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LP
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TARTALB 007LP
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2017 release. After two incredible EPs, Wayne Snow -- the Nigerian-born, Berlin-based vocalist and songwriter -- presents his debut album on Tartelet Records. Freedom TV is the natural sequel to the Max Graef-produced tasters Red Runner (2014) and Rosie (2015); a project marinated in Afro-Caribbean, soulful grooves and topped by Wayne's effortless falsetto acrobatics. As the title suggests, Freedom TV is an album with themes of liberty, struggle, and creative identity pumping through its veins. Within ten tracks, Snow fluently meanders between musical styles: from low-tempo soothers, like album opener "Cooler" and "Fall", to the syncopated bruk of "The Rhythm" and cosmic funk escapades found on "Nothing Wrong". Production comes from three varied and solid sources. The tag-team between Snow and fellow Berliner, Max Graef -- which started on Graef's 2014 debut Rivers Of The Red Planet (TARTALB 003LP) -- is in full effect. The result is six tracks ("Cooler", "Still In The Shell", "Drunk", "Red Runner", "Rosie", and "Fall") anchored by Graef's now-signature brew of warm-to-the-touch boom-bap, soul, jazz, and house. Elsewhere, trips to see the French capital and Neue Grafik yielded three stormers: "The Rhythm", "Freedom RIP", and "Nothing But The Best". Naples-formed, Berlin-based duo Nu Guinea also lend a hand on "Nothing Wrong", an up-tempo jam which will receive remix treatment from Francis Inferno Orchestra as well as the pair themselves. The works of criminally overlooked, Zimbabwean guerilla fighter-poet, Freedom Nyamubaya (✝1958-2015), bind everything together. It's her verses, which occupy the end of soul-searching, Peven Everett-esque joint "Freedom RIP" and provide a regular referential touchpoint. More than anything, Freedom TV is the soundtrack for anyone seeking a wholesome exploration of groove. Smooth and contagiously danceable at points, Wayne Snow has arrived in album territory with an assured cool.
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LP
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ALB 007LP
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LP version. Includes download code. There is a purpose behind ambient music: it is utility music. Brian Eno made that clear once and for all with Music for Airports -- the utilitarian nature of this music can already be found in the title. But way before that, in 1920, Erik Satie composed "Musique d'ameublement" -- furniture music. The purpose of his furniture music was also to bridge the awkward gaps in conversation in social situations. In turn, Eno's airport music is meant to serve as background music while sounding interesting enough for listeners to become absorbed. If we go by Eno's definition, the music on T.Raumschmiere's new album is not ambient. Although -- or in fact, because -- each individual track on this album immediately and effortlessly generates atmospheres, it is impossible not to be drawn in. Clearly a new meaning of the term ambient is needed to describe the music on this album more accurately. It is music that never sounds deliberate yet at the same time is so compelling, which might have something to do with the fact that Shitkatapult label founder Marco Haas aka T.Raumschmiere is the one behind it. As T.Raumschmiere, Haas produces a sound with influences ranging from bass music and punk rock to industrial. A darkly beating pulse works like a machine through the surging pads of "Dampfer". Synths drone languidly on "Anker". T.Raumschmiere deftly manages to avoid succumbing to the kitsch that often arises from these kinds of sounds. "Grotznogg" has an inner stillness within the rustling and scattered clattering and clanging. The track "007" is a post-industrial masterpiece -- warm, heavy, and latently threatening.
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