Godfather Don is a classic hip hop artist with a serious back catalogue of self produced tracks and collaborative projects such as the Cenobites, or more recent Jazz Spastiks remixes.
'Stuck Off The Realness' first appeared on a highly sought after test pressing 12" in 1997 (the same one as 'Status'), on the flip we've put the super dope 'Burn' with that distinctive Biggie vocal sample... both sides epitomise that classic 90s NYC indie sound.
’Angelo lost his shit over it. Aaliyah’s 3rd favourite track of all time is on it. David Bowie rocked up with it to a TV interview, declaring it “the most exciting sound of contemporary soul music”.
In 1996, Lewis Taylor released his self-titled masterpiece. A true modern classic, it’s an album that was years ahead of its time. Forget 25 years ago, it could easily have been made in 2021. An effortless blend of neo-soul, sophisticated pop, smart grooves and laid-back white funk, it enjoyed rapturous reviews from critics and music legends alike. But the album never managed to make an impact and given what was likely a token vinyl release at the time, the original records have long since been near-impossible to find. Lewis Taylor’s Lewis Taylor remains a holy relic for some and criminally unknown to most.
Lewis Taylor’s impeccable influences created a dazzling sonic palette: the LP as a whole suggests the visionary brilliance of Prince; the vocal stylings evoke the yearning power of Marvin Gaye; the effortless guitar playing shares the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix; the haunting tones conjure Tricky; the innovative production and engineering invite comparisons to studio mavericks like Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno; the multi-layered, complex harmonies flash on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson; the dark, drama is reminiscent of both Scott Walker and Stevie Wonder; the complex arrangements create textures and moods with the feel of Shuggie Otis on Inspiration Information; the bold experimentation is akin to progressive artists like Faust and Tangerine Dream; the atmosphere is in conversation with Jeff Buckley’s Grace… and we could go on. That might all sound like marketing hyperbole, but not as far as Be With is concerned. It is a genuine wonder how an album this good could’ve passed so many people by.
But despite all the reference points, the similarities are really only skin-deep because the album sounds truly original. It occupies its own distinct, strange universe that feels dark and brooding one moment, bright and joyous the next. Ultimately, Taylor sounds like Taylor.
Although you wouldn’t know it from the credits, the album wasn’t the work of Lewis alone. Sabina Smyth gets an executive producer credit on the original sleeve, but in fact she worked with Lewis on the production and arrangements, did a lot of the backing vocals and she co-wrote Track, Song, Lucky and Damn with Lewis.
Lewis clarified all this in a Soul Jones interview with Dan Dodds in 2016. He explains how not giving Sabina the credit she was due at the time was an unfortunate consequence of where his head was at and he’s now trying to set the record straight.
Together they created an exquisite and sensually-charged record, with a freshness to the writing that makes the songs catchy, melodic-yet-deep and sometimes even funky. The music is predominantly guitar-led and a mixture of organs and synths, live drum loops and electronic percussion make for a sort of modern soul backing orchestra.
On the surface the album is gorgeously laidback, but beneath the lush, sometimes slick, production there’s a murkiness in the seriously gritty funk/hip-hop instrumentation. Lewis Taylor can be a claustrophobic listen. Even its one-word, often seemingly throw-away track titles add to the sense of unease. In its most positive moments, there’s still a sense that things aren’t quite right. The magic comes from this compelling tension.
The languid, strutting “Lucky” is a sensational opening statement. Sinuous electric guitar winds around the shaking percussion with a killer bass line rattling your bones, and Lewis’s voice is sublime. Its six-and-a-half unhurried minutes manage to distill the work of Marvin, Al Green and Bobby Womack because yes, it’s *that* good. Up next is the tough, dusty drum and jazzy, unsettling psych-guitar workout of “Bittersweet”. Aaliyah described it the “perfect song”, which says it all. By turns loping and soaring, tightly coiled and blasting free, 25 years on its discordant, swaggering majesty still sounds like future R&B.
The swinging, blue-eyed funk of “Whoever” oozes sophisticated sunshine soul for hazy days before “Track” sweeps in. The music tries to lift us up, beyond the reach of the vocals trying to drag us back down as Taylor sings “my mood is black as the darkest cloud”. The spare, dubby electro-soul of “Song” closes out the first half of the album with barely contained dread as it creeps towards the lush, synth-heavy coda.
