Originally released in 1978 on the obscure label out of Mississippi, Commercial, Let Me Be Your Lover is now reissued and available again for this first time. This is a timely reissue of this ultra-rare LP that is fetching prices upwards of £600 online.
The album includes the absolute monster album version of the modern soul/crossover classic Gonna Find A True Love, which was reissued on Miles Away earlier this year. The album version of this track gives the 7” a run for its money.
“This album features the hit track ‘Gonna Find a True Love’. When we first heard this song, it really hit home and inspired us. The beat is uplifting and irresistible. This song is so very relatable not only to us but to others throughout the world and it’s still relevant today!! It’s hard to resist the song’s tempo! Go ahead - grove to the beat and find yourself a true love!” Estus Patterson, 2019
Let Me Be Your Lover is an album is undeniably deep, soulful and passionate and now fully licensed from Estus and Lester Patterson.
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Deliquent Delivery’s third EP titled U comes from Dublin based label head Stephen Mahoney, who contributed two tracks to the label’s last split EP.
Mahoney’s vision for Delinquent Delivery is visible on this release, showcasing his talents which range beyond A&R and delving into production. U features five untitled tracks, contrasting thumping dancefloor driven techno with spacey atmospheric ambient tones. With over twenty years experience as a DJ, Mahoney’s ear for precise, engaging rhythms and melancholic tones can be heard throughout U.
A1 sets the tone of U. A thumping kick lays the foundation for the track, with gritty, cutting melodies juxtaposed with polished, pensive tones. Rhythmic structure is a large component of Mahoney’s signature sound, with cleverly placed hats and snares audible on A1. A strong link to the sounds of Detroit sounds of the ’90s is audible here, synonymous with Zenker Brothers et. all.
A2 continues down the path previously set out, with another dance floor directed track. More subtle than previously heard, Mahoney drives the track with a glossy lead, only to break the track up and juxtapose it with a gritty, murky underlying melody. A2 also focuses heavily on rhythmic structure, with well-placed spacing allowing energy to be retracted and reintegrated with more tenacity.
A3 takes U to a different space with an ambient excursion. Mahoney here showcases that he is capable of creating lush, captivating soundscapes which transport the listener to a place of tranquillity. Dark, harrowing undertones are balanced with ethereal swells, maintaining the aura of the record established.
B1 moves back to the dancefloor, with a thumping kick and jagged, piercing tones. Mahoney’s versatility as a producer is evident here, as B1 moves in the same vein as the A-side of U but is completely different in style. Prime-time dance-floor material, this track drives forward with ferocity and grace, cleverly being broken up with sparkling synth tones only to hit back harder than before.
B2 closes out U. A bouncy kick drum sets the tone, with atmospheric, dark swells creating an engaging sonic tapestry. Sparse, delicately placed lustrous tones take the lead, with airy swells contributing to form a wonderful balance of light and darkness. Mahoney’s focus on precision within rhythmic structure is again noticeable here, with rhythmic elements forming their own melodies throughout B2.
U is Stephen Mahoney’s first full release on Delinquent Delivery and captivates the essence of his vision as a producer entirely. Versatile, engaging and polished, U contains five tracks which all compliment one another wonderfully. U is a record which is as useful in a DJ’s record bag as it is for home listening.
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Double vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold sleeve. Includes digital download. Supernatural is the eighteenth studio album by Latin rock band Santana, released on June 15, 1999 on Arista Records. After the group found themselves without a label in the mid-1990s, founding member and guitarist Carlos Santana began talks with Arista president Clive Davis, who first signed the group in 1969, which led to a new record deal. The pair collaborated with A&R man Pete Ganbarg on the production of Supernatural as Santana wanted to focus his musical direction towards pop and radio friendly material and proceeded to do so by collaborating with various contemporary guest artists, including Eric Clapton, Rob Thomas, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews, Maná, KC Porter and Cee-Lo Green. Supernatural became a significant commercial success worldwide. It reached # 1 in eleven countries, including the US for 12 non-consecutive weeks where it is certified 15× Platinum. The first of six singles from the album, "Smooth" featuring Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas, was a number one success worldwide and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 12 weeks.
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The first album on Numbers from Complete Walkthru aka US producer Max McFerren, titled Scrolls, is out on 20th September 2019.
Scolls plays around with themes of privacy, disillusionment and personal development over eleven tracks, representing a transitional time in McFerren’s life. Through Scrolls’ early stages he moved from New York, where he was holding down a residency at Brooklyn’s Bossa Nova Civic Club and playing regularly in downtown Manhattan at the iconic China Chalet and the now much missed Santos Party House, to the open, rural setting of South Carolina.
The albums personality, and the thematic preoccupations underlying it, reflect the impact of this contrast. It’s sound textures cast widely into what McFerren describes as “the ephemera of the saturated digital realm” while moving through arcane rhythms, chiming melodies and expansive, metallically tinged ambient passages. First single Lean In, streaming in full now, is a dusty breaks-tight miasma of fragmented cyber-consciousness. There are playful, hyperactive refrains on Getting Ridiculous. Leavin’ Church Early is an expansive beat free meditation, while NYC’s dynamic momentum is a cityscape of bad-faith corporate aspiration.
McFerren refers to his motivations with Scrolls as being “anti-nihilism”, as reacting against a dark emptiness he perceives in certain forms of techno. Ultimately with the record, he is seeking the potential of centring joy in the present moment, in a conscious awareness of now.
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Hailing from Chicago, Beau Wanzer has carved out a singular voice in electronic music since debuting on the L.I.E.S. label in 2013. Wanzer’s music is not industrial, wave, electro, or techno - it’s a unique and twisted amalgamation of all that, and more. Crazy as it sounds, we at Suction Records have been sitting on this Beau Wanzer material since 2003. Back then Beau was working at Weekend Records And Soap — a Chicago hub for the city’s exploding electro scene — when Solvent and Lowfish rolled into town to perform at an Ersatz Audio label showcase. We met Beau at the shop and he gave us a 21-track CDR. We were instant fans, fast friends, and went on to the share the stage with him several times, well before he released his first records. That CDR contains these 6 tracks now released on 10”-vinyl as the “Do The Spider Shimmy” EP. This is suction049.
Had that CDR not been held onto, and recently-unearthed by Solvent, this music would have disappeared into digital oblivion; Beau had long forgotten them and didn’t even have a copy of these CDR tracks. Beau Wanzer’s trademark sound — raw, minimal electronics and effected-beyond-recognition vocals — were already in full-effect circa 2003, but what makes this material different from his contemporary output is the dry, drumbox-funk influence of Detroit’s Ersatz Audio label (Le Car, ADULT.), which is also heard loud and clear across the EP.
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“Assembly Sequence” is a split EP featuring two of the four founders of Kajunga: Berndt and Cloudy Kid. Having taken root in Minneapolis and frequenting cities like Detroit and Chicago, the EP has an inherent Midwest feel. This marks Cloudy Kid’s third release with Kajunga and Berndt’s second. Berndt has also released with sister labels Clave House, and Corndogs out of Detroit.
