Following his acclaimed collaboration on Strut with The Heliocentrics, the Father of Ethio jazz presents his brand new studio album, 'Mulatu Steps Ahead' for 2010! The album explores new directions in fusions of Western jazz with Ethiopian modes, moving forward the pioneering sound Mulatu developed during the '60s and '70s, showcased on the recent Strut compilation 'New York * Addis * London'.
For the new album, tracks were recorded with members of Either/Orchestra in Boston, with contributions by traditional Ethiopian musicians in Addis, members of The Heliocentrics and some of the UK's leading jazz and African players during the final sessions in London in November 2009.
Each track on the album tells its own story. The reflective, opener, Radcliffe, was composed specifically for the Radcliffe Institute during Mulatu's time lecturing at Harvard in Boston - the original score is now framed on the wall there. The Way To Nice was written and arranged on the tour bus during Mulatu's recent French dates - "with this track, you are travelling on a long journey, talking and thinking" explains Mulatu. "It was inspired by the many beautiful places on the coast road around Nice." Assosa adapts traditional music from the Assosa tribes in North-Western Ethiopia and Mulatu's Mood re-works a Mulatu jazz fusion composition from the early '90s into a new swinging Afro highlife arrangement. "I wanted to use West African styles within this version and try new ways of using the beautiful sound of the kora." Boogaloo and I Faram Gami I Faram reprise Mulatu classics with new, fuller scores and bonus digital track Derashe highlights the traditional diminishing scales of the Derashe people of Southern Ethiopia, a musical technique that would later feature in the classical compositions of Debussy and the jazz of Charlie Parker. "Many debate how this music developed but the Derashe have played these scales for centuries. It is an untold story."
Robin De Wolf is a man of many talents (and identities). Almost two years ago, he co-produced a groundbreaking debut EP on our label, as one half of SHIN. At the moment, he's making a name for himself as 'Phara' with uncompromising hard techno on labels such as Black Sun and Stockholm LTD. And now he delivered us three solid tracks under his new alter ego 'Robert D'. While 'Un Ni Yo is a house track with a wavy sound and affective synths, the second A-sided track 'Dommel' is a banger that begins with a smooth intro that changes over into hard kicks and raw bass chords. On the B-side, you can find a more melancholic uptempo track that goes by the name of White's Wisdom. Interstellar Funk' tops it all off with a remix of 'Un Ni Yo' that combines the wavy sound of the original with synth-heavy electronics. An absolutly killer EP!
Top Drawer 90's selection from the Boombastic Crew aka Nick Raphael (Manasseh. Riz Records, Roots Garden) and Gil Gang (Tuff Scout, Riz Records) with a tune that does what it says in the tin. Sound murderation!
A hardcore instrumental sound system bullet which has hints of King Jammy, Jah Tubbys and Unity Sounds.
This originally came on the back of a Riz 12' back in the early 1990's which is now a costly record to secure.
We were very happy to be asked by Connaisseur
Recordings if they could put out another album with our
music! Now it's all come together and they've asked us to
do our own press release for it and quite like the album,
we want to do it in our own way, personal and from the
heart. It's been a few years since our last Connaisseur album, and
a lot has happened since. We've built a new studio,
matured musically, acquired new gear, sold old gear, done a
lot of gigs, lost faith in music and regained it again.
The process of making The Loneliest Man In Space (this
album) was a genuinely pleasant experience, as we never
really set out to make an album at all. We didn't
conceptualize or have any grandiose plans, we simply
enjoyed ourselves in the studio.
Inspiration was running high, so we focused on making a lot
of music uninterrupted, rather than signing tracks, which
left us with quite a bulk of unsigned material. The idea to
release these tracks as an album came from our friend
Alex, at Connaisseur. We instantly jumped on the idea,
listened through the material, taking some tracks out and
composing a few new ones, to make it sit more together as
a whole. We tried to come up with a title that would ft
the feeling of the sum of tracks and settled on The
Loneliest Man In Space. As the album, to our ears, sounds a
little melancholic and a little spacey.
We sincerely hope that you enjoy the album either as a
listening experience, a dance experience or something in
between!
Thank you, and much love!
Vegard & Chris // Of Norway
3xLP+CD Artbook
(en) - Nearly two decades after the last official GAS album release, Wolfgang Voigt returns to his iconic Ambient project with a brandnew full-length.
- NARKOPOP continues the classic GAS aesthetic of symphonic scope and subtle variation, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey to the depths of rapture and reverie.
- Available as luxurious hardcover CD incl. 24 pages booklet.
In the body of work of Cologne artist Wolfgang Voigt - who, like few others, has informed, shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s -, GAS stands out in particular as a saturnine sound cosmos based on heavily condensed classic sequences. Even after nearly 20 years, the sound of GAS doesn't seem to have lost any of its luster, as shown by the commanding success of Kompakt's fall 2016 re-release of the essential back catalogue as a 10xLP/4xCD box set.
The overwhelming feedback from a loyal international fan community and worldwide media outlets attests once again to the sheer timelessness of GAS. Which is why it will feel like hardly a day has passed since the release of the last official album 'Pop' nearly two decades ago, when Wolfgang Voigt resumes this specific creative path with the upcoming new full-length NARKOPOP.
Even in the here and now, the unmistakable vibe of GAS immediately hits home, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey with the very first sounds, drawing him or her into an impervious sonic thicket, down to the depths of rapture and reverie. From wafts of dense symphonic mist emerges a floating and whirling feeling of weightlessness, before the listener steps into an eerily beautiful forest of fantasy, pulled in by the allure of a narcotic bass drum.
While earlier GAS tracks were often based on the hypnotic effects of looping techniques, the 10 new pieces on NARKOPOP unfold their magic in a more entwined manner, sometimes with the sonic might of an entire philharmonic orchestra, sometimes as subtle and fragile as the most delicate branch of a tree with many. A main characteristic of Voigt's oeuvre, the coalescence of seemingly contradictory stylistic aspects such as harmonious and atonal, concrete and abstract, light and heavy, near and far is also a decisive feature of NARKOPOP.
In accordance with the transgressive spirit of his collective work, Voigt carries the aesthetic conceptions of his music over to the realm of the visual. Based on his abstract forest pictures, the GAS artwork addresses Voigt's artistic affinity to romanticism and the forest as a place of yearning. For the first time, a closer look at the cover of NARKOPOP reveals signs of architectural fragments which hint at another, maybe parallel world behind Voigt's forest. Truth is the prettiest illusion.
(de) - Fast zwei Jahrzehnte nach dem letzten offiziellen GAS-Albumrelease kehrt Wolfgang Voigt mit einem brandneuen Langspieler zu seinem legendären Ambientprojekt zurück.
- NARKOPOP setzt die klassische GAS-Ästhetik zwischen symphonischer Grösse und subtiler Variation fort, eine Reise zu den Untiefen von Rausch und Entrücktheit.
- Erhältlich als luxuriöse Hardcover CD- Erhältlich als luxuriöse Hardcover CD inkl. 24-seitigem Booklet.