The smouldering “Betterlove” eases us into the second half, coming on like a languorous response to the call of “Brown Sugar”, before sliding into the shuffling, softly-rocking “How”. Somehow the remarkable “Right” manages to both warm things up and smooth things out even more. Taut yet luxurious, it’s definitely not wrong.
“Damn” was to have been the album’s title track and you might also be able to hear its influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo, maybe most obviously in the chaotic closing moments of “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”. Building to a screeching wall of noise that suddenly cuts dead, “Damn” sounds like the natural end to the album, with the celestial a cappella “Spirit” serving as a heavenly reprise.
When it came to the sleeve, art director Cally Callomon heard Taylor’s music as “sideways off-camera glances at a plethora of influences he had” and wanted to interpret that visually: “I went off into night-time London to see if I could find his song titles in off-beam low-fidelity photographs. I even found a shop called Lewis Taylor”. With a slide for each of the album’s ten tracks, nine of them are on the inner sleeve and the slide for “Damn” makes the front cover. It should’ve been the album’s title, but concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this.
One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, Andrew Lewis Taylor is an enigmatic figure and a hugely under-appreciated talent. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist who got his start touring with heavy blues/psych outfit the Edgar Broughton Band, he released two albums of psychedelic-rock as Sheriff Jack before Island signed him on the strength of a demo alone. But Taylor was destined to be one of those artists unable (or unwilling) to be pigeonholed and despite the best efforts of Island’s publicity department the music never sold in the quantities it needed to or deserved to. Island eventually let him go in the early 2000s and in June 2006, Lewis Taylor retired from music.
Typical for the mid-90s, this CD-length album was squeezed onto a single LP for its original vinyl release. Simon Francis’s fresh vinyl mastering now spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Pete Norman and pressed at Record Industry. The original artwork has been restored at Be With HQ and subtly re-worked to work as a double.
This sprawling psychedelic soul opus really is a forgotten should-be-classic. We know that there are those of you who know, and as for the rest of you, we’re a bit jealous that you’re getting to hear Lewis Taylor for the first time.
Concentric Records presents Radiant, the third compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by ASWA, HOLOVR, Max Loderbauer, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, William Selman, the album evokes luminous, iridescent and ethereal sonic spaces - a journey that overcomes struggles, spinning upward towards the light.
The album opens with calm, bright and assertive tonalities, evoking mental spaces prone to exploration and wondering. Molecular textures and real-world sounds bring us closer to an intimate and physical sphere, a voice. Ultimately everything dissolves into a synthetic domain of acid-like washes, in a cinematic sense of departure.
MAX LODERBAUER has been an active engineer, producer, and musician across four decades. He first came to notice in the late ‘80s as a member of Fischerman’s Friend. Known then as Daimler Max, Loderbauer’s associates included Stephan Fischer and Tom Thiel, as well as producer Thomas Fehlmann. Once the group went dormant, Loderbauer and Thiel established Sun Electric; one of the leading sources of entrancing downtempo and ambient techno through the ‘90s. During the 2000s and 2010s, Loderbauer collaborated in numerous settings, including NSI with Tobias Freund, Chica & the Folder with Paula Schopf, and Moritz von Oswald Trio with Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald. Loderbauer was partly responsible for some of the most progressive and experimental electronic music released during these years. In 2011, he and contemporary Ricardo Villalobos assembled Re: ECM, a project that involved radical transformations of ECM label recordings by the likes of Bennie Maupin, Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, and Arvo Pärt. More recently he consolidated the collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos via the Vilod project, and with Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin as Ambiq - both described as ‘a fertile patch of inspiration, shaking up the principles of minimal techno with the loose, expressive qualities of jazz’. The album opening track - ‘Harmonic’ - feels like a glowing dream. Composed of stunning electronics in a polychromatic, blinding and shimmering light; harmonious interwoven melodies calmly wind down invoking a serene mental state and grounding peace.
