The album Miniature I & II by Ko Shin Moon released in 2022 got a repress in limited quantities and a special edition.
Cerca:ra x
For their very first offering, Hanna & Robbie unveils a 5-track album making an ever possible encounter between psychedelic fractured grooves and mellow sci-fi haze in a divergent electronic shell. Planet42 carves a slow-burning path through severance and trance, a trip back to the subconscious like an escape or a sin, guiding both body and mind into unfamiliar exploration
Taking a fey look on electronic performance, where dubby-inspired and fractured rhythms tend to unveil ethereal ambiances, HR was born and raised in the emergent underground electronic French scene and started being moving targets in 2023 with a first live show at the Supercamp Festival happy few’s gathering.
With a mosaic of gritty textures, clubby breaks and otherworldly echoes in the lead-off project Planet42, Hanna & Robbie dives deep in this restless esoteric tension their identity is all about : an spunky early signal sculpting precise and intricate yet atypical tones revealing this crawling need of delivering unsettled arrangements and dreamscaped lines. Already in the move for their next in order work, it is settled in their experimentation lab that new doses of psychedelia and delusive resonances were written as an incipit to a future alternative live act.
- A1: Super Boiro Band - So I Si Sa
- A2: Bembeya Jazz National - Armée Guinéenne
- A3: Kaloum Star - Maliba
- A4: Balla Et Ses Balladins - Nyo
- B1: Quintette Guinéenne - Douga
- B2: Le Simandou De Beyla - Festival
- B3: Horoya Band - Zoumana
- C1: Kaloum Star - Gbassikolo
- C2: Sombory Jazz De Fria - Nana
- C3: Syli Authentic - Fabara
- D1: Balla Et Ses Balladins - Paulette
- D2: 22 Band Kankan - Deny
On October 2 1958, after over 60 years of colonial rule, Guineans voted overwhelmingly for their independence, and Guinea was declared a Republic with Sékou Touré as President. Guinea was the first of West Africa’s Francophone colonies to gain independence. To free Guinea from its colonial legacy, president Touré sought to restore dignity to his nation and give cause for Guineans to take pride in their culture, history and newfound freedom. To achieve this, he instructed his government to implement new cultural policies that were intended to revitalise and celebrate indigenous culture. The focus of these new policies was on music.
In 1961, President Touré launched authenticité, the name of his new cultural policy for Guinea. One of its first acts was to assemble the best Guinean musicians into a new state-sponsored orchestras that were tasked with presenting traditional Guinean music in a new and modern style. All musicians in Guinea’s orchestras were officially designated as members of the public service. During the years of Sékou Touré’s presidency (1958 – 1984), the government’s cultural policy of authenticité was applied strictly to the creative arts. Guinea’s sole political party, the Parti Démocratique de Guinée exercised complete authority over artistic production. The scale of the Guinean government’s commitment and efforts to invigorate its indigenous musical cultures was unmatched in Africa, and it presented a clear contrast to the minimal endeavours undertaken by Guinea’s former colonial rulers.
From 1967 to 1983, Guinea’s government presented selections of songs from the Voix de la Révolution catalogue on its own recording label, Syliphone. These recordings were described as ‘the fruit of the revolution’. Syliphone was revolutionary in many aspects: it was the first recording label to feature traditional African musical instruments such as the kora and balafon within an orchestre setting; it was the first to present the traditional songs of the griots within an orchestre setting; and it was the first government-sponsored recording label of post-colonial Africa. Syliphone represented authenticité in action, and over 750 songs were released by the recording label on 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl discs. All are highly sought after by collectors worldwide.
This is the second of a two-volume release which presents a selection of the best songs from Guinea's Syliphone recording label. This volume focuses on recordings from the 1970s, when Guinea’s authenticité policy had transformed the nation's music through a network of over 30 orchestras, each representing their local region, and each presenting Guinean musical traditions alongside the influences of Cuban music, jazz and funk.
