Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Last In: 7 days ago
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
TOTEMIC MODULATIONS, UNEARTHED FROM WIND AND WORDS
“The album Chênes mainly brings together songs. These songs are narratives of scenes that unfold in the forest, or in the city but with animal and plant protagonists. One song also tells the story of a solitary walk in the mountains. They are like zoomed-in snapshots of the world of insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals. They are also celebrations of growing life, and the pleasure and joy it brings.
Composed over the course of about two or three years, it was a deliberate choice to bring them together for this album, even though they were not initially connected to one another. One of them is an exception and is more of a collection of vocalizations and cries without actual words, composed in a language incomprehensible to humans because it is nonverbal.
This collection of imitated chants and sung songs had to be illustrated by the collages of my friend Fen. Even though the stories describe real species and elements, they are indeed imagined tales. Her collages are, too. There’s also the violin that adds a wandering touch to the pieces, and other instruments that shape the environment and setting of these stories. Bells, bird calls, whistles, flutes, jaw harp, harmonica — all imitate more or less imaginary species. Each has its role and its life, down to the horsehair of the bow that rubs the strings of my violin to bring forth the sound.
Chênes is a title that pays homage to trees I love so much, though without preference over others. They have embodied several giants that I’ve often come across, greeted, and embraced” ~ Roxane Métayer
expected to be published on 16.05.2025
Marc Moulin’s Top Secret is a mixed bag of downtempo jazz treats and sweet-sounding rhythmic forays into the dark of night. With this recording,
Marc Moulin craftily blends the sound of sexy vocals and collages them against the sounds of muted trumpets, congas, guitars, and drums.
This work comes alive with a jazz flavor, one that seems to have been used by a variety of performers and producers, but
one that is uniquely Marc Moulin. Top Secret is a journey through the kaleidoscopic sound world of 1960s bossa jazz with a taste of
Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and George Duke. Marc Moulin’s Top Secret seems to be half downtempo 1990s chill recording,
and half contemporary jazz, which makes for a compelling fusion. This recording certainly breathes new life into the genre of acid jazz, or downtempo music
This expanded edition of Top Secret - with no less than 5 bonus remix tracks- is available as a limited numbered edition of 750 copies on orange coloured vinyl
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
“Trustworthy”. is the meaning of “danama”, this Bambara word from Mali. Believing in oneself, in others, in the word given, in desirable futures. Advocating optimism, momentum towards the future, collective strength and the wise magic of cultural blending… especially during these troubled times of endless wars, of nationalist withdrawals or the abundance of naturals disasters, all encouraged by a carnivorous capitalism?
So confidence, we need tons of it. Maintained by the flame, the phlegm and the stratagem of these afro-groove scientists, without ignoring their sorrows nor the scandals of History. This is the athletic art of Arat Kilo, who remain without question the best ethio-jazz orchestra in France, on the trail of this fifth album recorded in the Spring of 2024. Confidence was also needed to change the way things worked. For all the previous albums, the band came together in the studio to play each track together, all in the same room, in the romantic idea of a warm, lively, organic gesture, in the manner of the great Ethiopian masters of the 60s and 70s.
For Danama, the music was initially collected in tandem: guitar/bass, drums/percussion, saxophone/trumpet, and the two voices. A few new instruments were added along the way : dark synthesizers, a bass clarinet, a tiny guitalélé (similar to the ukulele) and a Malian n'goni (sometimes described as ‘the griot's lute’). Then, and above all, there was the question of experimenting with real sound production, using sound design, multi-track exploration and effects applied to the textures collected over eight days at the Gong studios in Montreuil and OneTwoPassIt in Bagnolet just outside Paris.
In this way the band, all growing up influenced by the hip French Radio Nova's ‘Grand Mix’, were completely free to express their natural taste for fusion between genres. Borrowing from the frantic rhythms of Newark's jersey club, English 2-step or New Orleans brass bands, grafted onto Arat Kilo's musical base: tezeta, the famous minor pentatonic scale typical of Ethiopian jazz, melancholic to perfection. The result is layers of sound, collages of emotions, like the album cover, created by artist Clément Laurentin from multicoloured fragments of posters torn up in the street.
So Arat Kilo are back: The same band, the same collective strength, the same fight for values, their new album “Danama” carries the demand for a better world even further, with words of hope from singer Mamani Keita and the social critique of American MC and poet Mike Ladd ! The result is this luminous voyage down the Danama canal. In all, eleven songs and an instrumental, mixed by Mathieu ‘Gib’ Gibert - one of French band La Fine Équipe's beatmakers - set to drive the crowds wild and remind us how to stick together again.
expected to be published on 21.04.2025
Carrying on their longstanding dedication to the seminal output of Merzbow, Urashima returns with what is unquestionably their most ambitious release to date: “Collection 001-010”, a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set limited to 299 copies, gathering together the entirety of the project’s first ten releases, originally released in 1981. Encountering the band in its early incarnation of the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, raw, exposed and bristling with energy, foreshadowing numerous trajectories they would follow over the coming years, these astounding full lengths - the majority of which have never been released on vinyl - come housed in a beautifully produced, deluxe wooden box, with each LP in its own individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, and a LP-sized 32-page book containing reproductions of artworls and collages by Masami Akita, an interview conducted by Jim O'Rourke, and liner notes penned by Lasse Marhaug, Thurston Moore, and Akita himself, amounting to what is unquestionably one of the most historically significant releases we’re likely to encounter in 2025.
Deluxe Edition of 299 copies, remastered from the original analog tapes by Masami Akita, each LP comes in its individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, also includes a LP-sized 32-page book. ** Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise. Bringing forth beautiful limited edition releases, they’ve sculpted a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. Among the many projects that they have supported over the decades, there has been an undeniable dedication to the output of the seminal Japanese noise outfit, Merzbow, making a significant amount of the project’s out of print back catalog available across a range of formats. Now they return with what is arguably their most stunning and ambitious release dedicated to the project to date: “Collection 001-010”, gathering the entirety of Merzbow’s first ten releases, largely privately released by the band on cassette across 1981, in a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set. Representing what is effectively ground zero in Japanese noise and collectively amounting to some of the most sought after releases ever produced within that movement, Urashima’s truly beautiful collection comes fully remastered by Masami Akita himself from the original tapes, presenting all but a small number in their first ever vinyl pressings, with each LP housed in its own individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, alongside a LP-sized 32-page book containing reproductions of artworks and collages by Masami Akita, an interview conducted by Jim O'Rourke, and liner notes penned by Lasse Marhaug, Thurston Moore and Akita himself. Towering with energy and groundbreaking creative vision, within the realms of noise and experimental music, releases don’t get more monumental or historically important than this!
Merzbow came roaring onto the Tokyo scene in 1979, and remains, to this day, one of the most prolific and aggressively forward-thinking projects in experimental music. Eventually becoming the solo vehicle for the efforts of Masami Akita, in its earliest incarnation the project was the duo of Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, taking their name from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-war architectural assemblage, The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau, and quickly set out to challenge entrenched notions of what music could be. Embracing technology and the machine, even in its earliest iterations, Merzbow pushed toward new territories of the extreme, arriving at a space of pure, unadulterated sonic onslaught that has continued, for over 40 years, to set the pace for the entire genre of noise, and has remained one of the movement’s most important, definitive voices, continuously laying the groundwork for countless artists who have followed in its wake.
