A more upfront and streamlined proposition than last year's 'Dias da Aranha' on Souk, 'Cornos' is a reflection of Serpente's solo live apparitions throughout this last year.
A cycle tainted by tragedies and a maze-like feeling of loss, 'Cornos' mirrors both the urge of overcoming and its ghostly remnants through five digressions that pulsate with crippled rhythmic symmetries and loner harmonic motifs. Maybe just the sound of moving on with broken legs.
With 2 solo albums («Digital Pixel » in 2016 and « Bass Attack » in 2018 ), a dozen of EPs and more than 800 shows performed all over the globe, the most international French beatmaker in the world of Reggae is back on November 2023 with his brand new album « Step Up », in which he pushes further the fusion between Reggae and Bass Music. With « Step Up » Manudigital made his music evolves toward more electronic and hybrid productions. He navigates between musical genres like no one does, inviting guests from all over the world. Armed with his bass, MPC and synthesiser, Manudigital surrounded himself with no less than 17 hand-picked artists to make his productions their own. « (…) I was already working on my upcoming album and I thought I would keep this small Reggae loop to take it to another style, fully electronic which has given my new album’s DNA » - Manudigital about the track « Step Up » The album opens with the eponymous explosive track « Step Up » featuring veteran Jamaican deejay Joseph Cotton and British Drum & Bass MC Bellyman, author of the successful YouTube video series « Carz Barz ». Among the artists of the British underground musical scene, Reggae/Soul genius Liam Bailey has been invited on the Pop-infused Digital Reggae track « Enough » which will delight the lovers of soulful Reggae. Manudigital also reminds us Reggae has always be his first love and, after having produced Alborosie and Protoje’s hit « Strolling » a few years ago, he proposed the Sicilian MC to collaborate with Jamaican artist Yami Bolo on the track « Reggae Music and Love ». A big tune built upon a classic digital riddim in the Jamaican way, a catchy chorus carried by the high voice of Yami Bolo and the legendary flow of Alborosie of the verses. Cult band Asian Dub Foundation’s singer Ghetto Priest takes also part of the project with « Rasta Corner », MC Caporal Negus joins Manudigital on « Dub and Bass » and on tour, and Jolly Joseph sings on « The world is Hell » for the Reggae Dub tracks of the album. In terms of surprises, Manudigital takes pleasure in inviting benchmark artists in each musical genres, walking through Lo Fi Hip-Hop’s path with the Dancehall President aka Skarra Mucci on « Fi Di Youths », Baile Funk with Punjabi-American rapper Alo Wala and their song « Love on Tap » or even Afrobeat with Dynamq for the last song « Piki Piki ». Finally, whereas Manudigital will soon celebrate his career 10th anniversary and as his name resonates in sound systems from all over the world, we appreciate each risk taken and each nod to Reggae Culture, wondering what his next shape will be. First parts of response on November 17, 2023 with the release of
Bastards gained international attention and were the first Finnish hardcore band to tour Europe, yet they still ended up quitting the band in December 1983 after just a few active years. Svart Records have now put together all the recorded material by Bastards. Arctic Hardcore – Complete Studio Recordings & Rare Rehearsal Tapes -box set was done as a tight co-operation between the record company and members of the band. The nearly four-hour long compilation contains 136 songs, of which fifty are never released versions or completely unheard material, until now. The box set also contains a thick booklet with the band’s history, lyrics, complete song details and a lot of photos from the band’s active years. Bastards was one of the first hardcore punk bands coming from Finland in the early 80’s. The band released three albums between 1982-1983: Harhaa (1982, originally only on cassette tape), Järjetön maailma (1983) and Siberian Hardcore (1983). Propaganda Records, the oracle of its time, released the Maailma palaa ja kuolee EP when the band was still active, and some single tracks also appeared on Finnish and international compilations.
Having toured the world with Mczo and been at the helm of his own studio Pamoja Records since he was just 18, influential Singeli producer Duke, now 25, is one of Tanzania's busiest club alchemists. On his acclaimed solo debut "Uingizaji Hewa" we were introduced to his idiosyncratic "hip-hop Singeli" sound, a slower cousin to the Dar Es Salaam-rooted hard 'n fast club template that takes as much special sauce from Busta Rhymes and Eminem as it does the 200BPM clatter of genre veterans Jay Mitta and Sisso. On September's "Sounds Of Pamoja," we were treated to a closer look into Duke's studio, and specifically at his work with the city's best young MCs like Dogo Kibo, Pirato MC and MC Kuke. "Early Instrumentals" allows us to witness the depth of Duke's evolution with a selection of unearthed genre melting Singeli mutations laid completely bare without vocals. This 11-track set features some of his most arresting hybrid dance music yet, expressing his visionary fusion of contemporary rave sounds, US rap attitude, and Tanzanian dance history. While the roots of Singeli are in taraab, a popular fusion of East African and Middle Eastern traditional dance rhythms and melodies, Duke steers the sound into a synth-led, syncopated firework display that sounds spry and futuristic. Centered arounda bumping staccato melody and urgent synth strings 'Dukelo Fl Sing' echoes the lo-swung swagger of early Dr. Dre productions, but kicks the tempo into overdrive, decorating any gaps with flickering late-nite synths. 'Beat Kali Duke' meanwhile drives carnival trance leads through hard and fast rolls of kick drums, whistles and woodblock cracks. It's not all completely high speed either: 'Duke Selecta' is almost afro-house, with slow, sexy bass and woozy vocal melodies, and 'KKKKKKKKKKKKKKK' absorbs the propulsive spirit of South African gqom. "Early Instrumentals" is the most varied picture we've been presented yet of Duke's rousing dance cocktail. IT's a physical call to action that assures listeners the genre is for movement, not headphone listening
Tel Aviv’s Raw Tapes Records is celebrating 15 years of spreading the magic of music with Puzzles Vol. 5, a compilation gathering the best that the label has to offer, exclusively released here. Featuring
iogi, Amir Bresler, Buttering Trio and many more, this album is the fifth in Raw Tapes' legendary “Puzzles” series which gives a peek into the heart of the label, revealing the different pieces of the Raw Tapes puzzle in one big, colorful, soulful album festively printed on Raw Tapes' first-ever DOUBLE vinyl.