WILLIAM SELMAN was the very first artist ever approached by Concentric Records prior to the label’s birth, back in 2018, following his defining release ‘Musica Enterrada’. A musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, his work employs analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art focused on the ideas of place and environment. Selman's recent works have been released on Mysteries of the Deep and Hausu Mountain.
PETRE INSPIRESCU is an extremely versatile composer. As co-founder of the legendary RPR Soundsystem together with Rhadoo and Raresh, he mostly produced club-ready, heavily textured takes on tech-house and minimal techno. In 2015 he released his first album on Mule Musiq, considered a significant departure from his previous work, scoring piano, strings and woodwind instruments for the first time, resulting in a set that sat somewhere between ambient and neo-classical. Since then, he continued to explore further sonic territories, adding in vintage synthesizers and occasional nods to dub techno, resulting in melodious sequences of musical movements that relate to the work of classical composers, American minimalists and ambient legends. ‘The Garden’ is a dreamy, intimate and nature inspired composition, recorded in his home studio in Ibiza sometime in the Summer.
DJ and producer SUPPLY (youngest so far on the label) was born and raised in Gießen, within sight of the skyscrapers of Frankfurt am Main, and has been living in Berlin since 2017. Musically socialised through hip hop, he found his connection to electronic music produced in Chicago and Detroit in the 90s by moving to FFM in 2013. For almost 6 years he has hosted his own events in his hometown. His productions connect the dots between hip hop, retro futuristic movie soundtracks and techno, he recently released on YAY Recordings. ‘Inhale / Exhale’ was created during a time of stress and mental tension, partly self-inflicted, partly result of my surroundings, as it turned out in retrospect. The track tries to capture a moment of taking a deep breath by releasing that tension for a moment. I came up with the first sketch one night around 4am, the final arrangement found its way onto a C60 Chromoxid Cassette - inhale - exhale.’ - Supply
THE WAVES is a post-punk and synthwave-inspired project led by Maayan Nidam, that places her vocals at its front and centre. As a musician obsessed with sound and the technology behind its creation, her workflow places a strong focus on the studio environment. Triggering chain reactions between guitar pedals, drum machines, modular synths and acoustic instruments, generating sounds in unpredictable ways. Drum machines keep a steady groove as to give support to an array of guitars and synthesisers, all topped with The Waves own, mostly unmasked, lyrics and voice. ‘Hold On’ was written by Maayan during the 2020 pandemic as she dived deeply in studio work in Berlin. Her lyrics are featured as part of the art print insert, and have became a central statement to the LP and its narrative - the power to hold on and break through.
Jimmy Billingham's HOLOVR project has racked up various releases on some of the most forward-thinking electronic music labels over the past few years, including Firecracker Recordings, Likemind, Further Records, Opal Tapes and his own Indole Records. Though best known for melodic, drifting acid techno and electronica, he's equally at home crafting textured ambient soundscapes. HOLOVR's deeply emotional synth passages and pads will take you on a journey into the outer. 'Melancholy of Time came out of a period exploring ways of producing and recording outside of the grid-based structures that I was previously working with. I wanted to strip it back to what I often find to be the emotional core of a piece of electronic music - ebbing and flowing synth pads - but to push and pull it a bit to create a slight disjointedness, unpredictability and shop-worn texture, as if it's coming apart and fraying, yet retaining a sonic clarity. I recorded it live using looped and layered synth phrases, underpinned by a layer of hiss and pin-prick textures. I find reflections on time and its passing to be a recurrent feature of my work, both in a more straightforward way of harking back to music of a certain period or pieces of equipment but also in a more abstract sense of creating a feeling where time doesn't matter - a deep feeling of now; that escape that you find in music and other ecstatic experiences. Though of course we’re always in - and running out of - time, and hence the melancholy.’ - Jimmy Billingham
Hailing from the German underground scene, ASWA aka Attila Fidan has an intricate, hypnotic style of electro, techno and ambient. Coming from visual arts and not primarily a trained musician, Attila produces under various and multiple monikers: ‘I never really start out knowing which moniker the track will be made under’. Since 2017 he runs a boutique Berlin label named ‘Tape Archive’. ‘Dust Palace’ is a synthetic piece that resonates with a cinematic vastness, closing the LP in an uplifting tone that evokes new departures and new beginnings.
