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CRAMMED DISCS

Aksak Maboul

Un Peu L'Ame Des Bandits

    Originally released in January 1980, the second album from (Crammed founder) Marc Hollander’s band was the first record bearing the Crammed logo (although the label only really started to exist at the end of that year). More intense and experimental than the first Aksak Maboul album (yet often as playful), “Un peu...” was recorded with a band comprising revered UK musicians Fred Frith & Chris Cutler and contains complex written section, free improv, and a wild variety of elements. If you're looking for a post-punk experience as abstract as it is angular, then you're in luck. Boasting free-jazz horns, stuttering rhythms, abrasive guitar and the occasional thrash moment, "Un Peu" is far from an easy listen, and that's a very good thing. The first reissue on vinyl of Aksak Maboul’s classic 1980 LP. It includes a booklet with various documents, as well as previously-unreleased recordings (available via a digital download code). 


    TRACK LISTING

    Modern Lesson
    Palmiers En Pots
    Geistige Nacht
    I Viaggi Formano
    La Giovent
    Inoculating Rabies
    Ce Qu’On Peut Voir Avec Un Bon Microscope
    Alluvions
    Azinou Crapules
    Age Route Brra! (Radio Sofia)

    Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas

    Sofarnopolis

      Renowned electronic music producer & DJ Matias Aguayo presents his new project, which will unfold on several levels. The Desdemonas are a 4-piece rock band, fronted by Aguayo (who sings and plays a variety of instruments). It’s also a fictional story about a group of teenagers in a dystopian world (the story will be told in the lyrics, and in cartoons and videos based on Aguayo’s drawings). And it’s of course an album, in which Matias digs deep into some dark forms of rock music which inspired him as a teenager, and brilliantly revisits them in a moody, compelling, post-electronic 2017 style. Based in Berlin, the band will be touring around Europe and beyond, starting before the album’s release and continuing through 2018. Their line-up consists of drummer Matteo Scrimali from Italy, keyboard player Henning Specht from Germany, guitarist/bass player Gregorio Gomez from Colombia, and Matias Aguayo on vocals, keys etc. Matias Aguayo in a nutshell: born in Chile and raised in Germany, he’s created a varied body of genre-defying work since the early 00s, including several albums with legendary Cologne-based electronic music label Kompakt. A much in-demand DJ, he’s constantly been performing all around the world, appearing in the most prestigious festivals. Matias Aguayo has always been an original, iconoclastic artist: starting out “the man who helped popularize and expand minimal [techno]” (Pitchfork).

      Kasai Allstars & Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste

      Around Felicite

      Crammed Discs presents the soundtrack album of Alain Gomis’ film Félicité (Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival), performed by the inspiration of the movie, the Congolese collective the Kasai Allstars. Includes bonus remixes from the likes of Clap! Clap!, Daedelus and Africaine 808.

      Deeply impressed by the music of Kasai Allstars, French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis drew inspiration from their music, and from the voice and character of their singer Muambuyi to write and direct his new fiction movie, entitled 'Félicité'. The film's eponymous protagonist is a proud, free-willed woman who sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa to save her son. Her profession: singer with the Kasai Allstars!

      The band wrote and performed most of the soundtrack, and appears onscreen playing their own part. Muambuyi's voice is omnipresent, and is being heard every time Félicité (played by Congolese actress Vero Tshanda) sings in the bars of Kinshasa, backed by Kasai Allstars.

      The 'Around Félicité' album includes the film's main pieces, performed by Kasai Allstars and by the Kinshasa Symphonic Orchestra (who specially arranged three works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt), alongside new tracks by Kasai Allstars, as well as interludes consisting of fragments of dialogues and sound bites taken from the soundtrack.

      'Around Félicité' comes with a companion piece: 'Félicité Remixes', a collection of ten remixes of Kasai Allstars tracks by electronic music producers from Europe, North America and Africa, including reworks by Clap! Clap!, Daedelus and Africaine 808. 'Félicité Remixes' is available as a bonus disc included in the CD version of the album, as well as a separate digital album available on all streaming and download platforms.

      'Around Félicité' also comes out as a vinyl double-LP including the album plus five of the remixes.

