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Album of all new material from this maverick Spanish producer.

Lovin' Mighty Fire' is Howard Williams' third Japanese music compilation for the Ace Records house of labels - this time, for BGP International. Assembled in between his job as a record distributor and his monthly Japan Blues show for NTS radio, the first two have taken a look at the late 50s for a blast of Japanese rockabilly ( Nippon Rock'n'Roll' CDWIKD 313), then the 60s and 70s for a romp in Japanese surf music ( Nippon Guitars CDWIKD 297). Following his retrospective of jazz singer Maki Asakawa for Honest Jon's, this new outing searches for the soul music of Japan, from the early 70s to the early 80s.

Japan has long been known as the final destination for many a collectible soul record. Yet, who suspected that some fine soul grooves were recorded for the domestic market, from ballads, to funk and disco Strangely enough, some of the busiest writers and producers in this field came from a late 60s rock band, Happy End, but on listening to their collaborations, their rhythmic, soulful feel is immediately apparent.

The bluesy funk of Lily, the soul-diva brilliance of Minako Yoshida - represented here in both slow-grind mode and epic disco, the maverick genius of Haruomi Hosono, the lively songstress Yasuko Agawa, and the sultry steaminess of Mari Natsuki, and more. This album finally plants a Japanese flag firmly on the global map of soul.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Reverse Tree, the new LP from the acclaimed duo of Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney, two musicians who have established themselves as powerful voices working at a unique intersection of contemporary composition, improvisation, and Asian traditional music forms. Either individually or as a pair, they have worked in contexts ranging from performances of traditional Persian and Javanese music to collaborations with Sunn O))), but their work together as a duo (documented on The face of the earth and Aestuarium, both released on Ideological Organ/Editions Mego) most clearly represents the central concerns of their diverse practices: a music of the inner life of sound, demanding ritualistic focus and promising heightened sensations.
On Reverse Tree, the duo expand their work together into the realm of the chamber ensemble, presenting two side-long works that feature Kenney's voice and Kang's viola alongside a multitude of other instrumentalists. Kang's Thoughts on Being Exiled to the Frontier, for Lord Wei, inspired by a text by the Tang dynasty poet Hsueh T'ao, features an all-star international ensemble: Kang, Kenney, maverick Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov on violin, Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, and guitarists Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. The piece is primarily composed of irregular patterns of pizzicato notes and guitar harmonics, gently falling in and out of sync and providing a subtly unstable support for Kenney's voice, which sings long, wavering tones, at times reminiscent of Michiko Hirayama's classic performances of Scelsi. Drawing on 20th century instrumental techniques, alternate tuning systems, non-western music and the experience of nature (the irregular rhythms of the piece calling to mind nothing so much as drops of rain), the piece opens a space both serene and subtly uneasy.
Kenney's 'Elm features Kenney and vocalist Nova Ruth (of Filastine & Twin Sista) alongside an ensemble of strings and Seattle's Gamelan Pacifica, performing on Javanese instruments tuned to the slendro scale. An uncanny timbre created by bowing the keys of the Gamelan's instruments, supported by bowed harmonics from the strings, is heard consistently throughout the piece. After a long introductory section in which this harmonic cloud slowly descends from shimmering high notes to rumbling bass, the vocalists enter, singing a slow and stately setting of a 19th century Surakarta poem (attributed to Mangkunegara the IV). The melody is sung as a rich and wavering heterophony, with the ensemble sometimes rising up to support individual notes. The poem deals with the idea of a form of knowledge achieved through deeds, as a practice and state of the heart. This is music in slow motion, in which, in Kenney's words,

Meet Thorsteinssøn. The Iceland-born-Denmark-bred Gunnar Thor Viggosson better known as one half of 76-79 with Tommy Vicari Jnr and bossman at Comfortable Records and Vanity. Right now, though, we're calling him the man behind the first Pets artist album this year... Deliciously cosmic and cheerily schizophrenic, 'Academy Of Heroes' is inspired by a brilliant creative project Thorsteinssøn practiced during his years living in Amsterdam: Solar Industry Radio. A project that would begin with a made up artist or band name in styles ranging from cosmic funk,scandinavien disco to noise collages of the galaxies. A joyously backwards project that inspired a rich rainbow of styles, the content was then represented 24/7 online, collaged with strange jingles and sifi snippets. Genius. Returning to those creations, Thorsteinssøn and Pets have weaved together a full album that cherry picks from his thunderous proliferation: from the strutting west coast deep house of '1976' to the introverted electro boogie of 'N M T F R' by way of the poignant chords of 'Untitled Disco Six', the wry acid wriggles of 'Channel DISQ' and the Trans Am twinkles of 'Beneath A Steel Sky', the 14 collection acts as an immersive, timeless collage. A smorgasbord of synthetic exploration, rich in sci-fi, space and robotic sympathy, pieced together with the same spirit of his cult radio transmissions, it works just as well on the cans as it does in the dance... And it's en route with an equally alluring package of remixes. An album, a radio show for freaks or simply a journey into Thorsteinssøns world.. Whatever... He really is a creative maverick. !

atom™'s ep »riding the void« is, together with the visual works of »HD+«, the conclusion of his critical yet delightful examination of pop music and culture on raster-noton.like the previous ep »ich bin meine maschine«, »riding the void« is set up very functionally,
aiming at being used in the club. techno maverick scuba, for example, turns the track with his »pulse mix« into a straight and dense march, whereas atom™ himself shakes the groove out of »riding the void« with his own two lighthearted remixes. his »nought remix« presents itself as slimmed-down yet very vibrant, while »tool« is a perfectly dance floor-ready reinterpretation of the original track. further more, an additional remix by hanno Leichtmann can be found on the digital version of the release.

