The debut Vinyl release on Re-Fix Recordings is an E.P from Waxwing who utilizes many years of studio experience and previous releases under different aliases to deliver 4 funky chunky house cuts. Unleashing vintage tones,the US garage influenced house beats shuffle and swing their way throughout,whilst warm,weighty organ stabs provide the backbone for the dubby grooves A
Boris Bunnik is no stranger in the worl d of electronic music. He released several albums and ep's under a variety of monikers since 2007 on labels like Delsin, Shipwrec, Frustrated Funk and his own Transcendent imprint. Fauxpas Musik welcomes him for a new project called Severnaya. Originally hailing from the Island of Terschelling, the most Northern and remote part of the Netherlands he now made a piece of music dedicated to this special place. Severnaya means north in Russian and refers to the bright frozen landscapes of the northern archipels. Boris often plays with the influences and elements of ambient in his music. If we have to believe the man himself, Polar Skies is his most personal sound trajectory to come from his mind. Drum programming is scarce and what remains is a lush and profound listening experience floating on scapes and melodies. We clearly hear his roots and intentions represented in the airy, tranquil sound design of this new album project. Things sound spacious, and life is at ease in these melancholic compositions. Crispy crackling percussions and icey pads place you in the midst of a resonant arctic landscape. You can hear influences drawn from producers like Biosphere, Pub, Brian Eno but we also hear more contemporary influences from modern day film composition but most of all we here Boris his own signature. The tracks were composed over a couple of years (2015-2017) in a more contemplative mindset. At some point this selection formed a consistent piece of music and as a result you hear his most personal and fragile works to date. Fauxpas Musik is proud to release this new project in 2018. written and produced by Boris Bunnik aka Conforce at the PasadenaOceanlab Studios Special thanks to family, friends and Fauxpas
The current resurgence of jazz in all its' forms has certainly been impossible to ignore in recent times - from the chart-bound, mainstream crooning of Gregory Porter, to the left field 'jazz not jazz' soundscapes of Kamasi Washington, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Snarky Puppy proves this is a worldwide phenomenon. One artist who has been been ploughing this furrow in the southern hemisphere for longer than most is Lance Ferguson. As the driving force behind The Bamboos, Cookin' On 3 Burners, Lanu, and the Black Feeling series, these are the varied and versatile projects on which he has built an enviable reputation.
Menagerie 'They Shall Inherit' saw the light of day in 2012 (Tru Thoughts Records) and established the fact that jazz of the contemporary type could reach back to it's essential roots and present itself, refreshed and vital for a contemporary audience.
Lance himself explains: "The Arrow Of Time' draws its inspiration conceptually from the themes of space exploration, human evolution and the future of humankind. It's pretty big stuff to be underpinning an album of modal Jazz tunes - but the main message is one of hope, and I hope that comes across in the music"
Late 2017 saw the 2 track album sampler 'Evolution/Arrow Of Time' create a genuine buzz of anticipation, being playlisted on Jazz FM, and also supported by Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2) and both Don Letts & Gilles Peterson on their BBC 6 Music shows - having as it does the spirit of deep jazz, but combining an accessible sound that reached way beyond the usual jazz hungry audience - due in one part to Evolution's immensely catchy hooks, with the voice of Fallon Williams focusing the listeners attention on the philosophical themes Lance highlighted above. Now the album, laid out in its' entirety can be experienced, attempting to encapsulate the music with the written word feels like a somewhat futile exercise, so it is best to consider Lance Fergusons' final thoughts about its inspiration, influences and ongoing appeal.
"The sound of record labels like Strata East, Tribe and Black Jazz has been a massive influence on Menagerie. To me that sound is timeless, exciting and just as vibrant as a musical format in 2018 - and the proof is that we're hearing more and more young musicians embracing it"
An ethereal, unresolved presence fading into the stereo field, Hilja breathes into life with a haunted synth line and self-sampling vocal hook that instantly creates an enchanted space. Hilja is the debut album by Glasgow-based musician Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera. Named after a style of southern Italian traditional cooking associated with precarity and making-do, a philosophy of simplicity and stoicism that applies perfectly to the spare but beautiful music Rossi experiments with. Hilja's marriage of minimal synth, field recordings and the hymnal dexterity of Rossi's vocal performances creates a new language, sometimes literally, to be spoken in some mythological Fourth World we've yet to create.
