Nu Genea – Bar Mediterraneo [NG005LP]

Four years after Nuova Napoli, Nu Genea are back with Bar Mediterraneo, a new album and journey, which projects the sounds of the Neapolitan duo formed by Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina even further. Nu Genea’s Bar Mediterraneo is an idea of a shared place where people meet and fuse together; a space that leaves its doors open to travellers and their lives, always exposed to the whims of fate. Some of this can be experienced through the multitude of sounds that come together in the tracks, layers of different acoustic instruments, voices and synthesizers merging in a unique musical blend. Opening up to the voices of many different people, separated by languages but united by the sea and the music, Nu Genea’s hometown, Napoli, becomes a true place of encounter.

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Nu Genea – Bar Mediterraneo [NG005LP]

VA – DJ Harvey Is The Sound Of Mercury Rising Vol II [PIKESLP002]

Almost two years on from the release of his brilliant “The Sound of Mercury Rising” compilation, DJ Harvey returns with another brilliant selection of tracks he’s championed at Pikes in Ibiza. As with its predecessor, volume two offers a giddy skip through the dustier corners of his notoriously eclectic and off-kilter record selection. Along the way, he offers up chiming, synth-heavy Balearic classics (Mandy Smith, Hugh Mane), weirdo European disco (Marta Acuna), evocative electronic soundscapes (System Olympia), blue-eyed synth-pop (Pamela Nivens), drum machine-powered Middle Eastern madness (Switchdance’s sublime “Arabian Ride”) and a swathe of tasty contemporary cuts (the jaunty jazz-funk of Midlife, Das Komplex’s ace “Slap”, Nu Guinea’s splendid “Je Vulesse” and Peaking Lights remix of Land of Light being the highlights).

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VA – DJ Harvey Is The Sound Of Mercury Rising Vol II [PIKESLP002]

20 Albums from 2018

With just a few days from the current year left, I’ve compiled a list of 20 albums from 2018 that I enjoyed this year. Among these I have to highlight the much anticipated Mutant Beat Dance debut album, the first ever album from Gerard Hanson under the E.R.P. project, a new Gerald Donald project and a compilation of unreleased Heinrich Mueller remixes, a Silent Servant follow-up on Hospital Productions, a very interesting Fred Ventura compilation of unreleased house tracks, a new Lebanon Hanover, the beautiful debut album of Curses, the impressive Eindkrak album and the debut album of the Romanian producer Șerb.
The list is compiled in chronological order.

Eindkrak – Brullend Staal [Unknown Precept]

EINDKRAK - Brullend Staal

Continue reading “20 Albums from 2018”

20 Albums from 2018

Nu Guinea – Nuova Napoli [NG01]

After touring the world looking for sounds suitable for their vibrations, Nu Guinea decided to go back to square one, Napoli, where Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina were born and raised. They watched their city from a distance reconstructing its energy from their studio in Berlin, calibrating the synths on the meridian of Vesuvius, the volcano that has always protected and threatened Napoli. ‘Nuova Napoli’ is the result of a long musical research that has become a historical investigation on the sound that shaped Napoli during the ‘70s and ‘80s, starting from the contamination of genres (disco, jazz-funk, African rhythms) which ended up in Nu Guinea’s DNA. In this album the synthesizers fill the spaces between the past and the future, tightening in a single body acoustic instruments, electronics and voices in Neapolitan dialect. It is the first time that the duo has worked with such a large group of musicians, some of whom are exponents of the contemporary Neapolitan scene.

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Nu Guinea – Nuova Napoli [NG01]

Nu Guinea – The Tony Allen Experiments (Afrobeat Vol.3 ) [COMET072]

Comet announce the third volume of the Afrobeat Makers Series: Nu Guinea – The Tony Allen Experiments. By re-working the original magic drum patterns from the Afrobeat master Tony Allen, Nu Guinea created a compilation of tracks which is charged by a voluminous electronic jazz-Psyche funk imprint. For this release, Comet Records teamed up with Early Sounds Recordings, the berlin label, also home to duo Berliners Nu Guinea. The Naples formed, Berlin-based duo, is a project that arose out of jam sessions, melting synthesizers with instruments, containing a handmade sound that is not aiming for perfection but genuineness. It can be understood as a steadily shaping form, always open for collaborations with other musicians.

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Nu Guinea – The Tony Allen Experiments (Afrobeat Vol.3 ) [COMET072]