      TRACK LISTING

      Disc 1:
      Tshalemba - Kasai Allstars
      In Praise Of Homeboys - Kasai Allstars
      Kapinga Yamba - Kasai Allstars
      Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, O Immanuel - Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste Plays Arvo Pärt
      Lobelela - Kasai Allstars
      Tshitua Fuila Mbuloba - Kasai Allstars
      Bilonda - Kasai Allstars
      My Heart's In Highlands - Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste Plays Arvo Pärt
      Mabela - Kasai Allstars
      Quick As White - Kasai Allstars
      Fratres - Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste Plays Arvo Pärt

      Disc 2:
      Quick As White By RAMZi**
      Félicité One By High Wolf **
      Drowning Goat By Daedelus
      In Praise Of Homeboys By Africaine 808
      Salute To Kalombo By Ekiti Sound System
      Quick As White By Clap! Clap!
      Tshitua Fuila Mbuloba By Loopido**
      Félicité Two By Mo4n4**
      Drowning Goat By Esa**
      Félicité Three By RAMZi

      **Exclusive To The CD Version

      Konono No 1

      Konono No 1 Meets Batida

        For this new album, the legendary Congolese band has joined forces with acclaimed Angolan / Portuguese artist Batida aka Pedro Coquenão. Along with producer Vincent Kenis, they convened in Batida's garage-cum-studio in Lisbon with a series of collaborators and friends of Batida's, reflecting the city's vibrant, cosmopolitan music life: guitarist Papa Juju (the leader of Lisbon's foremost Afro-fusion band Terrakota), vocalist Selma Uamusse (one of the best young African singers currently residing in Portugal) and MC AF Diaphra, a distinguished slam poet and an artist / producer in his own right. As we all know by now, Konono N°1 are based in Kinshasa, DRC, but originate from the Bakongo ethnic group, which lives in a region straddling the border between the Congo and Angola. Hence certain similarities between Konono's rhythms and some types of Angolan music from which Batida has drawn inspiration for his albums and shows. This encounter was obviously bound to happen… but was nevertheless quite an adventure: blending the worlds of electronic beats and organic grooves was a challenge to which the parties have risen beautifully to create this exciting, unheard-of new strain of Afro-electro music.

        Kasai Allstars

        Beware The Fetish

          The long-awaited second album by the mindblowing, mythic collective from Kinshasa, DRC is a collection of over 100 minutes of wild, trance-inducing, raw intensity. Their 2008 debut album ‘In the 7th Moon...’ made a lasting impact on the imagination of artists such as Animal Collective, Juana Molina, Shackleton and Deerhoof as well as music lovers everywhere.

          The core of Kasai Allstars consists of fifteen musicians from five bands, all from the Kasai region of Congo, but originating from five different ethnic groups. They each have their own culture, language and musical traditions, which were always thought to be incompatible until these musicians decided to transcend their differences and work together. Kasai Allstars draw their songs from festive / ritual music and the lyrics tackle matters such as sorcery, social commentary and traditional wisdom.

          ‘Beware the Fetish’ presents a broader scope of Kasai Allstars’ music, probing deeper into the musicians’ repertoires and styles, with the help of a large array of guests. The band use their trademark mixture of traditional instruments (slit and buzz drums, xylophones), electric guitars, and distorted thumb pianos with DIY amplification (such as the giant bass likembe which adorns the cover). Some songs showcase rocking & intertwining guitars, others include a higher proportion of acoustic percussion or likembes, and they all feature arresting vocal performances by a cast of charismatic singers.

          ‘Wed 21’ by the bewitching Juana Molina, sees all the various threads she’s previously explored masterfully woven together with new elements. She creates a mischievous, playful, joyous series of songs, brimming with surprises.

          Juana Molina has been acclaimed as a deeply original and visionary artist who, “like Brian Wilson or Kevin Shields, pulls off the most out-there material with melodies nearly as accessible as conventional pop” (Rolling Stone). She has variously been described as “pure genius” (Les Inrockuptibles, France), “beguiling” (Pitchfork), and is said to be “one of the most extraordinary singers around” (Sunday Times), who is “creating a slippery soundtrack for the subconscious” (Spin, US) and “subtle, unclassifiable sonic magic” (Uncut). On her previous albums, Juana Molina deliberately used a defined, minimal array of elements (mostly guitar and layers of vocals, with some synth and percussion) to compose pieces which have gradually moved from folky acoustic songs to mesmerizing, “gorgeous reveries... [and] radiant clouds of sound” (the NY Times, about her previous album ‘UnDia’).

