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feastintheeast · 5 years

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FEAST IN THE EAST 74

Saturday, July 27th at Small Arms Inspection Building (1352 Lakeshore Rd. East Mississauga, ON) at 7pm

Presented by the City of Mississauga, Feast In The East brings its 74th edition to the Small Arms Inspection Building. The evening features Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar from Niger, kulintang ensemble Pantayo, and a DJ / Live PA set by Raf Reza; with immersive visual art projects by Chloe Lum & Yannick Desranleau, Arezu Salamzadeh, and Khanh Tudo; and a Nigerian Suya-spiced dinner by local Nigerian-inspired caterer, Twins In Kitchen. Come early for an artist talk at 4pm by Khanh Tudo as part of ongoing public programming series re:placement, can we find a way? curated by Anu Radha Verma. MDOU MOCTAR (https://mdoumoctar.bandcamp.com) Niger based songwriter / guitarist Mdou Moctar brings his contemporary electronic adaptions of traditional Tuareg guitar music to Mississauga. Touring behind his newest studio record, Ilana: The Creator with a full band, Moctar's music has come a long way from the West African trading network of cellphones & memory cards that spurred his fame & his starring role in the Nigerien re-invention of "Purple Rain" aka "Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai," which translates as "Rain the Color of Red with a Little Blue In It." Constantly evolving the forms of Tuareg music Moctar's latest venture sees him dip into psych trance territory. Guitar grooves swirl in a never ending dance with each other, only breaking out into blistered solos over a locked in rhythm section. True desert psych the band prods forward as vocal pattern slip upward into a guitar fuelled heat sink. Merging western rock shredding with the patience & momentum of Tuareg folk tradition, Moctar creates a unique & lasting sonic world. PANTAYO (https://pantayo.bandcamp.com) Pantayo is an all-women lo-fi R&B gong punk queer collective based in Toronto, combining percussive metallophones and drums from the kulintang traditions of southern Philippines with synth-based electro grooves RAF REZA (https://soundcloud.com/rafreza) DJ / mood masher / creative soul Raf Reza (Cosmic Resonance Records) blends sonic landscapes together with ease, merging dance floor momentos with shifting synth nodes and airy nods. Percussive notes shuffle as organ swells move under sparkling electronic pulses. Though Reza's dance floor sensibilities shine, he also drops in for the long game building kraut inspired synth droners, full of climbing electronic patterns and glowing cosmic hums. Synthetic notes decay in a forest of minimalist inspired beats. Meditative moods grow into distorted grooves, lost post punk guitar licks, busted beats, zapping synths slap back on themselves. Raf brings the party, the choice vibe, the rejuvenation zone & so much more. Hang late for the post vibes party! Environs by: Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau (http://www.lum-desranleau.com) Arezu Salamzadeh (https://arezustudio.com) Khanh Tudo (https://khanh.online) Dinner Menu (may contain nuts): Pepper Soup Suya Chicken* OR Suya Vegetable Skewers Fried Rice & Coleslaw Puff Puff & Ice Cream *halal

FREE

All Ages

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1148129038693527/

Schedule of events: 7:00pm doors + dinner 8:30pm Pantayo 9:30pm Mdou Moctar 11pm to late Raf Reza Limited capacity. Reserve your free ticket. Limited number of $10 (+ service charge) round-trip SHUTTLE BUS seats available: https://www.showpass.com/feast-east-mississauga/ Departure: Stop 1: 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education (918 Bathurst St just north of Bloor), departing at 6:30pm Stop 2: Queen St W and Triller Ave in Parkdale (by the U-Haul lot), departing at 7pm Arrival at SAIB approximately 7:30pm Return: Midnight from SAIB to Stop 2 (approx 12:15 arrival) and Stop 1 (approx 12:30 arrival) 2:00am from SAIB to Stop 2 (approx 2:15am arrival) and Stop 1 (approx 2:30am arrival) Free dinner is first come, first served. Reserve your meal, veggie or halal chicken, as part of the registration process. Note: Dinner contains nuts. Family friendly. Cash bar. Accessible space, all-gender single-user washrooms available. This Feast In The East is in partnership with Good Kind Productions and Polyphonic Ground, 10 GTA-based presenters of culturally-diverse music. PG is made possible through grants from Canada Council, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Toronto Arts Council. Thanks to 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture - https://www.facebook.com/918bathurst/ Feast In The East is made possible through support from the City of Mississauga, Small World Music Society and Wellington Brewery. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

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cnox · 5 years

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Rowen for Distant Mirror Zine #1.* ROWEN is a project between Cristahel and Cantrith Knox. They play a subgenre of the dark ambient / dungeon synth movement they call Mythical Electronic. They have years of experience and also operate Hollow Myths in New England. I thank them for their contribution to the first issue of Distant Mirror. First, Rowen is a collaborative effort between Canrith and Cristahel Knox - do you have specialties which you like to focus on when creating (someone runs the drums and arrangement, someone finds the melodies)?

Eve, Thanx for the interview. We both play synths, drum machines and write together. As of now, when playing live, Criss handles the synths, vocal whisperings and I play the electronic drums. Along with our visuals, fog and lighting. We are introducing more vocals on some new songs. In the studio, we also add our field recordings and percussion as part of composing. We sit and mix each song side by side.

Tell us about your musical histories before forming Rowen, because its somewhat obvious you both have experience which maybe led to the result of what Rowen is on "Ashen Spirit"!

Both of us have electronic music in our past. Cristahel with Minimal Synth and I with Darkbeat. One of the first ideas we had for Rowen was to start all over. As part of the experiment, finding ourselves and each other through making music anew. See and hear our music become it's own entity. We started developing the concept in '14, in '16 we began recording and had our first release in '18. We set out with a clear vision of what we want to do with Rowen.

Also tell us how you discovered music and what your first true love in music was... How did you come to find music that would lead you to this underworld of music culture?

Canrith: I discovered music on a radio at age 3. First, second and third grade, I would stay up nights crashing on Ritalin (due to being diagnosed as Hyperactive) watching the first ever music videos on a UHF channel in Colorado called FMTV which predated MTV by a year or two. Laurie Anderson - O Superman, Kraftwerk, Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads videos all had a great impact on me as a kid. During that time, late 70's - early 80's, I was hooked on the music and image of both Kiss and Devo. One of the first albums I owned was AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap on cassette that I purchased at K-Mart. Summer '81 NYC, I saw the first video air on MTV. Later, watching another UHF channel out of Boston called V66. Heavy Metal led me to the Black Metal and the dark electronic music underground. Dark Ambient and Dark Dungeon Music have always been a particular interest of mine. Mail order distro tapes and free box extras in orders started my collection as far back as the mid 90's. In the late 90's, I got really into BM, then obsessed in '03 onward, as many UGBM labels and distros were rising on the web. We are also into Minimal, Martial, Electro, Techno, New Beat, Cosmic, Italo, 8-bit, Video Game, Soundtrack, Old School Dungeon Synth, Winter Synth and so on...

Cristahel: My first exposure to music as a child was through my grandfather, who began teaching me to play classical piano by ear at the age of four. We would sit for countless hours at his black upright Steinway as he would play Chopin, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky etc. a few measures at a time for me to memorize and string together until I had the whole piece memorized. His love and enthusiasm for music, and the time he took to develop that in me, is something I will always be grateful for. Also my cousin Sue was a few years older than me and was like some kind of magical mixtape faerie, forever bestowing masterfully crafted gems upon me filled with things like Lush, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, and Mazzy Star that served to mold/blow my little mind.

By my late teens it was the late 90's/early 2000's and I was immersed in a maelstrom of kraut/prog, electro, early new wave and electronic/industrial, shoe gaze. I was fortunate at the time to have a lot of friends with varied tastes and massive record collections they wanted to share with me, because back then there was like, only Napster to try and download music off this nebulous internet thing they had just invented.

I spent a lot of time not doing my homework and dancing around my room on speed and/or klonopins listening to things like Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Dopplereffekt, Chris and Cosey, SPK, early Human League, Slowdive, Clan of Xymox... all of which in their own ways began to inform the atmosphere of the music I create now, warped and haunted meandering electronic melodies, analog synths, string machines and rhythm boxes, pounding 303s and 808s, tape echoes, analog delays, layered sounds lost in chasms of reverb...

I moved to NY and started making music, playing shows and djing a bit (mostly playing gabber techno synth new age sets at London squat parties to kids who wanted to hear nu rave), getting into minimal synth, and beginning my love affair with collecting and recording with analog equipment.

Of course now anything you want is available immediately online, compared to how the 80’s and 90’s crowd discovered music. I’ve asked the other artists a similar question - how do you feel about the loss of mystery these days and what will happen in the future to return to that?

I feel the ability for creating mystique is greater now thanx to the internet. Almost anyone can record some music, upload it to bandcamp, make artwork, physical releases, open an online shop, start a label, etc.. If one is good at what they do, be it a hidden persona or being a face, presenting a strong sound, image and aesthetic, either way, when done right, it works. In some ways even mystery can be a gimmick.

You both are lucky to have grown up in the best time period for music. But what about movies and books people should check out?

I collect children's books, read a mess of olde and new Black Metal zines, Books about Black and Death Metal. Sexy comics about Vampiress and Faeries. Presently reading The Devil's Cradle, a hard back about The Story of Finnish Black Metal. It was a gift from Criss. Everyone should read Lords of Chaos '98 (then '03) and Lucifer Rising '99. I still need a copy of that leather bound Mortiis - Secrets Of My Kingdom book '01.

As for films, we watch obscure horror, foreign horror and documentaries.

Here are some if you have not already read or watched them;

Read: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs ('78) James and the Giant Peach ('61) Masquerade ('79) The World of the Dark Crystal ('82) The Book of Alien ('79) Moebius - The Collected Fantasies of Jean Giraud Series ('87 - '94) Flowers in the Attic - Dollanganger Series ('79 -'86) Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo ('78) William Klein: Films, 1958-99 ('99) Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle ('99)

Watch: Christiane F. ('81) Out of The Blue ('80) Deadbeat at Dawn ('88) Combat Shock ('86) Street Trash ('87) Brain Damage ('88) Zardoz ('74) Excalibur ('81) Emerald Forest ('85) Wicker Man ('73)

If atmosphere seems to be a heavy orientation for your creative drive, is your local landscape an important part of this? or is it personal experiences driving the music towards such a dark and melancholy place? something about Rowen is both light and dark.

