After the initial release of ENV012 Kloudmen started sending music that was a level beyond what we had previously heard from the duo. Remixes of and Plays by major scene players such as Caspa and Hatcha as well as the fresh blood in the forms of Bukez, Samba, Sepia etc.
Then out of nowhere in a fashion that caught our ears Kloudmen x Rez. We had to know more! The result was this release.
Wonderful. „I wanted my first long form album to represent the joys of life, strength of positivity, the wonderfulness of nature, and celebrate how music plays an intricate part in sewing all of that together.“
From the subtle rhythmic brush strokes of South American music to the sounds of Bern’s underground scene. Mirabile Dictu pulls from those spheres of influence and more to succinctly capture the translation of Adriano’s surname perfectly.
Birds are singing, a soft female voice embraces the stars, then the funk hits the fan: the second album of mysterious Japanese singer Nadja haunts immediately and marks one of the most exquisite reissues in the ever-growing catalogue of Studio Mule. Originally released in 1989 as promo only CD on the Japanese label Polystar, the album features some of the finest eighties pop funk fusion arrangements of the era. A deeply enchanting lost gem, that gets listeners instantly into heavy repeat addiction.
All ten songs are arranged by a group of grandmasters of their art. Japanese saxophonist, composer and music producer Yasuaki Shimizu, man behind the electronic ambient fusion classic “Kakashi”, was in charge for tunes like “Wac-Wack”, a neon light funk pop song, full of soft big city eroticism, ultra-slick synth lines and real funkateer explosions. It’s followed by “夢のとりこ”, the most stirring pop tune on the album, that originally was written by French composer, multi-instrumentalist, actor and singer Areski Belkacem, known for his and long-time collaborations with French avantgarde singer Brigitte Fontaine. Shimizu transformed the song into a low hanging funk jewel, with a cool rolling bassline, dub depth and synths that cry for cosmic help. Above all Nadja signs with a sexy chill, that somehow could only emerge in the 1980ees, when the cold war even made pop music real cool. The follow up is named “真珠のように”, features again music by Belkacem, this time transformed by Shimizu into electronic erotic pop - dreamy, witchy and precisely musical composed.
The B-Side opens with “Velvet Rain”, a funky urban boogie composition by Japanese keyboard player, composer and producer Akira Inoue, enlarged with glimmer camp kitsch, that immediately puts a smile on the listeners faces. It gets followed by “Paradise Catcher”, a soft pop tune with longing string and horn sections, arranged by legendary Jamaican rhythm and production duo Sly & Robbie. It somehow marks one of the strangest songs in their longstanding career, as it is largely minimal orchestral but yet super tight when it comes down to the rhythmic magnitudes. The next tune, “Private Tripper”, also stays soulful, funky and horn driven. Always pleasing the super tight, yet feathery voice of Nadja, that is dancing about boogie grooves and illuminating melodies with a seducing tragical coolness. Finally the album ends with a stylistic break in the overall musical atmosphere. It comes from Japanese musician Hiroaki Goto, it’s called “地図をずっと南へ”and features Afro-Brasilian voodoo rhythms, pan flutes, cosmic piano notes and Nadja, singing like a rain forest sorceress from outer space.
Ten arrangements by a bunch of high-grade arrangers, that all left Nadja’s voice enough space to widespread her talent as a supremely seducing singer, who wrote all lyrics, vocals and chorus by herself in order to present her touching vocal class in a vivid, bewitching timeless style. Come in and get ensnared!
Shaky Norman is a French musician who discovered the melodica through the music of Augustus Pablo.His influences range from classical to Jamaican music as well as punk, Celtic music, French traditional music and jazz. He has collaborated with Mad Professor in
1990 playing melodica on the album Psychedelic Dub.
