Buscar:pan tone

For Fans Of: The Burning Hell; Belle & Sebastian; Iron & Wine.

Following swiftly on from last year’s Tiny Men Parts EP, Quiet Marauder re-enter the sonic fray with their latest Bubblewrap Collective long-player, The Gift, on 9th April 2021. Taking a strong divergence from the bombastic pop-punk of its predecessor, The Gift sees backing vocalist Kadesha Drija step to the foreground for the majority of the album, standing afront a richly crafted, multi-instrumental acoustic-folk backdrop.

Recorded pre-pandemic, January 2020, in The Burning Hell’s (Canada) pop-up Snowbird Studios, aka an art deco villa in Riofreddo, near Rome (Italy), this release marks another chapter in the ongoing international collaboration between the bands. For this album, Quiet Marauder’s (Wales) contributions of acoustic guitar, bass, trumpet and layered lead and backing vocals are granted further textural depth from their Canadian counterparts. These include minimalist harmonic splashes of flute, piano, organ (Jake Nicoll), electric guitar, bouzouki (Darren Browne) and bass clarinet (Ariel Sharratt).

Returning to the conceptual songwriting approach of previous releases MEN and The Crack And What It Meant, The Gift charts the narrative of a troubled teenage girl (Willow) haunted by visions of a mysterious house fire. Willow’s path is traced through well-meaning foster parents, teenage love interests, time-bending superpowers, distrust of domestic appliances and, ultimately, her own memories; covering themes of self-identity and the fallibility of human recall. Though the album marks a more overtly serious tone for the band, the sensitive subject matter is delicately handled through their trademark low-key, observational and, sometimes, darkly humorous lyrics.

Ed Cosens is stepping out of the shadows to take centre stage. The bewitching ‘If', his debut single, marks both the start of an overdue solo career and the latest chapter in the life of a longtime lynchpin of the Sheffield music scene. Best known as the guitarist/bassist and co-songwriter in Reverend & The Makers, Ed has spent 15 years conquering the charts and touring the world, yet leaving the limelight to others. With ‘If', the first song written for his forthcoming solo album, Fortunes Favour (due early 2021), he’s finally ready to reveal his true self. “It’s only taken 10 years or so for me to find the confidence!” says the self-depreciating singer, who shared stages with Arctic Monkeys members Matt Helders and Alex Turner before the Makers took off. “I subscribe to the fine wine way of thinking - allow things to mature fully before enjoying. Nobody wants to be Lambrusco!” ‘If' distils a lifetime of longing and loss, of dreams Vs. desires, into three mesmerising minutes of tremolo-rich, strings-soaked melody. Plangent chord progressions and mournful tones pair with poetic reflections on life’s twists and turns. Shades of The Beatles, Echo & The Bunnymen and Richard Hawley snake in and out. Emotions take over as Ed opens up fully for the first time. Drawing on Ed’s personal experience, he says of ‘If' "Its a love-lorn tale of the struggle between true love’s path and the path which you think you're destined to follow. It’s about the conflict between what you think you want, where you unwittingly lead yourself and ultimately where you should really be." “After several attempts, it became the song that sent me in the right direction. With a lot of albums, it takes one song to kick things off and this was that moment for me. It set out the stall for who I wanted to be as an artist with its strong sense of emotion and the journey that runs through it.” ‘If' was produced by Dave Sanderson, recorded at Giant Wafer studios in Wales at the tail end of 2018 and finally the man from Sheffield’s musical shadows can relish the start his solo career. “People ask why I waited so long, but there was no masterplan,” says Ed. “The time had to feel right. I found my voice along with an inner confidence and suddenly the itch was too much not to scratch. Once I'd started, I scratched like there was no tomorrow.”

Bad Colours is the moniker of London-born, Maryland-raised, Brooklyn-based DJ and producer Ibe Soliman. With influences of garage from both sides of the Atlantic as well as funk, post-disco, proto-house and rap samples; his debut album 'PINK' is set for release by Bastard Jazz on 26th February 2021.

The drive to record an album came about while isolating at home in Flatbush during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by some rough ideas and samples that friends sent him, Ibe focussed his attention on making music. From time well spent soaking up and storing sounds from clubs around the world, Ibe found, now with the time to dedicate towards it, the tracks flooding out. Taking cues from early Trax records and Larry Heard, the UKG musicality of MJ Cole, Todd Edwards' vocal sampling techniques, the brashness of Bmore, and an encyclopedia of disco, funk and soul knowledge; Ibe got to work and quickly compiled more than enough tracks for a full-length release.

