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AUK 126CD
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LeVent are Maryna Russo (bass), Heike Rädeker (bass VI/vox), and Frankie Neumeier (drums). Berlin based trio LeVent got stoned, forgot to replace their guitarist, and then kept his name anyway. Formed in August 2015, the band has kept their shit together enough to have shared the stage with a bunch of talents including Kadavar, The Underground Youth, and Die Nerven, to name a few. They also self-released a four-track EP on cassette in 2016. LeVent is their debut album, released on A Recordings. Like a drunken driver, LeVent swerves up over the curb, drives straight through the garage, and totals their ride somewhere out in a goat farm. Bleating at its most danceable, they carry listeners far away to get lost in nice nonsense, stuck in heavy forgetting, and transfixed on what was, leaving you thirsty for more. Heike, from the band, says, "When someone comes up to you after a concert saying 'I'm going to make you a record' you are stoked for the moment, but you don´t reckon it will happen..." Half a year later Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre called LeVent in to his Cobra Studio in Berlin. Teaming up with studio engineer Andrea Wright from Parr Street Studios Liverpool, the red button got pushed. After what was a super pleasant experience of recording and mixing, they are now ready to present LeVent.
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ZORN 046LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's challenging electronic album Crystal, originally released in 1986. Maggi Payne is an American composer, flutist, video artist, and co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College where she teaches recording engineering, composition, and electronic music. Her work involves electroacoustic, instrumental, and vocal works along with works involving visuals, including dancers outfitted with electroluminescent wire and videos she creates using images ranging from nature to the abstract. She has composed music for dance, theatre, and video. Crystal was first released in 1986 on the Lovely Music label. Home to experimental musicians such as Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Pauline Oliveros, and Alvin Lucier. On Crystal, flute, spoken voice, sonifications, and synthesizers are processed to create dense and massive structures. Maggi Payne's musical imagination is vivid: she is interested in the surreal, the inward, the micro, and the accumulation of physical and psychological tension. Periods of silence gently evolve into flowing drones of complex resonances. Oozing drones evolve into dense and powerful peaks of short duration. The compositions and sounds on Crystal have incredible depth, a profound logic and, though not "pretty", an irresistible beauty. 180 gram vinyl; Remastered and cut at 45rpm by Rashad Becker; Gatefold sleeve with liner notes by the artist; Artwork by Atelier Brenda.
Maggi Payne on Crystal: "I create immersive environments, inviting listeners/participants to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile, visible, tangible. A narrative of the imagination exists, allowing each person experiencing the work to thread their own paths through their mind's imagination and their body's physical engagement. Each sound slowly unfolds, revealing intricacies and complexity. Each grows and evolves like crystals forming under the microscope. . . . I visualize the sound as originating from, for instance, a point source below where one is standing, then it swirls outward and upward in an ever-expanding spiral until it disappears high over the listener's head, morphing as it travels. Spatialization is not imposed when mixing, but is instead created in the original recording by increasing the amplitude of the sound on one track then decreasing its amplitude as the identical frequency is matched on the next track while it is increasing its amplitude, dovetailing the tracks across the space. Using extensive multi-tracking, the spatialization is retained, architecting and sculpting the aural space so that multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist."