His new eponymous album features eight original creations. It is set up as a 32 minutes musical journey taking you through different atmospheres kept together as a whole. The collaboration with prestigious Jamaican musicians like the late Ronald Nambo Robinson
on trombone, who played with Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Sly & Robbie and so many others, and Glen Da Costa, the saxophonist of Bob Marley & the Wailers and Zap Pow, add an authentic depth to this album
Marian Himburg, the artist known as Causa, believes that less is more, both in his productions and his release schedule. With a lean and heavy catalogue built from releases on labels like Crucial Recordings, Infernal Sounds, and Artikal Music UK, Causa is as focused on producing quality dubplate ammo as he is with proper releases. His second chapter for ZamZam is exactly what you’d hope: heavy 140 wares for dark dances- soon may they return!!
"Hiss" is nothing if not cinematic: a queasy melody circling in a dying orbit until it crashes into its first monstrous drop. Led by a squelching, lumbering single-note bassline that crushes like an unstoppable beast freed from its chains, no-nonsense kick-snare power and a steadily rising hum increase our fight-or-flight response until the very end.
Causa says the tune was created after “re-listening to my very first couple of beats and getting inspired by how little I cared about certain placements and how I worked drums at that time… I didn’t follow any rules - because I didn’t know any back then."
“Palms” is the perfect companion, another 140 stormer with drums seemingly built from white noise and distortion, funked-up by syncopated brush hats & an utterly swarming bassline. Add paranoid textures and a bizarre monosyllabic vocal pitched this way and that, and you have another dystopian side to fall in love with in the bunker or the ball.
Creole poetry, folk mysticism and heavy-grooving cosmic synths combine on this unprecedented survey of spiritual Martinique polymath Gratien Midonet's first four albums. For Midonet, pushing musical boundaries was less a choice than an extension of his spirit. A self-taught guitarist and composer, drawing on his childhood memories of bélé and beguine rhythms, Midonet's musical life developed in parallel to his academic and spiritual pursuits. Studying philosophy and psychopedagogy in France, it was his fascination with pan-Africanism and animism which fuelled the transcendent energy of his music. Although Midonet honed his sound in France, the four albums he released during the late '70s and '80s were heavily inspired by diasporic nostalgia, or what he describes as the "smells and colours... subliminal noises... fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums" of his childhood home on the Caribbean island of Martinique.
Award-winning International DJ and Producers The Prototypes release their third album ‘Ten Thousand Feet & Rising’. The Brighton based Drum & Bass duo were previously signed to tastemaker label ‘Viper Recordings,’ home to Matrix and Futurebound.
The Prototypes’ potent, hard-hitting production and broadsword body of work on seminal labels such as UKF, Viper Recordings, Shogun Audio, Ram Records, Technique Recordings and Formation. Anthems that have been supported across the entire D’N’B scene such as ‘Pale Blue Dot’, ‘Pop It Off’ and ‘Kill The Silence’.
Their expansive and versatile remixes of acts ranging from Ed Sheeran to Avicii to Friction by way of their sought-after bootlegs of Fisher and Knife Party and unreleased dubplate remixes of Bad Company and Pendulum. Not to mention their extraordinary debut album ‘City Of Gold’ that exploded in 2015, took them around the world several times over and elevated them to headline status.
‘Shadows’ is the first single from the new album, which they explain as ”a throwback to the Hardcore scene from the late 90s, with a piano line influenced by pivotal names through the history of the UK’s rave scene such as Vibes & Wishdokta, DJ Dougal, Slipmatt, and Nookie, to which we added a straight up banger of a bassline”.
Featuring Ulta Music’s singer Lily McKenzie, known for her collaborations with industry heavyweights including Giggs, Conducta and Wiley, as well as featuring on Crazy Cousinz’s 2017 smash hit, ‘No Way’, alongside Yxng Bane and Mr Eazi signed to Ultra Music.
Previously supported by the likes of Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, Andy C, Roni Size, Friction, J Majik & Wickaman, Pendulum, DJ Fresh plus many more.