It's been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia reemerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player's powerful DC-based trio _ which practices each weekend in his basement _ featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA's expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities. Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like "Tizita" or "Anchihoye Lene") upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia's original compositions (like "Yegle Nesh") shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments _ often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age. "Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents. Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he's been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.
It's been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia reemerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player's powerful DC-based trio _ which practices each weekend in his basement _ featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA's expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities. Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like "Tizita" or "Anchihoye Lene") upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia's original compositions (like "Yegle Nesh") shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments _ often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age. "Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents. Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he's been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.
It’s been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia re- emerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the
New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival.
Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player’s powerful DC-based trio—which practices each weekend in his basement—featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.
Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like “Tizita” or “Anchihoye Lene”) upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia’s original compositions (like “Yegle Nesh”) shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age.
Pioneer Works Swing (Live) brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents.
Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he’s been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.
Lebanese-Canadian musician and classically-trained singer and pianist, Natalie Chami, records music under the moniker TALsounds. On her 3rd LP, Shift, Chami’s intimate electro-acoustic compositions
glow with a crisp, icy tonality. She injects the drama and raw emotion of Björk and Sade into the alien rameworks of ambient, drone, and noise quadrants of the experimental.
Ben Bondy dives deep into the aether on this latest full length for Good Morning Tapes, folding blissed chorus-pedal shimmers into smudged dreampop vapours, a bit like like how we’d imagine claire rousay if she were releasing on Chain Reaction.
Mining a similar path to Jake Muir’s Mana album, Bondy explores a late, late night mood on this one, obscuring delicate digital processes behind gossamer webs of static, windchimes and smeared guitars drifting into bliss. Over the space of half an hour, breathy atmospheres blur into a pastel-hued paradise, feeding digitally distressed melodies into whirring machinery and swirling pads.
On ‘Omni Field’ diffracted dub chords swirl around a rainstorm, before ‘Pool’ arranges a guitar arpeggio like some lost E2 E4 edit, and ‘conté' evokes the meditative calm of Harold Budd or Roger Eno with its enigmatic, pastoral ambience. The album’s central point comes with 'kanga', a fuzzy dreamscape assembled from booming subs and psychoactive bells that feel more potent than a blotter under the tongue...
Black vinyl[26,01 €]
Im Herbst 2023 erscheint bei Erased Tapes das Album Give It to
the Sky: Arthur Russell"s Tower of Meaning Expanded. Bei der
vom Komponisten und Producer Peter Broderick und dem 12-
köpfigen Ensemble 0 aus Frankreich aufgenommenen Version,
handelt es sich um eine erweiterte Neuinterpretation von Arthur
Russells minimalistischer Orchesterkomposition "Tower of
Meaning", die erstmals im Jahr 1983 veröffentlicht wurde. "Give
It to the Sky.." vereint zudem auch unveröffentlichte Stücke von
Russell, die überarbeitet und neu aufgenommen wurden. Mit
ihrer umwerfenden, insgesamt 80 Minuten langen Hommage
hauchen Broderick und Ensemble 0 dem "Tower of Meaning"
neues Leben ein und verknüpfen diesen minimalistischen
Meilenstein mit etlichen verlorenen Songideen aus Russells
Nachlass. Das komplette Album, das so gut wie ohne Overdubs
auskommt, wurde live in einem kleinen Theater im Südwesten
Frankreichs eingespielt. Gewiss war Russell nie ein Freund
endgültiger Versionen. Er dachte kontinuierlich über die
Möglichkeiten eines Stücks nach und fragte sich, was es sonst
noch alles sein oder werden könnte. "Give it to the Sky" knüpft
ganz klar an diese Herangehensweise an, indem es "Tower of
Meaning" als grobes Framework nutzt, um darauf aufzubauen,
diesen atmenden Kern nach oben und nach außen zu erweitern
- und insgesamt etwas entstehen zu lassen, das man ganz klar
in Russells wundersam-paradoxer Welt verorten kann. Auch
"Give it to the Sky" kann somit keineswegs als letztes Wort oder
ultimative Interpretation gedacht sein. Broderick und Ensemble
0 sind längst darüber im Austausch, welche Formen es auf der
Bühne annehmen oder wohin es sonst führen könnte.
Clear vinyl[25,17 €]
Im Herbst 2023 erscheint bei Erased Tapes das Album Give It to
the Sky: Arthur Russell"s Tower of Meaning Expanded. Bei der
vom Komponisten und Producer Peter Broderick und dem 12-
köpfigen Ensemble 0 aus Frankreich aufgenommenen Version,
handelt es sich um eine erweiterte Neuinterpretation von Arthur
Russells minimalistischer Orchesterkomposition "Tower of
Meaning", die erstmals im Jahr 1983 veröffentlicht wurde. "Give
It to the Sky.." vereint zudem auch unveröffentlichte Stücke von
Russell, die überarbeitet und neu aufgenommen wurden. Mit
ihrer umwerfenden, insgesamt 80 Minuten langen Hommage
hauchen Broderick und Ensemble 0 dem "Tower of Meaning"
neues Leben ein und verknüpfen diesen minimalistischen
Meilenstein mit etlichen verlorenen Songideen aus Russells
Nachlass. Das komplette Album, das so gut wie ohne Overdubs
auskommt, wurde live in einem kleinen Theater im Südwesten
Frankreichs eingespielt. Gewiss war Russell nie ein Freund
endgültiger Versionen. Er dachte kontinuierlich über die
Möglichkeiten eines Stücks nach und fragte sich, was es sonst
noch alles sein oder werden könnte. "Give it to the Sky" knüpft
ganz klar an diese Herangehensweise an, indem es "Tower of
Meaning" als grobes Framework nutzt, um darauf aufzubauen,
diesen atmenden Kern nach oben und nach außen zu erweitern
- und insgesamt etwas entstehen zu lassen, das man ganz klar
in Russells wundersam-paradoxer Welt verorten kann. Auch
"Give it to the Sky" kann somit keineswegs als letztes Wort oder
ultimative Interpretation gedacht sein. Broderick und Ensemble
0 sind längst darüber im Austausch, welche Formen es auf der
Bühne annehmen oder wohin es sonst führen könnte.
