Cerca:ultra tech

Bram De Looze is a Belgian pianist and composer whose distinct musical vision has found its way through both solo projects and collaborations. His unique technical skill and musical maturity have earned him considerable critical acclaim back home as his work spotlights his far-ranging interests - from traditional classical piano music, to solo improvisations that have often been compared to Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran. On the 21st February 2020, Sdban Ultra will release his highly anticipated new solo album, 'Colour Talk'.

De Looze made his entrance onto the national jazz scene with LABtrio, formed in 2007 with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck, and he immediately impressed, flirting with urban jazz, electronics and hip hop.

After a period of studying abroad at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where he studied with Uri Caine and Marc Copland, in 2014, De Looze launched the international septet, Septych, that once again stressed his affinity for jazz, classical music and improvisation. With diverse and astounding improvisors like Daniel Levin, Lester St-Louis, Robin Verheyen, Gebhard Ullman, Bo Van Der Werf and Flin Van Hemmen, it was the start of an explorative musical journey.

Over the past few years, De Looze could frequently be heard with kindred spirits like Stephane Galland, Dre Hocevar and Antoine Pierre but it was a visit to the historical collection of pianofortes of Chris Maene that inspired De Looze to release his first solo album 'Piano e Forte' (2017), and it received critical acclaim for its creativity, spontaneity and passion. He would later garner further acclaim working alongside fellow Belgian Robin Verheyen and American rhythm painter Joey Baron with whom he recorded 'MixMonk' (2019), a tribute to the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

Bram De Looze's solo career took off in an unexpected way with 'Piano e Forte', a project for which he approached historical instruments from a contemporary perspective. The switch to the Chris Maene Straight Strung Grand Piano for 'Switch The Stream' (2018) indicated a renewed search for movement, evolution and introspection. His latest solo project 'Colour Talk', continues this trajectory with another revolutionary piano model, designed by lauded architect Rafael Vinoly, and a continued attempt to renew from within.

On 'Colour Talk', what you hear is a musician who has freed himself from stylistic constraints and limitations. While still rooted in jazz, classical music and free improvisation have found a new balance, a coexistence that enables the pianist to express himself with a new vigour. Switching between shorter pieces that feel like curious, unresolved puzzles and more extended explorations, 'Colour Talk' is once again an ode to (re)invention in the grey zone were the classical idiom and improvisatory urges meet, with the 13-minute tour-de-force of 'Hypnosis' as one of several undisputed highlights.

If you asked De Looze about his current position as an artist, he would probably tell you that it's all about forward movement and the need to keep evolving, about a trajectory as work-in-progress. However, if you consider 'Colour Talk' as a freeze frame of where De Looze is at, it is hard not to consider it a highlight in a career that should have some more surprises in store.

After taking time out to search for the right blend of carefully curated tracks, Bristol-based dancefloor futurists Innate return with a third multi-artist EP - shot through with melody, warmth and soul.

A quartet of timeless-sounding tracks full of stargazing sounds, undulating acid lines, far-sighted electronics and crackling beats, the A side kicks off with Perseus Traxx's "Drifting In Space": a loose-limbed exercise in analogue house deepness that wraps slowly shifting pads, meandering melodies and pulsating TB-303 motifs around broken house drums.

Welcoming Australian scene stalwart Ewan Jansen to the fray with "Sinders", he effortlessly blurs the boundaries between far-sighted, Motor City style techno and the kind of head-in-the-clouds analogue sounds that have always been his forte.

On the flip, Reedale Rise adds his touch with "Coral". In keeping with the brilliance of his 2018 debut album "Luminous Air", he drops a colourful, picturesque voyage into deep electro territory rich in ear-catching melodies, engaging chord sequences and crunchy machine percussion. To round, label co-founder Owain K returns with "Teifi", another ultra-deep treat: an enveloping, dancefloor excursion rich in fluttering lead lines, slowly expanding chords, vintage bass and punchy drums. A fitting conclusion to Innate's latest immaculate, eyes-closed voyage."

2x12"

The first LP from Scorn since 2010’s Refuse; Start Fires, ​Cafe Mor ​is Mick Harris in his happy place. Which just happens to be in studio, demolishing all standards and rules for electronic bass music, and embodying the darkest, deepest sound in dub. ​Cafe Mor ​takes risks outside of the conventional Scorn apparatus, and with these risks come substantial rewards.