Originally from Finland, Rossi brings an acute sense of space, surroundings, and practicality to her working practice, with each composition often relying on a limited sound palette to create deeply affecting messages which transcend language. Cucina Povera's power is to communicate purely, often down to the solo-choir nature of Rossi's multi-layered voice, an achingly beautiful instrument which has seems to have an innate spirituality in its grain. The tension between the means and the end is at the heart of Cucina Povera, the invocation of a kind of secular spirituality at times using nothing but Rossi's voice. Indeed there's almost a Dogme-like purity to the arrangements: Elektra is a soothing song based around the lapping waves of Rossi's wordless backing vocals and a simple field recording of stones knocked together. Kehoitus is completely a cappella, a haunted fairytale told in glossolalia, evoking a quasi-religious experience with very little.
For music often minimal and simple there's a boldness that belies Hilja's status as a debut. Rossi allows each word, each sound and rhythm to exist in its own space, finding its own relationship with its surroundings. Mesikämmenen Veisu is perhaps the most ecclesiastical sounding composition here, burbling water trickles below a virtuoso vocal, with incredible arrangements in several registers undulating above. A meditation to relieve hunger and restriction, it's a perfect summing up of Hilja, a music ambient but completely earthed, finding enchantment in what you have to hand, the realism of magic, the magic of realism.
First Press limited to 300 with hand-screened sleeves.
Artwork by Jennifer Nastanovich
Iron Curtis has felt like a Polytone artist for quite a while now. He recently delivered a breathtaking remix for Matthias Vogt, and shared a split EP with the man himself, Terrence Dixon. He's also played several label nights, but indeed 'Unwind' is his first very own EP on Polytone. The opening track 'Riders' is our floor filler here. A subsonic bass experience of the more intensive kind. It´s a pure groover, with a surprisingly long lasting breakdown that never lacks on intensity. 'Cream' on the A2 is a stellar ambient joint, with rhythmic elements and cosmic pads. On the flip we have the title track, 'Unwind', with an unconventional basic groove, bleepy touches and trademark 707 drum machine sounds. Pure and stunning deepness. The Final track is a remix from Force/Emerge and leads 'Unwind' into techno territory. Polytone stands for diversity, and again demonstrates the labels vision of versatility here.
music is the silence between the notes.' the french composer claude debussy once said.
the german trio wareika, consisting of florian schirmacher, henrik raabe and jakob seidensticker, love the silence between their notes, even if their music is often fully loaded with many detailed sounds, rhythms, melodies and intercultural sound links.
since 2007 they spread their passion for repetitive club grooves in the minimal house spheres that love to swing in the epic way. with four albums on labels like perlon or visionquest as well as eps for labels like eskimo, tartelet, circus company or bar 25 under their wings, the trio proofed their craftsmanship for multi-layered dance music already arrestingly deep on numerous releases and during tours around the globe that brought them also to japan.
now they deliver a new one hour long sonic journey on the tokyo based mule musiq, the label on which wareika member florian schirmacher already released as part of the glowing glisses project in 2008. also wareika itself are not new to the japanese imprint, as they previously dropped a remix for mule for the mysterious project jemmy in late 2015.
and now water, sky, sun, wood' - an ambitious one-track (on vinyl separated into four parts) love letter that kicks you deep into meditation - assumed you surrender yourself to their complex sounding and grooving story-arc. it all started with an unplanned four-hour jam session between henrik and flo-rian, gaming and messing around on the piano, guitar and drum computer.
later florian edited the happening into a one-hour sensation, henrik added some congas and synthlines and jakob mixed it down. the result is a meticulously edited, deeply absorbing dance between the pi-ano, guitar, conga, mfb tanzbär, mfb dominion 1, ob-6, jupiter 6 and manikin mellotron synthsizer. you can use it to get lost. lost from the daily grind. lost from precast perception.
lost in music. you can use it for your imagination to move to a place beyond words that guarantees some genuine experience. or you just can shut yourself down to it, dive deep into your unforeseeable dream world and dance your sub-consciousness around and around.
whatever each listener chooses to do, wareika's latest adventurous blend of jazz, techno, house and world music will move each soul individual. primarily because water, sky, sun, wood' is a reverbera-tion of the inner notes that are floating and dancing in florian, henrik and jakob. and as the greatest music in the world is nothing but an echo of the inner music, wareika managed to reach a new fresh peak of their multidimensional artistic body of work, that grows and grows to stand out in terms of deepness, permanency, eternalness and silence between all sounding sensations.
Dr. Dundiff releases Muneybeats' as part of the Beats from Jakarta' series & continues what Ta-ku and Shuko started years ago.
