Suche:red car

DJ Scriby - Izingoma zeGqomu / DJ MARIIO - ZULU MAN / DJ Skothan – Nevegation. Highlighting the continuing evolution of Durban's globally influential gqom sound, this special trilogy of releases showcases three separate artists from South Africa's fertile musical landscape. The set captures a fresh wave of gqom innovation from veteran producer DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn, DJ Scriby, and 20-year-old DJ MaRiiO. DJ Skothan/DJ Scoturn has been a key figure in Durban's underground scene for many years, producing alongside Phelimuncasi, Bhejani, Tweeyking, Lafaristo, MaRiiO and DJ MP3. His gqom and house tracks have quietly provided a rumbling engine for the city's scene, and "Nevegation" is his debut full-length, providing a complex diagram of his dancefloor versatility. This isn't the gqom you might expect to hear: immediately on opener 'The Gringo' familiar sounds - shovel kicks, chopped vocals, sampled gasps, horror movie strings - are shuffled into atypical patterns, creating jerky soundscapes rather than the expected four-on-the-floor bump. 'Salut to DJ Lag' pays respect to Durban's Beyoncé-approved pioneer, but twists the template into a propulsive new form, adding rolling and evolving percussion that teases fractal shapes each bar. But the album's most unexpected and forward-thinking moment arrives with the aptly titled 'The King of Gqom', a track that simmers the genre's percussive sounds into limber sci-fi club futurism, tweaking the bass sounds into patterns that nod to dubstep, Jersey club and ballroom. 25-year-old DJ Scriby has been working behind the scenes since 2013, assisting the first wave of gqom innovators promote their sound both inside Durban and beyond. In 2017 he joined London's Trax Couture to release "The Clermont EP", and here he introduces his long-awaited follow-up "Izingoma zeGqomu". Scriby's approach to gqom is well-studied and self-aware, which gives him the ability to stretch the sound's scope across the diaspora: just peep the Atlanta trap synths on the dynamic 'Friday 13th', or the absorption of tight grime snares on opening track 'Goi'. Scriby's engineering skill pushes his productions to the next level, lending slithering downtempo tracks like 'Ouuu1' and 'Igqom Libuye' a widescreen, big-room punch without losing the genre's undulating funk. And the producer even eyes the EDM mainstage with 'Qumqum!!', balancing saccharine synths with jerky kicks, claps and rolling toms. The youngest artist featured in the collection, DJ MaRiiO started producing when he was just 12 years old, watching YouTube production videos. "No one told me how to use FL Studio," he admits, "and no one helped me doing different genres." This might be why his music sounds so completely unique; the basic structure of gqom is still present, but MaRiiO augments these elements with youthful energy and carefree use of unusual sounds and production methods. "Zulu Man" opener 'GQom NyeGe' manages to mash together trance synths, DMZ bass and a driving woodblock rhythm that reminds you of its Durban roots, while the bizarre 'Ngom ya Phesh', featuring MaRiiO's regular collaborator Hot Chicks on vocals, pushes the gqom template into the red, with overdriven kicks and disorienting environmental sounds. All three records provide a 360 degree view of Durban's contemporary underground, nodding to the past, present and future of gqom. It's a genre that's constantly in flux as it moves from South Africa's bedrooms and basements to main stages and movie screens across the globe.

This volume "Caribbean Rare Groove" is an invitation to discover music from the cultural mix of the islands and countries located on the Caribbean Sea. From Haiti to the Bahamas via the French West Indies, this journey explores the traditional rhythms of Soca, Calypso or Biguine that musicians such as Gordon Henderson, Max Cilla or the group Skah-Shah have skilfully blended with Soul, Funk or Disco influences, creating a unique groove with multiple facets. Have a good trip!

