Buscar:studio 54

'Great Many Arrows' is the 6th studio album from Damien Dubrovnik, the Danish duo of Loke Rahbek and Christian Stadsgaard. It is also the 200th release on their Posh Isolation label, marking 8 years for both the label and project. The label's inception came with Damien Dubrovnik's debut album, and since then the two have been inseparable. Without Damien Dubrovnik there would most likely have been no Posh Isolation, and vice versa.

'Great Many Arrows' is undoubtedly a high point in the varied discographies of both Rahbek and Stadsgaard. It is the most realized Damien Dubrovnik recording to date, and a standout in Posh Isolation's troves.

As a record, 'Great Many Arrows' manages to translate the intensity of the duo's often unrestrained live shows in to carefully crafted studio productions. Unlike the pair's earlier and largely electronic recordings, the compositions on 'Great Many Arrows' set organs, cellos, violas, wind and other acoustic instruments against the backdrop of an electronic landscape.

The new toolset is as apparent on the surface as it is in the enclosed detail, taking the project further from its noise roots than it has ever been. This is not to say that Rahbek and Stadsgaard have traded ferocity for formal constraint. It is rather the opposite. While 'Great Many Arrows' is certainly the pair's most 'musical' work to date, its veneer of accessibility might also make it their most terrifying.

The strength of the recording lies here in the interaction between the melodic, acoustic instrumentation and the bulldozing electronics. Moments of beauty and light are transfigured into utter chaos and rage, the mesmerising change an expression of the equal and opposite form's natural sway as it beckons and slips between its own passing.

'Great Many Arrows' takes its name from a historic archery competition in Kyoto, Japan, in which archers would shoot as many arrows as possible for a 24 hour period. On April 26, 1686, Wasa Daihachiro from Kishu successfully shot 8,133 out of 13,053 arrows, averaging 544 arrows an hour, or 9 arrows a minute, becoming the record holder.

Following a number of exciting tunes released on the renowned Quintessentials, here comes Mat Chiavaroli's first long-player 'No Stranger To Madness". Warm Fostex tape hisses and MPC swings, the guy from the Pescara hills delivers 10 tracks for both your dancing and listening pleasure. The A- and B-side tracks are drenched in dusty funk samples, gritty chords and syncopated rhythms. In 'Aroma De Mi Vida' Mat chops obscure Rhodes riffs and layering them with more elements, just like in 'Whoja Vu", a heavy-sampled disco juggler very close to his previous Quintessentials releases. On the flip we find some deep chords melting with powerful gospel vocals, giving life to a track that annihilates boring dancefloors. There's a similar vibe in 'Jeep Ridaz' that reminisces about seminal Atavisme classics with broken detuned bits and agitated cut and pastes give a sense of randomness. The second part of this album shows Mat Chiavaroli's deeper side. 'Double Pain' is a tune that progressively brings you to many aspects of what Mat loves: saturated female vocals stick out while gloomy chords gently develop. 'Storia Losca' has a slightly different attitude with a huge synth presence, live percussion and dreamy pianos. The D side opens with 'The Quiet Bobobo", a distorted floor delight and ends with something closer to Mat's early music, disclosing a fresh collaboration with the young studio fellow P.Lok. 'No Stranger To Madness' fits many bills and is an impressive proof of what Mat's musical ability is.

(2x 180 gr LP in a gatefold sleeve with download card) The debut album of Talamanca System, aka Gerd Janson + Mark Barrott + Philipp Lauer. Their past is your future!

On the white island, between Ibiza Town and the infamous fish shack high up on a rock next to a bird sanctuary, you will find the beach of Talamanca. Plagued by too much seaweed, anchored middle-class yachts and joggers, it is also surprisingly the spiritual home of a correspondent post-Balearic group. As luck would have it, a remix request by Mark Barrott bedded the International Feel boss in a trio with Philipp Lauer and Gerd Janson, alias Tuff City Kids. A highly sought-after 12-inch later ("Balanzat"), as well as fantasies of getting together to work on more material, led to a fruitful and effortless studio session on the non-Balearic outskirts of Frankfurt am Main.