Flowing from the album intro 'PINK!', first single 'Cookin' vibes over a Chris Faust sample and saxophone from south California virtuoso Carras Paton. 'Feelin' Like' was originally built around a short vocal sample by Jarv Dee, but grew to include additional lyrics on black power from the Seattle rapper after he heard it: "Dancey stuff with a message" says Ibe.

Slow jam 'Heyyy', with its preemptive lyrical synths, bridges to the album's next single 'Get You Off'. Ibe had been listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye - particularly 'I Want You' - during lockdown, getting into the production and vocals. After writing the "I just wanna get you off" hooks, he handed the track over to talented singer, actor and playwright Marcus Harmon who wrote the verses and provided the stunning vocal performance.

Keeping the sensual vibe, 'Skin To Skin' samples vocals from 'Private Play' by Wash 'N' Set, also produced by Ibe, with the Chris Isaak-esque guitar lines by Lex from Foreign Tapes. Made late at night, CMYK reminded Ibe of driving at night in the rain in NYC, where the colors bleed together on the wet road while 'Boss', the first track made for the album, is based around a Sunny Jones sample. The closing track 'Feel' was made at the peak of Black Lives Matter protests. "I just wanted something hard sounding," says Ibe.

Known for his residencies at some of New York's top venues, Ibe has been rocking crowds as a DJ for over a decade, and has shared the decks with the likes of James Murphy, Mark Ronson, and Q-Tip. He's performed alongside Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, Pusha T, and Young Thug, to name a few. In high demand as a private party curator, he's helped set the tone for Jeff Koons, FKA Twigs, Justin Timberlake, Travis Scott, and Usher. When Ibe's not behind the decks, he's in the lab, where he's produced for Kendrick Lamar, Faith Evans, Keyshia Cole, and Rick Ross, among others.

Tape

After tapes on Steep Gloss and Cruel Nature, we are happy that Stuttgart-based collective Zebularin join the OM family with their new release “Hermetic Topography“.

The album, a product of weekly recording sessions between March and July 2020, just when the pandemic slowed a bit down, might be the closest approach to what communal experiences sounded throughout 2020. It‘s a bold design of how collective improvisation can work in the post-covid era.

The first minute of „Budenzauber“ sets the tone for the whole record. Synth waveforms get joined by a drumset, both settling into a vivid conversation between digital noise and analog free jazz, finding a shared rhythm for this journey.

Daniel Vujanic, known to some from his recordings with Höhlenmusk Ensemble, Ixtar or E Jugend and the driving force behind Zebularin, had this urge to layer electro-acoustic solo material, synths, prerecorded audio meditations, without bending the sounds into detailed harmonic structures, but to build up dense, morphing atmospheres. In came Daniel Kartmann, a combatant in many of Vujanic‘s musical endeavours, his percussions, wind instruments and some deep musical talk - from obscure black metal to brazilian psychedelica, from Scott Walker to Gustav Mahler. The duo laid down basic tracks, kept arrangements vague, creating a perfect environment for a range of other players and instruments to walk in: piano, woodwinds, electronics, ebowed guitars and a vibraphone. The resulting record is a tender, affectionate take on jazz and electroacoustic composition. One can hear the routine of the involved cast as well as the fun, deep listening and correspondence that took place; even though this album was not recorded live in big-band-style, musical ideas interlock on an intuitive level and complement each other.

Take „Peljuga“ as a perfect example, a loosened jazz improv reminding of The Notwist‘s more psychic enhanced moments, which blends into a conversation between a contact mic and heavily manipulated synths and turns into a minimalist piano composition, which melds into a climactic peak and is interrupted only to rise again. And as complex as this description sounds, as uplifting is the actual song. Or the album‘s last track, „Holmen“, which starts out as an underwater ambient piece and evolves pretty organically into cosmic power electronics.

Despite its name and the Heideggerian flair of some song titles, „Hermetic Topography“ is all but hermetic. It‘s rich in musical colours without melting into a quagmire of maximalist noise. It‘s sophisticated but never top-heavy. It might be one of your favourite tapes of 2021.

One of the most enjoyable parts of Dirtybird is to watch a talented artist grow. Nala started out in Miami cutting her teeth on the local DJ circuit and then moved to LA where she eventually signed with VonStroke and Aundy's Motherbird Management.

Her weekly Dirtybird "TV Party" on Twitch is one of the most popular shows on the network. Each week she features her unmistakeable punk & new wave-influenced DJ style while also hosting a special underground guest, as well as her long time friend and local LA rave legend, Richie Panic.