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N 050LP
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Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Includes download code. Berlin's Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra returns with its fourth album Vula. Having celebrated their ten-year anniversary with a stunning series of concerts in 2016, the 18-piece's new full-length showcases a stronger focus on harmony and melody -- and yet AMEO sound no less explosive or unpredictable than before. It arrives gently, with shimmering lights, soft winds, sashaying melodies, and of course, the isotherms and isotheres function just as they should: All of a sudden, lighting strikes amid the concord of instruments, unforeseen energies erupt and upset the rhythmic scenery. Making a combined effort to create sheltering patches of harmony within the unfolding drama, leader Daniel Glatzel and his 18-piece "working band" set out to harness album number four: Vula. Another musical tour de force that connects too many dots, decades, traditions and genres to mention, Vula is quite a different beast compared to its live predecessor or the orchestra's last studio effort Bum Bum (N 029CD/LP, 2012): There's bigger, bolder strokes, and the compositions are linked by recurring motifs and harmonies, which is why the new album sounds like one entity: It is one hour-long adventure that needs to be listened to in full. The title Vula, taken from the Tumbuka language (spoken in the northern region of Malawi), indeed translates to tempest or thunderstorm. Ranging from softly trickling melodies courtesy of older masters ("Lakta Mata Ha") and hazy interludes, the mood, vibe, and pace change faster than cloud formations come flying across the screens nowadays (e.g. "Qwetoipntv Vjadfklvjieop" with its arrangement a` la H. Lachenmann). Head-nod bliss, motion picture soundtrack vibes, and even J.B. licks aren't mutually exclusive in these compositions, as AMEO showcase with "J Schleia", a track that nods both to Dilla/Grandmaster Flash and to Bach-era counterpoint techniques. Elsewhere, a pounding surf-rock beat metamorphoses over the course of 14 minutes ("In The Light Of Turmoil"), only to see them return to patches that are surprisingly catchy and calm. The final applause turns out just as thunderous though, after the album ends with the vibrant and throbbing "Papaya Flyers IX Epsylon", a live recording that already foreshadows the group's later collaboration with Hermeto Pascoal. The entire process, from writing to intricate post-production, took almost five years.
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AACD 083CD
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The Pop Makossa adventure started in 2009, when Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb first travelled to Cameroon to make an initial assessment of the country's musical situation. He returned with enough tracks for an explosive compilation highlighting the period when funk and disco sounds began to infiltrate the makossa style popular throughout Cameroon. From the very beginning, there were several mysteries hanging over Pop Makossa. It was not until DJ and music producer Déni Shain was dispatched to Cameroon to finalize the project, license the songs, scan photographs, and interview the artists that some of the biggest question marks began to disappear. His journey from the port city of Douala to the capital of Yaoundé brought him in contact with the lives and stories of many of the musicians who had shaped the sound of Cameroon's dance music in its most fertile decade. The beat that holds everything together has its origins in the rhythms of the Sawa people: ambassey, bolobo, assiko and essewé, a traditional funeral dance. But it wasn't until these rhythms arrived in the cities of Cameroon and collided with merengue, high-life, Congolese rumba, and, later, funk and disco, that modern makossa was born. Makossa managed to unify the whole of Cameroon, and it was successful in part because it was so adaptable. Some of the greatest makossa hits incorporated the electrifying guitars and tight grooves of funk, while others were laced with cosmic flourishes made possible by the advent of the synthesizer. However much came down to the bass; and from the rubbery hustle underpinning Mystic Djim's "Yaoundé Girls" to the luminous liquid disco lines which propel Pasteur Lappé's "Sekele Movement", Pop Makossa demonstrates why Cameroonian bass players are some of the most revered in the world. "Pop Makossa Invasion", an obscure tune recorded for Radio Buea makes its debut here and joins the pantheon of extraordinary songs that plugged Cameroon's makossa style into the modern world. Also features: Dream Stars, Mystic Djim & The Spirits, Bill Loko, Eko, Olinga Gaston, Emmanuel Kahe et Jeanette Kemogne, Nkodo Si-Tony, Bernard Ntone, Pat' Ndoye, and Clément Djimogne. CD version includes a 44-page booklet.
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AALP 065LP
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2017
repress; double vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve and printed inner sleeves which replicate all of the liner notes from the CD version booklet. 2014 repress. A collection of super-rare and highly danceable masterpieces recorded between 1969-1981 by four legendary composers from Benin: Gnonnas Pedro, Antoine Dougbé, El Rego et Ses Commandos and Honoré Avolonto, each with a sound all their own. What you are about to hear is distinctively Benin -- a thick brew of agbadja, soul, cavacha, funk, Afrobeat, and Afro-Latin sounds all mixed in with heavy traditional rhythms.
