For the second release of the Back to Back series of Stolen Goods goes for two stables of the scene: label manager and old school pillar of the Italian scene Lele Sacchi and Italo Spanish beat master Bawrut.
After B2B1 saw the funky deep sound of Rogue D feat Joe Le Groove and the raw house grooves of Ruff Stuff got played by Laurent Garnier on his show and by peeps like Jamie Jones and Oliver Dollar in their sets and chosen by Beatport in most of their weekend picks here we are ready for two bangers for clubbing prime time! Bawrut's fame goes a long way back to in the best of Europe's crossover of electronic dancefloor music and indie and urban flavours. An album on Ransome Note, hits for Life & Death, Correspondant and tracks supported by Dixon, Jennifer Cardini, Ricardo Villalobos Sven Bath and playing B2B with Kink and Skream in festival and clubs like Sonar, Nuits Sonores, Fabric, Sub Club, Nitsa, etc. and now this massive hands in the hair, goosebumps in the back monster of retro future rave piece of music!
Lele Sacchi is known to have an ear for bangers having been behind the decks all over the world for nearly 30 years, so whenever and with various aliases he turns into producer is quite normal to find his music out on labels like Snatch, Soul Clap, Nervous, Internasjonal, Crosstown Rebels, Pokerflat, Rebirth and more and more classic underground dance stables. This time he keeps his know funkier deep groove but adds a kille stab in the breakdown to represent a vein of peaktime monster attitude.
Again a message 'From Clubbers to Clubbers' as we love to say here at Stolen Goods records.
Поиск:urban electro
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Coral Morphologic and Nick León’s Projections of a Coral City marks a series of collisions between distant
worlds: the organic and the artificial, the Eocene and the Anthropocene, sea and cement—and even, perhaps, ambient music and activism.
Coral Morphologic are the Miami duo of marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay; since 2007, they have used a variety of multimedia projects to generate environmental awareness of marine biodiversity—most notably Coral City Camera, an underwater webcam streaming live from an urban reef ecosystem in PortMiami.
Their citymate Nick León is a linchpin of South Florida’s contemporary leftfield electronic scene, with releases for Tra Tra Trax, Future Times, and NAAFI, and credits on records by Rosalía, GAIKA, and Iceboy Violet, among others.
This collaborative project dates back to 2022, when Coral Morphologic mounted a monumental projection-
mapping installation on Biscayne Boulevard. For five nights in late November and early December, macroscopic films of corals played out across the exterior of Knight Concert Hall. The installation was, on the one hand, a glimpse into a possible future, imagining how the city’s skyline might appear if unchecked global warming and rising seas led coral reefs to colonize the built environment. But it also represented a look back into the deep past, a reminder that Miami is literally built from marine limestone mined from the Everglades. Its concrete foundations began life, eons ago, as a marine ecosystem—the same ecosystem that may one day reclaim them. As above, so below.
As an album, Projections of a Coral City is a suite of interconnected movements spread across two sides of vinyl. The tones are watery, the mood elegiac, the colors a washed-out pastel. Forms that appear static on the surface gradually open up to reveal hidden depths teeming with microscopic movement. You might detect resonances with other aquatically minded works—Jürgen Müller’s Science of the Sea, Harold Budd’s liquid piano compositions, even the slow-moving melancholy of Dr. Roger Payne’s Songs of the Humpback Whale. But ultimately Projections of a Coral City creates the impression of a world unto itself—a hauntingly beautiful space at the meeting point between sorrow and hope.
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Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.
“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.
"Urban EP" is the compelling debut from Mark Maretta in the deep house landscape. This album is a sonic exploration characterized by deep, sinuous beats and ethereal synthesizers, "Urban EP" offers a continuous journey through vibrant streets and oscure city corners.
Each track in the album flows seamlessly into the next, creating an auditory experience that is both reflective and electrifying. Mark Maretta skillfully mixes classic deep house elements with an innovative electronic twist, crafting a unique sound experience.
