In Rumi's poem A Great Wagon he writes of a place of total acceptance. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there," It is a boundless, liminal space where we can release the judgments we make and carry of ourselves, and the comparisons to others. When we think of this field, there is a sense of tranquility that only comes when we are undisturbed by the shadow self and see existence as neither bright nor dim, white nor black. But as lead singer Greg Bertens explains, arriving there is a whole different story. "This is a poem I've returned to over the years, and I love the idea of this place, but getting there is life's journey." Bertens adds "I think the longing for and elusiveness of this field is a recurring theme in our music." Field is enveloped by themes of regret, disconnection and frustration but with the space to understand that these feelings are a natural part of the struggle between reconciling the inner and outer self. The Los Angeles/San Francisco-based group have been indie shoegaze stalwarts since their formation in 2001. After two decades and a handful of line-up changes, their extensive discography presents a dynamically textural, lush psychedelic rock that has featured guest appearances by members of Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Snow Patrol, among others. 2021's LP We Weren't Here was hailed for its dense instrumental blanket, where unrelenting hi-hats and heavy kicks exist alongside dreamy drone guitar. This propulsive nature permeates Field, as members Bertens, Noël Brydebell (vocals), Nyles Lannon (guitar), Jason Ruck (synths), Justin LaBo (bass), and Adam Wade (drums) produce a kaleidoscopic sonic landscape. Patient, sprawling instrumentation builds a foundation in which Bertens' themes of endurance, perseverance and clarity can bloom with a considered poise. As a lyricist who writes in response to the instrumental arrangements, rather than a focus on a specific theme or person, Field is a testament to Film School's ability to create in the moment, and to showcase the magic that stems from when we are truly present. Album opener "Tape Rewind" is a swirling rush of color, as sustained guitars, darkened bass lines and urgent, percussive swells dance alongside each other. "This is the newest of all the songs on the record and feels like a new level of heaviness for the band," Bertens explains, noting that its lyrical context of struggling to move past trauma adds to its cathartic essence. Field is bookended by heavier themes, with closer "All I'll Ever Be" taking on the perspective of those we hurt when we embrace our own toxic behaviors. Originally written to be a simple acoustic guitar and vocals song soon turned into an ethereal, effects-laden composition, with Noël's hazy lead vocals ushering in a new-found acceptance. "It's all I want / To be released / And all I can be," she laments, cementing Field's message of accepting ourselves in whatever form we find ourselves in. "Defending Ruins" is a murky relentless underworld, inspired by the freewheeling tones of Texas-based band Holy Wave. "Defending the ruins, defending remains," Bertens spits, among a richly-layered outro. "Don't You Ever" confirms Film School's ability to merge both delicate and growling instrumentation throughout the album, with the song's softly spoken section hovering above sparkling guitar. "Is This A Hotel" bends towards the electronic aspects of the band, with wailing synths accompanying a story of bitter desire. With over two decades in the industry, Field cements Film School as a distinct, dominant force in the shoegaze scene. Soaked in an emotionally open, imaginative atmosphere, the album is both singular and expansive, and leaves the door open for a constantly evolving interpretation. Film School have never confined themselves to the rigidity of specifics, and it's on Field that they urge us to look beyond the binary of certainty, and to take a second look
Buscar:t move
Boy Harsher, Portishead, Thom Yorke, Radiohead, Beak>, ERAAS, SUUNS. Over the past seven years, Public Memory's distinctive use of analog synthesizers, electronic beats mixed with organic percussion, lo-fi sound design, and gritty ambience has created a singularly eerie and shadowy world. The first seconds of Public Memory's new record, Elegiac Beat, thrust us immediately into that world. We are in media res, with a feeling of sudden movement from a sensible point A to B. Given some time however, we realize that there is something askew–a bit of brightness here, some shadows pushed aside, some jazz and funk amongst the dub and Krautrock. This is an unfamiliar, ambiguous mood that pushes Public Memory towards new ground. We still drift past the clouded lights and hollowed out buildings of previous