quête:mom

Poof! A new label appears. Filament kicks off with a record suited to all your festival needs. Starting out the day at 1PM and guiding you up until le moment suprême at 11PM. With appearances from Hysteric, Møzaika, Monty & Filament Deejays, these tracks will certainly quench your thirst.

“It’s all right in the sunlight”

Repress

Berlin's Monnom Black is back again with the King of The Sewers EP; four cuts of pulsating techno from two of electronic music's most uncompromising young figures, DAX J & UVB. Already well-known for its more fundamentally rugged take on modern electronics, the label's 19th release is another intense transmission deep from the underworld.

The menacing tone of the EP hides the friendship that's developed between these adopted Berliners, two young men who met in the city and discovered a shared passion for raw analogue audio and electronic sounds that marry starkness with depth. Although they began DJing at the same warehouses since 2014, the duo have waited until the right moment to bring together their mutual love of unique mechanised noisescapes and the high-end production values they ve developed over years of experience and experimentation. The King of The Sewers is that record, a gritty soundtrack inspired by forgotten lives beneath eastern-bloc cities.

For Monnom Black this latest release continues a run of unmistakable techno records that challenge the mainstream with a non-conformist philosophy. The label's ethos is to push boundary-testing music by artists who are unafraid to explore a chaotic, divided world in the belief that distinctive music can still create moments of grace and community. This is music for the deepest, darkest parts of the night, breaking beyond the dancefloor and into the liminal spaces where analogue and digital, body and mind meet. The King of The Sewers EP represents another step forward in the development of a record label pressing at the borders of what contemporary techno can be.

The Portuguese say that ‘saudade’, the emotional state of nostalgia and the emotional thrills it can trigger, is an extremely powerful thing. It’s certainly hit Tom Trago hard in recent times, with the Dutch producer naming his new self- released single – his first since 2017 – after this distinctively warm and fuzzy heightened emotional state.

Trago’s nostalgia pangs were a direct response to his new life on the Netherlands’ North Sea-facing West Coast, a move that provided the musical inspiration for his 2018 album “Bergen”. While happy in his new home studio, Trago found his mind wandering back to countless happy days and nights spent jamming with friends and contemporaries in his basement studio beneath Volkshotel in Amsterdam.

“Saudade”, Trago’s latest single, was made during one of those all-night Amsterdam studio sessions alongside JP Enfant, a DJ/producer best known for his residency at De School and releases on his LET Recordings. The A- side “Main Mix” fizzes with excitement and the possibilities of the night ahead. Sentimental, emotion-stirring chords, lilting lead lines, chiming melodies and ecstatic electronics rise above a chunky, hot-stepping drum machine rhythm. It’s nostalgic but immediate: a musical marriage of two giddy producers living for the moment.

On the flip you’ll find the “Ambient Mix” set to soundtrack slow-burn sunrises the world over. All immersive synthesizer chords, yearning musical motifs and seductive melodies, it sees Trago delivering a suitably tactile and loved-up soundtrack with which to usher in the dawn of a new day.

Music collective Africa Express announce the release of a brand new studio album titled EGOLI, coming on the newly created Africa Express Records imprint.

Hailed as the most revolutionary force in popular music for two decades, Africa Express was founded in 2006 and brings together musicians from different cultures, genres and generations to break boundaries and offer a new perspective on Africa and its music.

Each record and event is unique, based upon on-the-spot collaboration and filled with unique moments of magic; the collective have hosted trips and concerts in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali and UK to date.

Africa Express travelled to South Africa in January of last year to complete an electronic album in just 7 days, a week of discovery, collaboration and music-making. The result is EGOLI - 18 tracks capturing the fresh, joyous sounds of Afro Futurism, straight out of Johannesburg.

Featured artists include Damon Albarn, Blue May, Gruff Rhys, Georgia, Ghetts, Mr Jukes, Nick Zinner, Remi Kabaka, Otim Alpha and Poté as well as emerging and established stars of the buzzing South African music scene including BCUC, Blk Jks, Dominowe, Faka, Infamous Boiz, DJ Spoko, Mahotella Queens, Moonchild Sanelly, Muzi, Morena Leraba, Nonku Phiri, Radio 123, Sibot, Sho Madjozi, Zola 7, Zolani Mahola (Freshly Ground) and Maskandi guitar legend Phuzekhemisi.

The X Initiative is the follow-up to Adam X’s ten volume series project
“The Secret Initiative”. Now one year on since unveiling the secret,
Adam continues the spirit of the original project with four previously
unreleased songs recorded in the end of the aughts decade. New beat
grooves awash with icy atmospheres that were well ahead of their time
in their moment of creation.

Our first long-player for 2019, Daze Island, by French producer Malouane, is a seasonally-appropriate departure for Let's Play House that's more summertime meditation than dance-floor ammo.

Across these ten tracks, Malouane takes us on new age-indebted journeys down cobblestone paths banked with flowering cherry blossom, to clear-sky tropical beach sunsets, on hang glider flights across endless fields of golden wheat. As the LP progresses, the tempo picks up and the ambient washes and puffs of pads pull back to make way for dancier rhythms, but even in these moments, Daze Island is a tranquil affair, pressed first and foremost with a desire to independently explore the mysterious worlds within.