In demand 7 inch sees a limited edition in translucent yellow vinyl.
Regarding the album: "This has not been off the decks since I first got it and have been hammering it to death on the show. One of the ESSENTIAL albums of 2011. Perfect in every sense and totally irresistable" Craig Charles (BBC 6Music) Two cover versions taken from the essential album GITANO REAL. I Believe in Miracles is an overwhelming take on the Jackson Sisters classic in a rumba funk fashion. Party stomper!! And on the other side, a longer trip departing from McFadden and Whitehead's seminal Ain't Non Stoping Us Now and touching the revered latin disco version of Charanga 76, only to end up as a fabulous clap-driven rumba stormer. Two very necessary sun-soaked tunes for any self-respecting dj on neat black vinyl. And yes, it's a limited edition!
“Owl Parade” is the result of solo work of Przemysław Adach, having 15 years of experience in sound production, which resulted in a wide range of projects and singles in cooperation with many vocalists, rappers and musicians in the country and outside. This album combines everything at once – ambient, trip-hop, chillout with a large admixture of electronics, while mixing flavors with a cello, electric guitar or dynamic drums
Mit "Front View" legt die Filmemacherin und Musikerin Helena Ratka alias Pose Dia ihre erste Solo-LP vor. Neben ihrer Tätigkeit als Soundtrack- und Theaterkomponistin sowie als Resident DJ im Hamburger Golden Pudel Club, machte Ratka auch als Teil des Duos Shari Vari (gemeinsam mit Sophia Kennedy) auf sich aufmerksam. All diese verschiedenen künstlerischen Wege und Abzweigungen münden nun in dem neu geborenen Projekt Pose Dia und einem Album, das zu einem beeindruckend vielschichtigen und eigenwilligen Debütwerk geraten ist.
A very welcome reissue of this amazing LP. Beautiful deep Brazilian music that soothes the soul.. Tip!!
The self-titled debut by the duo Jaime & Nair is a revelation of all sorts. Released in 1974 on CID under the influence of albums like "Clube Da Esquina" it is an expressive album full of charm through a gesture of swing. It shows an overall dreamy lullaby vibe with subtle touches of Brazilian folk and features well-known artists such as Wilson Das Neves, Orlandivo or José Roberto Bertrami as studio musicians. The outstanding and largely hailed song 'Sob O Mar' brings us back to a pure Brazilian soft-bossanova-beat adorned by luscious orchestral arrangements. It became a popular DJ tune for those in the know after being comped in the fantastic "High Jazz" series in the early 2000s, gaining this album grail status among collectors worldwide. An essential addition to any serious Brazilian music collection.
Tape / Cassette
As one half of Phantom Horse, his long-serving electronic duo with Ulf Schütte, Niklas Dommaschk co-produces beautifully muted, Kraut-inspired jams that seem to soundtrack fictitious TV ads for wondrous imaginary household appliances, e.g. a calmly efficient, if slightly unsettling kitchen robot with an integrated lava lamp feature.
In contrast, Shapes cuts tracks down to size – nothing here is longer than five-and-a-half minutes. Also, Dommaschk has turned up the treble, the prominence of the higher frequency spectrum adding bite and menace to these deceptively simple synth polyrhythms.
Whereas opening track “Benzin” (German for “Petrol”) manages to conjure the paradoxical image of something or someone meandering with urgency, “Einzeller” (German for “single-celled organism”) channels a John-Carpenter-style pulse, complete with horror sound effects. “Interference” is a truly effective representation of the term, with piercing, but quiet tinnitus frequencies set above a beat as sparse as it is crunchy. “Two Stones”, by contrast, offers a kind of robotic wistfulness whereas closing piece “Energies of the mind” fizzes out like a jumble of toy keyboards attempting to score a science programme - and failing, but instead revealing some much grander emotional truth.