Yeong Die would typically be described as DJ, musician, or “experimental” composer, but in reality she is a sculptor. Between the rapidly disintegrating boundaries of composition and sound design, her work employs a hunting and gathering of intangible material—bursts of memory, fragments of liminal space, interstitial banalities—materializing as boundless expressions that evade genre constructs. As an integral presence among Seoul’s most forward thinking sound artists, Yeong is in a constant uphill battle rejecting the reverence that so quickly creeps in and infects contemporary craft, that relegates even the most audacious attempts of her peers to pigeon-hole pastiche. Given this style-agnostic starting line, her ESP Institute debut 'Uncapturable' exudes non-urgency, an unfettered pace that allows breathing room, affording the listener freedom to mentally isolate and explore elements without fear of missing a “bigger picture.” There is a warm and welcoming feeling that invites repetitive, even studied listening. While half the work is somewhat singular in presentation—'1km', 'Like Your Flaw', or 'Burnt'—there are moments of meticulous complexity—'Morning Rum Punch' (featuring vocals by Cifika) and 'Did' (featuring a smattering of spoken words by icecream drum), both underground Korean peer artists. These moments feel more of like an acute focus on execution that compliments the overall shape of the album, rather than a dynamic contrast. Cifika’s vocals, in particular, command the listener’s periphery in a playful and refreshing way, exaggerating negative space and in-between moments that not only the paint an arresting stereo field but a remarkable sense of depth, not easily achieved without production sorcery. It is, without a doubt, these beautiful fleeting moments that we describe as 'Uncapturable'.
Celebrating his Bleep Album of the Year ‘The Eternal Present’, Mark Van Hoen rounds out a prolific 2025 with further goodies as he joins forces with Clark for a club focussed 7” split release of vinyl only material.
‘Needles’ is an assuredly buzzing, thumping, murky dancefloor cut, with turbulent scribbling frequency shifts adding extra heft to the bristling bass thuds. Following his own triumphant return to rave modes with his latest album Steep Stims, Clark delivers the frenetic ‘Poland RYTM (Live Take 2023 Mix)’, constantly morphing with sharp, snapping sounds, and a curious blend between acid squelch and chiptune beep melodies.
“From gently weaving melody to gale force rips and tears, The Eternal Present shows Mark Van Hoen at all angles of his sonic practice”.
White label with a postcard
Presenting the third thematic volume on the “Aquapelagos" series - a collection of split LPs where selected artists offer their own take into water surrounded cultures and communities. After the initial release of the Anthology compilation Aquapelago in 2022 (Discrepant ,CREP91) and the split LP Atlantico by Lagoss & Banha da Cobra (Keroxen, KRXN027) as well as the direct collaboration LP Índico by Mike Cooper & Pierre Bastien we proudly introduce an the third volume in the series in the shape of no other than two inspiring artists, Vica Pacheco and Pak Yan Lau. Two different sound journeys inspired by the majestic and peaceful Pacific Ocean, the vastest, largest and deepest ocean of our planet.
Vica Pacheco’s composition takes a calm meditation approach where water flutes and synths brush shoulders to create a ever expanding mind journey whereas Pak Yan Lau’s ambitions Neo classical piece, The Ocean in Us, talks about that grand overwhelming feeling, that vast space deep under, on the bottom of the Pacific. Both compositions were recorded and created with the particular wet acoustics of the Tank in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in mind.
From Philip Hayward and Matt Hill’s liner notes: ‘’The Pacific is a complex space, comprising a third of the Earth’s surface. A cascade of islands runs along its eastern flank, down from the Kamchatka peninsula, through Japan, Taiwan, The Philippines, Melanesia and on to Australasia. In its watery heart the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia stretch across huge distances, north-east to the Hawaiian archipelago, south east to Rapa Nui and south west to Aotearoa and Chatham island. Closer to the shores of the Americas lie Tierra del Fuego, the Galapagos Islands, Haida Gwaii and the Aleutians. This is a space that resists easy characterisation. The Pacific laps the shores of Japan and Chile, the beaches of Australia’s East Coast and the cold, damp coasts of British Colombia and Alaska alike. Indeed, the space is so vast that it is a world in itself and one rarely navigated in its entirety. In this manner, strands of genres and the songs that reflect them are components in an intricate mesh of associations.‘’ Philip Hayward and Matt Hill, April 2022
At the start of this summer, following a three-year hiatus for Daphni (punctuated only by his first ever collaborative Daphni track ‘Unidos’ alongside Sofia Kourtesis), he dropped ‘Sad Piano House’. The track represented something of a continuation in the Daphni catalogue, its roots growing from Cherry’s ‘Cloudy’ and its subsequent Kelbin remix, something in that song’s makeup having a profound effect when played on dancefloors by Snaith and countless others. ‘Sad Piano House’ deployed more intangibly irresistible bendy piano to equally satisfying effect and continues to achieve similarly rhapsodic dancefloor saturation.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.
Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
Butterfly is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.
One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on Butterfly is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.
- A1: Crybaby
- A2: Lil Jeep
- A3: Yesterday
- A4: Absolute In Doubt - Lil Peep Feat. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal
- A5: Ghost Girl
- B1: Big City Blues - Lil Peep Feat. Cold Hart
- B2: Skyscrapers (Love Now, Cry Later)
- B3: Nineteen
- B4: White Tee - Lil Peep, Lil Tracy
- B5: Driveway
Crybaby ist das vierte Mixtape des amerikanischen Rappers Lil Peep - jetzt in Neuauflage wieder erhältlich.
Lil Peep war ein Mitglied des Emo-Rap-Kollektivs GothBoiClique. Als Wegbereiter eines Emo-Revivals von Rap- und Rockmusik gilt Lil Peep als eine der
führenden Figuren der Emo-Rap-Szene Mitte/Ende der 2010er Jahre.
Already in its title, Plume Girl’s debut thoroughly lets things go and takes them in – all at once. “In the End We Begin” is the first solo full-length from Sowmya Somanath, a Hindustani classical singer/composer and half of alt-pop duo Felt Out. Plume Girl’s music takes inspiration from the semi-regular musical form of the rāga (translated as ‘tinting’), invoking mood and atmosphere, each rāga thought to have its own distinct nature and personality, brought to life through improvisation. String swells and Somanath’s searching vocalisations envelop every track’s own blissful chamber. Exploring imagined binaries along the way — eastern vs. western, traditional vs. experimental, acoustic vs. electronic, Sowmya sees music as a curious dialogue between divine Self and an invisible reality. Beneath the illusion of a chromatic world, there remains a blissful oneness.
Plume Girl’s songs sit between ambient Hindustani music and emotionally-encumbered pop. In front of backdrops comprising sundrenched drones or glitches, sketched out beats, and criss-crossing glissandi or flutes, Somanath both murmurs intimately and spirals upwards into soaring choruses. The lyrics ponder innermost thoughts, never more literally than on the blissful emo folk closing track: ‘In my heart I know / what’s in my heart / I know what’s in my…’
“When I began writing this music, I was fresh off of an experience that completely twisted my reality,” explains Somanath. It was the end of a years-long relationship, and the blossoming of a long-buried love hidden in plain sight: “a best friend of a decade, my musical partner, someone who had always seen me completely…At once, I felt grief and loss. At once, excitement and love.”
This EP aims to positively boost your subconscious thoughts while your body is captured by ravey energy. You wanna loose your skin and become a Mental Mamba? Than you should sometimes mirror your thoughts, and not only your body...
DJ Tjizza’s latest inception has been crafted to positively boost your subconscious state, whilst your body is captured by ravey energy
A heavyweight classic! 'Don't Laugh' is one of those records, you know you've heard it, you may not who, what or where, but you know it!
The original Winx mix is a classic, often imitated, never bettered, but the real gem here is Richie Hawtin's manic, almost borderline sinister 15+ minute reworking.
Monster doesn't do it justice, tweaked out, narcotic, minimalist jacking gear. A dope combination of severe LOW end and some bracing sine waves that cut straight through. This one will surely test any club sound-system, if the venue is built for it you will know! This is one for the real heads, pure late night business oft overlooked for the more famous A-side, but trust us - Hawtin's mix will smash any dance! Oh, and there's an insane laughing acappella for those who want to mix and blend! Reissued, remastered and re-sorted for 2017 by Above Board Records with the full involvement of Nervous Records NYC.