Assembly Sequence is controlled by the mechanical nature of its creators. Berndt and Cloudy Kid split the arrangement down the middle to manufacture a sonic signature they believe can be used to drive the biomechanical functions of life-space.
Side A begins by fusing ethereal groove polymers with stabilizing oscillations from Berndt’s precision pump rhythms; On side B, Cloudy Kid neuro-casts an injection chassis turbine on the entire structure, constraining the rhythmic patterns to rip deeper into the corrosive noise planes of the collective Darkmind.
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Following his release on Twin Turbo, British artist R.O.S.H. debuts on Rekids with four imaginative cuts entitled ‘Thanks For Keeping It Real EP’.
Real name Roshan Chauhan, UK artist and mix engineer R.O.S.H. has a knack for blending an array of different styles resulting in a refreshing approach to club music and his next release on Radio Slave’s respected Rekids imprint demonstrates exactly that.
With its raw melodies and rough, syncopated percussion, ‘AMG (CLA45 Mix)’ is a monster destined to shake warehouses. ‘In Roll’ then combines a frenetic rhythm with a deep and atmospheric aesthetic before R.O.S.H. takes us into even murkier territories with ‘PACE’ using metallic snares, shadowy reverb and whirring synths. Tying everything together, rattling drums and echoing stabs lay the foundations for ‘Thanks For Keeping It Real’ whilst a moody bassline and soothing chords ebb into the mix. of house music littered with breathy samples and oscillating atmospherics.
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TThe melodically adventurous soul of Leon Ware continues its expression in his final opus Rainbow Deux, released on double vinyl on September 13th. The album features new songs recorded and performed by Leon before his health turned, leading to his transition on February 23rd 2017. Co-produced by Taylor Graves, it has stellar musical contributions from the likes of Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Ronald Bruner Jr, Rob Bacon and Wayne Linsey.
Taylor Graves came into Leon’s musical family in 2002 when he, his brother Cameron and the Bruner brothers Ronald Jr and Stephen (Thundercat) were playing along with their schoolmate Kamasi at an L.A. jazz club. Taylor, Cameron, Ronald and Stephen became Leon’s band for his debut shows in Japan in 2002 and Taylor continued to work with Leon as his mentor and collaborator over the next 15 years.
“Leon was ALWAYS writing something or developing his musical palette” his wife Carol Ware tells us, so it’s impossible to pinpoint any single moment of Rainbow Deux’s genesis. Six of the songs go back to 2012/2013 and were released in 2014 as part of Sigh, a Japan-only CD collection heavy with Rob Bacon’s tasteful licks and Wayne Linsey’s piano vibes. The rest of the material comes from Leon’s sessions with Taylor.
Describing Leon’s and his process, here’s Taylor: “We’d start by having some great homemade food! Then a glass of wine ‘to slow down time’. After we’d have our fill and smoked our joints we’d go into his studio room to listen and create.”
The album was finished-up around August of 2016 in a back-and-forth between Leon and his go-to mastering engineer Toni Economides in the UK.
Leon worked on Rainbow Deux with life’s greatest challenge looming over him, yet it is one of his most focused and cohesive solo offerings since the 1980s. The entire record is a vibe: mellow, deep and smooth as silk. The lyrical themes are eternal, and the music is elegant, soulful and sensual.
The album opens with the hypnotic throb of “For The Rainbow”, coming on like a percussive, slow-mo house shuffle. Gilles Peterson is a fan. The exotic “Let Love In” follows, with its gradual-build Island Funk, intricate guitar picks and sassy female vocals. It explodes when it hits its stride. “Sigh” is the stylish slow jam close-out to side A. Serene guitars and polished drums create neck snapping funk, with a swaggering finger-snap strut.
Side B opens with the easy-burning broken-beaty “The Darkest Night”, the centrepiece of the album. Kamasi Washington’s lurking sax, restrained and beautiful, unfurls into the dank, sticky atmosphere of Thundercat’s signature creeping bass laid over his brother’s in-the-pocket drums. Leon’s vocals are perfect, a masterclass in seductive sax-soul.
“Surrender Now” conjures waves of vocals to swell and wash over the glossy piano, subtly bumping hip-hop drums and bubbling synth-bass stabs. It’s got the trademark Leon layers. “Summer Is Her Name” has Kamasi’s effortless, melancholic sunshine sax give way to rising tempos and propulsive rhythms.
“Are You Ready” is a total highlight (and we’ve been playing it out for ages). It’s a nimble groove of piano and synth rolling around Theo Croker’s sensual trumpet playing. Digi-soul at its finest. With lush G-Funk sensibilities “Streets (Keep Me Runnin’)” sounds like a lost Dam-Funk produced gem. All tough kicks and snares and street sounds. Leon’s hood pass will be forever intact.
“Samba Dreams” is the first of two tracks that bring a little Rio magic to Rainbow Deux. Leon created a whole body of work in partnership with Brazilian legend Marcos Valle that includes “Rockin’ You Eternally” - a hit for Leon - and “Estrelar” – a hit for Marcos. Leon channels his obvious love of Brazilian music here through more of Croker’s sumptuous trumpet, played over loose percussion. “Let’s Go Deep” is next up. A dreamy between-the-sheets quiet storm anthem and a real showcase for Leon’s vocals.
The dripping, honeyed harp-funk of “We Should Be Laughin’” marks the star turn of the brilliant Kimbra. Leon first met her on-stage to do an impromptu duet of “Inside My Love” during an open-air celebration of Minnie Riperton in July of 2014. Kimbra was working with Taylor on her music and he brought her to Leon’s house to do some writing. This was the result.
Warm synths radiate shuffling samba soul on “Wishful Thinking” as those Brazilian rhythms return to bring Rainbow Deux to a close.
During an apartment move Leon and Carol rediscovered some watercolours Leon had done years ago. One of these paintings had been dubbed “Deux Hearts” and Leon decided it should be on the cover of Rainbow Deux, getting as far as approving a draft concept for the artwork.
Carol has overseen developing that draft into the final gatefold sleeve. It brings together quotes, photographs and tributes in what is a reflection on the music, relationships and philosophy of the sensual minister.
Gerry “the gov” Brown, Leon’s long-time sound engineer, was by his side throughout the project, recording and mixing. The album was mastered by Toni Economides and Simon Francis’ additional sensitive work makes sure this double LP sounds like it should on vinyl.
Be With’s first ever release was Leon’s eponymous LP. Re-issuing that album planted the seed of a relationship that has grown to grant us the privilege of presenting his crowning achievement. We know that Leon’s fans all over the Earth will love Rainbow Deux. But we also hope that this album, the final entry in a phenomenal body of work, will reach new fans and find fresh conduits for the spirit of this oft-unsung hero of Soul.
Leon always said “they will get it when I'm gone.”
