Cerca:the dragon

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

LTD. BLUE & PINK SWIRL VINYL

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

‘Stay Sane’ is the hotly-anticipated new album from London based artist Ocean Wisdom out now on his own label Beyond Measure Records.

Widely considered to be one the most technical rappers alive, his first release from the album campaign ‘Drilly Rucksack’ is a stellar offering, showcasing Ocean’s rapid-fire flow as he takes on political themes relevant in Britain today. Speaking on the track Ocean said “‘Drilly Rucksack’ is a fictional tale of a magical rucksack that protects its owner from evil Tories whilst also offering consolation and reassurance to the daughters whose lives they have presumably made miserable.”

Given the name Ocean Wisdom at birth, Ocean grew up immersed in hop-hop and reggae and began beatboxing aged seven. His homelife was what he describes as ‘hectic’, as his mum worked as an emergency foster carer. Years of writing lyrics and practicing followed and his uncompromising work ethic drove him to leave home at 17 and start working on his craft daily, never missing a single day. He used his passion for music as a way of channeling his anger and controlling his mental health, in addition to avoiding the fate of some of his friends. His meticulous attention to detail and hardwork paid off and over the past 5 years has seen Ocean’s meteoric rise lead to a quarter billion streams across all platforms and collaborations with legendary artists including Method Man, Dizzee Rascal, Fatboy Slim, Akala, Roots Manuva, Ghetts and Foreign Beggars.

Famed for his technical abilities, Ocean broke numerous records at a young age, including beating the standing Guinness World Record for most words per minute in a hit song, dethroning Eminem’s "Rap God". He remains one of the few UK rappers that can tour worldwide, headlining arenas across Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Russia and the Middle East. Since then he has gone on to set up his own label to release his music as well as building his own studio and creating a platform for future artist to thrive.

DIO – EVIL OR DIVINE: LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY
Limited Edition Lenticular 3LP / Standard 3LP / 2CD Deluxe Mediabook
• Reissue of DIO’s long out of print 2005 live release. First time in vinyl!
• Newly remastered & newly created cover art
• LIMITED EDTION VINYL VERSION INCLUDES LENTICULAR 3D ALBUM SIZED ART PIECE ALONG WITH 3LP 180g BLACK VINYL / TRIPLE GATEFOLD
• Also Available in 2CD Deluxe Mediabook and 3LP 180g Black Vinyl / Triple Gatefold Standard Edition
• Features the complete live show experience as if you were there, including never before released version of “Lord Of The Last Day” and an amazing Simon Wright drum solo not on the original release!
• Both 3LP Vinyl Versions feature special mini 4 track bonus from the 1996-2004 studio albums featuring “This Is Your Life” (from Angry Machines), “Fever Dreams” (from Magica), “Push” (from Killing The Dragon), & “The Eyes” (from Master Of The Moon)

Der Hamburger Musiker und DJ RVDS schließt sich mit dem meditativen, ohrenschmeichelnden Klangkunstwerk "Moods and Dances 2021", einem musikalischen Geschenk aus einer Zeit, in der die Zukunft Vergangenheit sein wird, dem Label Bureau B an. Inspiriert von der sphärischen Exotik und den fantasievollen Elektroniksounds der Library Music, beschwört Richard von der Schulenburg Palmen, Pyramiden, Promenaden und Portale herauf, die vom Zentrum eines Holodecks aus beobachtet werden. Die Stücke nehmen uns mit auf eine Reise durch den wilden Geräte-Dschungel in Richards Privatstudio und lassen sich als Hommage an die Klang-Schattierungen in seiner Sammlung verstehen. Ob mit geschmolzener 303 auf dem Gipfel des Mount Acid, ob improvisierter Jazz auf den Fendertasten oder live mit Bühnen-Pathos, Richards Musik ist in jedem Fall eine eindringliche, allumfassende Erfahrung. Gut möglich jedoch, dass diese Erfahrung noch nie unmittelbarer war als auf seinem neuesten Werk.