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AALP 068LP
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2017 repress; Deluxe gatefold 2LP version, featuring 2 extra tracks not included on the CD. Includes a poster and full-color innersleeves replicating the complete notes from the CD version. Organ-driven Afro-beat, cosmic Afro-funk and raw, psychedelic boogie -- just some of the flavors to be found on this highly danceable compilation by Samy Ben Redjeb, founder of Analog Africa. No effort has been spared! To document these irresistible tracks and the music scene from the '70s, Samy crisscrossed the lengths of Ghana and Togo in search of the producers and artists -- or their relatives. In the process, he recorded a dozen interviews, scanned 90 pictures and transferred 120 master tapes. Afro-Beat Airways showcases an amazing diversity of local rhythms spiced with Afro-American funk, soul and jazz. Samy Ben Redjeb, in his own words: "While some light has been cast on the Ghanaian music scene of the 1970s, Togolese music is relatively obscure and badly documented. However, we are working on this! In fact, we've already made a start, with our previous Analog Africa compilation African Scream Contest which showcased 3 Togolese artists. Afro-Beat Airways presents two more -- Orchestre Abass and Cos-Ber-Zam. While the first band developed into one of the country's best, to such an extent that none other than Fela Kuti once offered them a contract to play at his Afro-Spot night club (which later became The Shrine), the second artist was a one-hit wonder. "Né Noya" was a monster hit in Togo, but it is to-date the only release by this obscure artist. The reason why I decided to include these Togolese tracks on this compilation is that they were all recorded in Ghana and thus they worked well in the mix." These tracks have been hiding for 30 years, and, as you will hear, these are modern African sounds created to stand the test of time. Afro-Beat Airways is like a time capsule, and promises to take you on a fascinating musical journey through West Africa's vintage Afro sounds.
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12"
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APRAPTA 004EP
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12" with printed deluxe sleeve; 180 gram vinyl only. Features Aprapta, DJ Slowhand, Marcelo Cura, Gorbani, SED Trax (aka Sascha Kaline), Eddie Krilov, and Denis Kaznacheev.
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ARB 164CD
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You can't step into a concert hall without something from Russia being programmed. Yet in 1850, Russia barely had one major composer and handful of pianists, but within sixty years, their music scene dominated the world's concert halls. Who and how did this happen? Arbiter probes the problematic Russian psyche, starting with the writer Andrei Bely's agonizing over whether they are Europeans or from somewhere else, concluding they are Mongols at heart. The attractive music from Germany and France led Tchaikovsky to model himself after Mozart and rely on his colorful talents in melody, sound, and rhythm with the idea of showing that a Russian like him could take on any Westerner. Unlike his quest for approval, there arose a group of composers who studied and discussed folklore, fairy tales, myths, Central Asian traditions, and did all they could to shun the West. Known as the Mighty Five, they gave birth to Stravinsky, Scriabin, the path of representing their Old Believers, Mongol warlords, sects that practiced castration, and a movement in art and literature resulting in symbolism and seeking to transform all of humanity through occult and spiritual phenomena. Arbiter bring to light the image-conscious Igor Stravinsky gripped in an ecstasy as he conducts the work of his mentor Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov comes to life, bringing him back to his own twenty-third year when he was still Rimsky's pupil and how his unexpected death cast him adrift and led to masterpieces shortly thereafter. Arbiter's latest expedition follows pioneers who sought to either imitate Western music or excavate native Pagan, mythic, and Central Asian sources. Performances by Konstantin Igumnov reveal a musician who straddled Tchaikovsky's westbound forays with the visionary mysticism of his peer Scriabin. When the American composer arrived with his radical dissonant music, the Moscow musical agencies prohibited his performances and led to Igumnov defying the regime by arranging private hearings that created a furor for Cowell's new music, as Russia was becoming culturally isolated under Stalin. Performances include lost recordings by Erica Morini, Georg Szell, Alfred Hoehn, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Issay Dobrowen, Albert Coates, Michael Zadora, Konstantin Igumnov, Alexander Kamensky, Oskar Fried, Igor Stravinsky, Vassily Sapellnikoff, and Vladimir Sofronitsky. Features compositions by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Prokofiev, Glinka-Balakirev, Musorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Chopin, and Scriabin. Arbiter's sound restorations bring light and depth to recordings discovered within the last few years and made in the 1920s.
