonderland".

For over half a century, Takehisa Kosugi was one of the most unique and enduring figures in the Japanese underground. As an art student in Tokyo in the early 1960s, he joined the Fluxus-styled performance unit Hi Re Centre and then founded the improvisational ensemble Group Ongaku, but his most legendary project was The Taj-Mahal Travelers – a multicellular organism that included Kosugi, Ryo Koike, Yukio Tsuchiya, Seiji Nagai, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa and sound engineer Kinji Hayashi.

With a penchant for long psychedelic jams (some lasting 12 hours or more) The Taj-Mahal Travelers lived up to their name. Touring in a Volkswagen van across Europe and Asia in the early '70s, they eventually reached the actual Taj Mahal in India. Upon their return to Japan, they held a concert to raise more touring funds and released their very first recordings. Their debut album, July 15, 1972, would extend the band's matter-of-fact titling: all the tracks were named precisely for the times they began and ended.

With a grab bag of instrumentation (electric violin, double bass, santoor, vibraphone, harmonica, radio oscillators, sheet iron, etc.), The Taj-Mahal Travelers weave together mesmerizing waves of sonic texture. Featuring longtone concepts that Kosugi discovered while working with sound generators in New York in the mid-'60s, July 15, 1972 remains just as much a collective tone poem as psych workout. These leader-less sounds coalesce into a unified whole that feels both subconscious and sublime, as if the waveforms bypass the listener's ears and land directly inside one's synapses.

Field Recordings, carefully chosen percussion, electronic spice and acoustic ingredients. This is the foundation for every recipe that Bolivian Belgian artist Suso Perez aka Susobrino creates. In 2018, he presented his debut EP “Mapajo” on Global Hybrid Records. Since then he has won several awards; the “Champion Sound Beat Battle” and “Most Promising Artist” at the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards of Belgium. He introduced his creations to numerous festivals in Belgium and abroad.

His new album “La Hoja de Eucalipto” brings alive a more energetic and aggressive part of Susobrino and presents a work focused on the ethnic and world sounds, mixing his masterful percussion with electronic beats to create a unique and distinctive sound. For fans of the organic electro-latino sound of Chancha Via Circuito, Nicola Cruz and Dengue Dengue Dengue.

In this album Susobrino created a story of 5 beings looking for answers in their individual lives.
The first track “La Hoja de Eucalipto” is the ceremony right before the journey. It’s a three part composition to set the tone of the entire album: question, answer and interpretation.
“Despertar” (wake up in spanish) is the realisation of the journey these beings are getting into. The guitar interprets the rain as a cleansing. A fresh breath in, breath out.
“La Marcha” is the physical start of a long journey. They will be walking for days, weeks or even months. The exciting, courageous travellers leave their families and friends towards unknown lands that they never dared to enter. Many days of walking pass and they reach a new habitat. A dense jungle.
“Dispersion”. This brings tension and fear out of the 5 travellers. A 6min long repetitive song that interprets walking in circles. Everyone gets separated from each other and they question with doubts of getting out of the unknown jungle. Eventually, the 5 beings survive the unknown jungle. Exhausted and lost, they keep walking with no idea where to go. That’s when they stumble upon “Polahimán”. A mysterious entity who’s very eager to help and knows exactly where they have to go. With riddles and poems, he gives them directions.
“El Desierto de Pazmancú” A new habitat. An endless dessert. Yet, the beings are refilled with courage, crossing the entire dessert. That’s where Polahimán is waiting for them.
“El Enfrentamiento de Polahimán”. This is the endboss; The Final Chapter. The 5 grown travellers find themselves in many challenges. This is where you, as a listener, can interpret if it’s a good or bad ending. Or an open ending?

Susobrino plays and records everything in his humble studio in Belgium. Percussion, quena (flutes), guitar, charrango, field recordings and a yamaha dx9.

PBR Streetgang return to their newly launched KURTZ imprint this October to deliver ‘Acid Tools’, accompanied by Wilde Renate residents Longhair on remix duties.

Founded in Leeds but now found touring the international scene week in, week out, Bonar Bradberry and Tom Thorpe, aka PBR Streetgang, have cemented their position as leading names within the current house and disco landscape via a slew of stand-out releases on imprints such as Skint, Crosstown Rebels and Futureboogie, plus appearances in 2019 alone at Glastonbury, Love International, Printworks and a summer residency at Pikes Ibiza to name just a few. Launched earlier this year, their new KURTZ imprint quickly found favour amongst a who’s who of the industry’s leading names, from Andrew Weatherall to Bicep, Hot Chip to Soul Clap, and here we see the duo step out again on home turf to deliver the second instalment as they reveal their Acid Tools’ EP, featuring three versions of the up-front ‘Ron’ - each of which have been doing damage in their sets across the summer months - backed by a remix from Wilde Renate residents Longhair.