Why is it that thousands of clubbing tourists land at Berlin Schönefeld airport every weekend? Why have clubs like Berghain become the stuff of legend the world over? Why have some of the best-known producers and techno DJs like Richie Hawtin and DJ Hell moved with their labels to this city? These are the kind of questions explored in Lost and Sound by Tobias Rapp, a German music journalist who has been living, working and partying in Berlin since the beginning of the nineties. He has spoken with DJs, clubbers, label bosses, hostel managers and urban planners; he has looked and listened carefully; and most important of all, he has been part of the dance floor himself. Every day of the week – from Wednesday night (in Watergate) right through to Wednesday night (back in Watergate).
Lost and Sound is not one of those books that try to grasp techno from a desk-bound position. Rapp zooms in to relate intimate moments in front of the DJ booth and at the bar, and then cuts to historical tangents and theoretical reflections. Detailed research is interspersed with accounts from a first-person perspective. An excellent portrait of Ricardo Villalobos, the biggest star of the Berlin minimal techno and after-party scene, stands alongside a precise sociological portrayal of the queue for Berghain. Through this interplay of music, architecture, infrastructure and drug-induced explorations of personal limits, Rapp is able to capture what makes Berlin such a unique place for electronic music and how this music is experienced.
Following its publication in Germany in February 2009, Lost and Sound made an impact not
seen from a book about popular music for a long time. This was undoubtedly due in part to the
term coined for its subtitle: the ‘Easyjet set’ is a new group of music fans who – thanks to the
deregulation of the European air travel market – now regard the aeroplane as a taxi service for
parties, effectively making Barcelona, London and Paris suburbs of Berlin.
SIT returns to Amphia with a new release. “Urban Chronicles” comprises 4 tracks, each with its own distinctive sound reminiscent of early techno and house electronic music.
The A side launches in full swing with “Synth City”, a colorful, groovy tune, where vocal elements and airy synth lines blend together seamlessly. “Dreamworx” continues in much the same fashion, adding an introspective counterpoint.
“Parallel Pulses” and “Fabricated Odyssey” make up the B side, quirky and syncopated, with heavy bass lines and lively percussions.
More than any other release from the catalogue, Amphia 025 is an exploration of instinct and emotion.
- A1: Radio Dada
- A2: Holeg Spies & Rip Van Hippy - Face The Strange
- A3: Lostrosphere
- A4: Holeg Spies & Thierry Gotti - Urban Resilience
- A5: Kuba - Pharoahs Day Out (Feat Youth & Gaudi - Holeg Spies Remix)
- B1: Holeg Spies & Youth - Pomegranate
- B2: Holeg Spies & Thierry Gotti - Captain Haze
- B3: Lady L
- B4: Desert Cruising
- B5: Notinism Dot Org
Holeg Spies’ 7th album BRAVE NEW WORLD is a new step towards his creation of an immersive sound world intermixing his various music influences. The album features collaborations with YOUTH (Killing Joke, The Orb, producer of Pink Floyd and The Verve), well known Dub producer GAUDI, renown Australian percussionist RIP VAN HIPPY, psychedelic dub artist KUBA and French Goa-trance pioneer THIERRY GOTTI (Spectral/Blue Room).
This unshackled album escapes all classification, getting lost in the confines of Electronic, Progressive Rock, Dub, Ambient, Symphonic and Psychedelic music.
French trail-blazer electronic artist, Holeg’s 30-year music exploration has taken him from the early days of techno productions to composing music for films.
Touring Europe and Japan, where he was regularly invited to perform thanks to JUNO REACTOR, Holeg crossed paths with his first filmmaker, the notorious TAKASHI MIIKE, for whom he made an audiovisual remix of one of his most famous films, ICHI THE KILLER in 2001.
His film music duo SAVAGE & SPIES created the soundtrack for the cult classic THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, BLACKSITE, a $15M thriller by the producers of SICARIO & JOHN WICK and ABRUPTIO starring Oscar-winner JORDAN PEELE. Released on Liquid Sound Design in 2021, his latest opus AXIS MUNDI RELOAD was based on personal immersive journeys in the steppes of Mongolia and among the Hopi tribe in Arizona and features collaborations with YOUTH as well as JAIA and DF TRAM.