He also said that “the spirit never dies”…
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After a two year break, due to the birth of the sub-label Rhythm Control Barcelona, End Of Dayz returns with a new "All Stars". This time with 4 tracks in the vinyl version, plus a bonus track in the digi version.
On the A-side, the Argentinian, now based in Barcelona, Julixo brings us his song "1990 B i t c h" very much in tune with the EP he published in ARTS under his Awdha alias, hard groove techno with 90's house pads and a cool sample. Kaiser serves us a Millsian school mental bomb direct to the dance floor: "Still Life".
On the B-side we first have "The Crown" by Spaniard Pushmann, that has already been played by Dave Clarke on his White Noise Radio Show and on his set at the Awakenings Festival 2019. To finish the vinyl, the Man From Tucuman and the Barcelona's "Depressive House" king, Fede Zerdan, with his "Soc Pell".
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Emerging from the dynamic tundra north, Iceland to be exact, the newly established imprint LAHAR celebrates its launch with a fiery EP from the scene's most mythical
creature, NonniMal. Dubbed after the eponymous volcanic debris flow that swallows whatever crosses its path, LAHAR refracts in its sound the ever-changing, jagged and
entangled landscapes of a crisis-riden time.
Residing today in the company of many post-industrial wonders, from Reykjavik's semi-subterranean water reserve Gvendarbrunnar to the phallus-shaped Smaralind mall, NonniMal prefers to give salience to his environment and remain extensively unknown. In this untitled high-octane techno EP, he spurs us to imagine an uncanny coalescence of glacial disaster into the minimalism of enumeration.
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More like a hidden vault of electronic treasures than your usual prolific label, ICON OF DESIRE suddenly resurfaces for a special limited 12″.
“Origin” features three tracks from the label’s founder Andrea ‘passEnger’ Di Maggio, showcasing abstract synthetic funk, lush electronic ballads and emotional, dystopic electro.
“Origin” was supposed to be the first record of the label, then somehow the plans changed until the label rescued the tracks for this release.
200 copies pressed with hand stamped and numbered sleeve.
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NYC Synth master Steve Moore makes a welcome return to L.I.E.S. with his first ep on the label since 2012. Through these four tracks Moore creates a world with simplistic stripped down beauty, often using one synth and a drum machine to effectively construct alternate realities, as heard on the opener Broken Kills. This continues on the b-side opener Eigengrau, while Future 86 and Future 99 take a more dramatic komische influenced soaring arpeggiated approach. Unmissable.
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Two of our favorite cuts from the rare Black Sun 2 LP, originally released in 1980 by the US Panache Records, now remastered and available on a special 12 inch disco version via Omaggio, courtesy of Philippe Walter.
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'Mantra Moderne' is a stunning, contemporary masterpiece that fuses Anatolian Psychedelia, Brazilian Tropicalia, 60’s European pop and American jazz. A must for fans of Khruangbin, Portishead, Arthur Verocai, Goat, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Os Mutantes, Cortex and co.
The duo is formed of Kit Martin, who lives between London and France and plays all instruments on the album, and Merve Erdem, vocalist and multi-disciplinary artist from Istanbul, now based in London. This is their debut album.
The album explores universal themes such as love, loss, decay, language and ideology, mixing three different languages: English, Turkish and French. Written and recorded by the duo - Kit composed all the songs and Merve wrote the lyrics - in rural France during 2018, each song was completed within a 12-hour window, pawning contemplation for spontaneity.
Dubbed by Kit and Merve as ‘lo-fi-hi-fi’ in reference to the high-end tube equipment that helped it find its way to 8-track cassette tape. The style owes its sound to narrow tape width, valve distortion, spring reverb, the mixture of high end gear with lo-fi equipment as well as a disregard to the norms of hi-fi studio techniques. All instruments were analogue and no samples were used. The instruments that are used range from tablas to darbukas, balalaikas to ouds, MS20 synths to Farfisa organs and a lot of cuica. The mixing techniques were done on-the-fly, tracking immediately to tape: compression, EQ, delay and reverb; meaning mixing could not be revisited!
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Our secret agent in Oslo returns with another urgent communique in the Norsk Tripping series...Six more tracks selected from a private vault of dance floor dynamite, which takes in modern Italo, solid gold punk-funkery, synth-outs, outsider pop & 80's obscurities.
All given the sonic once-over for maximum playability...
As always, a VERY limited run.
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In support of their forthcoming Bob Moog documentary Electronic Voyager, Waveshaper Media have produced a compilation LP of Moog recordings from the 1960s. The first compilation of its kind, Electronic Voyages: Early Moog recordings 1964-1969 contains tracks by Robert Arthur Moog, Herbert Deutsch, Joel Chadabe, Lothar and the Hand People, Intersystems, Ruth White, Max Brand, and Paul Earls. All of these tracks, released here on vinyl in an edition of 1000 copies, have been scarcely heard and difficult to track down, with all but three of them previously unreleased on vinyl.
Bypassing the Moog synthesizer’s backseat appearance on key pop recordings by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors, and the Beach Boys, Electronic Voyages aims to highlight the diverse approach of 1960s musicians and composers who adopted the Moog as their primary instrument; these recordings all feature the Moog synthesizer front and centre. Beginning with an “audio letter” (The Abominatron) from Bob Moog to his musician-muse Herbert Deutsch, demonstrating some of the first Moog synthesizer prototype’s capabilities, Electronic Voyages veers from avant-garde and electronic soundscapes, to psychedelic madness and summer-of-love pop. In the 1960s, the Moog synthesizer was a new, groundbreaking instrument, and its use was completely uncharted territory. The pioneering use of the Moog on all of these recordings sounds fresh today - you can sense the wide-eyed exploratory delight unfolding, and the disparate results range from endearingly naive (Lothar and the Hand People, Paul Earls) to downright eerie (Ruth White, Intersystems).
The musicians and composers behind these Electronic Voyages may have been among the first to adopt Moog synthesizers, but the fact that they so readily found within them expressivity, heart, and a means to translate their wondrous sense of discovery, speaks far more to Bob Moog’s visionary invention and enduring legacy.
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With 20 years passing since his first foray into recorded jazz, Nat Birchall now ranks as one of the premier saxophonists of his generation. With several highly acclaimed albums in the locker, he now returns with his most ambitious project yet – a tribute to the legend that is Yusef Lateef.
"The Storyteller - A Musical Tribute to Yusef Lateef"
"When Jazzman Gerald first mentioned to me the idea of doing an album as a tribute to the jazz giant Dr Yusef A. Lateef, my first thought was "Where on earth do I start?" Lateef was such a colossus of music, and his scope so broad, that I couldn't hope to begin to cover his musical universe. He was a master of the tenor saxophone, a master of the flute, a master ballad player, a master blues player. Not to mention his skills as a composer and arranger and of course his exploration and use of musical methodology and instruments from all over the world."
