Original Soundtrack to ‘Summer’s Over’ (2017).
album
Severnaya – Polar Skies LP [FAUXPAS024]
Boris Bunnik is no stranger in the world of electronic music. Fauxpas Musik welcomes him for a new project called Severnaya. Originally hailing from the Island of Terschelling. the most Northern and remote part of the Netherlands he now made a piece of music dedicated to this special place. Severnaya means north in Russian and refers to the bright frozen landscapes of the northern archipels. Boris often plays with the influences and elements of ambient in his music. If we have to believe the man himself. Polar Skies is his most personal sound trajectory to come from his mind. Drum programming is scarce and what remains is a lush and profound listening experience floating on scapes and melodies. Things sound spacious and life is at ease in these melancholic compositions. Crispy crackling percussions and icey pads place you in the midst of a resonant arctic landscape. The tracks were composed over a couple of years (2015-2017) in a more contemplative mindset.
Franz Falckenhaus – Tupolev System LP [GDLP008]
Danny Wolfers AKA Legowelt AKA the maestro Franz Falckenhaus presents the next Giallo Disco. The obscure, previously CDR only side project Franz Falckenhaus has stood out for many of us as one of Mr Wolfer’s most accomplished works. Full on VHS grained Cold War paranoia. Like if Fulci directed a Bond movie starring Udo Keir and Edwige Fenech. Shades of Fabio Frizzi, Minimal Synth and Aphex Twin, all combine for this cinematic masterpiece. Culled from the three CDs originally released on Strange Life Records, it is with immense pride that we provide this collection for the first time on vinyl, lovingly remastered with exceptional new art by the one and only Eric A. Lee.
Hieroglyphic Being – The Red Notes [SJRLP394]
For the first time since 2016, Jamal Moss has pitched up on Soul Jazz with a typically eccentric and mind-altering full-length excursion. As you’d expect, The Red Room is another triumph – an inspirational collection of otherworldly and melodious cuts that effortlessly combine elements from Moss’s many major inspirations. One minute, you’re wigging out to his jacking, piano-heavy fusion of gospel house and synth-jazz (“The Seduction Syndrome”), the next he’s laying down a chunk of deep space ambient with Terry Riley synthesizer cycles (“Awake and Energize”).
Amazon Club – Save Our Paradise [VG005]
The Amazon Club is back on Voodoo Gold Records with a 10 track release. Loaded with their signature, hazy tropical funk and disco rhythms, this follow-up from their last years debut will take you back on a trip to the sultry hideout of our worlds greatest paradise.
Sorry Bamba Du Mali – Sorry Bamba Du Mali [SON8203]
One of the most pivotal figures in the history of Malian music is Sorry Bamba. His work spans five decades and his music bridges the gap between Mali’s cultural traditions and new the music which arose from the musical cross overs which occurred in Mali’s post-Colonial period. Bamba was born in 1938 in Mopti. This is dissected by both the Niger and Bani rivers and known for its rich cultural diversity. Bamba’s father was a distinguished veteran of Emperor Samory Toure’s military and a nobleman in Malian society; however, this meant young Sorry was forbidden to make music, as under the nation’s caste system, music was an art form reserved for the Griots. At the age of 10, Sorry’s parents died and in traumatic times that followed the young teen found solace in music. He first taught himself to play am African six-holed flute. As he progressed he began to absorbed the rich tapestry of music of his surroundings; traditional Malian music, highlife from Ghana, local accordion master Toumani Toure, European singers and musicians. In 1957 Sorry formed his first band, Group Goumbe, named after a popular Ivory Coast dance style. In 1960 Mali gained independence from France, Bamba and his group benefited from a new openness toward local music on the state-run radio network Radio Mali. Sorry then went on to form two award-winning, further collectives Bani Jazz and later the Kanaga Orchestra. They fused Latin jazz, Western R&B, Psychedelic and funk, and traditional Malian styles made them a favourite in Mali and beyond.
Steve Parker – Interplanetary Dust [PRRUKBLKWHT002]
Steve Parker’ continues to raise awareness off what he can do in the scene. This ”Interplanetary Dust LP” is another example of what he is capable of. A 2×12” containing 8 powerful tracks that fits right into the resume of our widely ranged techno collection.
Unbalance – Unbalance #10 [UNBALANCE010]
Seven years ago, Unbalance created his own label as a base for his musical ideas; a platform to play around with the conception of what ”techno” is and would be alongside his own creative progression. Come to present day and the label is now at its ninth release, reaching a point where the line of accumulated experiences must be drawn in the sand — and the experiences of previous projects and releases lead to venerable conclusion. Enter Ten, an album of internalized strife that was created during a period of big changes in the artist’s life. Between enduring personal experiences, his creative output veering between his straightforward club eccentricities and subdural sensibilities; Unbalance cultivates a symbiotic link between sounds played and sounds portrayed — whilst paying tribute to the essence of groove, vibration and the hypnotic unknown that exists to balance the scales. This album will be the final point in the label’s journey into the depths of multifaceted techno music.