As a complete artist, Luna Maria Cedron gently and melancholy brings together the influences and facets of her existence. Behind her alias, Fiesta En El Vacio, the artist summons a number of Latin musicalities that make her career: Castilian flamenco, popular ballads from Venezuela meet the new generations of urban music: reggaeton rythms and sharp electronics. The uncompromising texts leave no alternative: this record claims the emancipation of women, the fight against this order of things that no longer suits anyone. Fiesta En El Vacio is a cry from the heart for and an encouragement to hope.
American DJ and producer PTHGN joins the Fides Records family with his debut EP Binary Operation, marking the 17th release for the label.
The 5-track Binary Operation EP underscores PTHNG's profound grasp of classic Detroit electro.
With his lively basslines, pulsating drum breaks, long and dreamy pads, and unique urban vocal snippets, he crafts timeless dancefloor anthems. His use of retro-futuristic electronic leads and SFX adds an edgy dynamism into the EP, further establishing PTHNG as a fresh force to be reckoned with in the electro scene.
- A1: Bappi Lahiri & Asha Bhosle - Deewana Dil Sangeet Ka
- A2: Amit Kumar - Hero
- A3: Zingadi To Zingadi Hai (Outro)
- A4: Asha Bhosle - Meri Ankhon Mein Zara Jhanko To
- B1: Urban Flesh Market (Instrumental)
- B2: Amit Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor, Chorus - Becho Becho
- B3: Birth Of Shiva (Music)
- B4: Kishore Kumar - Dekho Idhar Jano Jigar
- C1: Suresh Wadkar - Aye Zindagi Gale Lagaa Le
- C2: Kishore Kumar & Asha Bhosle - Baahon Me Leke Mujhe
- C3: Rural Flesh Market (Instrumental)
- C4: Sharon Prabhakar & Bappi Lahiri - Mere Jaisi Mehbooba
- D1: Suresh Wadkar & Sadhana Sargam - Aage Bhi Dushman
- D2: Asha Bhosle & Chorus - Prem Ashram
- D3: Asha Bhosle, Behrose Chatterjee, Vinod Sehgal - Dil Gadbad Jhala
- D4: Instrumental Music
Bollywood rarities handpicked and remastered on a double LP release with laminate gatefold and multi-layered flower petal foldout. Featuring rare, overlooked or not-previously-on-vinyl music from Bappi Lahiri, R. D. Burman, Ilaiyaraaja, Kalyanji-Anandji, Anand Milind, Raamlaxman and Kirti Anuraag released between 1982 and 1986. Mastered for and cut to vinyl by multi Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt at his mastering studio The Carvery.
Naya Beat is incredibly proud to present the first in our series of ‘Awaaz’ (‘sound’ in Hindi) archival projects focused on uncovering the sounds of 1980s Bollywood Original Soundtrack Recordings (OSTs). Series 1 focuses exclusively on the musical output of CBS Gramophone Records & Tapes (India) Ltd. Active during India’s peak disco era – a time when synthesisers and drum machines became a mainstay in Indian popular music – CBS India became a home for established composers to be experimental, up-and-coming composers to get their start, B-movie soundtracks, and straight-to-VHS releases.
Expertly curated by Naya Beat co-founders Turbotito and Ragz, who were given unprecedented access to the original label archives, this compilation is not just a collection of four-to-the-floor Bollywood disco (although there are plenty of those). ‘Awaaz’ is designed to take listeners on a musical journey that includes everything from leftfield electronic and mood music to outrageous proto house.