"I've always been a great admirer of Lateef, and the challenge was intriguing, so I decided to give it go. We interpreted some of his own compositions (Brother John, Morning & Ching Miau) as well as some compositions by others that he made his own by careful arrangement and interpretation (Love Theme from Spartacus, Ringo Oiwake). I also wrote some original songs that, while certainly not written in his style, might be said to fall into his very broad approach to music making."
"I also wanted to utilise as many different instruments as possible, something I hadn't explored too much until this album. So it was a nice opportunity to finally get around to playing some of the many small instruments I've collected over the years; the Turkish zurna, the mbira from Zimbabwe, the balaphon from Mali and the arghul from Egypt. We have also tried to use varied time signatures in the music, so we have songs in 3/4, 5/4 and 7/4 time, as well as the standard 4/4."
"Ultimately the best music tells a story to the listener and takes them to places they might not have imagined themselves. Yusef Lateef certainly did that, and as such was a master storyteller."
Nat Birchall
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After an intrepid new phase in the label’s history - initiated by the “Solidarity Forever” series and followed by releases from Katerina, Mujaji The Rain, Gladkazuka and also Matias Aguayo’s “Support Alien Invasion” (w/ “Crammed Discs”) - Cómeme is happy to announce a new release by a wonderful and unique artist, who chooses to walk adventurous paths beyond nowadays musical normativity, and media spectacle: JOE.
(You might already be acquainted with his releases on the ever - exciting “Hessle Audio” label) On his first EP on Cómeme, JOE invites us to “Get Centred” via fresh sounds, perfect beats, and unusual time signatures – difficult to play, and easy to dance!
A1 GET CENTRED
New rhythms inspire new dances and new ideas, and already at the very first bars you realize that this record can be both a joyfully twisted dance floor work out as also beautiful listening experience - with its shifting arpeggios and trippy crescendos. Reminiscent of minimalist milestones it crosses the artificial barriers between body, mind and soul, satisfying those in need of getting centred, in times of accelerated alienation...
A2 LINE TO EARTH
Triplets are back and here to stay! Such as in this percussive creature Joe unleashes onto the festive crowd. This very catchy jam is clever and intense drum programming at its best, with its swirling toms that seem to float in the air. We feel them activating different body parts for futuristic popping, whereas the relentless boogie rhythm that lays the foundation for this track gives us material to twist our legs in sync to the beat.
A3 RIO LEA
Joe closes this EP with “Rio Lea” - an elegantly swinging jam that smoothly and slowly builds up to a melodic meditation. Its many decorative elements seem all - necessary to make this work and are always falling rightly into place. You can imagine this a perfect fit for a long drink on a spacecraft, watching meteorites pass by, as we are sure it will also work in a bus on headphones late at night, watching the rain rolling down the windows...
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This new and grainy Sbire release sees La Chaux-de-Fonds electronic craftman Gaspard de La Montagne work as per usual with Nathan Baumann. The two of them share a long history of forward thinking music projects, including EPs, videos, movie soundtracks and so on. Things have changed on this one though as Baumann co-signs the record, instead of an usual credit mention. Both artists describe these 7 tracks as a small album which average format of tunes leans towards pop music. A thoughtful and progressive tracklist bounds all titles together as a whole journey, landmarked by Baumann's ethereal vocals and minimalistic french lyrics. This new approach makes Auras a moving and bittersweet journey that will see you wander from a crowded club to your lonely bed.
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Vertigo Inc, the freeform house project of a veteran Canadian producer, returns to the Unfulfillment label with four tracks of kaleidoscopic psy-house, acrobatic acidic exotics, and modal boogie, coaxed from retro machines for a sophisticated, full-body buzz. Come to where the wild things are..
A DIY labour of love since its inception in 2014, Unfulfillment was founded in the US in 2013 to release dance music of an exploratory nature. Unfulfillment releases have been played and charted by Powder, Soft Rocks, Shireef Laffrey, Brian Not Brian, Jacques Renault, Mister Saturday Night, and Luke Solomon.
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Fortuna boss Kalbata joins forces with five-piece band Tigris, creating a mesmerizing percussion-led album inspired by African and Caribbean traditions. Repetitive guitars, blissful synthesizers, and roaring voodoo drums set the tone across this extra-trippy, six-track journey. Techno and Balearic undertones remind us of Kalbata's wide musical spectrum, ranging from very dark to luminous tropical sunlight. Essential!
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Inner atmos and next time – rain into rivers, rivers to rain.
Sequence is subjective, irrelevant – it’s where we stand. Out of order, we dissolve and reform, coming together to come undone. There is no first, no now, no next – just precision points in the wide deep sky.
Another bang, another – it’s the reading which is important. Repeating in parallel, the natural loop is healing; repair, resonance, return. We live in a fragment; soft light and clouds drift like dreams into memory, showing movement in the mirror.
“Here the performer becomes free like the playful clouds high above the world of pain, suffering, happiness, ecstasy, disappointment, greed and ambition of human life”
In this present, we are touched to have unreleased business from Memphis. In unlocking the stoic DAT tapes we open a direct channel from 1993 to this now; three tracks which are meditative, essential rhythm with direct, organic charge. It’s Dream Night Dance Music and Osram 509, with RHK, En-Trance, and Microgravity.
More poetry in remembering our first release was also Memphis. Big complex loops and inner paths. Who’s been here before? All of us, one of us, none of us.
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The visionary singer, songwriter and composer returns to her Havana roots
A sun-baked, vibrant record backed by a killer band of fellow Cubans The new album from Daymé Arocena is a vivid return to her Havana roots. Backed once again by a killer band of fellow Cuban musicians, the visionary singer, composer and songwriter has stripped everything back to the core. Holding sessions in a simple, repurposed artist’s studio in Havana, Daymé produced the record herself, taking the reins to make “Sonocardiogram” her most raw and arresting outing yet.
A jazz-tipped record rooted in the rhythms of rumba, she draws on the island’s intertwined rituals of family, music and religion. Ringing with echoes of the greats, songs nod to the likes of Tito Puente and La Lupe, inspirations which carry the sound of Cuba’s sun-baked, vibrant daily existence. Odes to Santería deities are underscored by the sacred frequencies of the batá drum, translated to be played on a Western drum kit. It’s an intoxicating window into a singular artist’s worldview. An important voice in Latin music, Daymé has collaborated with influential peers in Cuban music, like Roberto Fonseca, and US heavyweights like Dexter Story and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. From a recent appearance at Primavera Festival, to sold out tours across Japan and the US, her spectacular live show continues to draw crowds around the world.
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Philippe Cam is the Thomas Pynchon of the electronic music world. Little is known about him and only a couple of pictures have been put online since he emerged on this planet to write his first and only album18 years ago. We know he worked as a sailor and that’s it. If you dig deeper you might find out that he worked as a DJ in the beginning of the 90ies in Brussels and began to study electronic music there and also began to write music for theaters and ballets.