Aus dem Gesamtwerk des Kölner Künstlers Wolfgang Voigt, der mit seinen unzähligen unterschiedlichen musikalischen Projekten seit den frühen 1990er Jahren wie kaum ein Zweiter die elektronische Musikwelt geprägt, gestaltet und beinflusst hat, ragt sein Projekt GAS, ein auf stark verdichteten Klassiksequenzen basierendes, düsteres Klangkunstwerk, in ganz besonderem Maße heraus. Dass der Sound von GAS auch nach fast 20 Jahren scheinbar nichts von seinem Zauber und seiner Kraft verloren hat, zeigte eindrucksvoll der große Erfolg des im Herbst 2016 als 10xVinyl/4xCD Box auf Kompakt wieder veröffentlichten Backkatalogs.
Die überwältigende Resonanz, sowohl seitens der treuen internationalen Fangemeinde als auch der weltweiten Presse, bezeugte einmal mehr die schiere Zeitlosigkeit von GAS. Daher fühlt es sich auch an, als sei kaum ein Tag vergangen, wenn Wolfgang Voigt nun mit NARKOPOP genau da den künstlerischen Faden wieder aufnimmt, wo das letzte offizielle Album »Pop« ihn vor fast zwei Jahrzehnten hat fallen lassen.
Auch hier und heute verfängt der unverwechselbare Geist von GAS unmittelbar und nimmt den Hörer bereits mit den ersten Tönen mit in eine andere Welt, zieht ihn hinein in ein undurchdringliches Dickicht aus Klang, hinunter in die Untiefen von Rausch und Entrücktheit.
Aus dichten sinfonischen Nebelschwaden entsteht ein Schweben und Taumeln, ein Gefühl der Schwerelosigkeit, bevor der Zuhörer von der Anziehungskraft einer narkotischen Bassdrum wieder hinunter in den schaurig-schönen Fantasie-Wald gelockt wird.
Während frühere GAS Tracks oft auf der hypnotischen Wirkung des Loops basierten, entfalten die 10 neuen Stücke auf NARKOPOP ihre Magie auf verschlungeneren Pfaden, mal mit der klanglichen Wucht eines ganzen Philharmonieorchesters, dann wieder so zart und zerbrechlich wie der feinste Ast eines weit verzweigten Baumes. Das für Voigts Arbeiten so typische Ineinanderfließen scheinbar widersprüchlicher stilistischer Aspekte wie harmonisch und atonal, konkret und abstrakt, leicht und schwer, nah und fern ist auch auf NARKOPOP essenziell.
Im Sinne seines grenzüberschreitenden Schaffens, überträgt Voigt die ästhetischen Konzeptionen seiner Musik auch auf die Ebene des Visuellen. Das auf seinen abstrakten Waldbildern basierende GAS Artwork thematisiert Voigts künstlerischen Nähe zur Romantik und dem Wald als Sehnsuchtsort. Wer einen genaueren Blick auf das Cover von NARKOPOP wirft, der wird erstmalig Andeutungen architektonischer Fragmente entdecken, die eine andere, vielleicht parallele Welt hinter dem voigt'schen Wald erahnen lassen. Wahrheit ist der schönste Schein.
Pioneers of electronic experimentation in Venezuela, Musikautomatika is one of the best kept secrets in Latin America's experimental sound scene. They were formed in the late 70s by Luis Levin, Alvise Sacchi and Stefano Gramitto, and counted on the complicity of Mirella López and Gabriela Gamboa. They issued four albums (Musikautomatika -1983, Boston Tape - 1987, Kuba - 1987 y Frecuencias en peligro de extinción - 1993), which are nowadays highly sought after pieces among collectors from all over the world. Free improvisation and cosmic electronic music defines the path this collective of sonic travellers took.'
For fans of 60s-era INA-GRM concrète, electro-acoustic free-improv ensembles, Jean-Claude Eloy, Maurizio Bianchi and even the kind of melodies Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan explored on Song of the Second Moon.
1983s Musikautomatika is at last available again on a gorgeous limited edition that features a booklet with plenty of photos and text written by Luis Levin plus an interview with the band made by Luis Alvarado (Cazar Truenos blogzine / BUH Records).
The thrid an final installment of archive material, selected by Antinote. A killer suite if you ask us. TIP!
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You can trail away with it. It is easy to enter, but hard to drop out. Tolouse Low Trax just needs an MPC, a small Synthesizer set up and some effects to create subliminal hypnotic music trips, driven by dark synthlines and drunken shuffled patterns. The primitiveness in my music is linked to something simple, and that don't have to be obligatory minimal. For me it is enough to dance rough around the core. Music you don't shape till the end contains of a moment of beauty. A veil of secrecy. I work very simply. I rather reduce my possibilities in ompass. Limitations offer lots of liberties.' He reveals about his work ethic. Even if his music sounds darker then any ever experienced night, he mostly produces it in the morning in his highly inspirational studio home. During the dark times of the day Tolouse Low Trax mostly performs live around the globe. Or hangs out in his second home: the Salon Des Amateurs club bar in Dusseldorf, which he once founded and where he held until today two weekly DJ residencies. The moments and atmospheres he inhales during these lightless moments are mirrored in his shadowy music, about which he also confesses: My art is more a cinematic, literally idea of a large to explore Megacity. This is one of the pictures I would link to my music.' On ' part one he now offers five sounding visions about that Megacity'. They listen to mysterious names like Hidden Flat' or Studies in Drama'. They are nervous. They have ephemeral pieces of dub, Industrial, wave or Italian library music. And at times strangealienated voice samples dance within his highly addictive arrangements. Words can't express their magic. But one thing is fore sure: his hypnotic dance-not-dance tracks do not only illuminate so-called freaks!
Schmer-007 "Smoking is Still Bad for You - Volume 1" is here and contains old school and new cool tracks from all the original Schmer culprits plus some loops from our new friends. Dietrich Schoenemann and Prototype 909 dug their tracks out of their vast archives of unreleased originals. DJ RX-5 and BPMF delivered some hot new Schmers to get us moving again.
For the last 20 years we've all been tormented by the great issues facing mankind and most vexing among them of course was "When will the next Schmer record finally come out" I am happy to say that the answer, my record distributing friend, is NOW!
Prototype 909 demands that you ( redacted ) ... "The Volume"! A track recorded in 1997 and finally getting released for the first time here. Prototype 909 was a "group" from "New York" that made "techno" in the "90s". Since then, the three members of this group all went on to do things. #TrueFacts
Dietrich Schoenemann has been so busy being one of the last men cutting all the records in the world that he hasn't had time to organize his catalog of unreleased gems. I distracted him with the old "look over there" trick and stole "8 Feet" from him while he wasn't looking. ( Hopefully he didn't recognize it while he was mastering it )
The last Schmer vinyl was DJ RX-5 "A Taste for Crap EP" from the then Moscow based very underground DJ Compass Vrubell. Nina Kraviz thought it was so crappy she put a track from it on fabric 91: Nina Kraviz; so I asked Alexey to make some more crap. He did it His Shway and this is the result. ( PS He still has all the patterns for the RX-5 from the original release so remaster, remixes and rereleases are in Schmer's future, HUZZAH!)