MANSUR is the project by Jason Kohnen (ex-The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble) joined by Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and introducing Martina Horváth on vocals. The sound of MANSUR navigates between the waters of musical fantasy and reality - it morphs and blends traditional instrumentation with modern day electronica.
After the debut record "Temple" and the debut full length "Karma" Minotaurus is Mansur’s first live improv recording. A musical homage to the mythos of the Minotaur. The minotaur as a mirror of self reflection - the fear of confronting one’s inner ugliness. MANSUR takes you on a sonic journey through subterranean labyrinths, evoking spirits from past echoes of Minoa.
Jason Köhnen: Bass / Electronics
Dimitry El Demerdashi: Oud
Martina Horváth: Vocals
Multinational industrial black metal rising force Decoherence join Sentient Ruin again to bring you "System I", a 12" vinyl, digital and cassette tape full-length album/compilation of all the band's recent digital only singles and EPs, remastered to their final and ultimate form along with a glorious and previously unreleased cover rendition of Killing Joke's classic cut "The Wait". While these tracks were previously already digitally (self)released, don't be fooled or misled to think you're hearing any "b-sides" or otherwise "left over" material, rather, consider "System I" not only the righteous third official full-length album from the band, but also by far Decoherence's most visionary, cohesive, and imposing songs to date. Awe-inducing and ghastly in its enveloping immensity, the tracks on "System I" see the enigmatic multinational black metal band morph into their most defiant and commanding form yet, as they construct an impenetrable mechanized swarm of liquefying industrial hallucinations and swirling dissonance that eradicates the listener from their corporeal and terrestrial self to cast them at the edge of a light-devouring void. Stylistically "System I" sees Decoherence's sound still thrive and evolve within the familiar synthetic black metal deconstructionist framework of progenitors like Blut Aus Nord and Darkspace, but as the Killing Joke cover included unmistakably hints at, these tracks also reveal a marked shift for the band toward a more unintelligible, unpredictable, and ominous immateriality, as elements incorporated from post-punk and experimental industrial assume stronger delineations adding ulterior dimensions and identities to the band's already alien and otherworldly sound.
Polish alt-pop superstar Brodka announces new
album ‘BRUT’; a powerful examination of gender,
self-image and society.
Hot on the heels of her Speedy Wunderground 7”
‘Wrong Party’, ‘BRUT’ was recorded with Boxed
In’s Oli Bayston (Kelly Lee Owens, Loyle Carner)
and finds Brodka blurring the boundaries between
natural and synthetic sounds - post-punk riffs, icy
synths and the serrated, heavily-processed guitar
sounds that slice through glittering electro-pop to
bring an industrial edge to the brutalism-inspired
vision.
LP pressed on marbled vinyl.
Reissue of Corinne Bailey Rae’s debut self-titled album originally released February 2006. Debuting at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and Featuring four top 40 singles such as ‘Like A Star’, ‘Trouble Sleeping’ and ‘Put Your Records On’ which reached number 2, reissued for the first time since 2006 this release also features bonus track ‘Another Rainy Day’. The album was certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold over four million copies worldwide. “Put Your Records On” & “Like a Star” were both nominated for Grammy Awards in 2007/2008 for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl, a D2C offering of a black and brick red vinyl is also available.