The American distributor Forced Exposure once wrote that about him: „Philipe Cam is a star in his own field. He is among the few people who have succeeded to write hypnotic dance music without a conventional beat still conveying a thrilling, dramatic feel. Cam has developed an accurate, intense and complex formula of modulation-techno. Starting with music similar to Pan Sonic in 1996, his music turned towards a more elegant form of minimal music. Abstract soundtracks lead to an organic form of music, which was equally influenced by modern techno as Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas or Basic Channel/Maurizio. Cam's music corresponds heavily to the Cologne scene, where his music is appreciated and played throughout the clubs by the likes of Michael Mayer, Tobias Thomas and various other DJs as well as experimental djs from the A-musik corner.“
So what’s new with his music? Basically the art of filtering is still his passion. Maybe he can be less associated with techno and the themes of his new tracks emerge in a more distinctive pattern? Well that’s hard to say, we would comment the energy of his early techno days in Brussels have returned here in a fierce way with some oft he tracks. The rhythmic movements are classy and stick with you. Whereas other tracks look for a distinctive relaxation of some kind.
We are releasing the album as a double clear vinyl with cover art by Yvette Klein who also designed the cover for his Philippe Cam’s album 18 years ago. Graphics for "Rotterdam" come from Cologne designer Daniela Thiel. We also would like to thank the cultural department of Cologne for supporting us to finance the album and to see the artistic value in this piece of minimalism.
The album kicks off with the mellow and soothing "Cocoa Beach". A Gentle beat that moves like bodies swaying in the hot summer sun. The clock moves a step forward and then a step backward as evolution takes a rest.
"Manga" feels like an acceleration to the moon, the contemplative moments come in spurts and hide in the intervals of the chords which are on the loose. Philippe Cam is the most energetic person in the world when it comes to core activity, this is head banging stuff for the ambient lounge.
"Short Summer" is a heavy and violent recognition. As intensive as it is it knows when to stop and disappear. In the ear and brain of the listeners it leaves an indisputable echo which lingers on for minutes. We suggest not to make a pause but jump directly into "Vermillions Sands".
What can be said about into "Vermillions Sands"? Be prepared some Terry Riley might lure around the corner to offer you some oranges on a silver plate, but don’t eat them. This is luring and beautiful at the same time. Maybe the best ambient track ever written and yet who can ever venture to say that without making a fool of himself. "Vermillions Sands" comes in waves and they could be longer we think.
"Rotterdam" the home of Philippe Cam for a long time but not anymore. He moved away. So that changes the perspective. But when was the track written? "Rotterdam" seems mechanical and rusty and spooky and divided. This arrangement is very different to all the other tracks so far and is almost dub in style but way more fractured. A steady stop and go emerges. But the longer it runs the better it gets. At minute 6 the brain resets itself and tries to grasp what has happened so far, reconstruction as a result of its own phantasmic imagination and hardly true at all, wonderful. Applause included!
Here comes "Bis", a short episode of a track and before we can comment on it, it is already over.
"The Game" is a mule of a track. It has a quiet stubborn sequence that bites and kicks you in the back without any change in near sight. We can hear a voice whispering, which sounds like a miniature vocoder featuring the voice of a child calling out - never stopping. This is treadmill to some extend but starts to breathe towards the middle of the track and slowly changes perspective. In fact there are some changes taking place here which go beyond a sound design that works heavily on the stereo image. Stick with it and the experience will be a great one.
"Ultimate Fly For Halloway" somehow orchestrates how you might feel after you climbed a 8000 meter high mountain and reached the top. A rejoicing off a special kind. Lava for the ears. No cheerleader murder plot sorry.
"Last Track" is a perfect example of a true minimalistic pice of music that manages to make contact with other genres and does this with elegance, determination and a lot of soul.
key selling points: The key selling point is the fact that Philippe Cam once was referred to as one of the main protagonists of the minimal music scene along with Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas and Basic Channel/Maurizio. A true artist with a vision which is very rare.
Philippe Cam has picked up the sound he was famous for but has developed it further without selling out to any genre and expectation that rules our daily business.
Exactly this is the strength of the album to create a vivid world of impressions by using instruments in a whole different way than all software developers would suggest.
"Rotterdam" is a piece of art that can set off a firework when you listen to it and it owes nothing to anyone.
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After years of mythology, misinterpretation and procrastination Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton finally chooses Finders Keepers Records as the ideal collaborators to release “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List, commencing with a French specific Volume One of this authentically titled Strain Crack Break series. Featuring some Finders Keepers’ regulars amongst galactic Gallic rarities (previously presumed to be imaginary red herrings) this deluxe double vinyl dossier demystifies some of the essential French feee jazz and Parisian prog inclusions from the alphabetical “dedication” inventory as printed the anti-bands 1979 industrial milestone debut.
When Steven Stapleton, Heman Pathak and John Fothergill’s anti-band Nurse With Wound decided to include an alphabetical dedication to all their favourite bands on the back of their inaugural LP the notion of creating a future record dealers’ trophy list couldn’t have been further from their minds. By adding a list of untravelled European mythical musicians and noise makers to their own debut release of unchartered industrial art rock they were merely providing a suggestive support system of existing potential likeminded bands, establishing safety in numbers should anyone require sonic subtitles for Nurse With Wound’s own mutant musical language. Luckily for them, the record landed in record shops in the midst of 1979’s memorable summer of abject apathy and its sound became a hit amongst disillusioned agit-pop pickers and artsy post-punks, thus playing a key role in the bourgeoning “Industrial” genre that ensued. On the most part, however, the list , like most instruction manuals, remained unreadable, syntactic and suspiciously sarcastic... As potential “real musicians” Nurse WIth Wound became an Industrial music fan’s household name, but in contrast many of the names on The Nurse With Wound List were considered to be imaginary musicians, made-up bands or booby traps for hacks and smart-arses. It took a while for the rest of the record collecting community to catch on or finally catch u
Since then, many of the rare, obscure and unpronounceable genre-free records on The Nurse With Wound List have slowly found their own feet and stumbled in to the homes of open-minded outernational vinyl junkies, D’s and sample hungry producers, self-propelled and judged on their own merit, mostly without consultation of the enigmatic NWW map. But, to the inspective competitive collector’s chagrin, one resounding fact recurs, NWW got there first! Via vinyl vacations, on cheap flights and Interrail tickets, buying bargain bin LPs on a shoestring while oblivious to the pending pension worthy price tags after their 40 year vintage, Stapleton and Fothergill, even if you’ve never heard of them, were at the bottom of the pit before “digging” became paydirt. And NOW at huge international record fairs that occur in massive exhibition halls (or within the confines of your one-touch palm pilot) amongst jive talk acronyms such as SS, PP, BIN, DNAP and BCWHES the coded letters NWW have begun to appear on stickers in the corner of original copies of the same premium progressive records accompanied by a customary 50% price hike to titillate/coerce the initiated as dealers extort the taught. Like “psych” “PINA” or “Krautrock” did before, “NWW” has become a buzzword and in the passed decades since its first publication The List has been mythologised, misunderstood and misconstrued. It’s also been overlooked, overestimated and under-appreciated in equal measures, but with a growing interest it has also come to represent a maligned genre in itself, something that all members of the original line-up would have deemed sacrilegious. Bolstered by the subtitle “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden,” all bands on the inventory (many chosen on the strength of just one track alone) were chosen for their genre-defying qualities... A check-list for the unchart
Forty years after Nurse With Wound’s first record, Finders Keepers Records, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of THIS kind of “lost” music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. As long-running fans and liberators of some of the same records, arriving at the same axis from different-but-the-same planets, Finders Keepers and Nurse WIth Wound finally sing from the same hymn sheet resulting in a collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). Naturally our lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium would only scratch the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities hence out decision to release volume one in a series which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog, this first volume of the series entitled Strain Crack And Break throws us in at the deep end, where the Seine meets the in-sane, introducing the space cadets that found Mars in Marseilles.
