MUSIC

Japanese Edition with Obi. The album is one of the most influential albums of the post-rock, electronica, and “acoustic school” that followed.

Japanese Edition with Obi. A band that has risen to become a representative of the scene proves its further evolution
A milestone of 90's alternative music.

Tracklisting
La notte 08:35
Il giorno prima 06:44
Teorema 03:25

Il giorno 04:58
La tua ultima serata 08:05
Le lacrime di Maria 04:16

Voice, electric/processed hurdy-gurdy and zither by Golem Mecanique 
Composed, performed and mixed by Golem Mecanique between November 2023 and May 2024
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung, July 2024
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, September 2024
Cover artwork by Julien Langendorff / Back cover photo by the Golem, at Cimetière Montparnasse / Golem portrait by Romain Barbot 

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« Siamo tutti in pericolo » ( we are all in danger ) are words from Pier Paolo Pasolini.
These were the last words he gave in his last interview.
And then, we do not know what happened till his murder on an Italian beach.
Pasolini has awakened me to many things, and his movies are usual companions of my days.
I remember seeing Accatone and Teorema when I was 14 years old, and I fell in love.
I then discovered silent violence, erotism, desire, the raw aesthetic, ancient myth, and wrath.
« Siamo tutti in pericolo ». 
We do not know what happened when he left the place he gave the interview.
There was no clue, no witness till the discovery of his severed body a few days later.
« Siamo tutti in pericolo ». 
I tried to be the eyes that saw in the dark, the voice that told what his last day and night were, the ghost that summons the memory.
I have composed songs as if they were traditional ones, using repetitive patterns in traditional rhythms, like tarantella.
The drone is minimalist, and I tried to give the drone box the sound of a traditional hurdy-gurdy ( even if it is a kind of hurdy-gurdy ).
« Siamo tutti in pericolo ». 
Maria Callas and Scott Walker are also haunting this album.
I just wanted his body not to lay alone on that cold beach.

« – There’s nothing left, there’s nothing, nothing. We have never existed. Reality is these shapes on the summit of the Heavens »
from La Rabbia/Anger by Pier Paolo Pasolini

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"Siamo tutti in pericolo" is the third album by Golem Mecanique, the nom de plume of French multi-instrumentalist composer Karen Jebane, to be released on Ideologic Organ. Jebane works within the fringes of contemporary folk (aka La Novea community), microtonal and early modern spheres, as well as touching upon the ashes and fibres of back metal and the DNA of gothic music, literature, sorcery and most of all - poetry. Jebane's work with the "drone box" (a mechanised hurdy-gurdy) and zither as a smooth and rippling surface for her singing is immediately evident in a nearly ceremonial way, inviting into a space of clear-dark creativity-beauty. On "Siamo tutti in pericolo", Jebane works with her forms of composition in new ways, poetic and spare execution of her techniques, through her homage/hymns/meditations on the highly irregular circumstances and questions/mysteries of the passing of the soul of master artist Pier Paolo Pasolini. A perfect pairing with collage artist Julien Langendorff's cover art, "Siamo tutti in pericolo", presents a pure presentation of Jebane's "Golem Mecanique".
–Stephen O'Malley, Brion, France, 1 Sept 2024

The last words that poet and visionary film director Pier Paolo Pasolini said in his final interview were "Siamo tutti in pericolo"; translated: we are all in danger. Pasolini was then brutally murdered on a beach in Italy, a case which is still cold today. 

On this album, named after the man’s final public words, Golem Mecanique loses herself on that same Italian beach alongside his body and translates her observations and mourning into a devastating musical landscape. Siamo tutti in pericolo is dangerous, conveying the darkness and uneasy nature of both the art Pasolini created when he was alive and the circumstances of his murder.  In her early teens, Golem taped the Pasolini film Accatone when it was shown on television and watched it the next day after school. In her words, “it was an earthquake!”, immediately leaving a great impression on her as it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. She describes the feeling she has when watching a Pasolini film as “silent violence” - a cold and radical response which calls into question her beliefs about the behaviour of people and lies and truth. She hopes to evoke this feeling with her music - a melding of beauty and dread.