          This time, she’s remarkably expanded her palette of instruments, incorporating electric guitars, bass, drums and inventive electronics, thus giving ‘Wed 21’ a richer, broader sonic spectrum. In some of the tracks, Juana comes as close to a pop song format and to a full band sound as she ever did...while some other pieces are sinuous excursions through gamuts of feelings and textures. As the album unfolds, each of the eleven songs reveals new, delightful ideas, unexpected turns and inspired atmospheres.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Eras
          2. Wed 21
          3. Ferocisismo
          4. Lo Dedidi Yo
          5. Sin Guia, No
          6. Ay, No Se Offendan
          7. Bicho Auto
          8. El Oso De La Guarda
          9. Las Edades
          10. La Rata
          11. Final Feliz

          Baloji

          Kinshasa Succursale

            Baloji, whose name means "sorcerer" in Swahili, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1978. At the age of 4, he arrived in Belgium with his father and grew up in Liège. As a young adolescent, he discovered hip-hop, a passion for tagging, rap and dance. At 15 he joined the collective Starflam, a figurehead of Belgian hip-hop, who released a platinum selling disc 'Survivant'. Baloji quit the group in 2004 and turned his back on music. It was a letter from his mother, whom he had not seen since 1981, and winning a poetry competition in Paris, that pushed him back to persue the muse of music. His first solo recording, Hotel Impala (2008), as much of a responce to the letter of his mother as it a quest to find his identity, is coloured with influences of soul, Afro-beat, and hip-hop. The album won two Octaves de la music (a Belgian equivalant to the Grammys) as well as the Rapsat-Lelièvre Prize and the Brassens prize for lyric writing. Baloji comes to Crammed Discs with his latest opus 'Kinshasa Succursale'. The album features contributions from some of the finest musicians from the capital of the DRC, including Konono N°1 and Zaïko Langa-Langa, as well as three brand-new remixes.

            Megafaun

            Megafaun

              ‘Megafaun’, the follow-up to Megafaun’s critically acclaimed, 'Gather, Form & Fly' was recorded at April Base in Fall Creek, the studio of former bandmate Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). Joe Westerlund and brothers Phillip and Bradley Cook have long been hailed for their diverse musical conversations but their new recording creates a unique language all its own.

              The album's 14 tracks range from raw, unhurried rock & roll to cacophonous percussive blasts, from brassy instrumental free jazz to mournful delta blues. They move beyond the back porches of Americana into wholly new and uncanny sonic territory, where gorgeous, earthy melodies blossom into unsettling time signatures and swirling electronic soundscapes.

              Megafaun's roots reach back to Eau Claire, WI, USA the hometown of all three members. With Justin Vernon they formed the band DeYarmond Edison and when that band broke up in 2006 Bon Iver and Megafaun rose from its ashes, two of the most acclaimed indie projects in music today. Over the course of two previous LPs and one EP, the band has toured the United States & Europe with The Mountain Goats, Bowerbirds, Akron/Family, and more. Mojo raved about 'Gather, Form & Fly,' saying that it "provoke[s] wows and crikeys of crooked pleasure."

              Various Artists

              The Karindula Sessions - Tradi-Modern Sounds From SE Congo

                Following the runaway success stories of Staff Benda Bilili and Konono No.1 in recent years, Crammed Discs now present more incredible tradi-modern music from a different corner of the Congo.

                After introducing the now-famous electrified traditional music of Congolese capital Kinshasa, Congotronics producer Vincent Kenis travelled to the mining city of Lubumbashi to record and film four Karindula bands during a 3-day mini-festival. Their wild, raw and dynamic performances are documented on this 90+ minute DVD and 79 minute audio CD.

                In Katanga (south-eastern Congo), young local musicians have created their own tradimodern style of music, which they call Karindula, a word which also designates the main instrument they use - a giant banjo made out of an oil barrel, a goat skin and four strings. The Karindula style is heavily influenced by Bemba and Luba traditional music, with some hints of reggae. Karindula bands mainly perform at mourning ceremonies, and are feared for their sometimes very provocative and rebellious lyrics. The four bands appearing on this audiovisual album are BBK, Bana Simba, Bena Ngoma and Bana Lupemba. The festival was organized at the last minute and took place in the street, with no amplification whatsoever. A rotating cast of guest dancers and performers add an engaging, and at times edgy, visual component to the music and a crowd of excited children, aged from 2 to 12, often participate in call-and-response exchanges with the bands.

                Various Artists

                Tradi-Mods Vs Rockers - Alternative Takes On Congotronics

                  The Congotronics series has spawned a fervent following in the world of indie rock and electronic music... and now that world answers back in musical form. Crammed has asked a carefully chosen list of musicians (including Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Andrew Bird and many more) to come up with their own personal take on Congotronics. The result is this epic double album, consisting of 26 brand-new tracks from a wild mix of artists. They include covers, reworks and original compositions inspired by the electrifying sounds of Konono N°1, Kasai Allstars and other bands who play electrified traditional music (also known as 'tradi-modern').