In 2011 composer Ramin Djawadi was first asked to score a new TV series called Game of Thrones. In its first season much of the music was written for a small string ensemble, and filled out with synthetic pads and percussion. Over the course of the next six seasons the music budget got bigger and bigger to match the ever-increasing viewing figures the show was enjoying. This release celebrates the rich tapestry of music over the six series with the full firepower of an 80-piece symphony orchestra and choir.

Game of Thrones really is a television phenomenon. HBO's epic small screen adaptation of George R.R. Martin's series of fantasy tomes continues to draw in record audiences around the world and shows no signs of slowing down. Indeed some 8.9m people tuned in to the Season Six finale in the US and with repeats, recordings and on-demand viewings taken into consideration, it is estimated that Game of Thrones enjoys an average of 23m viewers per instalment. With a whopping thirty-eight Emmy Awards (and counting), this series remains the darling of prime-time pay TV.

With so much music created for the sixty episodes so far broadcast, this album can of course only take in so much. The particular cues and themes it does highlight, though, lend themselves beautifully to this symphonic re-imagining.

Italian composer Gadi Sassoon debuts on A Strangely Isolated Place with an experimental exploration of impossible physics; an intricate soundtrack based on newly created sounds and abstract atmospheres. In 2015 Gadi was invited to Edinburgh by The NESS Project to check out their groundbreaking sound synthesis work. With the help of a supercomputer, the NESS group had created new digital systems capable of creating sounds so complex, rich and realistic they were indistinguishable from acoustic instruments. Better yet, the code could be hacked to create completely imaginary sonic worlds with bizarre physical properties. Gadi fell in love with this idea and became resident composer at NESS for the following years, collaborating with the researchers to create impossible instruments: mile-long trumpets blown by dragon fire in Black Hole Fanfare, needle fingers brushing eternally vibrating strings in Pi (p), giant resonating lattices of bound masses and springs in the Moto Perpetuo suite and Collision Suite, marbles sliding on thousand-string fretboards in Young's Modulus, morphing bouncing objects in Chaos & Order, an orchestra of giant bowed basses in Life On A Tidally Locked Planet. Multiverse was designed and created by bending the laws of physics in subtle ways, effectively creating acoustic simulations from parallel universes. Gadi combined the NESS sessions with analogue synths and live instruments in his Milan studio, with the intent of creating a space for the listener to get lost in - blurring the lines between organic and synthetic, loud and quiet, the abstract and the familiar.

Dynamic Sounds Studio has its roots firmly set in Jamaica’s history. It was the first state of the art studio built in Kingston, Jamaica and a firm favourite with all the topflight homespun artists. Bob Marley chose to record the bulk of his seminal 'Catch A Fire' album there and many foreign musicians trying to catch some of that reggae magic and emulate that sound have beaten a path to its doors. As you will see the studio had a history already of its own, that was carved out before it became the aptly named Dynamic Sounds.

Originally named WIRL Studio's (West Indies Records Limited), it was set up initially to record Jamaica's versions of the American Rhythm and Blues tunes that were proving so popular  on the island. It was started back in 1958 by Political leader Edward Seaga an astute businessman, who had many interests around the island including clubs and bars. As the R & B music evolved into its own styles from Mento into Ska, one of its main protagonists Byron Lee and his band the Dragonaires would be at the forefront and be seen as ambassadors to the cause. Edward Seaga would choose the band to head the 1964 World’s Fair and take them to New York to showcase the Jamaican Ska Music. His political ambitions leading the American friendly JLP (Jamaican Labour Party) against the Cuban inspired PNP (People's National Party), would see him cutting back his other interests and lead to the selling of WIRL, lock stock and barrel to Byron Lee. On taking over the business he renamed it Dynamic Sounds and extended it to include not only a top of the range recording studio but a pressing plant to distribute the new hot sounds of the day directly to the streets of Jamaica. The address would also change to 15 Bell Road, it's old address No 13, seemingly too unlucky for such a fine establishment.

The studio has become part of the Jamaican culture and each twist and turn in its musical story has been caught and recorded here. We get on board when the music had slowed down to the reggae skank that we now know and love. We have picked some fine cuts that we feel best represent the times. The rhythms are pushed to the fore and the great Sylvan Morris a much-underrated studio master, always came up with some interesting effects to enhance the version cuts. A fine time in reggae's history caught at one of Jamaica's finest studios. Dynamic Sounds from a Dynamic Studio.....