The outcome of that meeting forms the homonymous debut album of Talamanca System. A documented vision, or a sunburned imagination of a day and night spent on said island, during a moment in time that probably never was or will be. Still summed up best by dungarees, long hair, yellow sunglasses, espadrilles or that famous picture of people grouped around roofless Amnesia's pyramid well, it is the food of the Balearic gods. But, dear nostalgia, stop right here! Even though Talamanca's debut flies the Balearic flag, it is not about turning back the clock, but rather about a past that could be the future. Dusted, danceable, driving, dreamy and dapper at the same time, this is an album for the club, the car, the beach, the (coke)float and the fountain.

Coined by the colourful and respective talents of the three individuals behind Talamanca, you will hear nine tracks ranging from up to downtempo, piano house smashers that would have deserved the prefix Italo-, percussion rituals captured by a group of Zoo animals on the loose, soundtracks for dusk and dawn, hushed vocals, rites of ambient passages, powerful synth ballads and vamp choirs. If this album were a car, it would be a Citroen 2CV remade by Tesla.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: their past is your future!

Stirred up from deep within, from an abstract spiral of sound and movement, from a sensation of time and space absolving and converging at once, the Black Flower musicians have molded a tangible matter: the album Artifacts. Their second full album sounds international and ageless. Eastern influences, Ethiodub and jazz effortlessly merge. Fantasy and reality seem to fuse. In a word: nourishment for body and soul.

"Psyche-delicious and accessible 20th century Ethiodubjazz. As if John Zorn put on Fela Kuti's shoes and imbibed Mulatu Astatke's whirls."

Piloted by saxophonist /flutist /composer Nathan Daems (Ragini Trio, Dijf Sanders, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), this instrumental band aims for originality. Fellow musicians and 'brothers down the road' are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, Stadt) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra) at the bass and Wouter Haest (Los Callejeros, Voodoo Boogie) playing keys.

For many of us, the Ethiopian aspect once made known to the world by Mulatu Astatke will stand out. Still, Black Flower further adds oriental scales, Afrobeat à la Fela Kuti, jazz in a John Zorn way and varied western music traditions such as rock and dub. The resulting melting pot is undoubtedly inspired by Nathan's distant travels and the multifariously colorful city of Brussels.

...Pretty legit if you ask me - LeFto, Studio Brussel

After their well-received debut album Abyssinia Afterlife (2014, W.E.R.F. / Zephyrus Records) that created an atmosphere of mythical figures and psychedelia, Black Flower now reflects on ancient and modern cultures. The album title Artifacts refers to centuries-old fragile objects or tools that empowered the development of human culture. The world today would look entirely different without those artifacts. The seemingly brittle suddenly becomes a powerful welding cornerstone. Add the musicians' personal musical backgrounds and the result is an album with an ageless mystique. Artifacts is the synthesis of different cultures, of the past and present, and personal and collective memories. It is the soundtrack to modern reality, based on the elements that connect us.

Brilliant - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6

One of Belgium's Best Bands of these past years (...) Black Flower does not simply play a tune, they always groove! - Kurt Overbergh, Ancienne Belgique

Uncomplicated originality, plenty of space for fantasy and an organic tone: those are the ingredients for Black Flower to lay claim to an age-old human ritual: dancing! Still, Black Flower also stands out in various other settings. Their audience at a jazz club will have felt exalted, their audience at a late-night show will not have resisted dancing. The band wields influence over their surroundings in a way only heart-and-soul musicians can. This mastery has repeatedly taken them to United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Fall of 2016 sees Midnight Magic ready to enchant us once more with the much-anticipated birth of their 2nd studio album, the wondrously eclectic Free From Your Spell. Going back to their roots in Los Angeles, Morgan Wiley, and Tiffany Roth, alongside the rest of the boogie nonet, have prepared a refined feast of genre-bending songs. The ever so diverse moods of Free From Your Spell make it a seductive journey. With each song mixed seamlessly into the next, the record coalesces into one long disco odyssey, reminiscing Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer's concept albums "Four Seasons of Love" and "A Love Trilogy". Moods, genres, and styles intertwine like an aural kaleidoscope, the album electrifying with its striking harmony. Whilst exuberantly borrowing from past decades, Free From Your Spell more than holds its own as a self-assured, innovative body of work. Midnight Magic's Free From Your Spell is an offer one can't refuse. An attractive deal in the form of disco escapism, traveling through its various shades, emotions, and incarnations, a comprehensive revival of the genre for modern ears. It's Studio 54, It's Moroder,Amanda Lear, Gino Soccio, and Grace Jones. It's a whole palette of 1980's R'n'B and cosmic funk. Despite all the music references of past eras Free From Your Spell is very much a current album, a mature demonstration of genuine skills in songwriting, a multi-instrumental banquet of sounds, a coherent collection of ambitious dance tracks and a beautiful celebration of eclecticism. Add to this some of Tiffany Roth's most memorable vocals to date and you arrive at one of the year's most exciting releases. There is a strong reason for both "midnight" and "magic" in the name of the band after all.