Sniffany & The Nits are a deranged, genuinely troubling punk band
from London featuring members of Joanna Gruesome, Ex-Void and
The Tubs. Their debut album, ‘The Unscratchable Itch’, is released
via PRAH Recordings.
Drawing a through line between the British post-punk of The Fall and
the new wave of insolent hardcore typified by bands like Lumpy &
The Dumpers, The Nits have developed a knack for writing unhinged
punk earworms.
But it’s Sister Sniffany, and her singular lyrical and performance style,
who elevates the band beyond the sum of their influences. Her lyrics
inhabit the same world as her “macabre, visceral” (It’s Nice That)
cartoons - a world of hidden humiliations, girl abjection, crumpled
lager cans, clam chowder and lumpy, over-stuffed dollies.
Over the course of ‘The Unscratchable Itch’, Sniffany ventriloquises a
cast of pathetic, unbalanced characters: A secretarial administer tails
her Casanova husband to a suburban swingers party: “I can smell
him from here: a mix of Vaseline, foot cream and Stella beer.” A poor
old grandmother’s glasses fog up as she chastises her
granddaughter: “You self-entitled selfish little twat! / Left me to die in a
popcorn-walled flat! / Spotty little smelly little prick! / Making your poor
grandmother sick!”
But these characters aren’t detached, impersonal creations. As
Sniffany explains: “In Sniffany & The Nits I like to exorcise and exhibit
the deeply shameful parts of myself that I see as the toxic aspects of
my own femininity.” These are confessional songs about love
addiction, jealousy, possession, self-loathing and “egg smashingfury.” Though occasionally they are literally just about Sex & The City,
red-pilled incels or grandmothers.
O Williams (drums), Max ‘Wozza’ Warren (bass) and Matt Green
(guitar) have been entrenched in the UK DIY scene for years, having
played in the aforementio ned bands, as well as countless others.
Warren also runs the influential left-field label Gob Nation - a home
for ‘egg punks’ across the country. As such, the band veer between
atonal no-wave guitar assault, straight-up hardcore, goth/anarcho or
whatever takes their fancy, while remaining identifiably Nit-like.
Always grounded by a pounding, pogo-ing rhythm section, The Nits
provide the perfect backdrop for Sister Sniffany’s wild, relentless live
performances. See them live at 2022’s End of the Road Festival.
Cream vinyl LP.

The "Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of a celebrated impromptu
session that brought rock & roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry
Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins together for the first and only time
2LP set in gatefold sleeve edition - 180g coloured vinyl (disc 1 red, disc 2 yellow).
On December 4, 1956, these four young musicians gathered at Sun Records in
Memphis for what would be one of the greatest jam sessions ever. This essential
double LP edition (gatefold open cover) presents that legendary event in its
entirety, while maintaining the original recording sequence.
Rock & roll was born of gospel, country, doo-wop, blues, pop, and cowboy songs,
all of which can be heard here. Included here are several popular numbers from
that period, such as "Rip It Up," "Don't Forbid Me," and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind,"
plus some of Elvis' own songs ("Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender," and
"Paralyzed"), and covers of Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" and "Too
Much Monkey Business," as well as traditional tunes, and some classic country
and bluegrass songs penned by Hank Snow, Faron Young, Gene Autry and Bill
Monroe.
The joyous spontaneity and the fly- on- the- wall feel of the occasion make for
fascinating listening. This set represents a memorable slice of American culture
and allows listeners to experience a historic moment of the original rock & roll
era.

Originally released in May 1982, ‘Combat Rock’ is the final album from The Clash line up of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon. Featuring two of the band’s most well-known songs, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ and ‘Rock The Casbah’. Now rereleased as a 180gm 3LP special edition, with an additional 12 tracks compiled by The Clash.

Having returned to London following their pivotal 17 show residency at New York’s Bond’s Casino in 1981, the band rehearsed and recorded at The People’s Hall in the squatting Republic of Frestonia near Latimer Road in London and from there they embarked on a tour of the East and South East Asia, during which the album sleeve image was captured by Pennie Smith in Thailand.

The tracks on ‘The People’s Hall’ chart the period from what was their last single Radio Clash right up to the release of Combat Rock, including unheard, rare and early versions of tracks.