Up first and delivering the ‘Full Fat’, version one sees Bradberry and Thorpe introduce punchy analogue percussion arrangements in tandem with a chunky, menacing acid line at the production’s core, whilst infectious vocal samples and hooks ebb in and out of the mix to guide the production as it chugs along, whilst the ‘Half Fat’ mix strips back the vocals to reveal a driving and warping journey across six-and-a-half minutes. Next up, Berlin duo Longhair’s remix welcomes a low-slung interpretation armed with delayed effects and sci-fi atmospherics to provide a combination of rich depth and space, before rounding out proceedings via the ‘Fully-Skimmed’ mix – a high-energy 909 fueled workout set to feature as a favourite for many across the months ahead.

50 years ago, a young Panamanian singer by the name of Ralph Weeks, who a few years prior had cut his teeth in the US music landscape with the group Johnny & The Expressions, self-produced and independently released a record with an absolute monster of a soul ballad called "Something Deep Inside." It was a song that Weeks had come up with on the spot during one of many gigs in the heart of Brooklyn's Prospect Heights, at the time a cultural hub and community for many Panamanians living in the borough. Along with his group, The Telecasters, Weeks often played at a Panamanian-owned club in the neighborhood called 4 Star's (STA4R's) which would independently sponsor the release of the tune on a 7-inch single.

Fast forward to 2019, where a serendipitous meeting between Ralph Weeks and Names You Can Trust turned into a solid formation of musical synchronicity, bonded over a shared belief in musical fusion, a weaving of musical threads that was similarly the foundation of that earlier era in Panama. It's a fusion that has become a constant theme throughout the Names You Can Trust catalog in the last 10 years, connecting the dots from NY, the Caribbean and Latin America. An immediate plan was put into motion: return Weeks to a studio atmosphere that had eluded him in the preceding decades, a vibe and live musical presence that would be reminiscent of his time recording with The Telecasters and The Exciters in Panama.

In the ultimate tribute to Weeks and that foundation, NYCT label mates Combo Lulo unpacked the 50-year old original tune and refashioned it into a timeless rocksteady ballad. It was an opportunity for Weeks to acquaint himself with a new band and a new generation of musical talent. Ultimately, it was an unexpected chance for Weeks to reconnect to the music he wrote one fateful evening in a Brooklyn club. For Combo Lulo, Names You Can Trust, and now the rest of his musical admirers, it's a chance to hear how gracefully Weeks' voice has aged, still silky smooth with those beloved falsetto runs, sweet and rounded like a barrel-aged añejo rum. It's a testament to the timelessness of Weeks' original music, and certainly another reminder of how far and wide even the smallest of musical blips can spread.

Presented as a double-sided bilingual 45 single, both versions of Weeks' classic tune, "Algo Muy Profundo" and "Something Deep Inside," have been formatted in the traditional Jamaican style, skillfully cut live and mixed under the guidance of NYCT and Combo Lulo's talented musicians. It's a tribute to a brilliant record and an unsung architect of Latin American sweet soul, but also a love letter to a very particular NY-Caribbean fusion that theoretically could have happened 50 years ago, depending on the borough you resided in. After all, there was always something deep inside. Comes with NYCT / STA4R'S Company Sleeve & Liner Notes.

Following his debut on Phantasy earlier in 2019, Joshua James returns to the label with ‘Journeys In Love’, complimented by a propulsive remix from Joe Goddard. Flipping the ruthless sleaze and hi-NRG of ‘Coarse’ on its head, the XOYO and Rinse FM resident presents a release that soundtracks the deeper, more vulnerable and always joyous aspects of London’s queer nightlife culture. ‘Journeys In Love’ lands with immediate effect, building steadily and confidently around a trippy sample and the hugely pleasurable push-and-pull of James’ synths. Breathing deeply and suspended in red-light, James’ new production tastefully recalls the late-hour, sensual attitude classic NYC deep house, while transmissions of a bottom-heavy bass weight anchor the track in the capital’s defiant after-hours scene. As a digital exclusive, the Super Drama remix utilises skittering percussion and cymbal rushes to drive things forward, dissolving with a playful acid coda.
Needing little introduction, Hot Chip and Two Bears co-founder Joe Goddard delivers a soaring and complementary reinterpretation of ‘Journeys In Love’, one built on halcyon, analogue sounds and further bathed in ecstasy and melancholy.