Ein außergewöhnliches Album und eine geradezu bewusstseinserweiternde Klang-Erfahrung. Zwei Jahre nach seinem großen Erfolg "Persona" aus 2018 kehrt der Londoner Elektro-Musiker und Produzent Rival Consoles endlich mit dem rundum überzeugenden "Articulation" zurück Das Album entstand als konzeptionelles Experiment, das erforschen will, inwieweit visualisierte Strukturen sich musikalisch umsetzen und hörbar machen lassen. Während des Schreibprozesses zeichnete Ryan Lee West (aka Rival Consoles) also konkrete Formen und Muster von Hand, um zu versuchen dem Entstehungsprozess elektronischer Musik eine haptisch erfahrbare und vom Computer vollständig losgekoppelte Grundstruktur zu geben. Dazu passend wurde der Albumtitel gewählt, der sich auf ein Stück des zeitgenössischen Avantgarde-Komponisten Györgi Ligeti bezieht, weil dieses eine ganz ungewöhnliche grafische Partitur hat. Die Idee, analoge Zeichnungen und Werkzeuge zur Entwicklung digitaler Kreationen zu verwenden, ist deutlich hörbar: Auf "Articulation" beschwören grüblerischen Techno-Nummern, nostalgische Ambient-Meditation, pulsierende Soundscapes traumwandlerische Stimmungen herauf. Die Zeichnung wird zu Klang und Rhythmus und diese zur frei fließenden Energie.
For over two decades Jonathan Katsav has used his Crave project to fray rap at its fringes, using Memphis and Houston's low-and-slow legacy to inform sounds that have as much in common with Merzbow as they do Tommy Wright III. Working under a variety of different monikers such as Lieu Noir, Sniper Bait and Soul Collector, the French producer is most prolific as Crave, and "Inner War Delirium" is a substantial and broadly cinematic addition to his canon. Katsav approaches each track as if it's a scene from a movie, using real life experiences to explore separate characters and contrasting emotions. Using different narrators and disparate vocal styles, he navigates grim, blown-out landscapes, driving neon drenched trap synths and horror choirs against overdriven kicks and waterlogged industrial atmospheres. Mangled field recordings, squealing static and gurgling synthesized bass opens 'PHYLLIS', goading the cautious with serrated, carnival synths and cacophonous vocals that sway lugubriously between rap and grindcore. The relationship between dark and light, death and rebirth, is at the heart of "Inner War Delirium", rippling through every track's oozing amalgamation of inebriated hip-hop and buzzsaw noise. Katsav's sounds are an attempt to subject us to the physicality of his own life's puzzle, and he cuts them into vignettes like a director. On the album's final track, listeners are swiped from in front of the speakers and bundled into the trunk of a car, rain rattling on the metal and the album playing on in the distance. It's a way for the producer to turn the camera back on the audience and ask them to consider their own complicated reality - it's Crave's story, but everyone's a part of it.
Influences enter into the frame ranging from '90s trance, to early M83, to Yoko Kanno anime soundtracks. With its M1 piano stabs, supersaws, and glimpses of Amen breaks, the album charts a luminescent space between 5 a.m. warehouse raves and the urban freeways of its cover image-- romantic, nocturnal, and reckless in its velocity and emotional abandon.
The music explores textures, colors and abstract lands. The play is wild and free.
Dunietz's new compositions go beyond the conventional song structures, and the improvisation is inspired by the roots of Jazz, while allowing itself to be stimulated by other sources such as voices of birds and trees. The album has several free improvisation pieces, bringing forth a fresh side of this very swingy rhythm section.
As a spectral musician and artist, Dunietz tends to focus on the phenomenon and acoustics of sound rather than its potential semantic qualities. Playing trio music from this perspective, created a very crisp and deep sound, beautifully captured in the recording.
- Panda Bear, Voice of the Seven Woods, Mammane Sanni Abdoulaye. File under: Jazz / Electronic. Titi Bakorta almost didn't make it. Born in and raised in Kinshasa, the Congolese multi-instrumentalist was on his way to Uganda when he fell off the boat as it traversed the mighty Congo River. Unable to swim, Bakorta was saved by a friend who dragged him to the closest city Kisangani, where he was unexpectedly acquainted with local singer Dancer Papalas. Soon they were performing in bands together, traveling across the continents and settling in Tanzania, South Sudan and Dubai - they even appeared in front of General Defao, the beloved Congolese vocalist who fronted legendary soukous bands Grand Zaiko Wawa, Choc Stars and Big Stars. Now based in Kampala, Bakorta offers his own unique take on Congolese pop and folk sounds, weaving traditional elements through a psychedelic lattice of guitar loops, mangled voices and eccentric beatbox rhythms on his debut full-length. He bends woodblock snaps on 'Kop' into stuttered blurs, wailing emotionally over twanging riffs and bizarre, theatrical xylophone twinkles. It's still pop music on some level, but curved around Bakorta's unwieldy personal narrative - there's a sense that everything could unravel at any time but it all hangs together, strengthened by Bakorta's confident, contemporary production smarts. 'Elles Vais' is more airy, with celestial soukous vocals that float above tight, electronic drums. Tangled guitar echoes overlap each other like dense, weaved tapestries, contrasting perfectly with Bakorta's urgent, driving pulse. Occasionally, he transcends completely, like on 'Molende' where his chants and phrases neatly flutter between praise music and contemporary R&B. "Hustling, hustling, hustling, everyday I'm hustling," an angelic voice coos over phased electric guitar plucks and looped, AutoTuned chorals. It makes perfect sense that Bakorta should team up with Metal Preyers' Jesse Hackett on the album's final track, the aptly-titled 'Titis Haunted House'. The two artists share a similar obsession with moonlit, carnivalesque soundscapes, and Hackett's eerie synths provide a suitably eccentric foundation for Bakorta's ghostly wails and fuzzy guitar sounds.
Despite being nearly 50 years old, the first two singles garnered support from Shindig Magazine, New Commute, Aquarium Drunkard, and even landed on Spotify's Fresh Indie Finds.