Be it classic and hard to find cuts like Ilaiyaraaja's "Aye Zindagi Gale Lagaa Le" and “Mere Jaisi Mehbooba” (Bappi Lahiri’s Hindi remake of Herbie Hancock's “Rockit”), or the instrumental mood music of Kirti Anuraag’s VHS movie soundtracks, to the proto house of Raamlaxman’s “Dil Gadbad Jhala” and Kalyanji-Anandji’s “Aage Bhi Dushman,” or the synth and guitar drenched breakdance madness of R. D. Burman’s “Dekho Idhar Jano Jigar,” the music on this compilation captures the output of a label that was unique as it was unconventional.
An homage to the genre, every detail in this stunning release has been lovingly crafted. From the laminate cover to the absolutely incredible foldout, to the cut-out and collage design, to the font type and layout, there are countless authentic details and nods to classic Bollywood releases of the era. As much of the album has been made in India as is possible. The sleeves have been handmade in New Delhi. The liner notes have been compiled by music archivist Nishant Mittal (aka Digging In India).
the EP FACE I is an evolution from the previously released album JAHRE. it fits into the narrative of urban life and our own personal development. both chronology and emotions are explored here and adapted with lyricism and atmospheric digital and analog sound.
it starts with 1984, beginning of our emotional journey and also literary (GEORGE ORWELL) fixpoint of the electronic adaptation. we feel a kind of lightness in our society, upswing and freedom determine everyday life for a large part of germany. we are free, everything seems possible! almost we move through an utopia. new prosperity and contentment let us blossom, no digital friends and in-between worlds alienate our seemingly naive and peaceful being.
in TMV a first individual emotional world comes to the fore, the mood is mixed and seems fragile. euphoria and melancholy mix to an undefined state of emotional and musical confusion. LYRIK gets a first big space here and carries from the part of confusion into a part of detachment. despite the ambivalence of the first moment, the scene ends in a transcendental, positively driving state of letting go and rest ...
the next part takes us away from the familiar and seemingly peaceful MOMENTS. we jump into the year 2184! 200 years later we are sitting here now, society has turned into an emotional desert like in ORWELLS fiction. a lonely CYBORG sits in the ruins of our once joyful cathedrals and sings about his tearing apart. he can't be without, but also can't be with his own anymore. like a cursed of two worlds he sits stranded in space and time.
the conclusion is made by TMVA, here we get into a very intimate emotional farewell to a lost and unfulfilled love. the calm tempo lets everything flow out that has confused and driven us for years. who or what do we want to become emotionally? are we even capable of letting ourselves fall after decades of searching and disruption? are we already dying? in the end only art and the love of it remains to save us.
ALL LOVE
AMAS_DHE / AMAS_PHI
Nico Motte returns to Antinote with his second album ‘The Missing Person’ after his 2015 introductory EP ‘Rheologia’, 2016’s ‘Life Goes On If You Are Lucky’ LP, and 2017’s ‘18 Rays’ EP collaboration with Zaltan and Raphaël Top-Secret. Truly though, Motte never really left, having been the aesthetic eye for each Antinote artwork since day dot. His visual style would prove pivotal to the labels decade long success in the leftfield music underground. But here Motte shows us once again that his skills don’t solely lie in graphic art.
A bandcamp review of Motte’s first LP reads ‘French late seventies synth-laden electronics of avant garde film soundtracks with a touch of early house, minimalism and Balearic…’
‘The Missing Person’ holds true to that balearic core while adding flavours of lollipop dub, sugary synth and Martin Denny-esque Exotica. Synth-Pop from a tropical island. Perhaps The Missing Person here is the album’s protagonist themself, having sailed away from the trivialities of urban life to lay on a white sand beach somewhere warm, drinking fresh coconut water and not giving a shit. A laissez-faire attitude.
Underneath the cool sonic facade of ‘The Missing Person’ Motte effortlessly meanders through pastel sounds drawn from an extensive collection of vintage synthesisers, drum machines and effects units at Synth City. The result: a smooth textured continuous listen of an ear off to somewhere far… island life perhaps? perhaps urban life in need of reprieve.
