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2LP +7"
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TARTALB 006LP
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2016 release. Danish producer Uffe Christensen returns to Tartelet Records with his second album No!, a deeply personal LP to follow 2015's debut Radio Days. Every bit as abundant as his first, it's a record that scales polyrhythmic percussion, improvised jazz, and billowing ballads. This, that and so much more, it's a triumph of one man's instinctive ear -- and should be consumed in one sitting. A year after his dynamic debut Radio Days, Uffe resurfaces on Tartelet with a record cut in the same spirit as the last: a borderless approach to music-making with organic instrumentation at its heart. Genres collide peaceably -- off-beat soul with jazz, hip-hop with the heft of house -- and are melded smooth with an earthy warmth. Like nearly all at camp Tartelet, he's a producer who is more interested in cutting loose than playing to the tune of dominant modes in dance music. Uffe has all of the intuition of the self-taught instrumentalist, following his ear into unexpected rhythmic and tonal combinations. It's what gives the album its urgent appeal: the sound of tentative experiments being made live; of sequences improvised amongst friends. Far from a churn of simple floor fodder, the album is a journey through a consummate narrative. Shy guitar interlude "Fridge Magnet Radio Theme" feels its way out of the warbling in jazz breakdown in "Lesser-Known Values". "The Fact", an unexpected vocal ballad, follows the broken beat of "Solo, So Loud". With the record's pleading closer "From Me", it's a story with a start, middle, and end. A long-player as long-players should be. As Tartelet continue their run of consistently solid EPs and 12"s, it's still these album moments that remain the best gateways into the label's distinctive sound. Alongside Max Graef's debut Rivers Of The Red Planet (TARTALB 003LP, 2014) and Glenn Astro's Throwback (TARTALB 005LP, 2015), Uffe's No! is a mirror to the Tartelet spirit and sits amongst the imprint's best. Bonus 7" includes two dubs.
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LP
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ALB 006LP
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LP version. Includes download code. Stephan Stephensen aka President Bongo wears many hats, but likes to refer to himself as an emotional carpenter. Throughout his illustrious career, President Bongo has built, tooled, shaped, and reconstructed reality in a manner that has touched upon the emotional spheres of thousands, greatly increasing their quality of life and inner harmony in the process. President Bongo began properly mastering his craft as a founding member of the pioneering electronic band GusGus, which formed in 1995. As GusGus evolved and progressed through the years, President Bongo remained a key element, making innumerable contributions to its ongoing success through his work, which ranged from design, film, and photography to singing, songwriting, and production. In spring 2015 President Bongo left GusGus to concentrate on his own solo career and now presents his first solo album, Serengeti. Every year, the beasts of the Serengeti region rush northwest across the endless plains in search of fields for grazing. It's a tremendous sight -- millions of mammals headed in the same direction like a river of majestic proportions, flowing across the vast land toward the ocean. Six months later the zebras, wildebeest, and gazelles return south, once again sealing an infinite loop. Animal hearts brimming with blood, thumping as they traverse Africa; this is the sensation Serengeti evokes for its listener. Ancient dust stirred by the great migration rises and settles in a new corner of the plain. The land is forever altered, yet the same. Whenever the wind blows, nature's rhythms are unaffected. They are undying, relentless, constantly shifting and we are all subject to them. No use resisting. Serengeti is a return journey. The winds change, the dust re-settles, one matures, the music morphs. Close your eyes; your mind rushes across the plains under the burning sun.
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