When dealing with historical gestures, there’s an invertible aura surrounding original line-ups and early statements, and rightfully so. It is often within a band’s debut that we catch the purest glimpse of the raw energy and creative ferment that made them what they are. This is certainly the case when regarding the coveted early releases of Merzbow, capturing the emergence of the project in its form as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani as they helped set the blue print from the then emerging movement of Japanese noise. Over the course of its nearly five decades of activity, Merzbow has always been noted for how prolific and ambitious the project is. This was no less the case in the very beginning. While they were active for roughly two years prior, in 1981 alone they issued ten self-released cassettes numerically titled “Collection 001-010”, albums which have both individually and collectively become holy grails in the realms of noise, with only two - “Collection 007” and “Collection 009” - ever receiving vinyl reissues prior to now.
As Lasse Marhaug deftly articulates in the newly commissioned liner notes for “Collection 001-010”, despite having been recorded in different location across a span of time, the sum total of Merzbow’s first ten releases might be best regarded as a single release to be listened to in the same, durational sitting, with the material standing well apart from what most came to expect from Merzbow, while foreshadowing numerous trajectories the project would take over the coming years. Not only do these recordings feature a vast array of instrumentation - tapes, acoustic and electric guitar, violin, drums, voice, recorder, organ, found sounds, clarinet, homemade and prepared instruments, a vast arsenal of effects and electronics, and piano, to only begin to scratch the surface - the majority of which would disappear from the project’s active sources of sound generation over the subsequent years, but there is a slow pacing and raw sense of openness and exposure that reveals strong connections to the avant-garde improvisations of groups like AMM, Musica Elettronica Viva, and Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, the psychedelia of groups like Taj Mahal Travellers and Flower Traveling band (both of whom Akita mentions having seen in youth within his interview with Jim O’Rourke), and rock in general - albeit in fully abstracted forms - unspooling as brittle, pointillistic, textural, raw and abrasive forms, that occasionally flirts with unexpected tonal sensibilities. As Marhaug describes it in his excellent liner notes: «Sonically, “Collection” sounds more sparse and stripped. It’s dry sounding, up-front, no reverb, and there’s less heavy low-end grime and thin on the signature frequency sweeps. Viewed in a 1981 context, musically, it’s more akin to what the LAFMS (Los Angeles Free Music Society) pool of artists were doing at that time than what was happening in industrial music... There’s a strong playfulness throughout, like the sound objects are being explored for the first time, without neither restraint nor hurry. Events are allowed to be fully examined before the music moves on, or simply cuts off. To a large degree, the music on “Collection” feels acoustic in nature, although a Electro-Harmonix ring-modulator features prominently throughout.»
Easily described as a rarely encountered revelation into the original and earlier documented studio sound of Merzbow, “Collection 001-010” collectively amounts to an engrossing sonic journey in its own right, while also allowing for important, often overlooked connections drawn from numerous other creative wellsprings, notably free jazz, underground rock, the output of European and Japanese avant-garde music, as well as Dada, Fluxus, and Mail Art, much of which, beyond the illumination made possible by the sounds, Jim O’Rourke’s fantastic interview with Akita, published in the booklet, further explores, offering great insights into the origins of Merzbow and the thinking behind the project, as well as aspects of the earliest days of Japanese noise.
expected to be published on 18.04.2025
The 2 Tone sound was a great period in the aftermath of Punk and included influences taken from Jamaican Ska.
Mal-One had already worked on some Two Tone collages and had them put aside for some future project. He thought it would be fun to record some tracks related to these images and sounds. The first track he recorded was an instrumental track in the style of Harry J All Stars ‘Liquidator’ which he called ‘Rude Boy Shuffle’. Initially to be put out as a stand alone track on some reggae label of some sort. He had a poem already which he called ‘Two Tone Story’, so put that on top of the ‘Ska Train Is Back In Town’ rhythm which he had put together for another song of that name. Finally ‘Rude Boys and Rude Girls Listen Up! ‘came together.
Adding to this a couple of dub mixes and we have a 6 track 12”. Mal-One thought the artwork worked better on a 12” format.
Hope you enjoy the outcome.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Brand new studio album from rising British metal hopefuls Seven Sisters! Slowly but surely cultivating a reputation for captivating, progressive heavy metal topped with finesse and intelligence, Seven Sisters have positioned themselves as one of the most intriguing young bands in the metal scene, combining an ethereal edge with genuinely catchy hooks and melodies. Comprising of just four tracks, but with a running time of 40 minutes, 'Shadow of A Fallen Star Pt.2' is at once ambitious and accessible, whether utilizing classic heavy metal tropes on lead single 'Heart Of The Sun' or experimenting with emotive atmospheres and ambitious sound collages on the sprawling 20 minute centerpiece 'Andromeda Ascending (A Fallen Star Rises)'.
expected to be published on 28.03.2025
"When the Distance is Blue" is Macie Stewart"s International Anthem debut. The Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser describes the collection as "a love letter to the moments we spend in-between" - a letter realized via an intentional return to piano, her first instrument and the origin of her creative expression. Here Stewart creates a striking and cinematic work through collages of prepared piano, field recordings, and string quartet compositions, one that gives shape to a transient universe all its own while tracing the line of her musical past, full circle.
expected to be published on 21.03.2025
WRWTFWW Records is honored to announce the first ever vinyl release for esteemed Japanese producer, composer, and environmental music luminary Yoshio Ojima’s rare forgotten album Club, previously only released as a limited edition of 50 cassettes back in 1983. The electronica/proto-techno/experimental gem is available as an LP reissue supervised by the artist, sourced from the original masters and housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve. Only 500 copies were made.
A precious and sought-after item among collectors and enthusiasts of early Japanese electronic music, Club is a stunning and timeless collection of avant-garde electronica, proto-techno, mecha-ambient, and ear-pleasing experimentations from Yoshio Ojima, the ambient/environmental master behind the pivotal Music for Spiral albums released in 1988 (aka Une Collection Des Chaînons I and II reissued on WRWTFWW), and producer of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Pier & Loft, Motohiko Hamase’s #Notes of Forestry, and Satsuki Shibano's iconic Rendez-Vous.
Filled with quirky minimalist acid-synth-and-drum-machine-handiwork, bouncy collages of beautifully childlike techno and pre-IDM, and the irresistible DIY charm of humble beginnings, the 8-track album is a fun, adventurous and risqué-but-catchy-in-the-most-peculiar-way piece of Japanese electronic music history neatly capturing the incredible creative energy boiling through the country’s scene in the 1980s.
Experience the roots of Japanese electronica!