Like the Swedish flat-pack record shelves that attempt to house the vast amounts of vintage vinyl that goes into a multi-volume compilation like this, its time to prepare your own musical penchants and preconceived ideas about DIY music and hear them slowly strain, crack and b
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Matasuna Records once again dug deep for its latest release and comes up with probably one of the best Latinfunk tunes. It was recorded by US band "Los Sobrinos del Juez" and released on their debut album in 1974. Matasuna Records is delighted to officially reissue two cuts from the album on 7inch single.
Founder, producer and singer of the band is Carlos Oliva, who was born in Cuba. He moved to Miami, Florida in 1961, where he had his first engagements. There he linked to other Cuban musicians and decided to move to New York with them to make music.
Some time later Oliva returned to Miami and founded his own band "Los Sobrinos del Juez (The Judge's Nephews)" in 1967. The group is regarded as one of the pioneers of musical fusion, which developed in Miami in the late 1960s and became known as the "Miami Sound". The music styles rock, blues, funk and soul that were popular at that time had an influence on their own compositions, which were enriched and spiced with Cuban/Latin American sounds. The band's first album was released in 1974 on an independent label in Miami and is a good example of this new sound. The album is much sought after and hard to find.
Oliva has released several albums with the band and toured Latin America and Europe. In the early eighties he also founded his own label. In the course of time he and his eight-man band got deeply rooted in the cultural life of Miami and enjoy attention and recognition. They are still on stage as "Los Sobrinos del Juez".
"Harina de Maiz" is the name of the song on the A-side - an uptempo latin funk monster driven by the characteristic wah wah guitar and a psychedelic sounding organ. Listening to it reveals why the song is one of the most funky Latinfunk tunes.
On the flip side it's quite different: "Corned Beef Hash" is a vibrant easy Latinjazz tune, where the talent of the musicians is audible. The perfect interaction of the piano player, the vibraphonist, the flute player and the rest of the band is a musical delicacy for its connoisseur.
a A1 Harina de Maiz clip
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It wasn’t really a movement, barely even a moment, but the Daisy Age was an ethos that permeated pop, R&B and hip hop at the turn of the 90s. Playfulness and good humour were central to De La Soul’s 1989 debut album, “3 Feet High And Rising”, which would go on to cast a long, multi-coloured shadow over rap.
In Britain, the timing for “3 Feet High And Rising” couldn’t have been better. The acid house explosion of 1988 would lead to a radical breaking down of musical barriers in 1989, and its associated look – loose clothing, dayglo colours, smiley faces – chimed with the positivity of De La Soul and rising New York rap acts the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest, all at the heart of a growing collective called Native Tongues.
The Native Tongues’ charismatic, summery aura quickly spread west to the Bay Area’s similarly-minded Hieroglyphics crew (Del Tha Funky Homosapien’s ‘Mistadobalina’); Canada’s Dream Warriors (‘My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style’) used “3 Feet High”’s colour palette and borrowed Count Basie and Quincy Jones riffs; Naughty By Nature (OPP) were mentored by Native Tongues heroine Queen Latifah, while Londoner Monie Love was also adopted by the collective, resulting in her Grammy-nominated ‘It’s A Shame (My Sister)’.
It wasn’t built to last, but the Daisy Age reintroduced Multiplication Rock, bubble writing and the gently psychedelic into the charts. It was a brief, but extraordinarily warm and optimistic moment. The songs on this collection promised that the 90s would be a lot more easy-going than the 80s.
Available on CD and double LP.
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Out September 6th on Dischord Records, Anthropocosmic Nest is the second full-length by Washington, D.C.’s The Messthetics, who are Anthony Pirog, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty.
Formed in 2016 the Messthetics are Anthony Pirog, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty. Pirog is a jazz and experimental guitarist based in Washington, D.C. One half of the duo Janel & Anthony, he also performs regularly with Low Ways Quartet and James Brandon Lewis. Canty and Lally were the rhythm section of the band Fugazi from its inception in 1987 to its period of hiatus in 2002.
Since then, Canty has remained active as a documen- tary filmmaker, producer, and composer, and released a music as a member of the band Deathfix. Lally has re- leased three solo albums and toured extensively with a frequently-rotating cast of musicians.
Recorded at the band’s practice space throughout 2019, it’s an album that more perfectly captures the trio’s current live dynamic, complete with improvisational tangents, playful experimentation, and cathartic sprawl.
When The Messthetics recorded their debut album in 2017, the trio had only done a handful of shows and had yet to fully find its footing on stage. In a way, those compositions were a template for the band that Pirog, Lally, and Canty hoped would come into being through subsequent work on the road.
Since then, The Messthetics have played upwards of 200 shows across the US, Europe and Asia. Their dialog as a performing unit has necessarily focused and intensified. As a result, Anthropocosmic Nest offers a more var- ied vision of the band. It’s the loudest the trio has ever been and also the quietest.
Few albums have treated human voice and drone as a whole entity like ABoneCroneDrone, the third in a trilogy for Real World Records that this record closed back in 1996. In Sheila Chandra’s own words “it was about the gateways between vocal techniques from different cultures and how it was possible to cross between them within a single word or phrase.”
Indipop Recordings founder Steve Coe, probably best known for helping to popularise the term World Music in the early eighties, produced and worked with extreme accuracy along with Chandra on all drones and set a new industry standard of what was possible in the treatment of voice. With the help of bagpipes, didgeridoos and guitars, ABoneCroneDrone puts drones under the microscope and encourages listeners to retrain their ears to hear the nuances that musicians have always heard in them. Emitting low, chantlike waves, Chandra sings deep spaced atonal words while haunting chord sounds flow and drones slowly interact with listener.
This is the first vinyl pressing. It includes a fold-out insert with a new Sheila Chandra interview, original sleeve notes edited by Chandra herself and unseen pictures taken from the 1996 sessions. Limited to 500 copies, no digital release this time.
“The artistry of ABoneCroneDrone is in the attention to detail. The album is beautifully performed, mixed and compiled with intelligence and strong sense of structure. It makes good use of a listener’s valuable time while issuing a challenge to hear in a fresh way.” John L. Walters, The Wire issue 150.