No shortage of colorful characters emerged from Cameroon’s bikutsi scene in the 1980’s and early 90’s. Gibraltar Drakus is one of the most enduring and enigmatic of the artists who helped transform bikutsi into a beautifully endless fabric of triplet rhythms that eventually reached ears around the world.
Following the advent of Cameroon Radio Television in 1987, bikutsi began to supplant makossa and soukous for domination of the local airwaves and the attention of cosmopolitan, thrill-seeking residents of Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé and beyond. Biktusi perfectly fused Beti traditional music and increasingly electronic, highly rhythmic guitarbased bikutsi. Mimicking the sound of village-based xylophone music by rigging a mute to electric guitar strings, bikutsi artists provided a relentlessly energetic dance format for those with a taste for music steeped in their hometown sensibility (countering the popular makossa that many felt sounded less indigenous).
By the early 1990’s, Les Tetes Brûlées were indisputably the most famous and influential artists in bikutsi, due in part to the innovations of their incendiary guitarist Théodore Zanzibar Epeme. Following their first European tour in 1987, the band blew up internationally but Zanzibar tragically, and mysteriously, passed away, which nearly brought an end to the band completely. In hindsight, the consensus among most Cameroonians is Zanzibar’s contributions to biktusi were transformational and immeasurable.
“Zanzibar is the one who taught me how to compose a song, and I learned a lot from Zanzibar musically. We spent whole nights working on methods and other approaches to compose beautiful songs. I owe half of everything I have today to Zanzibar!”
Swept up in all this was Gibraltar Drakus, who was the youngest member of Les Têtes Brûlées and was also the protégé of his biggest supporter, Zanzibar. So it was fitting that he dedicate his 1989 debut to their groundbreaking late guitarist who had meant so much to him. Drakus literally exploded from his first album Hommage A Zanzibar (1989), which sold over 100,000 copies despite rampant piracy. For the recording, Drakus made sure he engaged prolific producer Mystic Jim to record and mix the album. The innovation musically rests both within the guitar interplay and the discipline in the orchestration, which result in a mind-bending clockwork of cross-rhythmic harmony.
For our 15th release, and the 1st 45pm in our next series of inches, Altered Tapes created a version of "Power" focused on Chill Rob that will hopefully make you forget about Snap completely. Featuring bell-less drum break that we all know and love and the energy turned up a few notches for a Moombahton/ Jazz Dance / B-Boy killer. Includes a hookless, but horny instrumental on the flip side for your cutting pleasure. It's getting kinda hectic! Doubles are recommended.
Jimi Prasad Orchestra is the next stage in the evolution of visionary artist
Jimi Prasad
The Orchestra is a unique project, blending mixed art disciplines, featuring top
musicians from around the world including trumpet player Avishai Cohen,
keyboardist/ producer Rejoicer, cellist Esther Patricia Valladares Amador and
more. The debut album is due to be released in 2023 on Raw Tapes Records.
*REISSUED ON LIMITED EDITION BLUE VINYL*
London-based electronic songwriter Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles to release his most personal work to date in the form of a mini-album titled ‘Night Melody’ through Erased Tapes on 5th August 2016. During the release of his acclaimed full-length album ‘Howl’ and heavy touring in late 2015, Ryan came out of a 13-year long relationship and found himself making music throughout the winter months. The result of his efforts is a 34-minute, 6-track mini album ‘Night Melody’, born out of and shaped by long hours working into the night. It’s nocturnal in sound; mysterious in the way that the early hours so often are.
“I found myself, in a silent home, with the days getting dark very early. I’ve never before in my life been affected by the lack of light so much. I just remember it always being night time. I would either make music into the night, go out drinking with friends, or go to parties and dance into the early hours, every day, week after week, month after month, until eventually the days became brighter again.” The opening statement ‘Pattern of the North’ starts off with a collage of spliced synth melodies, inspired by anxiety that accompanies going home for Christmas. It’s followed by ‘Johannesburg’, an early sketch gradually filled out during his tour in South Africa.
“After playing it around some of the cities, I got a lot of inspiration to bring it to life and push it into something that really moves me. I think this is one of my most colourful pieces of music, with its driving rhythm and almost a homage to Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ towards the end, with a build of very simple, hypnotic parts. I especially love that for over five minutes the piece is tied to just one note. This makes the ending very dramatic, because all of a sudden there is this harmonic change.” ‘Lone’ started life around the time Ryan was working on his ‘Sonne’ EP in 2014. It’s the result of constant adjustments to find the perfect balance of fragility and assurance. As everything on the album, it’s a carefully considered, emotionally mature piece. “I think, as I get older, I need music to represent something and not just sound interesting, though of course the two are connected.” The closing statement ‘What Sorrow’ is a fitting end to the album, building from gentle melancholia to a joyous crescendo. It’s a sensibility that’s central to the record; joy and sorrow both find their counterpoints.
“This record is very personal to me and I hope it offers something for other people, as it helped me to make it and to listen to it. Almost every synth line was recorded intuitively, without perfection but with a lot of intention and expression. I’m not interested in making something sad or making something happy. I want music to be bittersweet, to be more complex, like life – containing moments of vibrant colour and hope, as much as darkness and sadness.” This summer will see Ryan follow on from his recent North American Tour with the appearance at many festivals including Lovebox, Secret Garden Party, La Route Du Rock, Sea Change and Tale of Us-curated Afterlife party at Space, Ibiza.
