Arcarsenal is back on Finest Hour with a four tracker ranging from dub techno to junglish atmospherical beats through house and breakbeat. This Ep showcases their constant evolution in sound while simultaneously keeping a mature sound and a strong identity.
The debut vinyl release of Detroit underground mainstay Sterling Toles features tracks produced between 1998 and 2006, recently unearthed by Sector 7-G Recordings. Sterling emerges from a scene of producers that prided themselves on sampling distressed vinyl and lo-fi analog production as a reflection of the mental and physical environment of the post-industrial city. Sterling carries that sonic dialect with him as he nomadically incorporates the language of other genres, variously exploring soul, ambient, Detroit techno, and folk sensibilities. From the ambient/folk impressions of "grace, i will now let go..." to "inga 135" sounding like 90's jazz-inspired hip-hop having a ghettotech dream, "Archival Arteries" is grounded in the sonic palette associated with Detroit's ethereal and minimalist boom bap hip-hop style. These tracks hold the imprints of Detroit's expansive musical institutions such as The Electrifying Mojo, The New Dance Show, and CBC radio's Brave New Waves. Created with just an Ensonic EPS sampler and a VS 1880, this EP captures the fluid musings of this indelible artist
Taciturn Manner is Reggy van Oers's first full length on his own Telemorph imprint.
Pertained in a period of strained self reflection, several field recordings have become the core upon which the album has been created. A persistant continuous movement throughout the elements of the tracks causes a certain constrasting tension and gradually transforms into lush cinematic textures.
An intricate and mesmerizing journey, full of rich and surprising details, resulting in a rather emotional expression of his constraint style and coherent distinct sound.
Bocal 5 were a No Wave art group composed of Doc Pilot (synths, vocals), Zouka Dzaza (bass), Florian Guillou (synths), Mickey Lepron (electronic drums, bass) and Evy Tinguette (lead vocals). The project was born in November 1980 in Tours, France as the brain child of Doc Pilot. Between 1981 to 1986 Bocal 5 recorded one 7' single and a cassette-only album before taking a year off in 1984 to launch X-Ray Pop. Influenced by Erik Satie, Brigitte Bardot, Suicide and Young Marble Giants, they call their music "minimum naive new wave."
Musique Électronique' is a 19-track compilation of songs recorded across 1983, most of which have never been released on vinyl before. 16 tracks appeared on the From Bocal 5 To X-Ray Pop' album originally released on cassette by Sound of Pig in 1984. Both tracks from their debut 7' originally released in MB5 1984 are included and show a progression in sound as a result of newer recoding equipment and techniques. Also present is a song from the tape compilation Andreas N°3 L'Animal" released by Fraction Studio in 1984. Armed with a Korg 770, MS-10, Prophet Pro-One, Roland TR-707 and TB-808 they crafted their own brand of quirky synthesized electronic pop. Songs are short, concise and well structured, richly textured, moving at a quick speed with hardly a pause. Evy's pouting, tongue-in-cheek vocals (sung in French) come together for a catchy, sensuous, danceable, eccentric psychedelic ride. This collection shows the group's sense of humor, vitality and carefree playfulness.
All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each jacket displays a bright neon green collage of photos and ephemera from the band's archives designed by Eloise Leigh that exudes the project's DIY spirit. Each copy includes a 6-page xeroxed booklet with photos, original artwork and press clippings.
Non Series celebrates five years with three-part compilation series. Psyk, ROD, Architectural and Yotam Avni feature on NON Series's vinyl part I/III.
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In December 2016, Psyk's imprint Non Series will reach its fifth anniversary and to celebrate the Spanish label will be releasing a compilation series. FIVE comes up as a birthday countdown divided into three parts that will be released September 30th, October 28th and November 25th respectively.
FIVE will bring together artists from the label family as well as some new faces to deliver 3 various artists EPs according to the Non Series sound. Expect to hear beats from regulars like Mark Broom, Chevel, Henning Baer, Savas Pascalidis, Architectural, Tadeo, Eduardo De La Calle, Aiken and the label boss Psyk, while ROD, Dimi Angelis and Yotam Avni will join the crew for the occasion.