- A1: Elements Of Life Ft. Lisa Fischer - Soar
- B1: Funki Cadets Ft. Willy Soul - Feelin' Good Tonight (Shapes Mix)
- B2: Louie Vega - We Are Grateful
- C1: Funki Cadets Ft. Keith Thompson - Take It (Shapes Mix)
- C2: Elements Of Life - Giant Steps (Gary Bartz Vibrations Mix)
- D1: Bebe Winans - Father In Heaven (Two Soul Fusion Vocal Dub)
- E1: Honeysweet - What Kind Of Man
- F | Elements Of Life Ft. Dawn Tallman - Bad For Me
- G1: Elements Of Life Ft. Dawn Tallman - Bad For Me (Frisco Disco Dub)
- G2: Funki Cadets Ft. Willy Soul - Feelin' Good Tonight (Shapes Instrumental)
- H1: Elements Of Life - Whistle Bump
- I1: Honeysweet - Because Of You
- J1: Honeysweet - New Life
Vega Records is proud to present the Vega Records 5 Pack Unreleased VI, the sixth edition of a 5 piece vinyl filled with tracks that haven’t been released or have upcoming releases in the next few months.
The 5 pack Unreleased VI introduces 4 new songs from the upcoming 2026 Elements Of Life Album with a brilliant song entitled “Soar” by Lisa Fischer, written and produced by Two Soul Fusion Josh Milan & Louie Vega as well on vinyl the garage disco smash “Bad For Me” originally sung by jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater back in the 70’s with lead vocals by Dawn Tallman and music performed by the Elements Of Life band. A tribute to the talented Gary Bartz with a cover of John Coltrane’s genius “Giant Steps” bringing the jazz gem to the dance floors. And lastly from Elements Of Life, their rendition of the Deodato Loft classic “Whistle Bump” featuring legendary David Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar!
Josh Milan, creator of the group Honeysweet introduces three tracks from his forthcoming Honeysweet III on Vega Records. We foresee a favorite with “What Kind Of Man” bringing a Brazilian jazz feel which was made for the dancers. The remaining two Honeysweet tracks “New Life” and “Because Of You” are truly emotional pieces of music that hit your core.
New projects and aliases on the horizon with Funky Cadets featuring Brooklyn’s own Willy Soul on spoken word duties, it’s deep house at its best and the NY iconic artist Keith Thompson who sang on the Vaughn Mason classic “Break For Love” who delivers a powerful message on the well written lyrics of “Take It”.
Lastly, never released on vinyl the gospel club smash “Father In Heaven (Right Now)” by multi Grammy winner and gospel royalty Bebe Winans with a Two Soul Fusion produced Synth solo / Vocal Dub.
It’s a blazing wall of sound on the 5 pack unreleased with artists and musicians Lisa Fischer, Josh Milan, Keith Thompson, Honeysweet, Dawn Tallman, Elements Of Life, Willy Soul, Carlos Alomar, Ivan Renta, Luisito Quintero, Axel Tosca, Sherrod Barnes, Lea Lorien, Ramona Dunlap, Louie Vega and Bebe Winans!!!
Get your vinyl soon, it’s limited edition!
We Jazz Records presents "Pu:", the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala, to be released on 21 February 2020. Utilising only the double bass but looking at the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way.
The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective, as does the second single "Pu: 10", going back to the essence of the instrument and opening new doors while doing so. Each of the tracks is a compact musical adventure unto its own.
Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is one of the most higly-regarded bass players working in the Finnish scene. He's known from the ranks of such top ensembles as PLOP, Jukka Perko Jazztet, U-Street All Stars, Jukka Eskola Orquesta Bossa and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, to name but a few.
Made across 2024 between London and Amsterdam, WITH A VENGEANCE (or WAV for short) is the sound of uptempo catharsis, of SHERELLE making sense of a turbulent and difficult moment in time in her personal life. Determined to write one track a day, the studio became a safe space for SHERELLE to channel anger and feelings of betrayal, her hard and fast club tracks turning darkness into the cerebral joy of overcoming adversity. From those intense daily writing sessions has emerged a sharp, finely-crafted 10-track LP that is powered by fierce feminine energy and reflects the hard/soft and light/dark dualities of the dancefloor and life itself.
WITH A VENGEANCE is also a rally cry for the 160 scene, designed to push the tempo in new, exciting and as yet undiscovered directions. Inspired by SHERELLE’s foundational influences such as Kode9, Scratch DVA, Machinedrum, Lone and SBTRKT as well as the soundsystem-shaking groove of grime’s R&G sub genre, the album is designed to change perceptions of what 160 can be. But don’t get it twisted: this isn’t a concept album. WAV is for the dancefloor, delivering shades of London, New York, Detroit and Chicago in ways that are guaranteed to raise gun finger salutes.