If you ever thought Debris was Oklahoma's only entry into the bloodstream of feral, batshit rock, guess again. Mag Amplitude's, Wizards Of Today appeared in a miniscule, self released edition of 100 in 1983 & was the brainchild of a blind, guitarist-vocalist by the name of Matt Muncil. On Wizards Of Today, Muncil-considered by the psychedelic mafia to be the 'Higney of Heavy Rock'—& drummer Scott Roher proceed to lay down over 7 tracks an incredible wall of wildly fuzzed & primitive bash that is a singular testament to loner, outsider brilliance. Heavy on double tracked guitar riffs & growling, incomprehensible vocals concerning outer space, rocket ships & rock, Mag Amplitude's Wizards Of Today is a half hour slab of muzzed disorder of the highest possible recommendation. This Zaius Tapes reissue is in a one time pressing of 292 copies. Our first foray into (re) introducing fans & collectors into the cimmerian forest of American real people/outsider psych rock."—Johan Klepp, for Zaius Tapes
Icelandic composer Högni"s score for the much-acclaimed Netflix"s series Katla will see its full release on July 28. The series takes place in Iceland, after the subglacial volcano Katla has been erupting constantly for a whole year, Gríma is still looking for her missing sister who disappeared the day the eruption started. As her hope of ever finding her body is fading, the residents of the surrounding area start to have visits from unexpected guests. There might be something hidden under the glacier no one could ever have foreseen. Speaking about the score, Högni says: "when I was asked by Baltasar Kormákur - the director and show creator - I started writing so when the filming was finished, I had already written a number of pieces for the show. As relatively in-experienced in the field I imagined that my work was finished and the rest was a matter of post-production and music editing. However it immediately became clear that my ambitions and the nature of the project called for second, third and fourth wind in order to fulfil the auditory architecture that needed to be built". Realising it was a monumental task, Högni kept a strict schedule every day, starting by writing and arranging in the morning, recording and mixing in the afternoon and presenting to the producer each evening. The score was recorded in Högni"s own studio, where him and his collaborators consisting of Tóti Gudnason, Inga Magnes, Petter Ekman, _órunn Osk and Sigurgeir found themselves working in a completely different way than they"ve done before, due to the nature of the project - "we worked the music out of my studio in Reykjavik, where a healthy number of musicians rotated through at the pace of an average ice cream parlour on a long summers evening in Reykjavik. The urgency of delivering cues and material left one in the state of instinctual execution at all hours without hesitation".
Icelandic composer Högni"s score for the much-acclaimed Netflix"s series Katla will see its full release on July 28. The series takes place in Iceland, after the subglacial volcano Katla has been erupting constantly for a whole year, Gríma is still looking for her missing sister who disappeared the day the eruption started. As her hope of ever finding her body is fading, the residents of the surrounding area start to have visits from unexpected guests. There might be something hidden under the glacier no one could ever have foreseen. Speaking about the score, Högni says: "when I was asked by Baltasar Kormákur - the director and show creator - I started writing so when the filming was finished, I had already written a number of pieces for the show. As relatively in-experienced in the field I imagined that my work was finished and the rest was a matter of post-production and music editing. However it immediately became clear that my ambitions and the nature of the project called for second, third and fourth wind in order to fulfil the auditory architecture that needed to be built". Realising it was a monumental task, Högni kept a strict schedule every day, starting by writing and arranging in the morning, recording and mixing in the afternoon and presenting to the producer each evening. The score was recorded in Högni"s own studio, where him and his collaborators consisting of Tóti Gudnason, Inga Magnes, Petter Ekman, _órunn Osk and Sigurgeir found themselves working in a completely different way than they"ve done before, due to the nature of the project - "we worked the music out of my studio in Reykjavik, where a healthy number of musicians rotated through at the pace of an average ice cream parlour on a long summers evening in Reykjavik. The urgency of delivering cues and material left one in the state of instinctual execution at all hours without hesitation".
As its now tradition we start the year with yet another fluid album from Portuguese pianist and composer Tiago Sousa.
Presenting now the second volume of his ongoing series »Organic Music Tapes«, Tiago now adds the electric organ to his trademark piano compositions, broadening his palette of sounds into an even more fluid and organic world with references to American minimalism of the 60’s, in particular Terry Riley and Steve Reich’s influence both looms heavily over these pieces
The piano still takes centre stage here but the organ opens both sides of the album like a statement of intention… the compositions take a nebulae type state, floating eternally over stars and planets, with their indefinite and indeterminate contours, never settling and never leaving.
Music as organic matter, like water, sand, stars or nebulae. Tiago translates complex patterns into transcendental experiences to our ears whilst cementing further his place as one of the most distinct voices to emerge out of the modern wellspring of piano driven minimalism.
Penguin Cafe kündigen heute ihr fünftes Studioalbum Rain Before Seven... an, das am 7.Juli 2023 bei Erased Tapes erscheinen wird.
Eine zuversichtliche Grundstimmung durchzieht das fünfte Studioalbum von Penguin Cafe, Rain Before Seven…, wobei es sich keinesfalls um jenen extrem selbstbewussten, fast schon prahlerischen Optimismus handelt, sondern eher um so eine auf bescheidene Art hoffnungsvolle Grundhaltung, die man den Menschen auf der Insel ja häufiger nachsagt. Auch wenn alle Anzeichen das Gegenteil behaupten, spürt man hier sofort diese Gewissheit, dass sich alles doch noch irgendwie zum Guten wenden wird. Vermutlich zumindest.
Der Titel des Albums geht auf eine alte Bauernregel zurück, wobei die gereimte Vorhersage – „… fine before eleven“: ab 11 Uhr also wieder alles klar – auf ein baldiges gutes Ende hindeutet, vollkommen unabhängig davon, was die Wissenschaft sagt: „Ich habe diesen Spruch in einem Buch entdeckt. Davor hatte ich ihn noch nie gehört“, erzählt Arthur Jeffes, der Kopf von Penguin Cafe. „Er hat so einen dezent optimistischen Beigeschmack, und das gefällt mir sehr. Man verwendet ihn heutzutage kaum noch, aber der Reim beschreibt tatsächlich Wetterphänomene in England, die vom Atlantik aus über die Insel ziehen.“
Angefangen beim leinwandgroßen und schwärmerischen Eröffnungstitel „Welcome to London“, der mit einem Augenzwinkern auf Morricone anspielt, bis hin zum „Goldfinch Yodel“, jenem „Maibaum-Banger“ (um es mit Arthurs Worten zu sagen), mit dem das neue Album ausklingt, zieht sich ein angenehmes Gefühl von Leichtigkeit und Lebensmut durch den Longplayer, unterfüttert mit der Ausgelassenheit exotischer Rhythmen. Alles wirkt spielerisch und verspielt, und selbst der Titel ist eine Anspielung – auf A Matter of Life… aus dem Jahr 2011, der letzten Veröffentlichung, deren Titel in eine Ellipse mündete Jenes Debütalbum von Penguin Cafe diente einst als Bindeglied und Brücke – zwischen dem legendären Penguin Cafe Orchestra, das einst Arthurs Vater Simon Jeffes leitete, und dem gefeierten Nachfolger, als dessen Mastermind seither Arthur verantwortlich zeichnet.
