Cerca:orchestral

Brazil 45, number 36


Claudia - Garra

Rich, sweet, orchestral bossa nova/MPB from the excellent Claudia, another of our favourite artists and featured several times in this series. Taken from her 'Você, Claúdia, Você' LP released in 1971 by Odeon Brazil.


Os Tres Morais - Freio Dynamico

Uptempo, cinematic, vocal MPB/Jazz with muted trumpets, pinging bass guitar strings and even a little bit of fuzz for good measure! Os Tres Morais we're two brothers and a sister; Jane Vincentina, Sidney and Roberto do Espírito Santo. They formed in 1963.

'Freio Dynamico' is taken from the groups self-titled LP on Odeon 1971.

Sheffield DJ/Producer Louis 'Taiko' Robson has consistently agitated the boundaries of dubstep music, manipulating eclectic influences in to his productions with bold, original arrangements, intricate percussion, experimental instrumentation and unforgettable subs, and he's not held back with ALBION002.

Title track Splinted dons the A Side of the release and sets the standard high with its heavy sub, percussive melody, and string lead. Robson has taken inspiration from contemporary orchestral composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich initiating the creation of the drums and percussion, which add a rich analogue sound to the track, and with that an almighty atmosphere. Folk-like scratchy strings take the lead which is a theme set for the EP and highlights Taiko's tenacity for sound design and disregard for convention. Each eclectic element of the track compliments the next resulting in a guttural, energetic dance floor cut, with dark undertones making the listener feel agitated or anxious. A pulse raiser strictly for sound system use.

Over on the flip side, starting with the outer, Taiko offers a much warmer vibe throughout Fractal, flexing another experimental set of instrumentation, this time round building rhythm with an accordion sample. An enormous rolling sub bass instantly becomes dominant after the short intro and meticulous percussion exaggerates the astounding impact from the drums. In the break expect a much murkier tone with a grimey string sample leading to the second drop. Robson achieves a certain level of feel-good whilst maintaining a dark and aggressive tone in his unmistakably raw track.

Nickel takes the inner side on the flip, following form to the prior with its accordion sample adding a distorted guitar drone for the melodic intro. The acoustic instrumentation couples up with irregular drum work solidifying the EP's 'live' aesthetic, whilst maintaining a dance floor orientation. Tonnes of energy meets masses of bass, Nickel is a recommended set opener and a great close to the EP.

With our first release of 2016, we welcome one of South London's _nest, Dullah Beatz, with his EP "Ballys On". Known to the label for a while, Dullah has been around since Grime started but the availability of a lot of his beats has been sparse. So after a guest appearance on our first album, JT The Goon's "King Triton," we're proud to present Dullah's most substantial release yet. On the A side for the 12th release on Oil Gang, the orchestral minimalism of the title track gives way to the Indian scales of "Time," both of them full of sub and menace. Then on the B side, there's a track called... "Oil Gang". This was Dullah's choice, we're not just going on an ego trip. The echoes of the label's recent styles are there though, a JT style flute riding gunshot hats and amsfeedback. The last track, Floating, rounds up the EP with a bit of tribal space and steel drums riding Dullah's inimitable style. This is the first time theres been a proper Dullah Beatz statement on vinyl and we're really happy it gets to be us at Oil Gang that got to do it.

The latest chapter in the unfolding story of Chronicle finds the New York techno label reaching out to Japan once again, calling upon the considerable talents of Hironori Takahashi to deliver a nerve -shredding manifest on cinematic scope and malicious intent in the darker corners of contemporary techno. Takahashi has previously shared his vision for malevolent dancefloor crushers on such highly regarded labels as Semantica and Stroboscopic Artefacts, not to mention holding down a job at the world-renowned Disk Union record shop in Tokyo.

Proceedings start somewhat inviting on EVENT0009, as the warm, dub-inflected chords of 'Ariast' drift through the stout rhythmic throwdown with orchestral grace. There is of course plenty of space left for brooding, uncertain elements underneath this melodic calm, but it's still a positively mellow offering compared to the jackhammer drum damage of 'Dazre' with its monstrous industrial intent and soaring sound design.

'Cecilleatis' is a more patient beast that simmers its tough ingredients into a predatory whole, using atmospheric pressure instead of sheer volume to create the required intensity. It's not all steel furnace fury though, as the track comes equipped with an epilogue that cools the fires of the EP with some glacial tones and distant machine bleeps that continue Chronicle's commitment to showcasing different sides of their chosen artists.

Davide Squillace, the Italian DJ and producer behind the This And That Lab and Hideout imprints, has kept up a hugely productive schedule since the 1990s, and lands on Luciano's Cadenza Music this fall with the 'Goiânia' single release. Previous musical output on a multitude of labels such as Primate, his own Sketch Music & Minisketch labels, Ovum, Supernature and M_nus has also seen the artist collaborate with plenty; Guti, Martin Buttrich and Philip Bader among those who he has conjured up some inventive and dancefloor-centric minimal electronic music with. On the lead track 'Goiânia', Squillace opens up a highly musical pot of orchestral stabs and brass hits, morphing bottom end and freestyle synth licks, cavorting around a steady percussive beat to great effect.'Blossom' comes heavier in vibe, but maintaining the classical atmosphere developed on the EP's opener. Pizzicato synths play a call and response with dramatic strings whilst an electro tinged drum pattern and sizzling hats lay the foundations of a track with more than a nod to the classic house sounds developed on labels like Innervisions and Ibadan. 'Unit 9 closes the release, and Squillace goes on a Galactic ride through meteoritic bleeps and humungous pads for a cosmic and pacey techno number, dubbing it up midway for a most enjoyable ride and a fitting closure to a classy release on Cadenza.

