Suche:under the influence

Halbert kicks off "OUR STORY“ EP with no fear and no compromises to his sound legacy. It has been produced during the last year in the neighborhood of Santa Catalina - where everything is happening - under the experience and influence of local parties such as private villas and small sweaty clubs.

A1 "OLEEVA" features a weird half-tempo break, grooving along a 4x4 kick and Bmore loop style. The "Spanish" trumpets act as an irresistible hook, leaving a long lasting impression. A fusion of folklore and timeless sounds, "Oleeva" is a true party anthem that defies genres. Continuing the journey, A2 "WHAT IS IT?" is a playful cocktail-Molotov made of fat FM rolling bassline, slap bass guitar, arabic strings, and other mind-bending surprises. Get ready to let loose and immerse yourself in this freaky gem.

On the flip, B1 "SECRET PATH" delivers a functional old catchy house jam with a non-directional arrangement where organic meets dark electronic synth sound. An ideal companion for a pool party or daytime vibes. Wrapping up the EP, B2 ”POWER UP!" shines as a high energy breakbeat tune influenced by Plank Records sound. Featuring an evolving big guitar synth stab, lively percussion, uplifting trancy synths and robust old school bass.

Mixed by Halbert and Hamid at MariaDiaz Studio. Mastered by Marco Pellegrino at AnalogCutMastering Berlin.

Soom T aka “The Raggamuffin Queen” will release her sixth studio album “The Louder The Better” on October 13, 2023. A combination of live band studio recordings and digital compositions, it took only 3 years to fully realize from the very first live band recordings in Brazil during the 2020 pandemic to its release this year. Entirely self-produced with her own music label Renegade Masters with Kunta as executive producer, Soom T called on her most trusted collaborators to produce this new Reggae/Dub gem, and it’s sunnier than ever.

“Path of the Wanderer” with its poignant and deeply emotive vocal, irresistible rolling bass line and driving rhythm was composed by French production maestro Tom Fire with “Ezekiel’s Vision” and “Michael” being the fruits of live band recordings at Pangea Studios in Sao Paolo Brazil under the skilled direction of Mauro Rabello.

“Fly My Bird” and sunny pop anthem “Good Will Come” are original compositions by Terry Vibes out of the USA while “Bad Road”,“Emergency” and “Normal People” were stylised digital productions by France’s own Dr Bud reminiscing on Soom T’s first love of digital. Additional synths were added by executive producer Kunta and studio partner Green Teddy of Highly Seen.

“Prophets”, “Free the Man”, “There is love”, “No worries” and “Don’t Make Me” composed and curated by Christian Cowlin who is the live sound engineer for The Wailers USA, takes the journey into a more roots direction with some solid harmonies and flashbacks to a bygone era. Many of the instruments on these songs were performed by Mr Cowlin himself among other seasoned musicians and recorded at his studio in the UK. Led by her great respect for activists whose aims and efforts are rooted in making society movw forward with dignity and honour, Soom T denounces the incarceration of businessman/politician Schaeffer Cox, unjust in her eyes and tens of thousands of others globally, in a call to “Free the Man”.

If “The Louder The Better” has definite roots influences, “Like a Dog” composed by French label and music production studio Irie Ites and “Walk the Earth” performed by legendary British drum & bass duo Mafia & Fluxy, added some more digital delight alongside a sweet roots trip for the listener to indulge in a medley soup of varying influences throughout this album, mixed by Mista Maff and mastered by Simon Capony at Basalte Studio.

« Hail to the Watchman », an easy favourite for more traditional reggae lovers was composed by Kunta in conjunction with Green Teddy, both of whom contributed to the production of the 2017 ‘Arch’ LP.

Finally, with this new reggae album, Soom T sticks to what is closest to her heart covering a multitude of topics from the corrupt state of the world, to the emptiness of politics and the urgent need to awaken to the reality of the condition of society.

Behind the need to inform and urge society moving forward, « The Louder The Better » delivers a positive and inspiring message, led by melodies and vocals at the crossroads of genres, that fans will love to listen to at any time.

See you on October 13, 2023 to discover this new opus by Soom T.