„Ich glaube, das wirklich Neue an seinem Ansatz bestand darin, spannende und schräge Ideen zu nehmen – und dann seltsame Dinge damit anzustellen“, meint Arthur, „dabei aber konstant im Blick zu haben, dass es hinterher auch schön klingt und emotional ansprechend bleibt.“ Dieses Ethos lebt weiter in der Musik von Penguin Cafe: „Dazu haben wir uns entschlossen, als ich daran anknüpfte, schließlich spielen wir die Sachen meines Vaters und machen dazu auch neue Musik, die im selben Klanguniversum angesiedelt ist. Das bedeutet, dass ich gewissermaßen moralisch dazu verpflichtet bin, den ursprünglichen roten Faden im Auge zu behalten – und dafür zu sorgen, dass wir nicht plötzlich in Richtung Thrash-Metal abbiegen.“
Dennoch waren die rhythmischen Elemente, die zum Teil sogar an elektronische Sounds erinnern, noch nie so präsent und tonangebend wie auf Rain Before Seven…, was durchaus auch dem Co-Produzenten Robert Raths geschuldet ist. „Find Your Feet“ etwa hat ein Beat-Fundament, das weit über einen bloßen Pulsschlag hinausgeht. Abgemischt von Tom Chichester-Clark, blitzt an Stellen wie diesen etwas auf, das Arthur selbst als „fast schon elektronischen Vibe“ bezeichnet, um dann ganz aufgeregt zu ergänzen: „Es geht vor allem auch einfach ums Spaßhaben, was auf den letzten drei Alben nicht so zu hören war.” Extrem ausgelassen klingt auch „In Re Budd“, das dem verstorbenen Ambient-Urgestein Harold Budd gewidmet ist. Arthur erfuhr von dessen Tod an jenem Tag, als er diesen feierlichen Ohrwurm komponierte, dessen Synkopen deutlich komplexer sind, als sie auf den ersten Blick wirken. Auf einem präparierten Klavier gespielt, wobei die Filzstücke dem Track zusätzlichen Bounce verleihen, setzt Jeffes hier auf einen Afro Cuban Cafe-Vibe – was wunderbar zum widerspenstigen Geist des verstorbenen Budd passt.
Und schließlich wäre da noch das bereits erwähnte „Welcome to London“, das seinen Titel erhielt, als sich die Welt gerade wieder zu öffnen begann und die Menschen auch wieder Fernreisen antreten durften. Jeffes, der somit nach langer Zeit endlich wieder einen Fuß auf britischen Boden setzen konnte, war sofort beeindruckt von filmischen Soundtrack-Qualitäten (à la John Barry) dieses Stücks, als er mit dem Taxi von Heathrow nach West-London fuhr und zur Musik die opulente, in Dämmerungslicht getauchte Metropolenkulisse auf sich wirken ließ. Hier kann man deutlich die eingangs erwähnte Zuversicht raushören – und dazu vielleicht auch einen Hauch von bissiger Ironie: „Robert Raths hat der Sache noch eine Nuance hinzugefügt, die ich interessant finde, weil doch so viele Londoner ursprünglich gar nicht aus London stammen. Man schlägt also in London als Zugezogener auf, man weiß noch nicht, zu welchem Lager man sich zugehörig fühlen soll, und dann wird man auf der Straße überfallen und ausgeraubt – und in dem Licht betrachtet, hat dieses ‘Welcome to London’ doch einen eher sarkastischen Beigeschmack.“
»A Magnetic Road to Hell« is Robert Millis and Bardo Todol’s first release as a duo. Recorded transcontinentally throughout 2021 and 2022 they traded sounds and ideas between Cordoba, Argentina and Seattle, USA with a stop in Mexico along the way: screamings, rivers, kids, radios, mellotron, records, 78rpm shellac, wax cylinders, field recordings, birds, electronics, guitars, percussion, haze, static, a destroyed Indian piano, talkative violins, talkative people from the 1920s, talkative black and white dreams, tin cans from the streets, Argentinian children's tales about cows being teachers, and more. You’re riding on an unspooling reel of tape, through sounds real and imagined, the tape flapping dangerously, shredding; we are all of us magnetized, attracting together, pushing apart, unwinding onto the floor, stumbling along the road to hell.
Robert Millis and Bardo Todol have each released music on many different labels: Sublime Frequencies, Dinzu Artefacts, The Helen Scardale Agency, Discrepant, Abduction Records, Dust-to-Digital, Fire Breathing Turtle, Sub Pop, and Ikuisuus.
Companion piece to O Morto's album »Dans la Gorge d'un Monstre«. The diaristic approach goes deeper where field recordings and fragments of memory take center stage , O Morto expands his LP masterpiece to a very direct and free-flowing tape. Also based on a number of field recordings taken during a life-changing trip to Morocco that felt like a fever dream, ‘Iffrits Habitent‘ is the perfect companion piece with a more impressionistic and unadulterated account of the same travel that could well be this side of the mirror. Then again, maybe he never made it from the other side. Who’s to know?
Penguin Cafe kündigen heute ihr fünftes Studioalbum Rain Before Seven... an, das am 7.Juli 2023 bei Erased Tapes erscheinen wird.
Eine zuversichtliche Grundstimmung durchzieht das fünfte Studioalbum von Penguin Cafe, Rain Before Seven…, wobei es sich keinesfalls um jenen extrem selbstbewussten, fast schon prahlerischen Optimismus handelt, sondern eher um so eine auf bescheidene Art hoffnungsvolle Grundhaltung, die man den Menschen auf der Insel ja häufiger nachsagt. Auch wenn alle Anzeichen das Gegenteil behaupten, spürt man hier sofort diese Gewissheit, dass sich alles doch noch irgendwie zum Guten wenden wird. Vermutlich zumindest.