Freude am Tanzen is back for a very special occasion. In 2022, three Various Artists EPs will be released, celebrating the 24th anniversary of the label from Thuringia. Whilst occasions like this would normally be celebrated on the quarter century, this release makes sense not only on the mathematical level. 3 compilations with 4 tracks provide the half of 24.
The release however also makes sense in terms of history. Freude am Tanzen is showcasing a broad range of electronic music, never neglecting their history but also looking into the future.
The last installment of the anniversary-compilation starts with the upcoming effgee reminiscing about something that’s most likely happened to everyone once or twice, packed into a classic yet fresh house track. Beautiful chords combined with a proper baseline. Sharing the A-Side with him is d.m.s., who’s production is settled somewhere between the urban and the jungle, incorporating elements of both worlds. Some groove to it, with vocals that stimulate to think!
The B-Side on this release focusses on variation. Lauer combines lush deep house vibes with some acid elements into his track ‚Janitors‘, while LoYoTo have opened their whole toolbox for their contribution. A wide array of samples and a meticious drum arrangement.
Fresh from DOTT’s “Puppy Luv EP” and Rudoh’s “Vinland In Space EP”, Jugaar Records is back and this time with a full-length, double-pack vinyl, and digital compilation bringing together friends from Asia and Europe. The record is testament to the healthy place the Asian electronic music landscape finds itself in and those intrepid producers who are willing to explore new scenes and sounds. It's energy-crew from the off - with UK beatmaker Joe Koshin’s “Astro Wax”, a techy electro work-out that conjures images of futuristic cityscapes and dense urban mazes. Up next, Pakistan-born and label co-boss Rudoh maintains the electro vibe with cut-up hip-hop vocals sprinkled on top of a pulsating bassline in his “KOF”. His records are being picked up by global tastemakers from Emerald to Roza Terenzi to DJ Masda. Don’t sleep!
Moving to the B-side, German-born, London mainstay Voigtmann shuffles and deals a steppy drum pattern and intricate synth-work, with a bassline drenched in that particular brand of funk to get the party going even at the most ungodly hour. Observatory resident Nic Ford closes this disk with an ambient excursion that summons spiritual rave voices from the deep laid atop a lilting synth loop. It’s typical of his ambient performances which have gained much notoriety in Vietnam of late.
Opening the second record is Egyptian gem Hassan Abou Alam whose recent outings on Naïve and Banoffee Pies have gained him much and well-deserved attention. Here, his “Gloom” combines twinkling IDM modes with heavy sub bass experiments primed to stop the most idiosyncratic dancefloors in their tracks. Up on C2, the Version, 3024 and Phonica Records graduate Yak adds breaks to the equation. His “Disk Full” brings together a haunting gated synth and razor-sharp beat programming to devastating effect. Melbourne based, Salt Mines Records honcho Shedbug concludes this side with his hopeful “A Lil Piece” whose soaring synth line will hit all the right emotional chords at all the right times.
On the final side Bangkokian Chalo reminds us why he is one of the masters of this increasingly fully formed scene. His Depth Charge is a muggy dub-laden, electro jam capable of rattling the weightiest sound systems in some of the most twisted raves at the end of some of the darkest Sois. The record is completed by New Delhi linchpin and Boxout.fm resident Monophonik, whose techno/electro “Tumbi” journeys out of the night into a euphoric sunrise moment that will be setting the dancefloors alight come festival season.
You Can Can is an echoed affirmation, an album which traces song forms around silence, field recordings, and degraded analog memories. This is folk music transmogrified and mutated, as if recorded and reconstructed in Pierre Schaffer’s GRM studio.