Dr. Dundiff (done different) is a Hip-Hop/Neo-Soul producer based out of Louisville, KY. Dundiff has gotten into producing around 2010 and has been a busy bee ever since with a huge number of projects under his belt, from producing as well as him rapping.
Those who follow Jakarta Records might know the name from his ongoing collaboration with Otis Junior. They released their debut EP 1moment2another' on Jakarta Records receiving wide daytime airplay and recognition from French tastemaker Radio NOVA, as well as 1.500.000 Mio. Streams for their debut EP 1Moment to Antother' through Spotify & a placement on Radio Nova's le grand Mix 2016' compilation.
Muneybeats is Dr. Dundiff revisiting his roots in an all instrumental experience. Put the most attractive beats on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go, 'Wow, I need this be a right now.' Those are the Muneybeats. Compact little tasty treats spanning a wide range of sounds while always sounding like Dundiff made them. He is currently also working on a new project with Otis Junior which will drop sometime in 2018 as well as their first Europe tour in summer 2018.
- Beats from Jakarta is a series Jakarta Records kicked off some years ago with contributions from Shuko and Ta-ku, heavyweights in their own right, and we felt it would be nice to bring that series back when Dundiff sent us his new album. So here we go. - Beats from Jakarta part 3....
Under the alias of Zanov we find the works of French electronic pioneer Pierre Salkazanov, who had started playing guitar in the 1960s in a Shadows styled band, Les Ambassadors. Instrumental rock was not enough for Salkazanov, he was always looking for evolution, so when a meeting with French synth player Serge Ramses (of "Secret" fame) got him into the world of synthesizers he just dived deep into the bourgeoning world of electronic music. He got himself an EMS VCS3 and started producing works into a 4-track Teac tape machine. French music was at its best, it was the time of Jean Michel Jarre, Didier Bocquet, Richard Pinhas and Heldon, Alain Meunier... Even Gong's Tim Blake was living in France at that time. By the time of his second LP, Moebius 256 301, issued also on Polydor in 1977, Zanov had already gathered a small collection of gear, including an ARP 2600 and an ARP sequencer, his old VCS3, an RMI Harmonic and a PS 3300. Again under the influence of both first and second generation of Berlin school musicians the LP will appeal to fans of Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream, but they will also find a big deal of Zanov's own personal sound on it, since as the musician himself reckons he had little contact with other peers of his generation, so besides a general love for the electronic gear used and the sounds you could make out of them the creative ideas behind his works were all his own. On his second album a richer sound is found, not only due to the use of the new gear, since some of its tracks where recorded using only his old EMS, but also due to his won experience after having taken his works to the life stages in the Golf Drouot boite, the Lase Olympia venue (on the basement of the famous Olympia), the Paris Planetarium or those for planned one month tour (of which in the end only four dates were accomplished).
Zanov's three albums met with unanimous critical acclaim for the sound quality as well as for the originality of this very personal universe.
Inspired by a longstanding respect for the pioneering sounds of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia & John Foxx, the legendary K. Leimer fuses tape loops, Moog tones and a variety of real and imagined instruments into an immersive journey brimming with electronic emotion throughout this homage, 'Mitteltöner.'
A key figure in America's musical avant garde, Leimer's experiments with tape manipulation, fractal loops and textured ambience have been well documented in recent times, with RVNG and VOD both offering excellent and exhaustive retrospectives of the artist's seventies and eighties output. Tracing Leimer's discography from 1979's 'Translucent: / Memory' to 1983's 'Installation View', via the dislocated rhythms of the Savant project, these archival releases detail a move from the pastoral synthesis of kosmische into more angular, experimental territories. Simultaneously looking to the past and the future, this Origin Peoples release is both a return to Leimer's earliest stylistic explorations, and his first vinyl release of original work in twenty five years.
Oddly for such a sonic outlier, 'Mitteltöner' (midrange to non teutophones) takes its conceptual cues from the idea that the midrange contains all the core information. Over ten tracks, Leimer employs subtlety and skill to navigate the emotional depth of the kosmische genre while maintaining the focus and detail which has remained constant in his work.
Opener 'Dunne Luft' owes as much to post rock as krautrock, evolving from chiming harmonics and understated rhythms into an optimistic roar of motorik percussion and towering guitars. From there, 'Webermelodie' dives into crystalline calm, tracing delicate arps around a processed groove before 'Anode' sends us skywards, drifting through glistening piano refrains and hypnotic sequences. Te dramatic 'As Long Ago As This' glides through a deserted city of metal and glass leaving the measured ambience of 'Entferntemusik ' to close out the side in a swell of static.