Nala’s debut on Dirtybird, “Psychic Attack”, is a gritty A-side with her own vocals shouting about the nervous the angst of 2020. The B-side, “Sun Is Hot” showcases her gentler side with a deep groove, a smooth vocal tone, and melodic vintage synth riffs throughout.

The Pet Parade,” the title track to Fruit Bats’ newest album, might be a surprising opening track for longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson’s beloved indie folk-rock project. The six-and-a-half-minute tone poem smolders and drones over just two chords, inspired by the strange and silly community events that he saw growing up outside of Chicago, in La Grange, Illinois, in which people dressed up and showed off their pets. Decades later, The Pet Parade emerges in troubled times, living within what Johnson refers to as the beauty and absurdity of existence. While many of the songs on The Pet Parade were actually written before the pandemic, it’s impossible to disassociate the record from the times. As an example, producer Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, and Bonny Light Horseman, in which he plays with Johnson and Anaïs Mitchell) was brought in for his deep emotional touch and bandleading abilities. However, Johnson, Kaufman, and the other musicians on The Pet Parade drummers Joe Russo and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Fleet Foxes), singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels, pianist Thomas Bartlett (Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens), and fiddler Jim Becker (Califone, Iron & Wine) were forced to self-record their parts in bedrooms and home studios across America. Still, says Johnson, “The songs have enough intimacy that it doesn’t sound like it was made a million miles away.” Such tension and turmoil also impacted the lyrics of The Pet Parade. While “Cub Pilot” and “Here For Now, For You” began as more traditional love songs from a personal “I” to a specific “you” Johnson quickly realized that these songs needed to comfort broader audiences, changing the words to a more inclusive “we” and “us.” So too in “The Balcony,” a song ostensibly about a particular space in his grandmother’s apartment, but one that evolved into a metaphor on patience. At times upbeat and reassuring (“Eagles Below Us”) and at times quietly contemplative (“On the Avalon Stairs”), The Pet Parade marks a milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021. In some ways still a cult band, in other ways a time-tested act, Fruit Bats has consistently earned enough small victories to carve out a career in a notoriously fickle scene. And Johnson himself who has played in The Shins, composed film scores, gone solo and returned back to the moniker that started it all, and most recently, earned two GRAMMY® nominations with Bonny Light Horseman doesn’t take this long route of life’s pet parade for granted. “I’m still really excited to make records,” he says. “Lucky and happy and maybe happier that things went slower for me. I’m savoring it a lot more.

Corvair is what happens when you trap two Scorpio songwriters in a house together. Comprised of a Portland-based husband / wife duo of two seasoned musicians (Brian Naubert and Heather Larimer), Corvair’s debut album charts a starcrossed love story over three decades, five cities, and six continents. Spanning from atmospheric pop to jangly confessional, 70s AM to 90s FM, this work is laden with stunning turns of phrase and prodigious melodies, two voices leaping to meet in the ether. Corvair’s debut album was largely created during the COVID pandemic shut-down of Spring 2020. It includes work with drummer Eric Eagle (Jesse Sykes, Wayne Horvitz) and Engineer Martin Feveyear (Brandi Carlile, Mark Lanegan, Mudhoney), who also mixed the record. Larimer explains, “Being stuck in a house together with very little outside influence made us more emotionally raw, definitely weirder, and also more patient and intricate in developing the songs. And because we were in a bubble, cooking dinners from paranoidly-disinfected groceries and listening to old records, really disparate references from some of our favorite music ended up colliding in odd ways--an emotional Judas Priest bridge, an anthemic Pixies outro, a spacey keyboard sound from Steve Miller, Jeff Lynne's acoustic guitar tone, a Carpenters-style lush harmony. I think it's a wonderfully weird record, but also very in-your-face pop because what else are you going to do when the world feels like it's ending?" Separately, Naubert and Larimer have created or appeared on more than 20 records. Heather’s musical mainstay was the garage pop band Eux Autres, broadly hailed as a “veritable cult classic” band, radio-debuted by the legendary John Peel, and featured in many shows, movies and commercials. Brian is a longtime fixture of the Northwest rock community, having played in vital bands such as Tube Top, Pop Sickle, and the critically-lauded Ruston Mire, since 1993. More recently, Brian released his first solo record, Hoffabus and a record with the NW Supergroup, The Service Providers. Naubert and Larimer’s decades of separate music making have finally combined, culminating in this tour de force from two formidable songwriters. Corvair sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard and everything you’ve always loved.
Press quotes: “Smart, infectious, jangly pop.” Everett True // “An irresistible set of bouncy indie-pop tinged with surf music and ‘60s girl groups, contrasted with the band’s often-biting lyrics.” KEXP.org // “One of the more exciting independent releases of the year...a veritable cult classic.” Under The Radar // “Three chord garage pop that hangs on a raunchy guitar line and crisp production from Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi).” MAGNET Magazine // Brian Naubert - vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion. Heather Larimer - vocals, keyboards, percussion.