BPMF - The original Schmer artist had nothing better to do so he kommt back and gave us this track.
We love to torture the engineer so we just had to include some loops:
Rhizome is the alter-ego of Moscow wunderkind Nikita Zabelin.
Philly based Hero/Victim has been victimizing soundsystems up and down the East Coast with his mad live performances.
The Wise Caucasian is a pseudonym for some super famous London based producer and label owner, or at least that's what he claimed when I picked up his bar tab.
We at Finale Sessions are excited to have Mor Elians added to the Finale Sessions family . Mor is one of the younger generation artists that we have been keeping our eye on for sometime now. Hailing from Tel Aviv and now living in Los Angeles and Berlin and now travelling the world bringing her style of forward thinking House and Techno so let's get with the music and we start with the track " The Orionids " one of my favorites of the ep with it's bouncing drums and the industrial flexing pads and the filtering synth's that give it the deepness for day's . Then we move to the second track " Light Pollution " Another proper deep rendering if I may add and those high hats that just move the track into the proper scenic vibe, very minimal but to the point with the pads just poking its head out to go forth with the flow of the vocal . Last but not least we have "Echopark"this track closes out the ep with its very bouncy acid sounds and it's minimalistic drum patterns makes for a very melodic sound ....We at Finale Sessions want to thank you from the bottoms of our hearts and we love you very much
with his third album 'vin ploile' the bucharest, romania based producer, musician and dj petre in-spirescu captured a whole new audience in 2015 and reached out with minimal leftfield ambient sounds to music loving folks, that are not part of the world-wide dance music universe.
well known as one of the key figures of the romanian electronic dance music scene since his first ep 'tips' on luciano's label cadenza, inspirescu stepped away from club sounds that made him famous due to releases on labels like vinyl club, lick my deck or amphia.
also his two solo albums 'intr-o seara organica...' and 'gradina onirica', both released on (a:rpia:r), the record label he initiated with his buddies rhadoo and raresh in 2007, do not have much in common with the sound of 'vin ploile' - a mesmerizing deeply musical album that he only tuned in with some elements of piano, string and wind instruments as well as analogue electronics.
at the end of 2015 his nine slow swinging arrangements where celebrated in many polls and now, just a bit more than one year after the release of 'vin ploile' petre inspirescu delivers 'vîntul prin salcii' - another longplayer enlarged with seven, up to epic twelve minutes long arrangements, that continue where 'vin ploile' ceased.
they all listen to the name 'miroslav' and only differ numerically in their title. you can call them ambi-ent. you can call them minimal music in the sense of classic compositions by steve reich or terry riley. they groove - sometimes more, sometimes less. and they spread the sounds of flutes or saxophones, delicate piano figures, organic jazz drumming, arpeggiated analogue synth-lines, mesmerizing strings, choral singing, alienated looped vocals and spaced out new aged spheres.
what unites them all is the way, the melodies dance upon and in each single tune. their beautiful tex-tures ensnare and they are continuously engaged with experimentation. a mystical album full of evolu-tionary music to which each listener is able to paint his very own emotional picture. moody, dark and at the same time light-flooded shape-shifting compositions - made for those who love to surrender them-selves to a gentle dance between experimentation and attractiveness.
the cover artwork for petre inspirescu's album was made again by the illustrator and photographer julian vassallo, who's artistic works fascinate with a touching spirit of distance, that captures the truth in each single motif. just like petre inspirescu's music, only that his art grooves with notes that tell somehow: there is no truth. there is only perception.
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Pocosin is the first full-length album from Loess in over 10 years.
During the last ice age glaciers slowly carved away the landscape creating mineral rich sediment. For hundreds of thousands of years melt water carried this fine-grained sediment downstream to parts of North America. In some areas strong winds carried this sediment and deposited it forming a network of ridges and dunes. These deposits of loose
silty wind-blown, or aeolian, sediment are called Loess.
Flash forward to the present, and the duo of Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman may seem to have gone the way of the glaciers and all but disappeared. Instead, their signature loose aural silt has been slowly and methodically accumulating and now makes up their new full-length Pocosin.
Others may have no point of reference and Pocosin is a welcome introduction to the sound of Loess; in a mere blink of an eye from when they began.
Florian Meindl surges ahead in 2017 as he returns once more to his home base FLASH Recordings. He has been locked away in his studio and is now ready to unleash his new album 'Time Illusion'. With these album sessions Florian has created a special collection of analogue focused tracks which will be released on a double vinyl album and digitally in the Spring.
Amalgamating his array of impressive hardware, he has refined his sound and crafted a selection of tracks that demonstrate intricate knowledge and mastery of his analogue equipment. His aim was to find the right balance between musical depth and sound design while interacting with the hardware.
In anticipation for the LP release in early April, Florian has prepared a unique live set featuring a Modular System, the KORG Minilogue, effect boxes and a 909 drum machine which were used in the creation of the album and which he will be touring throughout 2017.
Electronic Beats visited him in his basement at Riverside Studios Berlin to record an exclusive live session, which you can find on Youtube and his Facebook page.
2CV is a really hairy, non-french post-disco dynamic duo who likes working with sound waves and big animals. They apparently created the band after some spinning and Gin & Tonic sessions in the living room. They are incredibly talented, nice and professional people. They like horses. Their first EP featured horses too. Freud would have something to say about this. MUGWUMP, the master of trans-genre dance music, is at remixing duties. He is awesome but we don't really know if he likes horses too.
Don't you feel sexier already Go and shag the planet honey. YOU'RE A HORSE, YOU'RE A FUCKING HORSE AND THE WORLD IS YOUR PLAYING FIELD, NOW GO FOR IT, NIGHT DOG LUNATIC,SCORCHED HARMONICS. YOU'RE A HORSE, BEHAVE LIKE ONE.
The totality of the many in one: Cologne Tape, an on and off gathering band from all over the world, did not call their second album "Welt" without reason. The collective incorporates the nucleus of the label Magazine and consists of the artists Ada, Barnt, Jens-Uwe Beyer, Jörg Burger, John Harten, Philipp Janzen, Mario Katz, John Stanier and Axel Willner. All members live scattered between Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. They meet rarely and abruptly, but each of them always has the feeling that something relevant needs to be done. The ensemble's name represents a city and the musical recordings that are made in it.
Their "rst release, "Render", marked the start of the label Magazine in 2010 and found the way into DJ sets by famed artists like Dixon with music, which does not necessarily have the dance#oor in mind. Subsequently, little, absolutely sublime pieces of Cologne Tape appeared in the public.
Sometimes in the middle of a Magazine mix for London's online magazine Dummy, or on compilations like "My Heart's In My Hand, And My Hand Is Pierced And My Hand's In The Bag, And My Heart Is Caught" a double-vinyl sampler for an exhibition by British video artist Phil Collins.
And now, after six years of more or less overwhelming silence, "Welt" arrives and brings the world eight musical arrangements, all of which answer to the same name and only differ numerically in their title. They were performed and recorded at the Dumbo Studios in Cologne as part of a happening, during which the nine Cologne Tape members gathered in a room to play a solemn concert for themselves without a given frame.
