MUSIC

Absolutely deadly showcase of Wolof drumming patterns invented by legendary Senegalese griot, Doudou Nidiaye Rose - a 100% must-check for fans of West African percussion and Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force! Top shelf Honest Jon’s tackle, this; 21 swingeingly tight performances by an extended griot family, of the eponymous dynamo’s intricately expressive, meter bending tekkerz. Spanning the decades-old theme tune of Senegalese TV national news, ‘Hibar Yi’ (‘Passing on Information’), thru to the signature rhythm of Senegal’s first ever all-female percussion group, Les Rosettes, it’s a uniquely engaging dedication to the legacy of Doudou Nidiaye Rose, the dynamic griot drummer who developed a system of some 500 original drumming patterns which endure to this day. Performed in the mystical settings of Lac Rose - named for its pink waters (a result of algae blooms and high salinity) - the ‘Twenty-One Sabar Rhythms’ invite us to marvel and, more importantly, dance, to a range of Doudou’s original compositions, as well as important traditional rhythms known to every Sabar player. Beautifully recorded, sans overdubs, with the tuned drums fiercely upfront, while subtly incorporating atmospheric sounds of Lac Rose, the set ideally speaks to the inimitable richness of West African drum communications, and their application in everything from courtship rituals (‘Farwu Jar’) to harvest celebrations (‘Gumbé’), often with a breathtaking sense of joy and energy that simply has to be experienced to be understood. Fair to say that our relationship with this music stems form Mark Ernestus’ endeavours showcasing Ndagga Rhytym Force to the Western world (their show at Mcr’s Band on the Wall still gives us the shivers) and we suspect that if you, too, witnessed one, you’ve already clicked the buy button. But if not, and you’ve got an ounce of bounce in dem bones, The Doudou Ndiaye Rose Family’s thrilling throwdown will utterly light up your life, and make you dance 100% better. Ayayayayaya this is IT! In process of stocking.* Magnificent Wolof drum music, performed by an extended griot family over seven consecutive days, in the mystical setting of Lac Rose, outside Dakar. Doudou Ndiaye Rose — who died in 2015 — is a key drummer in the musical history of the world. He developed a system of five hundred original drumming patterns, ancient and new. Amongst the modern rhythms here is Bench Mi — 'under the Baobab tree,' a spot where where problems get solved. Also Hibar Yi — 'passing on information' — the theme-tune of Senegalese TV national news for decades — and Les Rosettes, the signature rhythm of Senegal's first ever all-female percussion group, convened by Doudou, and named after his grandmother. These original compositions sit alongside important traditional rhythms, familiar to every Sabar player, such as Farwu Jar (a courtship game sometimes resulting in a wedding), Ceebu Jin (also the name of the national dish of fish and rice), and Gumbé, often played after a successful harvest. Recorded in joyful single takes, with no overdubs, mastered by Rashad Becker, the music is deep and thrilling, polyrhythmic to the bone, with a complex, pointillistic intensity at times evoking Jeff Mills in full flight.

DJ Python revives his cult alias, Luis, with a reflective ode to his best friend. The five tracks here represent the inscrutable mix of detachment and contentment that made DJ Python's Mas Amable a modern touchstone, but the 057 (Schwyn) EP also possesses the heartfelt '90s sheen that is Luis's sonic signature. Idiosyncratic rhythms and twinkling ambience build patiently before arriving at the blissed breakbeat closer. "missen and loven. schwyn and i go into each others lives here and there quiet and present. always missen and loven. to know he is on the earth is to know that it is beautiful." - Brian Piñeyro

A bearhug of chill-out room gouching gear from MFM spanning the golden era of ‘90s ambient dance music with gems from David Moufang, LFO, Global Communication, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Sun Electric and many more notables of that era. Since the world turned into a big chill out room in early 2020, albeit with a heavy sense of anxiety, this set could hardly be better placed for downtime in the comfort of your own home, rolling out mystic highlights such as LFO’s MDMA-tingle arps and pads in ‘Helen’ and the sublime suspension systems of Global Communication’s remix of ‘Arcadian’, along with Move D’s early nugget ‘Sergio Leone’s Wet Dream’, and the lush pads of his close spar Jonah Sharp’s Spacetime Continuum, plus a strip of killer slow acid in Sideral’s ‘Mare Nostrum’, and the blissed romance of ‘Love 2 Love’ by Sun Electric. One for the lovers and the ravers.