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
BRUK welcomes the daring shapes and inquisitive textures of ELLLL for her debut album, Earth Rotation. Across 13 scuffed cuts and grubby miniatures the Irish producer shapes out a distinctive sound world, steeped in sample science and powered by low-slung grooves. There's no direct message permeating Earth Rotation, but burning issues around embattled ecosystems hang in the air as ELLLL pushes her sound palette until it bites. Extended instrumental techniques lend the album an in-the-room tangibility, while dislocated micro-loops speak to less grounded atmospheres. Starting from densely packed collages and diligently chipping away until spacious, head-knocking arrangements remain, the end results of ELLLL's process call to mind the wayward sample acrobatics that made trip-hop and jungle so emotionally resonant and eerily alien in the same beat. There's rarely anything like conventional boom-bap or a cosily familiar break, but ELLLL finds compelling rhythms in unlikely sources of funk, whether plucked, bowed, sequenced or sculpted. Even when teetering towards techno on 'Titan', her particular approach is gloriously skewed and, by extension, innovative. No matter how serious the techniques involved, Earth Rotation is a celebration of the magic that happens when sound gets mistreated. If there are foreboding ideas lingering in the album's tendency towards dissonance, ELLLL also knows how to inject her work with a necessary mischief, making her a perfect fit amongst the maverick BRUK alumni.
expected to be published on 13.12.2024
Lara Sarkissian’s long-awaited debut full-length, ‘Remnants’ is an ornate patchwork of ancient and modern sonic shapes that uses the vernacular of electronic music to reformulate Armenian traditions and memories. Taking digitally modeled instruments (such as the kanun, a large zither, and the duduk, an ancient double reed woodwind instrument), vocals, davul and dhol drums, tenor saxophone (from acclaimed Paris-based player Adrien Soleiman) and myriad electronic elements and techniques, Sarkissian tangles the old and the new, creating an immersive, narrative-driven experience that’s powered by history, mythology and her own familial connection to the West Asian landscape. It’s an album that’s best absorbed like a film; only multiple encounters can reveal its layered themes and references to industrial music, noise, various club styles, ambient and traditional folk.
Born and raised in San Francisco and currently based in Los Angeles, Sarkissian has developed her unique approach to composition over years of relentless experimentation across various disciplines. Her interest in music production initially stemmed from her filmmaking and video editing work, when she began to sculpt her own sound collages and scores to accompany the visuals. Since then, she’s constantly blurred the boundary between dance and experimental music, DJing around the world, producing AV installations and scoring film and video projects that have been exhibited in Berlin’s Gropius Bau, Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain, the Music Center Los Angeles and other prestigious institutions, and releasing music with labels such as Tresor, Knekelhuis, All Centre, Silva Electronics and CLUB CHAI, the label and event series she co-founded. In recent years, she’s also been able to advance the theory behind her art, publishing a conversation with ethnomusicologist Sylvia Alajaji in the Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies in 2021, and unveiling her methodology in Norient’s ‘This Track Contains Politics – The Culture of Sampling in Experimental Electronica’ a year later.
‘Remnants’ is a new stage in Sarkissian’s evolution as an artist; not only is it her first proper album, but it’s the inaugural release on her new platform btwn Earth+Sky. She sees the label as a place to encourage collaborations between musicians and producers and prioritize sound in visual arts realms, and ‘Remnants’ is the ideal proof of concept. It opens with ‘Heaven, or Paradise; and Hell’, a track that’s inspired by the layout of the Armenian sharakan (or hymn) ‘Aravot Luso’. Sarkissian imagines the original piece’s harmonies and melodies as parts of a dreamy electronic opera, using digital kanun sounds to punctuate her woozy, evocative synths. Soleimen joins on tenor sax in the third act, while Sarkissian repeats the chant and Jace Akira adds ghostly traces of electric guitar and bass. And on the rousing ‘Our Dead Can’t Rest (Old Jugha Flute Dance)’, Sarkissian chops urgent davul and dhol drum rhythms with spine-chilling shvi woodwind sounds lifted from a documentary about Old Jugha. The title is a reference to the moving of graves by Armenian families; the area initially housed over 10,000 elaborately carved khachkars (cross stones), one of which is pictured on the album’s cover, provided by historian Argam Aivazian’s archive.
On ‘Miracle’, Sarkissian samples atmospheres from the post-Soviet Armenian comedy film ‘Կիսանդրի’ (Kisandri). She takes this opportunity to lighten the mood a little, powdering her smudged samples with tightly edited breaks and bass thumps. It’s not until the album’s middle section that the duduk, perhaps Armenia’s best-known instrument, makes its appearance. Its familiar reedy tones, popularized by Djivan Gasparyan on his many Hollywood soundtrack appearances, emerge on ‘Unraveling (Interlude)’, weaving through the acidic ‘Zephyr’ and ‘Far from the eye far from the Heart’, a post-punk inspired stomper. Sarkissian mutates the instrument almost beyond recognition, pitching and layering it into a voice-like wail that creeps between her woody, dancefloor-primed percussion on the former, and turning it into a gentle, ghostly moan on the latter. And she brings ‘Remnants’ to a close with two of her most cryptic tracks, marrying digital kanun strings with Soleiman’s resonant tenor hums on ‘What Solace Can I Give’, and looping the same saxophone sounds until they dissolve into the air on the beatless closer ‘…nothing matters more than touching you although i haven’t touched you yet’.
It’s an album that ties up Sarkissian’s various interests and experiences, finding a romantic, poetic glimmer of light in history’s darkness. But most of all, ‘Remnants’ is about the optimism of starting anew, and rebuilding a life from the pieces of everything that’s been left behind.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Poly dance Theatre speeds up the tempo (perhaps in search of lost time) and so here already the first announcement for the next release: POL008, called "Le Commerce" (The Business).
It's a very special record. Beyond the deep bass line, the efficient ryhtmics and the ghostly apparitions of dubbed-out commercial romantic melodies, this 10" is above all an object-question, a small political gesture of sabotage. Be careful. Be careful. Rare! Very very very rare! even unique! (…300 copies)
Prepare yourself "mentally", as the EP contains 4x the same track (and that's all). A track that spins. A track that does the trick. An eternal return. Difference and repetition? All this is a opportunity to question consumption, especially in the "world of music", the "world of records", the "world of DJs", the "world of nightlife"... and so on. Production, distribution, consumption. Objects. Things. A history from the 60s to today. Where are we now? Still here: Organizing lack in the abundance of production. Lack. Abundance. A history of desires. And music? What's its role? What do we want? What do you want?
On the cover, there are poems/collages about commerce, scarcity, abundance, commodity fetishism, an insulting letter and other little things.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
High Hopes - New album from the Mole.
High Hopes is 17 songs across 40 minutes on one slice of wax that, as advertised, sounds nothing like last month’s Ep, High Dreams. Here, rather than the long form dance form, is a continuation of the beat tape pacing from the last album, a collection of moments posing as ideas posing as a narrative stuffed with oddities and surprises that reward the close listen.
What’s heard on High Hopes is the Mole’s exploration of a love letter, from one person to a family, from the northern Pacific to the southern Atlantic, from a boy to a painted bird. Vancouver Island to Manantiales. The songs range from ambient sound bath and hip hop sludge, up to micro boogie and almost House before tumbling back down and forth again. Bubbling synths, MPCs swung out, samples chopped and chewed, bass and violins from Rick and Sophie, field recordings of birds and frogs and beaches, friends and family and fiestas. Did we mention the love ?! This album has got it all! Original collages from Antonio Carrau envelope this wax: jacket, sleeve and cookie. Antonio’s work is typified by playful combinations and bold statements about living in a embrace of analog and digital health. His co lages marry the corporeal world with an updated, digitalized age of reproduction, inducing feelings of gratitude for the simple everyday scenes we sometimes lose touch with when we forget to slow down. Good living, like breathing, requires inhaling as well as exhaling.