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12"
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ARCS 004EP
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In quick succession to ARCS-03 (ARCS 003EP, 2017), which boasted remixes by The Mover, Shifted, and Peder Mannerfelt, Cassegrain keep up the pressure with a new EP of originals, ARCS-04. Returning to their tunneling, hypnotic trademark sound over three focused, club-ready trips, the Arcing Seas heads channel varied and irrepressible moods into each track. Built on solid dancefloor foundations and rich in colorful, non-conventional sound design, they scan through tribal ritualism with "Shahmaran", moving to the pumping urgency of "Caracal" and the rolling post-acid workout of "Vulpine". ARCS-04 is a straight-up DJ-friendly 12", something that's conveyed in its minimalist artwork.
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12"
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ARGOT 021EP
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Argot welcome Todd Osborn to the family with his stunning new single, Elastic 68. Its two tracks exemplify Argot's musical direction and check a major item off the label's bucket list of releasing a record by Todd. With nearly mythical finesse, the title track finds Osborn presiding over a marriage of sassy, gleaming motifs and invigorating acid lines. "Authorized Dealer" is a tougher and even more acid-forward, stomping and squelching as it drags the dancefloor into the dungeon for a beating it won't soon forget.
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VISTA 003LP
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LP version. Synthwaves pays homage to the masters of the past, yet it feels fresh and enchanting. Crisp, interlocking patterns are modulated and mutated with mathematical precision into eight pieces of pristine, post-kosmische sounds to float away to. During two intense weeks in Berlin, Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss locked themselves in a studio full of vintage synthesizers, analog sequencers, and drum machines, and the result is a gorgeous set of purely electronic music. As with the finest Tangerine Dream soundtracks, it's the kind of music that paints vivid pictures on the canvas of the listeners mind: synth plucks hang in the air like glaring neon in metropolitan dusk and zero-gravity pads hover like ghostly morning mist traveling over empty coastlines. Poly-rhythmic patterns are allowed to build -- slowly but steadily -- bar after bar, until synth-Satori is reached.
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BEAT 066LP
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Alehop! and Beat Generation present a reissue of Performing Ferret Band's self-titled album, originally released in 1981. Hailing from Maidstone (Kent), Performing Ferret Band got together in 1978 and with their amateur take on music, they wrote a small but great chapter of the emergence born out of punk, when the proliferation of small labels and self-releases invaded the record shops and created a scene which developed one of the golden and most creative periods of music, despite the participants' technical limitations. Later based in Manchester and inspired by comedians such as Monty Python and musicians like Captain Beefheart, The Velvet Underground, or The Fall, the Ferrets developed a personal style very close to Television Personalities, Swell Maps, or The Desperate Bicycles, all bands of questionable virtuosity. That didn't stop the Ferrets from releasing two cassettes, a 7", and an LP during their short life until 1982. Their only LP, originally released in 1981 on the band's own Pig Production label as a 300-copies pressing, is reissued here in a limited edition. It's a compendium of absurdity, genius, humor, and that naive spirit which makes humanity more believable. Includes an insert with the band's story, photos, and memorabilia; Edition of 500.
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BEC 5156983
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Double LP version. Includes CD. Camille's fourth studio album Ilo Veyou, originally released in 2011. Includes "Allez Allez Allez", "L'étourderie", and "Tout Dit".