Also includes rare Pennie Smith images + history of Frestonia essay by Tom Vague.

A rediscovered untitled Mass by Adriaen Willaert "Missa Ippolito", a
hidden ode to the Cardinal of Ferrara, Willaert's patron.Adriaen Willaert
must have already been a prolific composer before he assumed the
position of kapellmeister at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice
After all, a second Mass of his was included in a large, illuminated choral
manuscript that was produced for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed
Lady in 's- Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands (the first Mass in this manuscript,
Missa sex vocum super "Benedicta," can be found on the LP Adriano 2). The title
page of the Mass does not mention the name of the composition, only that of the
composer, Adrianus Willart. It was catalogued as a Missa sine nomine, a Mass
without a name. It is assumed that the work was composed between 1522 and
1527, at a time when Willaert was a member of the music chapel of Cardinal
Ippolito d'Este in Ferrara, Italy. At first glance, what's striking about this
composition is that one of the tenor voices sings a cantus firmus (a "given, fixed,
foundational voice" that provides the basis for each movement of the Mass, to
which the other voices are added) that always consists of the same 13 notes: mi
ut mi sol mi ut fa mi fa mi re mi.
In an article about the Mass, the musicologist Joshua Rifkin claims to have
discovered a sogetto cavato delle parole in this sequence of notes. This is a
compositional technique common for the time in which the notes of a melody, in
this case the cantus firmus, are derived from the vowels of certain words. The
notes used for the tone poetry are those of the Guidonian hexachord, a series of
the 6 notes ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la.
For example, the word Maria (Ma-ri-a) can be "translated" into the notes la mi la.
The cantus firmus of the Mass, according to Rifkin, fits the words "Primus
Ippolitus Cardinalis Estensis" (Ippolito I, Cardinal d'Este) perfectly. The Mass is
thus almost certainly (via a hidden message in the music) an ode to the Cardinal
of Ferrara who was Willaert's patron. This rediscovered untitled Mass by Adriaen
Willaert, which we have now sung as a world premiere, can therefore rightly bear
the name Missa Ippolito.

Diplo (Life And Death Remixes)' EP sees DJ Tennis tap an all-star lineup of artists from his Life And Death label roster to remix tracks from Diplo's acclaimed new self-titled album showcasing the synergy and close relationship of Diplo and DJ Tennis and their respective imprints Higher Ground and Life And Death. From the suave and expansive sounds of DJ Tennis and Carlita's remix of 'Don't Be Afraid' the mesmerizing and complex drum patterns of Red Axes' rendition of 'Right 2 Left' to the complete reimagination of BEÃTFÓØT & Ashee's 'Forget About Me (Nite Version)' as well as remixes from Danny Daze and Sebra Cruz. DJ Tennis has curated an impressive collection of remixes from Life And Death artists bringing the energy from all directions.

Originally released in 1995, this reissue edition is becoming available as
180g Double 12" Black Vinyl LP, along with a Limited Collector's Edition
on Heavyweight Red Double Vinyl
Both editions are mastered for vinyl, reissued with the original cover design,
specially enhanced artwork, including a 16-pages LP booklet with extensive liner
notes by Clay Marshall and carry an exclusive, previously unreleased live bonustrack. Exclusive to the Limited Collector's Edition is a 1996 European Tour Poster
Replica.
LP Red LP Tracks: Overture / Sarajevo / This Is The Time (1990) / I Am /
Starlight / Doesn't Matter Anyway / This Isn't What We Meant / Mozart And
Madness / Memory (Dead Winter Dead Intro) / Dead Winter Dead / One Child /
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/14) / Not What You See / The Storm - This Is The
Time (Live in Neu Isenburg 1997) (Bonus Track)
LP Tracks: Overture / Sarajevo / This Is The Time (1990) / I Am / Starlight /
Doesn't Matter Anyway / This Isn't What We Meant / Mozart And Madness /
Memory (Dead Winter Dead Intro) / Dead Winter Dead / One Child / Christmas
Eve (Sarajevo 12/14) / Not What You See / The Storm - This Is The Time (Live in
Neu Isenburg 1997) (Bonus Track)