Like much of Golem Mecanique’s past work, this album includes her use of the drone box. Using drones enables her to create a “black, quiet sea” to reveal themes of fate, mourning and loneliness in this album.

Golem Mecanique as a project was begun by Karen Jebane in 2007, following her teenage years of playing in bands in high school. At first, starting on her own, she used tape recorders and reel tapes to capture field recordings. Her early music was a product of recorded sounds, stitched into dadaist experimental songs, to which she then added her voice in various ways. The discovery of several modern composers, including Cage, Schaeffer, Niblock and Alvin Lucier, was instrumental in developing her sound. Studying and reading about music opened a lot of fields for her, including graphic scores - and eventually led her to the almighty drone.

The drone box was built by Leo Maurel, a French instrument maker whose work is focused on drone instruments inspired by traditional ones - such as hurdy-gurdies and organs. The drone box instrument is integral to the life of Golem Mecanique as a project, giving her the confidence to work as a solo artist after many years in bands. She deems the voice of the drone to be “the diva”, the main part of her musical architecture, which finds her voice hovering above its endless tones.

Adding her voice to the project cemented the idea of Golem Mecanique and helped her build what she calls “sacred experimental music,” which lay dormant inside her for many years. The lyrics on this album undergo what she terms “destruction,” a degrading of words as the sounds are modulated and the meaning is lost. Her music is her “dark church”—music created out of poetry, literature, and contemplation, but also mysticism and darkness.

But this particular release returns to Pasolini every time, the tone of his work capturing her as she also considered the brutality of his death. “He talks about the beauty and a kind of purity I am always looking for. He plays with mythology, with cruelty, with violence as poetry.” Golem sees her work reflected in his and a kindred spirit in his approach to art. “I just wanted his body not to lay alone on that cold beach.”

Created and Totally Performed by Bruce Haack’‘An Electronic Musical-Poetic treat for Elementary and High School-People revealing more wonders of our Earth Ship.’Welcome to the World of Bruce Haack. Not just for ‘school age’ people. Bruce Haack was a Canadian composer and electronic music pioneer whose creative output from the 1950s through the 1970s has been tragically underappreciated. Now considered to have been decades ahead of his time, Bruce Haack forged his music from glittering ‘new’ computer landscapes of his own invention, long before the world was aware that such things were even possible. Welcome to his beautiful crucible of electronic sounds, wherein he illuminated his myriad interests in science, the wonders of childhood, and the human condition, woven into a musical tapestry that shimmers like an exploding sun.</p>
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LCD Soundsystem are back with their first song in two years. “X-Ray Eyes” premiered today on NTS Radio DJ Anu’s show, which is now archived. Find the full episode below; the new song begins around the 19:40 mark of the show.

LCD Soundsystem last released new music in 2022, for the White Noise movie. They played the song, “New Body Rhumba,” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert shortly after its release. Before that, the band had not released anything since 2017’s American Dream, though it has held residencies in New York, London, Boston, and Philadelphia and released the Electric Lady Sessions LP.

After nearly two years, Okonski returns with Entrance Music — an album that finds the trio at the height of their improvisational prowess and celebrating the spontaneous and meditative. On the heels of 2023’s debut Magnolia, pianist and leader Steve Okonski has reconvened long-time musical collaborators (Durand Jones and the Indications bandmate Aaron Frazer on drums and bassist Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery) for another session in the spirit of artists like the Bad Plus, Gerald Clayton, and The Breathing Effect. Ultimately Entrance Music serves as an invitation to early hours, where songs linger in the doorway, announcing their presence before returning to the air, in a meticulous drift into the next.

Recorded over a five day session, Entrance Music was one of the first albums committed to tape at Portage Lounge, Terry Cole’s studio in Loveland, OH. “It was a new setup, but with Terry behind the dials it was very familiar,” says Okonski. “I can’t emphasize enough how much Terry feels like a fourth member [of the band] because of the space he’s curating, the energy he is bringing, and the production ideas.” The energy and sound created with the Colemine labelhead at the helm makes for a listening experience equally at home with ECM or Stones Throw catalogs.

From the rippling notes of the pastoral opener, “October,” Entrance Music is lush with anticipation, both band and listener feeling the tension in the tranquility — where the interplay of jazz improvisation and boom bap beats never shortchanges the musicianship but the talent is ever in service of the song.

