‘Afro Rock’ was recorded at Morgan Studios by John Cameron and Alan Parker in London in 1973 as a collection of stripped-down African rhythms, virtuoso jazz instrumentation, fuzzed up wah wah guitars and spaced out library breaks. The percussion is effortlessly funky, and those flutes so melodic, it’s as if the LP was crafted with the beat lovers of the future firmly in mind. As Cameron himself described it in Unusual Sounds, this is “heavy duty drum-and-bass salsa music”.
Founded in Rome in 1964, ‘Il Gruppo D’Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ was a collective of noted and noteworthy composers who challenged the very structure and performance of music itself. Today the most celebrated of its members is the renowned film composer Ennio Morricone but each contributor has an intriguing history in Italian music. Drawing on Jazz, Serialism, Musique Concrete and other extended techniques, the group performed on many of Morricone’s experimental soundtracks of the 1970s including, A Quiet Place In The Country and Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura). The collective improvised live (according to strict exercises) and in the studio (recording for RCA, Deutsche Grammaphon, General Music and others). In 1970 ‘Il Gruppo’ (as ‘The Group’) recorded The Feed-back (for RCA Italy), an insane amalgam of avant-improvisation and motorik Krautrock-influenced beats that understandably has become one of the most collectable ‘Library Music’ related LPs ever issued. In 1971 ‘Il Gruppo’ returned to the studio to record a sequel. This is that record. For reasons unknown Niente was never originally issued but one listen will convince that not only is it the sequel to one of the most sought after LPs of all time, but it is also by far its superior. Brain melting jams collide with unhinged intensity in a hothouse of Italian avant-improv. You have been warned.
Danish drummer Terkel Nørgaard presents his trio consisting of some of the key players in the Copenhagen scene and American star trumpeter Ralph Alessi on the lineup. Not merely a ”feature”, Alessi and the Danes form a coherent band unit capable of producing memorable and highly inspired contemporary jazz which links to the Nordic tradition of dynamic sound ranging from delicate minimalism to powerful avantgarde eruptions. The album Terkel Nørgaard ”With Ralph Alessi” is released by Helsinki’s We Jazz Records. On the new album, the Danish trio plus Alessi achieve something that can always be regarded a remarkable feat. They deliver a highly inspired set of music which links the album onto the ever-evolving lineage of jazz music, and at the same time introduce a new band capable of stunning the listener in the here and now.
Star Creature continuing it’s pursuit of bold LP’s, this time teaming up with Italian disco don, Giovanni Damico. With recent major dance floor releases on Lumberjacks In Hell & Kalakuta Soul, Damico shifts gears to his Italian roots to give us a modern funk twist on Italo & space time boogie.
Artefakt returns to Semantica to present their second album entitled “Monsoon”. It would be fair to say that Artefakt have not succumbed to the pitfalls of “difficult second album syndrome”. In fact, “Monsoon” is arguably an even stronger and more entertaining set than their lauded 2017 debut on Delsin, “Kinship”. Its genius lies in the Dutch duo’s ability to craft atmospheric, dancefloor-ready techno cuts that prioritize mood and melody as much as bustling beats and rhythmic intensity. While their inherent grasp of atmosphere is best personified by the album’s opening and closing ambient cuts, it can also be heard in the broken techno hypnotism of “Inverted Forest”, the trance-influenced grooves and dreamy electronics of “Monsoon” and the yearning, early morning throb of “Vertigo”.
Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani returns with his second full-length, ‘Morphic Dreams’, this time on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Throughout eleven cuts painstakingly executed but lacking not an iota of the fresh, spontaneous oomph that made his sound stand out of the crowd of techno producers to have emerged over the past decade, Adriani lays the foundations to a suspended sound imaginarium, governed by its own rules and principles of gravity. Revolving around the notions of sublimation and quest for inner balance, ‘Morphic Dreams’ is comprised of four distinct sequences, conceived and designed as reflections of four mental states, each of them linked to the four alchemical elements – i.e. Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
Slagmann is the new collaboration between producer Talismann and music ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag. Their first album ‘Krysalis’ is an adventurous synthesis of hypnotizing rhythm patterns, organic soundscapes and captivating scenography – or, as the artists themselves like to call it, a “ritualistic experience.” Sometimes dreamy and dark, euphoric and explosive at other times. This mesmerizing cross-pollination between ritualistic percussion and drum machines will lure you into the murkiest depths of electronica and classical minimal music. For the visual identity of ‘Krysalis’ Slagmann works together with visual artist Heleen Blanken. Who is responsible for the scenography of the live show and capturing the cover image.