Not your typical Mariposa folk duo, the group is comprised of Toronto avant-music scene stalwarts, vocalist Felicity Williams (Bernice, Bahamas) and bricolage artist and synthesist Andrew Zukerman (Fleshtone Aura, Badge Epoch). The album feels like a somnambulant conversation, fragmented and half-remembered with Williams’ vocals traveling through a landscape of field recordings and Zukerman’s saturated concrète topographies. It is an electro-acoustic assemblage, both analog and digital, comprised of air, electricity, minerals, wood, and water. Although the album nods towards traditional forms of folk and musique concrète (if at this point it can be called a traditional form), it is outwardly and inwardly contemporary; non-linear, citational, opaque, and sui generis. In a way it feels like a sonic index of the narrative experiments found on the infamous Language school-related publisher The Figures, in the work of Lyn Hejinian, Clark Coolidge, and Lydia Davis. In the musical continuum, the album picks up where Linda Perhacs left off in the early 70’s—explored by Gastr Del Sol in the ‘90s—a convergence of rural acoustic idioms and urban avant-electronics. This is country music for the discerning cosmopolitan citizen of the 21st Century.
RIYL: Luc Ferrari, Brannten Schnüre, William Basinski, Oval, Eric Chenaux, Emmanuelle Parrenin About Everything In Time and Failure Figures, Felicity Williams says:
Everything In Time is indebted to the language of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (as translated by Alison Entrekin). Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, we trace the roots of melancholy to render them available to consciousness; words from the ghostly realm of the transpersonal filter through dreams and shine a beam of light onto a lone trillium in a forest at night. Other influences include the experience of not knowing, of being subject to a gestation outside of one’s control. This is an ode to the power of naming to obliterate, to set free.
Failure Figures is a meditation on the radical contingency of reality and the vicissitudes of the will. With Slavoj Zizek as my guide (think: “Hegel for dummies” - I’m the dummy in this scenario), I wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and take heart. The last verse refers to an experience I had recording at a studio in Brussels. I was singing in French, with which I have some fluency, and the producer was complaining to the artist whose song it was that my delivery was not convincing. Thinking I was out of ear shot, he said in French, “c’est comme elle n'est pas là”; I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I failed to express anything. So what or whom is responsible for conveying meaning, if not the form of the word itself? And if the connection between meaning and form is broken, how do we fix it?
Gratitude to Thom Gill (guitar) and Daniel Fortin (bass) who joined us on the recording of Failure Figures. Thanks as well to my old roommate Christopher Willes, who unwittingly left behind his hand bells deep in the hall closet. We unearthed them by accident, and the bells became an important sound element. Thanks to other past roomies Robin Dann and Claire Harvie, whose childhood piano and guitar respectively still reside with us, and were used in the recording. Field recordings were made in Toronto, Canada and Celestún, Mexico in 2020.
Modern Power electronics...TIP!!
Philipp Matalla lives and works in the triangle of Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, in Germany. He has previously released music on labels such as Optimo Music, KANN and Kashual Plastik. His new album on Meakusma delves into some of the themes that have so far defined his work, this time increasing the tension between moments of musical harshness and flickers of introspection, ease and downright beauty. Matalla aims not for perfection, instead deploying the listener's sense of imagination. His work toys with the notion of abstraction in electronic music, often going as far cutting short melodic and other ideas, making for a confrontational stance unafraid of leaving his material in a state of difficult to define rawness, based on versatile ingredients equally rooted in rural and urban territory. Stakes is a gorgeous and gorgeously far out album, integrating elements of psychedelic rock and dub, blending in melodic ideas that are at times abstracted, at times soothing. It is pastoral music for the digital age, where raw bursts of noise and energy dislocate and set the record straight. There is even a croonerish feel to some of its tracks, croonerish from a distorted future that is. Stakes is an experience in eclecticism and musical logic. It dissolves structures and ideas and turns musically recognisable elements on their head.
Hailing from downtown Los Angeles, Nuklear Prophet, aka Erik Villalpando, is heavily influenced by West Coast Hip Hop and Electro. Winning multiple DJ awards, including 3x World Records DJ Competition under his DJ Dope-E alias, Villalpando cites his inspiration as coming from some of the most influential Los Angeles DJs of his childhood, including Tony G, DJ Joe Cooley, Julio G, and DJ Aladdin.