The trio have also worked together on numerous collaborative projects between each other as duos, and "Ypsilon" album finds them back together, ever expanding their shared aural ideology into new territories.
Their 2016 release, “Veerian,” [eilean rec.] focused on free-flowing soundscapes, whereas this new album incorporates more overtly melodic sequences and rhythmic elements to widen its horizon. As on “Veerian,” Zahn, Hatami, and McClure paid meticulous attention to sound design for “Ypsilon.” The inclusion of subdued beats adds a swing to the textural layers, and arpeggiat- ed sequences imply rhythm and momentum.
Other tracks remain blissfully ambient, taking time to unfold and breathe without any rhythmic framework. This balance between gentle propulsion and beatless sound- scapes, melodic and ambient, lends the album a unique character and takes it into fresh new areas of experimentation for the trio.

Following the reissue of ZiadRahbani's "Abu Ali" album, Wewantsounds is pursue its exploration of great Lebanese music with the reissue of "Wahdon," released in 1978 by legendary Middle Eastern diva Fairuz and recorded during the Abu Ali sessions and including the Lebanese dancefloor cult classic “Al Bostah“. 1978 is a turning point for the Lebanese Diva. The 70s had seen her rise as an international star, playing sold out concerts in the US and in Europe, and appearing on national TV in France. She had had a long-lasting artistic collaboration with her husband AssiRahbani and his brother Elias (aka The Rahbani Brothers) who, together, had penned most of the singer's classics. In 1978, Assi who had suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1972 got weaker and the collaboration finally ended (together with their personal relationship). Their 22 year old son Ziad took over Fairuz's musical reins and set to work on their first album together, "Wahdon" ("Alone"), serving as her mother's producer, composer and musicaldirector. Wahdon typifies this key moment in Fairuz's career when she switched from traditional to more modern arrangements. The first side of the album encapsulates the more traditional side of the singer with such mesmerising songs as "Habaitak Ta Neseet Al Naoum" ("I loved you so much i forgot to sleep") or "Ana Indi Haneen" ("I'm Nostalgic"), filled with gorgeous arabic strings and percussion. The Second side though is a whole different affair. Recorded in Athens at the EMI Greece studio at the same time as the Abu Ali sessions, the two long tracksbrings a hipper, contemporary funk and disco feel that has made the album such a collector's item with DJs and diggers around the world. Clocking at almost nine minutes "Al Bostah" ("The Bus") tells the story a woman in love remembering a bus journey with her lover under a scorching heat, enhanced by an hypnotic uptempofunkified disco beat, while "Wahdon" brings a slower and jazzier underlay to Fairuz's superb singing. These tracks shocked some of the diva's fans at the time but they've since passed the test of time and have become highly sought after. Whadon has since become both aclassic Fairuz album and a cult ZiadRahbani production that Wewantsounds isdelighted to bring to a wider audience for the first time.

Gabe Gurnsey returns with another limited-edition, white label pressing that melds
together two of the standout moments from ‘Physical’ into one irresistible slab of nocturnal electro. Combining the tectonic sleaze of ‘I Get’ with the roll call to rave transcendence of ‘Harder Rhythm’, Gurnsey creates, naturally, ‘I Get Harder’. Mutating his work to further perfect his halcyon club sound, ‘I Get Harder’ releases a slow-crawl ecstasy that’s ideal for dark rooms and open minds. Not one for the faint hearted

he second instalment of Nachtbraker's new label features four new original tunes from the Nachtbraker kitchen. Expect his signature deep grooves and inventive arrangements with moody synth melodies. Leonardo Ceviche is built for the dance floor, a "lean back" groove with a trance vibe to it. One (For Mom) is tailored for the warm summer nights, a steady baseline and snap-py snares supporting the lush and sweet synth melody. Flip the record for two versions of Havel. With the first one taking on a classic deep house guise, the Trip Mix of Havel takes us on a journey beyond your imagination.

Mastered and lacquer cut by Simon (The Exchange) Davey.

Where To Now? Records present the debut release from Akiko Haruna. Akiko’s world is one where cacophonic distress lingers, shuffling itself over scapes of percussive damage and driven groove. Akiko presents a fresh take on the current Technoid function through her use of emotive and intentionally disruptive vocal chops and a dizzying ‘wall of sound’ approach to the dancefloor, consuming all yet somehow keeping vibes alive.

Akiko’s artistic background is primarily in Dance, and undoubtedly this performance led background has had an acute impact on her approach to melodic detail & storytelling. Akiko’s tracks rapidly shift & morph states, always restless and searching with fluidity and intent. From the ever present Micro Electronic details to sweeping swathes of Bass flutter the notion of progressive movement remains at the forefront of her sound, minute elements of detail become briefly isolated, intentionally directing the listener to their subtle presence.

‘Delusions’ Leads with ‘A Mother’s Love’ and begins a theme of resentment and dissonance. The Japanase vocal cuts throughout the track roughly translate to “you should die”, here obviously flipping assumed and supposed relationship rules and roles and exposing an inner turmoil, reflected through a continuous anxiety ridden, almost panicked siren detail which pulses over Akiko’s heads down, deep and uniform forward march.

‘Husband Established’ and the opens with the emotive vocal line “I just hate your Voice”. This is the sound of a poisonous & damaging relationship hurtling towards combustion, where Akiko’s elements gather momentum and impact as layer upon layer of detail pummel and puncture this heightened state, pausing and spiralling to evoke a standoff of aggression and imminent outburst. ‘Husband Established’ stands as a frankly stunning piece of sound design, which manages to capture a raw human emotion, and provide release for the associated junk, stress, and occasional banality of Relationship angst.