We can’t always produce content, make art, we must also pause, and listen. And enjoy. The Mole is joined by friends and colleagues on several songs included on High Hopes. Rick May plays bass on both Que Rico and album stand out GoinF4er. Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You Black Emperor) plays and arranges violins on GoinF4er and Danuel Tate (Cobblestone Jazz) and Julz Chaz (Wagon Repair) both play Vibes and Emaxx throughout the album. Working with these incredible talents not only enriched this album, but fulfilled a long standing goal of the Mole’s; to work again with the musicians from whom he learned so much. People who helped inform the shape of Mole to come.
The Mole who was As High As The Sky. The Mole has been ‘recognized’ by the ‘global underground’ since his critically celebrated premiere album, As High As The Sky, but his earlier Eps (Wagon Repair, Philpot, Musique Risquee) got the attention of Top DJs, clubs, and festivals around the world first. His sound remains unique, fresh and deep: enjoying plays in a wide variety of spaces and places.
High Hopes is the Mole’s 5th solo album and his 2nd album for Circus Company (The River Widens) who have also proudly released two eps of Mole magic (Little Sunshine, High Dreams).
*Isn’t that too much time for one record? Short answer - No. Long answer - depends on the material. Due to the many quiet passages in the album, the groove spacing can be modulated and the needle can slow it’s progress towards the center/end resulting in longer sides with continued high gain and low distortion.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
High Hopes - New album from the Mole.
High Hopes is 17 songs across 40 minutes on one slice of wax that, as advertised, sounds nothing like last month’s Ep, High Dreams. Here, rather than the long form dance form, is a continuation of the beat tape pacing from the last album, a collection of moments posing as ideas posing as a narrative stuffed with oddities and surprises that reward the close listen.
What’s heard on High Hopes is the Mole’s exploration of a love letter, from one person to a family, from the northern Pacific to the southern Atlantic, from a boy to a painted bird. Vancouver Island to Manantiales. The songs range from ambient sound bath and hip hop sludge, up to micro boogie and almost House before tumbling back down and forth again. Bubbling synths, MPCs swung out, samples chopped and chewed, bass and violins from Rick and Sophie, field recordings of birds and frogs and beaches, friends and family and fiestas. Did we mention the love ?! This album has got it all! Original collages from Antonio Carrau envelope this wax: jacket, sleeve and cookie. Antonio’s work is typified by playful combinations and bold statements about living in a embrace of analog and digital health. His co lages marry the corporeal world with an updated, digitalized age of reproduction, inducing feelings of gratitude for the simple everyday scenes we sometimes lose touch with when we forget to slow down. Good living, like breathing, requires inhaling as well as exhaling.
We can’t always produce content, make art, we must also pause, and listen. And enjoy. The Mole is joined by friends and colleagues on several songs included on High Hopes. Rick May plays bass on both Que Rico and album stand out GoinF4er. Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You Black Emperor) plays and arranges violins on GoinF4er and Danuel Tate (Cobblestone Jazz) and Julz Chaz (Wagon Repair) both play Vibes and Emaxx throughout the album. Working with these incredible talents not only enriched this album, but fulfilled a long standing goal of the Mole’s; to work again with the musicians from whom he learned so much. People who helped inform the shape of Mole to come.
The Mole who was As High As The Sky. The Mole has been ‘recognized’ by the ‘global underground’ since his critically celebrated premiere album, As High As The Sky, but his earlier Eps (Wagon Repair, Philpot, Musique Risquee) got the attention of Top DJs, clubs, and festivals around the world first. His sound remains unique, fresh and deep: enjoying plays in a wide variety of spaces and places.
High Hopes is the Mole’s 5th solo album and his 2nd album for Circus Company (The River Widens) who have also proudly released two eps of Mole magic (Little Sunshine, High Dreams).
*Isn’t that too much time for one record? Short answer - No. Long answer - depends on the material. Due to the many quiet passages in the album, the groove spacing can be modulated and the needle can slow it’s progress towards the center/end resulting in longer sides with continued high gain and low distortion.
expected to be published on 22.11.2024
Sometimes, in order to readjust yourself, you need to free yourself from what you know best and detox from your constantly connected life. In the case of Philipp Lorenz, it specifically came down to embracing the countless possibilities that buzz around the edges of today’s dance floors, sealing himself off from any new music, and leaving his familiar setting in Berlin in favor of making new experiences in Italy’s capital.
Lorenz is best known as one half of producer duo Feeling Valencia and the founding member of acclaimed club
outfit Gheist. Under the newfound Bi Disc moniker, he now reveals a musical spectrum that aims at nothing less
than offering the most authentic version of himself.
“Pieces, Falling“ marries the analog with the electronic, and hints at the numerous musical influences of the
renowned composer. Mixed by famed German producer Olaf Opal, the result is a beautiful, deeply personal, and triumphant album filled with cluttered collages made from strings, manic drumming, field recordings, vocals, and layered melodies. Where other producers try to effectively build their songs to something anthemic, Bi Discs debut delivers one elaborate, victorious climax instead, where nothing feels forced but deeply felt.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Satanic Phenomenology stretches the concept of black metal even further than the previous Hail Conjurer albums.
The album, presented as an occult and ritualistic study of nine steps into the demonic realm and the tremendous and disillusioned essence of satanic reality, consists of both the most traditional and melodic black metal songs Hail Conjurer has done to date, but also the abstract and experimental collages of subtle sounds and noise, escaping the definitions of metal music. "Satanic phenomenology is an out-of-body journey! A mystical and deep experience." -Baphomet's Throne Zine
expected to be published on 15.11.2024
INSTOCK NOW Robert Pollard’s amazing collages in a full-color 238-page book
expected to be published on 15.11.2024
Robert Glasper’s holiday album In December was released last year as an Apple Music exclusive. We’re now able offer it widely available to physical retail and all DSPs!
Is there anything to be done with carols like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Joy to the World” that hasn’t been done in the past 300 years? If there is, Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and producer Robert Glasper is the kind of artist to do it. “I like covering songs that people know well,” Glasper tells Apple Music. “That’s what I’ve done throughout my whole career.” It’s true: As a jazz pianist, he’s obviously learned his way around making classics his own, whether they were written by Mongo Santamaría or Kurt Cobain. But, he says, “The biggest challenge in making a holiday album was trying to do it in a way that feels festive but at the same time feels real and not corny.”
He succeeds on both fronts on In December, his holiday album that mixes classic carols with a set of originals, and which was recorded in Spatial Audio. Part of what keeps it credible is the fact that Glasper’s hiphop/R&B/jazz fusion is done on a compositional level instead of just a cosmetic one (no collages of sampled sax solos and drum loops here). The covers reveal a lot about his musical worldview: Sung by Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is turned into dark, airy neo-soul, while “Joy to the World”—sung by Alex Isley—feels like a Stevie Wonder ballad. But the originals reveal even more. “The intention for this album was less about Christmas songs and more about songs that feel good during the holidays,” Glasper says. “I stayed away from thinking too much about Christmas and its traditional lingo, and concentrated on real things people go through during the holiday season.”
expected to be published on 01.11.2024
Motyl is a brand new creative coming together from DYL and Moll+ and this new cassette Noc has been conceived as a soundtrack to go with a book of 'night' themed poetry and imagery. it's an immersive and evocative blend of ambience, field recordings and moody sound collages that range from serene and peaceful to much more ominous and dark.
expected to be published on 21.10.2024
Jason Kolàr (Stroom) returns to Dauw on this collaboration with Japanese musician Fumitake Tamura (Leaving Records). 'Ōki-sa' documents the duo's encounters during Kolàr's Japan tour in September 2023.