Strangelove’s latest release turns left somewhere near the edge of the Atlantic, with Electricidade Estética” documenting a vibrant window into the musical landscape of 1980’s counter-culture Portugal. Compiling early un-issued works, DWART’s organic Ash-Ra Balearics meld with spikey Iberian electronics, coalescing around the floating beauty of ‘Mate’, reissued for the first time on vinyl. With emergent music technologies of the era enthusiastically adopted by Lisbon’s avante-garde, there was a collective desire by DWART and their contemporaries to push existing sonic boundaries;- Post new wave sounds melded with distinctive local sensibilities. Vítor Rua & Jorge Lima Barreto of the legendary Telectu (whom Antoñio currently tours with) were regular collaborators while composer/ guitarist Nuno Rebelo and guitarist/singer Bernardo Devlin feature throughout. Antoñio & Manuela Duarte’s search for an artistic language melded a continuing curiosity with aural and physical dualities: experimental pop integrated with performance art, mathematics sound-tracked on canvas, organic found sounds at ease alongside synthetic drum machines. The 9 songs found here document the early emergence of their own ‘Electricidade Estética’ (Big shouts to Invisible Cities & Steele Bonus- early champions of ‘Mate’) Vital Sales Points: Follow up to the labels previous releases - Frank Harris & Maria Marquez ‘Echoes’ and previous Portuguese release Lena d’Água ?- Jardim Zoológico

Ever since their debut 7” landed on our doorstep unannounced, we have been captivated by the powerfully understated movements of the duo known as Undefined. Sahara (keys/bass/programming) and Ohkuma (drums) have deep roots in the Japanese dub and reggae scenes (Heavymanners, Soul Dimension) and operate their own experimental dub label, Newdubhall. Recent collaborations with Kazufumi Kodama (of dub elders Mute Beat), dBridge, and Kabuki are nudging the group further into a spotlight that they richly deserve.

Named for the 3-feel of its colossal groove, “Three” is a locked groove of pure downtempo dubwise, techno in its repetition, hip hop in its tempo and swagger, motorik in its muscularity, meditative in its clarity. Featuring the unmistakable voice of ZamFam Rider Shafique, showcased in a moment of profound introspection and vulnerability, “Three" banishes all thoughts of flash-in-the-pan “big tunes” for an incredibly deep and immersive dive.

“Three Dub,” a version in the classic sense, strips out the vocal entirely to focus on the rockstone riddim, crafted of one of the most captivatingly beautiful bass tones we’ve ever heard, combined with wicked drum turnarounds, lightning hi-hat work, and extremely subtle & sophisticated dubbing technique. A masterclass in dubwise essentialism and profound attention to detail, stripped down to the foundation yet incredibly lush and alive.

Strictly limited to 600 copies for the world. No digital, no repress. Design & screen print by Polygon Press. Mastered by Sam Precise.

Moon Boots a.k.a Pete Dougherty returns with his second studio album ‘Bimini Road’ on September 6 via Anjunadeep. An ambitious and evocative follow-up to his acclaimed debut First Landing, Bimini Road combines delectable club-ready grooves with soulful songcraft into a seamlessly organic whole. Inspired by notions of mysterious lost civilizations, ancient magic utopias and the sci-fi landscapes of the mind, ‘Bimini Road’ is a joyously celebratory listen that builds off the ‘deep textures and funky melodies’ (Mixmag) of his album 'First Landing', a disco house masterpiece supported by KCRW, Annie Mac and others. Featuring familiar faces KONA, Black Gatsby and Nic Hanson among the featured vocal talent, ‘Bimini Road’ also includes new collaborators like rising US talent Niia, Kaleena Zanders and notable British sing-songwriter Little Boots. OutJuly 9, ‘Tied Up’ is the first single off the album, a sexy slice of deep house pop sure to ignite dancefloors and bedrooms alike. Moon Bootsembarks on his Live Bimini Road Tour this Fall, with dates across North America and Europe. Born in Brooklyn, Moon Boots’ musical obsession started not long after he could walk. His early love of piano lead to a passion for keyboards and synthesizers. Teenage nights lost in the work of Daft Punk, ATribe Called Quest and Herbie Hancock followed. Inspired by legends like Frankie Knuckles and Derrick Carter, he moved to the house music epicenter of Chicago, where he tirelessly passed out demos to local DJs and scoured the web for like-minded people with whom he could share and expand on his sound. Heplayed in a synth-pop trio whose demo caught the attention of Lupe Fiasco, and after a stint touring alongside the hip-hop icon, Dougherty went back to DJing with a renewed focus. The stars aligned when he had a chance encounter withPerseus, founder of an adventurous label, French Express. A fellow junkie and fan of French House and R&B-infused dance music, Perseus became a friend and mentor, the Splinter to Boots' Donatello. The label eventually disbanded but Boots has stayed true to his mission of making dance tracks that can’t be confined to one style. Pete blends the music he loves --jazz, house, funk and soul -- into songs that last longer than their runtime. Songs not just for DJs, but for everyone.