Life has changed in the eight years since the release of II. In ours, yours and Gala Drop themselves. Most times without noticing it, partly due to those two years of a semi-existence that still resonates and with the ongoing predatory gentrification process changing the landscape and life of Lisbon, home to the band since ever. Close to a decade and a half of existence, with various mutations along the way enacting new perspectives and moments of stillness and reflection to a sound that's been mutating itself to its own internal rhythm and agency under the guiding light of the core duo of Afonso Simões and Nélson Gomes. Now a trio, with Rui Dâmaso transitioning from II after the departure of Jerry the Cat and Guilherme Canhão, Gala Drop sound even more focused as a working band, with their new album title Amizade – friendship in Portuguese – making perfect sense in a celebration of their, by now, patented soundworld of cosmic inspiration: krautrock's endless and hypnotic potential, dub's sense of transient space, the throb of house, balearic dreams, polyrhythms and a communal sense of belonging.

Again, this sprawling sphere of influence opens itself to new shapes and inspirations, but there's a deeper sense of accuracy and direction, with the band channeling those legacies into something we can only grasp as the Gala Drop sound. An organic outcome of working steadily as a trio, made possible by a residency promoted by gnration in Braga, Amizade dwells on the psychedelic nature of the group through seven tracks made up of dreamy synth washes, loads of percussion, echoes, chilled guitars under a radiant aura. Gala Drop have never sounded as openly dubby as on 'Dub da Meia Noite' and 'Areal Dub' or capable of converging different tropes of the hardcore continuum – rave stabs and cut up vocals – on a slow burner as memorable as 'Monte do Ouro'. Or given free reign to electricity as on the narcotic guitars of 'Guitarra Voadora' – excepting the one off with Ben Chasny on 2012's Broda. 'Amizade' points towards all of that with comforting escapism and wrapping things up 'Raio' turns dubstep's original bass weight meditations into a cosmic funk workout. One last hug before we leave. An album that feels like a collective moment of celebration, just when we most need it.

Afonso Simões - Drums, percussion and synthesizers
Nelson Gomes - Electric guitar and electronics
Rui Dâmaso - Electric bass & guitar and synthesizer

Recorded by Budda Guedes at Estúdio Mobydick, Braga
Mixed by Gala Drop and Hugo Valverde at Estúdio Cão Andaluz, Lisboa
Mastered by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlim
Cover photo by Sara Graça
Design by Nicolai Sarbib

Repressed! Jurassic 5 flexed serious old-to-the-new muscles in the ‘90s, beginning with their independently released single “Unified Rebelution” in 1994, and book-ending with their stellar debut full-length: 2000’s Quality Control. They walked a tightrope between underground and mainstream hip-hop, and toured alongside rap peers as well as punk rockers on the Vans Warped Tour. With double the pleasure of your average hip-hop group – two DJs and producers (Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark); and four MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Marc 7 and Zaakir aka Soup) – they brought the late 1970s “unison MC” style of pioneering groups like the Fantastic 5 and the Force MCs to a new generation. Even more surprisingly, they did so out of Los Angeles, whose hip-hop flavors generally leaned towards Gangsta, G-Funk or Electro lines. Musically inventive and lyrically forward-thinking, each song on Quality Control is a new adventure, exploring engaging territory, delivered via one of the best live hip-hop shows fans had seen in years. From singles like the strutting groove of the title track to the throwback doo-wop samples on “The Influence” and the catchy, keyboard groove-driven “World of Entertainment (WOE Is Me),” to deeper album tracks like the lyrical gymnastics of “Jurass Finish First” and the thought-provoking “Lausd,” Jurassic 5 consistently stepped to the plate and their fans responded in kind, nearly pushing the album to Gold status. Add the innovative DJ-and-sample workout which closes out the album, “Swing Set,” and you have one of the 2000s’ most unique and solid full-length platters.

Manda Moor steps out on Mood Child for the first time as the label co-founder links with mysterious talent Trangaz for four fresh productions on their collaborative ‘Peligro’ EP.

Ever since dropping her debut release in 2020, Danish-Filipino talent Manda Moor has been on an impressive upwards curve and one that doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon.