During the '70s, work days at Umiliani's Sound Workshop Studios were hectic; thousands of sessions were held in order to keep up with a very busy Italian movie industry: Hundreds of soundtracks alongside with music library were recorded and released on vinyl in very limited quantities for TV and film production use only. Those LPs are now proper collectors' items, extremely hard to find.

Filled with hypnotic bass lines, heavy drums and screaming fuzz guitars "Underground", the first LP of the fictitious group known as Braen's Machine, is one of the rarest and the most expensive of them all, always "reaching" sky high prices throughout the second hand vinyl market. A fast-beat jam with hammond scales and a twin lead guitar theme ("Flying") opens the A Side soon followed by "Imphormal", a classicfunk-beat-meetsfender- rhodes-and-psychedelic-guitar number. The music then switch to "thriller territories" with "Murder" which is based on prepared piano swells and a deeply hypnotic walking bass, reminiscent of the best Morricone's soundtracks for Dario Argento's movies. Two highly percussive songs complete the A Side: "Gap" is an improvised song with guitar and keyboards dwelling over an infectious drum rhythm while a marching snare and a vibraslap effect are the special features on "Militar Police".

The mood relaxes slightly on the opening of the B Side with a lazy jazz groove on "New Experience" but the rock influences are soon brought back on the following track "Fall Out". "Obstinacy" is all about keyboards with syncopated rhodes themes and distorted hammond sustained notes whilst the fuzz guitar is back again screaming through the left channel on the last song of the album, "Description". We could happly say that that was the golden age of the Italian music library. But who's behind the name "Braen's Machine" On the original cover the songs are credited to the composers Braen and Gisteri. Braen was a pseudonym often used by Alessandro Alessandroni, an extremely skilled and versatile musician, and one of Umiliani's closestcollaborators. He could write, conduct and arrange, he could sing (ever heard "Mah Na Mah Na"), he could whistle (ever heard Morricone's "For a fistful of dollars") and he could play almost anything: guitar, bass tuba, accordion, sitar and the list grows..... His first album "Alessandro Alessandroni e il suo complesso" (Sermi, 1969), had transformed the Italian library music from orchestral sound beds into the psychedelia we all love; the extremely fuzzy guitars are very "present" on "Underground" too. For a long time Gisteri's real identity was rather mysterious; often wrongly attributed to Umiliani. Gisteri was the pseudonym of Oronzo De Filippi, art name of Rino De Filippi, music supervisor to the Italian public broadcast company (RAI) between the '60s and the '70s. De Filippi composed other notable pieces such as "Riflessi" (Edipan, 1975) and "Nel mondo del lavoro" (Sermi, 1972).

De Filippi passed away few years ago but we were able to contact Alessandroni to talk about this LP. Remembering "Underground" recording session as one of the thousands he took part of, Alessandroni told us that this record was produced very quickly, in two days maximum. This was made possible by a team of wonderfully capable session musicians and the creative genius behind the mixing desk; this incredible combination helped to focus on the mood of each track even more. Unfortunately there are no liner notes but Alessandroni's memories and speculations, based on other music tracked in the same period at Soundworkshop by resident engineer Claudio Batussi, led us to identify this as the most probable lineup: Munari on drums, Majorana on bass, Vannucchi on keyboards and Alessandroni himself on guitar. For this reissue the sound has been restored and the cover art reproduced exactly as it was.

Dan Morrow, singer of Funkwerkstatt, going to a world of music with a high atmospheric density.



Funkwerkstat-Sänger Dan Morrow wandelt auf Solopfaden. Wohin In eine musikalische
Welt, deren hohe atmosphärische Dichte zwischen poppiger Leichtgkeit und tefsinniger Melancholie oszilliert. Es sind klassische Songs, die er hier unter dem Namen 'i Am Halo' vorlegt. Denn immer ist es die Textur seiner einzigartgen Stmme, um die herum sich Rhythmen und Melodien kristallisieren. Dies geschieht mal mit tanzbarer, mal mit eher bedächtger Dynamik, mal mit orchestralen Motven, mal mit elektronischem Gefrickel, aber immer mit ganz viel Gefühl und Stmmung. So ganz allein ist - i Am Halo' übrigens doch nicht unterwegs. The Micronaut steuert einen Remix zu Litle Planet bei, in dem die jazzige Vertracktheit seiner Beats immer wieder punktgenau auf der Eins landet. Gluid hebt unter die ießende Melancholie des Titels Not Invented gradlinige Rhythmen, die das symphonisch anmutende Original voll und ganz tanzächenkompatbel machen. Und Mollono.Bass arbeitet sorgfältg die sonnigsten Aspekte von Queen of Queens heraus um sie zu einem ungezwungen Groove zu verdichten.

you secretly believe that all of the best dance music has an undercurrent of melancholy then you are in for a treat. 0.5, the debut EP from the Fascination Movement, doesn't skimp on either the dancefloor rhythms or the windswept yes-we-remember-New Pop romanticism. The Fascination Movement is looking forwards, not backwards: just because this is music that adapts the same vocabulary created by bands like New Order or early Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark doesn't change the fact that from the first arpeggios of "Just Pretend" you feel the shock of the new. Of course, you may be too busy humming along to the choruses to notice how slyly the band makes a classic sound fresh again...