Cindytalk has remained a majestic proposition over the decades, one marked by a continued process of disintegration and regeneration. Change has been a constant for Cindytalk, as has been the presence of the Scottish musician Cinder, who has fronted the project since the early '80s. The first Cindytalk albums embraced a dark theatricality of post-punk dissonance and abject rock deconstruction that coupled industrial dirges with Cinder's beatific vocals, these same vocals that were once plied to the earliest This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins recordings,forever binding Cinder to the 4AD lore. But even on those albums, Camouflage Heart and In This World, Cinder was pushing the band to embrace the studio as a tool for further abstraction of sodden drones, cobwebbed dark elegance, and decayed textures.
By the early aughts, Cinder had reimagined Cindytalk through the granular processes of digitalia with a handful of equally celebrated works of glitch-born expressionism for Editions Mego. Cinder explains that "those elements were growing roots under our sound and had started to organically change the shape of what we were doing. The fucked-up rock music was in retreat and the electro-acoustic abstractions were becoming apparent. Fast forward to the early part of the 21st Century and my first laptop. It seemed natural where I needed to begin that part of my new sonic journey. To further explore those and new territories. Sunset and Forever is intrinsically connected to what came before."
Sunset and Forever is a labyrinthine opus, one that returns to the themes of the sacred and profane that have rippled through all of Cindytalk's recordings, albeit in various guises. The opening track "Embers of Last Leaves" is a haunted piece of undulated, cyclical tones that entwine into a sorrowful chorale with Cinder's own voice. Thumps of electronic drum kicks and bass drops dot the apocalyptic menace of "Tower of the Sun" but serve not as a rhythmic grid, but as painterly noises that further disrupt and disturb the machined dissonance. A cinematic radioluminescence blooms from the tempered electronics within "For Those Eyes, Shadows Of Flowers." The finale "I See Her in Everywhere" bookends the opening number with a seemingly human chorus build from electronic tones cast in cathedral reverence. Sounds throughout may appear adjacent to those of Fennesz, Holly Herndon, or even Lovesliescrushing from time to time, but Sunset and Forever remains purely Cindytalk.
Cover designed by Chris Bigg, known for his iconic design work for 4AD. Mastered by James Plotkin.
Earth Running, originally released in 1979 on the Tappa's Stars label, can be considered the Jamaican's toaster's maturity album. Lyrics here are rooted in the "ghetto life" as always. A work with an international flavour: On Side B, two convincing dance tracks, the anthemic funkfest "Freak" and "One More Chance", often championed by DJs in the following years. A work that explored new territories, a mandatory re-issue for all authentic reggae lovers.
- A1: E Mto Fod3 E Mnto Mete Feat Mc Barbi & Mc India
- A2: Piquezin Do Nelhe Feat Dj Nelhe
- A3: Ta Me Machucando Feat Mc Dibizinha & Me Xangai
- A4: Ele Vai Bota Feat Mc Dl 22
- A5: Xota Piska Feat Wr Original & Mc Pl Alves
- A6: Zn Da Porra Feat Mc Kitinho, Mc Vk Da Vs, & Mc Luis
- B1: Respira Feat Mc Lean
- B2: Sei Q Tu Gosta Feat Dj Leal Original & Mc Vuk Vuk
- B3: Cuidado Bandida Feat Meno Saaint & Mc Torugo
- B4: Qvts Feat Mc Zkw
- B5: Vem Tacando Feat Mc Vk Da Vs & Mc Mr Bim
- B6: No Grelinho (Brothers Na Brisa) Feat Dj Gomes & Mc Vuk Vuk
Born to Dominican and Brazilian parents, xavi grew up bouncing from place to place, picking up inspiration wherever he landed. His first love was baile funk, but he was raised on classic hip-hop, eventually notching up production and songwriting credits for Vince Staples, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande. But the major label life wasn’t giving; sick of the industry, he headed back to São Paulo to soak up the atmosphere and connect with artists on the ground. Before long, he started uploading quickfire bangers to SoundCloud – at this point there are over 350 of them on his feed – an »evolutionary playlist« in his own words, bursting with ideas.