While the band does not play together as often as they would like, not much time is needed for the three to lock in. Montgomery’s bass opening to “Passing Through” bends and moves with a singular meditative grace before piano and percussion joins the daylight filling a room with breath and light. If Magnolia resonated with last calls and late nights, Entrance Music counters with early mornings and first cups of coffee.

Whereas much of the debut resonates with his time in New York, Entrance Music “feels a little less ‘on the streets at 2 A.M.’ and a little more nature-based…a little more ethereal,” says Okonski. “It’s definitely age, environment, and family — all of that does come through in the music.” <iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 439px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3410800866/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://okonski.bandcamp.com/album/entrance-music">Entrance Music by Okonski</a></iframe>

ADRIAN YOUNGE PRESENTS DELFONICS is quintessential sweet-soul from The Delfonics lead vocalist William Hart produced by Adrian Younge. From the very beginning, it was Younge’s intention to create an old-school Delfonics vibe but offer a very hip-hop-informed perspective. There are distinguishing musical elements that Delfonics fans will recognize, like the electric sitar guitar, the French horn, string arrangements, and the tympani. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Younge at Linear Labs, the preeminent analog studio of Los Angeles, CA.

14 years in the making, “Les Jardins Mystiques Vol.1” comprises 52 tracks / 3.5 hours of music composed, arranged and produced by Miguel with contributions from 50+ friends including Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, DOMi & JD Beck, Jeff Parker, Carlos Niño, Austin Peralta, Bennie Maupin, Gabe Noel, Jamael Dean, Jamire Williams, Burniss Travis II, Deantoni Parks, Josh Johnson, Marcus Gilmore and many more. 

Based in his hometown of Los Angeles, Miguel is one of the preeminent musicians, orchestrators, arrangers and composers of our time. “Les Jardins Mystiques Vol.1” is his long-awaited inaugural album. It presents us with a passionate statement of intent, a labor of love, and a realm of beautiful possibilities. 

“Les Jardins Mystiques” is a project that throws open and shares Miguel’s musical universe. It took shape over a dozen years, largely self-funded by Miguel, and showcasing his distinctly elegant musicianship (on violin, viola, cello and keyboards among other instruments) alongside his free-spirited dialogues with more than 50 instrumentalists. Volume 1 is the first in a planned triptych, which will collectively comprise ten-and-a-half-hours of original, refreshingly expansive music. Miguel connected with his guest musicians in versatile ways: through convivial studio dialogues; over remote communication during the pandemic era; and via the energy of live performances at LA venues including Del Monte Speakeasy (the gorgeously invigorating, piano-led “Dream Dance”) and Bluewhale (including “Ano Yo” with vivacious alto from Devin Daniels, and the cosmic harmonies of “Cho Oyu”). Bennie Maupin, the legendary US multi-reedist whose repertoire includes Miles Davis’s fusion opus Bitches Brew, plays bass clarinet on the entrancing opening number, “Kiseki”. 

“Les Jardins Mystiques” reflects Miguel’s ethos that music is a natural, vitally unaffected life force. The titles across Volume 1’s tracks draw from international languages and traditions, including Spanish, Swahili, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Japanese and Hebrew, as well as the Buddhist practice that has been key to Miguel’s life since his twenties (“It’s very joyous and very hard, because it says that there’s no retirement age in human revolution,” he says). The tracks contrast in length, from “Zarra”’s vivid burst of analogue synths to the alluringly chilled melody of “Kairos (Amor Fati)”, yet there’s a gloriously unconstrained flow throughout, and each piece seems to unfurl and blossom into its own wondrous world. 

The blissfully radiant “Airavata” derives its title from the white elephant who carries the Hindu deity Indra: a divine being associated with elemental forces. It features Miguel on electric guitar (recorded then reversed to mesmerizing effect) and acoustic violin/viola, alongside bassist Gabe Noel and cellist Peter Jacobson. The stirring “Tzedakah” alludes to a Hebrew and Arabic concept of philanthropy and righteousness, and incorporates soulful bouzouki and oud within its multi-instrumental whirl. The vividly emotive piano melody “Mångata” is inspired by a Swedish word that describes the moon’s undulating reflection on water. 