The latest vinyl slice from FBNM sees us head to the depths of central Africa via Paris to track down a feast of rare seventies afro funky jams from Cameroonian master musician EKO. We've brought FBNM favourite Riccio along for the journey too, who has provided us with a fantastic Rerub coaxing out some modern dancefloor sensibilities and production sparkle.

Eko Roosevelt Louis has had a music career spanning over forty years, born the grandson of a Kribi tribal chief, his musical persuasion beginning humbly with his village's local church before his formal education at the Senegal conservatoire and Paris' École Normale de Musique. EKO made a number of jazz funk and disco records in the mid seventies during a stint recording and touring in and around France before returning to Cameroon to take over his grandfather's tribal chieftaincy, a role he still holds today! Alongside this position of office EKO has continued to work with music, performing, teaching and even leading Cameroon's national orchestra!

The tracks we have selected for reissue are all taken from EKO's third album, Funky Disco Music which was recorded in Paris and released on his own Dragon Phenix imprint. Sung in a combination of English and EKO's native tongue we've lined up a real excursion in feel good afro-jazz, funk and soul made purely for dancing feet and boogying butts!

All tracks have been officially licensed and lovingly remastered for this special release by Andreas Lupo Lubich (CALYX Berlin), packaged alongside Riccio's sympathetic work in the cutting room on 12" vinyl with a special interview with Eko Roosevelt Louis himself!

Mort Garson’s road to cool cultural caché and the sublimity of Plantasia meant a decades’ long journey through an underworld of sophisticated, international, string-laced dreck (i.e., your great-grandparents’ record collection) to arrive at Music from Patch Cord Productions, this set of queasy-listening you now hold.

Music from Patch Cord Productions shows that Garson’s knack was to exist in both worlds, super-commercial and waaay out. He cut delirious minute-long blasts for commercials (as to whether or not they were actually ever aired remains unknown) and spacecraft-hovering études. Were there really account managers out there in the early ’70s that gave the greenlight to these commercial compositions which seemed to anticipate everyone from John Carpenter to Suicide? What were these campaigns actually for, Soylent Green? Regardless, Mort’s jingle work laid the groundwork for the future. As Robert Moog himself noted: “The jingles were important because they domesticated the sound.” Via Garson’s wizardry, the synthesizer transcended novelty to ubiquity and dominance.

Other curios and questions abound. How did Garson’s arrangement work for Arthur Prysock’s satiny body worship album This Is My Beloved transmogrify into the body-snatcher pulses of “This is My Beloved”? Are the two pieces even related? What is the IATA code for the airport of “Realizations of an Aeropolis”? What denomination is the “Cathedral of Pleasure”? If “Son of Blob” sounds like a hallucinatory melted ice cream truck theme, what on earth does Blob’s father sound like? Every sound wrangled out of that Moog by Garson pushes things further and further out.

Of course, these are all questions that may never get answers, as Garson wasn’t the most organized modern day composer, busy as he was conjuring strange new realms with his circuit boards and synths. He worked and wrote right up until his death in 2008, his daughter and Sacred Bones still going through all of the material left behind. He wouldn’t live to see it, but his renaissance was just around the corner, the seeds that had been scattered in record bins around the world suddenly coming to bear fruit. Take a bite!

Mort Garson’s road to cool cultural caché and the sublimity of Plantasia meant a decades’ long journey through an underworld of sophisticated, international, string-laced dreck (i.e., your great-grandparents’ record collection) to arrive at Music from Patch Cord Productions, this set of queasy-listening you now hold.

Music from Patch Cord Productions shows that Garson’s knack was to exist in both worlds, super-commercial and waaay out. He cut delirious minute-long blasts for commercials (as to whether or not they were actually ever aired remains unknown) and spacecraft-hovering études. Were there really account managers out there in the early ’70s that gave the greenlight to these commercial compositions which seemed to anticipate everyone from John Carpenter to Suicide? What were these campaigns actually for, Soylent Green? Regardless, Mort’s jingle work laid the groundwork for the future. As Robert Moog himself noted: “The jingles were important because they domesticated the sound.” Via Garson’s wizardry, the synthesizer transcended novelty to ubiquity and dominance.