albums, but with an occasional bounce in our step now, a bit of golden haze around the edges. First single "Savage Grin" cements this clearly. The track has a jazzy, trip-hop flavor, albeit filtered through Public Memory's narcotic, hazy lens. We could be in a hotel lounge in the alps somewhere on holiday, or out of time in a majestic, sparkling ballroom. But we still have the feeling of being haunted, or perhaps even hunted in some way. This feeling intensifies and comes to a head towards the ever-darkening end of the track, leading directly into "Afterimage", in which someone almost imperceptibly sings "I hear them coming" in a twisted, auto-tuned flail. Second single "7 Floor" begins with flanged drums and damaged synthesizer stabs, evoking a kind of apparition floating towards us in the mist. As the track moves on there is, similarly to "Savage Grin", a contrast in feeling between a cold exterior roaming and an interior, warmer, human place. This time however, we move from the colder to the warmer as the synths from the track's beginning make way for a Rhodes-style organ and backing string synth, infusing an unexpected sense of peace. But like "Savage Grin", the track moves to its end through an in-between place beyond the haze. Faded and distant synthesizers meld with voices–human, or perhaps otherwise–that beckon us, or perhaps warn us. We can't be sure which. Third single "Far End Of The Courtyard" brings us closest to classic Public Memory territory with hip-hop beats, chopped and screwed samples, lo-fi ambience, and ghostly electric pianos complementing the vocals. There is darkness, perhaps more here than in the previous two singles, but with a crucial moment of uplifting lightness so subtle it may be missed upon first listen. As an inverse to both "Savage Grin" and "7 Floor" we end with brightness, the jazzier side of the record pushed to the forefront as the track fades away on that golden haze. In the end though, the haze may be just that: a vapor, a mist, a slight dusting of some other world on top of the degraded one Public Memory so effectively portrays. Elegiac Beat is between two places, and as it straddles the line between the two, we are uncertain if the light it brings shines directly from the sun, or if it is dimly reflected through that majestic ballroom world. For fans of 1990s Bristol trip hop, coldwave, and Thom Yorke's The Eraser
Odd Holiday are purveyors of a rare breed of hip hop, both anchored in golden-era lyrical dexterousness and aligned to the contemporary movement of minimal soulful production. Their music is deeply emotive, seasoned, and undeniable.
L.I.S.A is the debut release by the semi-nomadic duo consisting of Mattic, a Charlotte, NC native currently residing in France and producer Daylight Robbery! who has one foot in the burgeoning jazz scene of London, UK and the other in the boom bap foundation of Brooklyn, NY. L.I.S.A represents the meeting of two forces who are at the top of their game and supremely comfortable in their craft, merging into something which feels both timeless and brand new.
YMO DRUMMER YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI'S SOPHISTICATED CITY FUNK CLASSIC FROM 1978 CO-PRODUCED BY RYUICHI SAKAMOTO AND FEATURING HARUOMI HOSONO, MINAKO YOSHIDA AND TATSURO YAMASHITA. RELEASED FOR THE FIRST TIME OUTSIDE OF JAPAN - WITH REMASTERED AUDIO, LP COMES WITH OBI AND FOUR PAGE INSERT
Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of Yukihiro Takahashi's debut solo album 'Saravah!'. One of the key Japanese albums of the 70s, it was released in 1978 at a key time when, following his tenure with Sadistic Mika Band, Takahashi had just joined the nascent line up of Yellow Magic Orchestra. A sophisticated mix of Disco Funk, synth Pop, Ambient, French Exotica and Bossa Nova, the album has the stylish feel of a night out clubbing in Paris circa 1978. It’s the missing link between the City Pop scene of the late 70s and the synth sound of YMO which was about to revolutionise the world. Newly remastered by renowned engineer Mitsuo Koike, the LP features original artwork with photos by Masayoshi Sukita (David Bowie's Heroes), a 4-page insert and a new Introduction by Benjamin Barouh (Saravah records).
The month before recording the YMO debut album that would help alter the course of music, Yukihiro Takahashi entered the studio with his fellow band-members Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono to record 'Saravah!' together with the cream of the Japanese scene. He drew his inspiration from globe-trotting French musician Pierre Barouh who had introduced Bossa Nova in France in 1966 with "Samba Saravah" (featured in soundtrack the Oscar Winner A Man And A Woman which he co-wrote) and subsequently launched Saravah Records.