Leimer shifts tone as we move onto the flip, segueing the stomping, cybernetic Sturm Und Drang of 'German Defaults' into the propulsive electronics of 'London Interiors', a dynamic sample-topped suite in the tradition of Bill Nelson. The addition of graceful piano motifs and swathes of hazy synthesis lends a tranquillity to the pulsating bass of 'Auf Einem Fahrrad', while 'SHM' marries soothing melody and crunching rhythm into a thoroughly medicated experience. Finally, 'Café Florian' pays homage to Schneider or Fricke with a euphoric fusion of metallic percussion and esoteric energies.
Far from a simple homage to the electronic idols of his youth, 'Mitteltöner' finds K. Leimer reimagining their nuanced sonic framework through a lifetime of musical experience and experimentation.
As music continuously evolves, times change and new ideas and movements come & go. All of this functions in tandem with scientific, technological, social and political advancements in our society. The biggest component to that evolution is the people. There are creators and consumers. One cannot exist without the other. Throughout art, the audience defines quality, but artist has the power to introduce change and shift perception. Execution is key. The masses are always hungry for something fresh. Sometimes we're at the forefront of new trends and sometimes we find comfort innovating the past. No matter what, musicians have a responsibility to bridge the gap. Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk meet all of the above. Produced entirely by the artists, the new album "The Reflecting Sea" revisits sonic textures of yesteryear and combined with their own distinct ears for music, have created something uniquely foreign for the music world in our time. Speaking of the times, Raw Poetic's lyrical subject matter is nothing short of relevancy. Speaking from an observatory perspective in addition to his own personal experiences, the album's content is infinitely relatable. Although known primarily as hip hop acts, both Damu and Raw P stretched out to expand what the genre is known for. The combination of elements from the mix of live instrumentation, improvisation and sampling to the range of styles including jazz, fusion, rock, electronic and soul make The Reflecting Sea unlike anything else. Captured and recorded in it's rawest form, the album is honest expression. Masterminding the festival sounds is Damu the Fudgemunk. His voice is absent from the recordings, but his presence is immediately noticed throughout the 40 minute exhibition. Packed with tons of beats, tons of scratching, original compositions, upbeat and signature atmosphere, there's no question who's behind the boards. With the average tempo of over 100bpm, this is one of the most energetic releases in Redefinition's catalog. Raw P and the Fudgemunk aim to revitalize listeners of all types with their original sound. They call it "The Reflecting Sea: Welcome to a New Philosophy." Raw Poetic (MC), hails from the DMV area by way of Philadelphia. In addition to several collaborations with Damu the Fudgemunk, he's recorded 6 albums as a member of Panacea, 1 album with K-def, 1 album with Kev Brown and recent features with Brous One in which all have been met with critical acclaim. Damu the Fudgemunk (producer/DJ) is a DC native who co-owns and operates Redefinition Records. With several successful releases as a solo artist, his music has garnered a reputation in the last decade for it's consistent quality and conceptual structure.
Air Lows is the debut solo album by Silvia Kastel. The Italian artist has been a fixture of the underground since her precocious teens, clocking up many miles in Control Unit with Ninni Morgia ('It's like Catherine Deneuve dumped two cases of post-Repulsion psychiatric notes over Pere Ubu's Dub Housing, lit the fuse and, ahem, stood well back" - Julian Cope), including collaborations with the likes of Smegma, Factrix, Gary Smith, Aki Onda and Gate (Michael Morley of The Dead C). Both solo and in her work with others, Kastel has explored the outer limits and inner workings of no wave, industrial, dub, extreme electronics, free rock and improvisation. Air Lows is both her fullest and most refined offering to date, a work of vivid, isolationist electronics which draws deeply on her past experience but assuredly breaks new ground. Prompted by a late-flowering interest in techno and club music, Kastel sought to create something which combines a steady rhythmic pulse with the otherworldly sonorities of musique concrete, and avant-garde synth sounds inspired by Japanese minimalism and techno-pop (Haruomi Hosono's Philharmony being a particular favourite). The formal artifice of muzak / elevator music, the intros and outros of generic popular songs, the extreme light-heavy contrasts of jungle, the creative sampling of hardcore, and the very 'human' synths in the jazz of Herbie Hancock's Sextant and Sun Ra: all were touchstones for Air Lows' conception and composition, and all strains of music addressing - or complicating - the relationship between the human and the technological. By extension, visual inspirations also proved important: anime, and the avant-garde fashion of Rei Kawakubo. What does that shirt or dress sound like Though used sparingly, Kastel's voice remains her key instrument, whether subject to dissociative digital manipulations as on 'Bruell', delivering matter-of-fact spoken monologues, or providing splashes of pure tonal colour. Recorded between her expansive Italy studio and a more compact, ersatz set-up in Berlin, Air Lows gradually takes on some of the character of the German capital: you can hear the wide streets and uninhabited spaces, the seepage of never-ending nightlife, the loneliness. Air Lows is The Wizard of Oz in reverse: the glorious technicolour J-pop deconstructions of its first half leading inexorably to the icy noir of 'Spiderwebs' and 'Concrete Void'. These later tracks are reminiscent of 2015's magnificent 39 12', Kastel in the role of numbed, nihilistic chanteuse stalking dank, murky tunnels of reverb and sub-bass. But in fact there is contradiction and emotional ambiguity to Air Lows from the outset, and throughout - a sense of both infinite space and acute claustrophobia; energy and inertia; fluency and restraint.