Un"ltered emotions, which were later, re"ned with drums and synth sounds by John Stanier and Axel Willner and then arranged into a dramatic story arc under the direction of Jens-Uwe Beyer. Furthermore some of the recordings feature friends of the collective such as Mexican artist Rebolledo, the guitarist Burkhard Mönnich and the singer Isis Lace, who all happened to be close by and joined the band spontaneously during in their musical ritual. Now the recordings of their time without time will see the light of the day.
They all tell - together and alone - stories of deeply felt musical
experiences, which quickly become profound experiences too for those who listen to Cologne Tape, when they play the grand piano, synthesizer,vibraphone, organ, drums, guitar and more while celebrating afreewheeling ceremony. Panoramic music that enables the listener to enter a world of sounds and rhythms, which all re#ect in depth what Cologne Tape is as a band and a piece of art.
Peter Hunnigale aka Mr Honeyvibes was born in South London on December 12th, 1960. Peter Hunnigale was to develop into one of Britain's most formidable reggae 'Lovers Rock' artist of our time. It was clear at a tender age Peter's main interest was in music and being born of Jamaican parentage, he was exposed and influenced by music of West Indian culture.
Untamed Love is an UFO in Peter Hunnigale's career, recorded at Omega studio (London) and originally released on the Cosmic label in 1986. Some people have no words to describe it. You can call it brit-boogie, rare funk, sick jam, musical bomb, or god jam, whatever it's a typical mid 80's tune with a rhythmic background sound that is captivating and memorable, thanks to heavyweight synth and awesome vocals. The original 12'' vinyl record is still very hard to find and expensive nowadays. If you are about to discover this song, make sure you are sit down when you listen to it because this song will blow you down hey girl I like the way you smile'.
Growing up in Britain meant that Peter Hunnigale was also open to other genres of music and with seeing the popular acts of the day perform on television and hearing the songs on the radio Peter knew what he wanted to be. Peter is also a great musician and did live work with reggae legends such as The Chosen Few, The Pioneers, B.B. Seaton and many others, while earning the respect of their peers as a competent bassist and qualified engineer. He won a Best Newcomer award at the Celebrity Awards in 1987, and won Best British Reggae Album at the British Reggae Industry Awards the same year.
Ave Berlin collective AWAY ready the 4th release in their catalogue. With 001 on the label being a VA, 002 being an EP from Joe Claussell & Mr.Ties as AWAY Soundsystem and 003 being a second VA - they now present a split 2-tracker from label mainstay Move D and his pairing with Jonah Sharp under their collaborative guise of Reagenz. Whilst keeping an anchor at Berlin's About Blank, AWAY have hosted parties at numerous other venues across the city as well as Barcelona and throughout have maintained a welcoming and free spirited attitude. Harnessing this attitude and channeling the collective's Detroit influences, AWAY have developed their imprint which has so far taken shape over a set of 3 analogue-heavy VA's. Next in line follows suit in melding tough drums with Motor City pads. Natural in their progression, both tracks spark ardour as they steadily develop adding another fine addition to a blooming catalogue.
Shelter is one Alan Briand, a young Parisian producer with a strong melodic centre producing a sound that pulls on the Zouk, the Afro, the Balearic and the Ambient palette. Zon Zon Zon is only his fifth release and his first mini album, following the series on International Feel that has brought us material from Len Leise, Wolf Muller and CFCF.
International Feel first met Shelter on a trip to Paris a few years back. It sounds like a story from a Nick Hornby novel, but there's a record shop in Paris called L'International Records, run by a guy called Dave who has a group of young French DJs, producers and promoters that visit the store, hang out and buy and listen to music - a story no doubt currently being repeated throughout the world as new generations immerse themselves in the culture. Shelter is a producer who has sucked up all that he has been hearing around him for a number of years and is now producing a quality sound, pulling on the exotic.
The seven tracks on this mini-album are taken from an extensive pool of Shelter's melodic magic. Some people lead on the beats, some on the production, but Alan focuses on the melody, with the beat closely tied in as support. Señor Zalla starts the album with an afro vibe, closely followed by the Zouk-style of Zon Zon Zon and Port-au-Cœur's mellow Balearic tones, as Shelter twists nature's sounds into his own sonic world. Bucolica, an upbeat wonder of a track, turns to the ambient mantra of Courant Rouge and it's distant cousin Courant Bleu, a classic rhythmic balearic piece with syncopated melody and delayed drums. La Volière (the French can make even bird cage sound beautiful) brings the album to a close with a smile in the mind's eye.
Zon Zon Zon is universal. It could easily have been created in Ibiza or Canada, Australia or Africa. It was in fact recorded at Paris 11, where Shelter forged beauty through the sounds of nature and uncovers a wisdom in its simplicity. We can expect good things from Alan. Here's the first chapter.
Written & produced by Roboknob. Mixed by Stefan Goldmann. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Info: We've said it before: techno's vanguard can be found in the East right now. Sofia's quirky techno underground is densifying. Evolving around the Diviat Slon parties (residents: StefaK & Stefan Goldmann), the Beton nights, the indoors offspins of Artmospheric festival and unannounced appearances of KiNK under his Cyrillic guise, raw and rave-infused techno is increasingly defining the city's sound of the small hours. Roboknob are part of this movement, and this is their debut EP. A live hardware duo, Yasen and Stanislav drop rugged, noisy machine jams around the Bulgarian capital and have been regulars at Artmospheric. The EP's tracks have been distilled from their live repertoire and mixed by Stefan Goldmann into sharply defined form with added bite. 'Dexydi' is Greek for acid - the corrosive liquid, not the music. Accordingly, its heavy-handed single-note bass attack will cut through anything. 'Spellbind' is more bouncy with frantic upward movements, distorted percussive fallout and a seasick bass foundation. 'Liulka' handles two layers of time rubbing off of each other: quirky and pushing high in the sky, against the bass drum mechanics down low. A suitable acoustic symbol for Sofia's state of techno.
After Leibniz focused on distorted grime and jungle influenced techno on his last records, he is now diving into deeper fields with his first EP for hundert. Over the time Leibniz has obsessively collected youtube videos that serve him as an audio sample library. Be it a review of a lawnmower or people singing to their pets, every track features bits and pieces of sound taken from these videos. By editing and cutting the original material the sounds get implemented into a new musical context.Pushing digital algorithms of music software to its limits and over the edge, Leibniz invokes digital artefacts that continue the motif of distortion.House and references to contemporary hip hop beats form the skeleton for four hazy out-of-the-ordinary cuts.
Dilated Pupils is a collective group of likeminded friends from the Netherlands each with their own influences and style, whom together have a distinct flavor in productionconsisting of analogue machines, tape noises, and raw one-take jam sessions. Each of them have their own solo productions as well as other collaborations, but when united as Dilated Pupils prefer to be known jointly as one entity with their own unique and distinguished sound.
Since 2014 the group has developed an interesting discography with releases on labels such as Fear of Flying, Sol Asylum, Mode of Expression, Tabla, Music is Art, Dorcas, Make Sense and Mayak.
Now, the group takes the next step and created their own playground ''DPBEATS''.
Be sharp and keep your ears open, because the beats are loaded!''