This is the sound of breaking some kind of inner lockdown, of turning inwards and then projecting parts of murky inner shadows outward, as well-defined and sometimes lurid shapes, individually clear, but still in the process of becoming organized into a complete whole. The unfinished is what excites us the most. May the shapes never find their slot in the jigsaw puzzle.
All songs by Niklas Dommaschk
Recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Berlin and Nijmegen
Mastering by Edgar Medina
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón
Counterchange presents 'Eigenlicht' by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer and award-winning film composer John Gürtler.
Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments and moments of rich ambience, 'Eigenlicht' is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin's infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named 'Field Station Berlin', surrounded by forest to the west of the city.
A document of Gürtler's development, many of the pieces here were first laid down in his bunker-like former basement studios at Drontheimer Straße in north Berlin, before he eventually elevated above ground - both physically and musically - building his current Paradox Paradise studio and becoming an established film music composer. In 2019 John won the European Film Academy Award for Best Score, for his soundtrack for Nora Fingscheidt's debut feature 'Systemsprenger' (System Crasher).
In recent years John collaborated on a number of projects with acclaimed German producer and composer Phillip Sollmann aka Efdemin, performing live and releasing the 'Gegen Die Zeit' EP on Sky Walking, a subsidiary of Dial records where he also remixed Efdemin's 'Parallaxis' under the moniker The Borderland State.
In part an ode to the Macbeth Systems M5 modular synthesizer, with its three oscillators, much of the album features the towering instrument, whose uniquely rich tone and rumbling, pure bass end characterises tracks like 'Eigenlicht', 'M5', 'Synthetics' and 'Five Voice'.
"The M5's built in spring reverb and huge sliders and faders - as opposed to all the tiny knobs on Eurorack synths - make it as playable as any acoustic instrument."
John's primary background is in acoustic music, coming from woodwind and keyboard instruments, improvisation and composition. The leap into working with computers and electronic instruments found him exploring ways to make synths and samplers sound as organic as possible.
Turned on by a new dawn of chemical love, Sydney dance-funk combo Bellydance laid down their sampledelica blueprint in 1991, thinking in parallel with Weatherall's revelatory work with Primal Scream. A candy flip of streetsoul, festival jam band and Chip Monck's cautionary brown acid address, 3 Days Man! was primed for open fields and discotheques, in an age when the deejay was royalty.
With an elastic lineup that boasted up to 9 members, Bellydance synchronised more with the club scene than the city's straight-ahead pub rock racket, naturally recruiting hometown heroes Peewee and John Ferris to remix their multi-track concoction. A certified party closing anthem, the brother's sun-smacked breakbeats elevate a collective consciousness beyond the clouds.
Originally issued on Regular Records sub-label Boomshanka Music as a precursor to their album One Blood, the now sought-after 12" sports characteristic artwork from Mambo visionary and Mental As Anything co-founder Reg Mombassa. Instigated by Sydney selector Ben Fester, this Efficient Space reboot arrives fashionably late to Woodstock's 50th anniversary but just in time to help soothe universal division.
The Doors returned to their roots and were reborn a rock ’n’ roll band on Morrison Hotel, the group’s fifth studio album. Completed in only a few weeks and released in February 1970, the hard-charging album took its name from the Skid Row hotel in downtown Los Angeles that’s featured in the iconic cover photo taken by Henry Diltz.
Morrison Hotel: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes the original album newly remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, plus a bonus disc of unreleased studio outtakes, and the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl. The music will also be available from digital and streaming services the same day.
For this new collection, the original album has been expanded with more than an hour of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for Morrison Hotel. These 19 outtakes transport listeners into the studio with Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek for an unprecedented perspective on the making of the album. Botnick says: “There are many takes, different arrangements, false starts, and insightful studio conversations between the band – who were in the studio – and producer Paul Rothchild – who was in the control room. It’s like being a fly on the wall.”