Les Shadoks (50th Anniversary Edition) - Collector's VINYL Edition (LP + 7"): High glossy gatefold sleeve, French + English liner notes / poster inlay with Shadok drawing by Robert Cohen-Solal, hype sticker
- Les Shadoks soundtrack by Robert Cohen-Solal available for the first time ever in its entirety, cut and mastered from the original reels, made in cooperation with the artist.
- For fans of musique concrète, electro-acoustic, psychedelic, early electronics, experimental, soundtrack, library, oddities, cartoons, 60s and 70s music, Prospective 21ème Siècle series, Bernard Parmegiani, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Bruno Spoerri, Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM).
WRWTFWW Records is delighted to announce the release of the complete soundtrack of cult French animated TV series Les Shadoks (1968-1974) by Robert Cohen-Solal, available for the first time ever in its entirety. Right in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jacques Rouxel and René Borg's legendary television cartoon, this collector's item comes in two versions: a limited edition 12" + 7" vinyl album housed in a high glossy gatefold and with an exclusive Shadok drawing by Robert Cohen-Solal, and a digipack CD. Both versions are cut and mastered from the original reels under the supervision of the artist, and contain liner notes in French and English.
Electro-acoustic pioneer and eminent member of the illustrious GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales, the French equivalent of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop), Robert Cohen-Solal has explored music and sound alongside luminaries such as Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari, and Iannis Xenakis, and is responsible for numerous projects in the field of applied music, soundtracks (documentaries, shorts etc.), and experimental recordings. His work on Les Shadoks is simply extraordinary - a fascinating and bizarre collage of wacky electro pop (à la Jean-Jacques Perrey), drones, musique concrète, classical, and dadaist sound experiments seamlessly mixing into a cohesive and cinematic listening experience. The ideal soundtrack for what will remain one of the weirdest animated TV series ever created!
A true literary, cultural and philosophical phenomenon in France, Les Shadoks caused a sensation while airing between 1968 and 1974. Its unique combination of Alfred Jarry-style surrealism, off-centered British humor, and US comic strip inspiration, all brought to life by illustrated bird-like creatures (reminiscent of Paul Klee's La machine à gazouiller), left a lasting mark, making the term Shadok an often-used satirical expression to describe policies and attitudes considered to be absurd.
Beyond being a quality mixture of unusual dance tracks and unique electronica, XYXX is a conceptual body of work whose themes of sex, race, unity and destruction reveal themselves to those listening closely. XYXX is the first collaborative album between Berlin based electronic producer NYMA (Nima Chatrsimab) and Toronto based, Detroit raised vocalist Noisy Vibration. Sitting somewhere in between house, techno and electro, but with honest pop sensibilities, the record is a push-and-pull of ideas, highlighting each artist in distinctive and mesmerizing ways. The Berlin-via-Tehran musician, DJ and sound engineers melting-pot influences and wealth of experience are the perfect vehicle for Noisy Vibrations piercing lyrical style. He lets her do the talking, while delivering a powerful message of his own through more subconscious means. From the opening refrain the dialogue begins, angelic tones embrace you with open arms. Noisys lyrics speak to NYMAs colourful beats and masterful sound design, connecting to the moment and full of unexpected turns. XYXX is an album that is both spontaneous and carefully considered. With XYXX, the ride is completethe DNA whole.
Mellow Waves, Cornelius' first album in over 11 years will be available in a limited deluxe edition pop-up gatefold vinyl (including phenakistoscope animation insert), standard package on 180g, CD and cassette format on January 26, 2018. The album, released July 21, 2017, was previously a digital only release. Pre-orders for these formats are available now.