Advanced soundscapes from Avina Vishnu which is a project by Heinrich Mueller aka Gerald Donald and Aina. Their release Transforma is a conceptual project that is focusing on a unification between the natural world and the artificial space of electronic music. It attempts to immerse the listener within a three dimensional sound environment that is exploring the natural physics of music and yet create a contrast between these two worlds.
Minimal Wave is releasing a newly mastered compilation of 6 tracks made by Scene de la Bohème (aka Anthony Waites), entitled ‘Standing in the Rain’. Scenes de la Bohème was formed by Anthony Waites in London, in 1981 with an innate desire to create poetic, subversive pop music. Without any intention of ever signing to a record label, he self-released one untitled 7” single in 1982, an edition of 150 copies, with money funded to him by his parents for his 21st birthday. He often used borrowed synthesizers to record his music in various bedroom studios and friends’ houses supplemented by his beloved cherry red Hagstrom guitar. This release includes 2 tracks that come off his sought-after untitled 7″ from 1982 and 4 are previously unreleased.
The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust.
Cititrax presents ‘Dream Bleeds’, a new vinyl release by Brighton, UK based producer L/F/D/M aka Richard Smith. ‘Dream Bleeds’ overflows with body jerking industrial, raw acid/techno, and hints of the warehouse sound of the late ‘90s and the caustic spirit of EBM. Richard Smith says about ‘Dream Bleeds’, “attaching meaning to songs is often arbitrary but when the visceral feeling of music, particularly instrumental body music, is laid bare, the interaction is immediate and physical. These tracks thread together; each starting point completely open, each new step informed by the last. I find it interesting that the process is the same but the outcome somewhat unexpected; shaped by emotion, inspiration or even constraints of time, they evolve as they do in that time. They reach a different end point due to that evolution of circumstance.”
Belgium based composer, poet and multi-instrumentalist Denis Mpunga formed Eko Kuango in the early ’80s. A unique fusion of African rhythms, jazz, subtle synth arrangements with an eastern flavour; they managed to introduce a strong sense of poetry – both musically and lyrically. The band garnered a reasonable following from numerous concerts played during their career, but remained little known except by a few music aficionados around the globe. Eko Kuango only released 4 tracks in the form of an EP in 1986, the band recorded one year later a studio album with the help of renowned sound engineer Arnould Massart which until now remained totally unreleased. Now with a newfound interest in their work, Libreville Records offers in this edition both the 4 tracks from the original EP and the tracks from the session of the ‘lost’ album.
Since childhood Serge Fabriano bathed in music, between his native Guadeloupe and Paris where he grew up. He attended the music conservatory, learnt how to play bass, played with many musicians and was ultimately angling for a career as a music teacher. During the mid-70’s, he alternated between teaching classes and live gigs, and performed in Germany with a funk band comprised of ex-GIs from the US Army. From 1978 onwards, Serge Fabriano devoted more time to music. He became a musician’s musician, doing studio recordings with rock bands and he also played with members of the Caribbean diaspora. Later the group Fabriano Fuzion was born. The band brought together some of the Caribbean’s most inspired musicians: Martinican-born Mario Canonge on the piano, Alain-Jean Marie on the synth, Labor brothers on saxophones, Claude Vamur on the drums, singer/percussionists Marie-Reine Lamoureux and Marie-Céline Lafontaine, Roger Raspail, Sully Cally and Hector Ficadière on Ka percussions. It is precisely the Gwo Ka – this ancestral “root” music deeply embedded in the heart of the Guadeloupe musician – which constitutes the rhythmic backbone of this first opus. The Gwo Ka, the jazz, the poetry and the spiritual vibe are gathered here to form a splendid album; one of the true masterpieces to emerge from the French West Indies.