Other curios and questions abound. How did Garson’s arrangement work for Arthur Prysock’s satiny body worship album This Is My Beloved transmogrify into the body-snatcher pulses of “This is My Beloved”? Are the two pieces even related? What is the IATA code for the airport of “Realizations of an Aeropolis”? What denomination is the “Cathedral of Pleasure”? If “Son of Blob” sounds like a hallucinatory melted ice cream truck theme, what on earth does Blob’s father sound like? Every sound wrangled out of that Moog by Garson pushes things further and further out.

Of course, these are all questions that may never get answers, as Garson wasn’t the most organized modern day composer, busy as he was conjuring strange new realms with his circuit boards and synths. He worked and wrote right up until his death in 2008, his daughter and Sacred Bones still going through all of the material left behind. He wouldn’t live to see it, but his renaissance was just around the corner, the seeds that had been scattered in record bins around the world suddenly coming to bear fruit. Take a bite!

Compilation album curated by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

The directive for the composers featured on Breathing Instruments was, in effect, to accentuate the ways in which instruments sound like they are breathing. Some have recreated the literal experience of feeling or hearing the human breath. Others take a more abstract approach, where “breathing” is more motif than object of emulation.

From hushed pulsations and distant vocals in Kathryn Shuman’s ‘Objects creating a womb-like environment to Julianna Barwick’s blissful ‘Newborn’ the tracks give sonic form to the experience of emerging from the womb.

There is also a striking concurrence of woodland sounds throughout this collection from the ghostly tones of Emily A Srague’s ‘Flew’ to Cool Maritime and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s dew dripped ‘Daybreak’.

Meanwhile the undulating seascape of Geotic’s ‘Uncaught’ conjures moments of Evening Star by Fripp/ Eno, but supplants that album’s crystalline production with the warm crackle of vinyl.
If we learn anything from Breathing Instruments it is that we are inextricable from the natural world.

dark clear red vinyl / label sleeve / dl code

Whether it is religion or mathematics, the 9th dimension's returning interpretation involves freedom. The stories collected on this EP involve a concept from which hardcore originates: creative freedom. With every track on this release, you can expect the unexpected. The tracks are slower than some might be used to. Their structures deviate from what people have come to expect. They feature fresh sounds. In short, they are what you *should* expect from The Outside Agency who truly return to their experimental roots with this four-track Genosha release.

Thundercat drops his new album ‘It Is What It Is’ on Brainfeeder
Records. The record, produced by Flying Lotus and Thundercat, features musical contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington,
BADBADNOTGOOD, Louis Cole and Zack Fox.

A unique voice transcending style and genre: “This album is about
love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that,” says
Thundercat. Thundercat has previously worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, N.E.R.D., Erykah Badu, Childish Gambino, Mac Miller, Anderson .Paak, Little Simz, BADBADNOTGOOD, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington and many more.

For fans of Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, BADBADNOTGOOD. Album photography by Eddie Alcazar. CD in softpack. Deluxe 140g picture disc LP housed in a 6mm spined gatefold sleeve with gold foil detail and OBI strip. Includes digital download code.

Deluxe 140g pink clear vinyl LP housed in a 6mm spined gatefold
sleeve with gold foil detail and OBI strip. Includes digital download
code. Red 140g vinyl LP housed in a 3mm spined sleeve with OBI strip. Includes digital download code. Thundercat will play his biggest UK shows to date in April.

Futuristic Dragon is the 1976 album by T. Rex. The album features both ‘Dreamy Lady’ and ‘New York City’ which became Bolan’s biggest latter-day hit. Bolan continued to experiment sonically on this album along with incorporating more an American soul influence into the T. Rex sound.