Cornelius announced eight North American tour dates for March 2018, including shows in Mexico City for the NRMAL Festival, New York's Irving Plaza, the Carnegie Music Hall at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum, and LA's Fonda Theater.
Filmed live at his record release shows at Tokyo's Liquid Room, Helix / Spiral' captures the Cornelius live experience, with its Kraftwerk-esque roboticism and immersive visuals meticulously synchronized with the performance from The Cornelius Group.
For the uninitiated, Cornelius is the brainchild of Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada. A performing musician since his teens, Oyamada created his creative alter-ego (the name is an homage to the Planet of the Apes), in the early 1990s from the ashes of his previous project, Flipper's Guitar.
With the 1997 release of Fantasma, Cornelius gained international recognition for his cut and paste style reminiscent of American counterparts Beck and The Beastie Boys and was released internationally by Matador Records. Being called a "modern day Brian Wilson" for his orchestral-style arrangements and production techniques, Cornelius subsequently became one of the most sought after producer/remixers in the world, working with a wide range of artists including Blur, Beck, Bloc Party, MGMT, and James Brown.
With 2002's Point, Cornelius' music took a quantum shift, going from sampling found sounds' to looping organic elements and creating lush soundscapes. Using water drops as the rhythmic backbone of Drop' on his vocoder-infused cover of Brazil', the album dazed and amazed fans and set the path for the next phase of his career.
2007 brought this philosophy to an even higher level with the release of Sensuous. Cornelius' live shows are known around the world for spectacular visuals (all perfectly synchronized to the performance), custom lighting that doesn't simply augment the performance, but becomes another instrument within it, and a full band of equally talented and diverse players.
The companion piece to the album Sensurround + B Sides, earned the nomination for Best Surround Sound Album' at the 2009 GRAMMY Awards.
The summer of 2016 saw the release of Fantasma Remastered, on Lefse Records. The package, a 2LP reissue of his classic album, also included 4 additional outtakes and earned Pitchfork's Best New Reissue'.
Cornelius has recorded music for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, scored the anime mega-film Ghost in the Shell Arise, performed as the backbone of Yoko Ono's reformed Plastic Ono Band, played the Hollywood Bowl with Yellow Magic Orchestra, and co-wrote and produced the Japanese artist salyu x salyu.
* Each cassette comes with an individually hand-printed silk screen cardboard case and DL code, craftily designed by Damien Tran.
* Renowned for her tracks featured in Richie Hawtin's game changing DE9 Transitions mix, Akiko Kiyama reveals her another side under her new alias Aalko on No Man Is An Island. This is her Kebko Music label's fourth instalment and her fifth album. It is a culmination of Kiyama's recent practices in a wider music spectrum, going well beyond her minimalistic techno characteristic. It covers a variety of styles as she demonstrates her knack for breaks and ambient, reflecting her early influences from Ninja Tune and Warp. Each cassette comes with an individually hand-printed silk screen cardboard case and DL code, craftily designed by Damien Tran. Also, No Man Is An Island EP is set to be released on vinyl in this winter.
* Kebko Music is Tokyo-based Akiko Kiyama's independent music label focusing on releasing avant-garde music which is not bounded by any specific genres but embraces the whole range of techno, experimental music, field- & live-recordings and classical music. The label owner established her name by Richie Hawtin featuring her track in his well-known DE9 Transitions mix in 2005. Since then, her music style has gradually changed to explore the edge of electronic music. The core of the label is based on small handcrafted editions of cassette tapes. It aims to give a chance for all of artists and listeners to explore their musical experience and creativity.
Avant Garde, Repetitive, Minimal, Stoner Rock, Religious.
A french trio called France, using drums, bass and amplified hurdy-gurdy. They perform only live, in the middle of the audience - turned in to face each other - full on smoke machines and strobes. And they play only one 'song' for the duration of their hour-long set. And it's the most transfixing live experience of intense physical and mental focus. The distorted hurdy gurdy plugs France's sound into the country's history of folk music and popular festivities, of communal trance and immersive pleasure. The rhythmic basis is pretty much the same throughout the whole live. One doesn't need to actually be tripping balls for the auditory illusions to start coming thick and fast. Those who've stayed for the whole duration of their performances know they've shared something. However disparate the phantom forms each might have discerned in the midst of the howls and groans. Gigs like this you leave feeling you're not quite the same person who went in, even though you'd be hard-pressed to pinpoint precisely what has changed. One certainty remains at least, that there is still a France we can believe in. David McKenna (The Quietus). The Release: Initially released as a 50 copies CD-r in 2009, swiss Mental Groove has teamed with french Standard-Infi to reissue this classic live performance onto glorious vinyl edition. The 45 minutes are radically sliced onto the two sides. The recording is raw and the mastering is fat. The first two pressings made in 2014 and 2015 were distributed confidentially and during the numerous live performances of the band. They are long time sold out and sought after.