“To me, playing music in any kind of setting is like swimming in an ocean of sounds and emotions and vibrations,” he says. “It’s the combination of all these different rivers, right? Western European classical music is an intense love and passion of mine; all the different genres within jazz music are a joy to practice and have given my life so much meaning; electronic music, world music, and all these different things I’ve been exploring all these years.” 

“I just want to be an enabler for magic and empowerment, everyone and everything. I believe in people… and I think that this is a very benevolent multiverse we’re living in. I feel like everything has infinite worth. That’s why I tried to have the diversity of tracks on there; every one is a mystical garden, in my opinion.” 

Spell Blanket comprises songs and sketches drawn from Trish's extensive archive of 4-track tapes and MiniDiscs. The recordings lay the groundwork for what would have been Broadcast’s fifth album, offering a window into Trish and James’ creative process during the post-Tender Buttons period from 2006-2009.

Butthole SurfersのドラマーKing Coffeyが創設した〈Trance Syndicate Records〉に3枚のアルバムを残したテキサスのインディ・ロック・バンドであり、1991年から1998年にかけて活動したスロウコアの伝説的存在、Bedheadの1996年のセルフ・タイトル作がリマスタリング仕様で〈Numero Group〉からのリイシュー盤！洗練された煌びやかさよりも、ラフなエッジと白昼夢のようなサウンドを追求した傑作！180g重量盤ヴァージン・ヴァイナル仕様。

1982, Brussels: The former au pair for Rick Wakeman of Yes and two of her teenage friends are at the doorstep of Les Disques Du Crepuscule, ready to cut an album with Gilles Martin. Living on busking wages and next door to Tuxedomoon, their work results in a contemporary bossanova record that would provide a missing link between Antonio Carlos Jobim and Kraftwerk. Camino Del Sol was issued and promptly forgotten, with Isabelle Antena moving toward jazz in Asia and the others returning to France. Twenty years later, it was findable only as a VG+ LP with a sticker price of $4.99. Intrigued by the striking cover’s sunlit patio furniture emptiness basking in the south of France, we scooped up Camino Del Sol and grouped the extant Antena recordings from that exceptional period by session. Our definitive 2LP reissue of the original five-song mini-LP adds the group’s first 12” (a cover of Jobim’s “Girl From Ipanema,” naturally), the Seaside Weekend 12”, compilation tracks, and two previously unissued cuts, recasting this short-lived combo’s forward-thinking milemarker as a modern-day masterstroke.

Listening to The Softies feels like peeking into a diary, with no personal detail spared. Holiday in Rhode Island, their third album, presents the most accessible means inside the humble honesty of the emotive universe of Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, Gaze, Go Sailor) and Jen Sbragia (All Girl Summer Fun Band). The band lyrically documents a lovelorn heart in every manifestation, here hope is a bright silver lining adorning each of these new songs. The harmonies between Rose And Jen shimmer, brighter than ever before, benefiting from strong arrangements and production. Their two delicately jangling guitars and crystalline voices never needed anything else, their minimalist blueprint succeeds in filling every single space, but with maturity comes the security and confidence to explore, and that's just what The Softies do with these tunes.