With releases on Urban Connections, Abseits Recordings, Diffuse Reality and Bass Agenda Recordings as Nuklear Prophet, the LA-based DJ/producer readies his full-length album 'Prophecies 11:21' for Utrecht-based U-Trax. Formed of an eclectic and energetic collection of gems mined from his overwhelming archive, the album takes in genres such as Electro, Hip Hop, Footwork, Juke, and beyond.
Leading the release is the 808 luminary Egyptian Lover's remix of 'L.A. Rockz', featured on the recently released 'L.A. Rockz' EP, kicking off the LP with his trademark 808-infused sound. A nod to Detroit-flavoured Electro is presented via the dark and brooding tracks 'Nuklear Prophet' and 'Compton', with the lighter atmospherics of the genre covered on 'Solar Winds'. The pounding electro killer '808 Plague' sounds like it came straight from the sewers of The Hague.
'Everlastin' Bass', 'Back Up Off My Tip', and 'The Train Ride To Coconino' offer Footwork inspired bangers, with the latter previously featured on the Legowelt curated U-Trax compilation 'U R Here!' earlier this year.
Moving across a spectrum of tempos, styles, and moods across the album, exemplified on the sluggish trip-hop of 'The Mars Goblin', Nuklear Prophet expertly touches on a range of bass-driven genres, displaying his widespread influences and knack for hard-hitting production throughout.
a 01: L.A. Rockz (Egyptian Lover Remix) feat. Krazy Dee & Nasim
For its 10th album, Blundetto drops his first soundtrack on LP, an ode to road trips and 70’s scores. VTC is a Canal + mini series and features Golshifteh Farahani as Nora, the main character. This soundtrack is the most « urban » and « electronic » work from Blundetto to date. 33 mins of funk grooves, hypnotic atmospheres and psychedelic landscapes. This is the first release of Blundetto’s new label: Les Rythmes Ruban
Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.
Now a revered composer, musician, and arranger, Caiphus left apartheid South Africa in the 60s for self-imposed exile in Southern California together with his wife, Letta Mbulu. Settling in Los Angeles he started working with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba and other exiled and semi-exiled South african artists, as well as, of course, his wife Letta.
Caiphus also found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. His facility with both jazz and African forms served him well. His LA stay also the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, the fruits of which can be tasted in Caiphus’s African compositions for the scores to Roots and Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple.
Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.
The Afro-Cuban grooves of “Mamase” open the record. Continuing where Listen To The Wind left off, this is another horn-heavy call-and-response ode to a positive life. Life as an invitation to party, to take part, to “get involved”. But only if you’re willing to let in the transcendent power of music. “There’s gonna be a Mardi Gras, there’s gonna be a carnival; there’s gonna be a jamboree, there’s gonna be a bacchanal”. Who can resist that? Vibrations everywhere.
It’s followed by the joy of “Aida”. Gleeful, dayglow keys and synths *just* on the right side of mid-80s sleaze are accompanied by a killer bassline, slick, skipping drums and proud horns. Infectious funk.
The tempo is taken down a few notches for the powerful “Nomalanga” and the lamentations of a heartbroken man who must leave his wife Nomalanga and their children to join the fight against apartheid. It’s an emotional song, no question, but it doesn’t bring you down. The uplifting music and optimistic vocal delivery from Caiphus and his backing singers in the second half offer hope.
Breezy drums and contemplative keys act as a backdrop for the stunning backing vocal harmonies in the intro of “Moshanyana”. This gives way to stuttering beats, a bassline to die for and Caiphus giving it his all, over guitars, marimba and synth strings. Another slo-mo winner.
Side two opens with “Dial Your Number”, an uptempo English-language boogie-funk workout, complete with mid-song cutaway to a random telephone call. Whether or not this propels the song into “key track” status, we’ll let you decide.
What’s not up for debate is the brilliance of “Matswale”. This was a hit in South Africa in the mid-80s and you can still hear why. It might just be our favourite Caiphus hit. Wow. This is some damn fine breezy, beautiful, emotional pop. The restrained playing, the guitar licks and the gentle keys are out of this world. The beats? Thundering, direct and slick. The singing? It’ll give you goosebumps. As for the sentiment? This is Caiphus singing to his in-laws about their daughter’s adultery, begging them to intervene and help him save his marriage. Not your typical pop single story-telling!