Fumitake Tamura and Jason Kolàr met in Tokyo during Kolàr’s Japanese tour in September 2023. Sharing a mutual admiration for their previous works, they decided to meet at Soundbar Patrol in Sangenjaya for a series of improvisational sessions.
The album contains a chronological sequence of ideas recorded on those summer afternoons, seamlessly connected by raw textures, lo-fi synths, and abstract beat-filled sound collages.
The title Ōki-sa was Kolàr's idea, a phonetic form of the Japanese word for 'size.' Fumitake found the Japanese phonetics of macrons and hyphens, which are not usually used in Japan, so visually interesting that they were adopted for the title.
Language communication is always subject to misreading and misunderstanding, even between speakers who share a mother tongue. Communication using sounds, which have no clear meaning, is even more prone to misreading and misunderstanding than language. Acknowledging this, they engaged in an intuitive process, with no prior discussion about references or guidelines, freely exchanging ideas and allowing the music to evolve organically.
This record aims to capture a three-day intersection of language and musical miscommunication, while also reflecting personal bonding and human connection.
expected to be published on 11.10.2024
Following a run of chamber recordings, Samuel Reinhard returns with a suite of electroacoustic collages.
"Movement", the New York–based composer’s latest offering, is built from notes softly held. In his ongoing investigation of musical duration, perception, and attention, Reinhard deemphasizes progress through an embrace of repetition and negative space, inviting listeners to linger in time. Instrumental recordings are arranged according to a predetermined system, iterating fragments of sound in overlapping intervals of various sizes. Delicately layered snippets of decaying piano are joined by cello (Leila Bordreuil), bass flute (John Also Bennett), double bass (Vincent Yuen Ruiz), baritone sax (Michael Biel), and harp (Shelley Burgon). This breadth of instrumentation, arriving as individual notes stretched and overlapped, is treated not as an opportunity for immersive coalescence, but rather a gentle augmentation of texture, free-floating counterpoint. Notes are accompanied by the traces of the bodies and actions that produce them: a hand pressing a key or an arm keeping a bow aloft; breath filling an instrument’s body or glancing off its surface; a string vibrating and then softening to stillness. In sum, we hear resonance in the process of being sustained, as well as in the release that follows.
expected to be published on 11.10.2024
Over the past four years and under his Tyresta alias, Nick Turner has been integral to operations at PITP's sister label, Fallen Moon Recordings. His meticulous curation for FMR showcases top-tier sound collages and experimental electronic music and that dedication shines in Lia Kohl and Daniel Wyche's latest release, 'Movie Candy. It's a captivating exploration of free-spirited electronic music that seamlessly blends cello, guitar, synths, voice, field recordings, and electronic treatments into a record that brims with both nostalgia and innovation. Wyche describes it as an homage to the obscure ephemera of films-like the allure of candy wrappers and the mesmerising cinema carpets-forging vivid memories that linger and evolve through time.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Christian Schoppik aka Läuten der Seele brings his “Water” trilogy to a close with his new album ‘Die Reise zur Monsalwäsche’ (The Journey to Monsalwäsche) following up ‘Die Mariengrotte als Trinkwasseraufbereitungsanlage’ (2022, Hands in the Dark) and ‘Ertrunken im seichtesten Gewässer’ (2023, World of Echo).
This final instalment takes the listener on a sacred odyssey searching for the fulfilment of one's (or is it his own?) spiritual destiny, from beginning (‘Entschluss, Abschied & Aufbruch’ / ‘Decision, Farewell & Departure’) to end (‘Verirrung, Ankunft & Erlösung’ / ‘Losing Way, Arrival & Salvation’).
While the compositional technique of this opus still relies primarily on samples and altered audio-collages, each chapter of the trilogy was intentionally created from very different sources. The present collection is arguably less "experimental" than some of Läuten der Seele's previous works, as classical music takes center stage this time. However the mastery in crafting such magnificent and intriguing narratives sees the simplicity and emotional depth of these sonic mariages become the beauty of it all.
Schoppik remains consistent as ever in his creative explorations, and this release feels very much like a culmination of his past projects. “Die Reise zur Monsalwäsche” will probably come to be known as a standout entry in the German artist's music catalog, showcasing a new facet of his talent.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
More than two years after the release of 'Impressões de Outra Ilha', Discrepant's head honcho returns home under his birth name with the appropriately titled 'Exotic Immensity'. Conjured from the seeds of an exhibition of dioramas at Le Bon Accueil in Rennes, this double LP feels quietly epic in scope, a sprawling travelogue through imagined scenarios and what if possibilities. Discarding the more rough around the edges collages of previous works under a myriad of aliases - Discogs it, if you will -, Cardoso's approach here is more meticulously composed, with seamless transitions within his own personal soundworld giving way to this hallucinated landscape of field recordings, subtle electronic tweaks, cascading patterns, queasy ambiences and kösmiche-like synth harmonies.
Perfectly embodied in Evan Crankshaw's cut up poem, filled with occult and sci-fi references such as Agrippa's Book of the Occult, William Blake's Book of Urizen, Dr. Moreau or 50's pop-science books, the music on 'Exotic Immensity' transverses time and cartography in a deeply personal matter, from the cricket-like textures and reverse loops of 'Réplica(s)' until the closing moments with the touching chord progression and mangled voices of 'Pó Nuno'. In-between, the foghorn meets bass clarinet melody of 'Ossos' recalls the unassuming but essential harmonic patterns of Laurence Crane, surrounded by an almost percussive sheet of field recordings that drift into the gliding synth tones of 'Desumanização (I & II)' until tape orchestral swells carry us into the aether. 'Aquário Novo Mundo' brims in an undisplaced cartography, from electronic marimba stabs to synth choirs, the call of the loom to labyrinthine keyboard harmonies and underwater radiance. Are we still here? Somewhere? The muffled looped rhythmic sequence of 'Imagem/Miragem', cut by the glow of cascading synths doesn't offer a reply. Nor does it need to.
'Exotic Immensity' exists on the perpetual outside. Blessed be Cardoso for showing us a way in.
expected to be published on 30.08.2024
GARDENIA is an existing land located at the Limpopo province of South Africa, right at the border with Botswana. The place's real name is Mmabolela and it's a private nature reserve covering 6500ha of subtropical savanna and part of Limpopo River.
In November 2019 I had a chance to visit the location and participate in an annual residency for composers and sound artists called 'Sonic Mmabolela', initiated and curated by Francisco López.
We lived in an isolated property in the middle of savanna having a unique opportunity to exist in undisturbed touch with the African wilderness.
For the past decade or so, Polish musician Michal Jacaszek has been exploring a new, resolutely modern chapter in Eastern Europe's long, storied love affair with classical music. His creations are painstakingly crafted collages of electronic textures and baroque instrumentation.
All the natural sounds later used to create Gardenia were captured there — during longtime recording sessions over the virgin interior of Mmabolela Reserve.
The album's field recording content was selected from several hours of birdsong, calls of frogs, insect noises, sounds of trees, bushes, grass as well as non-living natural elements like stones or shells.
These field recordings were later digitally processed and used as part of 9 musical arrangements.