Experiences Limited, now 3XL, with a sick new LP from Exael on a highly atmospheric ambient jungle tip, deploying 30 mins of percussive spasms seeping into smoked-out zoners - highly tipped if yr into anything from Lee Gamble to Malibu. Clearing their cache of stray bullets, Exael returns with a gyring plunge into percussive wormholes and low-lit mood enhancers .The tracks are broadly cleft along schisms of dark/light and demonic/angelic, switching from restive propellers to more sublime sensations in a fine testament to their practice - making for prob our favourite Exael release thus far. On the “darker” side, they commit the convulsive, fractious footwork pulses and warped tones of ‘Circle (Squishy Mix)’ in a sort of parallel to 33EMYBW’s insectoid rhythms and combustion systems, while ‘Ice That melts The Tips’ trades in rapid, ice-skating thizz and ‘Ghoul Search (Demonic Attachment Mix)’ fires up the junglist particle accelerator for a proper gauntlet of hyper techstep dynamics. The contrast is epitomised by ’Composure’, arranging flinty breaks on a luscious waterbed of floating pads, before ‘Eidolon’ renders a sort of airborne dembow pressure in the vicinity of Ben Bondy & special guest dj’s xphresh works. ‘L-theanine’ closes the session on a fine tread inside emo ambient styles and flurries on the same spectrum between DJ Lostboi and Teresa Winter, complete with a reverberating, half-buried vocal. All smoke & strobe doozies.

Re-issue of seminal Mr. Fingers album 'Amnesia', available officially for the first time in over 30 years on Larry Heard's own Alleviated Records. This remastered collection of early Mr. Fingers works is an absolute must have.

"Always take from the past - avoiding the empty longings of nostalgia - with a view to understanding the new place it might hold in the future. Good Morning Tapes has done just that, and with the 90’s revival in something of a full swing, the label finally gets the chance to release a pivotal 10 year old mix that didn’t just ignite a curious wave of reflection and appropriation, it marked a culmination in the shifting sonic sands for its creator Mr. Alexis Le-Tan. His name needs little light thrust upon it in these hallowed cosmic halls, with his enduring and ever present mixes being a staple for those that know. Back to Disco Valley is arguably his most important mix - it both recontextualised a dirty and forgotten sound of the past, and facilitated a wave of new freedoms for those wishing to look backwards in order to move forwards. Most importantly it planted the seed for everything Full Circle to come. Back to Disco Valley is above all else a personal reckoning for Alexis and Joakim, it marked a moment when many problems inherent in a trapped older sound - with a sublime yet dated history of its own - could breath fresh life in the present day; a new slower realm was born. The slowing down of dance music is nothing new, and certainly where peak time beats have existed a spiritual shadow that revels in a slower ethereal space to dance has never been far away. Stylistically on one level, Back to Disco Valley might seem to build on what Baldelli or Loda were doing many years ago, and it certainly has that effortless charm, but it goes much further, not just in its re-appraisal of the frenetic fast paced sounds of Goa, but as a signifier of where many wanted to head on the dancefloor - towards a slower oasis - incorporating new releases and modern sounding rarities along the way. Indeed, in selecting the 33rpm dial rather than that marked 45, Full Circle at once opened up the new space inside a music some of us went bananas to 30 years ago, and at the same time made sense of a crucial yet forgotten heritage; a confession became a badge of honour. Coming back to Full Circle and its genesis: it was only a matter of time before the old Goa records would come back down from the racks and spawn a new life, and perhaps whilst Le-Tan cemented something a lot of us knew, Back to Disco Valley somehow liberated many of those early records from their stylistic shackles initiating a creative project that - along side the collaborative work with Joakim - has released a wave of inspirational edits and re-imaginations. Full Circle - in all its conceptual & metaphorical majesty - really has come to represent the most stylish of takes on past sounds, both in the realm of selection and re-working. It is certainly true that Back to Disco Valley - sounding now as it did then (to the select tuned ears that got to listen) - reflects a perfect meeting between an off-tempo past, present and future, being more than a functional assemblage, it revives many a lost memory, inspiring a new batch of ideas, and always looking back with a purpose.

