Cerca:under the influence

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.

These recordings weren't intended for release, they aren't even demos, but rather exercises – process tracks in an attempt to mirror the influences of an aspiring artist as they oriented their emerging work. Most of the tracks were constructed in single sittings and recorded to cassette at home in Glasgow through a Philips AW-7694 boombox. That they feel finished, even iconic amid the shortlived confluence between Detroit techno and intelligent dance music, is a testament to what was materialising, but also to our collective nostalgia, revisionism, and thirst to understand how we've arrived here and why. Übungen has that youthful and pre-internet utopian aura, without being tethered to the phony maxed-out optimism ricocheting across the Atlantic in a 4G pollution. That I first came to Dave Clark's earliest work in the anxiety-ripening stage of the pandemic while I was becoming chronically sick – a time when it was all too easy to glide through dystopian nightmares and realities alike – only speaks to the work's presence and its allowance to dream, ahistoricism or splice into the affect of histories, and to dismantle the contemporary, not in an arsy or nihilistic way, but to appreciate (questioningly) the passage of time.

Sitting somewhere between an EP and a full-length, these six pieces predate Dave's other archival release – Sparky's 94Archive2/8 Rubadub, 2015, which also features cassette transfers originally recorded in stereo without overdubs. As a sound archivist myself, it was a welcome experience first listening to Dave's transfers on headphones while walking around the canals of Maryhill rather than handling the digital captures in a studio. I've been enamored with the music ever since and despite the original utilitarian intention, shifting contexts and the chance to listen afresh decades on allows for clearance (dare I say recuperation). It is, for this reason, and the sardonic re-opening of archival material perverted into something on the ground, that's not merely dog shit, that I am very pleased to finally share this collection.

Each of the titles provides the recording year and is initialed by the respective influence: Carl Craig, Aphex Twin (you'll recognise the shimmering hi-hats), Yellow Magic Orchestra, Black Dog, Polygon Window, and Drexycia.

All music was produced by Dave Clark, except "1993CC" produced by Dave Clark & Graeme Slater, and "1992PW" produced by Dave Clark & Roger Elliott.

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.

The eccentric beat ambassador Alexander Skancke showcases his sound once more on his Quirk label, diving into spring with his debut LP, “Kingdom Couch”. The Norwegian has crafted a versatile yet cohesive body of work between 2020 and 2023, parallel to when he began attending sessions with a therapist. The 10 track double 12” traverses between meticulously arranged minimal moods, shuffling jazz rhythms and ethereal experimental textures. In its few years of existence Quirk has become a safe haven for a freedom of expression as Skancke and his affiliates share their wild side on the label, but the LP marks a milestone on the imprint and for Alexander himself whose lifelong dedication to sound has built towards this moment, utilising the vast influences has absorbed over the years.

“Therapy Session I” teases you into the LP, shimmering blissfully as it grows, blossoming into a dream-like world, tuning your ears for the trip you are about to encounter. Constructed upon slick jazzy drums is “Lost In Time” loosening your senses as the pulsating bass swallows up your train of thought. “Dumbo Move” blurs the lines perfectly between the atmospheres the Berlin based producer has captured within the album. Dark, mysterious and mind bending material in “Purple Lucy” a chugging sub heavy bass driving the track forward as precise beeps and bleeps whirr throughout. On a more playful note is the B2, “Extravagance” animated drum patterns converse with the elastic groove perfectly. Closing off the first vinyl is “Therapy Session II”, another extended exploration of otherworldly ambience, drifting deeper in the world of Quirk.

“The Magnificent Tree Hut” stirs consistently throughout, crisp percussion combined with the psychedelic vocal samples which continue to flash in and out. Transitioning now into “Therapy Session III” sophisticated sounds, enticed further into the full bodied experience by the storytelling sounds of a female voice. Your eyes begin to close and you wake up in a hazy club setting, immersed in the after hours; that’s the immediate impact of “New Dawn”, pensive and hypnotic as it rumbles quietly in the realms of the underground. At just over ten minutes long Alexander Skancke brings you down for landing with the final “Therapy Sessions IV”, transcending movements crammed full of raw emotion, floating you calmly
out of the seventh outing on the label, and the thriving talents finest work to date.

The “Kingdom Couch” is an amalgamation of Skancke’s undying passion and burning desire to create outside of the norm, this can be heard throughout this masterpiece and will undoubtedly inspire its listeners to search for the bigger picture.