At once a hazy relic and a digital snapshot of the human experience, Your Day Will Come is the debut album from Chanel Beads, arriving April 19 via Jagjaguwar. The remarkable project announces the arrival of New York-based musician Shane Lavers as a new force in experimental music. After his 2022 singles “Ef” and “True Altruism” marked his breakout on corners of the internet, Your Day Will Come sees Lavers evolving his uncanny and dreamlike sound which he achieves through layering synthetic and real instruments. His songs feel like a memory in which you can’t distinguish between what actually happened or what was a false reproduction in your mind—although the burning emotion remains intact. Your Day Will Come sees Lavers capturing the many contradictions of modern existence and the strange infiniteness of the digital world, as he searches for truth and faith amid competing realities. Though he incorporates the scrappy sonics of post-punk, the gripping sentimentality of pop tunes, and the spectral artifice of electronic music, he blurs lines through unconventional song structures that build into transcendental climaxes. As he intentionally prints his songs down to embed fried artifacts and ghostly remains, the resulting songs have a time-collapsing quality, both transitory and timeless. Lavers first started writing Your Day Will Come during a period of reflection in November 2022. Stuck quarantining in his Brooklyn apartment, he found himself wanting to dig down into the core of who he truly was, apart from fleeting trends or rebounding cultural moments. So during that strange time between winter holidays, he started to write songs that wrestled with an early loss that had rippled throughout his life, foundational to the way he sees himself and the way he relates to others. Many of the lyrics that remained were in response to both internal and external conflicts. They were words that he had to speak aloud to uncover the reality of the situation. Throughout, Lavers weaves in contributions from his live bandmates, singer-songwriter Maya McGrory (Colle) and experimental instrumentalist Zachary Paul, who offer their own layers of feeling that add to the huge emotionality of the album. Accustomed to performing in various bands when he lived in Seattle, Shane began to strip everything back when he started playing shows around NYC, working to locate what felt worthy for him to perform. That mindset informed the writing of the record, in which Lavers forced himself to only keep what felt the most necessary to say. “There was a filter to this record,” Lavers says. “If it didn’t move me while performing, then I couldn’t make it into a song. As much as I wanted to make something that was cool to the touch, I had to make something that made me feel something.” Now, his live shows see all three performers weaving together in absolute cathar

In the late 2000s a sprawling catalog of what is now genre-defining music was emanating from an unlikely place. Cleveland, Ohio has a broad reputation for many things, but in the aughts, psyche-expanding Kosmische wasn’t necessarily Cleveland’s calling card… until Emeralds. The trio of John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire had released a profusion of limited-run cassettes, CD-Rs, and vinyl titles that had been passed around basement shows and then migrated to niche music communities online, creating a unique kind of murmur at the height of the DIY blog era. Three kids from the rust belt were crafting a distinctive and truly far-out strain of music on their own terms in the Midwest. They were flipping lids in wood-paneled basements and circulating around the underground with soaring sounds stylistically indebted to deep German electronic music pioneers and released with the ethos and twisted fervor of renegade Midwestern noise freaks. After several releases garnered a die-hard fandom in niche circles of internet/music culture, and then catching the attention of the late Peter Rehberg, the renowned artist and curator of the Editions Mego label, an expectation was set that the next Emeralds record was going to be a big one. And in 2010, Does it Look Like I'm Here was it.Artistically, the album is a definitive statement; this is to say it was crafted by heads for heads, a genuine article and a profoundly deep listen, but the mainstream dove in too. Pitchfork acknowledged the rarefied nature of the album’s electricity with a "Best New Music" rating. This crossover success is a result of the tracks' potency and wonderfully engineered and succinct structures. It's dialed in. Still creating their distinct yawning cosmic sound, Elliott and Hauschildt shower the stereo spectrum with shimmering arpeggios, dusty, melodically dynamic swells, rippling FM textures, and canyon-wide waveshapes. McGuire's signature guitar playing echoes emotive new age pathos and cascading astral space rock trance states. Their previous albums found many tracks hovering past the ten-minute mark, but these new songs were short, potent. "Candy Shoppe" opens the album with polished elegance; Emeralds' throbbing synthetic sound made bite-sized, an incandescent morsel wrapped in waxed paper. On "Goes By" the languid electric guitar strums and swooning synth pads peel apart into enveloping sheets of synth gargling and soaring leads. Both tracks are entire worlds kept neatly under five minutes. If previous albums like Solar Bridge and What Happened were lysergic sprawls, Does It Look Like I'm Here presents itself as a tin holding a series of psychonautic blasts. This is all to say, the album lived up to the hype.A twelve-song expedition across a dusty and shimmering dreamscape, Does It Look Like I’m Here, with its iconic cover presenting the aesthetic, was a radiant tube tv left humming, collecting space-dust in a darkened room, grandma's vase filled with oil-dinged polypropylene flowers. The album seems aware of the cultural flood/void that the internet was then and would only further create, and yet there is a beauty here, an embracing of the past, both authentically and through a kind of tripped-out kitsch, as a way to find a new ecstatic present. Hallowed pioneers – think Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple, Kraftwerk, Can – had felt legendarily out of reach across time and culture; a star-pocked thing of the distant misty past. Emeralds took that sound and made it contemporary, made it punk, made it American-outsider. Thus, an entire wave of American DIY ambient music was heralded into mid-if-not-mainstream attention; Emeralds, and the acts that followed their lead after, dared the experimental and noise community to embrace more melody and structure, and too invited the quasi-academic world of deep ambient to become crusty and home-spun. DIY venues would suddenly need to make space between droves of scuzzy indie acts or punishing no-input mixer debacles so the ambient zoners could astral project while Emeralds, or groups following Emeralds' lead, created soundscapes on piles of synths and pedals. Listening to it now, 13 years after its original release on Editions Mego, the album sounds however timeless, still immediate. There is a wide-pupiled and cotton-mouthed awe sewn into these radiant folds of sound; for those newly into this sort of thing, let this reissue serve as an initiation, a history lesson, and a heroic dose. For those who've come up in the scene and have worn out their mp3s of this album; they can finally get a fresh copy on vinyl. Does It Look Like I'm Here became a hallmark that would carve a path for an entire scene. Ghostly International is thrilled to reissue the album, remastered by Heba Kadry, including 7 bonus tracks exclusive to the digital album and CD. The limited edition 2xLP includes extensive liner notes by Chris Madak (Bee Mask).