MEDWAY GARAGE UPSTARTS! 2nd LP! The Shadracks are a three-piece rock n’ roll group hailing from Medway, Kent. With timeless and expert precision the Shadracks play from 37.3 years in the past 33.7 years into the future. The actual origins of the group date back even further with their cultural appropriation of Babylonian 'Rhythm and Punk. A mere 3 years ago Huddie Shadrack and Elisa Abednego had a brief encounter in deserted parkland. Discovering sheared an interest in vacant park benches, herbaceous borders and beat music it became paramount that they form a group - and quickly. After the release of there self titled debut LP, a subsequent live BBC 6Music session for Marc Riley and a fast selling EP, Elle Meshack retired from The Shadracks to peruse a career as a Poly Styrene impersonator aboard a Tahitian cruise liner: SS Honolulu Baby. Fortunately for the bass bereft Shadracks an advert placed in the window of a local stationers was answered by a certain Rhys ‘King Nebuchadnezzar’ Webb. A meeting issued and after proclaiming "Oh merciful Marduck, may the house that I have built endure forever” Their followed a two-hour induction ceremony (in which to learn all the new tracks for their forthcoming long player From Human Like Forms and Webb, for it was he, was sworn into The Shadracks fraternity. From Human Like Forms sees The Shadracks achieving giddy new heights in their song writing and performing abilities - pushing their ancient sound 3.7 years ahead of the current lunar time module. Councillor Duxbury. 2021
While the pandemic paralyzed the entire world and prevented bands from touring, Latin America's biggest metal export SEPULTURA refused to sit back and act like an animal trapped in a cage. Like the flowers growing out of the deceased bird’s body depicted on the stunning colourful cover artwork by Eduardo Recife, the thrash metal pioneers from Belo Horizonte made good use of their unexpected free time to start a project that kept them busy throughout the entirety of 2020:
‘SepulQuarta’ was born at the very beginning of the pandemic when everything was halted”, guitarist Andreas Kisser remembers. “We had a new album out, but we couldn’t tour for it. Therefore, we created this recurring event where we could talk with our fans around the world, play our music and exchange ideas, it was a blast! »SepulQuarta« kept us alive and strong throughout one of the most difficult times in human history.”
“Doing Sepulquarta during this period allowed me to stay in contact with music. Playing my instrument was the only thing left to do in this pandemic,” adds drummer Eloy Casagrande, and indeed, music seemed to be a good way of coping with the never-ending lockdown and fear of loss and isolation that haunted people worldwide. Obviously, the Brazilian pioneers were not the only musicians feeling this way, so they started to connect with friends and colleagues worldwide and asked them to not only be part of their weekly podcast, but also join them in playing one of SEPULTURA’s classics tracks. From the safety of their homes, international stars like David Ellefson, Scott Ian, Danko Jones, Devin Townsend, Matt Heafy and many more recorded a SEPULTURA track together with the band, which have now been mixed and mastered by Conrado Ruther.
“We invited our amazingly talented friends to be a part of our project, either jamming with us or as a guest in the many Q&A’s we promoted,” Andreas explains. “We talked about our history, music, politics, sports, philosophy, depression and the environment among other things. We learned a lot with specialist guests and many of the great minds of today. Here you will find unique performances of SEPULTURA’s music from the many phases of our career, with amazing guest musicians that lent us their talent and energy to record these historical versions!”
Introducing Oslo’s next big exports, Veps. Open The Door is an introduction to their nineties tinged, pop rock and out September 3rd on Kanine Records.
Hailing from the eastside of Norway’s capital, Veps have known each other since elementary school and began playing music together in middle school, aged 14. Although growing up with very different influences, the girls had a common sense as outsiders and while making a short film together decided to make an impromptu band. With Helena, Laura and June already accomplished at their instruments, Maja was assigned as drummer, she had never touched a drum set before, and Veps was born. Already causing a stir playing a series of DIY shows wherever they could, the band self-released Do I Hear A Maybe? and Funny Things.
Equipped with their stunning debut EP which showcases songwriting beyond their youthful years, Veps signed to New York label Kanine Records, planting them firmly as one of the most exciting bands to watch.
Reissue of Corinne Bailey Rae’s debut self-titled album originally released February 2006. Debuting at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and Featuring four top 40 singles such as ‘Like A Star’, ‘Trouble Sleeping’ and ‘Put Your Records On’ which reached number 2, reissued for the first time since 2006 this release also features bonus track ‘Another Rainy Day’. The album was certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold over four million copies worldwide. “Put Your Records On” & “Like a Star” were both nominated for Grammy Awards in 2007/2008 for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl.