However the recording sources and the location of Gardenia is defined, it was not my intention to document a South African natural soundscape nor create any other kind of strict concept album.
All I do in my work is an affirmation of beauty hidden in various aspects of the Creation. MJ
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Fourth volume of Library Music miniatures by Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, This is Not This Heat, etc) for VHF, this time commissioned by the legendary German Music Library, Sonoton. Another sampling of O’Sullivan’s versatility and brilliance as a composer, performer, and sound designer, the focus on The Pastoral Machine is more “electronic” compared to the three previous albums O’Sullivan recorded for KPM (also issued on LP by VHF), with simpler arrangements and a focus on gentle and emotive synthesised soundworlds. Even without as many full ensemble arrangements, there’s still a wealth of diversity—“Empathogen” opens the record with latticed arpeggiating sequences recalling Japanese “environmental music” or Persian Surgery-era Terry Riley, “Fruit Of Stream Entry” burbles with gentle ripples evoking the album’s title, while “The Silversmith Of Space” mines a simple chord sequence evoking Eno’s ’70s classic short instrumentals. “Superstrings” is a series of hypnotic overlapping guitar patterns, like a lost Ash Ra or Achim Reichel track. The brief “Star Lore” is a heavy highlight with deep bass washes and grainy, tape-laminated melodies, followed immediately by Rose Keeler Schaffeler’s vocal feature on “The Oscillating Love” recalling futurist new-age pop in the vein of Enya or Virginia Astley. Housed in a jacket and heavy euro-style inner featuring collages by O’Sullivan, soon to be the subject of an art book published by Timeless Editions in mid-2024.
expected to be published on 09.08.2024
Black Decelerant is the second installment of Reflections, a series showcasing contemporary collaborations orchestrated by RVNG Intl., recently inaugurated by Steve Gunn and David Moore. Black Decelerant, the duo of Khari Lucas, aka Contour, and Omari Jazz, explores jazz traditions, improvising with synthesizers, guitars, and electronics as a practice laid forth by their musical ancestors. This experience allows for sonic meditations on themes such as Black being/nonbeing, mourning/life, expansion/limitation, and the individual/the collective. The two strive to create a sonic surface which can simultaneously allow Black listeners a place to be still, and to serve as a basis for a movement beyond "the moment." The album's ten compositions configure vast, resonant landscapes with signals, weathers and spirits, suspended in memory and distilled in time. The Black Decelerant machine recalibrates archival relics and acoustic impulses into collages of amalgamated timbres, where harmony exists not without discordance. Across the expansive space of the record, cadent storms of modulated sound ascend beside serene melodic spells. Piano keys and bass lines tumble in free fall throughout the release, accompanied on tracks "two" and "eight" by the spectral trumpet improvisations of Jawwaad Taylor. The duo arrived at their name upon reading Aria Dean's Notes on Blacceleration, an article which explores Accelerationism within the context of Black being or non-being as a foundational tenet of capitalism. Coupled with the record's intended effect, "Black Decelerant" references the music being an invitation to slow down, while hinting at the shared politics between themselves and the artists and thinkers who inspire them.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
First release in 5years by Snaker, and the catalog counts 11nd.
This title features a joint work release by 2 artists, KOOLMFL and Sonic Weapon who also been busy with their releases on Powder’s Thinner Groove label. Their approach to express “Contemporary library sound” was to experiment with various way to create funky collages, Trippy beats, groovy or anti-groovy loop arts, and fragments of noise and scratch. The sound is going everywhere but consistent as a sound library to Get On Down.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
The long running vessel for Cameron Stallones' psychedelic excursions, Sun Araw, returns to Discrepant after last year's split with Tarzana via Keroxen sister label (KRXN033).
Without much precedent in his own - already wide-ranging - back-catalog, 'Cetacean Sensation' discards the dubby vibes, psych-rock sunburnt jams, tropical visions, or stalking sensibilities of such classic efforts as 'On Patrol' or 'Ancient Romans' towards a deeply focused and vivid solitary approach, while still retaining this Sun Araw blissed out escapist feeling.
Composed of hydrophone recordings of whales and dolphins sourced during a summer in Galicia, 'Cetacean Sensation' paints an impressionistic and sensory floating canvas that expertly escapes both academic-like documentarian purposes and any new-age spa vibrations one could associate with such subject matter. Processing those raw recordings into alluring collages that flow gracefully between moments of clear eco-location and submerged impressions of wildlife social dynamics. By the third track - Dance of the Minke - we're introduced to this ringing MIDI tone that evokes a CD-ROM era of mystic educational programs and click-and-deploy strategies that still feel very much like an unfulfilled future, conjured again by 'Spider Crab Elegy's sparse keyboard pads and sound effects that give way to this properly elegiac tentative melody. 'The Spider Crab Point' ends the album on a more uneasy vibe, with synth tones pointing towards no particular direction, confounding and strangely inviting at the same time. As sensations often do.
Music written and produced by Cameron Stallones using hydrophones and digital synthesisRecorded in 2019 in Galicia, ES
Mastering by Rashad Becker
expected to be published on 28.06.2024
Dizonord is very happy to bring you the reissue of this French 1988 underground self released gem, re-mastered from master tapes!
Dubby, punky, politically engaged new wave with a sense of humour, we've always been touched by the voice of Agnès (bass) and the phlegmatic Michel (machines and graphics). We could have thought the language barrier would have stopped the pleasure of this record but obviously not, as Mobutu song is already an international digger classic!
We really hope you'll enjoy this collection of tracks and collages as we do so, once upon a time...
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Turman first came onto the industrial scene in the late 70’s as the ominous ‘other half’ of legendary noise outfit NON. Shortly after recording the classic 1977 single Mode of Infection, Turman went on to pursue his own unique vision as a solo artist. Fusing every possible influence at his disposal while laying his ideas down on self-released cassettes like Flux (1981), Spirals of Everlasting Change (1987), Way Down (1987) and the massive Chapter Eleven cassette box set (1988). After a hiatus Turman resurfaced in 2005 to team up with seminal noise musician Aaron Dilloway. Since then, he has been gradually adding new titled to his already impressive discography.
For this archival release Turman selected 7 tracks that were recorded between 1980 and 1984. A welcome supplement to his library of avantgarde music that was released in the 80s. This album fits in nicely between the early industrial noise, the long-form minimalism of Flux and the rhythmic industrial of Way Down. Focusing on slowly shifting hypnotic loop-based layers of sound, it covers a specific side of Turman. It feels like there’s a direct link to his earliest works but it’s also a precursor to some pieces that were recorded much later. A missing link that finally gives us the opportunity of a complete overview of his early audio work.
All 7 tracks on this album have a connection to the written word in the form of a poem. Scans of the original typewriter poems are included together with collages and drawings from this specific time frame to create an essential and singular piece of art.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Khôra is the medium Matthew Ramolo uses to delve deeply into initiatory world-building by way of sound, image, and lyrical prose. Figuring wholly realized art-myths which distill and rouse the numinous while provoking the visceral and cathartic, Khôra intricately collages studio documents of ritualized instrumental performances, introducing overdubs by transient, heteronymic personae which dismantle stable points of reference in the music and open uncommon planes of consciousness.