‘Hetero’ picks up where ‘Husband Established’ finished, further exploring societal character types and submissive gender tropes that are thrust into our sub consciousness from day to day. The concept of Hyperreality and its themes are continuously explored within Akiko’s practice and It would perhaps be fair to say that these themic explorations within her Music are Akiko’s own outlet for traversing human relationships within a complex, heightened, & layered reality, and it is certainly Akiko’s intention for her audience to feel some kind of relief and release within her sound world. Sonically ‘Hetero’ is a much sparser, subtler affair, where swathes of sampled voice & machine swing in and out of focus, against a weightless backdrop of affecting isolated electronics.

The EP closes with ‘Ripehus Alley’, seemingly void of any deeper meaning or message this serves more as a dreamlike parting song to what is otherwise a highly charged collection. Floating itself away from a frantic & incomprehensible world into a calmer space for final thought and reflection. ‘Delusions’ is a complex, exploratory trip, one which fans of Logos, Fis, Alva Noto, Jlin, Jesse Osborne-Lanthier etc will relish exploring.

After presenting Detroit Swindle’s sophomore album High Life in 2018, we felt it was the right time to serve you up a tasty selection of remixes from all over the world and all over the sound palette. We’ve got some dub and boogie from Australia and the Netherlands, classic deephouse from Detroit, dark and dreamy deephouse from the UK and some high energy house from Germany. This set of remixes comes from 5 artists we hold in high regard and have made a serious impact on their part of the scene; some recently and some already a long time ago.

We invited Dutch techno -plot twist alert!- legend Steve Rachmad to come up with a re-interpretation of ‘Yes, no, maybe (feat. Tom Misch)’. His Sterac Electronics remix actually has nothing to do with techno but is an uplifting modern boogie version of the already funky original. Glimmering electronics, some added harmonics and a tight 80’s groove is what this version is all about.

The A2 is reserved for Cinthie, who took the high energy afro funk track ‘Call of the wild (feat. Jungle by Night)’ and turned it into a full on house frenzy with solo’s all around and a groove that just keeps on going and going.

The A side is completed with a remix by Jura Soundsystem, who has impressed many of us with his balaeric influenced synth-boogie, and dub on his own label ‘Isle of Jura’. Here, he chose to remix ‘High life (feat. Lorenz Rhode)’ and has done an excellent job in re-imagining the track into a tamed down, dreamy dub.

On the flip, there’s Matt Karmil’s take on one of the album’s beatless tracks ‘Ketama gold’. He goes in deep with some dusty drums and an arrangement that keeps on building and building, keeping the chord sequence from the track’s outro as a main loop and adding subtle FX, toms and acid hits and a final delivery where electronic cowbells up the energy level by a notch or two.

We finish off the compilation with a moody deephouse re-interpretation of ‘Ex machina’ by Detroit legend Gari Romalis. The twisted machine funk of the original is craftfully replaced by a dusty house loop, dreamy pads and smart usage of the original’s drum effects to build momentum.

This remix package brings a lovely new chapter into the story of ‘High Life’ and we hope you’ll enjoy these reworks as much as we do.
Yours Sincerely,

Maarten & Lars.

I grew up fascinated with the music played late at night on the radio.
As a kid, when times were tough and I couldn't get myself to sleep, I would tune the radio to my favourite FM station and dream on.
This was back in the late 80's and lasted until the mid 90's, a time when I was getting hooked by Hall & Oates, Loose Ends, Maze, S.O.S. Band, Soul II Soul, and other artists that used to rule the dial in the wee hours.
So this music didn't only comfort and nurture me at the time, it also shaped my music personality.

When Renata approached me in order to work on the first ever compilation for Hello Sailor, I knew the selection would end up reflecting this side of me. It had to come from the heart.
It also had to bring to the table something different than what's already associated with Brazilian music, and exploring our own take on the street soul genre sounded good.
It was never done before and it's also faithful to Brazil's musical heritage.

Back in the 80's and into the 90's, it was very common at parties to have a slow dance moment in between the more uptempo sections. A timeout from all the frantic dancing, when people could cool off and flirt in a more romantic way. (It does sound like a great idea to have this intimate just-the-two-of-us moment in the middle of a party; maybe it explains the number of marriages at that time.)
This is a tradition that goes back to the black music balls in the late 70's, which helps to explain why the majority of the early rap acts from Brazil used to have a couple of romantic songs in their albums. When you add to this recipe the power of the mellow pop acts during the aforementioned period, one can realise why it extended its tentacles to deeper depths of pop music in Brazil.

This compilation features some of my favourite music ever, songs that I've crossed paths with in different moments of my life.
Fernanda Abreu, for instance, is a longtime crush - I have been in love with her music since the mid 80's when she used to sing in a band called Blitz, which my mom loved.
Afrodite Se Quiser, on the other hand, created some buzz while the group was active with the minor hit "O Que Que Ela Tem Que Eu Nao Tenho", from their first album (1987), but I didn't know about "Fora de Mim" until 2015. My point is: even if it took me 25 years to find this track, I had a reserved spot in my brain for it and it laid there perfectly as if it innately belonged there.
It's a built memory, and I love playing with this idea when presenting music to people.

Street Soul Brasil is part mellow pop, part R&B, part rap.
One can surely feel a lot of street energy from the B Side. The music reflects the influence of international pop at the time, but it also shows how Brazilians are talented in making any sound their own!