Espen Beranek Holm is a Norwegian musician and comedian, born 1960 and began his music career as a clarinetist. Inspired by early synthesizer bands Kraftwerk and The Residents, he began making experimental pop music. His debut single Dra te' hælvete' was released in 1981 and was immediately banned by national TV/radio channel NRK due to explicit lyrics. This gave the young artist tons of publicity, helping the single spend almost 6 months on the national charts.
Beranek returned to the Starholm Studios in Oslo from June - September 1981 to record nine new compositions. His debut album, Sound of Danger', was released on Mind Expanding Records in November 1981. Nowhere near as accessible as the previous single, the album fared poorly commercially. Withdrawing from the single's fun, kitsch pop, the album is cool and static, driven by thin rhythm boxes, cold synths, and glacial guitars. Taking heavy cues from David Bowie, all of the songs are sung in a nasally English accent, a rare occurrence in Norway at the time. The lyrics are melancholic, but tinged with paranoia. There are also upbeat tracks that evoke a prog or glam sensibility a la King Crimson, Alan Parsons, or Roxy Music.
All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring red, black, and white lines that evoke a visualized Richter Scale designed by Monica Moltzau. Each copy includes a 2-sided 8x11' insert with lyrics and an autographed press photo of Beranek.
'This is a journey into sound...,' These familiar words, accompanied by the rumble of a distant train, signal the opening of 'Let's Take A Trip', the sophomore album from Terrel Wallace aka Tall Black Guy. Since 2013's '8 Miles To Moenart' TBG has cemented his position as a standard bearer for the current hip-hop / beats scene. Born in Detroit and now residing in the UK, Wallace's signature style of incredibly clever sample flips and deft production chops has won fans across the globe including Gilles Peterson, Lefto, Jazzy Jeff and House Shoes.
Since his debut release in 2011 (a daring and addictive flip of Fela Kuti), TBG has become revered for his unique take on soulful hip-hop production. The swing of the drums, the textures of the instrumentation as well as a fearlessness in taking on the classics (his Soundcloud page includes flips and chops of tracks from James Brown, De La Soul and Michael Jackson) have marked him out from the crowd. One of the best-kept secrets in the scene, his singular talent is now beginning to get the recognition it deserves. In the last 12 months he has remixed Little Dragon and been invited to take part in Jazzy Jeff's Playlist Retreat alongside the likes of Eric Lau, James Poyser, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Questlove and countless others.
For this album Wallace had a simple inspiration: 'This album is all about taking a journey. As simple as that. Be it physical, emotional or spiritual. It's asking and answering personal questions from myself within some of the tracks and also touching on social issues i.e. racism, inequality and privilege...that have been at the forefront of my mind over last three years.' Sonically there is also a shift: 'Jazz has definitely been more of an influence in this project, as I have been really inspired by so many up and coming musicians who I've been blessed to connect with'. Some of these musicians, including Kenny Keys, Miles Bonny, Diggs Duke and Dee Jackson feature on the project as well as regular collaborators Ozay Moore and Mario Sweet and fellow Playlist alumni Daniel Crawford and Masego. But this is one man's vision, and for Tall Black Guy this trip is just the beginning...,.
Breakbeat Paradise Recordings is turning back time to the early 70s when funk music was made by talented musicians joining forces in bands with the objective to create the next big funk anthem. So many big tunes and classic funk productions came out of this era and it also harnessed a new breed of funk bands across the globe who is dedicated to continuing the legacy of the funk music in the new millennium.
Breakbeat Paradise Recordings has proudly collected 4 bands to represent the new era of funk from various parts of Europe. German based Grand Slam, Swiss funk band Grand Mothers' Funck, Nasa Funk from Greece and A Man About a Dog from the UK has all provided original funk jams to this groovy 12" vinyl.
Leading the way on the a-side is Grand Slam who has created a big summer tune which sits in well with some of the current radio funk jams and will be sure to bring the ladies on the floor. Grand Slam has been around since 1985 by incorporating various flavors from Rock, Jazz, Soul and Hip Hop. The Get On Down jam from their upcoming release due May 2017 shows just how its done to do classic oldskool P-Funk which sounds as fresh as anything else on the radio here in 2017! Produced by (and featuring) veteran P-Funk legend Gary "Mudbone" Cooper!
Grand Mother's Funck means business on the straight up funky The Dog tune taken from their brand new album Take The Money. A special edit was done for this release as they are celebrating their 12th album release from a legendary veteran funk band who has been tearing up the Swiss funk scene for over 23 years now.
On the flipside the funk is riding equally high as Nasa Funk rolls in their Stand Up jam. Straight outta Thessaloniki, Greece comes this 5-man band with vocalist George Perin leading the way. This tune is produced with old friend of label Basement Freaks.
Last but certainly not least we turn our attention to the UK where the band A Man About a Dog has cooked up a latin-inspired and jazzy funk tune called Pollos.
That sums up the first all original funk release to be dropped on Breakbeat Paradise Recordings. After digging in a sampling so many great funk tunes over the years, this seemed like only right way to pay our respect to the genre of music we love and cherish so much.
[B] A2 | Grand Mother's Funck - The Dog (Throw Me A Bone Mix)
After last years slick selection for the series from MCDE, Young Marco steps up with a great set of obscurities. Top Tip!
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Born Marco Sterk, he certainly doesn't come from a standard DJ background. A former skate rat who grew up loving American post-hardcore and '90s hip-hop as much as early Warp Records, he's been affiliated over the years with Amsterdam institutions such as Rush Hour, Red Light Records (where you'll find him most weekdays!) and, of course, Dekmantel itself. Still, there's no question that he's always followed his own path, even during the years that playing his favorite records meant that he was occasionally clearing dancefloors.
Things are different these days, of course, as Sterk now regularly plays around the globe and has been widely hailed not just for his DJ talents, but also for his digging prowess and uncanny ability to pluck jams out of genres, eras and geographies that even veteran DJs will often ignore.
Still, Marco's entry in the Selectors series isn't some soulless collection of 'Holy Grail' rarities. 'Where's the fun in that' he explains. 'Anybody with an internet connection can check what flavor-of-the-month records are in demand.'
Just like the first Selectors compilation, this is not a mix CD, but a collection of hand-picked, unmixed tracks that Sterk has personally chosen from his own vinyl archives. Moreover, Marco has put together a collection of tracks that represent not only how he plays music, but also how he makes music himself. The songs here are melodic, electronic and bound together by a refreshing sense of naiveté. Nothing sounds overly calculated; the tunes here span several decades and include dollar-bin records, avant-garde records, club records and yes, a few things that collector types have likely been looking to get their hands on. It's not meant to be a grand statement, as Marco would rather provide an honest snapshot of his musical tastes and share a few of his favorite tracks and artists in the proc
Adriano Canzian has by now developed a trademark sound unlike any other, a genre-twisting hybrid of EBM, techno, industrial and acid beats that has acquired nuance and influences throughout the years, aiming at that uniqueness he's always been reaching for. Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is a breathless, unrelenting march of a record, a whirlwind of classic industrial sounds driven by a hammering pulse and a shimmer of melting matter. David Carretta's remix smoothens out some edges into a mix of techno and new beats, then Canzian charges on again with Sick Goates , skillfully adding noise frequencies to a goth background, before letting Spain s The Plumbers close with their rendition of Sleeplessness , marked by a dub-sprinkled techno no less belligerent than most of Canzian s catalogue.