Originally released in 1995, this reissue edition is becoming available as
180g Double 12" Black Vinyl LP, along with a Limited Collector's Edition
on Heavyweight Red Double Vinyl
Both editions are mastered for vinyl, reissued with the original cover design,
specially enhanced artwork, including a 16-pages LP booklet with extensive liner
notes by Clay Marshall and carry an exclusive, previously unreleased live bonustrack. Exclusive to the Limited Collector's Edition is a 1996 European Tour Poster
Replica.
LP Red LP Tracks: Overture / Sarajevo / This Is The Time (1990) / I Am /
Starlight / Doesn't Matter Anyway / This Isn't What We Meant / Mozart And
Madness / Memory (Dead Winter Dead Intro) / Dead Winter Dead / One Child /
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/14) / Not What You See / The Storm - This Is The
Time (Live in Neu Isenburg 1997) (Bonus Track)
LP Tracks: Overture / Sarajevo / This Is The Time (1990) / I Am / Starlight /
Doesn't Matter Anyway / This Isn't What We Meant / Mozart And Madness /
Memory (Dead Winter Dead Intro) / Dead Winter Dead / One Child / Christmas
Eve (Sarajevo 12/14) / Not What You See / The Storm - This Is The Time (Live in
Neu Isenburg 1997) (Bonus Track)

Previously only available on a limited pressing on the Music On Vinyl label in 2012. Rubyworks are pleased to present a newly remastered tenth anniversary pressing of 'Area 52' by Rodrigo y Gabriela. Recorded in Havana with some of the best Cuban musicians on the island, with a stellar guest line-up including John Tempesta on drums, Anoushka Shankar on sitar, Carles Benavent on bass guitar and Les Trio Joubran on ouds. Newly mastered for vinyl by John Webber at Air Studios in London, working with the original mixes supplied by Grammy award winning mixer Rafa Sardina. This new edition comes on 2 x sky-blue and red splattered 140gsm vinyl records in a spot-UV finish, gatefold sleeve with a 12" x 12" colour insert on 150g art paper. Long unavailable, 'Area 52' sells for upwards of $65.00 on Discogs.

Popa Chubby stands before a sold-out crowd in Paris at l'Olympia - The
theatre where Hendrix, Miles, The Beatles and so many greatsplayed - He
tells the audience : "Je T'aime Mes Amis" !"I love you my friends" and in
that moment it's like the pandemicnever happened.Popa has not stopped
working
He followed the 2020 release celebrating his 30thanniversary ("It's A Mighty Hard
Road") with an introspective outing reflecting his timeat home : "Tinfoil Hat". The
year that has followed has lead to more upbeat themes andtimes. This is strongly
reflected on his latest recording, "Emotional Gangster", out worldwide on
Dixiefrog records on March 2022.And indeed the emotions run high on this
recording. 11 tracks featuring The Chubbfatha on many instruments and doing all
the mixing and recording duties. "Thisrecord definitely reflects happier times and
good solid dose of classic blues !" Says Popafrom his studio full of guitars in the
Hudson Valley. "I specifically included covered like"Hoochie Coochie Man" and
"Dust My Broom" to show respect for the Fathers. WillieDixon has always been my
idol you know".But the real gems here come in Popa's original compositions.
"Equal Opportunity"is a light-hearted sing along that celebrates the feminine at a
time when it is seriouslyneeded. And songs like "Fly Away" and both French and
English versions of "Why YouWanna Make War?" are big standouts !There is more
than an ample amount of pure guitar bliss on this record and slideguitar on tracks
like "Tonight I'm Gonna Be The Man" add flavor to a savory mix ! For an added
bonus Harmonica Wizard Jason Ricci joins Popa on the Blues Rockanthem "New
Way Of Walking" and the swing shuffle "Best For Last".Popa has been given many
accolades in a 30 years career. He shuns recognitionand has little use for awards
as he says it just gets in the way of the music. This has notstopped his last 3
outings from reaching the Billboard Blues Charts. He has also beengiven the
prestigious Red Rooster Award by Willie Dixon's family and been nominatedfor a
Grammy and a W.C. Handy Award.With "Emotional Gansgster Popa puts his heart
on the line and makes a play tosteal yours !