The album is comprised of powerful dub excursions, from the deep dark dank of the front two tracks Elephant and The Lower The Middle Our Bit, and gaining steam towards the ultraviolence of Mugwump Tea Room to Never Let It Be Said to the CRUSHING DEATH KICK of Who Are They Which One. A quick drive under the lights with a lasered out snare on Dulce, then we come across the appearance from ​Sleaford Mods ​frontman​, Jason Williamson,​ on the standout track on the LP, “Talk Whiff”. A cruise around the Midlands sighting the Broke Fridge and Tinder Surprise, with an instant classic refrain:

“Talk Whiff // I’m a busy person // I’ve had enough of it”
Cafe Mor culminates in the all-in-one dub affair SA70, letting rip all the new mixer and fx techniques of Harris’ most recent incarnation of Scorn. The album is the official soundtrack for all smoked out backroom deals, situations and arrangments, cancelling all small tours, and mongoose rhinocharging the bass to level 24.

All tracks Created and Mixed ​by MJ Harris in the Lad’s Old Room

B14 Mastered​ by Daniele Antezza for ​Dadub Mastering Studio

Artwork​, ​Layout ​by ​MachineTM

The title Ghost Frequency works on several levels. I was introduced to the term when I first began learning about recording techniques. It was used (usually negatively) to describe sounds that appeared on recordings due to signal interactions that resulted from “improper” mixing or recording and read as “noise” rather than the “music” that was being recorded. I became instantly fascinated with the phenomenon and intentionally creating these sounds in my recordings by deliberately using supposedly incorrect techniques has become a big part of my composing and recording process, probably the most central and consistent practice of it. I’m interested in how the presence of these sounds, and traditional production’s insistence on eradicating relates to larger ideas about the eradication of vital social practices relating to the dead such as ancestor worship, mediumship and history itself in favor of state and market dictated modes of understanding existence. The internet abounds with references to the the term, but applied to ultra low frequency or “infrasound” which can allegedly be responsible for inducing supernatural perception experiences. These posts from the margins posit a Ghost Frequency that operates on the same level as a radio station, one can simply tune into paranormal activity. It’s also a pun on an imaginary metric of how frequently ghosts might be around at any given moment. The songs on the EP employ (as does all of my music) a large amount of Ghost Frequencies (i.e. sounds that appear on the recording as the result of signal interactions rather than those sounds being performed on an instrument) and they also orient themselves toward interaction with the dead as a necessary component of human experience, and a mode of resistance to state power and it’s accompanying carceral technologies.

Jatinder Singh Durhailay and David Edren released Tea Notes as a cassette back in April of 2018. London-based Jatinder Singh Durhailay is a painter and student of Indian Classical music. He has trained in both the sitar and the Hindi singing technique, Dhrupad. He also plays two traditional Sikh instruments; the bowed, stringed Dilruba and Taus. Poetic Pastel Press issued his solo debut, The Last Ballad Of Mardana, in 2017. David Edren`s expertise lies with machines and modular synthesis. His Kosmische and New Age-Inspired electronics have featured on numerous cassettes, and compilations, produced for imprints from the current Belgian underground, such as Jj Funhouse, Social Harmony, and Ultra Eczema. These recordings appearing, since the turn of the millennium, either under his own name, or the moniker DSR Lines. Jatinder and David’s collaboration, Tea Notes, is a celebration, a meditation, on both the beverage, and the communal time shared imbibing. The coming together to partake in its ritual. Each of the six tracks represents a different infusion. The opening piece is a tribute to semi-oxidised Oolong, from China`s Wuyi Mountains, with hammered dulcimer-like glissando. Gongs shimmering, gently crashing, as if signaling a change in the weather. A calm of thin, stretched synths and Ai angels introduces Tulsi from India. The Holy Basil of Hinduism, used in the worship of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama. A traditional herb of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. Automated arpeggiated sequences raising a vibrating wall of hallucinatory sound. Pairing swooning strings with a racing robot heart. Ceylon is a modern twist on the classical raga. Serving to tell the story of a tea smuggled into Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Plants stolen from South West China, where the brew had been enjoyed since the days of the Shang Dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC). The contraband founding fresh industry in its new home when the indigenous coffee crops failed. Muted organ and sleepy, treated sine wave microtones describe Kava, the Polynesian fireweed root, whose extract serves as both sedative and euphoriant.Shincha are the first young leaves of the season. Picked in Southern Japan and steamed to prevent oxidization, retain their flavour and green / gold colour. Their musical counterpart finds Edren establishing an ecclesiastical drone, while Durhailay`s strings chart an ancient romantic ache. Sonic stars shine. Singing out to the infinite, the universe, before dissolving into knots of Radiophonic Workshop noise.Melodies treated with subtle sustain and delay denote Pu-Ehr, from the Yunnan province. The only truly fermented black tea - made distinctive by the action of bacteria, moulds, and yeasts. Its musical themes hovering in the vapour trails, the atmospheres, they themselves create. Spiraling, soaring, reaching for the heavens, while pretty music box glitches - tiny chimes turned in on themselves. Catching, reflecting, like light at play on fresh running water. (words: Robert Harris)

