Klark Kent was the 1980 debut solo release from drummer Stewart Copeland, and the first solo release recorded by a member of The Police. It includes the song "Don't Care", which entered the UK Top 50. The album was originally released in 1980 as a 10 inch EP on green vinyl and receives an exclusive Record Store Day reissue on 12 inch green vinyl.
The »Icol Diston« compilation, released in 2002 on DIN, comprised the three first EPs released by Uwe Zahn under his Arovane moniker. Following up on vinyl reissues of his path-breaking debut album »Atol Scrap« as well as 2000’s »Tides,« the German Keplar label finally makes »Icol Diston« available in its entirety on vinyl for the first time in a remastered version with new artwork. This expansive reissue sheds a new light on Zahn’s first two outings as a producer on the »I.O.« and »Icol Diston« EPs on Torsten ›T++‹ Pröfrock’s legendary label as well as highlighting his radical inventiveness as a remixer with the two renditions of Pröfrock-produced material offered on »AMX.« Taken together, these musically complex and emotionally rich electronic compositions form the prologue to an artistic story like none other while also documenting a very specific era in cultural history.
The energy running through Berlin and its boundaryless electronic music scene at the end of the 1990s is reflected by and refined through these eleven tracks. »There was an overwhelming dynamic of liberation reverberating through the city—through the clubs, the arts, the people,« says Zahn today. At this early stage in his career, he had a head full of ideas and slowly started filling up his studio with samplers, synthesizers, and sequencers to put them into practice. »I would compose percussive structures in my mind during long metro rides and record them once I was back at the studio as well as composing melodies spontaneously on my sequencer.« The Yamaha QY700 would become his sketchbook that allowed him to experiment with different patterns, creating polymetric figures out of discrete musical elements.
Zahn’s sessions, recorded live in stereo and straight to DAT, resulted in two very different EPs of original material. His debut »I.O.« showcases a playful and gentle, albeit dubby and at times moody aesthetic. The four tracks are exercises in sonic worldbuilding, creating vast spaces and filling them with a plethora of intertwining melodies and rhythms. Its successor »Icol Diston« drew on similar parameters, but painted a very different picture in terms of atmosphere and mood. »Berlin’s history felt still so tangible and yet somewhat ghostly during the 1990s, and it is a reflection of all that,« explains Zahn. »The weight of its past, starting with World War II up to the end of the GDR, clashed with an atmosphere of departure, a new zest for life among the people in the city.« It is perhaps no surprise then that the five tracks put a firmer focus on beats, at times even approximating techno or electro grooves despite never eschewing the complexity that is so central to Zahn’s work.
The »AMX« EP features two remixes of tracks originally produced by Pröfrock under two different guises. »Außen vor« had been released under his Dynamo moniker and was reworked by Zahn after having been introduced to his label owner’s Studio 440 sampler, sequencer and drum machine. By leaving the groove at the core of the original track mostly intact but infusing it with more dub as well as anthemic synth drones, Zahn gave it more depth both sonically and emotionally. With his remix of »No. 8,« released under Pröfrock’s tongue-in-cheek pseudonym Various Artists, Zahn followed a more radical approach which led him even deeper into dub territory. »I used a relatively short sample as the tonal foundation and then added an incredibly deep bass and percussive elements,« he explains. Widely different from the original version, it perfectly translated the spirit of this singular masterpiece into another stylistic idiom.
The »Icol Diston« compilation is imbued with a forward-thinking spirit that remains exhilarating until today. It captures the sound of one unique artist, but also electronic music during that time more broadly. This is the sound of opening a new chapter, the willingness to venture into the unknown.
All tracks composed and recorded by Uwe Zahn in 1998/99.
D1 is a remix based on the track by Dynamo. D2 is a remix based on the track by Various Artists.
Originally released on three 12inches by DIN in 1998/99 and on CD in 2002.
Remaster and cut by Kassian Troyer @ D&M.
Cover art by Jim Kühnel based on a photograph by Uwe Zahn.
Text by Kristoffer Cornils.
A compilation of Minimal Wave from around the world ‘79-‘85. »The Hidden Tapes« features rare, unreleased, and licensed tracks from as far as Japan and the former Yugoslavia. Most of the bands on this compilation recorded on 4-track tape in their bedroom studios while two of them went further to collaborate by sending tapes through the mail. The sounds on this record range from raw proto-industrial to naive danceable Belgradian new wave, to filmic synthesizer music to more complex, vocal-driven melodic synthpop.
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
Without a doubt, Kiriku is the hottest upcoming producer of contemporary Balearic Beat music of this year.