Anthony Reynolds was born in South Wales in the early seventies. Between 1993 and 2004 he was founding member of the groups Jack and Jacques, releasing five albums. Since 2004 he has released various albums and also worked as a writer, publishing four biographies which have been translated into 14 languages and two volumes of poetry which haven’t been translated at all.. He has collaborated with the likes of Momus, Dot Allison, Peter Walsh (Scott Walker), Colin Wilson and Vashti Bunyan.
This new album features contributions from Robert Dean (Japan), Carl Bevan (60FT Dolls), Richard Glover (Dub War) Fiona Brice (composer/ violinist who has worked with the likes of John Grant and Placebo) and Kirk Lake.

TV Victor was one of the first artists of Tresor Records where he became legendary with several of his ambient and trance productions including Trance Garden 1-3 and Trancecology Chapter 1. In 1989, he launched his first solo project: Moondance - The Magic Sound of the Moon, where he lay foundations for later explorations with experimental sounds fused with pop elements and anticipated an ambient excursion to be had in the future.

In the following decades TV Victor created impressive solo works that traversed between ambient and trance, he collaborated with artists like Moritz v. Oswald, Max Loderbauer, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Paul Browse and Tobias Freud. Contrary to common mainstream tendencies he created a very unique interpretation of both genres. In recent years Victor has concentrated on creating experimental and abstract sonic spaces for escaping reality, spaces that live through the imagination of the listener. Each piece, a segment of a larger musical movement; stands alone to create new sonic continuums. Otherworldy music that is in its own sphere.

30 years after the release of Moondance and 50 years after the first landing, Lullabies For Insomniacs revisit TV Victor's musical roots with 'Back To The Moon'. The previously unreleased works were carefully selected from his vaults and restored by Berlin based engineer Brett Olke (B Ashra), the album offers a glimpse into the future by creating a soundtrack for mankind's settlement of beyond in a conceivable hereafter.

In the early eighties, Edmond Mondésir, professor of philosophy and Léon Bertide, trade unionist, founded the Bèlènou group. They were actors of the great agricultural strike of 1974, which resulted in the death of two workers (Ilmany and Marie-Louise) and left many wounded. Activists of the patriotic movement Asé Pléré An Nou Lité (Stop crying, Fight), they were part of the identity and the cultural affirmation la revendication identitaire et culturelle of the time. Like the Guadeloupean musician Gérard Lockel and his work on the Gwo Ka, they put the Bèlè, in its traditional form, back in the spotlight during Swaré Bèlè (Bèlè nights).Minimalist and spiritual, a true rural ancestral art from Martinique, the Bèlè combines dance and music from responsorial monodies, which is a choir that responds to the lead singer (Respondè / La vwa dèyè), on codified drum rhythms and ti-bwa (2 sticks that hit the back of the drum or a piece of bamboo). It comes in a series of collective choreographies, working up into the trance. The texts are simple, short and tell the story of everyday life and struggle. While preserving the emotion and the drum’s central place, the fundamental contribution of Bèlènou is to keep the traditional form of Bèlè while adding a modern instrumentation: bass, guitar, saxophone, drums...
Emosyon Tambou-a (Emotion of the Drum) was released in 1990. This third opus of the band expands the musical spectrum in harmonies, arrangements and influences to create a contemporary music anchored in the Bèlè matrix, while keeping the beat, the energy and ancestral roots of music. Bèlènou adapts some classic rhythms: Bélya, Gran Bèlè, Bèlè Pitjé or Ting-Bang rewritten here for an orchestra.With the appearance of long couplets and a complex harmonization of the choruses, Bèlènou's music brings a form of modernity, it opens notably to jazz territory as well as to other forms of music and grooves. Also, Bèlènou leaves the musicians with space for improvisation: not only on the saxophone or the guitar, but also with the drums (cleverly adaptating traditional rhythms to the drums).

The texts sung in Creole are of a social nature, appealing to the solidarity and self-denial of the people (Bélya pou péyi-a, Tout pèp-la sanblé), to the struggle for political emancipation towards a new democracy (Wi ny ké rivé, Ni dé jou, Démokrasi); land protection (Sové tè-a); finally, to the vitality of the Bèlè culture ... (Emosyon Tambou-a, Dansé Ting-Bang)...Culture participates, according to the expression of Aimé Césaire, as "Miraculous Weapons". Bèlènou sings a project of a new and united society. A precursor group, experimental in the its early years, Bèlènou reconciles with talent tradition, modernity and cultural identity.

Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered. 700 copies

Repress!

Wiggle celebrate 25 years and relaunch their iconic label with a releases including co-founders Terry Francis, Nathan Coles and Eddie Richards, as well as artists like D’julz, Silverlining, Mihai Popoviciu, and more.

Wiggle, the brand that gave birth to tech house a sound that would power London’s club music community for over two decades, step out into their 25th year. To mark reaching this remarkable milestone, they plan a special series of international shows and a relaunch of their influential and ground-breaking label.