During an unprecedented yet poignant global situation, Bobhowla’s debut album EVERYTHING’S WRONG, BUT
IT’S ALRIGHT serves to soundtrack our daily challenges we all face since the start of the pandemic.
Recorded and produced by Rod Jones at Post Electric Studio, this 11-track strong collection of songs bring
together a wider scope of influences than usually found in any particular group’s output. Years of solo acoustic
performances around the north west have honed an acoustic base into more gritted tones, alongside folk,
electronica and dream-pop influences.
The single Million $ Man is as direct as a song can be, with crunchy guitars harking back to simpler times of loud
choruses and powerful anthems. Their debut album is the culmination of recording sessions with Rod Jones
(Idlewild) at Post Electric Studio. Working together to form 11 tracks, an accumulation of songwriting ideas
spanning years. Million § Man is the album’s example of taking a staple live favourite and letting the studio process
completely re-map the track’s direction. The once folky-skiffle ditty is now a hard-hitting, anthemic call to arms,
complete with a crafty hook and chorus to match.
Behind the music, hides deeper meaning. In what singer Howard Doupé believes to be first - a track dealing with
the emotional complexities of a life, delicately touched with health-laden ‘survivor’s guilt.’ Like so many songs
before, Million $ Man is an upbeat indie-pop tune that masks a sobering and very rarely explored subject matter.
It’s an honest and frank perception that attempts to deal with issues that will resonate with a particular section of
our community. In a daringly brave move, Doupé expresses a personal narrative with the track, firmly cementing
the album’s themes in real life matters.

Whtie Vinyl

Freund der Familie invite Christopher Rau, Pole, Roger Gerressen and Van Bonn to remixes cuts from their 2018 ‘Panorama’ EP this February.
Leipzig, Germany’s Freund der Familie, the producer and label name, has long been respected in the world of raw, underground house and techno. The past decade has seen the founders Klaus Rakete & Mirko Hunger unveil a number of releases under the alias,
exploring a wide range of styles influenced by dub, leftfield electronica and much more.
Here the label revisits the ‘Panorama’ EP from a few years back, welcoming remixes from some esteemed artists in the industry.
Christopher Rau returns on remix duties following his take on Symbian for FDF005 and also FDFALFA01, this time round Rau delivers a hazy take on ‘PRS’ driven by raw analogue drums, woozy synths and winding subs. Dub master and Scape mastering head
honcho Pole steps up next with his take on ‘CRM’, delivering a typically intricate twist employing expansive swells, snappy percussion and swirling low end tones.
Irenic boss Roger Gerressen delivers his take on ‘PRS’ next, taking a more groove-driven feel with stripped-back drums, ethereal pad textures and crisp bass stabs before Van Bonn wraps up the package, reworking ‘CRM’ with a heavily swung drum groove,
menacing synth flutters and a dynamic, ever-evolving feel.

DeWolff return with their new album, Wolffpack, released on 5th February 2021 via Mascot Records.

DeWolff, the kaleidoscopic warriors were not long into their 2019 Tascam Tapes European Tour when the Covid19 pandemic broke and they, like so many others, had to turn back and head home. They started working on the new album Wolffpack.

The album kicks off with the first song they finished, the soulful psychedelic funk of "Yes You Do," featuring Ian Peres and longtime friend of the band, Judy Blank. "We wrote it in a Zoom meeting!" Pablo says. "Treasure City Moonchild," struts in with a funky swagger and Piso's trademark swirling Hammond, with Dawn Brothers' Levis Vis providing some Bass juice. "Do Me," includes Theo Lawrence on vocals and is through the eyes of an anti-hero who realizes he isn't worthy of the woman of his dreams, and dates back to 2019 and the Next of Kin live show. "I consider this the best song I ever wrote, so I couldn't stand the idea that it was only used for those Next of Kin shows and then never again! That's why I brought it to DeWolff, but it needed some rearranging," he says. Another song from the Next of Kin sessions was "Sweet Loretta" and features Dawn Brothers' Stefan Wolfs and Darilyn's Diwa Meijman. "Loretta is the protagonist's childhood sweetheart. She has a rich dad, but he's really conservative, and so she can only inherit his money if she marries a man. But she's lesbian. So, the protagonist, who's also out for this old guy's money, suggests they play pretend and marry so they can split the money."