This compilation is supposed to be a mixed collection of songs, something that might trigger the feeling of flipping through an old photo book full of tender memories. These are songs that should speak straight to the heart, music to comfort and heal, music that deals with joy and pain, feelings that I always liked being transmitted through music.
It's among the best forms of therapy. It worked for me and I hope it works for you...

A very warm welcome aboard to the splendid AMERICAN STANDARD label !!

Critical & hedonistic acclaim have already been lavished on this Charleston based sonic excavator of considerable note, so we won't bore you with an exhaustive biog, mainly because there isn't one.
The music is most definitely left to do the talking as this one man 'Folly Beach Psychemagik' fills the record boxes of the world's most discerning diggers with treasure beyond measure.

So, for this latest 3 piece for American Standard we're firmly in the FM synthesis musical district of early 80's planet earth.
70's session players still strung out from the previous decades' debauchery tried their hand at piloting these electricity powered units to wildly varying degrees of success.
Luckily for you, Jaz has been kind enough to find and reload three of the finest, more esoteric, obscure but eminently playable moments from this fertile era for some primo 'back to the future' frugging...

...in the moment of death: "I have deserved my present fate; for what had I to do with wings and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the earth?"
- Aesop

Rabe drops it's fourth release right before summer with a fresh combinations of sounds and artists that inspire Denise in one way or another. For this installment she's compiled remixes by Insolate, Kwartz, Sstrom and Belief Defect. The resulting EP "The Tortoise And The Eagle", explores the spectrum between hallucination and function, industrial soundscape and dance floor drive.

Walls, Corridors, Baffles is the debut album of Swiss musician and producer Samuel Savenberg aka S S S S. Following various releases on Haunter Records, aufnahme+wiedergabe, and Hallow Ground, his LP on Präsens Editionen tries to find an approach to an artistic expression beyond tropes of darkness, harshness and excess. Thus, the aesthetic of Walls, Corridors, Baffles is radically and uncompromisingly sober. Instead of focusing on a conceptual or symbolic treatment of sound as an abstraction, Savenberg emphasizes its materiality. The album consists of eight pieces strung together into a manifesto which calls for a febrile embrace of an unheard-of, intense sobriety.
In Walls, Corridors, Baffles, unadulterated percussive force meets an astoundingly precise and frugal vocabulary of electroacoustic sounds, as for example on the opener “Deserter”. Passages extended over long melodies invite the listener to lose oneself in the contrastive emptiness. Central to the work are the affective qualities of the music which lapses only at moments into a more defined emotional quality – as on the final track “Nothing But the Circulation of Air”.
*Edition of 300 copies

Any historians keen on the subject of "French youth in the 1980s" are holding a treasure in their hands. As a true archaeologist of this decade dedicated to disposable culture, digger-in-chief Vidal Benjamin with his newest compilation, 'Pop Sympathie', offers them a unique journey in the heart of the cyclone of emotions that struck all teenagers during the first seven years of François Mitterrand's mandate. Fifteen musical nuggets, exhumed from the dungeons of history, each and every one of them teaching us about what really obsessed the youngsters at that exact moment, i.e. what happens when the city lights come on at dusk, when irrepressible urges that stir them to get lost even more appear until the end of the night.

The artists gathered here did not have the honour of breaking into the local charts, but they all individually reached for the sky. Each song of 'Pop Sympathie' tells more or less the same story: that of a girl who throws herself into the night like one immerses one's self into the void, who rushes into a one-night adventure to become a star. And too bad if in the early morning she finds herself back at square one. In all these miniature odysseys there is neon lights, lasers, smoke machines, broken glass on checkered tiles, strangers on leather benches, celebrities in the bathrooms, stolen kisses, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, Polaroids, venetian blinds and radioactive tubes.

If the first opus of Vidal Benjamin, 'Disco Sympathie', focused on the funky mood of songs that could have been played at Le Palace, then 'Pop Sympathie' develops itself as the imaginary soundtrack of another nightclub, Les Bains-Douches, the capital’s epicenter of nocturnal drifts. So what do we listen to, blasé, at Bains-Douches? Mainly synthesizers. The child of punk and post punk, French New Wave celebrates the matrimony of machines and lolitas under the auspices of a retro trend that revisits the atomic age. Trying to surf on that wave and hit the charts, a bunch of producers (Stéphane Berlow, Laurent Stopnicki, Bernard "Black Devil" Fèvre, Johny Rech, Jean-Yves Joanny ...) will spot their talents amongst friends, in a travel agency or at the local bar. These virtual stars are called Cecilia, Laurent, Sonia, Janou, Fabienne, Anne, Arielle or Ronan, not even 20 years old, and often leaving just an overexposed photo and their first name on a single as the only memories of their swift passage in this particular musical story. It took all the love and sweet madness of Vidal Benjamin to bring them back in the light of day.

Clovis Goux

Ape-X Records is the new label created by the people behind the Newcastle club party of the same name.

After 11 years of bringing global DJ talent to the North East of England, Ape-X is now turning things on its head and bringing the musical talent of the North East to the rest to the world.

Its first release features the debut release by the mysterious new spoken-word musician “MARSKE”.
“Hospital Corners” is as high brow as it is lo fi, and is difficult to describe beyond saying it shares DNA with House Music, Techno, No Wave and Beat Poetry
Production duties for the original track come from North East artist (and Ape-X’s Label Manager), Man Power.
The record also features an Instrumental version, as well as 2 incendiary remixes, from Spencer Parker (Rekids) and Boxia (Drumcode) respectively..