Released for the very first time in the format it was recorded for. The Holy grail of Bolan's unreleased soul recordings as producer for SISTER PAT HALL, includes completely unheard version of Do Your Thing taken from newly acquired original reels features completely reworked version of classic T. Rex Tracks 'Jitterbug Love', 'Get it On', 'Sunken Rags', and the never released in Marc's lifetime 'Sailors of the highway'. Besides some self-released gospel recordings, Pat Hall was a much sought after vocalist in the late 60's early 70's, having worked with Joe Cocker as one of the `Sanctified Sisters' along with Gloria Jones. In 1972 Pat (& Hloria) became backing singers on the u.s T.Rex concerts and in mid to late 1973 Marc Bolan decided he was going to produce an album by Pat, being well ahead of the then interest in black american soul by fellow pop stars David Bowie John Lennon and Elton John. The album was recorded but never released (on vinyl), until now! Pat Hall never released anything again, this album remains the sole released recordings of this extraordinary singer.
Cutting his teeth on New Orleans session work while still a teen in the 1950s, pianist and singer Dr. John (born Mac Rebennack) emerged in the late 1960s with GRIS-GRIS, a blend of snaky rhythms, Crescent City funk, and swampland voodoo flair. Since then, he has remained one of New Orleans’s prime musical ambassadors, an artist with his own trademark sound and style. These sessions actually have a feeling not unlike his early-'70s work. Most of the titles are self-penned, and there are also a few Professor Longhair covers. If you like vintage Dr. John, this is almost mandatory.
For number 89 in the Brazil45 series, we present a no-nonsense Brazilian funk / samba rock double-sider courtesy of the mighty Golden Boys and Silvio C sar. The Golden Boys were a quartet formed in 1958 by the Correa brothers; Renato, Roberto, Ronaldo, and their cousin Valdir Anuncia o. They enjoyed a stellar recording career, from the 50s through to the 90s, with members of the group still involved in music to this day. For this selection we headed to their self-titled 1975 album released on Odeon and cherry-picked one of the group’s funkiest moments, ‘Segura Na Cintura Dela (O Gavi o)’. By now performing as a trio, they enlisted Paulo Deb tio of Lemos E Deb tio 8206;fame as executive producer and, on the controls, producer Milton Miranda. Miranda was a silent figure behind so many of the much-loved classic Odeon / EMI releases of the 60s and 70s. ‘Beco Sem Sa da’ is another Odeon release, and another classic produced by Milton Miranda. Taken from Silvio C sar’s self-titled 1971 album, here the prolific singer and composer delivers a swinging samba rock / groove. With fantastic arrangements by Geraldo Vespar, this addictive swing was reconstructed in the 2000s when Drumagick sampled it for their track ‘Sambarock’. So here we have two slices of Brazilian dancefloor pressure just waiting to take centre stage again.
- Next installment in BRAZIL45 Series.
- Brazilian funk and samba rock double-sider.
- Both tracks produced by Milton Miranda.
“Distinct arrangements of silky, swaying pedal steel chords echo through smoke-filled rooms as booming bass guitar drones and cacophonous percussion occasionally shifts into fleeting moments of steadily swinging rhythms - grasping onto form amidst abstraction.”
Originally self-released in 2020 by New Orleans based Kelby Clark, ‘Casino’ is a self-reflective, acoustic journey, exhibiting the tender charisma of a bygone age filled with optimism and high stakes, while subsequently revealing a modern sense of sullen tension and ambiguity.
We believe this vital piece of southern storytelling should be available to the wider public, and thus we are elated to present the expanded re-issue of ‘Casino’, containing 2 additional pieces completed around the same time of the original work, as well as featuring new accompanying artwork.