We live on a island North East New England and seldom see others. Most of our time is spent outside, alone with the wind, the trees, on the marsh, in the mist and rain, sea side mornings, hawks at dusk and in the woods every evening. Pretty, evil and sad is what we do. We are hoping folks will also consider us in the Nature Synth category.

New England must be a very interesting place to live... what is your favorite time of year there, and what is your favorite part of the landscape there?

We love the woods, day hikes, mountain tops, swimming holes, water falls, gorges and quarries. Small towns, old houses, fields, orchards, pumpkin patches, bonfires. Train tracks, trestles, towers, castles, monuments and graveyards. I was born in October so naturally I love the fall. Hallow's Eve and all into November. Leaves turn, death comes and things change. There is nothing like a cold moonlit night in the snow. I appreciate being where we can really experience all four seasons.

Also You are so fortunate to live on an island.. That’s amazing. It’s cliche to talk about misanthropy with dark music but is this the reason for being secluded? What do you feel is the best thing for people could do with themselves in (what is in my eyes the end of the world?)

We made the decision to come here for a time of research, get to know each other, talk about our dreams, foster our ideas. Focus on only that of which we love and gives us purpose. Live away from it all. If everyone did what was the most important to them, a different world this might be.

Rowen is listed among other trees in occult literature as a tree of magical powers... Is this the reason for using the name? Is there personal beliefs at play in Rowen?

As a band we have our own ideologies, as musicians, our own theories, as artists, our own creative processes and as members, a belief system. These are shared between us and are expressed through the music, words and imagery of Rowen.

The Greeks, Norse, Celts and Druids all told mythology of the properties and significance of this mystical tree. The Greek Goddess of youth who lost her magical chalice to the demons. An eagle was sent to retrieve it. From battle, it's blood splatter on the earth grew Rowan trees. It's leaves as feathers, it's berries, the blood. The Norse myth speaks of the tree from which woman was made. And man, from a mountain ash. Saved Thor in the underworld. Runes are burned on Rowan wood. In the British Isles they tell of the folkloric tree which protects against witchcraft. The red berries of fall make up the 5 points of the Pentagram. Goes also as the Goddess or Faerie tree. The Druids used the bark and berries to dye the garments worn during lunar ceremonies black. Rowan twigs were used for divining, particularly for metals.

I had no idea the importance of Rowen to ancient people. Yes, it is true that Norse belief teaches humans were originally trees before given life and awareness by Odin, Vili and Ve. Is there any interest for you both to express your philosophy on things in the music or is this an affair of escapism and pure magic.

"The Past is not Dead, it lives on in a Woeful Drift." We are connected to our roots, our family trees, where we came from, our heritage and lands. We could only hope that our music would offer an escape. Magic is the only way.

If you could live in any time period, what time period would you live in and what would you be doing?

Canrith: I feel lucky to have been a child of the 70's and we grew up in the 80's, 90's & 00's. We were there, I wouldn't change it. I would love to live in some medieval castle in the mountains, riding a black Clydesdale, wielding a mace, reeking havoc across the land.

Cristahel: Same as Canrith but on a white Clydesdale with a halberd.

What's the most important part of the creative process for Rowen - is there a certain revelry for using old mysterious pieces of synthesizers or do you enjoy the vast possibilities of computers? There's always the game of analog vs computer in the electronic scenes, what is your thoughts on this?

For us, again, the most important part of the process is the experiment. We use all analog synthesizers, drum machines and record live. Roland, Korg, Yamaha. Same goes for our stage show. We have used and are not opposed to using digital synths on recordings and live. Casio & Yamaha synths, Simmons drums. For instance, "In Another Dream, You Were Mine" from "Ashen Spirit" was made almost entirely on a Casiotone. We record and mix on a desk top home computer.

What are you both really enjoying listening to at the moment?

Listening to cult 80's video Game music on YouTube while answering these questions.

do you have any thoughts on where this rising momentum will lead as far as the dungeon synth genre is headed, and do you feel proud of your place in that? am i wrong in assuming you both also run Hollow Myths?

We are proud of our place in DS. Though we set out to make our own mythical electronic music. And think the genre is progressing as it should. We have been very active in the scene going on six years now this November. As supporters, label, distro and band. We are most appreciative of the support we have received. And from the Black Metal Underground. Our first demo was released on pro-tape by Personnel Records, a sub-label of Seedstock Records ran by Marco Del Rio of Raspberry Bulbs aka He Who Crushes Teeth of Bone Awl. We are finishing our second release that will be out on CD & Cassette this time.

Hollow Myths, the label and distro, is the work of us two. Releases, artwork, layouts, Photography, bios, press, promo, videos, zine, jewelry, leather work, patches, we also offer clothes that we call Cryptic Raiment for After Dark. Official Dungeon Synth, Dark Ambient, Black Metal, Hollow Myths* Shirts, Long Sleeves, Hoods, Record Bags, Altar Cloths...

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hollow Myths has had to dig deep into the underground and re-release old gems, which is like reissuing from the archives.. many people don’t really appreciate that, can you tell us about what that’s been like and if anything else like that will ever happen?

Hollow Myths* have re-released limited special versions of cult classics in a row of how I first discovered them back when. Being also from Dallas, TX, Equitant - The Great Lands Of Minas Ithil (City Of Isildur) '94 was one the first tapes I owned of the genre (and our first release from H/M* on cassette) after I found a copy of the Mournlord - Reconquering Our Kingdom Demo from '95 (SE) for a $1 in a bargain bin. These strange and very limited cassette releases helped crystallize what Dark Dungeon Music was to me. Like hearing the Caduceus - Middle Ages Demo '95 (LT) for the first time or later with the Corvus Neblus - Chapter I & II - Strahd's Possession tapes from '99 / '01 (LV). Our second re-released offering was Equimanthorn - Entrance To The Ancient Flame on cassette, another Texas born Ritual Black Ambient project with both Equitant and Proscriptor of the Mythological Occult Metal band Absu as members. After which, we made a chain of very special limited re-releases from; Gothmog, Depressive Silence, Solanum, Lunar Womb, Cain, two from Aperion, Arthur as well as Xerión with more to come. At the same time, we have introduced many new Dungeon Synth artists, some with their follow ups; Isåedor, Wyver and Wizzard to name but a few. We began in '16 and have 43 releases to date. Some mentioned above will see second pressings in the near future.

What has been your favorite release to work on this past year and what sort of artists does Hollow Myths look for?

We focus on outsider music and art and put our blood, sweat and tears into every release. Since we are primarily a physical label and distro (Tapes, CD's, Vinyl, Merch, etc.), it has been interesting to curate and mix the last three Shadowlore Compilations.

Each run over 2 hours long and feature new and exclusive songs by legions of Dungeon Synth artists from around the world. Being Digital, we offer it for Free or name your price for those who want to add it to their collections. Corresponding J-card "tape trade" layout print outs are included in the download, so one can make their own 2x cassette version. To be shared with friends, to inspire tape trading, for more reach and exposure for the artists' projects. Shadowlore Four will be released this Summer Solstice.

Other releases from last year we are very proud of: Apeiron - Stardust / A Separate Reality. Cosmic / Dark Ambient / Black Metal from Austria. '95 & '97 and featuring a never before heard hidden track from '96 titled "Dimensional Chanting" exclusive only to this release. Xerión - O Espírito Da Fraga / O Trono de Breogán. Black Metal / Dark Ambient from Spain. The first two demos from '01 & '02 with 3 new songs recorded exclusively for this release including a Windir cover. Galician Mythology and Folklore. Wyver - Tragedies of Lost Village (Demo II). Dungeon Synth / Fantasy Music follow up. (PDX) Hypogeum - S/T. Introducing outsider, Raw Black Metal from the woods of Oregon. Wizzard - The Cauldron Descent. Cryptic Dungeon Synth follow up from Sweden. Morihaus - The Empty Marches. Eccentric Dark Ambient / Dungeon Synth debut from Kentucky.

Tell us about Rowen’s plans to start touring.

We just played our first show at the Northeast Dungeon Siege MMXIX festival. Now we are working on piecing together a tour that will begin this summer in the north east coast with the plan to then head down, across the south to California, up the west coast, pacific northwest and back across the north and through the mid-west to return late fall. We recently put the word out that we are up to perform anywhere, anytime and received an overwhelming response. If we can get on tour, stay on tour, get back to Europa without haste, we would be more than pleased.

The first two shows will be outdoor camping events. Mythical Electronic, Dungeon Synth, Black Metal, Acoustic Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom, Crust, Folk, Country, . . . Both are on private land, in the forest and BYOB. Bring a tent, water, food and supplies. Crossbows and throwing knives.