Over its 11 Year tenure in Newcastle, Ape-X has always followed its own uncompromising musical path, immune to trends, and with a distinctly northern personality.
As a result, a specific sound for the party will always remain hard to pin-point, but Luke and Gabe from the party best describe the sound of the label as:

“attempting to capture the unhinged moment in every party where the energy remains high, but the vibe can turn weird. Where the excitement and emotion are both balanced enough to let the DJ move peoples minds as much as they move their feet”.

Cosmic Bridge’s club focused ‘Earthbase Series’ continues with ‘Nocturnal’ the new release from Russian producer A.Fruit.

Four tracks that fuse Footwork, Drum’n’Bass, Techno and bold sound design into the 160 BPM framework. A er a heavy hitting set of releases via Russian imprint Hyperboloid, Irish modern trendsetters Rua Sound, and the ever vigilant Med School, so please welcome A.Fruit to the Cosmic Bridge roster.

Label boss Om Unit says: “Anna has a rare ear in this 160bpm world; one foot firmly in the techier sound-design lane, and one in the world of fun dance floor sounds. Well mixed, and not too serious! It’s great to have her on board and we look forward to sharing a stage soon!”

Kicking things off is ‘Make Them Shake’, a hypnotic and contorted expression of footwork with bubbling bass and drum FX - only for the boldest of dancers. ‘Polykarp’ comes complete with rugged old school hardcore chops twisted into a technoid stepper. ‘Deep Insight’, is reminiscent of early Moving Shadow Jungle; hypnotic & minimalist with tight drums, glitches and jazzy late night moments. Closing track ’Before You Go’ is a breaks filled, garage-footwork workout; cheeky vocal cuts and rolling syncopated rhythms for your waistline!

Formerly clandestine, today manifest, both sacred but also profane, sometimes meditated, very often improvised, the Kabar transpires in the daily Reunion, getting rid with insolence of any label that dares to impose. The Kabar is a fleeting but bubbling manifestation of an identity and a local culture that is still difficult to define. A moment of life and sharing where handcrafted instruments, neighborhood meetings, ritual dances and lyrical demands are mixed. A meeting.

Born from the musical union of maloya and electronic music, Digital Kabar is a compilation at the crossroads of cultures, porous to all sound experiences. It's also the result of a friendship that drives InFiné at Les Electropicales festival, from the fascination of a small team dedicated to the independent musical cause for a musical scene and its diversity.

Digital Kabar features tracks & reworks from Jako Maron, InFiné affiliate Labelle, Alex Barck, Christine Salem, Boogzbrown, Loya, Sheitan Brothers,Ti Fock, Force Indigène, Agnesca, Zong, Psychorigid, J-ZeuS, and Kwalud.

Pre-Order. Releases June 21.

Unsurprisingly for a creator as prolific as Muslimgauze’s Bryn Jones was, when he was asked for a contribution for any sort of group project, he would tend to provide more options than necessary. In the case of longtime label Staalplaat’s 1996 compilation Sonderangebot, where Jones would find himself in the company of everyone from Charlemagne Palestine to Reptilicus, the selected track was the characteristically headspinning “Kaliskinazure”, nine minutes of insistent digital percussion bouncing the listener back and forth between samples of wailing women’s voices and a trebly, blurry little whirr that traces the percussion. It’s distinctive enough even among the vast Muslimgauze corpus, but as the continued excavation of DATs Jones submitted to his labels continues, sure enough there’s more to that track’s story, too.

An extended “Kaliskinazure” makes up the second of four tracks on Babylon Is Iraq, although it’s been lost to the mists of time whether an outside editor excised the more drifting, less needling coda that makes up the extra six minutes found here, or whether Jones simply submitted both versions of the track at different times. This more complete version of “Kaliskinazure” is surrounded by shorter tracks, with the opening “Kaliskinazure — Momada” sounding not very much like either track it references (instead being a barely-there wisp of far-away sampled wind instruments and what sounds like treated cymbal sounds) and the title track constantly coming to a full, roiling digital boil. The lengthy “Momada” closes out the album with a different, more tersely internal arrangement surrounding the same percussion pattern that will be familiar to any Sonderangebot fans, although the way the quieter atmosphere transforms the feeling of that rhythm indicates once more than Jones’ way of reconfiguring his pieces over and over was perhaps more purposive and even more effective than he’s sometimes given credit for. The result is a fascinating expansion on one of Muslimgauze’s strongest stand-alone moments.

This 3-part compilation is a celebration of On The 5th Day - a project born out of love - honouring the music, moments and individuals that have helped to make it so special.

What follows is a journey through the spectrum of sound On The 5th Day so proudly represents and has become renowned for, the full compilation mirroring the vision for our events: to create unforgettable flow from beginning to end - a record for each part of the night.

Our love and gratitude goes to all those who have joined us along the way.

Phosphene describes vision without stimulus, which is a fitting metaphor for this artist debut on Pomelo. Sparse mathematical patterns form the backbone of its four tracks, creating sensory impact through subtle mutations and tense arrangements. Mimikry and Metro’s stark rhythms and strict tonality take a nod from Robert Hood and Terry Riley, while Math and Ak-ki on the flip-side evoke the more grounded moments of Mika Vainio, with grumbling, bassy grooves and brief flashes of cathartic enlightenment.