After releasing the single “Čista ljubav” back in 2012, Marinada
and producer Qwerty continued to synthesize the band’s rich
catalogue. This collaboration album features eight songs
where Qwerty utilizes his playful approach to dance music
strongly tying together Marinada’s truthful voice and sensitive
instrumentation. The two sides bring in a wide range of
influences into the mix: from retro techno-pop and new wave
to contemporary braindance and acid house. The electronic
sounds are wrapped around simple and repetitive lyrics that
are simultaneously clearly relatable (if you speak Croatian)
and fully mystifying. Marinada has been a truly productive
phenomenon on the Croatian music scene, putting out more
than 20 albums woven from lo-fi electronica, acoustic
minimalism and art rock. Besides the hometown, the band is
connected to Qwerty via the family tree: the brothers have
been making IDMy techno sounds since the late 1990s and
releasing music on labels such as Phthalo and Breakin’
Records.

Borneo’s eighth release brings a sweet little five track compilation of eccentric and exotic electronica. All music is lovingly composed and constructed by the label’s family and close friends.

Ultrastation is the lovechild project of Cosmic Force and Nuno Dos Santos. Their Eau De Voodoo kicks this EP off with a fire starter made out of driving afro rhythms combined with mesmerizing vocal samples.

Phones On Fail Jah by Fader sees a quirky digital take on digidub. Centered around filtered chords, a deftly curated selection of melody and percussion is put through its paces.

The enigmatic Fizzy Veins poured his hart out on the song Handbrake. Guitar play over a subtle synth line, all sprinkled with fragile vocals that are almost drowning in the sea of echoes that lies underneath.

Rotterdam’s Nous’Klaer mainstay Mattheis has contributed V21. A stealthy weapon with synth driven melodies and electronic rhythms that are slowly morphing in and out of each other. This will hypnotize any dance floor.

Samo DJ closes the excursion with a remix. He handpicked OVFiets from the Borneo vaults, an unreleased techno work out by party crew Marck. Samo’s version brings the original in a more airy, wholesome and percussive state of mind.

Friendship (JAP) return with their merciless new album, Undercurrent, set for vinyl release through Southern Lord on June 21st .
 
Friendship's vile, antagonistic, blackened, sludge-tone hardcore remains focused on delivering maximum auditory torture. Considered alongside other luminaries such as Full Of Hell, Nails, and Infest, and underpinned with the oppressive tonal amplification of Sleep, Coffins, and Iron Monkey. The band is widely considered visionary in the field of heavy modern music.

Their second LP, Undercurrent showcases Friendship's hybrid of ultra-heavy doom, sludge and power violence. With a refined technical and precise approach, and a brighter and sharper tone than the preceding Hatred LP.
 

A multifaceted debut EP from the Berlin-based producer Crore.

The record starts off with “Ultraviolence“, a stomping acid workout, climaxing with the help of sharp hi-hats and its smooth but effective arrangement. On the flip side, the less pragmatic “Thinking In Code“ renounces the 4/4 kick and works more subtle while diving into the deeper spheres of contemporary techno music. Spheric pads meet a pulsating synth in the “Final Sequence“ and create a fuzzy and uncanny atmosphere.

Sonic weapons for a wide range of club settings.

Debut album from Bay Area producer - 10 tracks spread across 2 slabs of vinyl and a bonus flexi disc.