The first EP will feature the bleep-like groove of the label head Psyk, the textured sound of Architectural, ROD's representative funky rhythms and a mesmerizing cut from Yotam Avni.
Collapsing Horizons is the third full length album from Netherlands based deep ambient duo Tangent.
Limited clear with white splatter and blue with white vinyl. NON-RETURNABLE
This album much like the two preceding it—2013s "1mk2" (Mindtrick) and 2014s "Transience" (Tympanik)— is a sonic journey with arching atmospheres and themes. An aural representation of the formation of matter and it's disintegration in unison. The music, much as the album's namesake, could very well be the soundtrack to new universes being created on the ashes of collapsing ones.
Ralph van Reijendam and Robbert Kok who are the two behind Tangent moonlight in a long list of paradoxical musical projects. Fire Walk with Us, Rob Klerkx and the Secret, Disavowed, and Synesis Absorption are all quite different from Tangent's sprawling yet steady ambience.
This such daily musical juxtaposition allows Tangent the immersive focus on the ideas that make Tangent what it is. It would be a misnomer to think that with all the extra curricular time spent in more extreme forms of music that Tangent is a frenetic force. They are exactly the opposite. Dense pads, rolling beats and brilliant shimmers of resonance punctuate their electronic based instrumentals in just the correct manner to stargaze, day-dream, bliss-out, or even brood about starting over...
In 1997, a quiet, unassuming man of 59 years old named Victor Tavares - better know as Bitori - walks into a studio for the very first time to record a masterpiece which many Cabo Verdean consider to be the best Funaná album ever made. Bitori´s musical adventure had begun long before this point. It was 1954 when he embarked on a journey across the seas to the island of Sao Tomé & Principe. The young man´s hope was to return to Cabo Verde with an accordion.
Following two years of hard labour Bitori had succeeded in saving enough money to acquire what was to become his most valued possession, his cherished instrument. The two month journey back to Santiago, his island of birth, proved time enough to master it. Self taught, Bitori developed his own style, an infectious blaze, that quickly caught the attention of the older generation. Before long Bitori was being asked to share his musical talents, igniting the local festivities around Praia with his music.
But not everybody welcomed the rural accordion-based sound. Perceived as a symbol of the struggle for Cape Verdean independence and frowned upon as music of uneducated peasants, Funaná was prohibited by the Portuguese colonial rulers. Performing it in public or in urban centres had serious consequences - often jail time and torture awaited musicians that were caught in the act'. In light of such persecution the genre of Funaná began to slowly disappear.
In 1975 Cabo Verde achieved independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Along with Cabo Verde's independence came a lifting of the ban placed on Funaná. The musical repercussions in Cabo Verde were plenty - many upcoming artists embraced Funaná, translating and adapting its musical form in new ways. It was not to be until the mid-1990's, however, that Funaná in its traditional form was actually recorded. It was a young singer from Tarafal, Chando Graciosa, who was to play a key role in this event. Upon hearing Bitori, Graciosa immediately felt drawn to Bitori's unique playing style - a raw and passionate sound accompanied by honest lyrics that reflected the harsh reality of the Cabo Verdean working class. He eagerly approached Bitori suggesting they join forces and travel overseas with the objective of taking Funaná beyond its rural roots. The two of them, with others in tow, achieved their goal and travelled to Europe, introducing a receptive European audience to the vibrant energy of Funaná.
Eventually Bitori returned to his beloved Cabo Verde. Graciosa opted to settle in Rotterdam in order to pursue his career - he vowed, however, to bring Bitori across to Holland at a later date to record an album.
In 1997 the time was ripe to immortalise the sound Bitori had shaped over a time span of four decades. Built around a formidable rhythm section, formed of drummer Grace Evora and bass player Danilo Tavares, "Bitori Nha Bibinha" was recorded. The recording catapulted Chando Graciosa to stardom, making him Cabo Verde´s No.1 interpreter of Funaná.
The success in Cabo Verde was phenomenal and Funaná rapidly gained the recognition it deserved, especially in urban dance clubs. Bitori´s songs quickly became standards - classics known and loved throughout the country. The musical success, however, was solely limited to the Cabo Verdean islands - until now!