Performing throughout the 1980s as Art Carnage to the gloomy hipsters of Portland, Attilio Panissidi III decided he needed a vacation. The result of his creative escape became Art Takes A Holiday, an album of fabricated FM synthscapes and MIDI environments that embrace elements of smooth jazz, new age, and pop.

Attilio had been playing in bands since he was thirteen, and had opened live shows for countless acts, from The Shangri-Las to Bruce Hornsby. The experience of producing, performing, as well as years spent writing for local music magazine The Downtowner, earned Attilio a gig to score a commercial film for a home security systems company. The opportunity allowed him to explore softer elements in his writing, and he created a suite of songs much deeper than the commission warranted. These instrumentals caught the attention of Marlon McClain (Gap Band, Shock), who invited Attilio to produce and release the music on his fledgling Nu-Vision label. Thus Art Takes A Holiday found its commercial release on cassette and CD in 1989. Although originally intended as soundtrack music, the album retains its own momentum, narrative and evocative imagery that betrays Attilio's years of crafting songs. Attilio found a perfect ambience on this mythic retreat, somewhere between William Aura's summer cottage on Half Moon Bay and DJ Alfredo's Balearic island getaway.

Eduardo De La Calle s recent Distortion Theory III EP on Abstract Reasoning was another impressive piece of work from the prolific producer. Now come four diverse remixes of the title track, each with their own unique twist on the warped machinations of the original.

J - Keel kicks off proceedings with a droning, tense interpretation which toughens up the original considerably. Reversed chord stabs pitch up and down as ominous bass bores a steady course through the track s underbelly, with ticking percussive elements ensuring a motorik pulse.

The masterful Roman Fl gel teases out the chime motif of the original and supplements them with muted marimba-esque arpeggios for a soothing, underwater feel. The beats are kept to a succinct minimum, with subtle swathes of strings bringing a majestic, dreamlike tinge to this refined, minimalistic production.

Fellow Spaniard ORBE brings an ambient feel to the hazy, delicate melodics of his mix, with the delayed, warped synth patterns that struggle to be heard and beautiful atmospherics recalling Carl Craig. Moments of distorted pressure seep through and remind us of the buggedout flavour of the original.

Holland s Conforce rounds things off with plump low end throbs and sparse synth pulses reminiscent of Basic Channel, with gently shuffling hi-hats underpinning the murky yet warm textures and broad, heavily reverbed swathes of chord drama.

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019.

Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun.

What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled.

Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

Delicate Wash is back with its third offering of classy edits built for the most discerning of dance floors.

It delves deeper into the cosmic cosmos, and unveils more of the lesser known, but brightly shining disco stars you've come to expect.

LP comes pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

On 29th March, Reclaimed Records are proud to present pianist and composer Taz Modi's elegant debut solo album 'Reclaimed Goods', which brings to light his love for contemporary composition – something which may come as a surprise to fans of soulful dance music heavyweights Submotion Orchestra, and jazz trumpeter Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra - for both of whom Modi plays keys/piano. Whilst also gaining further demand as a musician, including for A-list studio and live work for funk 'n' soul legends Dennis Coffey and Fred Wesley, plus beatmaker heroes DJ Shadow and Mr. Scruff, Modi has been discreetly pursuing an additional passion during down-time for years – and his prolonged, patient crafting shows in the record's tasteful and beautiful spirit.

Calling to mind the piano music of Cage, Frahm, Hauchska, Sakamoto and Aphex Twin, 'Reclaimed Goods' is a graceful affair, in which lush strings and gently pulsing rhythmic flutters sit alongside prepared and plaintive piano, with the tunes ranging from sparse beauty to weightier moments of electronic rhythms. This allows the music to appeal equally to fans of heavier electronic acts such as Cinematic Orchestra and Bonobo, to devotees of ambient and contemporary classical music, as well as those familiar with Modi's work with both Submotion Orchestra and Matthew Halsall.



Positive review by John Lewis for the Guardian's contemporary music album of the month section: 'An even more effective exploration of solo piano territory comes from British pianist Taz Modi; best known for his work in various jazz and funk ensembles, his solo debut Reclaimed Goods features a host of introspective instrumentals that are reminiscent, variously, of Ryuichi Sakamoto (Libra), Nils Frahm (Time to Practise, Crystalline) and Hauschka (Ethical Tourist).

Featured in Music Week's Tastemaker section, 15th April 2019 with Haydon Spenceley: 'Listen to it; it'll lift you high above our care-worn world to a place of safety and grace'.

First single 'Ethical Tourist' featured as a premiere on 18 Feb 2019

Second single 'Crystalline' premiered on Boiler Room's 4:3 video channel, 12 Mar 2019

'A kaleidoscopic album that seductively pulls you in and leaves you curious about the inspiration behind the songs' - AAA Music

Positive review on Magazine Sixty

Support on Soho Radio, Dom Servini

Played on Worldwide FM, April 3, Gondwana Records show

Featured on Bleep's Spotify playlist 'For Your Ears and For Your Head', April 2019

Played by Mischa Kreiskott, NDR Radio Germany, ndr.de

Worldwide FM's Gondwana Records show on May 1 featured an interview with Taz Modi, along with multiple tracks from the album.