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Bonding over a shared love of Chic, Parliament and the other signs in the greater funk Zodiac, Mayer Hawthorne (Aquarius) and Jake One (Taurus), collectively known as Tuxedo, return with their third studio album, Tuxedo III released on the Tuxedo-owned and newly launched label, Funk on Sight. Their powers combined have yet again yielded a bevy of absolute slappers that are packaged perfectly for dance floors in 2019. The album includes features from MF DOOM, DāM-FunK, Leven Kali, Benny Sings, Gavin Turek and others. Tuxedo is back to remind you that the dance floor will always be there to welcome you, whoever you are.
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Heady, deep dive into techno's more psychedelic spaces, true to form, "Dimensions Doors" EP kicks off with the rolling kicks of "Portal Opening", a trippy exploration of shifting ambiances and rhythmic noise, punctuated by a siren tone. AWB steps up with a broken beat remix of "Portal Opening", layering Clotur's ambiances over low-slung percussion. "Hyperspace Travel" brings up the energy with galloping kicks and rippling resonant synths. BLNDR follows up with a pounding remix, building Clotur's sweeping textures into trippy loops circling over a monolithic kick. "Irregular Frequencies" pulls even further into the portal, with a relentless, rubbery synth squelching along over driving, percussion. Clotur lays a gentle, but uneasy atmosphere over this trippy tool. He brings us back down with "Forbidden Level", another complex rhythmic track featuring glitchy percs and robotic warping over a tough low-end workout.
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It’s no secret that the Irish know how to party. That energy is epitomised in the bubbling scene of homegrown talent rising through the ranks all over the island. House of Disco, having recently moved back to the Irish shores, let loose their first 4 track sampler EP in 7 years, ‘Home Turf’, showcasing the best in under-represented young Irish producers.
Taking the first slot, Dublin’s LPM hones in on that signature HoD sound with some expertly interlaced late ‘70s samples, reworked and repackaged into a bomb of a filtered, disco house, hand-raiser that’s got sunshine stamped into it’s very core. Newbridge locals, Mix & Fairbanks then offer up a deep, synth-laden gem, drenched in weighty stabs, analogue melodies and squiggling top lines.
On the flipside, the young gun from Killarney, Shee gets soulful for ‘Me You Us’ with low-slung vocal samples and hazy pads layered over the top of swirling disco loops. Lastly, Wicklow native Purple Ice signs off this killer Irish EP with a blissful, piano infused groover that’s eyes closed ecstasy from start to finish.
Bang on!
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Lars Hemmering is back with his second solo ep on Fullpanda records.
Also known as half of Live Duo – LADA with Dasha Rush, beside his own productions on DOCK records and among few others.
“Bloody &Soul “
Vinyl version – a collection of 4 intense left-field, abstract tracks, ranging from eerie cosmic like techno, throughout harder yet abstract beats, closing with dark ambient. Plus a digital bonus track.
A1.”Bless”
Dynamically hypnotic piece, where synth dominated baseline meets broken beats with barely present percussions, if refereeing to the classic techno approach, blending with dreamy chorals on the background.
A2. “Releasing Strains “
A moody melancholic cut with atmospheric, reverberating analogue synths and poly rhythmical structures.
B1. “Lars wars”
Takes us to more rougher side of techno, frantic energy with distorted syncopated rhythms tiny bouncing sounds that respond to over all dynamics.
B2. “Artarpet”
Closing track comes towards the dark ambient, that bring us to an empty like sound fields.
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Current Age is the first vinyl release from Chicago newcomer label Tres Dias.
Label head and artist Juanne takes us on a visceral journey with three tracks that dig deep into your headspace. Taking from his experiences in the underground and its outer edges lends to create an audible sequence that manifested as the CURRENT AGE ep.
“Crops” is the intro track and invites you into a dark ethereal landscape. With a dreamy, haunting vocal, somber keys and ravenous bassline that grabs you and leads you in.
“Rivers” is the second offering and a tribute to the A.M. dance floor. Hypnotic synths, warehouse sounds and core shattering bass.
“Point of Entry”smashes in as the final track and most dance floor heavy tune on the ep. Nothing short of beating sounds all through your gutty wuts.
Artwork by Chicago's Stephen Cadiz
Mastered by the talents of New York's D.Schoenemann.
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Master of ambient spaces and far out places, long-time Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) blesses us once again with another release, this from his 'Visa' period of unreleased tracks.
The first track out of the gate is a recognizable Vladislav Delay piece, but instead of gently flowing rivers of sound, instead we have a series of stiff, machine-like rhythms applied to his classic infinitely deep pads and ambient environmental sounds.
It just continues to pile in more elements until becoming almost indistinguishable from his natural, organic flow.
From there we move into somewhat more familiar territory but still unusually stripped down and mechanical for a Vladislav Delay joint.
It’s fascinating to see such an intricate songwriting process laid bare in such a way, often exposing each individual, nearly bottomless sound in isolation.
Deeper into the album, things veer into decidedly more abrasive and synthetic territory, at times becoming an almost unrecognizable artist for a moment, only to be eventually subsumed under layers of shifting ambience that could only be Sasu.
This austere minimalism makes these tracks some of the most hypnotic since the early 90s excursions, but at the same time seems to have left its organic, analog roots and melded with the harsh gridlocked modern sequencer. ~Clint Anderson
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Wah Wah 45s are very proud to announce the release of Kalba, the first album from Ghanaian xylophone master Isaac Birituro and Leeds-based producer and singer- songwriter Sonny Johns AKA The Rail Abandon. The boundary crossing duo were introduced to the world via the first two singles released in early 2019, Yesu Yan Yan and Für Svenja, and the reactions to the project have been overwhelmingly warm.
There are many differences between Isaac and Sonny, but a powerful similarity -- which gives Kalba its element of relatability -- is that desire to hear the usual done unusually and play with the shared influence of the music from afar. Named after the town in North Ghana where Isaac resides, the album is a combination of differences; a magnifying glass over the Venn diagram of our lives, the unfathomable meeting of parallel lines.
“It was clear to me that, though he played a traditional instrument in a traditional way, Isaac was influenced by the Western tinged music that filled the streets of Accra - in fact his father, Edmund, introduced him with “He plays the modern way!” Partly dismissive, mostly proud,” said Sonny. “And as this Viking sat before him played the guitar, it sounded too much like the stringed instruments of Mali for it to be just a coincidence.”
There are so many stories behind each track on this album, but the common denominators are clearly the importance of community, of preserving and presenting local cultures, the ardent desire to contribute to changing the world around us, and, of course, the love and power of music created from a genuine place.
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Should you find yourself taking a Thames-side stroll in the shadow of the City of London, keep an eye out for the headphone-clad figure of Ilan Pdahtzur. While be-suited bankers and frustrated office workers scurry home to their families, Ilan can frequently be found casting admiring glances towards the blinking lights of towering skyscrapers while filling his ears with the synthesizer-driven sounds of lesser-known 1980s dance music.