Rowen Seasons of the Savage at The Sonorous Glade June 22nd Topsham, VT w/ Haxen, Sombre Arcane, Fed Ash, Gorcrow, Melkor, Black Axe, Void Bringer, Acid Roach and Wild Leek River

Rowen Woods of Gallows II August 17th West Chazy, NY w/ T.O.M.B., Worthless, Sombre Arcane, Ordeals, Malacath, Lightcrusher, Hræsvelgr, Graveren and Callous

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tinymixtapes · 5 years

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♫ Listen: trikorder23 - much time no horse

“Niko breathes music.” So says Cosmic Winnetou label head Günter Schlienz about Niko Lazarakopoulos, whose trikorder23 project is as organic and effortless as the process of inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. It’s easy to envision Lazarakopoulos’s circulatory system relying on elements composed of microscopic musical notes instead of protons, neutrons, and electrons, the life-sustaining matter riding cosmic staves and magic into Lazarakopoulos’s lungs and bloodstream. What emanates therefrom is a glowing, shimmering wave of euphoria couched in ancient secrets translated via trikorder23. A rising tide and boats, etc. Indeed, as Lazarakopoulos exhales, those around him are caught up in it. On much time no horse, trikorder23 welcomes its “clubmembers,” Stuttgart experimental music luminaries and Cosmic Winnetou satellite artists Cristoph Szeteli, Joachim Henn, Klemens Rack, Michael Herm, and Roland Wending. Together, they fall under the trikorder23 spell, following Niko Lazarakopoulos down dusty paths of self-discovery and adventure. Like a psychedelic kraut/post-rock hybrid or an instrumental Olivia Trevor Control scaled waaaay back, trikorder23 takes fantastically subdued (and other oxymoronically constructed) trips among itself, mixing its own acoustic and electric orchestration with its surroundings and creating a hybrid reality where tune = breeze, and every physical movement is a hit in (sometimes tenuous) rhythm. It’s ambient music only in the sense that the only ambience IS music. Nice trick. So it’s in the air, it’s in our lungs, and much time no horse documents the transformation of the surroundings of anywhere it’s played into a field or a trail or a forest, marking the way forward with radiant visibility and stunning accuracy. No longer will you be stuck in your stuffy Stuttgart (or wherever) studio or loft or warehouse space or anywhere — you’ve been freed by this thing. This is trikorder23’s second release on Cosmic Winnetou, and here’s hoping there are many more to come. I like this idea of alchemical atmospheric changes and constant adventure wherever I am. I could use more of it. much time no horse (cw47) by trikorder23 http://j.mp/34z6E6a

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datawiresolutions · 7 years

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The Brain Box: Cerebral Sounds of Brain Records 1972-1979

Performance Sound

Let there be Kraut! So goes the Kampfschrei, or battle cry associated with the Krautrock movement of the 1970s. If you’re unfamiliar with this relatively experimental musical form, it probably won’t surprise you to learn Krautrock’s origins are rooted in, of course, Germany. Rather than follow the more blues-based framework that served as the springboard for much of the rock that came out of the U.K. and U.S. during that era, the progenitors of Krautrock sought to build their music more on the avant-garde and progressive fringes, laying down a free-form template for the post-punk, improv jazz, electronic, ambient, and even New Age tuneage that would follow. Incidentally, the scene also has been referred to as kosmische Musik, or cosmic music—and rightly so, since its practitioners often seemed to shoot for the stars.

from Data Wire Solutions News Feed http://ift.tt/2uqtr2g

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dustedmagazine · 10 months

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Jesse Kivel — Life and Death at Party Rock (New Feelings)

Jesse Kivel barely breathes the lyrics to “I Sat on a Ridge,” the opening track to his second solo full-length, but still the words have a pearl-like resonance to them. The music shifts and shimmers around him. Occasional organic blots of guitar, bells and vocals percolate through transparent washes of electronic sounds. The environment that surrounds his lyrics is always taking shape, always becoming, but never exactly nailed down. It reminds me a lot of Cassandra Jenkins’ gorgeous An Overview of Phenomenal Nature, in that everything is implied and nothing stated. It builds up around you like a cloud of rainbow-shot mist, beautifully underplayed and also just beautiful.

Some of these cuts are more conventionally folk rock than others. “Nepenthe,” with its arcing pedal steel and battering, crashing drums, lives somewhere between cosmic and rocking country, while the full-band “Bayshore Bowl” approximates the soft kraut propulsion of the War on Drugs. Yet it’s the barer tracks that linger. “A Lightforce” follows a beat sketched out in finger snaps and piano chords through Joseph Shaboson’s blurry, blowsy saxophone atmospherics. “All I wanted was your name, just a friend at the edge of everything. my friend for that end time which is now,” croons Kivel in his conversational way, like he’s talking to you but also singing directly into your ear.

It’s a surprise, to be honest, since Kivel’s work has never exactly hit with me. He spent the aughts in Princeton, a clever, hyper-articulate band (one EP was about the Bloomsbury Set) that came in the wake of Vampire Weekend and whose members included his twin brother Matt Kivel. Then came the feather-light dance grooves of Kisses, which somehow took most of the sex out of boogie-ing. But now, as a new dad living in rustic Maine, Kivel has suddenly scratched below the surface, finding an unexpected, melancholy beauty in loosely collated daydreams. Life and Death at Party Rock haunts rather than pleases.

Jennifer Kelly

#jesse kivel #life and death at party rock #new feelings #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #indie #songwriter #princeton #kisses #maine

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dustedmagazine · 5 years

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Listed: Tomás Nochteff (Mueran Humanos)

Mueran Humanos, an Argentinian duo now based in Berlin, mixes post-punk, industrial-inflected synth explorations, garage rock and psychedelia. Carmen Burguess and Tomás Nochteff share vocal duties and play a very basic line-up of instruments: bass, synths, drum machines and samplers. In his review for Dusted, Andrew Forell called their latest, Hospital Lullabies, “a thrilling concoction of electronic, industrial, bass-driven body music fueled by the transgressive spirit of a DAF or a Psychic TV.” Here, Tomás presents his list of visionary music.

A list of visionary music

What is a visionary? Visions can come in dreams, in journeys to other worlds, in hallucinations. They can be the product of will, of a derangement of the senses, or they can come uninvited to save you or to haunt you and destroy your mental balance, even your life. It can be heavenly, or hellish, but to be authentic visions they have to be otherworldly. And to be visions rather than just imagination, they must have an element of truth. Not literal truth, like “that wall is green,” but a different kind of truth, the one that´s expressed in symbols, in metaphors, in omens and obsessions. In “Heaven and Hell,” Aldous Huxley analyzed the visions of people under the influence of psychedelic drugs, the visions of mystics and the visions of schizophrenics. He found fundamental parallels and concluded that they must have been visiting the same places. These people are not merely hallucinating, but they are perceiving another reality, visiting a different world, or maybe they are perceiving the world as it really is. And he quotes Jung on this: “schizophrenics and mystics are on the same ocean, but schizophrenics are drowning and mystics are swimming.” A visionary could be a mix of all these archetypes. Like Philip K Dick: was he on drugs? Yes. Was he mad? Yes. Was he seeking enlightenment? Yes. Had his visions an element of truth? No doubt about it. Were his visions revelations? To some extent, yes.

On our last album, Hospital Lullabies, the songs deal with all these different experiences on the journey to another world and on the invasion from another world into everyday life, with its horror and its beauty, the agony and the ecstasy. And how one copes, or doesn´t, with it.

So to celebrate it, I made a list of music that I do consider visionary. There’s madmen, there’s mystics and there’s psychonauts, all possible combinations of the three archetypes and everything in between.

Pharoah Sanders—“The Creator has a Masterplan” (Impulse)

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I don´t know much about cosmic jazz, or any jazz for that matter, but what I know is that this record is pure bliss. “Harvest Time,” on Pharoah is another masterpiece. Alice Coltrane and Don Cherry are also incredible. This is music of the spheres; it has the touch of God.

Rudimentary Peni—CacophonyI (Outer Himalayan Records)

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One of the few perfect punk bands ever, for lots of reasons. The bass lines are extraordinary, for example. But they belong here because of schizophrenic member Nick Blinko: incredible artist & novelist, obsessed with Catholicism and the supernatural horror. A guy who stopped his medication to force himself into a psychotic crisis just to write an album. Hero. Martyr.

Nico— “Janitor of Lunacy” (Cherry Red Records)

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For me, Nico was the best and more underrated of all Velvets (and we love Velvet Underground as much as anyone). Also, the production from John Cale on her records is probably his best work too, or at least among his best. I feel that she is not appreciated enough. Iggy said that meeting her changed him. I suspect that´s true for all her famous friends: Bowie, Lou Reed, John Cale, Leonard Cohen, etc. They were all larger-than-life characters. And we know there is an element of self-built mythology on all that, a bit of acting. There is nothing wrong with that; rock and roll at its best is a complete artform and we must appreciate this self-built mythology as part of their craft. But with Nico you don´t get that feeling. She seemed that she didn´t care about her image, she was born Nico and I suspect that in that sense she inspired them all to no end. She was the genuine article. One of our main loves in music. Essential with a capital E.

Coil—“I Don’t Want To Be The One”

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Jhonn Balance wanted to be a magician, and he died trying. I think he succeed in building a shamanic body of work with the help of the great late Sleazy and a myriad of brilliant contributors. Coil´s music at its best it´s like a plasma between worlds, or a very, very good psychedelic drug. My most beloved electronic/industrial/post-industrial project ever and one of our main influences. This performance is superb.

Lungfish — Feral Hymns

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I´m not interested in DC post hardcore per se, and I don´t have any tattoos. I shouldn´t care about Lungfish the way I do, but they knock me out every single time. Daniel Higgs is a seer. I don´t know what he is talking about, but at the same time, my gut knows exactly what he is talking about. He speaks in images, like Tarot, like the religious painters, like Rimbaud and San Juan de la Cruz. His delivery is supreme. Raw and fragile, yet powerful and precise. Over circular, repetitive, minimal structures of music that have a haunting, arresting effect. Hypnotic, magical, devotional music. Either you get it, or you don´t. I can´t explain it. That´s the beauty of it, I suppose. And the truly mark of the visionary artist.

Ghedalia Tazartes—“Une Éclipse Totale De Soleil Part 2”

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Ghedalia for me represents the pure, untouched, sui generis artist. Applying the techniques of musique concrete to the ancient folk music of the Sephardic Jews with a raw energy that usually you can only find in punk, or blues. I see in him an archetype, the Fool card in the Tarot. The madman that opens the gates of heaven and hell, gives himself to these supreme energies and survives only because of his perfect innocence.

OM—“Sinai (live at Sonic City)”

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Maybe the greatest rock band of the last 20 years. Here with Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe to maximum effect.

Charlemagne Palestine—Live in Holland 1998

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Like Ghedalia, Charlemagne Palestine is a Jewish artist that works in the avant garde field but subverts it with the tradition of his folk music instead of sticking to the cold, cerebral, rational program of academia. He has his own world. Watch this and you will understand what I am talking about.

Virgin Prunes—Excerpts from Sons Find Devils/“Walls of Jericho”

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There is a VHS tape called Sons Find Devils, comprised of live shows and short experimental films (some of them made by Balance, from Coil). I had it as a teenager and watched it countless times. Sadly, it is not complete on YouTube or elsewhere but here are some small extracts. With their heretic mix of Irish Catholic imagery, Irish Paganism, Bataille, performance art and post punk, the Virgin Prunes made a unique and extraordinary body of work. A testament of its importance is that Gavin Friday was guest singer of two bands in this list: The Fall and Coil. And Mr. Scott Walker himself invited him to sing on a play. Maybe the historians ignore them, but Mark E. Smith, Scott Walker and Coil knew where it’s at, didn´t they? Their record If I die I die is a masterpiece. Produced by Colin Newman from Wire, no less, if you need more validation.