Musicians:

Taz Modi – piano, keyboards/electronics, arrangement and production

Natalie Purton – violin + viola

Liz Hanks – cello

Margit van der Zwan – cello

Seb Hankins and Jon Scott – drums

Australian band Pleasure Symbols enter a new phase in 2019, physically and stylistically with the forthcoming release of their first full length record Closer and Closer Apart. Three years have passed since the release of their debut, self-titled EP through Avant!. The time away being a necessary moment of reflection and regeneration for singer, songwriter and bassist Jasmine Dunn. Joined by fellow musician Steven Schnorrer, the duo began the push towards a more 80’s inspired post-punk sound with a ‘pop noir’ twist. Deciding to record and produce the album themselves, gave the freedom to take time to grow and explore their new direction as a song writing duo. Despite current trends in popular music, Pleasure Symbols continues to focus on a more guitar based post punk, dream-pop sound, while slowly diverging from a previous minimal wave, synth based musical output. With themes of desire for desires sake and self confrontation, the new musical direction may seem initially harrowing, but look closer and you will see vulnerability and tenderness triumph over the struggle of the human experience.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Julian Muller joins the Collective with a brilliant release that exposes at the maximum level his abilities to transfer emotions and vibrant landscapes where you can freely run and have your own experience, with no time indication, and with no compass. "Frustration" signs a moment in the career of the artist where his desire to show who he really is, but everything around him starts to become smaller and smaller, the artist feels the need to express in his whole form his art, and right when everything looks far, he finds his path. This record signs a very important moment for the artist, but even more for the user that will encounter the record, the idea is to let the record take you, wherever you want to go.

As a visual artist and ambient composer, Tor Lundvall's work often recontextualizes the familiarity of everyday life through abstraction and space. Starting with the snapshot of a moment, Lundvall extracts its underlying complexity of the seemingly mundane and gives sleeping suggestion a presence and purpose. Mainly working sans vocals, Lundvall returned to voice exploration for 2018's A Dark Place, a somber, dark synth album that merged his mastery of textural ambience with traditional pop structures.

Rescued from old DAT tapes A Strangeness In Motion: Early Pop Recordings 1989-1999 are some of Lundvall's earliest completed synth pop works which have remained unreleased until now.

Though Lundvall's work throughout the collection has the recognizable ambient bones and sensibilities he has refined throughout his career, many of the tracks call back to the synth-driven pop of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The Human League and New Order, with the common thread being the sparse density and mood created by reservation and the lonely impulse to twist convention, not to rip it up and repurpose it. Rather than 10 disparate ideas, Lundvall's curation of A Strangeness In Motion: Early Pop Recordings 1989-1999 feels like excerpts from a broader work, allowing the listener to fill in the holes and ladder up to his larger themes and concepts, perhaps coloring his prior works in new hues and tones.

'For years I dismissed these songs as naive and youthful relics, but I've grown much fonder of them in recent years along with the memories they evoke,' he says of the decade spanning collection of tracks, many of which were sketched out in his duo with Drew Sullivan, After The Outing. 'Original One', 'Procession Day', 'The Clearing', and 'The Melting Hour' are present here as solo reworkings, originally culled from his sessions with Sullivan. The remaining songs were ideas originally considered for Passing Through Alone (1997) and its proposed follow up, provisionally and playfully titled Femalamania.

'The title was summing up my girl problems at the time and also a silly word spin on Robyn Hitchcock's Fegmania!' he says. 'Sadly, the project was abandoned—a rare decision for me and perhaps the only time I've scrapped an album entirely.'

This 3-part compilation is a celebration of On The 5th Day - a project born out of love - honouring the music, moments and individuals that have helped to make it so special.

What follows is a journey through the spectrum of sound On The 5th Day so proudly represents and has become renowned for, the full compilation mirroring the vision for our events: to create unforgettable flow from beginning to end - a record for each part of the night.

Our love and gratitude goes to all those who have joined us along the way.

sychosis-inducing’ club tracks from Moscow. Ushi333 shares Green EP on PG TUNE, label by Philipp Gorbachev. The 4 track vinyl version of the EP is balanced with both functions: a fresh idea for DJ peak time moments and laid back Detroit influenced soundscapes. The digital version of the EP has three more tripped-out tracks: Space Mania, Tribal 1and Ophiuchus. Ushi333 is a Moscow based low-profile producer and this material was recorded live with hardware machines in the years 2018 – 2019.

Born in 1949 in Recife (Brazil), Roberto De Melo Santos, despite a very light discography, is among
the true icons of the Brazilian Soul music under his artist alias, Di Melo. He’s indeed only needed an
eponymous album, released in 1975 on Odeon, to assert himself as a star in his native country, but
also as a legend for all collectors and connoisseurs of the world. More than 40 years after its release,
this famous album sells for several hundred euros in its original version, and even for the few
reissues that were offered. Not very active since then, Di Melo however returned in 2016 with the
album O Imorrível, released on the Brazilian label Casona Produções.
It is then that a year later, came a meeting with the French group Cotonete, that Florian Pellissier,
founding member and keyboard within the band tells us about: “On tour in Brazil with Cotonete, we
had a few days off in Sao Paulo and I really hoped to make a collaboration with an important artist or
band from the Brazilian funk scene. We had thought of Marcos Valle, Meta Meta or Ed Motta... but
Rafaela Prestes our Brazilian "sound ingineer/genious" told me she’d worked with Di Melo for his
recent comeback and gave me his number. No sooner said than done, as I'm a huge fan of Di Melo.
The next day he arrived at our house with Jo, his wife, and Gabi, his daughter. He takes the guitar in
front of us and gives us a private show of 3 hours… we cried the tears of joy. He had 400 original
songs never recorded, a gold mine. On the same night, we started working the arrangements for 2
days, followed by a rehearsal and two small gigs in Sao Paulo. Immediately after, we recorded in the
magical Epsilon B studio. This album is the summary of this moment, of these 5 days of madness
spent together between “the best band in the world” and the legend Roberto Di Melo… Simple,
beautiful, Brazilian-French, human music…”
Today, Atemporal found its final version in collaboration with Favorite Recordings and is proudly
presented as what we believe will become the genuine long-awaited follow-up to the classic Di
Melo’s LP.