The ferocious “Ndi-Kulindile” closes the set with a nod to the coming sound of the States. The hard-edged, electro-influenced drum patterns and bouncing, elastic bassline are something of a departure from the album’s predominant sound, yet one wonderful constant, Caiphus’s exceptional delivery and his sparring with his backing vocalists, is satisfyingly present and warmly deployed.
With Simon Francis handling the mastering of this Be With edition, you know it sounds as fantastic as ever. The stunning sleeve has been restored, with its painting of a dream-like cosmic vista, as a lone figure takes in a scene that’s part distant planet, part urban sprawl. One listen and you’ll be transported.
Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.
Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.
One listen and you’ll be transported.
Madame E. is a musical setting of Georges Bataille's 'Madame Edwarda', a short novel that interlaces themes of eroticism, religiosity and death, and was written under the pseudonym Pierre Angelique in 1941, during the occupation of Paris.
Composer Mirco Magnani wrote eleven electronic pieces and presented them to actor/singer Ernesto Tomasini. They turned them into songs by adding vocal melodies and together they produced a libretto based on Bataille's French text. The result of their dynamic interpretation is a hypnotically spellbinding performance where the audience is transported through worlds - ancient and new - and where Tomasini's haunting falsetto conveys the tormented emotions in Bataille's work and becomes the instrument that articulates the writer's famously obscure themes.
The experimental operatic performance captures the atmosphere of heightened human passion, reminiscent of opera seria and revisited through hazy and minimalistic lens. The resulting dark and twitchy mood amalgamates old vintage electronic devices, string piano and Stella Veloce´s touching violoncello. The stage becomes a space where Eros and Thanatos, real and virtual, analogue and digital, cluster and melody, spirituality and technology are intermixed and turned unidentifiable, hence collapsing the binary logic of dualism.
Written by Magnani/Tomasini and produced by Mirco Magnani, with lyrics taken from "Madame Edwarda" by Georges Bataille, Madame E. was developed between Berlin and London where Magnani and Tomasini are respectively based. Recorded in Berlin, mastered by Murcof and released by Magnani's label Undogmatisch, a collective that also includes Nicolas Defawe (Urban Spree) and Valentina Bardazzi, the painter responsible for the album artwork.
- A1: Bwi-Bwi - Nu Sides
- A2: Ayo B - Impact
- A3: Nico Belic - La Discoteca
- B1: Joziciu - Teknik
- B2: Prince De Takicardie - Free Love (Take Off 1 Mix)
- B3: Tibahuult - Alone With Me
- C1: Lamalice - Fiction
- C2: Dynasty Of Dreams - Syunik Horizons
- D1: Man/Ipulate - Voidance
- D2: Curtis Od - Electrical Energy
- D3: Djon Bull - Tidal Wave
11 artists. 11 tracks. 1 city.
From the heart of the most vibrant French city, Marseille, comes a project that redefines the enthusiasm, energy and growing talents around the underground music scene.
Consisting of eleven djs/producers bound to the Phocaean city, this 2x12LP is not just an ordinary album: It is a cultural marker in a city deeply rooted in urban music, reasserting its young and strongly emerging electronic landscape. It is a celebration of Marseille’s musical identity through house, techno and electro.
Originally a record shop, Mindtrip has been promoting and advocating for the electronic movement for 4 years. Olivier aka HI.lo now invites you to deep dive into Marseille’s sonic uproar with his new born label, an extension of the music he has been playing and representing through his shop, putting marseille on the map with an essential first release gathering the city’s finest: MAN/IPULATE, TIBAHUULT, LAMALICE, PRINCE DE TAKICARDIE, JO’Z, CURTIS OD, DJONN BULL, BWI-BWI, DYNASTY OF DREAMS, NICO BELIC & AYO’B.




