Analog Africa is proud to contribute to the worldwide promotion of Funaná - the once forbidden sound of the Cabo Verde archipelago - by releasing a worldwide re-issue of Bitori and Chando Graciosa´s legendary recording.
The release will herald Bitori´s first European tour taking place during the summer of 2016. Watch this space! And listen!
Next installment of Rex Ilusivi archive uncoverings - This time a live concert from SNP (srpsko narodno pozoriste / serbian national theatre) in Novi Sad, Serbia. Again it's a sublime masterclass in layering and mixing from the much revered King Of Illusion. TIP!
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'To this day Rex Ilusivii remains an enigma of the global music culture, caught between late cold war electronic spheres, classic and the power of found sound. A musician from the Southeast European counterculture, whose art today seems to be the worldly intelligence of the modern age. Listening to the early music of Mitar Subotic sounds like catching the future even tough you know here sounds the past. How can somebody be light years ahead of most of his contemporaries in terms of individuality and uncompromising vision, creating such musical narratives with a feeling for outernational space' It must have been the signs of his time in Yugoslavia, that lead him to compositions in which two or more antithetic forces fight each other for the cause of an unheard harmony that melts industrial, sample art, Musique concr'te and ambient. His 'Koncert SNP' from 1983 demonstrates his ingeniousness to the core ' about 38 minutes of experiment and appeal that move playful between demonstrative frankness and seductive sensuality. You hear pulsating synthesizer bliss, widescreen sample art full of Bosch-like images and elusively drama catchiness that absorbs deep. So deep that words can't express their meaning. Only notes can spell out the score. Listening to his live recording several times without a break reveals also a story arc of literary transcendence. And as transcendence is something beyond speech, the music of Rex Ilusivii can't be narrowed down in phrases. Only one thing must be recommended: surrender to it and it will surrender to you.
Michael Leuffen in June 2016
A-TON ist eine neue Edition und Plattform des Berghain-Inhouse-Labels Ostgut Ton und konzentriert sich auf Ambient-, Archiv- und andere Musiken, abweichend von den
clubfokussierten Veröffentlichungen des Hauptlabels. Darüber hinaus markiert das erste Release auf A-TON - Chronicles I - den Beginn einer Serie von Veröffentlichungen Luke Slaters unter dessen Alias The 7th Plain und präsentiert geremastertes, zuvor veröffentlichtes als auch bislang ungehörtes Archivmaterial.
Zuerst erschienen auf General Production Recordings zwischen 1993 und 1996, lotete Slaters The 7th Plain die sich stärker ausbreitenden Facetten von Ambientmusik aus und trieb sie gleichzeitig an die Genregrenzen, indem sich The 7th Plain nicht auf beatbefreite Synthflächen beschränkte, sondern treibende Progressionen, nuancierte Rhythmen und raffinierte Melodien mit einbezog. The 7th Plains außerweltliche Musik entzog sich somit der genauen musikalischen Einordnung, nachzuhören auf den beiden Alben The 4 Cornered Room und My Yellow Wise Rug (beide GPR, 1994) - emotionale, gespenstische und eskapistische Musik, bei Erstveröffentlichung vorwärtsdenkende Alben, die in Rückbetrachtung die Zeit besiegt haben.
Ursprünglich aufgenommen in Slaters Spacestation Ø, nun für A-TON komplett geremastert, zeigt Chronicles I die futuristische Ästhetik und musikalische Agenda der Neunziger in einem zeitgenössischen Kontext, ohne Nostalgie aber mit dem Wissen um die Zeitlosigkeit dieser Musik. Mit sieben originären Stücken und einem unveröffentlichten Ken Ishii-Remix klingt The 7th Plain so beseelt und relevant wie eh und je.
Während "Boundaries" (von My Yellow Wise Rug), "Grace" und "Surface Bound" (beide von The 4 Cornered Room) Slater-Aficionados bekannt sein dürften, sind "The Super 8", "T Funk States", "Slip 7 Sideways" und "Chords Are Dirty" bislang ebenso unveröffentlicht wie der zuvor erwähnte Remix von Ken Ishiis "Extra".
