Piccadilly Records

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Frits Wentink & Erik Madigan Heck

Safe Passage

Dekmantel

It is often said that the best art comes out of adversity, and so it is that producer Frits Wentink, photographer Erik Madigan Heck and actress Tilda Swinton have collaborated on Safe Passage, a fascinating audio-visual project born out of loss. Consisting of classical, choral, and electronic music in three movements, the gatefold album presented with a 40 page booklet of additional photographs and paintings.
Dutch producer and renowned innovator Frits Wentink helms the Will & Ink and Bobby Donny labels, builds synthesizers and beautiful controllers, and puts out always experimental, left of centre house music that pushes at the boundaries. This project initially started out as him attempting to musically illustrate the photography of American visual artist Erik Madigan Heck. The internationally renowned Heck is known for a lavish and experimental use of colour that has won him the prestigious International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award as well as make him a regular contributor to high profile media such as The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Midway through the project, Eriks mother was hospitalised due to breast cancer complications before also contracting Covid-19. By her bedsides and as a means to ease her passage, he repetitively played the first portion of the score, and then, once she passed, he decided to commemorate the music's function as a soundtrack for her transition to afterlife by naming it Safe Passage. The involvement of Academy Award–winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton has lent the music an extra dimension of spirituality: throughout the album, she interjects whispered fragments of Heck’s poetry, blurring the lines between one phase of music and the next.

The music has three movements across two sides: Side A, Safe, has a sense of hope and reflection as it undulates from minimalist string and brass arrangements to ambient and dissonant classical piano. Side B, Passage, then depicts the start of the transition into the afterlife as the voices of a choral madrigal ensemble gradually diverge, then break down entirely before a grand tonal expansion leads into a frenzied crescendo of choral vocals, hardened dub techno and anxious rhythms that convey the violence of the soul’s exit from this world. Finally, a cathartic Epilogue resets and bids farewell with the gentle sounds of a piano.

Because of the global on-going loss of life as a result of Covid-19, Safe Passage has become a soundtrack in which many people will find solace as they remember the sad transitions made from this life to the next during this unprecedented time in history.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Movement 1
B1. Movement 2
B2. Movement 3

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Bufiman

Rhythm Trax

Dekmantel

Bufi-Jan locks into serious percussion mode here, translating the technicolour breaks and progressive wormholes of a sextet of 'Albumsi' tracks into bonkers and bubbling drum dubs.

In his own words: “Hi, my name is Bufiman and I do drum music for world peace and dance music for frogs. I recently released a longplayer called ‘Albumsi' on Dekmantel. While doing the mix-downs for ‘Albumsi' I realized how much effort I had put in it and how it might even seem overproduced in comparison to other records of mine. This was the result of ‘Albumsi’ being in the first year after quitting all other jobs to focus completely on music. It was the first time I had a studio, some gear and time all at once, at the same moment. So during the mixing process I realized how carefully and loaded the drum tracks were, I even had unused leftover drum material… I also just found a Dutch record heavily inspired by the classic Jive Rhythm Trax with the name 'Mix Your Own Breaks - Construction in Music' with an accompanying text that inspired my idea to do some of my own rhythm trax versions: "The compositions on this LP only consist of rhythms and sound effects. They can be used as: a transition between two records, to be mixed as a break in between and for the production of jingles. Have a lot of fun with these breaks!" Or in Dutch, as originally printed on the record: VEEL MIX-PLEZIER MET DEZE BREAKS - Een multifunctionele LP voor Discjockeys, Thuismixers en geluids-amateurs.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Stripping back some of the choicest cuts from his Albumsi, Jan lets us luxuriate in his outrageous drum programming, break surgery and comic book boings on this EP of phat rhythm tracks. Perfect for playing in the mix, or enjoying at high volume in the comfort of your own home.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Galaxy (Rhythm Trax)
A2. News From The Treetops (Rhythm Trax)
A3. Blow Your Head (Rhythm Trax)
B1. Apo-Calypso (Rhythm Trax)
B2. Hoolock Rock (Rhythm Trax)
B3. Under Control Now (Rhythm Trax)

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Territroy

Skulls & Plants

Dekmantel

Now for a trip into an impossible land, generated on a hacked copy of Populous, wrought out of melting circuitry and bootlegged YMO LPs, projected on early green screen and filled with failed CGI from the Waterworld era. Panagiotis Melidis and Stathis Kalatzis are Territroy, the newest member of the Dekmantel family, and the creative insanity behind the newest UFO release, "Skulls & Plants". Now, I don't recall taking a massive dose of 4-AcO this morning with my cornflakes, but that may well have happened, as this is one trippy listen. At various points EBM, tropical house, machine voodoo and shamanic breaks are twisted, warped and frazzled, all achieving the demented sound signature of this lunatic Grecian duo. Rhythms collapse, stutter skip and slur, crispy distortion coats otherwise healthy melodies and oddly exotic idents flutter across the landscape, though you could never be certain they were there. Highly psychoactive electronics and primal rhythms for fans of Helena Hauff, Detlef, Lena Willikens and the Silk Road.

TRACK LISTING

Delirium Vivens
Wax Smiles
Non Sayers
Sleeping Fury
Instar
Upside Down Sinner
I Meant You, Not You
Their Menads
Bold Like A New Sun (Ft. Olympia)
Prosopagnosia

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Lamellen

Monty Roberts

Dekmantel

It's a Piccadilly debut for Dutch production Lamellen here, who join the ever swelling ranks of the Dekmantel family with a five tracker of atmospheric, emotive and groovy Balearic house. Keeping true to the original island ideal, the duo barely break a sweat over 100bpm, keeping it easy and breezy as they provide the perfect soundtrack for sundowners the globe over.
A tranquil and trippy opener, "Horse Massage" calls to mind the cosmic explorations of Farbror Resande Mac, all space port idents, sparkling sequences and slow moving bass tones. "Spider" ups the tempo to a comparitive sprint (though still in reality glacial), injecting a little 80s Italo funk into the bassline, toughening the percussion up a bit and adding some glassy mallet tones for a nu disco-tinged heater. "Oyster" takes the intensity back down, savouring the same nebulous vibrations as the opener, but with a fresh Oceanic twist - think A Vision Of Panorama and you won't be too far away.
So far so 4/4, and the duo throw us a curious curveball with the skipping rhythm, tropical bubble and chiming chords of proggy pearl "Railrunner". We're back in the deep to close as the duo deliver "Pippo Denemarken" a downbeat shuffler decorated with insistent organ tones and bright and glassy synths. Luscious stuff from the Dekmantal debutants.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The eagle eared selectors at Dekmantel introduce us to more fresh talent, namely Dutch duo Lamellen, who drop the tempo and up the groove for a quintet of synth heavy Balearic jams. Cocktail killers folks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Horse Massage
2. Spider
3. Oyster
4. Railrunner
5. Pippo Denemarken

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