Vin Sol is a third-generation San Franciscan of Salvadorean descent who has released on Unknown to the Unknown, Clone, Delft, Honey Soundsystem, and Ultramajic. His DJ sets expertly span the genres of house, electro, techno, italo, disco, soul, funk, and whatever other finds he digs up. He's also a musical partner of Matrixxman, AKA Charlie Duff, with whom he started the Soo Wavey label. His current focus is on the wild monthly party and label Club Lonely, which he runs with Primo Pitino and Jeremy Castillo. 'Planet Trash' consists of 10 tracks spread across 2 slabs of vinyl and a bonus flexi disc. Vin started working on the album in the winter of 2017 while taking a break from making club tracks. Simultaneously he also wanted to disconnect from the grip of the internet and 24 hour news cycle. Spending more time outside, he became entranced by the Bay Area fog. Sutro Tower wholly enveloped in mist is a view that inspired the ambient tracks on the album. You will also hear hints of the Latin freestyle and classic acid that informed Vin's youth. By spring of 2018 Vin headed to Berlin to finish the album and work on a collaboration with Matrixxman, an homage to SF musical institution Bottom of the Hill that kicks off side C. Vin's musical approach is honest, using the tools of the trade to both innovate upon and pay respect to classic forms. All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each copy is housed in a jacket using photos by Vin Sol, and designed by Kevin McCaughey of Boot Boyz Biz. It includes a 4-color giant newsprint fold-out poster and golden flexi disc.

Seit über einer Dekade gehört James Connolly als Produzent (L-Vis 1990, Dance System) und Betreiber des Hip-Labels Night Slugs zur progressiven Speerspitze der Clubmusik. Nach Releases auf Clone und Jimmy Edgars Ultramajic-Label (und einer fünfjährigen Auszeit dazwischen), meldet sich Connolly nun auf Modeselektors Monkeytown Records zurück. Seine Dance System "Wind 'Em Up" EP bietet in der ernsten Techno-Welt von heute und entgegen aktueller politischer Strömungen genau die Sorte verspielter Frischluft, die wir alle brauchen.

"When Night Slugs boss L-Vis 1990, aka James Connolly, slips on his Dance System alias, the mission is simple: slamming - but pointedly simple and unfussy - tracks that get your ass on the dancefloor." - VICE

In just a year of existence, Chloé's Lumière Noire has brought emerging artists and promising newcomers together - and this first compilation of 13 brand new tracks expands the roster, exposing the label's eclectic vision in full daylight. When Chloé talks about her label, she puts forward the fundamental values that informed her own musical journey, her trust in her own musical taste - and, of course, the predominance of human relationships: 'I followed
my bliss and only commissioned tracks from artists that I respect and whose music I love. That to me is Lumière Noire's musical palette.' With this 13- track, unmixed compilation, Chloé makes a case for a label aesthetic that is based in open-mindedness. Familiar, elemental Lumière Noire artists are represented, as are new faces, producing a kind of group photo presaging what's next for the fledgling label. Lyon's Markus Gibb leads the track listing with Kuru with a deep chiaroscuro matching the label's ethos, followed by other mainstays Il Est Vilaine's Farenheit 451, which evokes Ray Bradbury's retro-dystopic angst with the
band's usual electro-pop elegance. Sutja Gutierrez, who released in debut EP, The Legend of Time on Lumière Noire in April, pursues his electro Shamanism with the ceremonial Allodoxaphobia, while Iñigo Vontier (whose EP Aluxes came out on the label in late 2017) brings his C O N T R A project
online with track Taurus, a further development in voodoo house. Elsewhere, Suuns lead singer Ben Shemie, who lent his fascinating art-rock croon to Recall, a single from Chloé's Endless Revisions LP, contributes A Million Kinds, a synthy, psych-pop debut that is as brilliant as it is surprising. On to the freshman class: Dutch producer Drvg Cvltvre (who gets personal kudos
from Chloé with each new 12') brings the uncompromising dark electro of his hypnotic and claustrophobic Last Rites. Jonathan Fitoussi's airy, minimalistic Cercles Polaires brings the respite of his recent Versatile Espaces Timbrés LP (a collaboration with Clemens Hourrières): 'I met him at Xavier Veilhan's
Studio Venezia at the Venice Biennale. He's a great guy, and his universe is unique,' says Chloé. Benedikt Frey's deep techno track Iaon, is on par with his smash 2017 album, Artificial, out on ESP Institute. First-timers are also part of the recruits: Bajram Bili with the ten cerebral minutes of Restart, Théo Muller with the ultra-deep Douce Transe, and Lumi, a Basque band that fuses
electronic sounds with acoustic instruments, brings the ompilation to a close with a track commissioned by Chloé. These audacious choices are anchored down with the likes of Permanent Vacation pioneer Lauer's hooky, 80s-infused Pythor ('Just like him, I was a resident of the Robert Johnson, and he was a guest of mine at one of my Lumière Noire nights at the Rex. He is one of these people whose music I highly appreciate'); Aergeworc & Franck Agrario, half of English duo Swayzak David Brown's project, weaves an ethno* mood into Grace's techno. Bringing together different generations, genres, and styles That may not necessarily be Chloé's MO. She invokes a more arbitrary, personal logic: 'I like to mix of-the-moment tracks and more timeless one, but the rule is above all 'do I love this or not'. That was my ethos when I started Lumière Noire.' In that way, the label is definitely in keeping with its time