"Gestures of Perception" is Khôra’s first double album with a supporting artbook and features a fascinating array of sources subjected to patterned assembly, poetic layering, and the elevations of the heart. Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near. Prominent across the record's span is a home-built, solenoid drum machine, responsible for the alive and askew techno-archaic flows and conceived as the album’s "rhythm seed”. The music on Gestures is teeming with organic and alien textures, soaring drones, inter-dimensional noises, and emotionally resonant melodies; balanced on the fringes of exotica and meditative trance, with capacities that untether the listener from the ballast of limited reality.
Operating hermetically in the penumbra of Toronto's cultural scene for well over a decade, Khôra has been invested in self-publishing handcrafted editions of spiritually driven recordings which led to the LP/CD reissue of inaugural album "Silent Your Body Is Endless" by Constellation. Khôra has toured extensively in North America and Europe both solo and in collaboration with Picastro, Nick Kuepfer (Hrsta,1/4 Tonne), and Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Lido Pimienta), generated over a hundred hours of unreleased, bewildering drone through durational performance with experimental outfit Nidus (Marc Couroux, Jason Doell), composed for live dance and independent film, been commissioned by MaerzMusik, and seeded and co-run the now defunct music and art venue Ratio in Toronto.
expected to be published on 19.04.2024
Nia Archives is the star at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. Since her emergence in 2020, her collagist soundscapes have helped bring the sound to a new generation of clubgoers (though fair warning: don’t call her a “revivalist” – she’s the first to point out that the scene never went away). So when it comes to talk of the 24-year-old producer, DJ, singer and songwriter’s much-anticipated debut album, the odds are you’re thinking of a full-length record of weightless jungle tracks with basslines so intense they’ll leave your ears ringing.
But the reality of the Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist’s first ever album – while very much replete with that exquisite jungle sound she does so well – is also doing something a little different. On the thrilling and freeing Silence Is Loud, Nia Archives is looking to make music for beyond the rave. As she explains: “I think music can be experienced in different ways, and there’s different kinds of music for different scenarios. Say you’re at a festival listening to music with thousands of other people, that can feel really uniting. But then you might listen to an album on your own in the bus, or in a taxi; and this project is definitely more a record to sit and listen to than a collection of club tracks.” Nia is intent that Silence Is Loud is taken in as a full body of work of something “more song-focussed, putting interesting sounds on jungle.” It means that this is a record which finds gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.
The vast sonic palette on Silence Is Loud comes down to Nia’s broad array of influences through her life. With her Jamaican heritage, Nia remembers hearing jungle as a child via her nana, as well as at Bradford Carnival, where she was drawn to the soundsystem culture, dancing carefree on the floats in the parade. The first album she ever bought was Rihanna’s debut, Music of the Sun, and she also went to Pentecostal church back then, and was obsessed with gospel. Aged 16, she moved to Manchester, where she didn’t really know anybody: and so, her solution to meeting people was going out. “Partying was a huge part of my life,” she says, “They used to do little freestyle cyphers at the house parties and I would join in – that’s kind of how I got into singing.” She had found music boring at school, but in meeting all these new people she became interested in making her own music as a hobby. “I was making boom-bap kind of stuff which I didn’t really like in the end,” she laughs, “My lyrics are quite deep, so on a hip-hop beat it all sounds really depressing. I wanted people to dance to my music.” And so she began experimenting with faster tempos alongside that melancholy songwriting, teaching herself how to make beats on Logic: “It’s all been a lot of trial and error, really.”
Nia went to study music in London, and was also interested in visual art, making collages and VHS: “Before the music, I was trying to make a visual archive of my life and the people around me,” she explains, “And then my music was like my diary, and a sonic archive, as well.” Hence, she paired the word “archives” with her middle name, Nia. To this day, in her spare time she’s working on pulling together a documentary on the global nature of the jungle scene.
Back on those first two EPs, Headz Gone West (2021) and Forbidden Feelingz (2022), she honed that junglist sound, painting it with new flecks of colour and vibrance. It was only after she started releasing work that she realised pursuing music could be a viable life path for her. The decision has been paying off ever since. Nia Archives placed third in the prestigious BBC Sound Poll for 2023, alongside garnering a nomination for the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, plus wins at the DJ Mag, NME, the MOBOs and Artist and Manager Awards. She has also toured the world – be it North America, Europe or Asia – and even opened a show in London as part of a little something called Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. She’s renowned as a party-starter in her own right, too, with takeovers at Glastonbury, Warehouse Project and her own Bad Gyalz day event. She’s done official remixes for the likes of Jorja Smith, had a huge summer hit with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, and worked with brands like Corteiz, Nike, Flannels, Burberry, FIFA and Apple. In just three years, it’s fair to say that Nia Archives has become a need-to-know name in dance music.
But Nia is not interested in being one fixed thing. Building on the terrain from her third EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, the universe of Silence Is Loud is not totally unfamiliar territory; but it’s still emblematic of a bolder scope than we’ve heard from the artist before. Working with Ethan P. Flynn (the songwriter and producer known for his work with FKA twigs and David Byrne), the resulting record is an impressive feat of deftly-sculpted textures; sometimes big and euphoric, like the wobbly, lusty bass of ‘Forbidden Feelingz’, or elsewhere notably gentle and quiet – see: the gorgeous, surprisingly drumless ‘Silence Is Loud (Reprise)’, a heartfelt number that sits somewhere in the school of Adele. “I really sharpened my songwriting skill on this project,” Nia says, “I was really intentional about what I was writing about, and I really loved co-producing with Ethan. His process is so different to anyone I’ve worked with before, and he’s got a kind of DIY set-up like me.” Flynn’s flat overlooks the Barbican, adding that unquantifiable futurist urban quality that the area holds to the music. The pair enjoyed the collaborative process so much that the album was done within three and a half months.
Perhaps this is why Silence Is Loud maintains an exuberant immediacy while still being sleek and spacious, interspersed with flourishes of metallic beats, lush melody and topped with her sugary but powerful vocal, floating over it all. There is an intimacy to the record, perhaps in part due to Nia writing most of her lyrics while sitting in bed in her flat in Bow (once a bedroom producer, always a bedroom producer). You can hear it on the refrain for lead single ‘Crowded Roomz’, which finds rippling guitar lines cutting taut through the beats as Nia refrains: “I feel so lonely crowded rooms.” The song is an examination of life on tour, constantly surrounded by people, but not necessarily those she can be herself around; more than that, the track is exemplary in the category of sad bangers.
Silence Is Loud often finds itself in that push and pull between melancholy and euphoria. There’s a celebration of her unconditional love for her younger brother (the title track), a rumination of an evening with an Irish boy she met by Temple Bar (‘Cards On The Table), or a letter to herself on the light and airy ‘Unfinished Business’, even coming to terms with a lover having a past they haven’t quite processed yet (“nobody comes with a clean slate”). The latter was recorded the week after a music festival, and accordingly captures Nia’s vocal in its not quite healed, husky state.
Nia’s work is always a snapshot of where she’s at when she’s making it. This might not be the debut album you were expecting, but that’s what makes Silence Is Loud so special. Nia Archives has learned the rules of her sound, and is unafraid to break them, pushing jungle and herself into new, unchartered territories that, in turn, go some way to map the history of the greats of British dance music. More than that, it plants her firmly in that lineage.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Miles Davis' boundlessly influential On the Corner was so far ahead of its time upon release in 1972, the jazz cognoscenti rejected its groundbreaking concoction as middling in nature. Yet time has a way of righting wrongs and shifting views by adding needed context and perspective to visionary ideas, music, and approaches — the likes of which fill Davis' boldest and most controversial — undertaking. Designed to bring the focus back on the groove and bottom-end frequencies, the funk-loaded On the Corner revolutionized jazz. It also set new standards for record production, presaging remixing and electronica by more than a decade. And the work has never sounded more thrilling thanks to this very special pressing.
Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM SuperVinyl LP of On the Corner exposes the internal mechanisms, free-associated playing, and then-unmatched studio techniques in vivid fashion. The low end, crucial to every composition here, is both heard and felt, with locked-in bass lines and low-range percussion conveyed as taut, solid, and visceral passages. You can discern the multiple layers of rhythm Davis employed on complex tracks such as "Black Satin," as On the Corner stands as his first effort to use overdubbing and multiple tape machines. As a pioneer, Davis likely would’ve loved MoFi’s groundbreaking SuperVinyl profile that features the lowest-possible analogue noise floor as well as pristine transparency, dead-quiet surfaces, and superb groove definition.
New degrees of spaciousness and airiness — equally important to the musique concrete arrangements — give the impression Davis and Co.'s creations float in space. Instruments are portrayed in three-dimensional manners, rhythmic loops retain tonal purity, and horn solos skitter across an extra-wide soundstage that takes listeners into Columbia's Studio E. Mobile Fidelity's SuperVinyl LP captures Teo Macero's innovative production — and the trumpeter's cutting-edge aural collages — in definitive fashion.
Heavily inspired by Sly and the Family Stone, On the Corner portrays street vibes and remains Davis' Blackest-sounding record. The conscious attempt to connect with youthful audiences tapped into rock and funk is evident not only on the colorful cartoon cover art depicting hot-pants and zoot-suit revelers, but in the music's emphasis of recurring drum and bass grooves. Distinct from Davis' earlier fusion experiments, the record's long-misunderstood set dials back improvisation in favor of beats, loops, and atmospherics that generate trance-like effects. While Davis utilizes his band for core duties — Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock prominently figure — he also relies on an all-star cast of side-men for concentrated soloing and additional support.
With rhythm providing the basic foundation, other notes fall into place, with their positioning steered by Macero and Davis' editing-room techniques. Looking to the manipulation-based work of Karlheinze Stockhausen and teaming with Stockhausen disciple Paul Buckmaster, Davis re-imagines what grooves constituted and could accomplish throughout On the Corner. The shapes of the songs become completely transformed as they progress. Faint melodies, spacey chords, chunky riffs, wah-wah fills, and repeated motifs bounce in and out of a sonic funhouse that wouldn't be out of place at a Harlem block party.
Exotic, intrepid, and filled with Davis' "jungle sound," On the Corner remains daringly hip more than four decades later.
expected to be published on 31.03.2024
The One & Only Scott H. Biram showcases the singer's signature unapologetic style. Tracks like "No Man's Land" describe the hazards of growing up poor in a small Texas town, breathing the fumes from oil wells and brush fires. "Inside a Bar" captures the feel of an empty saloon on a slow Monday night. "I was going for the sound of loneliness and alcoholism colliding."
"I view my albums as collages, combining elements from punk, metal, blues, country, and bluegrass. They reflect the diverse aspects of life - it's not a concept but an expression," explained Biram.
With The One & Only Scott H. Biram the singer once again proves to be an unstoppable force and demonstrates his unique ability to live up to the traditions of rough-hewn, individualistic Texas-borne music.
expected to be published on 29.03.2024
Los Angeles-based Fabiano Do Nascimento is a multi-string guitarist and songwriter who melds the traditional idioms of his native Brazil (i.e., samba, choro) with the more contemporary and experimental strains of jazz, pop, and electronic music. Das Nuvens (“The Clouds”), out July 2023 on Leaving Records, is a crisp, frequently blissful, and deceptively groove-oriented showcase from a consummate musician — a rich and varied collection of songs, all of which seem to prioritize, and thrive in, the soft and intentional spaces between notes.
Das Nuvens constitutes the free-form, exploratory work of a musician who, having mastered a distinct musical language, seeks to apply his skill towards broader, more experimental modes of expression. Fittingly, track one — built around a contemplative, pointillistic refrain— is titled “Babel,” a reference to the legend of man’s attempt to build a tower to heaven, and how God thwarted this alleged act of hubris by shattering man’s shared language, sowing chaos and confusion. Though a stern parable on its face, it is a myth that enshrines our world’s dizzying array of languages (of modes of being), and the subsequent beauty of cultural exchange through art. In this regard, it is a fitting opening statement for an album that collapses and collages not only contemporary and classical Brazilian and pop idioms, but also the diverse range of indigenous music that Nascimento has encountered and studied in his travels as a touring musician.
expected to be published on 29.03.2024
Prangers’ sound is unprisable, perhaps impossible to uproot from the landscape that spawns it.
On Gomp, the Rochdale trio forge and graft a kind of sonic semblance of wire, flesh and bracken - a misshapen organism that scuttles across the damp amber of the pennines. Collected from their environment, collages of local field recordings and tape-jammed voices hang over the trio's mill-gamelan of scrap percussion, with the whole thing force-fed back on itself through a neat duality of blunt electronics and sharp sample processing.
Although the form of its language feels human, the rhythm and definition is stretched to a point of almost attractive grotesque: de-elasticated and drubbed into a curiously unrecognisable state by the busted motor speeds and over-voltaged electrics that power it.
Through the electric static of Prangers' transmit, the outline of an awesomely unsettling shape comes into focus.
expected to be published on 29.03.2024
Musician and visual artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective, which will be released March 8th on Matador. Recorded in Gordon"s native Los Angeles, The Collective follows her 2019 full-length debut No Home Record and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisin"s damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon"s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload. Die erste Single "BYE BYE," is out now, driven by a snaking drill bassline which guides us through a haunting packing list. Gordon will also play six live shows around The Collective"s arrival, beginning March 22 in Washington, D.C.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Musician and visual artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective, which will be released March 8th on Matador. Recorded in Gordon"s native Los Angeles, The Collective follows her 2019 full-length debut No Home Record and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisin"s damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon"s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload. Die erste Single "BYE BYE," is out now, driven by a snaking drill bassline which guides us through a haunting packing list. Gordon will also play six live shows around The Collective"s arrival, beginning March 22 in Washington, D.C.
Order now and we will order the item for you at our supplier.
Lès Modernos present a psycho-geographic trip to Andalusia, a journey recomposed in a green Corolla. Mechanized and pastoral collages. Miniature songs, luminous yet just a little heavy, from the great theater of life. Car radio samples, recorded from the passenger seat of the Father's vehicle. Al-Mutreb Abul-Loul, Big City Orchestra, Eric Copeland, Bertold Brecht, Sachiko Matsubara, Hopeton ‘Scientist’ Brown, Cabaret Voltaire (Red Mecca), a French singer resolutely of the now (or Jonathan Richman). Fears greater than us, heredity, death, love, oblivion. And this fever which always consumes us.Tracklisting: 1. laques1 2. corolla1 3. soleil pour toi 4. habitat1 5. Grisou 6. la superlegion 7. corolla2 8. au cabanyal 9. laques2
expected to be published on 03.03.2024