Mit Chronicles I erweitert The 7th Plain die Wärme und Kälte analoger Synthesizermusik auf das digitale Zeitalter: Während A-TON Chronicles I als Doppel-LP und CD
veröffentlicht, wird die Musik selbst in verschiedenen Digitalformaten zum ersten Mal überhaupt erhältlich sein - wodurch The 7th Plain einer neuen Generation von Hörern zugänglich wird, die die Vielfalt elektronischer Musikgeschichte erst für sich entdecken.
Strut team up for the first time with respected French label Heavenly Sweetness for the brand new album by the inspired poet, novelist and musician, Anthony Joseph.The Caribbean is an influence that runs through Joseph's discography, obliquely or headon, suggested or on full display. It resonates on each of his albums, from the furious trance of 'Bird Head Son' to the more polished 'Time'. On 'Caribbean Roots', he has now decided to turn a guiding thread and a reference point into a communications cable - a powerful bond that makes light of distance and braves the seas to link his island to that of his friends in the Caribbean arc, dancing to the strains of tumbélé and mendé only a few miles
from Port of Spain where people live it up to rapso and soca beats. Caribbean Roots' represents a return to his roots for Anthony Joseph, who has always remained true to a powerful, deep-seated sense of his Caribbean identity. Having started
out as a joint project with the outstanding percussionist Roger Raspail (Cesaria Evora, Papa Wemba, Kassav), 'Caribbean Roots' swiftly grew into a creative force incorporating
the rhythms, sounds and vibes that rock the Caribbean from San Fernando, Scarborough, Kingston and Les Abymes to Port-au-Prince and Havana. Backed by a band made up
of a blend of local musicians, the album attempts to unite the different islands into a single entity whilst ensuring that the identity of each is in no way diluted by the mix instead creating a richer and stronger alloy. The saxophones of Shabaka Hutchings (The
Heliocentrics) and Jason Yarde, the trumpet of Yvon Guillard (Magma), the bass of Mike Clinton (Salif Keita) and the trombone of Pierre Chabrèle (Creole Jazz Orchestra) all combine to form a group of Caribbean All Stars to which Andy Narrell, the master of the steel pans, brings ringing drum beats. The album features bursts of catchy rhythms and slow percussive riff progressions, as on a film soundtrack, incandescent voodoo funk and rhythmic high-speed frenzies shot through with free-jazz sax. This reunion of the Caribbean diaspora was never meant to come up with a formula divisible into eleven separate tracks - its goal was to explore and discover new sounds. And all of this under Anthony Joseph's guidance, as he spins his lyrical blend of afro-futurism and surrealism, commemorating the Caribbean people's sometimes violent resistance to colonialism. Anthony Joseph, one moment a chronicler reciting his text against a background of simple percussion, the next a storyteller possessed by the power of a hypnotic bassline, then an adventurer chanting among mangroves where the rhythm section and the brass have created an impenetrable thicket. At turns, an MC too, strutting to a fat, throbbing groove in vocal tandem with Sly Johnson or David Rudder to pay tribute to Mighty Sparrow, the undisputed and indisputable king of calypso
Among the happy encounters that luck and destiny can bring, one of the most remarkable is the partnership between Jaime Além and Nair Cândia. The arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and composer teamed up with the singer to form a musical partnership that extended into their lives. The couple released two albums, the first of which was “Jaime & Nair,” from 1974. The album returns to shelves as part of the “Classics on Vinyl” collection from Polysom, under license from CID, on 180-gram vinyl.
Praised by Dori Caymmi and Edu Lobo, whose comments appear in the insert and back cover, the album was produced by Durval Ferreira and recorded at Somil Studios. Its twelve tracks are all written by Jaime, except for “Das Minas” and “Zambumba do Nego.” The duo alternates on vocals and showcases a distinctly Brazilian sound in each track. This is an essential work for lovers of national music.
Disc 2[8,03 €]
Thomas Urv and Miss Mostly's Norwegian techno imprint PLOINK drops the second in its trilogy of releases celebrating the brand's 20-year anniversary.