Jerome Meyer AKA Von D is a master craftsman, well-known for releasing dubstep and bass music since 2009. On an increasingly prolific trajectory since last year, recent 12's on Infernal Sounds, Trojan Audio and Scotch Bonnet have signaled his renewed focus on dubwise productions. We are proud to say that Von D's Khaliphonic debut sees him fully committing to reggae and dub - in his words, going back to my musical roots.'
Politricks' is a masterwork, cut from the same living rock as the classic Cuss Cuss riddim, a simply huge bass and drum workout that is truly one for the ages. Politricks is an anthem for now, a call to avoid the dead-end of politics-as-usual and a warning to beware of the lies politicians tell to keep themselves in power - full of promises but changing nothing. Von D says that working with Don Cotti was very natural,' and their easy relationship is audible - the tune fits the vocal like a glove, and Cotti's instantly-recognizable singjay style gives even more gravitas to an already heavy track. The dub version spools out Von D's signature saturated echoes even further, and opens up spectral chambers of reverb that shimmer and glow.
The B side Ygrec' is an equally massive tune, just as compelling if more meditative and mysterious, coming in both one drop and power-steppers mixes for maximum versatility and vibes. Both tunes and their versions feature an incredibly robust, warm, human sound - one that simply can't come from machines alone - live drums, bass, and kete drum among other instruments maintain the tradition of live musicians in dub - to say nothing of expert desk-based mixing and deployment of live analog effects the way the elders intended. Both tunes dial in at 140 making them perfect for roots and dubstep selectors alike.
Von D got his start as a drummer and engineer outside Paris, in the heady days of original jungle. Early releases on Disfigured Dubz, Hench, Boka, Black Acre and the seminal V Recordings, as well as his reggae-oriented Liquid Wicked project, cemented his reputation. Don Cotti is a prolific producer, DJ and MC with releases stretching back to 2006 on labels as varied as Bass Face, Studio Rockers, and Soul Jazz.
Mastered by Lewis at Stardelta. Art & design by Polygon Press.
It was the spring of 2007 when Paul 'Mudd' Murphy and Kevin Pollard announced the arrival of the former's Claremont 56 label with Villa Stavros', a magical frst collaborative 12'. It
seems somewhat ftting, then, that Claremont 56's fnal release of its' frst decade will be N7 Odyssey, the frst collaborative album from Mudd & Pollard. By the time Villa Stavros' came out, the pair had already been regular studio buddies for a couple of years. Initially, Murphy had recruited Pollard - a hugely talented keyboardist and composer - to play on tracks he was working on for Rong Music. One thing naturally led to another, and soon they were joining forces to make music as Murphy's home studio in
Holloway, North London. As the years rolled by, further acclaimed singles followed Villa Stavros' - the bubbly, Rhodes-laden Balearic disco shuffe of Vincent', and the lilting, intergalactic dub disco of Scaffold', most notably - before the duo's other musical commitments began to take precedence. Murphy had his hands full running the Claremont 56 and Leng labels, while Pollard carved out a successful career as a soundtrack composer for both flm and television. Now, the album they set out to make all those years ago is fnally fnished and ready to be
released. N7 Odyssey - titled in tribute to the Holloway studio they recorded in for many years before Murphy moved - draws together freshly re-mastered versions of their previously released singles with a clutch of previously unheard tracks. Built around the duo's own fne musicianship, with Pollard handling synths, keyboards and electric piano, and Murphy guitar, bass and percussion, the album's ten tracks offer a musical journey through their shared love of shuffing grooves, sun-kissed soundscapes and
gentle positivity. Highlights come thick and fast. There's the swirling strings, futtering futes, jammed-out electric pianos and heady female vocals of Far Away', the enchanting new age ambience of December', and the rush-inducing Balearic disco breeze of Mawson's Walk', a former single blessed with sublime horn solos and rising, cinematic strings. Check, too, the head-
nodding beats, fuid electric piano solos and jazzy guitars of Inatin', the gentle Eastern mysticism and vintage ambient house aesthetics of Anura', and the ultra-deep house pulse of N7 Odyssey'. The album fttingly fnishes with a sublime ambient interpretation of Scaffold', arguably the duo's most celebrated track. It may have taken a decade to emerge, fully formed, but Murphy and Pollard have delivered an album that's beguiling, magical, and hugely comforting. Clearly, it's an odyssey worth
taking.
Musically and emotionally, Superpitcher's third full-length studio album, The Golden Ravedays is a one sound autobiography that exhibits the skill, feeling and depth of style that the artist has honed over a period of twenty years, musically, and forty-plus-years, emotionally. And full-length it is: The Golden Ravedays is an epic album of 24 tracks that was released in January 2017 and is stretching over 12 respective chapter albums during a one-year period on record label, Hippie Dance.
The second chapter of The Golden Ravedays saga, due for release in February 2017 introduces two further tracks of the haunting sound adventure. Side A introduces a very surprising spectacle of sound entitled What do you miss This track is unlike anything Superpitcher has released in the past. What do you miss is diving into a river, serenely floating past visions that bring calm, just to be overwhelmed by jazzy white waters of saxophone and primal animal poetry all the way from forests long forgotten. Let's Play Doctor is aptly titled as one can't help but imagine a satellite-propelled ambulance meandering through the galaxies without any haste or emergency whatsoever. Almost 20 minutes in length, Let's Play Doctor never bores. It's a playful tribute to taking one's time in enjoying the very now.
The second chapter of The Golden Ravedays saga, due for release in February 2017 introduces two further tracks of the haunting sound adventure.
Side A introduces a very surprising spectacle of sound entitled What do you miss
This track is unlike anything Superpitcher has released in the past.
What do you miss
is diving into a river, serenely floating past visions that bring calm, just to be overwhelmed by jazzy white waters of saxophone and primal animal poetry all the way from forests long forgotten.
Let's Play Doctor is aptly titled as one can't help but imagine a satellite-propelled ambulance meandering through the galaxies without any haste or emergency whatsoever.
Almost 20 minutes in length, Let's Play Doctor never bores.
It's a playful tribute to taking one's time in enjoying the very now.
Optimo Music are delighted to present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, "STILL // ALONE".
After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog 80's instruments, machines and effects.
An album about being in love with pure solitude, when STILL // Optimo Music are delighted to present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, "STILL // ALONE".
After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog 80's instruments, machines and effects.
An album about being in love with pure solitude, when STILL // ALONE is separated into two distinct sides, record one, STILL, is a hypnotic meditation for the nightclub. Wavy patterns of sound and light bounce off of Penelope's literary vocal bursts, layered over the ominous deep synths and arpeggiators, held together only by a strict 4/4 beat. The rhythm, ironically forcing the body to move, however internally focused and mindful, still.
Record two, ALONE, takes the club offline and into the fringes of raw, odd pop.