Terence Fixmer's path through the changing techno landscape of the past 20 years has been anything but direct. Indeed, the French born producer, musician and Planete Rouge label founder has long been influenced by the periphery of continental European dance music subgenres from electronic body music, new beat and acid, before combining them into his own pioneering hybrid of futuristic, EBM-inflected techno with classic releases such as 2001's Muscle Machine or the collaborative Between The Devil LP with Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy as Fixmer/McCarthy. While the sound in recent years has been rediscovered and recast in diverse contexts by a new generation of producers, Through The Cortex sees Fixmer gravitating toward a different kind of industrial-tinged electronics, led as much (or more) by analogue sequencers, melodies and ultra-saturated sounds of synthesizers than drums and percussion. Across eight tracks at a compact but varied 40 minutes, the LP touches on an aesthetic hinted at in recent Ostgut Ton releases (2016's Beneath The Skin EP and 2017's Force EP), revealing a sonic narrative through noisy, screaming synth/vocal riffs with a jagged, guitar- like post-punk sensibility. Through The Cortex is techno with a voice - or rather multiple voices - guiding listeners through hypnotic, space- and social-themed terrain as a kind of dark soundtrack to darker days. The result ranges from the slow John Carpenter-inspired Escape From Precinct 13 funk of 'Expedition' and the patient yet muscular stomp of 'Fury' to the mesmerizing Suicide-like pop of single 'Accelerate', where Fixmer, using his voice as an instrument, chants the track's ambiguous title in an invocation of systemic change/collapse. Elsewhere, the story is told with more abstract and wailing vocals like on 'Shout in A Black Hole', or in the warm, entrancing chords floating across the stereo image in ostensibly changing time-signatures on 'A Halo Somewhere' - the LP's uncharacteristically kosmische musik come-down. The track, and Through The Cortex as a whole, reflect what can be described as Fixmer's idiosyncratic take on both techno subgenres as well as the larger pool of electronic music in general. This broad approach translates into a sound that is not only difficult to pin down, but also one that lends itself to multiple listens.

Brilliant dancefloor techno and hardtechno, classious and industrial.

Le Matin, always rare and uncategorised, following the reissue of his early synthwavepop tunes on « poussière d'époque » and a track on the good Lena Wilikens' Dekmantel Selectors 005 comp, this new EP on Lost Dogs Ent. let you hear some of his last works. Expect an ultra-cold-minimal-electro riddim, a less-mental-nearly-good-for-the-dancefloor tune with depitched haunted r&b vocals, an analog and bassy arpeggio ride ... On the flip side, Oh My God ! This is the peak-time-for-weirdo-nearly-techno tune, a blast, only for craziest DJs that like broken-frustrated-uncomfortable dandefloors and to finish this well balanced 5 trackers : the « are you depressed that much It's the 10th time you're listening to this OST of a dying world, this won't get any better but at least this is good music ! » tune. Le Matin is a good kept secret that prefer to take care of his kids than to travel the world of nightclubbing with drunk teens (ok that's how it is in France, that looks better in some other countries), but sometime you can hear his music on decks of some wise people and DJs like Call Super, Lena Wilikens, House of Traps, Charles Drakeford, Jon K, Bergsonist, Body Motion...