They sweep through disco on "Half Your Love," swamp rock on "Bona Fide" and take on sci-fi and the Old Testament on "RU My Savior." Their tour buddies The Grand East show up on "Roll Up the Rise." Written in the first days of quarantine, it's about the end of the quarantine - told from a future perspective. "Lady J," came after Pablo watched the documentary "13th." "I was quite shaken up by it," he admits. "The lyrics are based on the idea that Lady Justice seems to have a scale that doesn't measure the "weight" of your crime but the tone of your skin. She is supposed to be blindfolded, but the people who act in "her" name aren't blind at all: they discriminate between white and black."

The album ends with the forlorn "Hope Train." Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead about two slaves in the US during the 19th century, who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantation. "I found it really hard to envision the world in which it takes place," he says. The band used a 1970s Fisher-Price Toy cassette recorder in the intro, "We wanted to see if we could somehow approach the sound of those very early country blues recordings, like the ones by Blind Willie Johnson.”

Chart topping international DJ and multi-instrumentalist Jax Jones returns with his new single ‘i miss u’ featuring Au/Ra. ‘i miss u’ is the latest musical offering to come from the Ivor, BRIT and GRAMMY nominated artist and follows the success of his debut album ‘Snacks’ being named the best-selling dance album of last year. With 5 billion streams, 2 billion video views and 40 million single sales all under his belt, ‘i miss u’ marks the next phase of Jax’s ascent as he continues to create genre-defying dance music. Returning to his club and underground roots, ‘i miss u’ is an emotive Jax Jones dance track that comprises colder sounding beats when compared to his hugely popular dance pop tracks. Underpinned by a hair raising vocal from German singer-songwriter Au/Ra, best known for her 2018 breakout hit ‘Panic Room’, Jax’s latest collaboration makes nod to his beginnings with a harder bassline and club ready tone.

The electronic musician and Poker Flat founder's contemplative new studio album takes in minimal house music, moody techno and effervescent breaks across 11 unique tracks. His previous LP Paradise Sold alongside Langenberg was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and described as "elegantly euphoric" by Mixmag. Never Ending Winding Roads is an entirely solo release however, with much of it produced during the months of enforced isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the track titles reflect Steve's headspace during this time, with themes of solitude, contemplation and reflection brought to the fore perhaps more than with any of his previous work. Steve's formative musical years were spent during Germany's techno and acid-house heyday, with his love for a perfect groove as apparent now as it was back then. His DJ skills and a keen, innovative ear led him not down the typical path of the early nineties trance and harder dance scene, but instead towards a fresher, hybrid sound-merging stripped deep house, tweaked out acid and more minimal forms of techno and electronic music: a strand of music he fiercely champions to this day.
"My mindset when making Never Ending Winding Roads was completely different to any other project I have embarked on. I didn't have to tour, and instead could focus 100% on writing music without having the dancefloor as a constant influence. This allowed me creative freedom to explore a range of styles and emotions, and as a result, it is the album I feel most satisfied with to date." says Steve Bug.

With 11 brand new tracks, Never Ending Winding Roads is a meticulously produced and deeply engaging electronic album; one that explores various shades of house, techno and broken beat with Steve's celebrated attention to detail and consummate originality. Album opener Lucid Loops perfectly sets the tone, immediately ensnaring you with a hypnotic, undulating synth line and a faintly menacing undertone thanks to hushed, discordant strings and unnerving vocal stabs. This atmosphere of quiet paranoia permeates many of the tracks on Never Ending Winding Roads, most explicitly in the sinewy groove and sketchy, panic-inducing synth line of Locked Away In My Head.
This album more than perhaps any other in his career sees Steve experimenting with broken-beats, to incredible effect. Tracks like A Conscious Machine and Electro Harmonix are melodic, emotionally-rich cuts: burst of radiant optimism that juxtapose beautifully with the album's darker moments. Elsewhere tracks like Yellow Snake find Steve exploring deep, dubby territory, while album closer Upon Mountains is a cosmic, arpeggiated masterpiece: an 8bit computer game soundtrack reimagined as a poignant electro ballad.

The global lockdown has seen a number of new hobbies and skills adopted. Yoga mats now decorate homes. Bread makers jockey for space in kitchens. Soiled paint brushes caked in acrylics lie abandoned. At Frigio Records HQ, confinement might have changed the rhythm but it hasn’t changed the aim; to find new and exciting music for 2020. The result? Frigio Allstars 3.