The Softies, comprised of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia, embody timeless themes of friendship and self-discovery through their minimalist pop soundworld. Since their formation in 1994, they've created uncluttered and fearlessly vulnerable music, contrasting with prevailing trends. The Bed I Made, The Softies’ first new studio album in 24 years, showcases growth while reflecting on life's complexities with lyrics drawn from real experiences. Despite individual pursuits and personal losses, Melberg and Sbragia reunite, channeling grief and rejuvenation into an album that captures the essence of their enduring friendship and offers hope and renewal amid life's challenges. Through their perfectly-paired harmonies and telepathic playing, they navigate the present, past, and future, offering a poignant continuation of their musical legacy, resonating like time spent with an old friend who knows you best.

"GLOW WORLD is Rod Modell's new project resulting from his collaboration with Taka Noda. The duo delivers what could be an example of perfect elegance and musical refinement, but the resulting sounds are once again dirtied, ruined and ravaged by a noise capable of deafening us, sounds that come from afar, that seem to fade away but suddenly illuminate the world around us, which lands on us and which no longer belongs to us, leaving us lost in an infinite melancholy. GLOW WORLD is a work characterized by buoyant ambient sounds from which delicate rhythmic textures emerge, and never speeding up they run along the routes of an electronic music that surely knows how to be as minimal and suffused as it is distressing. Touches of piano, slow pulsations of bass lines and constantly disturbed sounds that nevertheless almost lull the listener into listening to this timeless music, perfect for letting go, observing time inexorably slipping out of our hands forever. Sounds that are timeless, it was said. Rod Modell and Taka Noda are visionaries, and GLOW WORLD is a rare gem. Simply another masterpiece."

 

Northern Michigan Snowstorms is an auditory journey that captures the serene beauty and introspective magic of stormy winters nights in the countryside. Each track transports listeneres to cozy cottages nesteld in tall pines. Music that mirrors the serene solitude of a snowy evening, where time slows, allowing the listener to be enveloped in a cocoon of sonic wonder. Ambient layers mimic the gentle wishpering of the wind through snow covered branches. Eight tracks of blurry loops, soft pads, and recordings of snowfall in the forest. An immersive experience designed to transport you to the hear of nature's winter wonderland, all white nesteld in the confort of your favorite retreat. Another ''monumental'' work by Rod Modell.

Dmitry Krylov is a musician and sound artist. His latest project, entitled After All, is centred around apocalyptic poetics of electronic music and offers a spectacular meditation on the end of time. The album's dramatic structure demonstrates a gradual transition from the spacious oscillations of bowed instruments to plasmatic noise rhythms, which dissolve in an area of uncertainty and its revealing sonic imagery.