"Recorded in a string of unusual locations including three church chapels and Noirlac Abbey, a 12th century Cistercian building located deep in the heart of the central French countryside, Gallic pop maverick Camille's fourth album, Ilo Veyou, reflects the low-key surroundings of its inception with a sound which playfully toys with the notions of silence and space. Indeed, it's possible to hear a pin drop on the majority of its 15 tracks, particularly on the Björk-esque, a cappella closer 'Tout Dit,' which sometimes bravely waits five seconds in-between each of Camille's whispered words; the highly atmospheric, Middle Eastern-tinged 'Le Berger,' which sees her adopt a Bollywood-style vocal alongside a simple oud arrangement, and the bilingual, hushed melodies of 'Pleasure,' which are accompanied solely by some echo-laden, muted percussion. While this sparse approach could have turned into a gimmick in lesser hands, Camille's flair for invention ensures the album never turns into a one-trick pony." --Jon O'Brien, AllMusic
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12"
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BH 038EP
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"Up from down under, following crucial releases on his own Body Language imprint, LJ shifts gears and steers his intricate sound-world -- torn between house and ambient, with Larry Heard's Alien LP coursing through -- into deeper, more techno-infused waters. Watch out for 'The Centre Of Time', evoking over its twenty minutes both the arctic vapour of 'Vletrmx21'-vintage Autechre and the expansiveness of Vangelis in full flight. Next-level stuff from Berceuse Heroique."
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BCR 009CD
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First Light is the debut album from Fader -- a new band formed by Neil Arthur (Blancmange, Near Future) and Benge, whose work includes his own solo albums, co-productions with Gazelle Twin, and his work with Wrangler and John Foxx And The Maths. The music was recorded and mixed at Benge's MemeTune Studios while Arthur worked on lyrics and vocals in his home studio. The album is full of powerful electronic pop songs -- up-tempo, dark, with flickers of beauty in the sounds and rhythms. Opening with the psychedelic strangeness of "3D Carpets", the album launches with a salvo of exhilarating electronic rock/pop songs including "Check The Power" -- an OCD meltdown with fierce electro surges -- and "I Prefer Solitude", with its brilliantly insistent chorus. From that point, the record buries deeper into melancholy nostalgia; internalized, dead-of-night fears; stream-of-conscious visions of city life and evocative descriptions of lost and lonely figures who find themselves out of time and out of place. The slower tracks such as "Laundrette", "Trip To The Coast", and "Liverpool Brick" are full of longing, with Arthur writing some of the finest lyrics of his career. "Laundrette" is a particularly British spin on the solitary mood of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. The title track is a flow of scrambled epiphanies and mixed-up thoughts while "Way Out" pitches a detached vocal and sense of distance with waves of aggressive, noisily anthemic synths, but then builds through a beautiful keyboard line that makes misery sound oddly inspiring. "Guilt, Doubt And Fear" is a mangled pop song, the catchy hooks snared into a red-eyed, insomniac's voice -- croaky but rich; half-spoken, a damaged croon. By comparison, "Winter Garden" is almost elegant in its minimalist approach, while "Wonderland" is a human drone on the landscape.
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BORNBAD 095CD
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The real, great rock'n'roll swindle? You'd better search Belgium, and more specifically somewhere near Lou Deprijck and Yvan Lacomblez, two born-and-bred "Brusselians". If their names don't ring a bell at first glance, you've most likely already wiggled to their interplanetary hit "Ça Plane Pour Moi": A moronic song by a crappy singer... The prank swept through the world and within a few months, no less than one million 45s were sold just in France. It spawned mass-produced cover versions, becoming a universal punk anthem. Of course, such a cash cow would arouse envy and create quite a few vocations among our fellow countrymen. The song's trademark derision was about to bridge the missing link between original punk -- too violent, too dirty -- and the general public eager to enjoy a little Saturday-night pogo. Humor became the magic bullet to conquer a frightened audience. The formula had already proved successful. Remember the arrival of rock'n'roll in France (1957) through Boris Vian, Henri Salvador, and Michel Legrand. Their famous, jokey "Rock and Roll-Mops" already laid the foundations for the same equation: joke + rock'n'roll + derision = success. The big labels tried to produce punk bands in France -- Polydor signed the Stinky Toys and the Guilty Razors -- but only to result in huge commercial failures. But in the face of Mr. Bertrand's huge success, those big labels thought they understood how it worked. Music publishers and majors all wanted a punk hit. A&R executives brought all of their seasoned producers, composers, and lyricists into the stampede: eccentric arrangements, daft and stereotyped lyrics -- one-upmanship was the rule. An unprecedented bunch of punk-novelty records followed. Even André Verchuren had his own unbridled accordion cover version of "Ça Plane Pour Moi". Sure, most of these punk hoaxes are real lousy, real shitty but one must admit that some numbers stand out of the crowd. While they didn't reach the success of "Ça Plane Pour Moi", some, here and there, were really inspired and even more creative than the songs they hijacked and mimicked. Features: Piero, Soda Fraise, Stéfan, Geiger, Too Much, Gérard Bôle Du Chaumont, Sublime Deluxe, Bulldozer, Les Marylènes, Gisor, Anatole Frantz, Fatsy Wataire, and Plastichke. CD version comes with a 24-page booklet.