Following on from the first release that featured renowned Scandinavian artists such as Prins Thomas, Mental Overdrive, Urhaug, Nordenstam, Christian Tilt and Hutmacher, the label's next outing sees five more
members of the local scene make appearances.
First up, promising newcomer Saftronic drops the chuggy 'Exit', incorporating soaring synths and spellbinding atmospherics, before PLOINK founder Thomas Urv, who's also preparing the label's debut album, delivers a dense low-end and infectious whirrs in 'Set Lucky'.
Known for his longstanding contribution to ambient and techno with releases on Beatservice, Club Craft, Berserk Fabric, Diametric and Silent Season, renowned Norwegian producer Mind Over MIDI crafts intricate
arpeggios and echoing effects in the arctic inspired 'Ice Plains'.
Releasing on PLOINK before, KSMISK, who are also known as Trulz & Robin, conjure up a sinister production named 'Yme' that features dusky aesthetics and twisted nuances, until Argentinian born CementO concludes the package with the undulating 'Nordisk Skjønnhet'.
"Pineland is the duo made of Budapest's Giash with Montreal's Pheek, both craftsmen of immersive, organic, groovy techno. While they've never met, they offer an extremely efficient workflow that lets them pursue their love for making beautiful and colorfull rhythmics. While their first dub project was release on Only Material Matters (UK), they've been overwhelmed with positive feedback that made them burst into more creative juices, coming up with a very personal EP, named "Grounded."
Ambient techno exponent, A Sagittariun, fires off another full-length album transmission this April on his own Elastic Dreams label. 'Elasticity' is the Bristol based artist's second long player, and the follow up to his acclaimed 2013 debut, 'Dream Ritual'. Having last released a trio of singles in early 2015 (for Hypercolour, Secret Sundaze and Elastic Dreams), 'Elasticity' marks a return for A Sagittariun, and fans of the slippery and elastic sounds that hallmarked his debut album will not be disappointed. 'Dream Ritual' helped firmly establish A Sagittariun as an artist whose musical chops and integrity operate largely outside of the mainstream and a producer who chooses to put the music firmly center stage, whilst opting to remain relatively anonymous within the music scene. A Sagittariun explains, Elasticity was recorded over quite a short period, but the sketches and ideas have been germinating for some time, so sonically it's very coherent and consistent and moves in a way that I personally like albums to move in, with a narrative and flow that holds you right to the end. The recipe for Elasticity was always to be malleable and pliable with the sounds and tempos, for me it's all about the listening experience, and creating a landscape and a world within that one can really get deep into and explore, it's optimistic and progressive music for the head, heart and feet. I really do advise the listener to don headphones and take the trip with me".
Anyone who knows Soul Intent's music will know he loves to dig into the hardcore, rave and jungle archives. Now he's taking it a step further by launching Dope Plates, the second sub-label to his Lossless Music imprint. Expect early 90s influenced Drum & Bass and Jungle, drawing from the foundations set by legendary labels such as Metalheadz, Reinforced, Moving Shadow and Good Looking. As for the logo (yes we know it's awesome) it was designed by Art Jazz from Genaside II... see, we really went in on this!
2016 reissue of an earlier album by Apparat, aka Berlin's Sascha Ring, who's also singing in Moderat, originally released in 2007.
"Apparat has had one hell of a year. His collaboration with Ellen Allien, the critically acclaimed album Orchesta of Bubbles, forged electrifying new connections between techno, electro and pop music. They developed the material into an electrifying live show that wowed clubs and festival audiences the world over. Apparat kept honing his solo show at the same time, delivering a powerful electro/techno laptop attack that would leave crowds twitching in its wake. And somewhere, in between all those activities, he managed to record Walls, his first solo studio album since 2003's Duplex. Despite its title, Walls isn't about dividing lines. Instead, it describes a circle that pulls many elements together into a protected, enclosed space where they jostle and roam free: strings and mallet instruments; rock guitar and gravelly sawtooth synths; stuttering digital percussion and muscular studio drumming."