Thomas P. Heckmann – Body Music LP [MONNOM013]
Body Music LP produced by a man who needs little introduction. Thomas P. Heckmann has flexed his prowess across all shades of electronic music, but it’s his contributions to EBM-techno, acid, industrial, and experimental that has earned him his notoriety. Heckmann has utilised 30 years worth of acquired knowledge to create a hard-hitting album which bears all the grit he is known for – harmonising analogue and digital wares to create an utterly immersive 14 track album.
Borusiade – A Body [COMEME043]
Cómeme starts 2018 by proving again to be a safe haven and a sanctuary for sensitive plants and unique characters devoted to music – just like Miruna Boruzescu aka Borusiade – from Bucharest. This is the first album of Borusiade, in which she takes her music to a new level, finding her very own expression, that is making us first shiver then sweat, then chill and finally melt. Her visions unfold through 8 pieces of music that follow a dreamlike narrative of associations and transformations. Somber synthetic atmospheres, sparse and spatial rhythmical arrangements, strangely seductive melodies and lysergic ally pulsating bass lines lead us away from a dystopian present towards a sensorial experience we long to repeat as soon as it’s over. ‘A Body’ is a deeply poetic work in which again and again you will hear Borusiade’s voice, sometimes dissolving and recreating meanings in mantra-like repetitions, sometimes layering itself to pagan choirs of smooth ecstasy. Then again you will also hear that voice close to you, singing, sharing an experience or a thought. It is always soft, effortless and unpretentious, but always strong, clear and precise, like the voice that speaks to you in an altered state of consciousness. It seems to come from the same person that is holding your hand, when everything else seems to fade into uncertainty while wandering through strange times and places.
Rodion G.A. – Rozalia [INV004]
Inversions announce their fourth record release – a further collection of unreleased tracks from Rodion Roșca’s archives, credited to his three-piece band Rodion G.A. The tracks are culled from several studio recording sessions, and one track recorded in Rodion’s home studio. The first sessions, at Radio Cluj over the period 1978-79, produced the basic instrumental backing for what would become “Nu Tu Vei Fi,” “Ore,” “Bătrânul Cais,” and “Moment.” Rodion applied the triplicate vocals and effects that would transform them into the finished tracks at home on his Tesla reel to reel machine. When the last session was complete, Rodion asked the engineer if he could record the instrumental tracks directly from the mixing console on to his Tesla machine. A genius stroke, as he was subsequently able to create many further tracks using various repeated rhythms and loops from this same material, tracks equally individual and unrecognisable from the source, such as “Uneori.” This earned him the accolades “Orchestra Man,” and the “First One-Man Band in Romania.” The second session, at the radio station in Bucharest in 1983, was more straightforward, with the tracks “Tamburași, “Satul De Roua” and “Tic Tac” all finished then and there. “Singur Pe Drum,” although written in Rodion’s teens, was not recorded until 2010 in his home studio. The record is a collection of tracks with a slightly rougher garage or psychedelic rock edge than the more electronic sounding works that have re-surfaced on recordings in the last few years.
Bézier – Parler Musique [DE200]
Dark Entries release the debut album from Bézier titled ‘Parler Musique’. Bézier is Taiwanese-American musician Robert Yang who is also part of the Honey Soundsystem crew. A multi-instrumentalist, Robert grew up in Southern California then planted his roots in San Francisco in 2005. Over the years in SF he has built an impressive analog synth-based studio, which also serves as the creative hub for his riveting live performances. Parler Musique clocks in at over 52 minutes with 8 tracks are spread across four sides for maximum loudness. The album title is a French transliteration on the phrase “Parlor Music” and is evening music for a meeting of minds in a drawing room or a literary salon. To ‘talk about music’, the actual translation of the title, the album is a hotbed of ideas. Different genres are crisscrossed: punk, synthpop, jungle, new romantic, industrial and new wave. Airy melodies, surging arpeggios and symphonic breakdowns counterpoint cold digital drum sounds to convey beauty within inescapable and impending daily processes.
Anthony Linell – A Sense Of Order [NE50]
Having tamed last year’s havoc and disparity into the damaged rapture of ‘Layers of Reality,’ Anthony Linell is opening a new calendar with the sheared isolation of his latest album, ‘A Sense of Order.’ Linell has put his toolkit for summoning euphoria aside here, instead sculpting a glowing, diaphanous fog that swells into pensive melodies and arpeggiated whispers. Graceful for the way in which it makes the bleak hospitable, the charm of coldness invites us toward the empty and the beautiful, and away from the miserable.