Birimingham’s TRMNL Records returns with its third release this September, coming courtesy of Paris, France’s Djebali.

Djebali has been releasing his twist on House and Techno since 2008 via the the likes of Fuse London's label and sub-label Infuse, Burnski’s Aesthetic, Chez Damier’s Balance Music, REda daRE Records and of course his own self-titled Djebali label which has been the predominant home for his output over the past decade.

Here though we see Djebali join the roster of the fledgling TRMNL Records, launched by the Birmingham club night of the same name so far the imprint has unveiled two EP’s by East End Dubs and Samu.l to date and here the story continues.

Title-cut ‘Rave Vision’ leads with a squelchy acid bassline and robust drums running alongside gritty stabs, spacey atmospheric pads and choppy vocal samples. ‘Line 56’ follows, shifting focus to dubby stab sequences, heavily swung drums and a bumpy bass groove all flowing with a subtly nuanced feel throughout.

The Hypnotic floaty sounds of ‘Cotton Candy’ then round out the release, diving deeper via an amalgamation of airy synth flutters, resonant synth licks and snaking subs atop a shuffled drum groove.


DJ Support:

Marco Carola
Chris Stussy
Rich Nxt
Davide Squillace
Mahony
Ilario Alicante
Jorge Savoretti
Silvie Loto
Hermanez
Tobi Neumann


DJ Feedback:

Rich Nxt - Top groove!

Salvo Borrelli - una bomba !!!!

Carlos Valdes - dope!

Alejo Galvez - lovely grooves!

Hermanez - Loving the grooves.

Tobi Neumann - Decent grooving & sounding tracks..

Karlos Sense - Wow!!!.Amazing EP. bro!!!

Mirko - super ep!

Mancini - Great EP as usual from Djebali!!

Sasa - Solid EP

Adrian Barr - Solid release, cool club rollers

Jade - Brilliant !

Lis Sarroca - all nice!

Juliche Hernandez - MASTER Djebali!! Amazing!!

Ocean Lam - Lovely summer vibes! Rave Version is my fav,

Chris Davis - rave vision is amazing!

Jorge Savoretti - Love Line 56, Djebali groover all the way

Lele Sacchi - cool deep acid driver, reminiscent of early 00's brit electronic deep, yess.

After the enormous global success of their debut album “Forever Young“ (1984), German trio ALPHAVILLE set off to write another successful chapter in their career with the release of their second studio album “Afternoons In Utopia” (1986). The album reached Top 20 positions in five European countries and featured the singles “Dance With Me,” “Universal Daddy,” and “Jerusalem.”
Personally supervised by ALPHAVILLE founding members Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd, “Afternoons In Utopia” has been remastered for the first time. “Afternoons In Utopia (Deluxe Edition)” will be available as Deluxe 1LP (180g) including the remastered album, a 24 page booklet with rare and unreleased photos in a gatefold sleeve.

It comes as no surprise to discover we are massive fans of Marcos Valle here at Mr Bongo, but this forgotten and obscure gem from the Brazilian maestro has proven to remain elusive to us until very recently.

'Girassol' is a lost Brazilian-boogie stunner from 1983. It was originally released as an ultra-rare promo only 7”. Composed by Marcos Valle, Paulo Sérgio Valle and Ribeiro José Francisco, this all-too-short nugget (under 2 minutes) was recorded and pressed on the Valle, Ribeiro & Associados Ltda. imprint for Rede CB De Supermercados. It was a promotional item to be distributed to customers of a supermarket chain as a gift. Due to not having any conventional distribution channels this resulted in the 7" becoming a slippery customer to find.