Daniel Holt returns for this new instalment in the Allstars series. Diving deep into the darkness, Holt resurfaces with the nine minute industrial throb of “Vaccuous Transient.” A stomping beat pierces sci-fi score synthlines in a track brimming with menace. Staying in the US, Grey people debuts on Frigio with the grime smeared jack of “Bruxism.” The flip is all first timers to the Madrid label with Scannoir offering “De Panaesher.” Sitting somewhere between synth lament and uplifting wave, this track is a true modern classic from a member of the GOTT camp. Madrid’s very own Negocius man follows with “101 Wars” a winding worming work of glazed electronics to kill any dance floor and the amazing finale, “The Smile Of The Body” coming care of Bari’s talent based in Berlin under the moniker of Sons Of Traders.



Frigio Allstars 3 comes from the murky underbelly of electronics, where the nights are long and the days are short. Ashen tones pricked with lighter shades, all smeared with attitude in this collection of underground tracks made for the underground.

Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend, and Listen To The Wind, his iconic debut album, is simply a superb modern-soul/boogie album. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.

Now a revered composer, musician, and arranger, Caiphus left apartheid South Africa in the 60s for self-imposed exile in Southern California together with his wife, Letta Mbulu. Settling in Los Angeles he started working with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba and other exiled and semi-exiled South african artists, as well as, of course, his wife Letta.

Caiphus also found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. His facility with both jazz and African forms served him well. His LA stay was also the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, the fruits of which can be tasted in Caiphus’s African compositions for the scores to Roots and Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple.

Given his decades of work behind the scenes, it’s no surprise that it took until 1982 for Caiphus to get around to putting out the first album of his own. But all that experience shows. Listen To The Wind is a deeply impressive synthesis of early 80s US production and instrumentation together with his traditional South African musical roots.

It’s stylistically diverse but the ingredients are never diluted. There are elements of boogie, soul, funk and jazz, all shot through with pan-African flavour, and moving effortlessly from uptempo floor fillers to more meditative, slower soulful tracks. Produced by Caiphus himself, he makes full use of a stellar line up of session musicians including Nathan East, Michael Stanton, Sonny Burke and Paulinho DaCosta. And of course, there are Letta’s show-stopping vocals. To our ears, Listen To The Wind is just one big party, and lord knows we need that more than ever right now.

Opener “Angelina” is one of Caiphus’s most beloved tracks at Be With HQ. It’s a breezy, feel-good SA boogie-funk classic. Harmonic and horn heavy, it sounds as fresh today as it would’ve done in the early 80s. If this one doesn’t make you move, you may need your pulse taking. The drum breakdown alone, a little over halfway through, is sensational.

It’s followed by the gentle reggae lilt of “Play With Fire”. A real melodic slo-mo delight, carried by the tropical vibes and, above all else, by the extraordinary performance of Caiphus himself and his backing singers.

Closing out side one, the spectacular “Umoya” is driven by triumphant horns and slick bass. With its proto-Graceland vibes, we reckon Paul Simon must’ve been listening. Hard. Caiphus trades verses with the unmistakable tones of Letta, and it sounds divine. Yes, it’s as good as anything on Letta’s canonical In The Music… The Village Never Ends. A wide-eyed wonder, made for unity and togetherness, it’s all infectious, smiling faces for nearly nine minutes. But never mind nine, we could party to this for ninety minutes and “Umoya” would leave us re-energised for ninety more.

Elegantly firing up side two is perhaps the album’s best known track. “Without You” is a heavenly slice of modern soul, an end-of-nighter to end them all. Smooth strutting, disco-fied funk with that unmistakably South African sound, it’s just sublime, with those lyrics that keep coming back to smiling faces and community, “without You the sun won’t shine”. Big with the likes of Rush Hour’s Antal, this is aural perfection.

“Ziph’inkomo” is a soul-soothing, swooning epic. Gently building throughout, its final few minutes are genuinely stirring as the backing vocals and instrumentation swell. Jaw-dropping. The irresistible groove of frantic, percussive workout “Gumba Boogie” closes out what must surely be one of the greatest artistic statements of the 1980s. If his friend Quincy wasn’t feverishly taking notes for Thriller, then you could’ve fooled us.

With Simon Francis handling the mastering of this Be With edition, you know it sounds as fantastic as ever. The cover art, as breezy as the music, has been faithfully restored. All that’s missing is you.