Artwork: Johann 3000
Mastering: Mike Grinser, Manmade Mastering

Since the release of the highly acclaimed album Mamari (2021), the Muito Kaballa project has continued to develop.


The new album Little Child (2022) starts with a cracker called Inside Outside. The song addresses the hypocrisy and double standards of the European Union when it comes to refugee policy. The group works together with the renowned German/Nigerian musician Ade Bantu and the Angolan guitarist Juresse Amie Tieti Ndombasi and picks up their listeners where they were parked with Mamari. Fat grooves with clearly recognizable Afrobeat influences.


However, the musical journey leads step by step away from the usual sounds of the band. Already the second track Dansez! Dansez! shows that. The sound leads to Angola, Congo and a bit of Mali. The band stacks so many rhythms on top of each other that the word poly appears in a whole new light. It becomes clear that the nine deal intensively with the music that is the source of their inspiration. The gifted guitarist Juresse Amie Tieti Ndombasi puts the icing on the cake with his sound.


Let's continue with No = No. Here at last it becomes clear: Muito Kaballa has escaped from his drawer and is now in free flight, somewhere between jazz, fusion, afrobeat and whatever. But who cares? The sound is convincing, the feet shake to the beat and cannot be calmed down even with great effort and the message "Don't protect your daughter, educate your son" can't be said often enough.


The next song, Memories, reveals completely different sides of the band. While the sound is suddenly much more relaxed and, let's call it jazzy, the lyrics also become much more intimate and poetic. "Keep in mind, it makes you blind, starring in the sun". We don't find out what memories Niklas Mündemann, composer of the song, has in mind here but that shouldn't bother us. We just put on our sunglasses and let ourselves be carried away by the almost epic track, which with its ten minutes of playing time leaves nothing to be desired in terms of diversity. Sophisticated listeners will wonder if Niklas Mündemann listened to a bit of Kamasi Washington while composing. Maybe even a lot? Be that as it may - a special treat in the piece: the trombonist Saskia-Marleen Dahms, who makes a guest appearance on this song, rounds off the sound of the brass section again.


Last but not least, we come to the namesake of the album: the song Little Child builds on the mood of the previous track and rounds off the musical odyssey with a good portion of goosebumps. But the song doesn't just leave its mark on the surface, no, it also gets under your skin. While the melody has considerable catchy tune potential, it is above all the lyrics and the message that grab you here. Niklas Mündemann wrote the song during a phase of mental depression. Above all, psychotherapy helped him to think more positively again and to comfort his own inner child. We've all heard about that child in us. But when was the last time we hugged it? The song Little Child is the perfect accompaniment for this, because when you hear it, you immediately feel hugged, pressed and safe. Another highlight are the incredibly beautiful solos, played by Benjamin Schneider on guitar and Saskia-Marleen Dahms on trombone.


That's the end of the album and, to be perfectly honest, you don't feel left out in the rain, but you do feel left out in a (warm) shower. Time flies when you hear Muito Kaballa's new album and in the end you want more. 4 remixes for the dancefloor are delivered by French producer Kuna Maze, Polish/Angolan duo Lua Preta, French producer La Dame and Brazilian producer Badsista, tipping the remix balance into more female input.

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.

Gayance joins forces with Rhythm Section for her debut album ‘Mascarade’ - a swaying dance that moves between poetic, soulful odes to the past, accounts of the Afro-diasporic feminine experience and playfully energetic dance floor grooves.

Mascarade is a collection of dancey, broken rhythms, interwoven with heartfelt stories and bright, unapologetic outpours of joy. In her own words, “It's the story of my 20's. I wanted to pay homage to this kid everybody knew, but not deeply. It's about taking back a power that is mine and was always in my hands...It's about making peace with the past and moving forward”.

Gayance (real name Aïsha Vertus) takes her alias from the Haitian creole word for joyfulness.Based in Amsterdam, born and raised in Montreal-Nord, she started as a DJ in 2013, and has toured the world with shows in Paris, Brooklyn, Marrakech, Berlin, Sao Paulo and more, bringing electrifying and contagious energy wherever she goes.

Her own production is influenced by underground UKG and the respective house scenes of Detroit and New York, with nods to the vivid, sun-soaked colours of Latin America. Shades of blues, jazz and gospel can also be heard in her newest project, pulling together styles from each corner of the world. Following her catalog of entirely self-released projects, Gayance announces her full-length debut album on Rhythm Section, bringing some fellow Montrealers along for the ride.