It’s a smooth AOR / Brazilian boogie joint with an uplifting chorus. The vibe is reminiscent of the much loved ‘Estrelar' era of Marcos Valle’s glorious recording career, and certainly one for fans of the Lincoln Olivetti, Robson Jorge production sound.

Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is Clutch’s thirteenth studio album – a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.

New bangers like “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone),” “Nosferatu Madre,” “Skeletons on Mars,” “Jackhammer Our Names,” and “Mercy Brown” take their rightful place alongside Clutch classics. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the natural culmination of what Clutch began as teenagers in the early ‘90s.

Recorded at the The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, the album was produced and mixed by Grammy nominated Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) with additional engineering by J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).

Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is Clutch’s thirteenth studio album – a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.

New bangers like “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone),” “Nosferatu Madre,” “Skeletons on Mars,” “Jackhammer Our Names,” and “Mercy Brown” take their rightful place alongside Clutch classics. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the natural culmination of what Clutch began as teenagers in the early ‘90s.

Recorded at the The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, the album was produced and mixed by Grammy nominated Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) with additional engineering by J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).

Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is Clutch’s thirteenth studio album – a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.

New bangers like “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone),” “Nosferatu Madre,” “Skeletons on Mars,” “Jackhammer Our Names,” and “Mercy Brown” take their rightful place alongside Clutch classics. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the natural culmination of what Clutch began as teenagers in the early ‘90s.

Recorded at the The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, the album was produced and mixed by Grammy nominated Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) with additional engineering by J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).

Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is Clutch’s thirteenth studio album – a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.

New bangers like “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone),” “Nosferatu Madre,” “Skeletons on Mars,” “Jackhammer Our Names,” and “Mercy Brown” take their rightful place alongside Clutch classics. Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the natural culmination of what Clutch began as teenagers in the early ‘90s.

Recorded at the The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, the album was produced and mixed by Grammy nominated Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) with additional engineering by J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).

Vessels promise an escape from responsibilities towards the landscape, they facilitate our avoidance of conscientiously feeling our attachment to the mainland. The visual nothingness of deep water and clean horizons fools the brain and delivers a treacherous feeling of independence.

We ignore the truths expressed by landscapes, so we mould them into urban projects for our strange desires. We clean up the irrationalities by which nature constructs itself. Then we look up to the skies, where the abstractions we have to draw in our minds should reside and inspire us.

We peer into the various shades of blue above the waters, the emptiness guarantees possibilities of our abstractions becoming realities. The apathetic stare into neat, straight horizons transforms our ancestral landscape into dirt and danger, when looking back to it.

To be on a ship under quarantine, is an upside down experience, for the promised escape has turned into a forced paralysis. The Lima flag (? - ? ?, in morse code), presented on the outer sleeve of this record, indirectly demands of all passengers to stay aboard and contemplate their escape from the land they now desire to return to.

These four piano pieces could be considered as a classical sonata (allegroadagio-scherzo-rondo). In a recital they are accompanied by four video pieces by artist Karl Van Welden. We picked the videos out of his extensive archive, choosing images intuitively while listening to the piano music. The theme of ships relating to quarantine thus came unannounced but of course, we were in the middle of the pandemic at the time.

Solastalgia was already waiting as a title for the new album before march 2020. I first came across the word in Underland, a book by Robert Macfarlane (2019). He defines the word as "The unhappiness of people whose landscapes are being transformed about them by forces beyond their control". These forces and this unhappiness are, I believe, what constitutes the modern human. Solastalgia, about the music We haven't found them yet, the words to talk to each other about the worrying signs of climate change. Feeling worried when walking on autumn leaves in the beginning of August should be completely normal. But how do we communicate about it? We don't want to be just the next hysterical doomer.

With this music I try to focus on the climate pain itself, gently inviting the listener to investigate their latent feelings of unease and growing concerns about the environment. As in real life, we circumvent the real issues because they are just too big, there are no words, no expressions yet.

This album tries, in four different attempts, to carve out a path towards communicating about a deeper pain that eventually will connect us all. My general method is to start with a comforting melody, full of fake nostalgia, which, after changing gear to autodestruct mode, morphs into a painful question mark.