Brigitte Barbu's Muzak pour ascenseurs en panne (Muzak for broken lifts) marked a bold new addition to the Circus Company repertoire. In a gilded haze of resonant tones conjured by traditional and non-traditional methods, Brigitte Barbu created an inviting sound world brimming with life and doffing its cap to 1970s signal processing. Out of such sonic research and development comes a wealth of material for other artists to sink their teeth into, and so we proudly present an accompanying remix EP that takes Brigitte Barbu's distinctive stamp into new territory.

Roman Flügel makes a first appearance Circus Company with two versions of "Dae-Boj DeMoya" that showcase this constantly versatile lynchpin of European techno. First up is his "kraut remix", which unsurprisingly channels the grainy beauty of Neu! and early Kraftwerk, before his "synth remix" dials back the drums and diverts our attention towards an expansive arrangement of melodious flourishes from classic synthesisers.

John Tejada and Reggie Watts reunite as Wajatta following their triumphant LP Don't Let Get You Down on Brainfeeder to deliver a particularly inventive, soul-stirring vocal techno version of "Couvre chef en peau de taupe". Watts soars over the signature warmth of Tejada's production, while Brigitte Barbu's mysterious tones linger in every fold of the mix.

Matthew Herbert offers up a "Butter Dub" version of the album interlude serie "Trou Vert" that pits his signature stark sampling methods against Brigitte Barbu's material and creates a fruitful dialogue of crooked 4/4 mechanics with all the playful curiosity of the original and a strong dose of Herbert's inimitable musical personality.

Friends, it is time for a finish. Here's the seventh and last chapter of the festivities that we put together for our 50th catalogue number. Once again, the mighty graphics wizards Doppeldenk from Leipzig provided us with a delightfull artwork. And once again, you'll get a record that sports a kaleidoscope of sophisticated dance music from Uncanny Valley veterans and newcomers. This time with the emphasis on bright and positive timbres which can be associated with the colour yellow. Cuthead starts things with a bang and his PARTY CHORDS set the tone perfectly (including neck pain after nodding your head to the beat like there's no tomorrow). If chords could be president this would get a lot of votes. Massimiliano Pagliara shifts down a gear with the acoustic road trip SUNSET FUNK, a masterfully arranged track, made up for driving around on your bike, skateboard or whatever vehicle you are using to get from A to B. The slow and sexy IWESU YEWISU from the soul brothers of Duererstuben is a longtime favorite in the Uncanny Valley headquarters. We are super happy that this groover will finally see the light of day. Panthera Krause provides the subtle but euphoric THE NAKED NOW, a House music lesson that's bubbling under the surface. And finally, Uncanny Valley first-timer Daniela Da Luz closes the record with WHEN YOU GO ALL IN AND WAIT, a drum heavy but also embracing excursion into your own neural circuit

Amnesia Scanner announces Tearless, the Berlin-based duo’s second LP. As Amnesia Scanner founders, Ville Haimala and Martti Kalliala watch their icy home country of Finland thaw, the staggering scale of political recalibration and the worldwide climate crisis to come blows open old norms. This album reflects what it feels to experience Earth at a time when collapse is emerging as the prevailing narrative.


The musical scope of the record is expansive, with guest vocalists—the Peruvian artist Lalita and the Brazillian DJ/producer LYZZA—descending into a vast uncanny valley of sound. Tearless follows the 2014 AS Live [][] mixtape, 2015 audio play Angels Rig Hook, two EP’s for Young Turks, and their 2018 debut album, Another Life (PAN).



“There’s a looming sense of radical change,” they note, connecting the present to a fin de siecle horror and curiosity regarding what new world is being ushered in. Someone called Tearless a “breakup album with the planet.” To which Amnesia Scanner responds, on the LP’s closing track: “Youwill be fine, if we can help you lose your mind.”


With the crossfader on Tearless sitting closer to pop than abstraction, so too does the audience for this record widen in scope. Listening through: Opener “AS Enter” sets a sombre tone until the fucking riffs of the second track(the titular, Lalita-helmed “Tearless”) make clear there’s plenty of roaring to come. A feature from metalcore band Code Orange on “AS Flat” follows, along with “AS Trouble” (feat. Oracle, the third, machinic ghost-member of Amnesia Scanner) and together they hit as black-metal-gaze dirges. At the album’s midpoint, Lalita returns for the beautiful, operatic breakdown of “AS Acá” (released as a single in 2019), before “Call of the Center” guides listeners through three club ready tracks—the grain-processed dembow of “AS Too Late” and “AS Going” with LYZZA, and then the ambientheadbanger “AS Labyrinth.” Closing “Tearless” is the sadboy grunge of “AS U Will Be Fine” with a clear statement of intent: doom, despair, insanity, absurdity, it’s all natural, all cathartic, and all OK. Refuse like the ‘90s and party like the ‘20s—if that seems senseless, you are doing it right.