Boredoms—Vision Creation Newsun

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I like some of the more comical, early work of Boredoms, but with Super AE and this one they got me. They got serious and spiritual, channeling Alice Coltrane, tribal drumming, kraut rock and noise into a glorious, euphoric sound. Maybe they are not visionaries, but their music can produce visions. I saw them around 2005 (on acid) with the three drummers line up, still in this phase. I remember thinking “this is what cavemen had in mind when they invented music.” I actually saw it, with my eyes closed. Early humans. In caves. Inventing music. God bless LSD.

Aphrodite´s Child — 666

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The one record I bought for the cover only, it cost me 50 cents, best deal of my life. A concept album about the apocalypse. Easy contender for the best psychedelic rock album of all time. Pet Sounds? Get outta here. An absolute masterpiece.

Tim Buckley—Starsailor

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Tim Buckley is a mystery. He died too young. How he went from his L.A. folk rock first album to the absolute unique sound of Starsailor and Lorca is impossible to understand and a miracle of music. All six records in between are masterpieces. He was possessed by genius and has the most beautiful voice. I don´t know much about him, but his music put me out there.

Sun Ra—Night Music 1989

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Watch this. Space is The Place, indeed.

Pescado Rabioso—Artaud

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This guy, Luis Alberto Spinetta, is considered by many to be the most important rock musician in my country. So being an arrogant teenage punk, or whatever, of course that alone was enough to reject him altogether without even thinking. But a couple of years ago I was blown away by a book of poems he published in 1978. Incredibly beautiful, unique and sophisticated poetry. I recently started, too late, to listen to his music. This is one of his most famous and revered records. It´s dedicated to, and inspired by Antonin Artaud, who tried and failed to reach the mystic enlightenment, generating a body of work in the process which is a testament to his spiritual ambition, his radical rejection of the material world and his pain. Spinetta understood this, he said the record was trying to find an answer to Artaud, a way out of it, a way out of the pain. It´s psychedelic music of the highest order. The lyrics are incredible but you can enjoy it even without understanding them.

Dead Can Dance—Dyonisios

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I kept forgetting this band exists. This new album is great. I listened to it non-stop during last Winter/Spring. It´s the perfect time because the record is about Dyonisios, so as a soundtrack for the rebirth of Nature it´s perfect. Probably their best work in years. Sublime.

The Fall—“Garden” (Live at the Hacienda, Manchester, UK, 1984)

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No list of visionary rock and roll would be complete without Mark E. Smith. Famously he said, “I used to be a psychic but I drank my way out of it.” Indeed, there was a time, between 1978-1990, when he was possessed by something, injecting realism with mysticism, mixing high and low planes, exposing the supernatural forces that hides in the cracks of everyday life. He never talks about hell neither heaven, but rather the way they mix and manifest here on Earth. You’ve got countless of bands using occult/mystic imagery, and you know it´s nice but it´s just a game. You’ve got thousands of bands referencing Burroughs and the cut-up technique, but no one can write as Burroughs did. MES did it. MES wasn´t playing. He was a realist of the augmented reality, he told it like it is, in his fragmented, hallucinatory, unpretentious, visionary prose poetry.

There is a lot in his lyrics that can be read in a mystic, occult way. He left a lot of clues for the ones that can read them. His texts are kaleidoscopic, and they reflect what´s in your mind, really. I think he will be recognized with time as the great experimental writer that he actually was rather than merely an angry Mancunian punk. He had more in common with someone like Iain Sinclair than with any other rock musician. One of my favorite web sites is The Annotated Fall, where fans analyze his lyrics in depth. Pay a visit if you can, I can´t recommended it enough. In many ways, he was too intelligent for rock and roll, and that´s why he was misunderstood, but he didn´t care, he believed in constant work, never explain, never apologize. The Fall took all the best things in rock and roll: Can, Velvet Underground, punk, Captain Beefheart, and pushed it to the next level. Our favorite rock group ever.

Huun Hur Tu — “Prayer”

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I tried to stick to Western, modern music but I can´t help including this.

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thesunlounge · 5 years

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Reviews 277: LSW

One of my favorite collectives and labels descending from Düsseldorf’s Salon des amateurs is candomblé, the slightly mysterious group of artists and producers based loosely around those Phaserboys Aki Aki and Rasputin. Across a pair of various artist 10”s called Check Your Reality and To Style One Into, the duo and friends Kaschiel, Schaik Mitz, and DJ Normal 4 explored psychedelic breakbeat stylings with touches of cosmic chill-out, prog house, and trance. And most recently, Aki Aki himself released collection of low-slung, dubbed out, and downbeat acidbass rave outs through the label called Dishjockey. But in between those first 10” releases and Aki Aki’s leftfield drug experiments came a curious collection of mutant krautrock and shadowy NDW-leaning pop called Life Style West, which was written and produced by that Phaserboy Gregor Darman, Sebastian Welicki, and vocalist/lyricist Leonard Horres under the name LSW. The music here aligns with the recent work of Niklas Wandt and Joshua Gottmans as Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge as well elements of Stabil Elites’ sound, though LSW head even further into realms of dark Kraftwerk-ian body music militance, with monotone vocals at once pleading and apathetic hovering above retro-futurist hardware jam-outs. Mechanized drums stomp through the night, squelching basslines pulsate narcotically, and synths morph between kosmische crystals and Goan energy fields, with things occasionally ascending towards realms of lounge exotica, jazz fusion, and Napoli-style future funk. And through it all, Horres weaves lyrical spells, dark humorisms, and post-punk poems concerning modern anxiety, urban decay, and themes of rage, fear, and surreality.

LSW - Life Style West (candomblé, 2019) Blaring brass and tribal drums intercut at the start of “Trendalarmstufe Rot,” before giving way to a ritualistic groove, where machine kicks stomp, beachside bongos roll, claps crack,, and gated reverb snares smack against cavern walls. Synths drone into the void, Horres’ monotone voice speaks expressively, and mystical electronics smear into ether, with synthesizers gliding like steel drum sunbeams. At certain points, dissonant fusion solos swirl around squelching bassline madness while elsewhere, apathetic chants of "trendalarm stufe rot” lead to thrilling passages that mix jacking EBM and Italo funk, as the percussion slams and flamboyant basslines slap and slither alongside zooming acid psychedelics. Nearing the end, rave squiggles work around anthemic leads, mermaid breaths fade into space vapor, and chords of crystal disperse, with everything locking into a hypnotic side-to-side swagger. Then in “Deutsche Bahn,” bulbous basslines and cyborg surf melodies are shrouded in mist while sci-fi motorik magic builds in, all white noise cymbals, kraut pulsations, and wobbly basslines morphing through sequential syncopations. Horres chatters over top before locking into shamanic repetitions of “gute reise mit der Deutsche bahn”…the vibe like soaring down a futurescape railway on pulsing energy waves as neon tracers and psychosonic patterns swirl. The hypnotic glide is periodically disturbed by electro-tom panoramas, stuttering robo-rhythms, and double tracked vocalisms and at some point, the kick drums cut away for a passage of sequential reso-filter chaos, wherein basslines evolve into alien liquids. Later, as the cymbals return, they no longer lead a kosmische float and now guide a futuristic doom dirge, with stoner sub-bass swinging and searing layers of static frying the mind.

At the start of “Tenor Ist Terror,” looping electronics lead to irresistible breakbeat funk, with everything low slung, loose, and free. Subsonic pulses erupt from earthen depths and Horres leads a call and response between smooth voices and creepy whispers before working into a delirious combination of early 80s proto-rapping and soft schlager lullaby. It’s a world of hands-in-the-air west coast magic and booty shaking beat science, with mystical Arabian melodics constructed from cycling oscillations, textures of plucked gemstone and galactic diamond merging, and eerie synthesis droning into a golden haze. The electronics surrounding the hip-hop jam out sometimes recall textures of Goa trance and at certain moments, Horres’ voice is double tracked while moving through rapid fire repetitions of “doch egal wer dich weiter durch die nacho begleitet / das her int nicht bearbeitet.” During a breakdown, everything sounds distorted and ring modulated while claps fire through strange echo layers and wierdo siren patterns modulate. And after the breaky rhythms build back up and Horres returns, his voice is backed by triumphant waves of ambient fog…these blaring chords and bending arcs of sonic darkness leading to a brief yet emotional climax. “Altbier,” the final track on the A-side, is a fantasy dub interlude as seen through a drunken mirage. Jazzy drums sway through downbeat rhythms and basslines walk through bebop futureworlds, with everything embellished by wiggling electronics and wavering FM synthesis. It’s lounge exotica on a faraway plant, like early Sun Ra meeting a strange NDW berceuse, with sexual whispers raising the hair on the back of the neck and evoking Walter Wegmüller, star menschen Rosi Müller, and the vocal erotica of The Pilotwings.

The centerpiece of the B-side is “Goldketten Aus Fett,” which sees the title and the phrase “geld wie dreck” repeated under gentle multitracking while alternating with cold delirium whispers. Hand drums mutate through strange electronics and snare splashes build anticipation, with everything setting the stage for another Kraftwerk-infused electro rhythm, only as if written in the era of acid house. Sketchy shakers join simplistic subkick and snare militance, with everything smashing through layers of 80s verb. Square wave basslines generate an infectious future dance and trance arps fly all around, as “goldketten aus fett / geld wie dreck” is endlessly repeated. During a flashy bass passage, tubular subsynth melodies flow beneath haunted chord swells, riffing funk liquids, and Horres’ whispering voice, all while cowbells ping and sweltering sequences dance in counterpoint. The drums continuously build up and reduce according to a hyperactive dream logic and satellite transmissions are transformed into melodic phrases while virtual saxophones skronk through wild fusion solos beneath a heatwave sky. Beats hit in isolation during a smashing percussion passage before being joined by video game bass sequencing and virtual seagull cries. Then, a majestic theme rains down from the heavens, with Horres crooning in joyous wonderment and chords calling out to the sunset as they move through heart-wrenching themes. Returning to the technoid future jam and its dark industrial hypnotics, plucked bass synths morph into progressive trance runs as birds of the sea suffuse the air. And eventually, as the pleading voices fade away, we arrive at an outro of rhythmic computer noise, blasting mirage chords, and futuristic drum funk.