If you want to know what Gabe Gurnsey's debut album
'Physical' sounds like, the first thing you should do is forget all
about Factory Floor, the group he co-founded 13 years ago.
Gone are the cold, lengthy, stripped back deconstructions of no
wave electronica and industrial techno, abandoned in favour of
something altogether warmer, torrid and succinct.
'It's a real departure from Factory Floor,' he explains. 'Yeah,
that was the intention. There's only one track over six minutes
long! There's only one crossover point on the song 'Night
Track', which is 6'33' - that's probably as close to Factory Floor
as it gets. What I wanted to get into with 'Physical' had more to
do with exploring songwriting and structure. The album is very
escapist in one sense even though I don't want to escape from
Factory Floor but what I do on my own has to be separate and
it has to explore new avenues.' Gurnsey started writing tracks in his downtime from the group early 2017 and by the start of that Summer he had 30 demos ready for work. He admits he worked very quickly initially but then gave the tracks 12 months to develop fully into a new sound.
And that new sound - a 21st Century take on muscular electro,
Balearic synth pop, EBM, proto-Hacienda militant funk, early
Chicago house and minimal, Neptunes-referencing beats - can
be experienced in full on 'Physical' the album released on Erol
Alkan's Phantasy label. The album features additional production from Erol Alkan, who also mixed the record.
Double LP format includes printed inner sleeves and digital
download code. Press - Reviews in Q, Loud & Quiet, The Quietus, Record Collector, Uncut.
Features in Loud & Quiet, Electronic Sound, Q, Clash, The Quietus, Gigwise, Silver Soundz.








[]I C2 | I Get
[]J C3 | Version

Salvador Font studied violin, clarinet, composition and harmony at the Conservatori Municipal de Barcelona, but very soon started to gain notoriety as a saxophonist in the rich jazz scene of 1940s Barcelona. Font would soon be playing tenor sax and clarinet in the Orquesta Gran Casino. He was in his early twenties and his hot swing technique was already praised through the citiy's scene, he would grow to be considered the best saxophonist in Spain by playing in many orchestras and combos, among them: José Puertas', Antonio Vilá's Virgina, Bonet de San Pedro's band, Pierre Michel, El Lirio Campestre, Los Marios, Luis Rovira y su orquesta, Orquesta brasileña Fon-Fon, Jaime Camino, Los Embajadores, Italo Leone's... With these and others, Font toured constantly, visiting many countries and even staying on some for long seasons: Mexico, Morocco, Switzerland, Egypt... Hungarian violinst of Turkish ancestry Kurt Dogan gave him the "Mantequilla" surname - he felt "Mantequilla" (which means "butter") fit Font's mellow yet swinging improvisation style.

Mantequilla y su conjunto

In the early sixties, "Mantequilla" had the chance to lead his own combo, Mantequilla y su conjunto, with which he was to record the three splendid EPs that are compiled on the present album. All these 7" have become elusive collector pieces in the record market, with sellers demanding from 200 to as much as 950 euros per copy.

In 1961 "Mantequilla" was at his best moment, his gigs at the Jamboree Jazz Cava had brought him back to the first line of Barcelona's jazzmen after he had been working abroad for a long time, and was approached by the Belter label to record an EP. On the sessions he was accompanied by Manolo Mercedes on trumpet, Pedro Ferré on piano, Rafael Lizandra on double bass and Rafael Verdura on Drums. The material chosen for the disc were four original compositions by Salvador Font which had a high West Coast flavour all over: "La Tuna Club", "Whisky Jazz" and "Jamboree" named after famous jazz clubs and "Azul Trompeta", dedicated to Manolo Mercedes.

In late 1962, after spending some time in Madrid working as members of the Italo Leone combo, "Mantequilla" and pianist Manuel Gas came back to Barcelona for the recording of the second "Mantequilla" EP, also on Belter. We find again Manolo Mercedes on trumpet, Pedro Ferré on piano and Rafael Lizandra on double bass, the drummer this time was José Farreras. Another news is that Manuel Gas also sat on piano and vibraphone. The songs chosen for the occasion were two tunes from the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers repertoire: Bobby Timmons' classic "Moanin'" and the Jacques Marray track "No Problem" from the soundtrack of the Les liaisons dangereuses film (mispelled "Not Problem" on the sleeve and label), plus the Salvador Font penned "Blue Note" and "Full de ases" - on "Full de ases" "Mantequilla" trades his sax for the violin, which he also mastered under high influence from Stephane Grapelli. The record was released on Belter in early 1963 and showed "Mantequilla" adding a certain aggressivity to his sound, in a soloist style which has been compared to that of tenor saxophonists Barney Wilen or Benny Golson.

1965 was the year of release of Mantequilla y su conjunto's third EP, now on the Discophon label. Mercedes and Farreras are again present in the recording sessions, joined by Ricardo Miralles on piano and Enrique Ponsa on double bass. Four original Font compositions make up the fantastic EP: "Blues 3/4", "Atmósfera", "Vat 69" and "Balada".