Several of these unheard recordings spotlight how Queen Of The Highway and Roadhouse Blues evolved across multiple sessions. It’s especially interesting to hear how the band played with different bass players on Roadhouse Blues. Early versions include Harvey Brooks, who played on the band’s previous album, The Soft Parade. Later takes feature guitar legend Lonnie Mack on bass along with The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian on harmonica who, due to contractual restrictions at the time, had to be credited as G. Puglese.
Among the treasure trove of unreleased outtakes are also rough versions of Morrison Hotel tracks Peace Frog and Blue Sunday, as well as The Doors rarity I Will Never Be Untrue. The collection also captures some incredible session outtakes of the band jamming on cover versions of the Motown classic Money (That’s What I Want) and B.B. King’s Rock Me.
Der Best-of-Klassiker „Greatest Hits” von Guns N‘ Roses, bislang nur auf CD und digital erhältlich, erscheint erstmals nach 16 Jahren auf Vinyl (als Doppel-LP, je 180g).
Das Album erschien ursprünglich im Jahre 2004 und stieg direkt auf Platz 3 in die Billboard-200 ein. In Deutschland belegte „Greatest Hits“ den vierten Platz in den Albumcharts. „Greatest Hits“ vereint 15 der legendärsten Guns N‘ Roses Tracks, darunter die drei Mega-Hits „Welcome To The Jungle“ (#7 US), „Paradise City“ (#5 US) und „Sweet Child O‘ Mine“ (#1 US), welche allesamt auf ihrem Debütalbum „Appetite For Destruction“ (18-fach Platin US) im Jahre 1987 erschienen.
A virtuoso pianist and composer of seminal works in early electronic and experimental classical music, Jocy de Oliveira’s musical output has had a great influence within Brazil and abroad. Her sole contribution to Brazilian popular music, her 1959-recorded album, ‘A Música Século XX de Jocy’ in many ways stands apart from the rest of her artistic oeuvre.
The original vinyl release marketed the record as adding to Brazil’s samba heritage with a ‘simple and original dialectic’, naming its style ‘vanguard samba’, which differs from both traditional samba and Bossa Nova, in its infancy at the time.
Listening to Jocy’s ‘20th century music’ in the context of the contemporaneous and vastly more influential Bossa Nova style is especially striking. Where Bossa Nova’s innovators incorporated influences from jazz and French piano music to a samba foundation, Jocy de Oliveira took a greater leap, wedding her century’s classical music to samba. Where Bossa Nova dawned a new epoch of poetic lyricism in Brazilian popular songs with great poets such as Vinicius de Moraes and themes of longing, love and nature, Jocy de Oliveira’s lyrics are concerned with scenes of urban tragedy and decay, presenting an alternative vision to Brazil’s stereotypical tropical paradise image almost 10 years before the emergence of the Tropicália movement.
The sounds and lyrics of Jocy’s landmark release still shock today. Put in the context of a conservative Brazil on the eve of Brasília’s inauguration, it is even more startling that this record ever got made. An unconventional mix of classical and popular musical influences combined with socially critical, ironic and at times journalistic lyrics make for a unique listening experience.
A unique representation of Brazilian popular music, Jocy de Oliveira’s masterpiece ‘A Música Século XX de Jocy’ is reissued for the first time. Meticulously remastered, the record is pressed on high-quality 45-RPM vinyl, with a modernised back cover and printed inner sleeve including previously unseen pictures taken for the record’s release in 1959.
Tape / Cassette
The GTT series is a platform that hosts experimental projects & artists in sound art. It is dedicated to support sound as a genre of its own - beyond the boundaries of music theory and free of any expectation. Just art.
WOLFFRIEND is a collaboration project between Mischa Wolff (Von Abseits) and Daniel Harrison (Imaginary Friend). The two met each other in Berlin and discovered their mutual interest in beats, rap and sound art. When they moved in with each other last February they spent their first two weeks together in the studio. It resulted in an adventurous sound story called 'Computers' that brings listeners into a dimension of their own.