Jonny Nash / Lindsay Todd – Fauna Mapping [IOTG003]
Jonny Nash (Guissian Curve / Melody is Truth) and Firecracker’s Lindsay Todd get barefoot and turn out a stunner of an LP. Over the course of twelve compositions we find the pair utilising their recordings in a whole host of ways, avoiding the well-trodden cliches of the “exotic” and instead attempting to achieve a personal interpretation of the flora, fauna and climate of the island. Spending time amidst the insects, rice fields and scorching sun, the pair gathered a library of found sounds which were then taken back to a studio space to be stretched, mangled and manipulated alongside a variety of electronic and acoustic instruments. The outdoor studio itself became a living instrument, with the duo setting up multiple microphones for durations of up to 12 hours around the space, layering and processing the results in tracks such as “Fauna Mapping” and “A Series Of Small Frogs.
Potter Natalizia Zen – Shut Your Eyes On The Way Out [E034]
Colin Potter, Alessio Natalizia and Guido Zen regroup along the percussive vectors of ‘Shut Your Eyes On The Way Out’ for the Ecstatic label. Three years in the making, taking cues from German synth rock, cosmic disco, abstract EBM and obscure library sounds, the trio head for seductive new horizons of pulsing rhythms and floating ambient dub tones. The six hands control the mission with masterful skill and sleight of hand, prompting routes for the user rather than signposting the way with cliché. Of course, it’s hard to escape some sense of homage or reverence for the original forms, but they do so with such sensitivity to the material and “the journey” that the results simply transcends that heritage, to arrive somewhere, timelessly, out there.
Vakula – Metaphors [LELEKA009]
Immersive listening music from Vakula, created in the hidden depths of the Ukraine. ‘Metaphors’ is slightly different from some of his (admittedly eclectic) full-length excursions, focused as it is on the gently unfurling, head-in-the-clouds world of ambient music. Of course, much of the music is still gently rhythmic – check for example, the pulsating arpeggio lines and tumbling kalimba melodies of the strangely foreboding “Proem”, or the spaced-out, keyboard demo rhumba rhythms underpinning languid opener “Smooth Movement” – but the vibe remains thoroughly horizontal throughout. While the standard is high throughout, we’re particularly enjoying the two versions of “Tale of Eternal Thought”, with the weightless bliss of the “Different Version” standing out.
Terekke – Improvisational Loops [MFM028]
Terekke drifts gracefully onto Music From Memory with a long player of looping ambient pad pressure. The recording of ‘Improvisational Loops’ began in 2012 during yoga classes at Body Actualized Center in NYC. In the spirit of past ‘New Age’ or Minimal music, it aims to open up a space within the room giving the listener a chance to explore inward or outward. It was recorded using a digital synthesizer, reverb, and looper.
WLDV – Ritual Of Six [W04]
Waste Editions new release is coming from Giallo Disco’s WLDV. It´s ‘Ritual of Six’ and this one is a gripping and mysterious album which is made up of six creepy and catchy tracks. Indeed, a brilliant work where bloodcurdling sounds, hypnotics atmospheres and thunderous analog arps can make you to look through the keyhole and see a little bit of hell gate.
Quiet Dawn – Human Being: The Short Story Of A Reed [FW170]
First Word kicks off 2018 with the welcome return of Quiet Dawn, and a new EP, ‘Human Being: The Short Story of The Reed’. A suitably ice-thawing six-track opus to compliment the change of seasons, dedicated to the winter blooming plant’s desire to be human. Parisian Will Galland first appeared on the label in late 2014, releasing his debut album ‘The First Day’ the following year. Collaborations on that album and subsequent mixes since have included offerings from Oddisee, Miles Bonny, Eric Lau, Bastien Keb, Sauce81 (Eglo), Mayaka McCraven and Sarah Williams White. Evolving his music from a palette accumulated over the years of Hip Hop, Broken Beat and House, he has expanded his talents for arranging and composing, and now drafted in a wealth of musicians for this sublime new EP, his most ambitious yet. Strings glide effervescently atop of Quiet Dawn’s assorted analogue synths, and an array of percussive organics combine to build the tale of The Reed. In-places, the set transcends into the kind of grooves that saunter somewhere between the land of Bonobo and Quantic, and the cinematic library record craft of Alan Hawkshaw et al.
Eko – Funky Disco Music [ASVN052]
Eko Roosevelt Louis has had a music career spanning over forty years, born the grandson of a Kribi tribal chief, his musical persuasion beginning humbly with his village’s local church before his formal education at the Senegal conservatoire and Paris’ École Normale de Musique. EKO made a number of jazz funk and disco records in the mid seventies during a stint recording and touring in and around France before returning to Cameroon to take over his grandfather’s tribal chieftaincy, a role he still holds today. Alongside this position of office EKO has continued to work with music, performing, teaching and even leading Cameroon’s national orchestra. The tracks selected for this reissue are all taken from EKO’s third album, Funky Disco Music which was recorded in Paris and released on his own Dragon Phenix imprint. Sung in a combination of English and EKO’s native tongue we’ve lined up a real excursion in feel good afro-jazz, funk and soul made purely for dancing feet and boogying butts.