Consummate selector and veteran of a pair of mixtape percies for The Trilogy Tapes, DJ Sundae racks up the rarities for a killer new edition for Good Morning Tapes, a recording of his set for Alexis Le Tan’s Oddity Radio, Paris. Sundae’s selection skills are already a thing of low-key legend and on this new one he picks an arc from sylvan synth glydes to punky reggae dub via ample armfuls of spirited music, each cut a stepping stone to the next in a proper example of DJ as storyteller. Aye, you can forget about any easily identifiable gear and expect to snag the attentions of earnest spotters licking their nibs for hits of rustic folk, proggy psych, druggy grunge and punk hymns that give way to brooding bass music and stepping post-punk.

Equal parts Sheffield bleep, fractal IDM and interstellar ambience, Hyper Nu Age Tekno sees Taro Nohara (aka Yakenohara) plotting a star map on a faded rave flyer. Let the billionaires blast into orbit while you explore your inner space with Growing Bin.

From the LP's earliest moments, the whomping subs and crystalline chimes of "Space Debris", it's clear that we're a long way from Hamburg. Taro pilots this craft on a deep space exploration way beyond the run out groove, to a place where heartening chords herald a twin sunrise and any broadcasts are lost in translation. The polyrhythmic pulse of "Ill Ell" follows, its concentric chimes and rapid fire kicks summoning the teknoguild to a watery altar in the engineering department. Sticking with interstellar mysticism but taking a turn for the transcendent, "Baker Baker Paradox" spins Reich-ian repetition into a graphene gossamer embellished with chrome, crystal and shoegaze shimmer. The B-side begins on the observation deck, bathing in the beauty of "Celestial Harmonia"'s sci-fi exotica, before the entheogenic "Use Your Head" prompts a delirious dash to the holodeck. Laying serene pads over a techy 4/4, Taro turns out the most danceable and dreamy track on the LP. As ambient chords ring out into the aether and rhythmic pulses shift out of phase, "Airplane Without People" is the loading screen for your virtual fantasy, soon rendered through the woody percussion and spheric bass of "Music For Psychic Liberation". Leave your body behind as you pick mushrooms in a CGI forest.

Classic album from 1977, the sixth Kraftwerk album, originally issued by Kling Klang. This is the English-language, U.S.-cover art version. One of the inspired electronically-based pop records of all time. Performed by the quartet of Hütter, Schneider, Flür & Karl Bartos, this is the quintessential Kraftwerk sound recording experience. Tracklist: Side One: A1. Europe Endless; A2. The Hall Of Mirrors; A3. Showroom Dummies. Side Two: B1. Trans-Europe Express; B2. Metal On Metal; B3. Franz Schubert; B4. Endless Endless.

LP version of their 5th album from 1975. The centerpiece inbetween Autobahn and Trans Europa Express -- a trilogy of masterworks that found Kraftwerk at their artistic pinnacle, in the midst of rearranging the musical universe. The sweeping synth melodies are in full futuristic force, surrounded by weird bleepage and a static pulse -- this is a mesmerizing album in every way. Tracklisting: Side 1: A1. Geiger Counter; A2. Radioactivity; A3. Radioland; A4. Airwaves; A5. Intermission; A6. News; Side 2: B1. The Voice of Energy; B2. Antenna; B3. Radio Stars; B4. Uranium; B5. Transistor; B6. Ohm Sweet Ohm.