As a winemaker hailing from the Palatinate, Florian Hollerith understands a thing or two about vintage. It's something that also comes through when you sample his music - rich, full bodied with just the right level of acidity. 2018 was already a good year with Ohrenzirkus featuring on both Sven Väth's Sound of the 19th Season mix CD as well as this year's Dots and Pearls vol. 5 compilation. Florian certainly announced his arrival on the scene in style, so it's only fair that he gets the chance to demonstrate his full range of skills on his very own Cocoon Recordings release. 2019 however, has a darker, more complex flavour...

Florian certainly knows a hookline when he finds one. On the EP's title track Perlas, he's working from the inside out with complex layers creating a vortex of sound. This dense sonic mesh is playful yet dangerous, with ethereal voices and jagged chants adding to the disorientation of the opening exchanges until the congas and skipping bassline give us something to hold onto. The dance floor melts under our feet as a raw, tripped out groove takes hold before the bass suddenly morphs into a brassy acid line that spreads its wings and soars. It's music for the headstrong, a celebration of the timeless tribal ceremonies that have come to define us.

Love Summer adds a contemporary twist to the melodic joys that drenched the early nineties in pure ecstasy. The soulful vocals soothe the mind as horn stabs punctuate the sensual groove, generating power and passion in equal measures. It's a straightforward approach, revolving around a familiar yet eminently seductive riff that just keeps on rolling, propelled forward by the force of its own momentum. There's no need to fuss when you hit on a winning formula like this.

More retro futurism abounds on Electro Indianer as arpeggiated bleeps usher in another vast, sprawling soundscape designed to induce a collective trance on the dance floor. Whistling, circular effects wash back and forth increasing the tension notch by notch as we're led deeper into the wormhole. Finally, the track deconstructs slightly, creating enough space for classic Casio-style bleeps and percussion to embellish a beautiful blissed out ending that trails off into the sun rise, as ancient Native American pipes pick out a haunting melody in the distance.

Uber rare Italo cut here. Currently going for stupid money on Discogs.

smog’s music has been on a steady path towards monumentalism since emerging out of the recesses of Berlin in 2015.

Originally from Paris, growing up cutting his chops in the capital’s hip hop undergrowth, the young producer makes music that is as challenging as it is evocative. On “sequel’70” – his debut album – bass, techno, electroacoustic music and jungle are rung through his singular take on the hardcore continuum. The production is powerful, dynamic and geared to bulldoze the dance. It’s clear why the likes of Resident Advisor have tipped smog as an “important artist to watch” and why his tracks have been appearing in sets from artists of the calibre and creative range of Objekt, Donato Dozzy, Samuel Kerridge or Go Hiyama.

With his debut album, smog lays bare a world of start and stop mechanics. Tracks twist and turn through stuttering panoramas of crashing beats, majestic peaks and post-rave intensity. On its most moving moments the gorgeously burnt out cinematic pads of “Mécanique Oblique” are a particular highlight – “sequel’70” feels like coming up in the middle of an industrial wasteland. It’s almost as if the end of the world wasn’t such a terrible prospect after all.
Jungle architectures are pulled apart and reconstructed on “Gelid”, “Dazzle” and the phenomenal “Abschluss SCAN”. Souvenirs of gabber echo through heavy handed kicks and speaker defying noise blasts. IDM inflexions creep their way in opportunistically, but even at its most abstract – album midpoint “Straightforward” sounds like a geiger counter being set off – it all sounds more like the possibilities offered by the future of rave rather than an attempt at paying homage to the genre’s heritage.

There’s a special energy and irreverence to smog’s music and there’s deep reflection in how he connects the dots of the subfamilies of rave. His attention to sound design would almost be worth the trip alone, but the album remains superb even at its most disorderly.

DJ Pierre’s legendary Jack Trax Records returns with a delicious set of raw acid tracks from Finnish producer Type-303, who made his 12” wax debut on Posthuman’s I Love Acid imprint, with a release on Lobster-distributed ProForm this past fall.

“What is the Time?” kicks things off with a jacking beat reminiscent of the classic Chicago acid house sound, answering the question with “it’s time to jack”.

Next up is “Sound of Future”, alluding to Phuture’s classic “Acid Track” with a tough, driven beat and acid line that builds up to a psychedelic frenzy of claps, snares, and rides.

The title track, “Ghost in the 303”, follows suit with more of Type-303’s punchy percussion, interjected by moments of frenzied 16th claps, paired with an eerie, otherworldly pad taking the listener deep into the soul of the machine, the classic TB-303.

Last is “Control”—filled with dreamy yet slightly dissonant pads and a wispy breakbeat-inspired snare line that provides a deep, introspective conclusion to this acid laced journey.