What once started as an anonymous underground project with stamped white labels and a clever take on sampling, has since then unfolded to be one of the longest-running and most successful teams in current dance music. Nurtured by the sounds of the past and blessed with the techniques of today, the music of Tiger & Woods always kept evolving in and around the tropes of disco, house and boogie. Celebrating the 10th anniversary this year, Marco Passarani and Valerio Delphi managed to arrive at album number three. A.O.D. (adult oriented dance) is inspired by the faded buildings and images of discotheques on the Italian countryside, the romantic start and bittersweet endings of summer, beach life and the excitement of travelling through the landscape to get to aforementioned temples of dance and subsequently the morning after. Except for the 100% sample-free 1:00 am, everything on A.O.D. is based on a quiver of cleared samples from the Roman institution that is Claudio Donato and his Full Time and Goodymusic emporium. In Tiger & Woods hometown Rome, the often very electronic and futuristic sound of Italo Disco had a different twist. Much more boogie-based and influenced by the song-writing styles of New York City’s dance scene, it played in a league of its own. Tiger & Woods use these materials to take them apart, out of context and into contrasting areas. Molding something completely new, one gets fooled to recognize Sade songs that aren’t, pop music instrumentals and a reprise of memories that never existed. A ride through ones brain in a convertible with an Italian FM radio station playing in the background. Or to use less stiff poetry: a chill out album you can dance to or a dance album you can chill out to.
Jazzman presents the definitive anthology of pioneering ethno-musicologist, mystical adventurer and real life jazz guru Dr Lloyd Miller. This album tells the fascinating life story of one man and his journey through Europe and the Middle East, living off nothing but his wits, talent and an open-minded attitude towards music and jazz. Master of dozens of languages and hundreds of instruments, Miller has spent fifty years immersed in the music of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Featuring recordings taken from incredibly rare privately pressed albums, live sessions in Europe, and previously unreleased material, A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz tells the story of his extraordinary personal journey from the West Coast to the Far East. Played on a plethora of exotic instruments from around the world, Miller’s music is a unique blend of jazz with the modal and spiritual sounds of traditional Asian and Middle Eastern music. Spiritual jazz, Eastern jazz – direct from the source! Available on deluxe heavyweight vinyl and compact disc with digitally remastered sound, previously unreleased material, exhaustive historical liner notes and unseen archive photos.
Karamika is a studio creation from George Thompson (Black Merlin) and Gordon Pohl AKA Dussuldorf’s engineer supreme (Musiccargo / Kunstkopf / The Isolators…). This their second long player is a record full of mind games. Sounds leak from fractal-like holes, and are sedately trodden back into the cosmic fabric of the album. The noise of post cruise carpet.
Alessandro Adriani has become a trusted source for all kinds of beyond-the-grave minimal synth, industrial and coldwave delights. Aside from his work in releasing forgotten gems and up to the minute synth incantations, Adriani has also been quietly issuing out his own music as well. Originally released in 2016, ‘Montagne Trasparenti’ is now repressed on Mannequin Records with a full new graphic design.
Plant43 aka Emile Facey, one of CPU’s originators delivers his fourth album ‘Three Dimensions’. Eight tracks of crystalline electro with his signature epic pads and Blade Runner-esque melodies. Facey is one of the most respected electro artists of today and this album galvanises this reputation. DJs will find several weapons amongst this package of beautiful electronic music that rewards both headphone listeners as much as a big room.
Tresor Records celebrates the return of Spanish Manuel Anós aka Psyk on its catalogue, with his new album “A Moment Before”. This is Psyk’s first long player since his debut “Time Foundation”. The album is undoubtedly Psyk’s most advanced piece of work to date. It dialogs with practices in reduced forms of techno, as originated by artists like Robert Hood, through the recently re-released “Internal Empire” on Tresor.
The Hipodrome Of Music 