“Goldketten Aus Fett” is surrounded by “Bist Du Irgendetwas Wert” and “Denkst Du,” with the former co-produced by Kaschiel and seeing double time cymbals and claps rocketing over kicks and snares. Wisps of sickly starlight drift as the track develops into Kraftwerk-ian breakbeat mesmerism, all slamming electro and techno-funk magic. There’s a moment where the rhythms cut away, leaving snares and computer sequences to fly alone until a wobbly brass bassline brings back the narcotic robo-break hypnotics. The singing is like a monotone serenade, with two doped out voices sounding as if in a closed-eye trance while singing “bist du irgendetwas wert / schaffst du es alleine / bist du irgendetwas wert / weißt du was ich meine.” Later, the Kraftwerk vibes are pushed into all out worship as gothic leads pay tribute to “Trans Europa Express” and nearing the end, it all devolves into a crashing cymbals, growling funk bass, and squiggling West Hill synthesis before returning to an airy future dance of proto-technoid breaks and sequential space calculations. Life Style West ends with “Denskt Du” and its ethnological percussion sounding like rattlesnake tails over thudding kicks and laser blasts. Rhythmic voices repeat “denkst du / ich denke nichte” amidst further Middle Eastern melodic mysticisms and distorted synthbass sensualisms while double-time cymbals skip and drums flow playfully through stoner groove outs. Outerspace broadcasts introduce ethereal pad wonderment…these phaser-blasted waves of kosmische magic flowing in then dispersing, leaving voices to hover above smashing beat hypnotics. Elsewhere, Horres moves through longform meditations and apathetic chants of om, creating an anthemic vocal ritual matched by decaying bass squelches. All around move rattling hand drums and atmosphere of desert fantasy and at the climax, phaser chords return and work through ascendent prog rock euphorias, with angel voices and solar synthesis uniting for epic paradise incantations. And after an ending of timbale rhythms, ecstasy raving, and psychoactive android funk, the track closes with coughing sounds and a familiar iPhone sound effect.

(images from my personal copy)

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thesunlounge · 5 years

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Reviews 237: Ai

I’ll never be able to resist the wild and freaky prog, psychedelia, and space music that came out of Germany during the 70s. It was this perfect convergence of psychoactive substances, futuristic electronics, spiritual mind expansion, and rock’n’roll shamanism that produced some of the music I cherish most and while there are many great examples of artists exploring this sound in the modern era, very few have overwhelmed me with krautrock and kosmische perfection like Ai. The collective of Matt Flores, Frank Bauer, Andreas von Hillebrandt, and Shunsuke Oshio first appeared on Slowboy Records’ Kingii comp in 2012 and followed that up three years later with “Anima Itako” on Theme for Great Cities’ third Mogul release. This track then appeared later in 2015 when Ai issued their debut self-titled full-length on Hauch, which was deep and far-out trip into motorik trance rhythms, space riff percolations, kaleidoscopic synthesis, and amorphous starscape bliss outs that could equally soundtrack post-rave chill-out rooms and planetarium laser shows. For their second album II released at the end of 2018, Ai explore these same sonic spaces, but a slight change in personnel has augmented the sound in new and surprising ways. As opposed to their debut, Shunsuke Oshio only appears on four of II’s seven tracks and much of the guitar work has been transferred to new member Nima Moussavi, who brings a muscular 70s space rock riff energy as well as an even more pronounced level of interstellar prog majesty and funk and fusion fire. And in the shimmering “Amberica,” Amber Pine’s whispered vocals lead an etheric float down a river of dream-pop radiance.

Ai - II (Hauch, 2018) “Ai Theme” sets the stage with sweeping filters and sea blue hazes swirling above a balearic dreamscape. Downbeat electro-drums pound majestically through aquatic cloudrealms and vaporous pad washes smear together with romantic guitar atmospheres, with everything slowly phasing from one ear to the other. Chiming bubble melodies drift towards a sunburst sky while searing static waves swoon through romance motions and as we move towards the end, outerspace voice transmissions are surround by ever-evolving layers of oceanic mesmerism. At the other end of the A-side sits the gleaming pop of “Amberica,” which starts with a radiant soudbath of deep space filtering and chittering feedback. A dopamine drumbeat enters and cruises on light kick taps and air cracking snare smacks as dreamy vibraphone synthetics melt down from the sky. Heatwave brass layers swell around vibrato guitar weavings that at times evoke some sort of futuristic recollection of patriotic Americana, but this vibe is soon worked against by Amber Pine’s subversive and feminist beat poetry spells, which are delivered via sensual breaths and ambivalent whispers. She’s surrounded by immersive layers of shoegazing bassline funk, all subterranean sustain and riffing vibrations moving beneath wavering currents of guitar shimmer. I’m reminded of Amp, Bowery Electric, Jessamine, very early Spiritualized, and so much else from the golden age of pop-kissed 90s space rock, especially as Shunsuke Oshio radiates golden guitar magic that vibrates in tune with the universe while misty-eyed bassline lyricisms swim upwards through glowing reverb hazes.

In between “Ai Theme” and “Amberica” sits “Aruki Ikura,” where wind blown chimes and rustic guitars give way to riffing bass guitar heat and a mutant breakbeat riding on dazzling snare rolls and sizzling hat patterns. Frank Bauer’s ethereal prog organs descend and blistering noise waves swell while a spellbinding synth sequence works through the sky…starting subtle but slowly growing into a vocal strand of space acid magic that snakes continuously through the mix. After a rhythmic pause, the track erupts into pure motorik perfection with fat-bottomed basslines chugging beneath tight hypno-riffs and drums locking into an energetic krautrock stomp. The vibe sits somewhere between Neu! and Hawkwind, all pastoral psych magic intertwining with chugging space rock fire while phaser morphed organs fly through the sky. The Michael Rother airs are all the more pronounced when vaporous wah-wah licks enter, setting the stage for Nima Moussavi’s molten fuzz solo magic. Dreamy wailing guitar leads trail polychromatic tracers as the ultra-tight jam underneath threatens to explode, with massive drum fills and snare rolls surrounding liquid basslines as they slip and slide through LSD groove motions. Then the song fractures and fades into mist, before snapping back to life with a downbeat stoner funk jam out. Crystalline clean guitars underly moaning fuzz leads that play themes for majestic cloud kingdoms and eventually, Matt Flores works his rhythms back into a sunshine kosmisch glide while interstellar keyboard layers float the soul. And as we work towards the end, epic harmonizations and dueling leads locking together and climb towards a starscape horizon.

The first track on side B is split across three parts, with “Akai Indigo” seeing insectoid oscillations locking in with a fusion breakbeat jam-out. Snares skitter around tight kick and hat patterns while guitars drop deep blue shadow swells over exotic bass guitar walks. The panning oscillations grow ever more intense as they swim through distorted synth dream weavings and eventually the drums work into an upbeat gallop with off-beat snare flourishes and rhythmic clacks cutting through futuristic melody hazes and phaserwave oceans. Moving into ��Akai Indika,” chugging bass riffs, technoid kraut-disco rhythms, and percussive dial tones slam through a black haze nightscape and evoke Heldon soaring at hyperspeed. Shakers pulse ecstatically as alien oscillations chitter and laugh and there’s so much magic in Andreas von Hillebrandt’s basslines…like Jannick Top locked into a hypno-groove disco ritual. As clanging chimes lock into an Afro-folk starscape, layers of resonance grow in strength, causing the synths to sound like glowing balls of energy bouncing through a galactic tunnel. And after dramatic horror-prog chords flow down from dark skies, we transition into “Akai Indigo (Reprise).” It’s a return to a world of jamming psych basslines and splattery swinging drumbeats, though it’s all somehow more lo-fi than before…like far-out garage rock blasted onto the surface of the sun. Burning waves of guitar sorcery melt over the mix and eventually move through rippling wah-wah motions and reality tearing phase-shifts and near the end, galactic synth solos bring dark funeral enchantments before it all disappears into self-oscillating smoke.

Reso-filtered machine cymbals and paranoid percussion energies give way to dubwise basslines and phaser-blasted hi-hat chaos in “Aleister Instamatic,” while melodic electro-tom cascades circle overhead. Unintelligible voices beam in through shortwave radios as a sped up break beat enters, with switching and smacking snare magic intercutting deep bass drum thuds. Sequences flash overhead and recall the crazed lines dominating “Akuri Ikura”…as if playful electro-spiders are crawling across the mind…while skronked out guitar chords sit beneath cymbals splashes that are increasingly shrouded in galactic static. We then sweep upwards into a swooning robot romance chorus with Frank Bauer’s melancholic vocoder melodies melting the heart until the track cuts into a wild guitar passage filled with wah-wah trance vibrations, violent flanger and phaser oscillations, and bubble-form delay clouds. Everything eventually breaks down into crazed plastic crinkles and metallic liquid noise, with bass guitars chugging through a nightmare landscape. But as kick drums push dark clouds of reverb, the basslines are progressively reduced to abstract picking sounds and acoustic string vibrations before fading away almost entirely, leaving guitar mirages flashing side-to-side while incandescent hums emanate from deep space. Angry screams and cosmic wind gusts surround crazed guitar loopings and everything stretches and smears out, with heatwave noise blasts growing in strength as the skittering beats return. And after a sharp pause, we explode once more into the climactic vocoder chorus, now with sweeping string synth orchestrations raining down from the heavens and leading into a gemstone piano solo coda.