Agnes Obels neuer Longplayer wurde im eigenen Studio Aventine-Neukölln und in den BrandNewMusic-Studios in Berlin aufgenommen. Erstmals hat Agnes nicht nur alle Songs geschrieben und komponiert, sondern das komplette Album im Alleingang aufgenommen, abgemischt und produziert. Als Musiker sind John Corban an der Geige, sowie Kristina Koropecki und Charlotte Danhier an den Cellos dabei. Mit über einer Million verkaufter Alben ihres Debütalbums "Philharmonics" (2010) und "Aventine" (2013), sowie 200 Millionen Streams weltweit, gehört Agnes Obel zweifelsohne zu den angesehensten Female Artists in Europa.

Irgendwo zwischen Pegida und Hansa-Studio, Odyssee und Husumer Watt, Konzeptkunst und one, two, three four erzählen Turbostaat hier ein modernes Märchen. Ähnlichkeiten mit lebenden Personen und dem real existierenden grauen deutschen Herbst: explizit erwünscht. Natürlich haben Turbostaat auch bereits in der Vergangenheit das klassische Punkrock-Format gesprengt. Laufzeiten über fünf Minuten sind bei ihnen keine Seltenheit. Die Konsequenz aber, mit der auf "Abalonia" Erzählung und Musik zu einem stringenten Ganzen zusammenfinden, ist für diese Band eine Premiere. "Nachdem die Geschichte grob stand, wollten wir auch musikalisch die Popformel mit dem Standardaufbau aus Strophe, Bridge, Refrain aufbrechen, um den weiter gespannteren Texten eine musikalische Entsprechung zu verleihen", sagt Marten Ebsen, Gitarrist und Songschreiber der Band. Aufgenommen wurde "Abalonia" nach anderthalbjähriger Vorbereitung in nur fünf Tagen an historischer Stelle: Der Turbostaat-Stammproduzent Moses Schneider buchte das Berliner Hansa Studio, wo er einst sein Handwerk gelernt hatte. Pult-Legende Peter Schmidt mischte.

Von Carl Bown und Colin Richardson (Slipknot, Machine Head, Trivium) in den Metropolis Studio in London produziert, entpuppt sich VENOM als kompromissloser, erbitterter Schritt für Bullet For My Valentine. Ihr heftigstes Album bislang packt den Hörer sofort an der Kehle, wofür die mächtige Performance von Sänger / Gitarrist Matt Tuck, die bissigen Riffs von Gitarrist Michael "Padge" Paget und das Drumming-Sperrfeuer von Michael "Moose" Thomas sorgen. Auf VENOM hält das Trio perfekt seine ureigene Balance zwischen Heaviness und dringlichen Melodien und schraubt sich so auf das nächste Level.
"Es ist schwierig, ein komplettes Album zusammenzufassen, nachdem wir soviel Zeit mit dem Songschreiben und Aufnehmen verbracht haben und Blut, Schweiß und Tränen flossen," erzählt Frontmann Matt Tuck. "Es war hart, für die Texte wieder an einige äußerst dunkle Orte zurückzukehren, aber sobald ich Fährte aufgenommen hatte, war es OK für mich, gewisse Themen einfach rauszulassen - und die Hölle brach los. Dieses Album ist ganz klar das aggressivste, das wir je eingespielt haben, und textlich wird es sicherlich Viele aufhorchen lassen.