Ever-prominent drum machine beats rule, while love and loss permeate the four atmospheric goth songs. Music for dancing alone.
"Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern... the whole world is a work of art... there is no Shakespeare... no Beethoven... no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself." - Virginia Woolf
Die Musik des deutschen Filmmusik-Komponisten Hans Zimmer bewegt Millionen Menschen weltweit. die Zahl der Zimmer Fans, die seine packende Musik auch ohne die zugehörigen Filme geniessen, steigt ständig, inzwischen füllen sich nicht nur die größten Konzertsäle, sondern auch Fussballstadien mit seinen Fans. Für "Hans Zimmer - The Classics" hat Zimmer selbst seine besten Melodien aus großen Soundtracks ausgewählt und neu arrangiert. Die neu geschaffene Musik aus Gladiator, Dark Knight, Inception u.awurde mit Top-Stars aus Pop und Klassik eingespielt - ein originelles, bewegendes und mitreißendes Klang-Erlebnis. Mit Lang Lang, den 2Cellos, Leona Lewis, The Piano Guys, Maxim Vengerov, Lindsey Stirling, Till Brönner u. a.
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We welcome our very own Kessell to Pole Group Recordings, being a pivotal part of the Spanish techno scene with his project Exium with Hector Sandoval, he runs his label Granulart curating the repertoire with the best producers out there. Now is time for his debut as a solo artist with this four tracker, including three original tracks and a Reeko remix.
First cut is Cloned motions, a relentless number made of an obsessive sequence that runs over a percussive sea of sharp elements that grow in space with reverberated washes and a continuous arrangement. A mental exercise.
Chains of abstraction goes more bleepy, with a low filtered start that soon is filled with cosmic sinoidal sequences running all over the track while drums mutate and take turns to add an alien groove to the overal feel.
B side track one is for Reeko, remixing Sensorium, opaque kick drums, subtle sequences and white noise drones combine their movements in a dense exercise that fills every possible frequencies in the sound spectrum.
The original mix of Sensorium is based on bell like fm synth lines, lots of reverb, noise crescendos and an hypnotic groove below to keep things movable.
A precission work from the hands of a veteran expert producer.
Infernal Sounds is discharging its fifth hefty, system-affine release, adding another highly regarded talent to their roster. Having featured revered producers like Von D, Sepia, Causa, Shu & Perverse, the label has clearly positioned itself in the front row seat of the modern dubstep movement. Representing a combination of upholding the values of system music with a 21st-century take on sound - the next release, catalogued as 'IFS005' is stylistically congruent and adds to the discography in total.
It is now time for highly talented Sub Basics (Tom Woods) to augment the imprint's discography with his ridiculously massive incarnation of bass music. His debut vinyl release on the Canadian imprint 'Visceral Vibrations' in 2015 has garnered ample amounts of positive reception by esteemed figures in the scene like Versa, Syte and J:Kenzo. After an equally praised 10' dubplate release ( Give Dem') in 2016, we now find ourselves in the silence before the thunderstorm, that is this very record. His upcoming release includes three tracks, two of which will feature on vinyl (A. Horus/ B. Cartel), while the third 'Northern Lights' will be a Bandcamp-exclusive.
Diving into the sound at hand, his arrangements are closely aligned and firmly true to the origins of Dubstep - conjugated with extreme clarity, as well as preposterous amounts of weight and gravitas. The impeccable execution of his minimalistic sound design will leave this release rumbling on soundsystems around the globe - and will most stay a fan's favourite draw from the record bag for a good while.
Perfectly displaying a refined sense of dynamics with 'Horus', Sub Basics effortlessly squeezes every available ounce of air out of the system, while preserving an immense sense of space. The highly infatuating groove of 'Cartel' is mingled with a sweltering foundation - tied together through his meticulous attention to detail. As etheral pads complement the gnarly drum reverberations and bird's cries recoil - the listener is left in a surreal world of the 'Northern Lights' - apprehended by the sonorous magnitude of the bassline. Completed by creamy atmospheres with tape-echo-esque characteristics, this whole release is sure to tick all your boxes from top to bottom - IFS005 has already received support from J:Kenzo & Foamplate among others, therefore the pre-order is strongly advised.
After a short break Unison Wax returns with a brand new four-track collection of music from the bossman himself, Diego Krause. The Berliner took a year off in 2016, concentrating on other projects and letting the label have a rest, but now he's back with a refined sound. Unison Wax embodies a more sophisticated aesthetic, with warm analogue hues and subtle textures to push things forward a little. After all, we couldn't come back from a break without progressing, huh!
First out of the blocks is 'Nihilate', which helps introduce this updated Unison Wax sound, crisp beats lock us into a groove in conjunction with a dainty selection of analogue effects and a funky little b-line. Diego carefully adds new elements as the track progresses, keeping you interested right until the end.
Next is the title track, 'Rituals', which kicks off with an insistent bassline and spellbinding percussion that keeps you gripped from the off. He throws in some claps to add energy and muted pads, which slowly rise to prominence, giving the track an emotive atmosphere which wraps itself around you. One for the eternal dreamers...
Flip the record over for side B and 'Dysfunction', which turns things grimy. Marauding beats and bass conspire to create a morose atmosphere. Diego's penchant for super sharp beats is present here again, and the energy builds slowly but surely. A new layer creeps in every few bars and sucks you right into the track's lair. Expertly done, and impossible to resist, this is darkside pressure at its best.
'Eudaimonia' rounds things off, with more deep grooves. Initially propelled by minimal percussion, the track really gets going when more beats are added. It maintains a laid back feeling and, while the drums are solid, the atmosphere is mostly quite soft with swirling pads keeping things light in the top end. When they fall away towards the end of the track we have a rather gnarly close to the composition, as the beats and bass take over.
And there it is, the welcome return of Unison Wax - smooth and refined for 2017...
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Sometimes in life you find yourselves at a point where you need to walk away and leave something behind if you ever want to go back to it. Other paths must be walked, other experiences learnt from to give you a fresh view of where you've come from. In that sense going back to the roots, rediscovering their past with fresh eyes, is the concept behind Richard Dorfmeister & Rupert Huber's new Tosca album, 'Going Going Going'.For over two decades and several albums Tosca has served as a vehicle for Richard and Rupert to express their personal moods and impressions, each release holding up a mirror to their inner lives. Now though after ten albums the journey has come full circle and once again they've returned to the kind of instrumental tracks, full of deep beats and dubbed out textures that made Tosca's name. The result is 'Going Going Going', an album that Tosca fans will immediately recognize and yet one that doesn't just trade on former glories. Hitting the ground running opening track 'Import Export' sounds like a Lee Scratch Perry version of a Ennio Morricone soundtrack, a motif reoccurs throughout the album, most notably on 'Dr Dings', their reinterpretation of America's classic 'Horse With No Name'.
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Stirred up from deep within, from an abstract spiral of sound and movement, from a sensation of time and space absolving and converging at once, the Black Flower musicians have molded a tangible matter: the album Artifacts. Their second full album sounds international and ageless. Eastern influences, Ethiodub and jazz effortlessly merge. Fantasy and reality seem to fuse. In a word: nourishment for body and soul.