Based in Samara, Krylov interprets the ambient genre as primarily music of grief and sorrow. Over the past few years, he has produced a number of ambient albums characterised by sustained textures and grainy field recordings that capture various planes of human sentiment; After All is the final release in a series of albums that examine personal and universal sadness. The first album, Right Moment Will Never Come (2022), explores the unbearable grief of losing a family member through Stars-of-the-Lid-like utmost sensibility and downtempo composure, verging on sonic sharpness of ambient dub. Last year's Untitled (2023), mostly nocturnal and haunting project, yet at times decisively fast-paced, exhibits the lasting affective imprint of Russia's disastrous invasion of Ukraine. Embracing different tragedies — from the individual to the universal one — Krylov maintains a consistently authorial vision in his music, characterised by the evocative prevalence of the composer's thinking, despite the relevance of electroacoustic experiments for his work.

The final instalment in Krylov's “trilogy of catastrophes”, After All invokes the motif of apocalypse, universal purifying destruction. Having addressed the past and the present, Krylov turns his attention to the coming time and the promise of change. A substantial proportion of the album is made up of smooth vibratory canvases created by the bowed instruments, urban noises and liminal synths; now and then breaking into a crescendo, they are more akin to lamenting voices that can be barely controlled by ones who perform the labour of mourning. The power of lament appears to be enchanting only to reach its terrifying climax in the composition But Death is Not the End, where pain and devastation pour out in energetic torrents of power noise. Still the lament not only celebrates the bygone, but also prepares it for the afterlife. The remaining faith in the possibility of starting over is traced in the elegiac sequence of compositions, the looped structure of which is asserted by the eponymous final track. After All manifests: the essence of destruction only seems to exclude the prospect of tranquillity; a new beginning hides ultimately within it. 

Turn On Arab American Radio, Muslimgauze Archive Series volume 34

"Through this release, the music stays on the minimal side, leaning heavily on using a drum machine and minimal Middle Eastern samples and instruments, but like the radio signals only. As I like minimalism and the occasional Muslimgauze release, I immensely enjoyed this."
Vital Weekly number 1365

The relationship between Bryn Jones’ music as Muslimgauze and the track/abum titles he would provide (sometimes right on the tapes he would send in for release, but often determined later, sometimes even giving two different pieces months apart the same title, accidentally or not) has always been a little mysterious. Jones himself can no longer be asked, and as we continue to investigate the swathes of material he provided, you hit sources like the DAT or DATs that make up the contents of the new double LP Turn On Arab American Radio. Nine tracks, the first LP/four tracks titled “Turn On Arab American Radio,” and the other LP/five tracks labelled only “Arab American Radio.” None of them sound particularly radio-esque, although given the simultaneous vastness and ornate focus of Jones’ Muslimgauze work that gap between name and sound is far from atypical.

Instead here the de rigeur percussion loops that underpin this particular set of tracks, while occasionally clipping into the fierce distortion that Jones either loved to use or couldn’t get away from, steer away from both the more consistent application of that distortion as well as the Middle Eastern and Asian influences he often used. It’d be a stretch to call anything here basic boom-bap production but they come closer to it than a lot of Muslimgauze production. And while those loops are, as always prominent, they’re not actually the focus; settling into steady vamps as structures for Jones to pursue an extended and often more gentle exploration of the other sample sources he has here. There are stringed instruments, the sound of water, but most prominently or strikingly the human voice. Nothing is in English but tone and the occasional word (“familia”, “passport”) still provide guides. There are ululations, snatches of melody; but most often speech, dialogue, often tense and harried sounding. Is this what Jones was thinking of or referring to with his “Arab American Radio”?

As with so many other questions about Muslimgauze, we’ll never know the answer to that one. (Most pertinently in this case we might wonder who appears here, and what the context of these recordings is. But Jones never provided that with his submissions.) Here, even though those inexorable loops pound on, indefatigable, that emphasis on some of the people Jones chooses lends a measured gentleness to much of Turn On Arab American Radio, at least within the context of his body of work. The last thing you hear at the end of the second LP is one last question from one of the many speakers on this peculiar Muslimgauze radio, echoed away into infinity. We may never have answers, but those questions continue to resonate. 