                  Most of the contributions blur the boundaries between reinventions and covers versions, reworks and homages. Much like its source material, this music is by turns serene, invigoratingly noisy or aimed squarely at open-minded dancefloors… yet always intriguing and in some way revelatory: this album pretends to be nothing other than a joyful homage to what has become a true phenomenon of contemporary music - but listen in, and maybe some unlikely musical bloodlines can be traced...

                  Featured artists include prominent US indie bands such as Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Andrew Bird, Megafaun, Oneida, Portland's AU, New York's Skeletons and Chicago's Allá, unique personalities such as Juana Molina, Jolie Holland and Glenn Kotche (of Wilco), London's mutant pop sensation Micachu, innovative electronic music producers such as Shackleton, Optimo and Bass Clef from the UK, and Germany's Burnt Friedman and Mark Ernestus (of Basic Channel and Maurizio fame), a rare appearance by the label's seminal band Aksak Maboul and many more. The Congotronics bands paid tribute to are primarily Konono N°1 and Kasai Allstars, but also Sobanza Mimanisa, Kisanzi Congo, and Kasai Allstars offshoots Masanka Sankayi and Basokin.


                  Various Artists

                  Radioclit Presents The Sound Of Club Secousse

                    Radioclit are definitely on the rise, both as remixers / DJs (with their popular Club Secousse nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London and in Paris) and as two-thirds of acclaimed Afro-electronic band The Very Best. For this compilation, they have hand-picked their favourite tracks among the wealth of hot electronic dance music which is being produced all across the African continent, from Angola to South Africa to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and more. This is African music NOW, giving us its own slant on electro, grime, dancehall and other dancefloor styles. If you liked the Honest Jon's "Shangaan Electro" compilation, check this.


                    Konono No.1

                    Assume Crash Position

                      "Assume Crash Position" is the keenly-awaited new album from Congolese street band Konono No.1, whose 2005 debut was acclaimed by the press, the public and an army of celebrity admirers including Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Beck, Björk (whose album Volta featured a guest Konono performance), and Herbie Hancock.

                      Once again recorded in Kinshasa, the vast capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo by Congotronics series producer Vincent Kenis, "Assume Crash Position" sees their trademark junkyard sonics and hypnotic percussive grooves (created using thumb pianos and drums made from scrap metal and disused car parts) further enhanced with electric guitars and bass and a wider range of vocalists. Mixing traditonal bazombo trance music with the distortion of their modern home-made equipment their sound on "Assume Crash Position" is deeper, more layered and ethereal, without losing any of that signature raw power and driving energy. Gloriously extended full band tracks take off like never before but also, for the first time, we hear Konono stripped right back to their essence: the album's final song, "Nakobala Lisusu Te", features just the band's founder and leader, Mingiedi (now in his late-seventies) and his likembe.

                      Various Artists

                      Congotronics 2

                        The runaway success of the Konono N°1 album has given worldwide exposure to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. Hot on the footsteps of "Congotronics 1", here comes a fresh selection of even more amazing sounds, courtesy of no less than six electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, which have all been especially recorded and produced by Crammed's Vincent Kenis. These bands all draw on traditional African trance music, to which they have incorporated heavily-distorted sounds generated by DIY amplification of their instruments... just like Konono N°1, except that the instrumentation, timbres and rhythms used by these bands are relatively diverse: the trademark electrified thumb pianos and megaphones are joined by an array of distorted drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. The "Congotronics 2" album also includes a full-length (40 minute) DVD based on material filmed by Vincent Kenis while he recorded these bands in Kinshasa.

                        Tracklisting
                        Disc: 1
                        1. Wa Muluendu - Kasai Allstars, Mutumilayi, Masanka Sankayi
                        2. Koyile / Nyeka Nyeka - Kasai Allstars, Tandjolo
                        3. Kiwembo - Sobanza Mimanisa
                        4. Kabuangoyi - Kasai Allstars, Muambuyi
                        5. Soif Conjugale - Kisanzi Congo
                        6. Laboureur - Masanka Sankayi, Kabongo Tshisensa
                        7. Bosamba Ndeke - Bolia We Nedenge
                        8. Mulume - Basokin, Mi Amore 9. TP Couleur Café - Konono No.1

                        Disc: 2 (DVD)
                        Nzombo - Basokin, Bolia, Kasai Allstars, Konono No.1, Sobanza Mimanisa, Masanka Sankayi, Tulu


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