Donato Dozzy and Milanese veteran Stefano Ghittoni mint a new series on Dozzy's Mage Circe Musica imprint, channeling Daniele Baldelli's cosmic disco manifesto and exploring screwed rhythms, psychedelic electronix and blunted dub atmospheres. So good - imagine a half-speed Shinichi Atobe or Rrose spliced with GRM-damaged concréte FX and percussion courtesy of Konono No.1. Basically it's peak Dozzy syrup - Tip! Alicia Carrera and Donato Dozzy's Maga Circe Musica label has quickly established itself as an outlet for some of the most impressively tight experimental slop we've heard in ages. Dozzy and Ghittoni's first La Petit plate is no different, using the enduring influence of Northeastern Italian electronic music (think Baldelli and Marco Dionigi) to help transform and repurpose dub techno, folk, ambient music, jazz and global sounds. If Baldelli and Dionigi were best known for pushing disco's tempo down to a crawl, Dozzy and Ghittoni do the same with their wealth of diggers' influences, dipping hollow 4/4 percussion and syncopated hand drums to a chug on 'Sukia' and slowly building an atmosphere with low-slung bass and spooked electronics. Imagine holding down the pitch slider on a Badalamenti score and a Funkadelic 12” playing at the same time, for the gist. On 'Lanquidity' the duo pull in horizontal dub pads and place them against a resinous thud and swirling dub FX, played slower than it should be and somehow operating in the same gloopy zone as Newworldaquarium to emphasise mood and texture over technical trickery. 'Niento’ is even better, using smeared LM1 claps for a sort of assymetric, purple funk played at -8 while taking a fourth world-inspired rhythm and welding it to lysurgic synth drones and nipped kicks - it's a mid-point between vintage bleep techno, cosmic disco and rhythmic psychedelia. 'Le Petit' is over too soon, but gives us plenty to chew on: anyone who enjoys Dozzy's genre-agnostic DJ sets or the fertile area between hazy ambience and half-speed dancefloor zones - this one’s a killer.

Burnt Friedman has been collaborating with German rock giant Jaki Liebezeit of CAN, who has been a close friend of his for years, and experimental drummer João Pais Filipe, who has worked with Rafael Toral and Lafawndah. João Pais Filipe, a drummer in the experimental field who has worked with Rafael Toral and Lafawndah, has released a split EP on his own Nonplace label. It's another astonishing work...! This is the first time I've ever heard a track from the band, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next... "Out Of Ape" is a trancy, avant-garde electro track that completely removes the distinction between the otherworldly and the real, while filling the track with ultra-colored psychedelia. Eurydike", and the cosmic ambient/tribal dance "Star Wars", which was inspired by Jaki Liebezeit and recorded together in 2004.

In 1997 and 1998, the late great Japanese composer, producer, and DJ Susumu Yokota released two of the most eclectic albums of his decades-long career, Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace. Recorded under his Stevia alias for Tokyo Techno pioneer DJ Miku’s Newstage Records/NS-COM, they were Yokota-san’s homage to the foundational days of club music in Japan. This year, Glossy Mistakes are proud to present the first official vinyl editions of Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace, originally released on CD during the golden days of the format. Packaged in reimagined cover artwork created by the celebrated Japanese visual artist Masaho Anotani, these two albums perfectly capture the diversity at the heart of Yokota-san’s oeuvre. Across Greenpeace sees Yokota-san conjuring up a heady concoction of dusty loops, sampledelic breaks, kraut-rock and psychedelic downbeat. A remarkable listening experience based on the inspired era of a genius. When Yokota-san wrote and produced the music on Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace in 1997, he was reflecting on the broader culture that surrounded dance music in Japan in the early to mid-nineties. It was an era when the psychedelic culture of late sixties America, the afterglow of UK acid house/rave, the new age movement and cyberpunk dovetailed together. Within DJ Miku and Yokota-san’s social circles, the thinking of Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs electrified the air. By 1996, the moment, brilliant and blinding as it was, was over. “We all felt that the rave scene fizzled out,” DJ Miku says. As he puts it, there was a collective feeling around him that it had all become too much. From the calm that followed, DJ Miku, Yokota-san and their open-eared peers made the decision to switch tracks and start from scratch. DJ Miku believes that with his Stevia releases, Fruits of The Room and Greenpeace, Yokota-san wanted to express the sweet and sour nature of the passing of those wild early days and his wish for true peace. “At the time, we saw eye-to-eye, with an implicit understanding of each other,” he explains. “Even now, twenty-five years later, I am confident it was like that.”