"Psyche-delicious and accessible 20th century Ethiodubjazz. As if John Zorn put on Fela Kuti's shoes and imbibed Mulatu Astatke's whirls."
Piloted by saxophonist /flutist /composer Nathan Daems (Ragini Trio, Dijf Sanders, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), this instrumental band aims for originality. Fellow musicians and 'brothers down the road' are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, Stadt) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra) at the bass and Wouter Haest (Los Callejeros, Voodoo Boogie) playing keys.
For many of us, the Ethiopian aspect once made known to the world by Mulatu Astatke will stand out. Still, Black Flower further adds oriental scales, Afrobeat à la Fela Kuti, jazz in a John Zorn way and varied western music traditions such as rock and dub. The resulting melting pot is undoubtedly inspired by Nathan's distant travels and the multifariously colorful city of Brussels.
...Pretty legit if you ask me - LeFto, Studio Brussel
After their well-received debut album Abyssinia Afterlife (2014, W.E.R.F. / Zephyrus Records) that created an atmosphere of mythical figures and psychedelia, Black Flower now reflects on ancient and modern cultures. The album title Artifacts refers to centuries-old fragile objects or tools that empowered the development of human culture. The world today would look entirely different without those artifacts. The seemingly brittle suddenly becomes a powerful welding cornerstone. Add the musicians' personal musical backgrounds and the result is an album with an ageless mystique. Artifacts is the synthesis of different cultures, of the past and present, and personal and collective memories. It is the soundtrack to modern reality, based on the elements that connect us.
Brilliant - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6
One of Belgium's Best Bands of these past years (...) Black Flower does not simply play a tune, they always groove! - Kurt Overbergh, Ancienne Belgique
Uncomplicated originality, plenty of space for fantasy and an organic tone: those are the ingredients for Black Flower to lay claim to an age-old human ritual: dancing! Still, Black Flower also stands out in various other settings. Their audience at a jazz club will have felt exalted, their audience at a late-night show will not have resisted dancing. The band wields influence over their surroundings in a way only heart-and-soul musicians can. This mastery has repeatedly taken them to United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
There's a myth about music critics that says we are frustrated, wannabe performers. Evidence to the contrary: Vivien Goldman. Ever since she migrated from pitching editors on the little-known music of Robert Nesta Marley to becoming one of the foremost chroniclers of the perfect storm of reggae, punk, hiphop and Afro-Beat, the London-born, New York-based Goldman has made documenting music her primary life work. But between 1979-82, Goldman was also a working musician, creating songs that, years later, would be sampled by The Roots and Madlib. These rare girl grooves are now collected for the first time on Resolutionary, courtesy of Staubgold Records.
Resolutionary takes us through Vivien's first three musical formations: first as a member of experimental British New Wavers The Flying Lizards; next as a solo artist, with her single 'Launderette,' featuring postpunk luminaries; and then as half of the Parisian duo Chantage, with Afro-Parisian chanteuse Eve Blouin. Goldman's synthesis of post-colonial rhythms and experimental sounds are threaded together by her canary vocal tones and womanist themes. Her eclectic musical crew included PiL's John Lydon, Keith Levene and Bruce Smith; avant- gardists Steve Beresford and David Toop; The Raincoats' Vicky Aspinall; the mighty Robert Wyatt; Zaire's Jerry Malekani; Manu Dibango's guitarist; and Viv Albertine, then of her good friends, the Slits. The majority of the tracks were produced by dubmaster Adrian Sherwood, and Resolutionary channels the history of a time when the bon-vivant voice of music was in the air, and Vivien Goldman was its eyes, ears, and mouth.
Counterweight is well known for their party series in Munich defined by their strong bookings. Now the guys decided to go a step further and start with their own Vinyl label. Their first release shows already what they stand for and what you can expect in the future CWTs releases. This release is also the debut EP of the Spanish DJ and Producer Gonzo MDF, who shows his ambition and love for rough sounds. High BPM, Industrial, violent synthesizers and really heavy kick-drums are what you'll find in this Sacrificio EP. Get your copy before it's sold out, 180 gr Limited Press!!
Julian Stetter might be best known as 'one half of the electronic pop duo VIMES', but he is no stranger to the Cologne club scene. His debut EP 'Insides' stems from a long history of djing and organising underground parties across the city. A resident DJ and collaborator at Cologne's famed JackWho club, it was these surroundings that drove Stetter to dive deep into producing. His first solo project is now set to be released on the label PNN. It features three tracks plus a remix by Beyou. Stetter's sound is polished and the precise production of each three tracks make this EP feel far from debut. 'Emily' is the first track set to be released this Friday. It draws you in on shimmering waves that rise and break into a deeper and spacier sound. Warm beats are interjected with random snippets of whale song. Listening to Emily feels like receiving a welcome hug at an after party.
The mystified sound emanating from the disc in question belongs to the flute wielding monster Ernie Hawks. This dynamic player has grazed the airwaves of the worldwide underground for the past two decades. Now it's his star time.This two-tracker single from Ernie's debut album "Scorpio Man" sinks the listener deep into the moods of European library music and American instrumental funk classics. On "Journey To The Bottom", backed with fuzzy synth lines, he and The Soul Investigators explore emotional funk to the fullest. Their raw sound has pushed artists like Nicole Willis, Myron & E as well as Willie West to new heights before and now it's Ernie Hawks, who holds the torch.The intro of the title track "Scorpio Man" should give the breakbeat friends something to get excited about, while the rest of the track pushes the listener into the midst of a exploitation chase scene. It's possible that it's been a while since you've heard something as hard as well as uncomplicated and sincere. Keep your senses open for the coming full-length, it should drop like a bomb soon enough.
By his debut album "Alcatraz" in January 2015, ARAS label head André Galluzzi thrilled with a concept album inspired by occult sounds and psychedelic vocals. "Alcatraz" as a whole is a captivating piece of art, its the essence of a club night. Now after received a wave of icredible feedback from "Alcatraz", the bird returns to ARAS with a bunch of remixes of the hypnotic track "Mathilda". Time to welcome Mike Shannon and Jacek Sienkiewicz to the ARAS family. This remixes will be a blast at the club by its very deep and reduced, futuristic interpretations. Mike, as head A&R of Cynosure and formerly Revolver Canada Recordings over 10 years, has shown an uncanny ability to select and produce tracks which have become go-to fixtures in the sets of the industry's best DJs. Far from pursuing the next one hit wonder or sound of the season, his steadfast curatorial vision and passion for the music have earned him the trust of discerning music connoisseurs the world over. Alongside DeWalta, Mike impressed lately with his album "Residual" on Cynosure/ meander back in March 2016. Jacek Sienkiewicz lives in Warsaw and he is a key figure in Polish electronic music scene. He holds Recognition since 1999, one famous label based in Berlin. With one foot deep in classic Detroit and Chicago dance scene, and the other in modern jazz and classical music, Jacek's tracks for the past ten years always try to find a right balance between the avant-garde and dancefloor, between primal emotions and highly sophisticated sonic wizardry. His latest album "Hideland" has been released in August 2016 on Recognition.