'Saravah' starts off with a couple of French and Italian exotica classics ('Volare' and 'C'est Si Bon') with delicious touches of synth while 'Saravah!' a nod to Pierre Barouh, is a languid Bossa Nova with beautiful soulful strings arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album gets hotter with 'La Rosa' a superb mid tempo ambient funk featuring Takahashi's beat backed by Haruomi Hosono's bumping bass line, Sakamoto's Hammond Organ and Shigeru Suzuki's fluid guitar.
The first side ends with an amazing exotica-synth version of the standard 'Mood Indigo', announcing the midi revolution that was to come before things get funkier on Side Two starting with Ryuichi Sakamoto's superb up-tempo Disco instrumental ‘Elastic Dummy’ featuring soulful strings and horns with solos by Sakamoto and guitarist Tsunehide Matsuki. The album then moves on to the ambient synth pop of ‘Sunset’ before switching back to Disco Funk with 'Back Street Midnight Queen’ which. like 'Elastic Dummy' has become a dancefloor cult classic over the years.' Saravah! ends on a perfect note with the beautiful 'Present' a perfectly crafted pop song which Takahashi wanted to do in a City Pop mode, featuring a superb melody and high-class arrangements. The perfect soundtrack to an early morning stroll in the Paris streets as illustrated by Masayoshi Sukita's photos featured on the album cover.
A sophisticated album full of glitz and fun, 'Saravah!' gives a unique insight into the versatility the YMO musicians and how funky they could play under Yukihiro Takahashi's influence. This was a key time when the three musicians were just transitioning to a sound that would be dominated by synthesizers and 'Saravah' catch them just at that fascinating moment.
Under the alias 4E, producer Can Oral created his own unique sound of raw, futuristic acid-electro. The A-Side tracks "Ask Isadora" and "Conga Banana" first appeared on the album, Blue Note, released on Home Entertainment in 1996. On the flip are two unreleased tracks picked from his extensive archive and edited by FIT Siegel. These were also recorded during this era, which Can describes below:
"In the 90s I moved to NYC to start a band with Jimi Tenor. I had a small flat in the East Village with the apartment number 4E and that became my artist name for the downtempo and electro material I was working on. The style I called Futuristic Electro because I didn't want to relate to the old school with this. I had my studio on the kitchen floor and pretty much only used EMU SP-1200, TB-303, TR-808 and SH-101 by good ol’ Roland. In a way NYC was still developing because it was all about house music. In 1995, I opened Temple Records in Manhattan with Dr Walker from Air Liquide and DJ DB from Smile Communications. The record shop was inside the Liquid Sky clothing store. After a fire in the shop, along with a falling out with the owner I decided to talk to a fortune teller to find out what the future held. Her name was Isadora, and she had a TV show called "Ask Isadora." She told me on live television to move out, have my own shop and be independent, so I did. Thanks Isadora!"
Repressed and note new dealer price. The members of Explosions in the Sky may just be four soft-spoken guys from Texas, but on Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever they simply tear everything apart. Combining influences from classic rock to metal to goth, the band creates instrumental soundscapes that can turn from all-out destruction to heartfelt, dreamy melodies in the blink of an eye. The result is similar to Mogwai and Godspeed a musical journey that leads listeners through the entire range of emotion without even needing words. "Greet Death" matches a crunchy Dinosaur Jr hook with warm Cure-esque bass grooves. "Moon Down" chimes and twists through ten minutes of calm night, leaving the listener with the feeling that something awesome is sure to happen. On "Have You Passed Through This Night?" one of the members of Explosions in the Sky ponders in a near-whispering Texas drawl the meaning of the world. What follows is like the climax of a tense, mind-blowing movie, driven by relentless guitars and a thundering Master of puppets Metallica drum march. "Poor Man's Memory" follows, offering some consolation in a sentimental melody. The album ends with the grand, 12-minute-long "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept," a song that moves from Sonic Youth to Joy Division to Explosions in the Sky. Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever is nothing short of awe-inspiring and was one of the best records of 2001. A1 Greet Death A2 Yasmin The Light A3 The Moon Is Down B1 Have You Passed Through This Night? B2 A Poor Man's Memory B3 With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
The long awaited return of Faetch is here. A pair of stunning EPs by this mysterious entity dropped in 2015 and 2016 on Earwiggle, soon followed by a collaborative release with Sunil Sharpe on On The Hoof. After a 6-year hiatus, Faetch doesn't miss a beat on this return, powering through a range of dynamic dancefloor styles. Starting with the pounding funky jig of peak-time party track "Dialectic", the A-side moves on with the multi-coloured noises and squelching rhythms of "Untec". The stomping FM-riffing industrial techno of "H11" and deep commanding groove of "Jaunt" round off yet another expertly sound-designed 4 tracker, as we reach the completion of the initial Faetch trilogy!