Ilan, an avid but little-known record collector best known for sharing the artwork of obscure and under-appreciated early-to-mid ’80s club cuts on his popular Instagram feed, has been digging for vibrant, kaleidoscopic records since his teens. Now, thanks to Spacetalk, he’s been given a chance to offer a glimpse into his neon-lit nocturnal musical world.
The result is Night City Life, a killer collection of 1980s synthesizer songs inspired by Ilan’s admiration for the glow of London’s late night skyline. Over the course of 13 essential tunes, Ilan escorts us on a vibrant sprint through rare Italo-disco, steamy South African synth-boogie, fizzing American freestyle, oddball Austrian electrofunk and so much more.
There are naturally a fair few sought-after cuts present, but also a fine selection of under-appreciated gems that for one reason or other have been all but ignored since they were released three and a half decades ago. In fact, some selections are so obscure that barely any information exists about them online.
Check for example Preludio’s “Mysterious Nights”, an evocative fusion of slow electronic grooves, dreamy chords and twinkling piano motifs previously buried on a lesser-known album of unremarkable German synth-pop, or the dollar-bin brilliance of Fragile’s sweet synth-pop gem “We’ve Got Tonight, Boy”, a cut that Ilan says is capable of “wrapping itself like tendrils around your soul”. He’s not wrong.
At the other end of the scale you’ll find the ultra-rare Italo-disco breeziness of Friend of Mine’s incredible “Just Your Pride” and Mac & Monica’s soulful 1986 South African synth-boogie cut “You’re So Good To Me”, copies of which regularly change hands for hundreds of pounds online. Ilan originally reached out to the men behind the record last year to tell them how one of their other forgotten gems had been played on a Boiler Room session; naturally, they were thrilled.
There’s plenty to admire elsewhere on the compilation, too, from the waves of analogue synths, bubbly melodies and bobbing beats of the instrumental dub version of Brian Tatcher’s “Hot Love” – a cold-war era cut inspired by the idea of love blossoming in the midst of a nuclear meltdown – to the Bobby Orlando-esque freestyle bustle of Janelle’s “Don’t Be Shy (Dub)” and the sparkling post-boogie brilliance of Jarmaz’s “Night City Life (Disco Remix)”, a track Ilan has listened to countless times while admiring the midnight skyline of his home city.
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Ross Alexander first came to our attention with Memorias Vol.1 - Bugandan Sacred Places, released back in 2017 on Sucata Tapes, it featured a mind altering mix of recorded sounds from a series of visited sites considered sacred within the Bugandan kingdom and session recordings with Ugandan musicians Albert Sempeke and the Nilotika Collective layered with his own original composition using the Yamaha DX7 and programmed FM synthesis. The result being an unique reconfiguration of new age vocabulary with East African traditional sensibilities. The tape quickly sold out and the new Volume of Memorias presented here arrives now on the mother label Discrepant, on Vinyl with an expanded sound palette appropriate to the format.
Memorias Vol.2 - High Atlas To The Sahara Desert is the logical progression of Volume 1. - based on a series of field recordings Alexander made during a trip through the High Atlas Mountains and into the Sahara Desert in 2018. The aim of the trip was to visit a gathering of nomadic musicians at an oasis close to the Algerian border. Like Memorias Vol1. the recordings made on the trip were then later processed, layered and arranged with original compositions. Where Vol1. had clear nods to New Age music this volume explores the more ambient side of 80’s Industrial sound.
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Moon Boots a.k.a Pete Dougherty returns with his second studio album ‘Bimini Road’ on September 6 via Anjunadeep. An ambitious and evocative follow-up to his acclaimed debut First Landing, Bimini Road combines delectable club-ready grooves with soulful songcraft into a seamlessly organic whole. Inspired by notions of mysterious lost civilizations, ancient magic utopias and the sci-fi landscapes of the mind, ‘Bimini Road’ is a joyously celebratory listen that builds off the ‘deep textures and funky melodies’ (Mixmag) of his album 'First Landing', a disco house masterpiece supported by KCRW, Annie Mac and others. Featuring familiar faces KONA, Black Gatsby and Nic Hanson among the featured vocal talent, ‘Bimini Road’ also includes new collaborators like rising US talent Niia, Kaleena Zanders and notable British sing-songwriter Little Boots. OutJuly 9, ‘Tied Up’ is the first single off the album, a sexy slice of deep house pop sure to ignite dancefloors and bedrooms alike. Moon Bootsembarks on his Live Bimini Road Tour this Fall, with dates across North America and Europe. Born in Brooklyn, Moon Boots’ musical obsession started not long after he could walk. His early love of piano lead to a passion for keyboards and synthesizers. Teenage nights lost in the work of Daft Punk, ATribe Called Quest and Herbie Hancock followed. Inspired by legends like Frankie Knuckles and Derrick Carter, he moved to the house music epicenter of Chicago, where he tirelessly passed out demos to local DJs and scoured the web for like-minded people with whom he could share and expand on his sound. Heplayed in a synth-pop trio whose demo caught the attention of Lupe Fiasco, and after a stint touring alongside the hip-hop icon, Dougherty went back to DJing with a renewed focus. The stars aligned when he had a chance encounter withPerseus, founder of an adventurous label, French Express. A fellow junkie and fan of French House and R&B-infused dance music, Perseus became a friend and mentor, the Splinter to Boots' Donatello. The label eventually disbanded but Boots has stayed true to his mission of making dance tracks that can’t be confined to one style. Pete blends the music he loves --jazz, house, funk and soul -- into songs that last longer than their runtime. Songs not just for DJs, but for everyone.
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Mekanik Kommando was a post punk / New Wave band from Nijmegen, the Netherlands founded in 1979 by Peter van Vliet and Laszlo Panyigay. The duo became a quartet with the addition of Simon van Vliet and Mirjam van Hout. The name Mekanik Kommando comes from the album ?Mekan?k Destrukt?w Kommand?h? by the French progressive rock band Magma. Inspired by a DIY ethos, Kraftwerk and Magma, the band began recording songs at home using two tape recorders. Their demo cassette was discovered by Wally van Middendorp of Minny Pops and owner of Plurex Records, who booked them for a gig at Paradiso in Amsterdam. In 1981 they were asked to contribute music on a flexidisc for the first issue of newly established magazine Vinyl. In the summer of that year the band recorded their debut album ?It Would Be Quiet In The Woods If Only A Few Birds Sing? released on Torso. In February 1982 the band secured five days of studio time at Salisbury Sound in Dordrecht. The end result was the mini-album ?Dancing Elephants? released on Torso later that year. Musically, the five songs are a mix between cold wave, experimental electronic and industrial pop. The band utilized two bass guitars plus a Korg 770, KR-55 drum machine, violin, effects, metals and plastics. Lyrics explore themes of decay and morality, hypnotically spoken on top of playfully metallic sounds. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each EP is housed in a replica of the original jacket, which features artwork by the group members, and includes a 4-page booklet with lyrics and notes designed by Eloise Leigh.
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