Visible Cloaks' Lex proposes a utopian dream language and its accompanying sound, a limitless, delicate space developed by fluid musical techniques and subconscious voices. The six pieces comprising Lex simulate a more peaceful future, their mysteries telling a new tale in an unknown but imaginable melodic language. Visible Cloaks are the Portland-based musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. Utilizing software-based composition rooted in randomization, MIDI-translation and chance operations, the duo has established an improbable humanist mode of music from esoteric processes. Following their self-titled debut album, Visible Cloaks offered Reassemblage, an album simultaneously honoring the post-Yellow Magic Orchestra school of avant musical adventure and diverging from it. Veering from the paths cleared by Japanese and Italian electronic pop and ambient artists of the mid-80s / early-90s, Reassemblage established Visible Cloaks' own camp in a forest of deep sound canopied by trees grown from synthetic seeds.The sound represented on Lex is webbed with sculptural arrangements and interpolated by the sounds of alien speech. These strange and serene utterances were created by Doran feeding a chain of multiple dialects and accents through a language translation software to create an auditory poetry of an evolved place and time.
Lex features both the final version of this process and earlier, simplified experiments with it ( Keys'). The idea - building on 'fourth world' or 'global village' type concepts - was to create a projected language that was a fusion of many,' Doran explains. The result was a very disorienting form of non-language that amplifies the lapses in meaning that occur with the inaccuracy of auto-translation software.'
Permutate Lex, a companion short film to Lex made by Visible Cloaks in collaboration with artist Brenna Murphy (who also created the artwork for Reassemblage and several virtualist videos for the album), is an integral counterpart, both visualizing an aesthetic alive with human form and guiding the sonic experience of the first five pieces: Wheel,' Frame,' Transient,' Keys,' and title track Lex.' World,' the longest piece presented on Lex, is redrawn from a generative composition originally produced for an installation Doran made with Murphy.
The original work incorporates LFOs and randomized MIDI-information, and was intended to variate indefinitely. In this 'fixed' version, World' provides a more conclusive view into the impossible musical environments Visible Cloaks make real. Longer than any track on
Reassemblage, World' expresses the deepening, patient intimations suggested by Lex.
Doran says the Lex attempts to communicate the essence of a world distant enough that it can't be captured or comprehended from the present, appearing only surreal and inscrutable.' The statement reveals a broader musical philosophy fueling this new moment, an awakened voice woven through complex melodic shapes and phrases establishes communication between listeners and the unknown, here presented by Visible Cloaks as sounds coloring the very edge of the envisionable.
The night is what makes a big city come to life. Right after sundown, the hectic buzzing of downtown makes way for adventure playgrounds, bathed in neon light, revealing their countless chances and opportunities. It's when you'll find the subway spitting out it's purpose seeking passengers by the minute. A coming and going of restless people passing through. All it takes is a few hours, before the sunrise makes it all disappear. Mental Bend captures the magic of that very moment in their dreamy soundtracks. If you close your eyes, you can see blurry pictures passing in slow motion, accompanied by their atmospheric songs. Grainy black and white snapshots, fragments of memories lighting up somewhere in the farthest corner of the cortex. 'One Step' is the Berlin-based indietronica duo's visually vivid debut album, released on Enfant Fenou. Mental Bend are all about letting go. Sissip (voc/synth/bass) and Hendrik Havekost (beats/production) know how to trust their instincts, crafting their hypnotic signature sound, somewhere in between electronica, ambient and dream pop. Before founding the band in 2013, the two were already shaping their skills in all kinds of different formations and styles of music. As soon as they got together, they had a viral mini hit with their song 'Take My Hand', praised on various tastemaker blogs and generating over 100.000 likes on Soundcloud in no time. The band's first long play record 'One Step' is all about important experiences and decisions, small as well as big steps, all a part of making progress, which in the end can even be life changing. It was a step, that recently got Mental Bend their record deal on Mo's Ferry's sub label 'Enfant Fenou'.