Kenny Dope And Louie Vega's Nu-Yorican Soul Project Was Responsible For Some Of The Biggest Underground Club Hits To Come Out Of NYC Throughout The 1990'S, Their Collective Vast Musical Knowledge, Impeccable Taste And Legendary Status As DJ's In The City Only Helped Elevate Them To The Highest Level. The Nervous Track Is A Fine Example Of The Duo's Deep Musical Heritage, Originally Released On Nervous Records In 1993 It's Deep Pads, Bassline And Solid As A Rock Breakbeats Captured The Ears And Minds Of Any Self Respecting DJ Or Dancer Who Came Within A Hundred Miles Of It, The Very Definition Of A Classic! Fusing The Worlds Of Jazz, Latin, HipHop And House MAW Set The Blueprint For Generations Of DJ's And Producers To Come With Records Like This. Here, Re-Mastered And Re-Issued From The Original DAT's In Conjunction With Nervous Records NYC Is A Piece Of Dance Music History, "The Nervous Track" Is Available Again And Still Sounding As Vital And Groundbreaking As It Did On It's Original Release.

A first Relaxin Records release by Dr. Pit, one half of the band Primitive Art. For Vista Mare version, Dr. Pit operates on Lolina's "Music Is The Drug”, taking it to a sinister cocktail bar terrace with an unexpected view.

Written and produced by Mika Vainio in Turku in 1993
Muutaja is written and produced by Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen

Ten years on, Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes show no signs of slowing down. Over the past decade, the duo has released five albums, composed soundtracks for film and television, and created pieces for performing arts. With “Strata”, they embark on a bold exploration of their musical identity, breaking new ground by seeking the primordial, the raw, and forging a deeper creative synergy. This evolution makes their music feel less like a conversation and more like a unified, introspective monologue.
Until now, their work has largely been defined by dialogue—a dynamic exchange of ideas evident in their earlier records. However, in their relentless drive to push boundaries, they now turn inward, embracing a monologue as a pathway for growth, innovation, and celebration of their journey so far. Two key elements shape this transition: Joana’s growing affinity for synthesizers over piano, a direction initiated in “There’s no knowing”, and her integration of field recordings gathered from diverse locations around the world. Rather than stepping into each other’s domain, the duo finds common ground, creating music that thrives on harmony and introspection.
“Strata” stands as Joana and Luís's quieter and most cohesive record to date. It reflects their desire to craft music that resonates with the natural world, unfolding as a seamless stream of sound that enhances their connection and invites the listener into their creative process. While their previous works were compelling, they often felt distant, as if the listener was observing from the sidelines. “Strata”, by contrast, draws the listener in, encouraging them to fill the spaces and find their own place within the duo’s monologue.
This process climaxes in the closing track, "Geode," where the subtle sounds of debris underscore the tightly woven structure of “Strata”. It’s a testament to the duo's commitment to evolution and their ability to surprise both themselves and their audience. A decade into their collaboration, “Strata” reaffirms Joana and Luís's creative vitality, offering a record that feels both fresh and deeply rooted in their artistic vision. 

Rod Modell & Stephen Hitchell’s landmark 2006 vessel docks its first 3 x 12” edition, replete with the first ever Convextion remix and graced by some of the finest dub techno beyond the M-Series/BC canon.

At just-shy of 20 years old, and giving us acute nostalgia for hazier days, ‘Vantage Isle’ is renowned and enhanced with the benefit of hindsight for swirling countless sessions to a depth-charged payload of skanking, trotting, clagged-up dub house emblematic of the Berlin sound’s Detroit echo(space). It was the fateful first release on DeepChord’s own label, ushering tidal waves of moon-pulled grooves that have shored up on shelves everywhere, ready to be cracked out at those times when only the fuzziest stuff will suffice. To our (admittedly patchy) recollection its release coincided a period when mushies were, weirdly enough, legal in the UK and the madge was, well, majestic, and this record was a go-to soundtrack for properly smudged times. 

The first disc ideally oscillates signature strokes of durational, pounding dub house in ‘dc mix I’ and its multiple variations, reshapes, and dubs, notably the likes of their poignant dub noise miniatures such as ‘echo space glacial’ which pushed the BC aesthetic deeper into the brink of oblique, and came up for air in hypnogroggic style on the likes of the ‘spacecho dub II [extended mix]’. Even better, and practically worth price of admission alone, is the Convextion remix - Gerard Hanson’s first - masterfully distilling the elements to a ghostly choral swell swept up in pendulous triplets that eternally transport to the sublime.

100% classique.