- non-gatefold sleeve without 7"

Rush Hour announces their second artist compilation Patchwork, curated by one of the label’s most loved family members, Sassy J. The Swiss DJ is the very embodiment of passion and long-standing dedication to the craft of the DJing, but also to the community surrounding the music that she lives and breathes. For the past fourteen years Sassy J has run the Patchwork night in her native Bern and in London, with guests ranging from Theo Parrish and Little Dragon to Floating Points and MF Doom invited to share their respective musical visions. Her collaborative approach stands out in a DJ world that is too often weighted in favour of promoting the individual. This compilation grows out that unique sensitivity, foregrounding a theory of curation that centres on long-term bonds, articulated through Sassy J’s personal relationships with the contributing artists.

Patchwork speaks to the grass roots values that Sassy J espouses, showcasing music by many of the artists that have joined her throughout the years in clubs, on the radio, and at home. It is an expression of Sassy J’s individual musical path that casts its gaze firmly in the future: Patchwork is made up almost entirely of new and unreleased songs that are exclusive to this collection. Patchwork captures a sound that has continued to evolve in its restless search for new musical directions. Across thirteen tracks we find forward thinking electronic music rubbing elbows with cosmic jazz and deep percussion workouts from Brazil and beyond.

There are irresistible calls to the dancefloor: 2000 Black’s UK boogie and the syncopated rhythms of WaH-chU-kU nod to the West London sound, whilst the early rave of Nu Era and Aardvarck’s sub-rattling techno channel the grittier edges of the club experience. We find machine music imbued with humanity in Larry Heard’s deep house classic “Survivor” and in Ron Trent’s WARM project, whose gentle breeze points to a different side of the legendary producer. Patchwork also opens a more immersive listening space in which the radical indie soul of Georgia Anne Muldrow, the ambient spiritual jazz of bandleader Carlos Niño & Friends, and the lament for the Amazon rainforest by Azymuth’s drummer Ivan Conti can channel the overall spirit of group interplay and solidarity. Patchwork also includes Sassy J’s collaboration with veteran producer Alex Attias, marking her own place in a universe that is held together by her singular thread.

"This is the compilation of the year!" - DJ Spinna

Hey peepz, we would like to present to you INEX009 - This time it's a remix EP of previous released tracks.

First we have a deeper version of head honcho Ben Mudi's Fantant by Kevin Over – a good friend and known artist of our repertoire.

The second one is a remix of Leo Woelfel by M.ono which comes in very dreamy and nearly fantasy kind of disguise.

Third there is DJ Normal 4's Oriental Dragon MixX – a remix which adopted the melody and adlibs from the original adding a spicy almost goaesque acidish synthline.

Last but not least we have have a remix by french house connaisseur Flabaire who runs th D.KO imprint out of Paris – soft and moody sound bubbles will flattering your ears.

Time to inhale - exhale!

Contagious is a solid blending of avant-garde experimentation and electronic music. Formed by two innovative voices from the Improvisation scene of Berlin (Andrea Neumann and Sabine Ercklentz) and Mieko Suzuki, a well-crafted and creative DJ and musician who’s operating in Berlin venues and festivals since a long time.

Contagious is one of the most forward thinking, mind-melting projects to hit the electronic music scene. Intense and powerful, yet rooted in a tradition of crafting and sculpturing of in the most creative ways, all this building up within a solid structure of instant composition and improvisation. The trio plunder each other’s musical spheres, appropriate them and switch roles. Andrea Neumann on her infamous Inside Piano, an instrument she pioneered and crafted, is applying the most creative feedback processing to simple piano strings and sending them occasionally to Mieko Suzuki’s processing rig, who also uses her own pre-recorded sounds and her skills on turntables, while Sabine Ercklentz’s trumpet sounds blast through her processing system and altogether the three musicians communicate into logics of composition and futuristic structures, where fragile sound textures and pulses become monumental.

Contagious is also the debut album recorded and produced by Rabih Beaini. The Trio wanders in new aesthetic areas, sound is a texture where the processing rigs are constantly developing new forms and evolutions. Structures and grooves implode in noisy fragments, growing into a deep trance state.