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BB 266CD
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Moritz R®, Kurt Dahlke aka Pyrolator, and Frank Fenstermacher have met in the studio after 25 years and recorded a new album. One can claim that Der Plan was one of the most powerful German bands during the time of musical departure at the beginning of the 1980s. Der Plan was always more than a band: a kind of three-headed Renaissance man, for whom visual art was just as important as music. The Ata Tak label, founded by the three members, was one of the first continental European indie labels and released albums by DAF, Andreas Dorau, Holger Hiller, and Element Of Crime. Reichelt designed covers for Depeche Mode and decisively initiated the tiki/lounge revival at the beginning of the 1990s. Fenstermacher played on the legendary Monarchie Und Alltag by Fehlfarben (1980) and released a number of solo albums. Kurt Dahlke has remained active as a producer and programmer, most recently for Edgar Froese. Der Plan was not merely a cerebral band concept, but they were pop in the best sense: playful, fearless, and curious, they always wanted to "work with the current state of technology and express ourselves," says Dahlke. And if the current state of technology wasn't sufficient, they simply plugged in the soldering iron. The Geri Reig principle, conceived by Der Plan (BB 104CD/LP), was an invented term that anticipated the idea of the "Geniale Dillettanten". The title of the album translates to "Uncapitulable!" and signalizes both continuity and unbrokenness. That's hardly a given when three musicians have gone their own separate ways for a quarter of a century. As is often the case, an external occasion provided the spark for the idea of a comeback: as the birthday band at Andreas Dorau's 50th. So the band collected sketches, fragments, and ideas that had accumulated over the years and produced Unkapitulierbar in three weeks at Pyrolator's Ata Tak Studio Berlin. "This time the music was created on the basis of ideas and lyrics. Earlier, we often played improvised sessions and later added lyrics to it. One could say that in the meantime we have become something like songwriters," explains Reichelt. And "Der Plan 2017 is no longer so angular and swings better." But the music still sounds psychedelic: mild and sunny, as in "Es Heisst Die Sonne", "Come Fly With Me", or "Was Kostet Der Austritt", or dark and eerie on "Ich Kann Die Stille Hören" and "Gesicht Ohne Buch". There is a kind of electronic shanty -- "Wie Der Wind Weht" -- and a pop song with "Lass Die Katze Stehn". On "Man Leidet Herrlich" -- and not for the first time -- reggae and dub references are apparent. Unkapitulierbar is a melodic, electronic, brightly colored kaleidoscope of an album.