There would be a further EP on Belter, released in 1971 as Mantequilla Group it was a cash-in operation to take some redits of the ye-yé discothèque phenomenon, it gets quite afar in style from the jazz works of Mantequilla y su conjunto, so we just left it aside for the present edition.

"Mantequilla"'s career would continue, in 1968 he would settle in Majorca and form a swing band with Bonet de San Pedro and Manuel Bolao. He played in local orquestras and also with first class world acts like Gerry Mulligan, Tete Montoliu, Errol Gardner, a.o. He was even approached by Henry Mancini to play sax on The Pink Panther Theme in a gig Mancini did with his orchestra in Palma de Mallorca in 1975, He also joined his son Salvador Font (a demanded drummer himself who has played with Máquina!, Orquestra Mirasol, Música Urbana, Gary Burton Quartet, Georgie Fame, and many others) and his peers Carles Benavent, Emili Baleriola, Josep Mas 'Kitflus' and Jordi Bonell with whom he recorded his acclaimed "Mantequilla" album in 1987.

Now, for the first time ever, the legendary three ultra rare and imposible to find EPs by Mantequilla y su conjunto are compiled in a lavish vinyl LP with remastered sound, featuring liner notes and photos and a fantastic period inspired, three backflaped, front laminated sleeve. It is a stricly limited edition of only 500 copies and they are expected to sell out very soon, do not miss your chance of getting yours - it may be the last chance of chasing the Mantequilla sound on vinyl at a reasonable price!














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the producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and record collector Gabriel Cyr AKA Teleseen releases 5th album 'The Emotional Life of Savages' via French imprint Goldmin Music.

African rhythms, Latin heat and otherworldly electronics collide like neurons, processed through a New York state of mind. The pancontinental sounds are mirrored in his own life, which has oscillated back and forth between various countries.

A jazz background combined with a love for house and techno are ingrained in the grooves. Also key is the samba, baile funk and MPB that inspired him while living in Rio de Janeiro, plus the sounds he reabsorbed on returning to NYC's club scene.

This wide range of influences spanning the global underground coalesces into a rich, vital and coherent whole. Warm and soulful, but also evoking an intoxicating, heady atmosphere, the hypnotic and ultra-rhythmic tracks subtly shift and build to fever pitch, due primarily to deft polyrhythmic drums and percussion - both played and sequenced.

"Working on this record I finally found myself able to manifest a certain sound I'd been hearing in my head for years, combining the rhythmic intensity of afro-house and afro-Brazilian music with the more cosmic sounds of Detroit and deep house", explains Cyr on his musical vision.

The gentle sundowner glow of 'Myrtle Avenue' with its textured synth waves and wandering Parrish-esque keys acts as a precursor to the potent nocturnal adventure to follow: 'Espelhos' captures a similar essence to Black Science Orchestra's classic 'Save Us (The Jam)', before the heat goes up and heads go down for the eastern-tinged, autotune-laden fire of 'Khalil'.

The album then intensifies further still on the percussion-heavy, big bottomed cosmic throb of 'Jaguar', whilst Brazilian flavour meets tech house rush on 'Fundos', before the party reaches its feverish close on the wiggling batucada- meets-tribal-house of 'Temporada De Seca'.

Born in the north eastern United States, as an adult Cyr has always been nomadic. He has sought to live and immerse himself in other cultures and absorb their sounds, but eventually always succumbs to the Big Apple's magnetic pull. Back home, a key inspirational catalyst for the album was the Brooklyn-based party Africainoir, where he's a resident DJ.

Alongside cutting his teeth producing illbient/hip hop and working as an engineer, he ran his own studio for period, before starting his own label Percepts, on which to release his dub techno style debut. He has since released on 100% Silk, Boomarm Nation and Feel Up Records, and now 'The Emotional Life Of Savages' marks Teleseen's first album for Goldmin.

The acutely talented Russian returns - leading a new generation of ultra-gifted producers, Black Barrel presents the 'Labyrinth EP' on our main label in April.
From the opener 'Seeing Explosives' with Gusto, the classic tech funk inspirations are clear to see and Black Barrel guides complex arrangements with addictive grooves.
Bringing a refreshing, energized vibe to intricate, technical production, Black Barrel intensifies his portfolio on the 'Labyrinth EP', with sadistic delivery and playful charm.