Kiriku lives between London and Ibiza, two poles which are well audible in his versatile style, ranging from
groovy Downtempo to clubby House. Uplifting Balearic atmospheres meet jazzy club vibes, featuring loose
drum programming, jazzy chords, bouncy basses, laid back vocals and sophisticated sampling. From song
structures to straight up club track, his tunes always combine electronic and acoustic instruments, which
results in a throughout warm and organic feel.
His new EP for The Magic Movement is co-produced and mixed by The Magic Movement' label head
honcho Noema, who gave "Washingtonia" an extended balearic club treatment. If you liked Dj Gregory's
"Elle" back in the days, this will be right up your alley. "Santa Rita" features the vocalists Monblume , Yalisaxx on Saxophone and comes with an bouncy uptempo club version of Brazil' own Kurup. "Jacaranda" features Hallyx on Vocals and is accompanied by a remix by no one else then legendary Balearic Beat DJ, poducer and label owner Chris Coco, who gave the track a dubby and extended chill-out sunset-sound treatment. Smell the sea, and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly!
Ontario four piece Tokyo Police Club burst on to the scene as teenage sensations with 2007"s A Lesson in Crime EP, an opening salvo that delighted discriminating young music fans around the world and saw them win plaudits from NME, Pitchfork and more. The EP was followed up in 2008 with Peter Katis on the desk for their debut album Elephant Shell which spawned the hits Your English is Good and Tesselate. Elephant Shell is the sound of these four young friends coming of age and into their own. The album catapulted the band into the popular consciousness, landing the band on the stages of the world"s biggest festivals, a spot in MTV"s video rotation, appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, and even a cameo on Desperate Housewives. Beyond that, Elephant Shell has stood up as one of the defining albums of this particular era in indie rock. Hard to believe it"s 15 years hence. Elephant Shell is ripe for a reissue and this 2023 edition comes on tricolour-incolour-vinyl.
Cult album of Brazilian music finally reissued || Official reissue of this real tour de force of Brazilian creativity, where the mighty Naná Vasconcelos is joined by his friends Nelson Angelo and Novelli (both members of the legendary Clube da Esquina) to create one of the greatest Brazilian albums ever recorded outside of Brazil.
The three musicians grasp here for the kind of musical freedom that could then only be achieved outside of their country. A boundary-pushing experimentation that makes your soul flow and is to be enjoyed at large.
Recorded in 1975 and released in Pierre Barouh's label Saravah. Artwork by the great Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon.
Cult album of Brazilian music finally reissued || Official reissue of this real tour de force of Brazilian creativity, where the mighty Naná Vasconcelos is joined by his friends Nelson Angelo and Novelli (both members of the legendary Clube da Esquina) to create one of the greatest Brazilian albums ever recorded outside of Brazil.
The three musicians grasp here for the kind of musical freedom that could then only be achieved outside of their country. A boundary-pushing experimentation that makes your soul flow and is to be enjoyed at large.
Recorded in 1975 and released in Pierre Barouh's label Saravah. Artwork by the great Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon.
Voice Magnetic by Hainbach is the enigmatic Berlin based artist’s sonic diary of 2022. On his sixth release on Seil Records, Stefan Goetsch collages the sounds he made and the ones that surrounded him over the course of twelve months into a powerfully intimate ambient experience.
In his studio or on travels — Hainbach always is working on new material and allows the locations he records his tracks in to find their way into the music. Consequently, on many tracks you can can hear the outside bleeding in — seagulls and waves on "Izmir", the voices of his children while record the piano or the sirens of Neukölln’s police cars in background.
The connecting threads between these pieces are magnetic tape and the human voice — hiss and breath. The result are 15 immersive ambient pieces that make up Voice Magnetic. Often short like the moments that spark them. Fading and intricate, honest and pure.
Based out of Berlin, Germany, electro-acoustic music composer and performer Hainbach creates shifting audio landscapes, using esoteric synthesizers, nuclear test equipment, magnetic tape and a collection of idiophones. Hainbach has become known for his immersive live shows and an unique sound that is both abstract yet very much a corporal experience. Otherworldly and intimate, raw and heartfelt. On his wildly popular YouTube channel, Hainbach shares his love for experimental music techniques and his passion for forgotten machines with a wide audience. Inspiring over one hundred thousand each week to explore synthesis, electronics - and to leave beaten paths.
Reggae Collected is compiled from the broad world of Jamaican artists, groups and its diaspora. This brand new compilation contains early reggae by Jimmy Cliff, classics from Third World, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, lovers-rock from Dennis Brown, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Gregory Isaacs, Yellowman and the #1 hit from Althea & Donna “Uptown Top Ranking” which was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel.
The album Reggae Collected is part of the Collected compilation series, which is a collaboration between Universal Music and Music On Vinyl. The compilations bring together the biggest and best names of its genre, combined with forgotten hits and less discovered gems, giving the listener an experience of both nostalgia, and uncovering new musical grounds at the same time.