In her most personally narrative work to date, A Fossil Begins To Bray is the follow up on Dais Records for NYC producer Hiro Kone, furthering the dialogue set forth on her 2018 release, Pure Expenditure. While the statements on Pure Expenditure rallied behind a point of dangerous excess and injustice, the material on A Fossil Begins To Bray embark upon a journey of discovery and selfanalysis, proposing a potential reorientation towards absence in hopes of illuminating potential futures.

In Mao’s own words, “This album considers the power of absence as neither a lack or deficit, but as a quiet, indeterminable force to cultivate in this time of looming and unrelenting techno-fascism. It asks that we take pause to consider our learned languages and actualities and to better consider how desire shapes our recollections and interpretations of this ‘existence.’” This allegory is expertly applied to every song on A Fossil Begins To Bray. Mao has established a long history of employing absence in her productions to maximum effect. With a vast assortment of diverse elements at play, no single track ever feels overly convoluted and further illustrates Hiro Kone’s skillful attention to dynamic tension and flow. Tracks such as “Fabrication of Silence” and “Submerged Dragon” perfectly represent the power of absence, utilized in a matter to create unique amalgams of decisive, cinematic techno rhythms from the electronic void. As the melodic elements contained within A Fossil Begins To Bray begin to unravel and slowly take form, the unaware are rewarded with a driving yet tangible refrain that offers resolve in contrast to the dense, textureladen backdrop that forms the album’s foundation. The first single, “Feed My Ancestors”, expands upon Hiro Kone’s signature take on electronic music structures. Seemingly free from the predictable contracts imposed by any one genre’s stereotypes, Hiro Kone throttles the foreboding bassline in favor of more calculated, abstract cut-ups that gracefully hold the track in place between hopeful utopia and something more ominous.

This is some serious top shelf material out of Baltimore and a certified masterclass in sweet symphonic soul. Optimistics was originally released in 1970 on Turbo and it’s every bit as essential as The Chi-Lites, The Delfonics and The Moments yet nowhere near as known. Those original copies are ridiculously rare and, of course, the prices are equally ridiculous.

Optimistics is a killer LP throughout, beloved of discerning hip-hop producers worldwide and routinely championed by the legendary Pete Rock. The genius George Kerr has handled the production on what is an album of beautiful, naïve soul for mind and body. It’s bursting with goodness and, like the best of its genre, it radiates a heart-breaking ambience that cuts right to the core.

The band of Billy, Harold, James, Charles and Jerome are described on the back cover as “five young, black knights who have embarked on a musical crusade and they're gonna slay a lot of dragons along the way”. We’re not entirely sure how many mythical serpents were dispatched during the making of this album but we can certainly attest to the sense of evangelical drive.

Evergreen opener “You Put Something New In My Life” is a heart-stopping ode to a transformative love. A ballad with spine-tingling chord changes and melodic switch-ups to spare, its sweeping strings and precise drums complement the falsetto delivery perfectly.

It’s followed by the equally beguiling “Let’s Love”. Another string-drenched harmony ballad, it revolves around delicate piano and distinctive guitar lines, crying out to be recontextualised by the best sampling technicians. Closing out the A side, the wonderfully restrained “Love Is God Almighty” is harp and horn-driven, barely-there soul from a higher plain. Heavenly.

Ushering in the flipside, “Should I Let Myself Go”, sampled recently by Knxwledge, is sensational guitar-soul with a yearning that could bring the most hardened soul to tears. It’s followed by the uptempo, Temptations-funk of “Man” and quietly-great “If I Could Influence Man”, where the competing vocals ride a chugging, funky breakbeat and delicious guitar licks. The refreshing, groovy “Say It Baby” is an appropriately positive, upward looking closer. Its sentiment and feel speaks directly to both the band name and the title of this, their only album. Truly optimistic.

The whole LP is a winning blend of slow, spine-tingling ballads and joyously upbeat tracks. It’s a case of A+ vocals, melodies and harmonies over beautiful playing and arrangements. It deserves to be canonical.

This fresh reissue has been mastered with the usual care by Simon Francis and cut by the legendary Pete Norman. The artwork has been lovingly reproduced by the Be With team.

Optimistics should be known to a much wider audience. We’ve hopefully gone some way towards rectifying that.