You have said too much to a stranger in a bar bathroom; your back is killing you because of everything you haven’t said; you’ve overwatered your houseplants again. Small Million is here for you. Flowing from the collaboration of longtime creative partners Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham, the Portland-based indie pop outfit welds deeply affecting sonic production to smart lyrics about intuition and inhibition, losing control and ending up in unexpected places, being willing to fuck up, bodies hurt and bodies joyful.
The effect is both intimate and epic, delicate and fierce. Listen to it to ache, dance to it to heal. In the time since Small Million's last release, years of chronic pain have led lead vocalist and lyricist Malachi Graham to deep explorations of embodiment that have changed everything from her singing voice to her dance moves to her observation of human frailty. “There’s one side of chronic pain that leads you towards intuition, self-discovery, and listening closely to yourself. But it also means you end up sitting on the side of the room a lot, watching people and paying attention. Also you’re pissed,” notes Graham. Producer and instrumentalist Ryan Linder’s background as a filmmaker informs the textured richness and intelligent restraint of his song building. He approaches production with obsessive technical rigor that’s always in service of centering intense emotion.
Graham’s clear, unadulterated vocals breathe at the heart of Linder’s rich sonic terrain, drawing comparisons to The Cranberries and Florence + the Machine. Linder and Graham have been writing as a duo for a decade, but for their newest chapter they've expanded the band, enlisting Ben Tyler (Small Skies) on drums and Kale Chesney (Lo Pony) on bass and harmonies.
Small Million's evolution into a four-piece has expanded the band’s sound from their synth pop origins to encompass more organic, raw indie rock energy. Small Million has played with artists like Fakear, IDER, Hatchie, HÆLOS, Lo Moon, and Loch Lomond, and their tracks have been featured on compilations by Tender Loving Empire, PDX Pop Now!, and Vortex Music Magazine. They released their debut EP Before the Fall in June 2016, their follow-up, Young Fools, in Fall 2018, and singles “Saintly” and “Tarot” in 2019. Their newest music is dropping throughout 2022.
- A1: Manifest
- A2: Everything Was Set On Fire
- A3: Doba Extazy
- A4: Plague Remedy
- A5: Zmrzli
- A6: Odovzdat
- A7: Dialogicke Vyvolavania
- A8: Goddess Disappears In The Sky
- A9: Puhpowee
- A10: Artemisia
- A11: It Felt Like I Was Supposed To Follow It
- A12: Septat
- A13: Otvorit Zilu
- A14: Doba Odriekania
- A15: Devat Mien
- A16: Ked Si Pan, Zaplat Dzban
- A17: Pohar Viny
- A18: Crash It To Dust
- A19: The Catharsis Of Human Sorrow
- A20: Death Comes When You Stop Counting On It
- A21: A Goddess Comes From Within The Earth
- A22: Chytat Sa
- A23: 13Th Month
In 2020, electronic musician Nina Pixel was offered a track on a compilation album of songs from the Liptov region. What started as a rearrangement of a single folk song eventually grew in scope and size, eventually becoming a series of releases. Titled Ancestral Archaeology, the series counts two self-released EPs, an audiovisual show in co-operation with Adrián Kriška, and now, after two years, a double LP published by Weltschmerzen. In this definitive form of an album, Ancestral Archaeology reveals itself as a musical reimagination of traditional historical Slovak culture at large.
Nina Pixel averts the perils of lapsing into inauthentic fakelore by building her music with, rather than on, the ethnographic riches of Slovakia. With the eagerness of a genuine archeological prospector, Ancestral Archaeology invokes the always present but seldom perceived linchpins of folklore culture: the desperate clinging to the memory of pre-Christian paganism and witchcraft, songs with narratives of beautiful innate wyrdness that is utterly unfit for mass culture, and superstition as the most serious longing for the balance between sense and irrationality.