Uniting cosmic tones and lovely notes, unique sound collages and electronic noises, Muzak pour ascenseurs en panne ("Muzak for Broken Lifts"), Brigitte Barbu's first album, explores a dreamy universe, at the crossroads of electronica and the 70s’ post-tune-in/drop-out, echoing shadows of the peculiar doppelgänger; Pépé Bradock. Ça Plane pour Brigitte Barbu…

Resonant guitar notes, odd sounds, electronic hallucinations, and unexpected warm synth layers all gather together in Brigitte Barbu's first enigmatic album. Recorded and mixed during a reclusive one-week residency in a very special studio, under the benevolent cubic radiation of "Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant,” using a computer, synthesizers, and various string instruments, giving birth to this resolutely unique album. The guitars were sharply disciplined, propelling strings into strange and hypnotic limbos, somewhere between a weightless journey through time and a fresh science lab experiment.

A perky cosmic album running away from rules and gravity.

"I wanted to compose an ethereal abstract Hip-Hop LP" says Brigitte, "with guitar as a brainwashed instrument, mirroring machines and computers, even if surely far from being unplugged". So much for that… With a real introspective dimension, the record stands out for its pure whimsical mood. The artist had strict rules for composing: “Each track is based on the association between a title chosen for its consonances, an open tuning, a random tempo and frequencies chosen for their supposed effects, real or imagined, on the mind, body & soul.” For example: Taro Patch -> Whale -> 93,75 BPM or Dobro -> Bear-> 118,125 BPM, Air Resistance -> Open Em -> Panther-> 480 BPM etc.

Brigitte surgically framed an electro-acoustic compendium, finding its atmospheric mothership… Brigitte Barbu, referring to a special interlude from a vintage release "Escalope de Dingue” (Fool’s Cutlet), explains that Muzak pour Ascenseurs en Panne is in fact a custom tribute to family, friends, triggered cosmonauts, René Clément and the card game where the winner is the bearded monarch nonchalantly stabbing himself in the head. It’s a lot!

Fantastic first album of Tunisian producer Azu Tiwaline, melting psychedelic dub, industrial and hypnotic techno deeply rooted in her berber culture, supported by Lena Willikens, Nicola Cruz, Toma Kami and Violet, to name a few!

Azu Tiwaline is a new name for a new spirit: one of a producer inspired by the need to explore her origins, rooted in the Tunisian Sahara. The Call to a different sound, organic and raw, vibrating in the great spaces of the African desert where trance music resonates... Ecstatic ritual.

Her first album, Draw Me A Silence, conceived as a diptych, reveals the multiple facets of her identity. Uniting the bonds that connect Berber music, dub culture and techno hypnosis, Azu Tiwaline invites us to refocus on our senses and our Nature. She knows how to use contrasts between light and the invisible, exploring the complexity of our emotions and the mystery that emanates from them, in a polyrhythmic chiaroscuro that runs through each one of her tracks, and of which we discover, as we go along, all the outlines.

Draw Me A Silence Part. I (to be released in February 2020), delivers the most hypnotic variant of her music, centered on dark percussive rhythms and a skillful use of repetition; each of the 5 tracks ineluctably carrying the listener into a trance. Two major tunes particularly illustrate the artist's imagination: "Itrik" and "Berbeka", perfectly synthesizing the heritage of Berber trance music and her techniques derived from minimalist and repetitive electronic music.

The continuation, Draw Me A Silence Part. II (to be released in April 2020), gives prominence to a deep heritage drawn from the dub culture and its numerous bass music filiations. This second part thus gives a new breath in the use of sound space, exploited in a much broader way, leaving all their space to complex syncopated percussive lines, supported by massive basslines dedicated to the best sound-systems. Omok, the first of the five tracks of this Part II is the perfect demonstration of this, playing here the essential role of a bridge to the darker waters of this album's end.

Each of these two parts exist as an Entity, and it is only when they are united that they will reveal their full meaning. Thus, in May, Draw Me A Silence will find its final form in a double-vinyl unifying them. Listening to this album in its entirety offers us a wide panorama of the sound landscapes visited by Azu Tiwaline, who seems to breathe primitive sounds of a faraway desert into a music with modern tones - and vice versa. A resolutely hybrid sound and a singular experience, playing with contrasts and nuances to catch the listener in vast and so far unexplored territories.