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COR 040LP
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Six LP box set. Includes CD. Cocoon Recordings presents Q, the new edition of one of the longest running techno compilation series worldwide. With a broad bandwidth ranging from "futuristic-deconstructive" compositions such as "Da Dang" by Alex & Digby and "Fragile" by Carlos Nilmmns and featuring Genoveva, the many contributions to Q fancy almost anachronistic acid and trance influences. The vocal parts and the arrangement of "All I Can (About You)" by Baba Stiltz appear like electronic singer songwriting, slightly similar to Pepe Bradock productions and their Dada aesthetic. In contrast to this, "Anno Domini" by Kamran Sadeghi follows the sound approach of early Maurizio/Basic Channel records and reminds the listener that modern techno does not always have to be impulsive and kicking. Harmonies and melodies of all kinds, and the almost dreamy and playful sound arrangements are something like the common element on Q. For example, "Ode To Be" by Sebastian Mullaert works like a decent sunriser that marks the end of a long night. Harald Björk takes it a few steps further in the harmony corner. His song "Spring" is on the edge to an ambient/chill-out song and unfolds a great hypnotic effect. "Tom's Heimweh" by Acid Pauli and the demanding "Sequence In D" by Fort Romeau follow into a similar direction, however both pieces are built on slightly more solid beats despite their melodic basic mood. Metallically cool, but equally sexy and bass-heavy at the same time, US legend John Tejada's "Blitzar" throws crazy designed sounds at the listener. "Pulse Train" by Söllscher & Siech, on the other hand, follows a more traditional techno approach with a strong beat and bass foundation and cool, building acid lines. The "vapor-spacey" string sounds, reminiscent of Detroit techno, complete the tracks. Johannes Volk's "Luminance" is a bit more consistent in an almost old-school acid manner and appears to be something like the most clubby track of the album. "If I'd Care More" by Rico Puestel is something like the "all-embracing track" on Q; Puestel unites in his contribution the different approaches and lines of the other pieces and delivers the secret title track of the compilation. Dry and kicking beats, dreamy melody parts, but also hypnotic basslines and lots of crazy sounds in the arrangement. Exactly like the overall vibe of Q this one is not "futuristic" or "old school", it is simply timeless.
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CSR 236CD
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"Abandon [uh-ban-duh n.]: The concept of leaving completely and finally forsake utterly; desert: to abandon a child; to abandon a sinking ship. To give up; discontinue; withdraw from: to abandon hope. To give up the control of: to abandon a city to an enemy army. To yield (oneself) without restraint or moderation; give (oneself) over to natural impulses, usually without self-control: to abandon oneself. Law. to cast away, leave, or desert, as property or a child. Obsolete. To banish."
Following the unrestrained act of aggression that was 2014's Altamont Rising (CSR 195CD), Shift returns to more personal and ethereal domains on Abandon. Created over a ten year period from a huge cache of sources, boiled down to four tracks of unyielding slow moving heaviness. Abandon features several guest appearances and is Shift's most complex recording to date. Comes in a six-panel, spot-varnished digipak.
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12"
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COMET 076EP
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Tony Allen & Africa 70 on the Comet's Disco Afro Reedits Series, featuring remastered original versions and super disco Afro reedits tracks by Mad Rey and Monsieur Scott. Tony Allen's debut album Jealousy (1975), is considered a highlight of his four solo-albums. It features two Afro-beat gems "Jealousy" and "Hustler". By 1978 he parted company with Fela Kuti, forming his own band, Tony Allen & the Afro Messengers and in 1979 he began collaborating with artists worldwide. Till this day he remains one of the greatest kit drummers alive.
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12"
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COMET 080EP
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In 1976, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Afrika 70 released a total of eight albums, including the hit "Zombie". At the time of their height, Tony Allen, Fela's drummer, decided to release a follow-up album to Jealousy (1975). Progress (1977) was the result of a series of studio sessions. The B side contains the dancefloor filler "Afro Disco Beat". Comet present the second release of the Disco Afro series: featuring remastered original versions of "Afro Disco Beat" and remixes by Africaine 808, Berlin-based duo of Dirk Leyers and DJ Nomad (Hans Reuschl), and Mexican Institute Of Sound (Camilo Lara).
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12"
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COMET 081EP
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The third release of the Tony Allen & Africa 70 Disco Afro series: featuring remastered original versions of "Jealousy" and remixes produced by Loya (Reunion Island). Multi-instrumentalist Sébastien Lejeune discovered electronic music when he was living in mainland France. During a trip back to his homeland Sébastien became Loya. From that moment on, he started to mix réunion maloya, Mauritian séga, and Indian music with a footwork tempo. In 1975, Tony Allen recorded his debut album Jealousy which, according to many, is the highlight of his four solo albums, featuring two Afro-beat gems "Jealousy" and "Hustler".