The 2LP Reggae Collected is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on yellow (LP1) and light green (LP2) coloured vinyl and includes an insert.
Ltd coloured 2LP edition, w/ etching on side D! "I'm obsessed with late 90's Meshug- gah, early Dillinger Escape Plan, and early Cult of Luna," explains guitarist Pierre Carroz deftly about the influences behind the sound of his brainchild. Combining the sonic agility of the American math-core pioneers with the relentless ferocity of the Swedish progressive metal innovators, Herod produce a brand of heavy music that is truly face melting. Having played with le- gendary metal acts like Obituary, Napalm Death and Carcass, Herod are no strangers to the international metal scene, and it shows in the calibre of their music. Their upcom- ing third album The Iconoclast puts the full power of their artistry on display, redefining musical heaviness and atmosphere at every turn imaginable. Iconoclast sees the Swiss quintet paint with a consistent palette of groovy syncopated riff- ing, heavy breakdowns, and a diversity of vocal techniques and deliveries. Using similar col- ours and textures to create many different pictures, it's an approach that feels almost experi- mental. Like great abstract painters like Kazimir Malevich or Jackson Pollock, Herod continue to develop their technique and method throughout their oeuvre. Iconoclast is a creation of pure magnificence, combining an undeniable artistic mindset with the best of what modern metal has to offer. «The Edifice» features the incredible Matt McGachy from Canadian technical death metal legends Cryptopsy while the album closer sees the band collaborate with long-time friend Loi"c Rosetti: «The Prophecy» poses him against a most ferocious backdrop, capturing two amazing vocalists of the past and present Ocean Col- lective teaming up and facing off, since Herod's vocalist Mike Pilat was the main vocalist on The Ocean's «Precambrian» album (2007). FOR FANS OF Meshuggah, Gojira, Cult of Luna, LLNN, Vildjharta, Primitive Man, Uneven Structure
2022 Repress
Oblique Music is proud to present Polish wonder-duo Private Press. Through their debut EP on Technosoul, they made an immediate impression with their matured taste and signature sound design, subsequently followed by releases on Indigo Aera proving that it wasn't a fluke.
Here we have a diverse, yet coherent four-tracker. Blending inspirations from early 90's Detroit- and dub techno to early 00's UK tech house, the duo manages to offer an EP that respectfully winks at the past, while keeping an eye out to the future.
Over a decade since its inception, Wave Temples continues to refine and refract the project’s visionary mythopoetic exotica. Panama Shift presents a 20-track kaleidoscopic star map inspired by “the euphoric cults, both then and now, that come and go in the vast ritual of night.” Bleached keys, devotional synth, and driftwood percussion align in minimalist vignettes shaded by tape hiss and field recordings of streams, waves, wind, and birds.
Dedicated to the late Japanese-born American anthropologist Yosihiko H. Sinoto (whose portrait graces the cover), famed for his excavations throughout the Pacific and French Polynesia, the album embodies a similarly voyaging spirit: “chasing ancient mysteries… and rekindling with the esoteric journey of the human spirit.” This is music of forgotten shores, sea air, and saltwater shrines, echoing in shells scattered across the altars of Atlantis.
Harmony Rec. has closed one chapter and is boldly opening another with its next release, HARMONY011. This latest offering not only presents a fresh redesign of their upcoming vinyl releases with an added screen-printed PVC sleeve but also introduces a new artist hailing from the collective's hometown of Prague.
Trevor Linde (@trvlnd), a member of the Polygon crew responsible for some of the most vibrant events in Prague from 2013 to 2016, has honed his sound design skills and perfected heart-stopping live performances ranging from cinematic ambient to techno. His latest EP, "Whispering Thru The Mask," showcases three indisputable techno compositions with characteristic rigidity and tripping percussions that will make your head spin.
In addition to Linde's tracks, two of the EP's offerings have been expertly revised by Harmony's own Shoal. These versions submerge the listener into an even deeper mood than the original mixes.
One of the most notorious hatemongers in movie history is Captain Ahab from John Huston’s 1956 classic Moby Dick. His manic monologues cast a spell on generations of viewers. Berlin based musician and sound artist Jan Jelinek has now turned the voice of Ahab into a musical instrument.
Faitiche presents Jan Jelinek's soundtrack for SEASCAPE – polyptych, an audio-visual software developed in collaboration with Canadian new media artist Clive Holden in 2022.
SEASCAPE – polyptych is based on image and acoustic source material from Moby Dick. While Holden works on manipulating film sequences, the voice of Ahab plays a central role in Jan Jelinek’s soundtrack. The dynamic volume and tone of the captain's speech control a synthesizer system that turns Ahabs voice into ten abstract soundscapes.