Der Titel des Albums geht auf eine alte Bauernregel zurück, wobei die gereimte Vorhersage – „… fine before eleven“: ab 11 Uhr also wieder alles klar – auf ein baldiges gutes Ende hindeutet, vollkommen unabhängig davon, was die Wissenschaft sagt: „Ich habe diesen Spruch in einem Buch entdeckt. Davor hatte ich ihn noch nie gehört“, erzählt Arthur Jeffes, der Kopf von Penguin Cafe. „Er hat so einen dezent optimistischen Beigeschmack, und das gefällt mir sehr. Man verwendet ihn heutzutage kaum noch, aber der Reim beschreibt tatsächlich Wetterphänomene in England, die vom Atlantik aus über die Insel ziehen.“
Angefangen beim leinwandgroßen und schwärmerischen Eröffnungstitel „Welcome to London“, der mit einem Augenzwinkern auf Morricone anspielt, bis hin zum „Goldfinch Yodel“, jenem „Maibaum-Banger“ (um es mit Arthurs Worten zu sagen), mit dem das neue Album ausklingt, zieht sich ein angenehmes Gefühl von Leichtigkeit und Lebensmut durch den Longplayer, unterfüttert mit der Ausgelassenheit exotischer Rhythmen. Alles wirkt spielerisch und verspielt, und selbst der Titel ist eine Anspielung – auf A Matter of Life… aus dem Jahr 2011, der letzten Veröffentlichung, deren Titel in eine Ellipse mündete Jenes Debütalbum von Penguin Cafe diente einst als Bindeglied und Brücke – zwischen dem legendären Penguin Cafe Orchestra, das einst Arthurs Vater Simon Jeffes leitete, und dem gefeierten Nachfolger, als dessen Mastermind seither Arthur verantwortlich zeichnet.
„Ich glaube, das wirklich Neue an seinem Ansatz bestand darin, spannende und schräge Ideen zu nehmen – und dann seltsame Dinge damit anzustellen“, meint Arthur, „dabei aber konstant im Blick zu haben, dass es hinterher auch schön klingt und emotional ansprechend bleibt.“ Dieses Ethos lebt weiter in der Musik von Penguin Cafe: „Dazu haben wir uns entschlossen, als ich daran anknüpfte, schließlich spielen wir die Sachen meines Vaters und machen dazu auch neue Musik, die im selben Klanguniversum angesiedelt ist. Das bedeutet, dass ich gewissermaßen moralisch dazu verpflichtet bin, den ursprünglichen roten Faden im Auge zu behalten – und dafür zu sorgen, dass wir nicht plötzlich in Richtung Thrash-Metal abbiegen.“
Dennoch waren die rhythmischen Elemente, die zum Teil sogar an elektronische Sounds erinnern, noch nie so präsent und tonangebend wie auf Rain Before Seven…, was durchaus auch dem Co-Produzenten Robert Raths geschuldet ist. „Find Your Feet“ etwa hat ein Beat-Fundament, das weit über einen bloßen Pulsschlag hinausgeht. Abgemischt von Tom Chichester-Clark, blitzt an Stellen wie diesen etwas auf, das Arthur selbst als „fast schon elektronischen Vibe“ bezeichnet, um dann ganz aufgeregt zu ergänzen: „Es geht vor allem auch einfach ums Spaßhaben, was auf den letzten drei Alben nicht so zu hören war.” Extrem ausgelassen klingt auch „In Re Budd“, das dem verstorbenen Ambient-Urgestein Harold Budd gewidmet ist. Arthur erfuhr von dessen Tod an jenem Tag, als er diesen feierlichen Ohrwurm komponierte, dessen Synkopen deutlich komplexer sind, als sie auf den ersten Blick wirken. Auf einem präparierten Klavier gespielt, wobei die Filzstücke dem Track zusätzlichen Bounce verleihen, setzt Jeffes hier auf einen Afro Cuban Cafe-Vibe – was wunderbar zum widerspenstigen Geist des verstorbenen Budd passt.
Und schließlich wäre da noch das bereits erwähnte „Welcome to London“, das seinen Titel erhielt, als sich die Welt gerade wieder zu öffnen begann und die Menschen auch wieder Fernreisen antreten durften. Jeffes, der somit nach langer Zeit endlich wieder einen Fuß auf britischen Boden setzen konnte, war sofort beeindruckt von filmischen Soundtrack-Qualitäten (à la John Barry) dieses Stücks, als er mit dem Taxi von Heathrow nach West-London fuhr und zur Musik die opulente, in Dämmerungslicht getauchte Metropolenkulisse auf sich wirken ließ. Hier kann man deutlich die eingangs erwähnte Zuversicht raushören – und dazu vielleicht auch einen Hauch von bissiger Ironie: „Robert Raths hat der Sache noch eine Nuance hinzugefügt, die ich interessant finde, weil doch so viele Londoner ursprünglich gar nicht aus London stammen. Man schlägt also in London als Zugezogener auf, man weiß noch nicht, zu welchem Lager man sich zugehörig fühlen soll, und dann wird man auf der Straße überfallen und ausgeraubt – und in dem Licht betrachtet, hat dieses ‘Welcome to London’ doch einen eher sarkastischen Beigeschmack.“
In 2016, After Reissuing Two Bruce Haack Albums, Haackula And Electric Lucifer Book Ii, Telephone Explosion Began Speaking With Ted Pandel (bruce's Lifelong Friend And Business Partner) About Working On The 1970 Masterpiece The Electric Lucifer. It Turned Out There Was Another Matter That He Wanted To Discuss: Finding A Final Resting Place For The Bruce Haack Archive.
We Were Shown Test-pressings Of The Electric Lucifer Board Mixes From His Columbia Studio Sessions, Countless Pieces Of Written Music, A Large Number Of Personal Photos, An Invitation From Raymond Scott Inviting Bruce To Play His Newly Created Electronium
Instrument (now Owned By Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh), Poems, Press Clippings, And, Most Importantly, A Heavyduty Shelf Containing 213 Reel-to-reel Tapes. All Of The Chosen Material On The Preservation Tapes Is Unreleased, Has Only Been Heard By A Handful Of People And Showcases A Relatively Unknown Period In Bruce's
Musical Career Where Bruce Was Recording For Sparrow Records (who Billed Themselves As "america's Best Christian Music Record Label'). Bruce's Signature Farad Vocoder Continues To Feature Prominently, But The Lyrical Content Is Decidedly More Religious.