Having dropped back-to-back releases on Jamie Jones and Lee Foss’ iconic Hot Creations imprint, the hotly-tipped DJ/producer and label founder heads to her Mood Child label for the first time. Founded and created alongside Sirus Hood, the label serves as an artistic platform, a community-focused label, and an events series that delivers quality music via digital and physical formats, plus NFTs, unique experiences, and more. An ‘invitation to a journey that blends feelings, emotions and desires’, with takeovers at Hï Ibiza, Café Mambo, Lovefest, Fabrik and more, the first release saw Sirus partner with fellow Frenchman Malikk, and now the second arrives in perfect time for the peak summer months as Manda combines with Boogeyman and Pakate signee Trangaz.

New York City born-and-raised, he draws lines between primitive and futuristic sounds and rhythms influenced by world travel and different cultures, and the two reunite for their four-track ‘Peligro’ EP.

Crafted together in Ibiza, the EP showcases sonics capturing the island’s unique magic. Lead cut ‘El Peligro (Ibiza Mix)’ is a production made after a special day at the coves and hidden treasures of Atlantis, under full moonlight near Talamanca, with the rolling organic drums grooves, playful vocal murmurs and vibrant melodies journeying deep into the night.

Next, ‘Tagalog’ keeps the energy bubbling with another percussive workout sprinkled with vocal interjections and spoken words in the native Filipino language it is named after, while B1 ‘Chatita’ is a slinking production as wonky stabs meet and snaking low-end grooves. Closing the EP, the pair deliver the most stripped-back track with ‘Buena Vibra’ as a killer groove guides vocal chants to wrap things up in fine fashion.

Manda Moor & Trangaz ‘Peligro’ EP drops via Mood Child in July 2023.

James Adrian Brown is a British-born songwriter and former lead guitarist from the alternative rock band ‘Pulled Apart By Horses’. After studying art for six years in Leeds (UK), Brown set up his own independent record label in the city and would soon begin carving out a career as a professional musician. After achieving chart success, touring the world and releasing four critically acclaimed studio albums with PABH, James has begun paving a pathway into the world of instrumental electronic music and composing.

Brown's solo work is heavily electronica-based utilising analogue synths alongside tape machines, piano, strings and walls of ambient atmospherics. His work focuses on the analogue side of capturing and creating sound in the real world with physical hardware.

He’s received support from the likes of Gideon Coe at BBC 6music and also Chris Hawkins who championed him as creating ‘Massive electronic soundscapes in a Mogwai kind of world’. James was also featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Unclassified’ show by the show host Elizabeth Alker.

Taking inspiration from influences such as Boards Of Canada, Rival Consoles, Floating Points & Thom Yorke. Brown is discovering, advancing, and pushing his songwriting into new sonic domains.

“There is Space Under Your Seat” is a beautifully constructed piece of electronica which is inspired by a longing to create mental space and pause emotions when things become overwhelming. The title was penned after James found himself on a sold out air-flight with disgruntled passengers complaining of little to no space for their luggage.

James recorded the tracks at *ICP Studios in Belgium after crafting the demos in his own studio in the Yorkshire Dales where the compositions were tracked to his tape machines. It was decided by (Producer) James Mottershead they’d breathe new life and space into the tracks in a new environment/studio, which saw them head to Brussels to complete the recordings.

The 7” is released as a deluxe red vinyl single with numbered photo/inserts selected and created by James. The single is issued in a limited edition of 200 copies.

"We entered the shadowy mouth of a new space, descending into a realm that precedes the underworld, the arcane, far from our time. We met beasts that gave us lessons about their language which we started learning without grammar."


'The animal world is a constant in the work of Milan improvisational duo Rosso Polare. If Cani Lenti was guided by the diaphanous birdsong integrated into their sparkling mix of folklore, ambiences and occasional humming, on Bocca D’ombra the themes go darker, textures are harder to pin down and the animal presence takes on new connotations.

Instead of an anonymous, patchworked outdoors we enter a cavernous space that invokes the collective unconscious with bestial and funereal undertones, as the animals take on the role of the psychopomps, ancient guides through the shadow realm.

The album is influenced by Timothy Morton’s Dark Ecology, a thinker who sees the constant exchange between the human and natural world as an ongoing dialogue, the two influencing each other, in a series of reverberating loops. This looping is also reflected in their compositions, where improvisations with traditional instruments like electric and acoustic guitars, monophonic synths, horns or flutes meet natural noise-making tools like branches, rocks or nuts that amount to lugubrious, often dissonant textures. Bocca D’ombra is built on a series of whispers, breaths, panting and rustling, creating a feeling of closeness sometimes verging on the claustrophobic, ingeniously set against sounds evoking space – fireworks crackling, crows echoing, church bells reverberating, indistinct cries from a children’s playground.