Taking their lead directly from the acid house movement, Nathan Coles and Terry Francis first brought Wiggle to life through their heady warehouse parties in the early 90s. Unpretentious to their core, these now infamous events were known for their purist values – community and a sound that booms. Finding a kindred spirit in another new face, Eddie Richards became resident from early sets and was a key figure from the off.

Through these now historic events, they embedded themselves deeply into London’s party landscape becoming familiar faces at cultural institution fabric. Heavily based around the core residents they also invited parts of the international and local world from Richie Hawtin, Jay Tripwire, Abe Duque and Colin Dale.

It’s about here we acknowledge Wiggle’s place in originating tech house - working the hard line swagger of techno together with the depth of feeling of house, matching rhythm with bass in a way perfectly aligned with endless hours of hedonism. This potent mix of musical elements is where it began and set down the foundation of London’s rich and active community of DJs, producers and ravers.

The label was founded close to the parties, sourcing tracks from the ever building network of producers who were fuelling this sound evolution. For their 25th birthday you can expect to see the Wiggle imprint coming back in strength - returning to cutting tracks to wax and continuing its legacy for bass fuelled party sounds and pioneering new talent.

2019 will see a series of international shows and a quarterly London party bringing the much loved Wiggle sensibilities and celebrate what they are and have achieved.

The NMB Allstars have been part of the SKAM family for nearly twenty years. Initially as DJs then as producers, they beguiled us with their dub-informed rhythms and caustic beats. When they first put their Bug EP together at the back end of 2001, we discussed what might come next – a plan for five 12” EPs before an album, not realising it would take fifteen eighteen years to get to number five... but, here it is, the 5th of 5, NMB005 the GazOhmEater EP.
The pattern of releases has played with titles and logos of UK nationalised industries – Bolton8 (002) referenced Altern-8 and the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, NWH20 (003) North West Water. and Mancweb (004) drew on Manweb, a local electricity provider. For this final EP Acid and Gas are the go-to aesthetic narcotics. Along the way the 12” series had guest appearances from Meam, Made and Pendle Coven, part of the NMB extended crew.
These days neither of the two founder members locate themselves in urban situations, preferring to retreat to the hills spending hours on the moors of the Pennines. Even these landscapes are punctuated by infrastructure,
be it pylons, reservoirs or tunnels, and the resonant hums, filtered through peat bog and horizontal rain can be sensed in these new tracks put together slowly over the last seven years. NMB stated from the beginning that their “output was not controlled by time” - how right they were.... They have said the album should be ready in 2028.

In a landscape increasingly dominated by surface-level sonics and a lack of true organic – man-made-machine-driven - sound, the newly found and London-based Gaia Tones project rises with an unforgiving grasp over the science of improvisation and mystery. Like a gust of wind from Mother Nature herself, the duo comprised of John Swing and David Soleil-Mon breathe a new, highly perceptible form of life into the UK’s long ‘dub and ‘bass’ dynasty.

Contrary to the consumer plastics found across much of the ‘digital’ musical spectrum, the two artists impose their own vision and aesthetic to a framework of sound that has somehow always existed but never fully explored before. Heady, stoned-out and surely emanating from physical matter, their two debut tracks are set to redefine the standards going into the next decade.

The A-side “Lychees”, stutters its own brand of dread paranoia over a sea of complex, morphing percussion that together create a whole new palette of exploratory sound, loosely tied up into a hazy, nomadic groove. On the flip, “Wonkadonk” feels like its natural extension, evolving that familiarly off-kilter assembly of drums to work around a devotedly dystopian swell of bass that pushes further and further out into the ether.

In the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should.

Label artwork by Egidio Sterpa

A cryptical presence hiding behind many different aliases spread across a range of underground labels: co-owner of LiveJam Records alongside EMG, John Swing begins producing with a live and spontaneous approach that pushes the boundaries and general conceptions of club music while digging deeper into the techniques of the past.

The production process through ananlog equipment that John Swing so strongly supports with an uncompromising attitude is the key to his underground success and esteem.
With a back catalogue of over seventy releases including collaborations with established artists such as Mr. G and Ben Sims, the London based talent has been receiving recognition by established artists including Floating Points, Gerd Janson, Levon Vincent, Theo Parrish and many others.

Inspired by London's Plastic People and it's bonding vibes, through a well refined spectrum of musical knowledge John Swing engages with the dance floor in a physical yet emotional way: the strength and power of pure house is blended with black soul music in a constant crossover between underground aesthetics and cherry-picked funk and disco. His subtle understanding of the dance floor guarantees a deep-rooted experience for the mind, body and soul.