»balança e paixão« is his debut release, proper, a 12-cut snapshot of chaotic, trailblazing, turbulent genius – bending thrashed rhythms into relentless vocal chops from a laundry list of young brazillian MCs. Built on ear-zizzing »tuin« hits and razor’s edge cuts, he creates hypnotic ripples that wedge themselves between São Paulo’s weirdo fringe (artists like JLZ and Iguana) and the percussive, MC-heavy sound of funk ritmado, one of the contemporary scene’s most vital and recognisable strains. Crucially, you can hear a Photek-like approach to space in his productions too, filling the gaps with metallic clangs to lend his rhythms their own unique dimension. The flipside takes it slower, deeper. On »sei q tu gosta« (I know you like it), DJ Leal Original and MC Vuk Vuk’s voices are transformed into ghosted sibilances next to xavi’s sonar pings and woodblock hits with an almost avant-dancehall slant, like some choice Equiknoxx dub, while on »cuidado bandida« (be careful bandit), he deploys bone-rattling trills that bite down on atmospherics that wouldn’t be out of place on Akira Yamaoka’s »Silent Hill« OST.
Melbourne / Naarm strongholdButter Sessionsclock 15 years in the game with a trilogy of 12"s, sustaining their uncompromising streak of peak-form electronics. The family-style V/A binds friends, collaborators, former studio neighbours and DJ booth allies, capturing a label that exists as community as much as catalogue.
Disc Three entrantRBIserves up a tweaked-out psy-not-psy cut with a built-in spin-back upending the room, beforeUnsolicited Joints- siblingsCousinandBen Fester- slide in with a deep dub techno shuffler. Tokyo mainstayHarukaseals the side withEventide, a serotonin-tipped house curveball made in collaboration with Rotterdam'sCharlton Bakeliet, one of the last internationals to grace the Mercat X booth.
The B-side blooms withOK EG's zoned, psychoactive techno, handing over toHybrid Manto diffuse the tension with their morphing dubwise excursion.Yuzo Iwatacontinues his uncategorisable strain, self-described as EPM (Electronic Psychedelic Music), marked by Japanese ingenuity and free of genre boundaries. Finally,Sleep Dround out the set with a rogue link-up withPosseshot, a raw and adrenalised raver laced with a vocal that snarls closer to The Prodigy than hip-hop.
Whether taken alone or folded into the three-disc triptych, each instalment stands as a bag-ready constant, charged with Butter Sessions' curatorial finesse.
The union of Antwerp synthesist David Edren and Tokyo minimalist Hiroki Takahashi is a fit so natural as to feel preordained. Both traffic in subtle shades of contemplative electronics, marked by patience, space, and poetic restraint. And both have rich histories of curation and collaboration – Edren in the duo Spirit & Form alongside Bent Von Bent, and Takahashi as proprietor of the Kankyō record shop, as well as one fourth of cosmic ambient quartet UNKNOWN ME. Mutual fans of one another’s work, they began sharing stems in the latter half of 2020, which slowly blossomed into a collection of multi-hued compositions inspired by notions of connectivity and impermanence, translated for east and west: Flow | 流れ.
Opener “Dusk Decorum | 黄昏 礼節” maps the mood of what’s to come, elegantly pirouetting and percolating through an expanding vista of looming stars and half-light horizons. Takahashi describes Edren’s arrangements as evoking “a strange feel, something we haven't heard much of before.” The sensation is one of “in-betweenness,” a restless current whispering beneath the beauty, like seasons seen in time-lapse footage: flickering but infinite, transience turned permanent. Takahashi’s signature sculpture garden tones plot spiral patterns over which Edren cascades dazzling pointillist synthesizer coloration. The pieces veer between delicate and dilated, micro and macro, their aperture forever softly in flux.
From the oscillating orchestral lullaby of “Stalactime | 鍾乳石時計” to the sweeping, sparkling dream sequence closer, “Shift Register | シフトレジスタ,” the album achieves the elusive goal of being more than the sum of its parts. This is music of rare air, elevated and amorphous, shimmering just out of reach. Though Edren and Takahashi have yet to cohabitate the same room in person (a fact that should be rectified soon by an astute festival booker), their palettes and poise are perfectly paired, twin fragilities woven into seven radiant and regenerative vibrational states. The cover design of a beatific, beaded leaf rippling on the surface of a hidden pond aptly captures the record’s muted majesty. Takahashi’s quiet pride is justified: “We are very happy with this time-consuming and carefully crafted work.”




