If we acknowledge the truism of folklore as the shared way of expression in rural society, the techno music on Ancestral Archeology proposes that, in the urban society of ours, this role is served by raves. The argument isn't as much declared as it's implied // in music and in the spoken-word lyrics that are rife with historical and contemporary sources. An 18th-century recipe by the writer and priest Juraj Fándly proposes snorting the grounded flowers of the medicinal weed Valerian as a way of curing bad vision. "It is a proven remedy!" we are repeatedly assured, and it's not hard imagining Fándly and his parishioners, strung out on Valerian, moving almost involuntarily to the rhythms of their era just as we can move to Ancestral Archeology.
Nina Pixel is a Slovak music artist based in Berlin. Lyrics are inspired by Slovak folklore traditions, songs and shared beliefs.
Manifestation tools: cello, overtone flute koncovka, fujara, gong, metal bowls, sheep bell, field recordings of Slovak forests, Andreas's tom and various drum machines.
- 1: Street Dance – Bonnie Jean
- 2: That's No Way To Spend My Time - The Pen Etts
- 3: Boy Trouble - The Rev-Lons
- 4: I Can Tell (I'm Losing Your Love) – Lena Calhoun & The Emotions
- 5: You Really Never Know Till It's Over – The Vel-Vetts
- 6: Heart For Sale - The Fran-Cettes
- 7: One Way Street - The Swans
- 1: No More Tears - The Sweethearts
- 2: To Know Him Is To Love Him - The Darlings
- 3: Boy You Move Me - Joan Moody
- 4: Lonely Girl - The Lovettes
- 5: My Heart Tells Me So (Aka I Know It's You) – The Del-Phis
- 6: Surfers Memories - The Fashions
- 7: He's Groovy - The Front Page & Her
• “Hearts For Sale” is the fifth and latest in our series of 12-inch vinyl albums spotlighting the US girl group sound of the 1960s. The collection opens with ‘Street Dance’ by Bonnie Jean, a little-known must-have for collectors of the genre, with Darlene Love and the Blossoms clearly audible on background vocals. Issued on Lew Bedell’s Doré label, this exciting faux-live deck in the style of Shirley Ellis’ ‘The Nitty Gritty’ was written by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner, a hip team known for supplying songs for the soundtracks of B movies such as Muscle Beach Party and Thunder Alley.
• The Hollywood-based Doré imprint is also the source of ‘You Really Never Know Till It’s Over’ by the Vel-Vetts (which shares a backing track with the Superbs’ ‘I Was Born When You Kissed Me’), ‘One Way Street’ by the Swans, a soulful update of the Teddy Bears’ ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ by the Darlings and – featuring lead vocals by Sheilah Page, a former member of groups such as the Bermudas, Becky & the Lollipops, the Majorettes, Joanne & the Triangles and Beverly & the Motor Scooters – ‘He’s Groovy’ by the Front Page & Her.
• Other highlights include the Sweethearts’ Supremes-influenced ‘No More Tears’, the sophisticated slowie ‘Lonely Girl’ by the Lovettes (that’s them on the front sleeve), ‘My Heart Tells Me So’ by the Del-Phis (an early incarnation of Martha & the Vandellas) and the Fran-Cettes’ terrific recording of ‘Heart For Sale’. As with the earlier volumes in the series, the album comes with a fully-illustrated inner bag featuring a 2,500-word track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick.
RAWAX welcomes Ferdinand Steinbacher aka Brevis Bounce to the artist family! We are very happy to present you this great talent HOUSEWAX. After joining a RAWAX micro GARDEN FESTIVAL with Move D, Ferdinand went home and started (impressed from David's set) to jam. He uploaded the video on social media. Luckily we saw it and asked him to make us some tracks - the result is his first vinyl release called "Vibrant Remedy" which will be out in January.
Highly recommended!
Legendary drummer Kenny Clarke compared Jean-Luc Ponty to Dizzy Gillespie Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marveled, "He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone." Born in 1942, the French violinist Jean- Luc Ponty transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz. On Frank Zappa's urging, Ponty moved to the States in 1970. Over the next years he toured with Zappa, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Chick Corea's "Return to Forever".In the early 1970s Ponty bought himself a sequencer and synthesizer and carried them around while traveling so he could record new ideas. By 1982 Ponty had a well- deserved reputation as a forerunner in jazz-rock and jazz fusion.