Ready for an adventure running parallel to their lives in common units, the quartet boarded a starship
to set off on an astral expedition. The mission began perfectly, according to plan. From the very first
measures, the travellers were released from the Earth's gravity. Very quickly, their home planet
appeared tiny and distant, before disappearing completely. Comets and novae lit the way through the
fathomless depths of interstellar space. Their preliminary, in-depth studies of seventies jazz-funk
were a great source of inspiration. Very early on, they knew that this sonic esthetic would allow them
to travel even farther, navigating only with organic instruments and no digital backing or
enhancements.
Commander Virgile Raffaëlli's bass lines guided their journey, offering a calm, yet vibrant foundation
for the smoother phases and turning up the power to bring them through turbulence and meteor
showers safe and sound. Like a compass, the bass indicated the direction and traced a groove that
the loyal, valued crew could follow as their travels continued. Mathieu Edouard's drums solidly
locked down the rhythm to avoid any sudden jolts, working in tandem with Erwan Loeffel's jetpropelled percussion. On the keyboards, Florian Pellissier drew harmonies and riffs from the
synthesizers and electric pianos to oil the machinery and lighten the load when the ensemble needed
to rise a few feet. The crew's almost telepathic cohesion was key to their success, allowing them to
express interior emotions with just a few notes.
Here is the last transmission we received:
"We have landed on an unknown planet and are depressurizing the airlock with help from subtle
horns and ethereal choruses so we can discover the new horizon. It definitely meets our
expectations! The desert before us holds the promise of new life. The warm yet fresh air is easy to
breathe. A vague psychedelic scent floats through the atmosphere, as if ready to spring from the first
flower to bloom. Dreamlike, mysterious, enigmatic yet familiar, we will call it Aldorande."

Berlin-based Mechatronica founder Daribone presents a potent blend of EBM, new beat and electro on "Body Realism", the fourth record in the label's limited edition White series of hand stamped vinyl-only releases.

A wild ride into the Chilean producer's vivid take on reality, spirituality and fantasy, the EP moves from slow-burning mantras and religious mania on "Shamanic Tendencies" and "Yolavi Bahar" through the hazardous alien landscapes of "Upper Norfair" and a final encounter with the Mechanoid beings, gatekeepers between our consciousness and the universe.

“Le Lisse et le Strié is a new work by french composer François J. Bonnet, released under his project name Kassel Jaeger. Based in Paris, Bonnet is the Director of INA GRM. He is also a writer and theoretician (The Order of Sounds, a sonorous Archipelago and The Infra-World have been published in english by Urbanomic). As a musician, Bonnet has been collaborating with artists such as Stephen O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi or Jim O’Rourke and most of his recent work has been published by Editions Mego.

Le Lisse et le Strié has been conceived as an exploration of the two antagonist concepts of “smooth” and “striated”, applied to the realm of electroacoustic sounds. If the “smooth” is linked to “nomos” as an open space of organic distribution, the “striated”, on the contrary, is associated to “logos”, as an enclosed space defined by a grid.

Elaborating a dialogue between these aspects, Kassel Jaeger draws here an intermediary space where pulsations become textures and layers, and where rhythmic elements are found in the qualities and bodies of sounds instead of being functionnalised, pre-determined sound objects, abstracted and frozen onto a temporal grid. The concept of “striated” is made audible only through the sonic landscape it inhabits, like the stripes of the camouflage fur of wild animals only exist as such in the woods and long grass, disappearing into a potentially uselessness in a desert plain.”

For the second release on the Galaxiid imprint, a label of electronic music archeology and quality, we are transported to the strange sonic world of an elusive 90s pioneer. Solar X's 1997 album X-Rated will be released for the first time on vinyl, as well as reissued digitally, with new artwork by the Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami. Two worlds connecting sonically, visually and culturally.

Solar X enjoyed a burgeoning career in post-Perestroika Moscow making playful, low-tech electronica from Soviet analogue instruments, which he masterfully configured to forge animated compositions and dancefloor rarities. Fascinated by chaos and complexity, his music explores the ways in which our minds can be manipulated by structure - an endeavour quite plausibly linked to his other career as a lecturer and researcher of AI, information theory and cognitive science, his interest in which was in turn triggered by his young experiments in computer music.

Solar X gained international attention at a time when Russia was (quite unfairly) seen as a vacuum for electronic music, but was exploding in the period of piracy, poverty and freedom following the collapse of the USSR. Young Russians had benefited from the soviet education system and there was a strong DIY computer programming and music scene, fuelled by hackers, gear freaks and party animals. Viewed from today, the album is reborn at a time of further political and social strife, which many see as fuelling the huge creativity and radical thinking of modern Russia's young creatives.