After the success of his recent comeback EP entitled Exiles EP, the Icelandic artist Cold shows us that he is here to stay and ready to make his mark in the international techno scene.
Dub Safari offers us intricate soundscapes and otherwordly chords which are impeccably assembled into five minimal techno masterpieces. A side starts with a dreamy voyage where ethereal pads seamingly blend with punctuating kick and a acid bassline. Second cut gives us a darker experience. A pulsating groove where chords and percussions offer an interesting sonic playfulness. B-side offers three minimalistic techno tracks ready for both the dancefloor as well as for dancefloor within your mind. Thule Records is considered by many to be a pioneers in the field of dub-influenced techno music and was a starting point for many of Iceland's most renowned electronic musicians"
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.
Hana's first and self-titled LP was recorded in Autumn 2010 at Facta non Verba and consists out of 5 tracks which are techno oriented with disposal of experimental and abstract elements.
Reviews
OMG Vinyl
Hana s S/T LP is easily the best promo records we ve gotten in months. This Greek duo has somehow, almost entirely below the radar, released one of the most exciting electronic records of 2011. Their wobbly brand of techno sometimes chugs ahead at full-speed, other times easing back into a wider waver, almost resembling some weird, warped IDM. I will be shocked if this record doesn t get wider appreciation very soon. Whether that happens or not, we fully recommend it, track one down.
Cyclic Defrost by Oliver Laing
Granny Records duo Hana come correct with their first album, offering a refreshing take on techno and IDM variants in the vein of Jan Jelinek, Raime, Actress and hints of the mighty Chain Reaction label. Mastered at Berlin s Dubplates and Mastering by none other than Rashad Becker, a name that often appears in the run-out groove of artists who inhabit a curiously funky techno-not-techno netherworld Hana s debut self-titled release grows in stature and listening enjoyment with every spin. With a sense of fun and adventure inhabiting the grooves, Hana (who are also part of label-mates, Good Luck Mr Gorsky), explore experimental timbres and ghostly vocalisations with a lightness of touch that belies their recording credentials.
Starting off with an abstract, Clicks and Cuts style intro, Liv slowly finds the sweet spot between mutant Detroit electro funk, a hint of the indie/dance territory of Matthew Dear and the abstract, yet rhythmic 12 releases on the Beatservice label, by Norwegian duo Information from the mid 90s. Obermaier implies the groove to begin with, until a wrong-footed man-with-two-left-feet rhythm leads into minimal acidic flourishes. Album opener SM heads in a Ricardo Villalobos vs. Nonplace Urban Field direction, as the lopsided rhythm and sepulchral vocals add a haunted edge to proceedings. CR80 uses beautifully syncopated live drums and urgent female vocals, and adds a driving, belligerent synth riff falling somewhere in between DMZ and Gary Numan. Echoic, boingy sounds threaten to derail the beat, but somehow it manages to maintain, reminding me of Shed and A Made Up Sound; more in overall feel than in the specific sounds. For those that enjoy abstract electronics that work just as well on headphones as on the dance floor, Greece s Hana are a duo to watch.
Textura
Hana's self-titled debut album arrives saddled with a (literally) cheeky front cover one would more associate with a 70s band like Wild Cherry than a Greece-based techno outfit formed in Thessaloniki last summer. Recorded in fall 2010 at Facta non Verba, the five-cut release finds Good Luck Mr Gorsky members Thanasis Papadopoulos and Thanos Bantis hunkered down in their chemical lab concocting formulae to go along with their material's stripped-down techno beats. Using analogue synths, samplers, and sequencers, the duo brings a decidely experimental edge to their productions, sprinkling as they do liberal doses of burble and flutter over bass-heavy techno rhythms.
The opening track, Sm, sets the scene with a heavy low-end pulse thudding alongside a steady kick drum and joined by acidy synths and percussive effects that suggest a lighter being repeatedly flicked open. On a slightly more aggressive tip, the B-side's Cr80 adds truncated vocal yelps to its bleepy, elephantine throb. A dubby dimension emerges in the track, too, when echoing waves drift repeatedly across the huge bass that slithers across the track's underbelly. The album's most elaborate track comes last. Liv opens beatlessly with flickering shudders and what could pass for the amplified workings of an ant community but then progressively fills in the dots with an insistent beat pattern, voice fragments, and even the demented meander of accordion playing. Though Hana hardly rewrites the techno guidebook on the release, it's nevertheless a pleasurable listen, in part due to the multi-dimensional experience provided by the vinyl format and the always superb mastering work done by Rashad Becker at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering.