In a retrospective interview for this re- release of the 1983 album Individual Choice, JLP said:
"What I was recording in that new sequencer gave me the idea to go for a totally different concept, to use these recordings as rhythmic backgrounds, sometimes without drums or percussion. I planned to record a new album in which I would play all the background parts with my synthesizers and add my violin later on in the studio."
Ponty also invited a couple guests to contribute to the recording.
They were no less than George Duke (keys), Allan Holdsworth (guitar), Rayford Griffin (drums) and Randy Jackson (bass).
Individual Choice has been re- mastered by 2023 Grammy Nominee Christoph Stickeland includes new liner notes.
The first encounters of Chassol with Indian music date from his teenage years where, thanks to John Mc Laughlin and his band Shakti, he could hear ragas, rhythm structures and Indian instruments mixed with jazz.
Then came Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia and the devotional songs.
More recently, the documentaries by Louis Malle (Phantom India) and by Johan van der Keuken (The Eye Above The Well) left their marks on him and after having harmonized New-Orleans in "Nola Cherie", the choice to attempt at an harmonization of life, sounds, motifs, noises and traffic from Northern India quite naturally grew on him.
In Calcutta and Varanasi, India's most ancient city, he went to shoot sitarists, percussionists, singers, dancers, the kids, the Ganga, the city and the apparent chaos of the traffic.
Indiamore spreads over four movements, one same tonal harmonic suite of warm and real pop chords that marries the modal Indian music usually resting on a sole continuous bass line played by the tampura.
In repeating these images, in treating their sound as a music material and in harmonizing the actors' speech with his own harmonic obsessions, he achieves to blend a documentary approach into a
- A1: The Big Game 2:54
- A2: Running Against The Time 4:05
- A3: Tomorrow Is A Foreign Land 2:07
- A4: The Blue Boat 1:57
- A5: Hong Kong Promenade 1:34
- A6: Time On My Hands 2:48
- B1: The Big Game 2:32
- B2: Cape Town Harbour 2:43
- B3: Sound From The Space 1:59
- B4: Death Must Wait 2:27
- B5: You'll Kill Her 3:06
- B6: Red Clouds 1:27
- B7: The Night Is Ours 2:58
Another master of the soundtrack is Francesco De Masi, that, through a long carrier, has moved between different genres, giving the soundtrack to spaghetti western movies (like Vado l'ammazzo e torno) comedies, and action movies like La Macchina della violenza (The Big Game), by Robert Day. A soundtrack that goes from tense and nervous songs, to soft ballads with female voice.
Mixtus Orbis is a split album between Rennes' wizard Le Matin and the Danish astrocosmonauts Parallel Planet (Grammar of Movement & Ecxo).
It’s the 18th release of the label Maturre.
Mixtus Orbis is a place where the bad and the evil are meeting. Strange forms for strange minds, and big bangers for big dancers.
- A1: We Crossed The Atlantic
- A2: The Love You Bring
- A3: When I Was Howard Hughes
- A4: Failed Adventure
- B1: Stars (Twilight Mix)
- B2: Grand Central
- B3: International Exiles
- B4: Merry-Go-Round
- B5: Radios Appear
- C1: City Terminus
- C2: Min Min Light
- C3: Oregon Snow
- C4: Cherry Lake
- C5: Blackout
- D1: Please Don’t Say Goodbye
- D2: Museum Station
- D3: Blue Train
- D4: You Were There
- D5: Something Better Beginning
Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. It’s the third release in what feels, now, like a loosely planned series by World Of Echo, documenting the music made by this group of friends in Melbourne sharehouses (The Cat’s Miaow’s Songs ’94-’98, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (Gone By Fall, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.
Hydroplane would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, Hydroplane’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.
They may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound Hydroplane created was so bewitching, so compelling, that the project’s lifespan ran for around half a decade, and they ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space, and seven singles. There are all kinds of compelling things happening in the music compiled here – the hazy repetition of the gentler side of Krautrock is in here, somewhere, which also suggests Stereolab at their most intimate and disarmed; the gently drifting guitars, gauzy and oneiric, set the songs adrift and floating, each one lost in its own imagined, distracted world. Songs like “The Love You Bring” set indistinct tonal floats across dance rhythms, in a way not quite heard since My Bloody Valentine’s “Instrumental” – but with the added gift of Bolton’s gorgeous voice.
This loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of Hydroplane, also gestures towards peers like Hood, Acetate Zero and Other People’s Children, and releases on renegade labels like Wurlitzer Jukebox and Enraptured. Like those groups and labels, The Cat’s Miaow were reconciling independent pop music’s past – sweet melody and melancholy, chiming and droning guitars – with the futures promised by DIY electronics and nascent digitalia, the interface of indie and IDM that led to some of the underground’s most blissful, texturally swoonsome music. All that is here, but also, the poise of the melodies is pure Cat’s Miaow, though, with Bolton’s voice sailing, pacifically, over some of the most pared-down, gorgeous music made during their decade.
It was a time, too, when such music could make waves – “We Crossed The Atlantic”, one of their early singles, was picked up by John Peel, who played it repeatedly on his legendary radio show, the song reaching #13 on his 1997 Festive 50. That the song itself was a cover of a tune by 1960s Australian beatnik-pop-poet Pip Proud felt even more perfect – a group of outsiders paying tribute to another outsider, played on the radio one of the few broadcasters brave and human enough to take a chance on this music. But it was a time where everything was up for grabs, and genres were flowing into each other: folk songs went drone; indie re-discovered noise; ambient pop floated, again, out onto the dancefloor. And while they may have been sequestered away in Melbourne, Australia, Hydroplane felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.
Compiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of Hydroplane’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.
Summer is now upon us, and with it one of our dearest dancefloor artillerymen returns to Timedance.
Ploy's « For when we haven’t slept » stands as a mission statement for the party athlete, it is a celebration of weekends ran like both a sprint and a marathon and its three tracks narrates the spirally craze that keeps you out and makes the dancers forget the sole existence of their beds.
Starting with the first hits of strobe lights on a Saturday night, as the energy rises and the dancefloor manically comes together (Crazy BB), it then moves on to a welcome and slightly hectic high octane after-party (Rose) before rolling all the way through to the sheer moments of lustful euphoria that defines the best Sunday sessions (Finally).
Bass pressure and intoxicating techno collide seamlessly without falling into the traps of forced seriousness, while hints of hook-laden house music keep the groove at peak levels, so the bodies can keep moving, beyond sleep and exhaustion and into the final stages of pure frenzy, for when we haven’t slept.
Odd Nosdam really doesn’t need an introduction, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years then undoubtedly you’ll know what’s up, and what an absolute humbling pleasure it is to now introduce Nosdam to the Where To Now? catalogue with two new cuts that flow from ethereal, meditative contemplation through to downtown abstracted machine damage..
The record opens with ‘End is Important’, A looping, spiritual lament which forces observation, or resolution around the concept of ‘Endings.’ Passages from Tsunetomo Yamamoto’s ‘Hagakure’ seep in and out of the mix throughout, where spiraling and glistening arpeggios dance across a glorious choral mantra, intended to elevate minds towards some kind of plume of awakening. This is a heady and deep cut which finds Odd Nosdam in full introspection mode.
‘Here to Know’ recalls the work of Patrick Cowley in his best downtown ultra slow swinging funk suit, or the more obvious nods to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 OST. However, this is far from a straight up ode to creeping machine funk - Nosdam’s injection of energetic, pulsing synth stabs move the piece into a more surreal territory, creating a masterful and experimental injection of life and colour into an otherwise smoked out landscape.
“Where I found myself when Where To Now? reached out - asking if I'd consider a vinyl release with the label - was over in Barcelona spending time with loved ones at my family's apartment in the district of Sant Gervasi.
After my initial contact with WTN?, I ventured north to Cadaqués to visit Salvador Dalí's house in Port Lligat, where Gala & Dalí spent some 50 summers. While inspired asf touring the glorious property, I captured recordings from a looping video screening in an open air theater. These recordings became the foundation of Here To Know.
Sometimes there’s a break in the road. End Is Important was realized after re-watching the Jim Jarmusch film, Ghost Dog. Stealthy and evanescent, a familiar voice carries this slow-diver with a message to the world warped cruiser in all of us.” - Odd Nosdam


