X-Rated treats tempo and form as fluid concepts, administering sudden changes to its sonic landscape with disorienting effect, underlain with a subtle dose of humour and experimentation. Downtempo trip-hop sits alongside frenetic IDM and blistering electro, all bound together by peculiar melodic inflections and lively distortions. Warm, trippy harmonies and robotic synths are offset with angular drums, shifting erratically through moods and genres with cunning intent. Much like his contemporaries from the era, it's his ability to breathe life into a humble production setup that makes his music so compelling some twenty one years later.

The track titles are from a book of call girl cards in London phone booths, that reached the artist in Moscow in 1995. "I liked the titles from these cards, which were self-promoting and offering pleasure (e.g. "Mistress awaits you"). So, I thought since my tracks also offered some kind of pleasure, they might as well advertise this through their titles.'

Label head Nina Kraviz was introduced to the work of the 83 year old sensei Keiichi Tanaami by Ukawa Naoshiro, founder of Dommune in Tokyo, one of the brightest figureheads for the arts in Japan, responsible for the graphic design of the cover. In September 2017 Nina played for the opening of Tanaami-san's first exhibition in Moscow at Gary Tatintsian Gallery. Nina performed a live sound palette, to accompany the looping 7 minute animation, of experimental music from the Soviet Union, Russian pioneers of electronic music like Species Of Fishes and SolarX, Soviet-time pioneer Lev Termen, Kuryochin, avant-guard rock mixed with some Stockhausen and just pure abstract sounds, as well as treasured artists like Biogen.

Tanaami's illustrative work has strong sexual elements, so out of the five art pieces Nina selected and commissioned for Galaxiid, the first fits perfectly for 'X-rated'. The vertical line of text on the left is the traditional form for Japanese covers of foreign releases. The cover, together with the accompanying poster and sticker, are printed in Japan to ensure the highest print quality and purity of the colours.

Mana Can Be Understood As A Powerful, Often Magical, Force Contained Within Objects. As These Objects Get Passed From One To Another, In A Cycle Of Gifting, They Retain The Spirit Of The Giver And Propel Themselves Onto The Next Recipient, Weaving A Network Of Social Bonds. In This Light, Mana Describes The Coming Together Of This Mixtape. The Exchanging Of Avant-garde, Traditional And Electronic Music--old And New--between Andrea Zarza, Curator At The British Library Sound Archive, And Matthew Kent, Founder Of Blowing Up The Workshop, Is What Makes Up The Language And Landscape Of Mana The Record Label, And Its Subsequent Arrival On A Cassette Tape For Queeste, Before Being Sent Onwards, As Our Gift To Listeners. Limited Edition Cassette Tape. Jelly Yellow Colorway. Comes In Resealable Bag With A5 Postcard Designed By Fallon Does And Mana X Queeste Sticker.

Lost PHILIP GLASS Recordings from 1975 - ORTF
The newly discovered and unreleased concert from 1975 recorded by the Philip Glass
Sextet at La Maison de la Radio, Paris.
The sextet is composed of Philip Glass, Jon Gibson, Dickie Landry, Michael Riesman, Joan
La Barbara and Richard Peck.
Music in Twelve Parts is a set of twelve pieces written between 1971 and 1974. This
performance in France includes part 1, 2, 3, 11 and 12 on a double LP.
Also included a very rare Philip Glass interview from 1974 in his NYC loft during the
rehearsals of this piece, produced for the French radio by Daniel Caux - musicologist and
co-founder of Shandar Records.
A never before released -Philip GLASS (1975) live recordings, released in partnership with
the National Audiovisual Institute - INA.
"A new sound and a new chord suddenly break in, with an effect as if one wall of a room
has suddenly disappeared, to reveal a completely new view." - A. Porter

YANGA brings a new dimension to the rapidly growing scene of Afro-Latin independent music taking shape in Los Angeles and concentrated in the fertile enclave known as the Inland Empire. Intertwined with other intrepid musical explorers who call the IE home, YANGA has sprouted their own distinct branch on the tree of Caribbean music and culture.

Much like their cousins and Names You Can Trust label mates of the same Southern California region (QUITAPENAS, EL SANTO GOLPE and BUYEPONGO), YANGA creates new recipes based on a traditionalbouillabaisseof Afro-Carib rhythm, sharing a few ingredients and musicians to develop a deeper chemistry and cohesiveness but cohering into their own piquant flavor.

YANGA's singular focus and strength is their inspiration from and adherence to the beloved rhythms found throughout the Caribbean coast of Colombia — rhythms like cumbia,garabato, tambora and zambapalo. These rhythms form a touchstone and a proud statement of purpose for their debut on Names You Can Trust.