“Anikulapo Immortal” starts in a world of smokey lounge jazz as basslines wander apart from tapped cymbals and midnight guitar chords. Anxious synth repetitions, floating aqueous hazes, and clattering rimshots move thorough air-sucking delay and reverb fx and Von Hillebrandt and Flores are in spiritual communion, with pulsating basslines supporting funked out tom-tom tribalisms. And as vocal breaths are spectrally morphed while deep space guitars shimmer like stars, I’m reminded of the ethnological forgery freak outs of Can and Amon Düül II and the side-long epics of Earthless. Galactic drone waves enter while the ecstatic groove motions flail ever forwards and there’s a growing sense of anticipation leading to a slow-burn explosion of dreamworld psychedelia and underwater jazz, wherein gemstone guitar strands are woven from liquid arpeggiations and spaghetti western slides. Then we transition sharply as low-down bass riffs stomp through a solar ascent, with palm-muted echo riffs, synth squiggles, and zany e-pianos floating on water waves. Flores revels in ride cymbal fire and revolving tom majesty while trancey pad smears and staccato riff bursts interlock with thunderous bass riffs….the whole thing evoking the hypno-prog and NWOFHM of Circle. Eventually the jam transitions from militant cosmic ritualism to post-rock majesty as Von Hillebrandt’s bass climbs through lyrical fantasias and leads us again into a passage of joyous pop-psychedelia and aquatic jazz, where haunted pad gases, e-piano vibrato weavings, chiming percolations, sliding guitars, and swinging cymbal and snare rhythms sit below distorted piano notes that seem to decay across the galaxy.

The track then shifts into a patient kick drum march with airy hi-hat taps fluttering and bewildering tom fill madness building in from the depths. Smoldering guitars riffs and shimmering cymbal taps cut through fogs of synth chaos, galactic reverb blasts, sci-fi chime cascades, and blistering filter weirdness and there’s so much ecstatic percussive energy as polyrhythms fly out in all directions. The bass guitar stomps and storms through the sky as the melodic layerings seem to devolve into clicks and scrapes. Then all of a sudden, a blazing guitar solo rips through the fabric of spacetime with bridge pick-up western twang and surf blues spiritualism smothered in slapback echo and white light vibrato fuzz. Breaky drum beats ride on golden cymbal taps and hypno-snare smacks while tambourines jangle joyously and wah-wah clicks flash across the spectrum. The rhythm guitars vibe out with bluesy hammer-ons and interstellar funk wiggles and Von Hillebrandt’s bass locks in and harmonizes with the sun-soaked psych soloing as the mix grows ever more anarchic and free, moving especially far-out once mind-melting organ drones blast in…their longform chordscapes drifting over the mix like muted rainbow light. And there’s a thrilling sense of transition, with the spirit being surrounded by aquamarine crystal hazes, searing feedback spirals, and crashing and thrashing cymbals as Ai work miraculously back towards that irrestible dreamwave psych and ocean jazz sway…a seamless transition from shamanic and shambolic psych bombast to instrumental pop enchantment.

The album closes with “A Huge Structure Far Behind the Sun,” which earns the Orb-ian evocations of its title by foregounding a pulsating sequence that is continually worked through otherworldly filter and envelope modulations in a way recalling “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain that Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld.” All around swirl primordial drones, UFO whooshes, ethereal washes of static, and hovering angel atmospheres as twinkling synth-pianos radiate webs of crystal. Warm swells of distortion break free from the rhythmic swirl of planetarium phase-shifters and the soul glides eternally on soft feedback pulses, filter morphing wave fronts, and layered strands of electronic fire…all while the hallucinogenic lead sequence morphs through long flowing decay trails and sharp staccato percolations. At some point, the bubbling yet subtle currents of rhythm give way to amorphous mermaid dirfstscapes, whale song oscillations, and deep sea lullabies that bring to mind Michael Stearns, Tangerine Dream’s Zeit, Seahawks, and Anna Själv Tredje. It’s pure psychoactive ritualism submerged within an underwater dreamscape where infinite webs of shimmering jewels are constructed from e-piano fractals and electro-bubbles. Mind-melting cymbal swells move into the mix then fade into ether and the Orb-ian galaxy sequence continues weaving polychromatic strands while sometimes overtaking the mix with transcendent blasts of spectral sonic vapor. And beneath it all, heavily treated guitars are transmuted into temple bells.

As we go along, the track continue to spread out and submerge itself within a sea of LSD tracers…as if the mind is being wrapped around by vibratory threads of every possible color. Sparkling melodies, screaming fuzz arcs, and blinding synth solos intertwine while all throughout the mix float the sounds of electrified marbles rolling through echo-caverns. The dreamscape lead sequence swims through modulating waves of distortion and slow motion oscillators accelerate into hyperspace spirals while interstellar resonances create droning clouds of warmth. And as we move deeper into the otherworldly electronic miasma, I am increasingly reminded of Experimental Audio Research, especially Beyond the Pale and Mesmerised…just a joyous celebration of the possibilities of analog synthesis to evoke neon jungle environments on emerald planets or seas of intergalactic gas crashing upon diamond shores. Overt rhythms are abandoned, as are MIDI-sequencing and programming, with Ai instead reveling in human manipulations of crazed alien electronics. Starlight keys add further layers of cosmic shimmer while swelling currents of cymbal metal push the spirit towards ecstasy and moving towards the end, delay trails and reverb tails start merging together…like lapping ripples of feedback spreading outwards on a surface made of glass.

(images from my personal copy)

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thesunlounge · 5 years

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Reviews 234: ANF

The newest release on Pacific Rhythm comes from the duo of Dust-e-1 and Priori, otherwise known as ANF, and marks the second time the Vancouver label has collaborated with the Montreal-based NAFF crew (see last year’s incredible Urth Born by Ex-Terrestrial, especially the soaring DnB future jazz of “Everybody Dreams”). Following on from Visions (S.T.T.G), the Mauna Kea EP sees ANF serving up rolling breakbeat magic, loved up four-four stomps, acid bass percolations, ravey house burners, and oceanic downtempo nod outs, with atmospheres flowing from hands-in-the-air radiance to dark nightscape sensuality. And the sound design is incredible, with huge throbbing bass sonics working the mind and body into a state of throwback euphoria while cool cut-up vocal samples, LSD angel choirs, ecstasy melodies, psychedelic color modulations, ethnological hand-drum patterns, and glowing pad hazes surround jacked out trance rhythms and aquatic chill-out breaks.

ANF - Mauna Kea EP (Pacific Rhythm, 2019) The title track begins with balmy swells and euphoria melodies shrouded in haze, while subarmine pings move through outerspace feedback clusters. A skipping lo-fi breakbeat emerges, comprised of double-time tambourines, air-cracking snares, and haunted voices that weave between dub-delay drum rolls. Then we drop into the main rhythm, which sees hard-hitting four-to-the-floor house hypnotics meeting nostalgic breakdance energies and hissing hi-hat breaths moving through propulsive double-time patterns. The synth swells that begin the track develop into eternally looping chordscapes that sometimes quiver on the verge of orgasm, and at other times filter-morph and detune wildly. Deep flubbing basslines jack upwards as ecstasy atmospheres hover in place and ANF dazzle the mind with vibed out rhythmic switch ups, heady fills, and psychedelic delay. Percolating acid lines fade in from celestial depths…these electronic balls of vibrating energy that move through hypnotic modulations and bubble trance vocalisms in a way not unlike Bicep’s epic “Back 2 U.” Subaqueous feedback pings and slithering space fluids drop in and out until we return to the lo-fi breakbeat glide, with mirage synth melodies growing ever more hallucinogenic and powerful. Then, as the crushing rhythms and throbbing cosmic basslines drop back in, the effect is like trancing out in a neon futureworld or cruising on starbeams through pulsating clouds of galactic dust.

Fat bottomed b-boy breaks and panning sequences comprised of sea-spray diamond tones introduce us to “Chi-Motion,” while tremolo morphing waveforms and starshine acid trails dance together. Ethereal pads wash in then float through melancholic chord progressions and eventually, the rhythms grow deeply hypnotic as chest-caving bass pulsations and sensual sub-sonic slides enter. Psychedelic filter sequences push the mind towards bliss and clipped voice samples bring a kind of 90s ambient and chill out nostalgia evoking The Orb and especially Boards of Canada…a world of dayglo VHS haze with child-like voices and hushed breaths looping and slamming downbeat jams splashing through tropical island dreamrealms. Sometimes ANF back the track down into pure sections of rhythm, all loved up breakbeat magic, intensely physical drum pressure, and soft accompaniments of blue ocean crystals fluttering in the air. Elsewhere, we float freely on deep bass pulsations and machine tom percolations, before transitioning into an ambient driftscape where minimal hand drum pulses are submerged within a sea of synth pad hypnotism. And as we move towards the end, alien vibrato patterns soar across the sky and synthetic waves crash onto a paradise shores.

The introduction of “State/Function” revels in heatwave mirage synthesis, desert daydreams, and mystical atmospherics while liquid-soaked rimshots clatter across the spectrum. Towering sub-bass thumps bring shadow energies and sinister vibrations as a rolling four-four breakbeat enters, with linear jacking kicks and vibing off-time snare, hi-hat, and tambourine patterns. Ghostly pads continue their black haze whirlpool…like an alien orchestra locked into a swooning phaser fantasia while far-out raps and unintelligible scats are cut-up and looped into a propulsive vocal dream tapestry. Strange dial-tone melodies pulse wildly and move through descending progressions and as the sub-bass synths and kick drums fade out, we are left afloat in a haunted haze of deep blue and glowing purple, wherein skittering voice samples and psychoactive sound waves fade in from nothingness. Once the smashing rhythms return, they carry the body away to a chugging realm of dark rave magic, while industrial shaker patterns constructed from tranced out static sequences and cold expanses of synth pad melancholia wrap around the mind.

Perhaps my favorite cut here is “Mary Lynne,” which starts with swirling gemstone smears and polychromatic wave motions. Oceanic harps sit at the center of the universe and let forth plucked tones of eternal crystal that are eventual smeared out into a sort of whale song bassline. Ethno-drums and double-time cymbal taps roll as energetic “come on” samples hit at just the right moments, all before ANF drop one of the coolest breakbeats of the year, adorned by technoid futurisms, Kraftwerk-ian electronics, and gurgling bubbles of acid brass. Heavenly choirs flow out from mermaid kingdoms, LSD voices flash side-to-side, and classical cut-up vocal trance fx surf on tremolo waves while emotive synth melodies flutter softly…the track reveling in the same sort of sci-fi breakbeat hypnotism and alien rainforest spiritualism explored by Future Sound of London, with the comparison all the more appropriate as sprightly pan-pipes dance through a jungle weaving of dream threads and intertwining hallucinations. During a moment where the kick drums and acid bass gurgles recede, filter-blasted electro rhythms glide beneath a panorama of mutating voice vapors and radiant angel hypnotics. And as we drop again into the futuristic breakbeat storm, with sketchy kraut electronics merging with old skool chill-out rhythmics, the mellifluous voice layers begin ascending ever higher towards ethereal cloudlands and colorburst paradises.

