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RAUM 003LP
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For its second release, following SALÒ's feverish self-titled debut album, Berlin-based platform Kuboraum substantiates its musical perspective, bringing together an eccentric set of tracks from friends and family. Each artist was invited personally by the platform to write a piece of music inspired by Kuboraum's philosophical and aesthetic principles. On this first compilation, Kuboraum asks like-minded mavericks to enter into a dialog with both the brand and each other, harnessing their personal expression to paint an open-ended portrait that emphasizes the lysergic spectrum of Kuboraum's vision. Veteran producer and Planet Mu boss Mike Paradinas, operating under his μ-Ziq moniker, crafts a hypnotic, dubbed-out roller with "Never," careening from willowy dancefloor rhythms into melancholy ambience, and on the other end of the scale, Space Afrika obscure an angelic voice with evocative glitches, melancholy pads and a dissociated kick drum on "<3less." Meanwhile Moin -- the post-punk influenced project of Raime's Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead, alongside virtuoso percussionist Valentina Magaletti -- travel earthwards on "Lapsed," bending distorted, angular riffs around thuds, flutters and stifled vocal chops. Kuboraum also welcomes V/Z, with Susumu Mukai, aka Zongamin, and on "All the Rest of It," they disrupt cinematic, hauntological echoes with syrupy rhythms and spine-tingling, tape saturated sonics. Paris-based cloud rap futurist Emma DJ takes a sharp left turn, marrying flickering, neon-hued synths, tight Atlanta-inspired beats with ghostly bars, and notorious Nyege Nyege duo MC Yallah and Debmaster pull that thread even further, juxtaposing brittle, 8-bit blips with dexterous rhymes and an infectious chorus. Each track shines a laser through a different fragment of Kuboraum's vast artistic prism. The unifying force throughout is experimentation, something that's easy to hear on Ziúr's "Vacuum," two minutes of sticky, foley percussion and piercing bass, and on Quelza's undulating "Boiling Ice in Frozen Cup," that's like being trapped in an airlock as reality shifts outside. And the compilation closes with two tracks that couldn't be more different, or more fitting. Techno innovator Regis provides a dimly lit, eroticized banger with "Let Love Decide," and composer Lucy Railton plays the compilation out into the end credits, looping ornate strings, fictile electronics and breathy vocals on the fittingly baroque "Medieval Sui." Listened to as a whole, Kuboraum's debut compilation is unusually coherent, an accurate representation of the label's musical interests that paces confidently around the fringes of Berlin and beyond.
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2LP
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RAUM 001LP
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The inaugural release on cult eyewear label Kuboraum's new music platform, Salò is a mystifying fusion of noise, prog rock and psychedelic music that attempts to imagine a "dreamy and decadent" Roman renaissance. It's the brainchild of multidisciplinary artist Emiliano Maggi, who links with Mai Mai's Toni Cutrone, Wildmen's Giacomo Mancini, producer Cosimo Damiano and musician, writer and critic Stefano Di Trapani to distill a wellspring of poems, fairytales, anecdotes and mythologies -- drawing on mythological symbolism, medieval theater and rural iconography -- into an oozing celebration of art, ecstasy and extravagance. Salò developed as a way to challenge both theirself and their audience, performing with the ensemble exhaustively before they were ready to pen their debut full-length. The project is seen as a way to extend an artistic conversation across disciplines, unifying all their different interests; at any given performance, it's hard to know what to expect, and that's the point. One day be Salò might be a full band, the next it could be a painting, a string ensemble or a choir. This irreverence and mischievousness undergirds the album, offering its sprawling, ambitious compositions a level of carnivalesque eccentricity that's impossible to ignore. Considering the place of witches and brigands on the outskirts of society, Salò twist jangling European folk with autotuned murmurations and unsettling electronic rhythms on opener "La Ballata Delle Mosche," tipping into Mr. Bungle-stlye absurdity on "Capra lo Vedo, Capra lo Soni." The epic 14-minute prog-psych centerpiece "Denti Neri" meanwhile takes its cues from Black Sabbath's rock 'n roll excesses, and finale "Faccio L'amore In Groppa Ad Un Asino" is a ludicrous, giallo-esque ritual. It's work that taps into the pulse of commedia dell'arte, an early European theatrical form that mixed music and dance, using distinct costumes to represent each character. The Salò collective picks up where history left off, metamorphosing wild flights of fantasy and historical truths into audio-visual puzzles that defy contemporary logic, never failing to find humor in the darkest crevices.
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