Oneknowing is the debut artist album by acclaimed composer and producer Lena Raine, most recently known for her multiple award-winning soundtrack for the video game Celeste. Based in Seattle, Raine has been composing soundtracks for games and media for 12 years, her breakout momentcoming with her work on the classic PC game Guild Wars 2. Her most celebrated work, however, has come in the form of 2018’s Celeste soundtrack. A game based around themes of anxiety, self-examination and more, Celeste is considered by many to be the key indie game of 2018, and has won multiple awards for both game and soundtrack – something which Raine painstakingly developed in tandem with the game’s design since its first steps. A flagship year for Raine was capped off in December, where she performed live with soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer at The Game Awards, the video game industry’s flagship annual award show (Celeste was nominated for fourawards, and won two). Although she’s released several nonsoundtrack releases, both under her real name and her Kuraine alias, Raine considers Oneknowing her debut artist album - a 10 track set that ranges from distorted paranoia to ambient pop, brought together by the shimmering melodies that make her soundtracks so memorable. An album that draws from “personal experiences, important places, dreams and the lack of dreams”, Oneknowing’s tracks are also threaded together by Raine’s own vocals, sung in a language unique to the album and manipulated by the software Vocaloid. In Raine’s words, “I have nostalgia for my voice as it sounded when I was younger. I can't de-age my voice, but I was able to use software and tweak its settings to a point that it has a similar quality to my voice from backthen”. At times (‘Tsukuyomi’, ‘Light Rail’) her vocals lean towards traditional pop structures, while on tracks such as ‘Wake Up’, they’re repeated, chant-like, to create a hypnotic effect. As well as vocals and software, Raine plays rhodes piano, zither and various hardware synthesizers on Oneknowing, while Michaela Nachtigall contributes violin and viola to various tracks. A succinct but expansive record full of detail, Oneknowing represents Raine’s most personal and realised original material yet, while showing a different side to one of the most unique and accomplished composers of the modern era.
‘Part I’ is the debut LP from Indigo, the moniker and ongoing project of Melbourne-based composer and arranger, Nick Roder.
The first release in what will be an ongoing three-part series, Part I features nine tracks for bass guitar and tenor saxophone. Part II, an exploration of a slightly larger, more sonically diverse musical world will feature string quartet and voice. Finally, Part III will collaborate with choreographer Siobhan McKenna, who alongside Nick will develop a percussive movement work that seamlessly intertwines with the musical work.
“My aim is to create music that is sonically and musically atypical whilst still belonging to an accessible contemporary scene. Each project, album or ‘part’ will set out to explore a single ensemble or group of instruments. In the case of Part I, that ensemble is hollow body bass guitar and tenor saxophone. “ - Indigo (Nick Roder)
The Indigo project itself was inspired by Saxophone & Bass Guitar by Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, which prompted Nick to write an album of music for the same type of ensemble. Having only just purchased a bass guitar for a different project, the instrument was still very new to him.
“I was curious to see what I would write with my self-imposed rule of not being able to overdub material, and further, how my limitations as a relatively green bass guitarist would influence the writing of the material. A strong focus on harmonic movement and melodic material was where I eventually found my happy place.”
The result is a phenomenal debut. Burrowing into the space between it’s sparse instrumentation and dulcet tones, Part I is the realisation of a minimalist and concise vision of what a symbiotic relationship between two instruments can yield.
About Indigo
Indigo is the moniker and ongoing project of Melbourne-based composer and arranger, Nick Roder. The Indigo project was conceptualised in 2020 and focuses on deep sonic exploration of little-heard ensembles in a contemporary space.
Since 2018, Nick has been composing soundtracks for video games including The Invisible Hand, Roadwarden, N1NE: Splintered Mind, This Dead Winter and Miska. Nick has also played in art-rock ensemble, Tulalah, exploring sonic textures, combining contemporary jazz/rock with chamber sounds. The modular ensemble released The Flood (Equinox Recordings, 2015) and The Question (Independent, 2017).
In 2012, ten years after its inception, Stand High Patrol released their first album: Midnight Walkers, which featured a multifaceted take on contemporary dub – a versatile sound with heavy bass, named dubadub. Following the success of their first LP, plus several EPs and singles released on Stand High Records, Pupajim, Rootystep and Mac Gyver now return with their second self-produced album, with sleeve art by Kazy.
Recorded in a home studio between June 2013 and July 2014, A matter of scale has brought the emergence of new influences. The three dubadub musketeerz intensify the genre crossovers and strengthen the foundations of their creative process. Theirs is an open approach, free from conventions.
Supported by the rich range of Pupajim’s vocals, the sounds travel incessantly between eras. The dubadub experience takes on new dimensions; jazzy rhythms and melodies stand alongside digital reggae, hip-hop beats, bass music and progressive dubs.
A matter of scale shows how Stand High Patrol design and compose their own music. The album reflects the undeniable penchant of the crew for experimentation and their obvious desire to break down barriers.