(images from my personal copy)

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thesunlounge · 5 years

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Reviews 228: A Man Called Adam

One of the biggest surprises last year came with the seventh volume of Emotional Rescue’s Schleißen series, as balearic pop and rare groove legends A Man Called Adam presented a delirious collage called “Sketches (2011 - 2017).” This was the first new music from the group in years and was also one of the most cerebral, challenging, and modern pieces in their adventurous back catalog, showing that despite the passage of time and years of absence, Sally Rogers and Steve Jones were just as tuned into the “now” as ever. And it turns out, this appearance signaled an exciting period of new activity for A Man Called Adam, one culminating in the release of Farmarama, their first full length album since 1999’s Duende. Issued on the duo’s longstanding and newly resurrected other imprint, Farmarama surveys and revisits some of the most infectious and loved up sounds of their career, with beats morphing fluidly between chill-out breaks, disco stomps, and house bangers while the air is colored with romantic melodies, psychedelic fx, and tropical atmospheres sourced from Steve’s arsenal of mobile electronics. There are vibrant layers of live percussion, bass, keys, and horns provided by a close group of friends and Sally is at the top of her game, moving effortlessly between cooing whispers, sensual breaths, lounge jazz serenades, and soulful diva enchantments. And the album’s energy is so joyous and freewheeling…like a collective of beatniks, hippies, and flower children reveling in the vocabulary of acid house, with side-journeys through sunshine reggae, space-age pop, tropical exotica, balearic soul, post-classical forest folk, cosmic kraut funk, radiophonic weirdness, and so much else besides.

A Man Called Adam - Farmarama (other, 2019) “Mountains and Waterfalls” cuts right into a warm disco stomp, with rolling hand percussion and obscured claps and snares. Slightly drunken pianos are hypnotically looped and infinite webs of polyrhythmic cymbal shimmer suffuse the air while gentle blasts of space synthesis wrap around fusion e-pianos. Sally is joyous and care-free…as if dancing through a sunshine meadow and Fergus Quill’s fat-bottomed basslines slip and slide through solar funk grooves. At some point everything fades out, leaving sexual croons and layers of starshine electronics for a floating expanse of ambient soul. Then comes a dazzling display of soprano and baritone sax magic with James Taylor dropping intertwining melodies of lounge jazz smoothness that occasionally work into free jazz fire and all throughout the track there are moments where the beats start smashing and crashing…as if threatening to explode into some peak-time jam. Then towards the end, such a moment finally arrives with a heady passage of backwards sucking and compressed filter disco magic, where flanging basslines underly clipped pianos, scatting horns, chittering vocal fx, and gorgeous refrains. In “Ou Pas,” electronic marbles roll through crystal tunnels as kick drums march and anxious percussive energies suffuse the air. Twilit vibraphone snippets evoke Milt Jackson, fragile pianos bang away, exotic organ melodies weave colorful patterns, and synthbass squelches move through lands of dark enchantment while Sally delivers expressive French vocalisms. And the whole thing is intercut by cinematic transitions where forest fairy woodwinds fly above droning sitars and tanpuras...the effect like the cinematic noir exotica and pop psychedelia of Broadcast.

The title track is balearica of the highest order and evokes for me the José Padilla-curated Café del Mar compilations and React’s Real Ibiza series (which is of course no surprise, as A Man Called Adam appear on many of those releases). Filtered hammock house beats roll beneath an open sky panorama of seagulls and clouds and melodic hand drum patterns sit within a sea-spray haze of shakers, shells, and cymbals. Celestial layers of ambiance fade in alongside tropical chord progressions and jacking synthbass lines and the vocals are ecstatic, soulful, and often multi-tracked…creating fluttering harmonizations and dreamy conversations while chime strands flow through the background ether. There is so much snare and clap action firing softly between the sizzling cymbal layers and chugging basslines and near the end, majestic horns uplift the spirit while acoustic guitars wander through lands of pastoral jazz folk...the whole thing aligning nicely with the work of Tortoise. “Top of the Lake” sits at the opposite end of the B-side and is one of A Man Called Adam’s most mysterious compositions. Crystalline pianos move above backwards flowing melodies while shadow energies and forest mysticisms are evoked by operatic vocal streaks. Romantic and vaguely flamenco-inflected guitars play melodies of medieval enchantment, only smothered beneath a thick and heavy sonic fog…as if the tantalizing songs of fauns and wood nymphs are heard through a veil of darkness. As the amorphous drones and smeared electronic continue cycling, occasional snippets of piano or acoustic guitar break free from the storm…these brief flashes of mystic light that drawn you further into the ancient woodland.

Between “Farmarama” and “Top of the Lake” sits “Higher Powers,” which loops kaleidoscopic e-pianos over dusty house percussion layers, spellbinding hand drum cascades from Josh Ketch, stuttering kick beats, and harsh hi-hats working between clipped closed hits and open sizzles. Adventurous fusion pianos drifts around Sally’s cut-up “your heartache” refrains and interstellar synth vapors and squiggling psychedelics pan side-to-side as the track revels in the darker sides of French touch. Then comes a rather dramatic transition featuring skittering snares and filtering cymbals flying through resonant phasers, all while Sally alights on romantic voice adventures with lyrics imploring surrender to nature’s higher powers. From here on out, we flit back and forth between zoned out filter house workouts and colorful passages of cinematic synth-pop while the vocals swoon and croon over post-classical swells and angular transitions. There are extended sections dominated by weird sonic fractals and phaser experimentations that also see snares moving through alien motions and Sally’s soft serenade is increasingly surrounded by desperate chants, wails, and pinging tones. At some point it all breaks down into a ritualistic yet funky hand-drum passage that is soon kissed over by dark acid lines that bend and slide through a jungle of hallucinations. And as the beats return, Steve and Sally pile on cosmic delay bubbles, pitch-morphing snare rolls, rainforest drum energies, and breathy voice fx.

The epic length “Michael” loops strange percussive textures, pulsing synths, and stuttering drums into a chill-out breakbeat while marimbas, vibraphones, and kalimbas are trailed by rainbow tracers. Sally flits and scats between dream logic verses and structured choruses that again evoke Ibizan sunsets and beachside parties, especially as aching orchestrations move through the sky. James Taylor appears again with cooler-than-cool lounge jazz sax solos while fluid funkbass pulsations and proggy bass guitar wiggles hold down the groove. There’s a moment where it all spreads and spaces out, with cut-up bass solos, cosmic synth detritus, and wailing saxophones merging and as the paradise breaks fade back in alongside island breeze marimba patterns, Sally delivers one her most captivating performances of the album…her voice growing increasingly desperate and untethered to any melody or rhythm as she repeats “I still believe there is a deeper love.” The song progressively vaporizes around her…like a lone angel floating within a cloud of aquamarine and as the smooth downbeat rhythms return, cinematic orchestrations wrap around Afro-folk idiophones that occasionally alight on hallucinatory runs up and down the scale. And sometimes, it sounds like several different drum beats rush into the mix, creating a delirious rhythmic energy surrounded by wavering psychedelics and lyrical soul raps replete with sage life advice.

We head towards an equatorial dub dreamworld in “Tic-Toc,” starting with sub-bass currents, sunshine basslines, and electro-percussions panning and echoing. Flutey synths and sun-blasted organs create hazy melodic clouds as e-pianos smear out and float towards an infinite horizon and the vocals are so amazing here...swooning and playful, conversational and sassy…with all sorts of child-like backing harmonies and intertwining layers. I’m reminded of moments from Gang Gang Dance’s Eye Contact, especially as tropically-tinged pan-pipe futurisms snake through a seaside jungle of sound. It’s joyous reggae perfection skanking through a balearic dreamscape and the beats never quite come together, creating instead a shambolic dub stomp while chanting voice samples and cut-up guitar runs dance together. Fergus Quill’s basslines are supremely melodic and soaked in positivity as they slide around and the mix is periodically subsumed by psychoactive delay, reverb, and phaser waves. African folk guitar spells and jazzy six-string solos support Sally’s hypnotic conversations, oceanic melodies, and stoned sing-song progressions and as tambourines jangle alongside crystal strands blowing in the breeze, candy-colored synth solos and heatwave organs rush into and out of the stereo field. But as bright as it all is, the lyrics seem heavy and personal while also overflowing with a powerful feminist energy.

The song suite that introduces the D-side is truly spectacular and is already one of my favorite compositions of the year (maybe of all time?). We start deep within Daphne Oram’s Radiophonic workshop as “Spots of Time” constructs a collage of interstellar transmissions, industrial metal tones, advanced computations, fractal tape loops, garbled voices, and disjointed cymbal taps. A radiant and wavering synth arp then introduces “Ladies of Electronica,” soon joined by mellifluous post-rock basslines that would feel right at home on Mogai’s Young Team. Sally sings a gorgeous paean to the titular ladies of electronic: Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros (and Pauline Anna Strom perhaps?), Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel, Wendy Carlos, and Suzanne Ciani while chiming synths and solar guitar melodics bring to mind Michael Rother and Vini Reilly. I’ve always felt there was spiritual kinship between Stereolab and A Man Called Adam and it has never been so apparent as here, especially as bubblegum harmonizations work in round over sections of outerspace psychedelia featuring cut-up drone cascades, blasting drum fx, instructional voice samples, and delirious echowaves. Eventually a smoldering and ultra-tight breakbeat builds in strength alongside cushiony sub-bass pulses as we transition into “Sally’s Ladies Rerub,” which is a spaced out krautfunk jam of the highest order. It’s the kind of thing you might hear from Can, This Heat, or even The Heliocentrics, all minimal and heady, with vaporous synths splashing though rainbow tidepools. And after an extended zoner groove out, Sally re-emerges and delivers once more her dreamily effected tribute to the pioneering women of sonic experimentation.