Distance and repetition are deeply ingrained in their own understanding of sound and their surroundings, becoming the building blocks of their practice. Just like Gregory Bateson in the ‘70s, the duo believes in a more romantic approach to ecology, seeking a porous border between self and environment, human and animal, internal monologue and external ambient hum.

If earlier releases were noisier and denser, Bocca D’ombra is tight and focused - every sound and melody is given room to breathe and develop on its own, enhancing the haunting, otherworldly aspect of the music. The result is heady, intoxicating mix which sublimates chaos into sparkling compositions of contemporary animism.'

2023 Repress

'Soleil Tartare' is Dim Garden's debut album on Rotterdam's young label Yarrow Ballet. This five-track EP embodies both the depths of Hades' underworld and Helios' realm. The album is a worship of the metaphysical side of nature. The opening track, 'Cunning Morose' evokes incandescence and sun worship. Its propulsive 808 beat and lofty vocals conjure flamboyant pagan ceremonies. The instrumental track 'Golfinho do Rio' is a heroic ode to the infinite sea, combining driving rhythms with new-age-inspired synthesized sea creatures' cries, layered with mighty string melodies. It is followed by the grungy 'In Sorrow', where ghoulish and fiery rebel energy is summoned through ice cold drums, and haunting gothic vocals. The album sees the re-emergence of the blazing sun in the softer and melodic title-track 'Soleil Tartare'. 'Vostes et Cercueils' crowns the album with its epic and dramatically ascending polysynth sonic poem. With her seminal and genre-defying album, Dim Garden brings new and disruptive energy into the hinterlands of electronic music. Her work spawns a distinctive mix of raw electronics, minimal wave, noisy industrial and gothic ballads. Having previously released mostly on digital and cassette tape labels (Nightwind Records, Italo Moderni, Ophism, Hunger!, ClanDestine, tanzprocesz, ERR REC, Ernest D. Tapes etc), Dim Garden's debut vinyl, which collates a variety of influences, is sure to compel listeners with its poetry and awe-inspiring synthesis.

In the early 1990s, a handful of black metal artists were enticed by the possibility of conjuring new fantastical worlds from the deep isolation of their home setups. Rather than the dense metal sound of their existing projects, this new direction would be centred around intimate synth soundscapes: forlorn organs and otherworldly MIDI theatrics.

The music on ASCEND is predominantly from self-produced, self-distributed releases, typically manufactured in small numbers. Though some artists producing this style of music, most notably Mortiis and Burzum, gained wider recognition outside underground circles, it is only in recent years that the sound and its influence has really been appreciated. This is particularly the case with the late Matthew Davis and his recently reappraised Secret Stairways project, whose song ‘Lammas Tide’ (from the 1997 Enchantment of the Ring album) appears on ASCEND. A simple home recording on a Yamaha KX-W392 manages to be both elegant and tortured, ambiguously devotional and recalling latter years Popol Vuh.

This battle between dark and light is a constant thread through ASCEND, with simple minimal synth lines that can be both delicate and menacing. Compilation opener ‘The Dark Dreamquest’ from Italian black metal group Evol is loaded with occult warning, and Finnish act Kadotus 609’s ‘The Summoning Through Crimson’ is languid, twisted and dark. In spite of the darkness, several pieces of the music on ASCEND have formal similarities with the sometimes saccharine new age music that rose to prominence in that era: but to a rougher, darker ends. The closing song from Darkthrone icon (and past NTS radio host) Fenriz, under his Neptune Towers pseudonym, pulls us further out, with ‘To Cold Void Desolation’ — an astral synth project, akin to ’70s kosmische muzik masters Harmonia.

The gentler side can often amplify an uncannily sinister edge, heard in German act Dolch’s ‘Tumulus’, where orc marching horns contrast against delicate rompler harps and softly whispered chanting. It hammers home a deep loneliness and detachment constant throughout ASCEND, made possible by these unusual contrasts, both unsettling and otherworldly.