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10"
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VCR 010LP
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With roots in the early developments of modular synthesis and free jazz and revered amongst the most discerning collectors of international jazz, electronic music, and American avant-garde, the experimental drummer known as Bruce Ditmas occupies a firm branch on contemporary experimental music's family tree. As the one time romantic partner (and artistic collaborator) of sound poet Joan La Barbara (later to be Miss Morton Subotnik) and the stand-out session drummer for both Robert Mason's mutant synth Stardrive project and Gil Evan's legendary Jimi Hendrix tribute band, Ditmas is best savored as the first recorded solo artist to utilize Robert Moog's lesser-known Moog Drum controller -- an instrument which over the course of two 1977 independent LPs (Aeray Dust and Yellow) would become synonymous with his blooming reputation. Raised in Miami, nurtured in New York City, and willingly exploited internationally, Bruce's public life as a child prodigy-cum-world jazz crusader (drawing similarities with the likes of France's Jacques Thollot) has seen him spread his select discography over many imprints, including Joan La Barbara's own Wizard Label, Enja, and ECM -- socializing with sound designers like Suzanne Ciani and collaborating on projects penned by Annette Peacock, Paul Bley, and his long running collaborator Enrico Rava. Spending the last thirty years travelling between America and Italy as a full-time jazz musician whilst working with inter-communal music initiatives, film directors, and theater groups, Bruce has retained the same maverick passion and macabre creative influences channeling brutalism, futurism, science fiction, and psychological horror through his percussive mantra and avant-garde approach to instrument manipulation and recontextualization. The selected titles on Visioni Sconvolgenti are extracted from various recordings made over the last three decades, comprising field recording techniques and percussive manipulation resulting in gritty tonal soundscapes and angular sonic sculptures, while drawing theoretical comparisons with European proto-industrial units like Germany's Faust, Swiss electronic jazz pioneer Bruno Spoerri, Czech sonic illustrator Milan Grygar, and sprawling generation of Parisian musique concrète informed anti-melodic luminaries. Reflecting a lifelong career in active melodic drum exploration and vivid existential sound design, Visioni Sconvolgenti provides an alternative, darker, meditative, glimpse into the work of a proactive composer at his non-conformist best in the uninhibited confides of his own home analog studio. Artwork by Andy Votel. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering; Edition of 500.
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LP
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DST 002LP
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2017 repress. Up-Tight are a three-piece psych group based in Hamamatsu, Japan with a history dating back to 1992 has released around 10 records. Up-Tight's current line-up (2016) is original members T. Aoki (vocal & guitar) T. Ogata (bass) and T. Shirahata (drums). The ghosts of The Velvet Underground, Les Rallizes Dénudés and Amon Düül loom large over their personal feedback song-destruction universe. This LP is the first re-issue of their original CD-R-only release in Japan in 1999 in a very limited edition of 100 copies. It has been remastered in Berlin from original recordings and presented here in an edition of 300. Here is what David Keenan (Wire magazine) thought about this first CD-R released in 1999 : "Up-Tight are a noxious young trio from south Tokyo, all acolytes of the legendary Japanese psych group Les Rallizes Dénudés, who augment their sound with crushing, Sabbath-styled dynamics, earsplitting acid leads and beautiful Velvets-inspired ballads... Song structures are mostly kept loose, allowing for lots of noisy improvisation. Generally the album is anchored by heavy riffs. Just when you thought you'd got to grips with Tokyo's paradigm destroying psych scene, this one hits like a sucker punch." All songs are five to ten minutes long, varying from very melodic ballads to psychedelic journeys. The album ends with an epic track, "無題", which is an 18 minutes tour-de-force, that takes you to another dimension as if the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" would have a child with Acid Mothers Temple, while listening to Amon Düül under codeine. Up-Tight are from the generation that emerged with the madness of the Tokyo '90s and the P.S.F Records scene. Close to Acid Mothers Temple (the two bands recorded an album together), Up-Tight has a unique sound and is one of the most important underground reference in the Japan psychedelic scene.
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12"
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DH 4444EP
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Ruff dubb house cuts from Per Hammar's Dirty Hands imprint. Wrapped up by Malin Génie's stripped remix work. Dedicated to Anders Salomonsson, aka 4444, who also did the cover artwork.
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