Led by John D'Alessandro's accordion and the fiery female voice of Eddika Organista (El Haru Kuroi), this new recording is an intense ode to the band's fundamental influences, conceptually crystallized in the studio of Chicano Batman bassist Eduardo Arenas with veteran Marcos Garcia (Antibalas, Chico Mann, Here Lies Man) crafting the mix. It's a realized and impeccably executed scene of dark, gritty and saturated drums and bass, the entire sonic landscape dosed with subtle psychedelia and studio wizardry that never overshadows the band's natural performance or their reverence for the classic sounds of the tropical '70s. The finished product is a perfect juxtaposition between vintage and modern. This special edition, double-issue single packed with deep dancefloor grooves are a sure-shot entry into the timeless canon of Afro-Caribbean recordings.

YANGA brings a new dimension to the rapidly growing scene of Afro-Latin independent music taking shape in Los Angeles and concentrated in the fertile enclave known as the Inland Empire. Intertwined with other intrepid musical explorers who call the IE home, YANGA has sprouted their own distinct branch on the tree of Caribbean music and culture.

Much like their cousins and Names You Can Trust label mates of the same Southern California region (QUITAPENAS, EL SANTO GOLPE and BUYEPONGO), YANGA creates new recipes based on a traditionalbouillabaisseof Afro-Carib rhythm, sharing a few ingredients and musicians to develop a deeper chemistry and cohesiveness but cohering into their own piquant flavor.

YANGA's singular focus and strength is their inspiration from and adherence to the beloved rhythms found throughout the Caribbean coast of Colombia — rhythms like cumbia,garabato, tambora and zambapalo. These rhythms form a touchstone and a proud statement of purpose for their debut on Names You Can Trust.

Led by John D'Alessandro's accordion and the fiery female voice of Eddika Organista (El Haru Kuroi), this new recording is an intense ode to the band's fundamental influences, conceptually crystallized in the studio of Chicano Batman bassist Eduardo Arenas with veteran Marcos Garcia (Antibalas, Chico Mann, Here Lies Man) crafting the mix. It's a realized and impeccably executed scene of dark, gritty and saturated drums and bass, the entire sonic landscape dosed with subtle psychedelia and studio wizardry that never overshadows the band's natural performance or their reverence for the classic sounds of the tropical '70s. The finished product is a perfect juxtaposition between vintage and modern. This special edition, double-issue single packed with deep dancefloor grooves are a sure-shot entry into the timeless canon of Afro-Caribbean recordings.

Liška, the Czechoslovakian word for fox. Beguiling in its beauty, cunning in it's charm. Said to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet its global family consists of thirty-seven varieties; all of them recognised, respected and feared for their persuasive, creative, resourceful and elusive nature. The Liška we will talk about today is no exception to these hereditary rules and within the grooves of this record Finders Keepers present an 'elusive' musical artefact that best exemplifies every facet of this composer's animal namesake.

Had he not been born in the small Bohemian town of Smecno in the early 1920s the story of The Fantastic Mr. Liška might have well taken a different course. Alternatively, fettered by the hampers of communism, this lifelong resident of Czechoslovakia would never quite find his seat at the same table as the likes of John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman and Stanley Myers, nor drop enough phonographic breadcrumbs to track his legacy. But having waited patiently behind the borders of the wider landscapes of international cinema, Liška's musical brood, spanning multiple stylistic decades and generations, has now started to walk proudly amongst his would-be, latter-day compeers. In an era where music lovers have almost become immune to adjectives like 'lost', 'rare' and 'unreleased' in a climate where previously lesser-known off-kilter master composers such as Vannier, Kirchin and Axelrod have become widely revered, it is perhaps the perfect time for discerning listeners to advance above the feeding trough and seek out this truly pioneering and revolutionary Eastern European composer. Rivalled only by the likes of Krzysztof Komeda and Andrzej Korzynski in Poland, alongside Alexandr Gradsky in Russia, and often splitting workloads with fellow Czech composers like Luboš Fišer, Zdenek Liska's filmography of over almost 300 fully formed movie scores virtually eclipses the achievements of these socialist era luminaries. Respected unanimously in both Czech and Slovakian by studio bosses, producers, directors and actors alike Liška is widely known for his ability to take the existing energy in a reel of film and literally change the polarity to suit his own interpretation while maintaining the full support from his 'client' who would in-turn end up working under this composer's creative direction. Not only was Liška a genius of emotive orchestral and coral composition, his grasp on small group arrangements and intimate, minimal scores set him above the competition. By utilising primitive sample techniques by 'looping' a films existing ambient noise, or rearranging found sounds and dialog into subtle melodic arrangements, Liška would independently develop his own techniques which had simultaneously become known in Paris as musique concre`te. It is a direct extension of these experiments that saw Liška also draw parallels with Walter Branchi (Ennio Morricone's main electronic sidekick) in Italy as well as Daphne Oram in the UK, making Liška a relatively untravelled pioneer of early electronic composition and sound design due to his unlikely global environment. Imprisoned, preserved or reserved; time has been kind to Liška's music.