Moodymann's oeuvre continues to yield new gems on a yearly basis, but sometimes you've got to take it back to the classics. "Forevernevermore" was a landmark when it first landed in 2000, building on the promise of his earlier LPs to deliver an immaculate trip through the dreamiest corners of his idiosyncratic deep house vision. From the incantations of "Meanwhile Back At Home" to the early morning freak haze of "The Set Up", the quintessentially KDJ 'in-the-room' vibe of "The Thief That Stole My Sad Days" to the heavy edit funk of "Tribute" this is gold-standard Detroit house start to finish from one of the best to ever do it.

A masterpiece 4th album released in 2003. Limited clear vinyl edition.

Workshop caretaker Lowtec returns with two extended, collage-like tapestries of abstract house and disjointed electronics spanning early electronic intimations and hazy house structures. Stitched from studio research over the past few years, ‘Old Economy’ is presented as a reflection “of the end of the old economy” according to the pivotal Berlin producer and label owner. A sort of last signal from the transition between two eras, it balances classically searching, radiophonic optimism, with a more melancholic, even foreboding feel that could be taken as a Janus-faced metaphor for the artist’s feelings on the precariousness of a new decade. Perhaps more akin to Burial’s collage tekkerz or a long lost ambient house mix from Berlin’s halcyon days than a typical album, ‘Old Economy’ deeply absorbs in the lokey nuance of its layers and eddying flow. On the first side we hear him transition from intercepted dream signals and outta reach field recordings to plumb depths of murky house abstraction with a wonderfully groggy logic that sloshes between all its aspects, pooling into lush passages and flowing out into odder parts, on the B-side’s untangled fronds of electro-dub, bleary-eyed dub chords and beautifully blunted Berlin-style sensuality.

The band project Drums Off Chaos was one of the central and on-going projects of the recently deceased drummer Jaki Liebezeit (who is normally associated first and foremost with the Cologne-based band CAN). In the early 1980s he had initiated an – at first – loose collective of drummers, who created a rhythmic concept on the basis of simple, strictly binding codes that enabled expansive improvisations.

Over the years the ensemble became smaller and refined its collaboration marked by repetitive patterns and their variation. “You have to play monotonous,” a member of the audience had already told Liebezeit in the 1960s. He took this to heart and there was hardly any other formation where he could bring this concept to life as regularly and with as much inspiration as in Drums Off Chaos.

During a development spanning more than three decades, this extraordinary band, which never saw itself as such, made numerous recordings but rarely any releases. However, in the last few months of his life Jaki Liebezeit, with colleagues Reiner Linke, Maf Retter and Manos Tsangaris, earmarked some tracks for imminent release on vinyl and CD – on different compilations. Liebezeit’s death is all the more reason to go ahead with this plan.

Vancouver producer Jeremy Rawkins aka PARC’s 2nd collection further finesses his signature fusion of dexterous rhythm dynamics, liquid field recordings, and digital synth ambience into an immersive, aerodynamic domain: Wave Iridescence. Embracing the limitations and tonal saturation of 80’s and 90’s digital synths and converters, the tracks gleam and slipstream with a sleek, weightless futurism, conjuring visions of fiber optic clouds and lost biodome terrariums. Rawkins cites notions of organic electronics, randomized beauty, and the peripheries of dance music as inspiration, but ultimately the sound he maps is too fluid and prismatic for effective categorization. It’s music of heights and breaks, precision and vertigo, loops and radiance – vivid cybernetic heavens forever in flux.