Prolific Seattle producer Jon McMillion returns to Nuearth Kitchen with another crucial chapter in his epic tale of haunted house-music subversions. This EP offers four variations on a bizarre and engrossing theme. Don't It Make You (edit 1)' is a work of extremes: By some miracle of aural physics, it's at once one of McMillion's strangest tracks and one of his most accessible. He sets into motion a staunch, relentless house rhythm bolstered with congas, massed claps, synth-bass raspberries, and a badass male singer intoning, Don't it make you feel good, if you wanna get down/Just say it, say it again,' over which a miasma of enigmatic tones bubbles and swirls. Like Bohannon's disco-funk classics from the '70s, Don't It Make You' seems like a tease, even at 10 minutes duration, you wish it would roll on for at least 30. On Don't It Make You (edit 2),' McMillion strips things down to dance-floor essentials and erases some of the free-floating background weirdness.

The two remixes are revelatory. New York house icon Fred P. (aka Black Jazz Consortium) slides the track into a tighter pair of pants, but that just makes it swivel harder and slyer. He emphasizes Don't It Make You''s mysterious drones and then loops a female vocalist singing He keeps me' while dropping in some echoed male chatter to gently disorient. What a dreamy, soulful trip Fred P. conjures here. And rising German wunderkind Orson Wells layers and pitches up the original's cascades of bleeps, which becomes the dominant motif, and then subtly modulates said bleeps over the tune's seven minutes, while keeping that irrepressible rhythm strutting. McMillion's raw materials prove to be fertile ground for these two maverick remixers to flaunt their own fascinating quirks while maintaining the original cut's club-darkening and ass-moving functionality.

Baptise & Pierre Colleu
French brothers Baptiste & Pierre Colleu have been making music together since they were children. They spent a chunk of their childhood in Africa, which they say has inspired their work in the studio. That influence is submerged fairly deep on 'Dolphin Kid,' the title track for these two EPs. There's an undercurrent of eerie soulfulness and woody percussion accents running through this oddly alluring cosmic-house seducer, but its roots are more Balearic than Afrobeat.

The five remixes of 'Dolphin Kid' enhance the Colleu brothers' original in incrementally fascinating ways. On 'Coyote's Intense Mix,' the respected UK duo augment the laid-back rhythm with nuanced 303 twangs and boldface the hand percussion to magnify its latent funkiness. L.I.E.S. recording artist Willie Burns slows 'Dolphin Kid''s pace to a majestic, hollowed-out, dub-funk strut. It's unfathomably deep. Seattle tech-house maverick Jon McMillion serves up the most twisted, sinister version here, warping the main synth part into a disorienting swirl of borborygmi while intensifying the rhythmic urgency and expanding the sound palette. The second EP concludes with two masterly remixes by Black Merlin. His 'Romance in the Dark Mix' turns 'Dolphin Kid' into a chilling, Goblin-esque piece of dungeon ambience. But it's Merlin's nearly 13-minute 'Peyote Mix' that really reels in the cinematic magic, as he launches the cut even deeper into the black, adding thrusting, throbbing disco kicks and enough horror/thriller-film soundtrack signifiers to give John Carpenter a perma-grimace. Poor 'Dolphin Kid' has come to a gory, but very exciting end.

With the homespun warmth of his album still keeping us toasty as the temperature drops in the Northern hemisphere, Dave Aju offers up two choice cuts from Heirlooms to receive surgical treatment at the hands of dear friends and respected practitioners in our beloved corner of electronic music. The divine boogie-fuelled electro pop of 'Caller#7' stood out as one of the most flamboyant and earsnagging tracks on the album, so who better to entrust the remix to than Seth Troxler and Subb-an Seth of course is a long-time partner of Circus Company, stretching back to 2008 when he first recorded an EP for us with Patrick Russell. Subb-an may be a new cat to us, but there's no denying the impact he has made with his releases for some of the strongest tech house labels around. In the hands of this formidable duo, 'Caller#7' gets sharpened and honed into a peak-time floor-filler. The vocals from Dave and dOP's Jaw and that inimitable bassline remain intact, with the focus switched to boosting the rhythms that propel this party-starter while a disgruntled caller drops in on Radio KAJU to speak her mind like a true soul sister should. On the flipside, we take great pleasure in inviting the maverick Swede Axel Boman to work his magic on 'Away Away'. After exploding onto the scene in a flurry of hedonistic imagination and cheeky originality, Axel has charmed all that come before him with his releases and his Studio Barnhus label. He treats us to a glorious, soaring version of Dave's track that shuns shortening days and worsening weather, and instead places you at the top of a mountain as the sun rises in a cloudless sky, gently building but never peaking in a truly life-affirming concoction of house music for the heart.