In this production the voice gives the impulse and controls things but is not the sound of spoken word itself that we hear. Only occasionally can snippets of speech be heard so that syllables or sounds are recognisable. Instead we hear compositions made of hissing, soundscapes and eruptive sounds. The atmosphere is dark and sinister. Still every piece has a clear sonic structure and follows an understandable dramatic composition. This music is abstract but not overwhelming. Quite the opposite, SEASCAPE – polyptych is an invitation to listeners to let themselves be carried by the stream of sonic events. Although part of a media art work, the soundtrack can be enjoyed without any of this connecting superstructure. It works with no previous knowledge. But what happens when one does know that it’s the sonic waves of a human voice that is controlling a network of synthesizers?
If you want to hear Ahab, you will hear a choir of Ahabs in every piece of sound. The subliminal threatening as well as the conjuring Ahab. Finally the Ahab who whips up his crew and tears them with him into their downfall. The majestic „on the quay now, waiting and watching“, the oppressive “drawn towards the whirlpools center” - they are all music as well as sonic discourse.
RED VINYL EDITION On the 15th anniversary of its original release, Mais Um revisit a lost classic fromthe catalogue of one of Brazil's most regarded and influential contemporarysongwriters, Lucas Santtana. Presented on vinyl and on streaming platforms forthe first time ever (remastered by German dub shaman, Stefan Betke/Pole) andfeaturing Tom Zé and manguebeat pioneer, Gilmar Bola 8, Lucas Santtana's 3Sessions In A Greenhouse fused psyched-out samba and baile funk with originalBlack Ark-style studio distortion and spiritual dub dread, laying the foundationsfor his seminal Sem Nostalgia LP five years later, and in the process,establishing Santtana as an elemental force of Brazil's current new wave.
Edmony Krater grew up on the side of Morne Rouge in Sainte-Rose, north of Guadeloupe. His mother sang in church, but Edmony was drawn to the sound of Gwo Ka, which was frowned upon but very present in ceremonies or funeral vigils.
As both a fashion designer for the theater and a musician (percussion, trumpet, vocals) in the group Gwakasonné, formed by Robert Oumaou and Georges Troupé, Edmony left Guadeloupe in 1983 to settle in mainland France just after recording their first album.
Upon his arrival in Paris, with the desire to give his own version of Gwo Ka, he founded the group Zepiss with Eddy Lebouin, Freddy Tisseur, Philippe Augusty, and Rico Toto and immediately recorded a first album, Natibel.
In a singular way, Natibel perpetuates Gwo Ka Modèn, a movement initiated by the iconic jazz guitarist Gérard Lockel, who was the first to theorize and politicize this music previously transmitted only orally. In just six tracks, Natibel combines the sophistication and roughness of its root music, as Gwo Ka combines an intense rhythmic section with intoxicating melodies.
In the tradition of other Gwo Ka musicians who took the music further such as Guy Conquet, Fabriano Fuzion, Gwakasonné, Erick Cosaque, and above all legendary drummer Marcel Lollia aka Vélo, Edmony Krater and his group Zepiss have contributed to preserving its heritage and bringing an obvious touch of modernity.
PF006 Late night visions of MTV in the late 90s are the main inspiration for the debut EP of Polifonic’s mainstay Simone de Kunovich.
“Stone Island”, born from the collab with Pascal Moscheni, is the sun soaked musical manifesto of the festival - energetic, uplifting, psychedelic.
On the flip side Australian veteran Fantastic Man is shaking things up with a modern Trance interpretation of the original for guaranteed dance floor pleasure.
“Lingua di Sole” closes the EP on a mellow note, laidback yet acid tinged, closer to the atmosphere’s of Simone’s precedent works on Mule Musiq.
Close your eyes and it feels like Puglia already.
Magic Source invites you to a journey to the obscure side of disco music.
Led by producer & notorious tape operator Björn Wagner (of Mighty Mocambos, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and Mocambo Records), the group follows up on their rootsy cosmic debut LP Earthrising and last year's EP Riviera Drive, whose stunning flute jazz cover of “Genius of Love” is also featured on this longplayer.
Further exploring the more unusual facets of disco in its otherworldly and international stylings, Voyage Spectral travels through a wide musical scope, ranging from “lost” tropical grooves, Mediterranean funk, outernational boogie, to cosmic sci-fi soundtracks. All 100% organic - created by real musicians with real vintage instruments, captured on 16-track analog tape.
An all-star cast of musicians invites you to a fantasy trip where angelic voices blend with spaced-out synths, ethnic string instruments interplay with sharp horn lines while the rhythm section is holding down a polyrhythmic puzzle of guitars, clavinets, B-3, drums and percussions.