The first part sets off with an idyllic melody, accompanied by repeated notes, as a far, muted echo of an alarm. The melody starts to explain itself painfully into a dissonant whirlwind in the high register, sounding not unlike Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit bravura. In the second piece a warm Beatles like melody (And I love her) gets confronted with the weird hippie mantra of a later Lennon song War is over, if you want it. Sentences get reduced to syllables and result in lonely notes that crash and shiver under the burden of too much meaning. Like Shostakovich's latest work, the Sonata for viola and piano.

The descending melody of Bach's Erbarme dich, Mein Gott is echoed in the upper and lower voicings of the third piece, juxtaposed to a typical, threatening Ennio Morricone Western dotted rhythm accompaniment. This rhythm eventually evolves into citing the 1972 Captain Beefheart early ecological warning song Blabber and Smoke (there's a big pane/pain in your window, it's gonna hang you all,... dangle you all). Towards the middle of the piece, the music explodes and the three layers get dispersed all over the keyboard in a virtuosic maelstrom towards another painful question mark. The bitter answer is going back to business with a barely noticeable citation of the first notes of the RZA's Liquid Swords album.

The final piece is some kind of mantra, the same 7/4 pulse all throughout the piece. The dampers of all A's and B's on the keyboard are released by the middle pedal, thus sustaining an ever present resonance. Melodic cells alternate in shifting quantifications with small, bell like percussive cluster playing. While composing this piece an image crept up: walking out of the church on Sunday morning, tolling bells enthusiastically moderating the churchgoers' small talk in the local dialect. Apparently I have tried to evoke this kind of conversation, but injecting it with fictitious alarming conversation topics, the contemporary.

Frederik Croene (August '22)

Clear Vinyl



An album such as this obviously owes a lot to the atmosphere in which it was recorded, which we can imagine was magical. We know it took place in Fromentel, Normandy, in a farm converted into a studio by the producer Jacques Denjean, known for his work with Dionne Warwick or Françoise Hardy as well as having been a member of the Double Six. It was also at Fromentel, that Denjean would record two fantastic albums with Albert Marcoeur. When Emmanuelle Parrenin followed in his footsteps a year later she was in good company: the sound engineer at the studio was her partner and therefore uniquely capable (we imagine) of creating an adequate soundscape for her delicate universe. What is more, five years previously, Bruno Menny, the sound engineer partner, recorded his first and only album, but what an album: in electroacoustic terms we can hear things which make him appear as the spiritual son of his mentor Iannis Xenakis!

What makes Maison Rose unique is exactly this fusion between the two conceptions of Emmanuelle Parrenin and Bruno Menny, creating a perfect marriage of tradition and experimentation. The tradition comes from the songs collected by Emmanuelle Parrenin in rural areas, in a similar vein to the work carried out by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins. The experimentation is in the sound captured by Bruno Menny, who both arranged and recorded the album. This is not to forget those who came with their guitar (Denis Gasser), or their lyrics (no less a figure than Jean-Claude Vannier). On the one hand we have the humble and non-demonstrative singing, with melodies which remind us of songs we would sing to calm a child's nightmares, and on the other hand a pronounced rhythmic intensity at certain points, such as on "Topaze" where the drums in particular evoke the Motorik of krautrock legends Faust.

A real haven of peace, Maison Rose is enchanting with its aura of mystery and spirituality, with soft, gentle songs which seem both ancestral and futurist. Originally published by Ballon Noir in 1977, this album follows on from other folk marvels such as Le Galant Noyé from the pre-Mélusine period. On the subject of Maison Rose, if we had to risk a few comparisons we would mention Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs, Joanna Newsom, Collie Ryan, Shirley Collins, Trees Community, Sourdeline and Véronique Chalot as those which spring spontaneously to mind. But this is too reductive for the timeless singularity of Emmanuelle Parrenin: because Maison Rose was recorded in 1977, in the midst of the punk revolution.