The Bruce Haack Archive Is Now Resting In The Provincial Archives Of Alberta, In Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.
Born from the fractal innerworld of Vymethoxy Redspiders,
better known as Urocerus Gigas from Leeds-based xenofeminist
crisis energy rock duo Guttersnipe, The Ephemeron Loop's
debut is a synaesthetic acid bath that cracks open the doors of
perception to reveal a sonic landscape of ineffable beauty,
divine femininity and continual transformation.
"PsychonauticEscapism" sublimes Guttersnipe's teeth-gnashing spacegrindaesthetic leaving washes of dream pop ambience, dilated
speedcore fusillades and shapeshifting psychedelic dub effects.
It's an album that lodges itself creatively between Cocteau
Twins, Arca, Basic Channel and Napalm Death, lysergically
fluxing imperceptibly between seemingly contradictory sonics
and philosophies. Miss VR took 14 long, difficult years to write
the album, which developed cautiously as she broke through
the misery of her pre-transition life with shoegaze music, rave
and psychedelic drugs in Leeds' queer underground. An
existence languishing in negativity, soundtracked by extreme
music was replaced with the opportunity to experience
euphoria, elation and ecstatic freedom, emotions that coalesce
sensually on "Psychonautic Escapism".
These formativeexperiences are the album's initial building blocks, assembled between 2007 and 2018 as Miss VR came to grips with her
reality as an autistic/ADHD trans woman and the multidimensional psychotropic experiences that assisted that realization. And as V's worldview expanded and shifted as she lived a fresh life, the music itself developed spiritually. In 2018,after being impressed with producer Ross Halden's work with Guttersnipe, Miss VR asked him to assist her with developing The Ephemeron Loop's fragmented songs and visions. "I learned a lot about why people don't usually combine various kinds of sounds or styles in music," she admits. "It is very difficult to get it to all work together!" But after two-and-a-half years of the duo navigating a "labyrinth of fragmented Reason 5 and Logic
projects," re-recording and processing, and working tirelessly on
complex arrangements and compositions, they eventually found
a light at the end of the tunnel. The finished album is towering
and ambitious, Escher-like in its illusory reconstruction of
familiar elements into brain-altering forms. The album begins
with 'Psychonautic Escapism (Cold Alienation)', decorating Miss
VR's disembodied moans with throbbing dub techno synths,
insectoid digital percussion and disorientating high-BPM
electronics.
Her vocals hover weightlessly between My Bloody Valentine's Bilinda Butcher and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, and on 'Lattice Dysmorphism of Lysothymic Oneiroid Cytoterrain' drift against grinding industrial hardcore kicks, serrated bass and Lorenzo Senni-esque trance pointillism. On 'Trench Through Pink Death', Miss VR's voice mutates into a shrill scream as she directs the music from splattered freeflowing doom into harsh hyper-speed death metal and
breakcore. Woven together with both precision and delicacy, "Psychonautic Escapism" turns a rough patchwork of ideas,
experiences, feelings and vivid emotions into a glorious neon
tapestry. In living and exploring the realities of autism, ADHD
and trans identity, Vymethoxy Redspiders has masterminded a
sonic language that feels fresh, urgent and shockingly honest.
Psychedelic is a term that gets thrown around far too loosely at
the moment - in this case there's just no better way of
describing the album's scope.
Long out-of-print release available digitally for the first time. Extensive notes by a local writer in English and French. Previously unpublished family photos. Urbanized traditional music at a dance-floor-friendly tempo. The very definition of an "Awesome Tape From Africa". Roger Bekono made a deep mark in the contemporary history of Cameroonian music through the four-on-the-floor, ribald intensity of bikutsi. The Ewondo-language dance-pop style that forms an undulating tapestry of interlocking triplet rhythmic interplay came to international prominence in the European "world music" scene as the 90s began. But the relentless sound of bikutsi developed in Yaoundé at the hands of Bekono and many others, as it developed from a village-based singing style performed mostly by women into a cosmopolitan music force that rivaled the popularity of established musics like Congolese rhumba, merengue and makossa. With his unique—some say suave—voice, Bekono contributed much over a period of more than 10 years as part of the evolution of this traditional rhythm-turned-urban dance movement. Bekono worked with legendary producer Mystic Jim, who had built a prolific home studio along with a crack team of musicians. They joined as part of the production of his self-titled album, which became known locally as "Jolie Poupée," the name of the album's lead single and most popular song. For "Jolie Poupée" Mystic Jim programmed the kick or bass drum, adding effects to have a heavier bass. Overall the album represented a new level of finesse and professionalism for his second release. In the middle of 1989, Jolie Poupée was released by the label Inter Diffusion System and aggressively hit the radio, discos and national television. The music video for the title track was on loop on TV. It felt like everyone was talking about it, even artists in adjacent music scenes like makossa. The album came out on vinyl and cassette and remains Bekono's best-selling recording to this day. With Jolie Poupée Bekono finally made an impact outside Cameroon as the record captured listeners in some Central African countries like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Sao Tome & Principe. In these countries, we find the Fang or Mfan people (also known as Ekang), Bantu-speaking ethnic groups that are also found in Cameroon. This umbrella language group includes the language in which bikutsi is mainly sung. Most of Bekono's songs are in French, Ewondo (of which Beti is a dialect) and Pidgin. The four songs on Jolie Poupée are all considered bikutsi classics. On September 15, 2016, Bekono died of a long illness at the age of 62. In the wake of his passing the media published a wave of tributes, thanking him for what he did for Cameroonian music. He was an admired musician, songwriter and guitarist, and some of his old colleagues and some of the new generation of performers showered Bekono with vibrant tributes via social media, many of which noting something to the effect of: "The artist dies but his works remain."
Jackson Bailey aka Tapes joins MIDA with a 7” packed to the brim with jazzy vignettes. This little plate holds six servings. Finely tuned frequency signals as cymbals & drums, nutty gliding arps, playful keys shot all over the place backed by a firm low end. Sweet kooky business. Moving around with ease, it’s surely got dub sprayed all over it, but in its fidgety core lies a deep nod to library music.