Factory Benelux presents a new studio album by cult Manchester postpunk group Crispy Ambulance, issued in a
limited edition of 500 vinyl copies to mark Record Store Day 2015.
In many respects Compulsion is the second album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded in 1982 after the release of
The Plateau Phase, with six of the eight tracks written and performed live at that time. To these are now added Rain
Without Clouds, an outtake from The Plateau Phase newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and WMTP.2
with added synth lines by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey, of 808 State and Biting Tongues.
Almost uniquely, Crispy Ambulance has retained the same line-up since the group was originally founded in 1978: Alan
Hempsall (vocals, keyboards), Gary Madeley (drums), Robert Davenport (guitars), Keith Darbyshire (bass).
'There's a sense of feeling compelled by irresistible forces,' explains Alan Hempsall. 'Compulsion is an apt way to
describe our constant urge to go back and make music with people we've known since childhood. While the world may
have changed, our music continues to be the product of the same influences - the passing of time, the changing of the
seasons, the content of our sleeping dreams, and the existence of space.'
Cover art by Peter Staessens. The package also features a free digital download of the album.
Praise for The Plateau Phase: "One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed" (Q, 03/2006); 'Perfect,
wonderful and with a compelling gravitational pull' (Record Collector, 03/2013); "17 years on The Plateau Phase
sounds like what it probably always was: urgent, postmodernist psychedelia with less debt to Joy Division's music than to
the universal abstract existential tension that comes with being young" (Uncut, 12/1999); "Cold and ferocious, but with
enough inventive melody to lighten the black abyss of the overall mood" (Les Inrockuptibles, 02/2012); "An enthralling
glimpse at a moment in musical history when the DIY ethos of punk gradually gave way to experiments with electronics
and song structures" (NME, 01/2000); "Mixes driving rock, gritty new wave and odd atmospheric stuff" (Option, 1990)

Mit weltweit über 3Mio. verkauften Einheiten & 10 Studioalben hat die schwedische Modern Metal Band In Flames ihr Genre nicht nur neu definiert, sondern sich auch weit über dessen Grenzen hinaus etabliert. Nach der Gründung durch Jesper Strömblad 1990 gelang ihnen mit ihrer 2. LP "The Jester Race" der Durchbruch und gleichzeitig ein gefeierter Genre-Klassiker.
Nach ihrem mit Gold ausgezeichneten letzten Studioalbum "Sounds of a Playground" kündigt die Band jetzt ihr neues Album "Siren Charms" an. Dieses dokumentiert ganz genau, wo In Flames 2014 stehen.
Die LP wurde in den legendären Berliner Hansa Studios eingespielt und bietet neben der ersten Auskopplung "Rusted Nail" 10 weitere Tracks, die sowohl alteingesessene Fans begeistern werden ("In Plain View") als auch Crossover-Potential haben ("Through Oblivion").
"Siren Charms" sichert In Flames die Stellung als Metal-Band, die niemals still steht, und es ist zweifellos eine Band, die immer wieder Risiken eingeht, Grenzen überschreitet und sich selbst ebenso herausfordert wie ihre Zuhörer. Dass die Hindernisse die Band nicht umgebracht haben, ist offensichtlich - aber die Frage ist, ob In Flames jemals so stark gewesen sind

In a career of myriad highlights Nightclubbing remains the high water mark of Grace Jones's imperial years with Island Records. It is indisputably the album on which her musical legacy rests, and rightly considered one of the greatest albums of all time. A sophisticated melee of sound, blending post-punk cool with a hot Caribbean vibe and a catwalk Studio 54 sensibility, it's a perfect example of artist and musicians working in complete accord.

It contains the all-time Grace classics in "Pull Up To The Bumper", "Walking In The Rain", "Demolition Man" (written by Sting) and of course the Bowie / Iggy Pop-penned title track. There is magic in its every groove. In keeping with its reputation as one of the best sonically sounding albums of the '80s and for the first time since its debut in 1987, Nightclubbing has been comprehensively remastered using the latest studio technology.