Though “Paul Valery at the Disco” name checks the poet and philosopher Paul Valery, it has its sights firmly set on early 1970s Berlin and the collective of artists based around Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser’s Cosmic Couriers imprint. Indeed, the beginning of the track sees a star-maiden calling across a cosmic void…her coos, whispers, and intergalactic incantations flying over a hypnotizing display of primitive synthesis and insectoid buzzing chaos. It evokes some of my favorite music of all time: Walter Wegmüller’s Tarot, Ash Ra Tempel’s Join Inn, and the work of the Cosmic Jokers, especially those moments where Rosi Müller or Gille Lettmann would add seducitve voice hypnotics to the collective’s far-out electronic dreamscapes. Whether or not it was intentional, the track nails the early kosmische vibe better than almost anything I have ever heard…like instant time travel to Germany during the advent of LSD and synthesized electronics. But eventually, Sally and Steve drop us into the dirtiest and most sexually charged groove of the album…a loved up and sensual beat stomping through a land of compressors and filters while ravey synths boil, wriggle, and writhe. Funky choirs and radiant divas implore you to “come on and lose yourself” while octave basslines bring Hi-NRG dancefloor heat and though we’ve now entered a land of dark disco enchantment and sweaty club motions, the track never quite looses that 70s krautrock edge as chunky and drugged out streaks of Klaus Schulze-ian synthesis wash over the mind.

(images from my personal copy)

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thesunlounge · 6 years

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Reviews 188: Italo Funk

Italo Funk is a new compilation from Soul Clap Records presenting ten loved up and grooved out productions from an insane list of modern Italian artists. On the label’s Bandcamp, there’s an excellent write-up from compilation contributor Lele Sacchi that details the lineage of Italian dance music from its roots in American R&B and funk all the way through to 90s Italo-house. Within this vibrant yet underground house scene, a whole new generation of producers and musicians emerged, taking cues from their forbears while also pushing out into new and adventurous sonic territories and this 90s generation is where Soul Clap focuses their attention. But rather than presenting archival tracks and historical productions, the label instead asked the artists for new compositions and because of this, the compilation provides a welcome view into some of the far-out places the Italo sound has travelled in the intervening decades. And of course the music is pure fire, with a foundation of muscular disco rhythms colored over by an eclectic display of exotic shades and styles. There are many artists here that are old favorites, such as cosmic/balearic master DJ Rocca, vintage disco edit and boogie wizards Tiger & Woods, Dreamhouse Tropicana and sometimes Is it Balearic? contributor Deep88, and the Pastaboys-related Memoryman, Funk Rimini, and Capofortuna. But luckily, there are also a wealth of new (to me) artists such as Boot & Tax, LowHeads, Lele Sacchi, and Jolly Mare, each of which provides a whole new sonic universe to explore.

Soul Clap Records Presents: Italo Funk (Soul Clap Records, 2019) The most atmospheric cut comes first with “Macinare” by Boot & Tax. Sparkling cymbal taps cruise celestial waves of ambiance and blasted screams of static arc across the stereo field as enveloping bass pulsations are built from softly thudding kicks and subsonic currents. A wobbling jazz bassline walks through the mix and cut-up tom fills and wooden polyrhythms grow increasingly anxious while mystical horns blow muted sonic shadows and zany audial liquids slide across the mind. The song grows urgent once martial snare rolls and crashing cymbals start intercuting the flashing tom fills and as paranoid hi-hat patterns enter, everything comes together for a feverish hypno-groove where synths like alien woodwinds solo towards the sky…like spiritual jazz beamed in from another dimension. Capofortuna follows with “MA NU” and its low down synthbass hypnotics. Turntable scratches and bubbling voices samples join sampled crowd chatter while lofi cymbal and snare patterns glide through the air. When the disco kick enters, the filter opens on the bassline, revealing squelching synthfunk fire that supports the cruising double time hats. Cosmic pads stab out then flow in reverse while echo morphing, while vocal samples trail LSD tracers and psychedelic tones roll through the background ether. The slamming groove is also intercut by wild percussive transitions where tropical drum panoramas are overlaid by laser synths echoing eternally. And near the middle, we bust into a jammed out breakbeat that pushes the groove euphoria to a maximum while bending pads waver in place.

Tiger & Woods’ “Machete” sees snares splashing through puddles of gated reverb static while chugging electro-funk basslines sit beneath skipping clicks. Wiggling synth riffs scat alongside shuffling hi-hat patterns and tranced out snare rolls bring in drunken dreamhouse piano ascents, with several layers of ivory climbing together towards the sun. During hypnotizing drop-outs, the kick marches alone beneath French-touch filter clouds as the rest of the rhythms work back to full strength and sometimes the bass drums are sent through heavy high pass fx while island bongos drift in on a warm breeze, the groove growing airy and tropical while gliding on sunbeams. As when we smash cut back to the charged up disco fire, wonky resonant synth leads now converse with the radiant piano riffs. DJ Rocca compresses and crushes the drums of “Do U Lu Me,” while hi-hats and tambourines are mutated into blasts of white noise. An incredible vocal sample repeats the song’s title under spectral filtering until it is ripped into fractal shards…as if pools of neon fluid are dripping in all directions. All the while, a supremely psychedelic bassline sounding like a mutant clavinet growls down low and moves through the mix with hypnotic purpose. Vibraphones sitting under dubwise delay fx drop paradise melodies while flashes of horror movie atmospherics swirl beneath and sometimes the mix drops down to just the magical psych-basslines and panning hand percussion webs. And at some point, as the “do u luv me” vocal loop dances in the air, the rest of the drums slowly build back, eventually climaxing with a vibed out solo section of strange alien synth fx moving in ways that defy logic.

“My Brother” by Memoryman starts as marauding sub-bass currents work their way over some four-to-the-floor beat maximalism for an extended section of hard hitting club fire that is periodically brightened by nacreous synth vapors and organic woodblocks. Heady vocal samples diffuse through the mix while glowing house pads hover in place and off-time snare hits vibe out under layers of reverb. A charging tribal transition leads to a passage of pure propulsion, where birds flutter through layers of sonic mist and ghostly space synths descend and as the drums are reduced to just cymbals and snare and as the subaqueous bassline pulls away, gaseous electronics float alongside exotic synth trails through a wonderland of shadows. But eventually the swinging bass sorcery returns and the song rides high on a perfect paradise groove. Funk Rimini’s “Don’t Smoke” is deeply entrancing, as psychoactive voice samples and mind-bending ambient textures float over dusty percussion loops. Robotic disco beats emerge while alien bell tones float through the psychedelic clouds and a squelched and supremely fat MJ-style bassline drops acidic sunshine riffs. Ethereal pads diffuse into the mix before fading out and aquatic guitar loops riff towards the sunset while swimming through phaser clouds. During a spellbinding section where the drums pull away, druggy voices chatter across the spectrum and fogbanks of colorful synthesis spring into and out of existence. Then, a glorious Rhodes performance brings the groove back home with its chilled and supremely soulful solo adventures.

LowHeads bring vibes of exotic sunshine with “Tsubasa,” as cymbals and hand drums pulse through a jungle of light. Robotic birdcalls pan ear to ear alongside liquid percussion textures and the kick drum pulls away almost as soon as it enters, allowing hypnotic organ riffs to work over the mind while hazy claps ring out. Electro-percolations underly massive bass stabs once the kick returns and we then find ourselves locked into some ecstatic ritual deep within a forest of groove. Hallucinatory drum fx pan around like the mating calls of extra-terrestrial fauna and at some point the kick drum again recedes, leaving behind a polychromatic world of synthetic nature sounds. As the fusion-tinged disco groove returns, ecstatic flutes fly through the humid air and attempt to converse with alien birds while beneath it all, thudding square wave bass sequences slide up and down the scale. Deep88 follows with a journey into the night, as “SP1200” revels in romantic deep house vibrations. City leveling kicks, panoramic claps, and thudding tom-toms nod out beneath balmy pads that hover like a twilight mist as harsh open hats keep the energetic groove gliding through space. Cosmic woodwinds rain down alongside interstellar mirage electronics…like glassy tones stretched into some sort of sinuous ether. It’s hard to overstate how massive the drums are, with the analog Roland tones dancing through subtle yet vibrant percussive patterns and overall, the song is mostly content to float endlessly on waves of dark fantasy, letting the hyper-active claps, cymbals, and snares control the drama while the soul swims through a cosmic ocean of sparkling synthesis.

A cerebral voice sample is cut-up and delayed in Lele Sacchi’s “Proud” while tropical bongos work over the mix. The bass drum pulls away as slapback shrouded snare and cymbal breaks jam out beneath euphoric rave stabs and once the kick returns, we find ourselves in a mediterranean paradise of gliding disco romanticism. Rapturous pianos rain down peace and harmony while flutes dart around like sunlight reflecting off water and it is impossible to resist the body moving rhythms and surrounding wonderland of soulful Italo melodics. The euphoric rave synths and ambient breakbeats return during a zoned out midtro and once we drop back into the paradise disco flow, it’s like sunshine raining down, blue waves crashing to shore, and bodies moving mesmerically as sea-foam tones and island dream atmospheres fall from the clouds. Jolly Mare’s “Dribbling” features a solitary splatter-kick marching through a new age wonderworld of arpeggiated electronics and feedback squiggles. Ebullient sequences fly over the uptempo kraut-disco stomp with springy tones of metal and glass while hyno-shakers pull the mind further into the groove. Oscillations move like clouds of cosmic dust, hand drums roll through infinite echo-chains, filtered conversations drift all through the spectrum, and evil twanging basslines emerge, eventually embellished by deep space squelches. Sometimes the song reduces to just kick drum, kaleidoscopic hand drum webs, and sinister bass riffs, as shakers evoke rattlesnakes and mystical desert vistas. Other times, everything cuts away, leaving the low slung basslines and psychedelic metal and glass sequences to intertwine with intergalactic broadcasts, radar transmissions, and disorienting alien liquids.

(images provided by Shine PR)

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