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Cover of Lo-Fi Hip Hop Instrumentals by Kaito Ian.

Kaito Ian

Lo-Fi Hip Hop Instrumentals

Galaxy Sound Co.

Son of Todd Osborn (Soundmurderer/Ghostly) Kaito Ian makes a hugely impressing first outing on the Galaxy Sound Co label with a series of lo-fi hip-hop beat-strumentals that cannot fail to get your head nodding. He is a dedicated music lover and skater with a deep knowledge of his craft and that shows here with some refined sounds starting with the soul drenched 'Revert', then on to the warped angelic vocal samples of 'Sequoia' and the percussive jumbled and scratching of 'Trek'. 'Wait Up' is another excellently blissed out joint and 'Sloan' is a sunny, laid back, lazy vibe to close down a superb EP.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Phwoooar 'ave some of THAT! Todd Osborn's son (!!) drops a tidy package of hip-hop instrumentals which lands somewhere between DJ Dez (Andres), Madlib and some of the beat tapes we've had through Fat Beats. You'll be clambering after a whole LP once you've digested this 7"!

TRACK LISTING

Revert
Sequoia
Trek
Wait Up
Sloan

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Cover of A Mannequin by Private Agenda.

Private Agenda

A Mannequin

Lo Recordings

    A Mannequin: Twelve tracks corresponding to twelve character traits, imagined as personalities in musical form. What are the dichotomies that define us? Our seen and unseen selves, the façade and the fundamental, the real and the imaginary. The result is musical hyper-realism.

    Through these contradictions, Private Agenda craft a musical world of effortless eclecticism. Classic pop songwriting is complemented with expansive production; the forward-thinking electronica of Jessy Lanza and Yves Tumor co-exists with the soft, soulful pop of Babeheaven and Erika de Casier. As a whole, it’s a record which rewrites the case for the concept album, where coherence needn’t be cringe.

    Album opener Irresistible is a decadent dream pop opener in the vein of Japanese Breakfast; its lyrics assertive yet amorous. Channelling the sentimentality of previous releases such as Aura from the pair’s debut album, Île de Rêve (2019), Neo-Nostalgia is a throwback to the future, a warm electronic pop exposition in the vein of Toro y Moi and Bullion. Touching has the intimate balladry and melancholy romance of Perfume Genius, while Splendour has the effortless groove of Sinkane or Jaako Eino Kalevi.

    Flipping over, the album’s two instrumental pieces link Private Agenda’s past and present. Purity is an extension of the minimalism of Primary Colours EP (2017), with a shuffle of feet and the dull thuds of keys accompanying the delicate composition. Alterations puts the late 90s trip hop and downtempo of Air and Portishead through a 2020s filter. Dressed in Velvet and Automation are explorations in eccentric yet polished alt-pop. The record’s penultimate track The Current, is striking in its synth-pop surrealism. Industrial textures composed by the avant-garde electronic musician Nicolas Bougaïeff cut across ethereal vocalism, a delightfully disconcerting collaboration. Completing the record, Substance trips out on psychedelic synth swells before a motorik beat kicks in, completing the collection in a cavernous crescendo.

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Irresistible
    A2. Neo-Nostalgia
    A3. Gemini
    A4. Touching
    A5. Splendour
    B1. Dressed In Velvet
    B2. Purity
    B3. Automation
    B4. Alterations
    B5. Narcotica
    B6. The Current
    B7. Substance

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    Cover of Lo! Soul by Roddy Woomble.

    Roddy Woomble

    Lo! Soul

    A Modern Way

      'Lo! Soul' is the fifth solo album from Roddy Woomble, following on from his acclaimed debut, 'My Secret Is My Silence' (2006), 'The Impossible Song & Other Songs' (2011), 'Listen To Keep' (2013) and 'The Deluder' (2017).

      The record sees Woomble continue his unique and restless trajectory, gently stepping away from his previous acoustic/folk intentions in favour of a more explorative light, prevalent on 2020's 'Everyday Sun' EP, which featured largely spoken word pieces over an ambient, mediative soundtrack.

      Produced and mixed by collaborator and Idlewild bandmate Andrew Mitchell (aka Andrew Wasylyk), 'Lo! Soul' was recorded remotely between Roddy's home in the Hebrides and Andrew's studio in Dundee throughout 2020 while Scotland was locked-down.

      Roddy explains: "Andrew describes moments of the album as 'Dystopian-pop' which I think is as good a description as any. Lockdown gave me the sense of a collective melancholy, a shared remoteness and isolation - that has been a guiding influence throughout all the songs. It is the most unusual record I have made, and made in the most unusual way."

      Across his twenty-five year career, 'Lo! Soul' may well be Woomble's most inventive, creative album to date. From undulating synths and ambient soundscapes in the abstract narratives of 'Atlantic Photography' and 'Secret Show', the sun-tinged horns of 'Architecture in LA', a mellifluous Mellotron or perhaps a piano chime. Here, the path is embedded with Roddy's words delicately unearthing the known and never known.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Return To Disappear
      2. Architecture In LA
      3. Lo! Soul
      4. Take It To The Street
      5. Secret Show
      6. ... It's Late
      7. As If It Did Not Happen
      8. People Move Out
      9. Atlantic Photography
      10. Dead Of The Moon

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      Cover of Deluxe Lo-Fi by Little Victor.

      Little Victor

      Deluxe Lo-Fi

      Stag-O-Lee

        Multiple award-winner guitarists, harp player, songwriter, singer and producer Little Victor Mac - a.k.a. The Beale Street Blues Bopper- is back after eight years with his ground-breaking new album Deluxe Lo-Fi. The record -also produced by Victor- features Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt,), Steve Lucky (Blues Persuaders, Johnny Copeland, Spin Doctors, Blues Travellers... ), Carl Sonny Leyland (Chuck Berry, James Cotton, Louisiana Red, Lowell Fulson... ), Brent Harding (Social Distortion) and other great musicians.

        Little Victor believes Lo-Fi is the new Hi-Fi and he explores all types of lo-fi sounds -from "slightly" lo-fi to "ultra" lo-fi and It caters to a wide range of styles from 50’s rockin’ blues to raw late 50’s/early 60’s R&B and soul, and from “pre-war” to blues “boppers.” Lot of danceable numbers on this album. Victor even goes back to his rock and roll roots with a fun Little Richard type of song. He tried to make this new opus sound like a collection of vintage scratchy obscure 45s and 78s. Little Victor claims this is the best album he ever done since the “Back To The Black Bayou” and features some of the best songs he ever wrote and also some of his best performances as a vocalist and guitarist.

        TRACK LISTING

        Side 1.
        1. My Mind (Victor Mac)
        2. Graveyard Boogie (Victor Mac)
        3. I Done Got Tired (Victor Mac)
        4. This Letter (Victor Mac)
        5. Slow Down Baby (Victor Mac)
        6. Gambler's Boogie (Victor Mac)

        Side 2.
        1. Rocks (Victor Mac)
        2. So Blue (Victor Mac)
        3. What's The Matter Now (Victor Mac)
        4. Some Ole Day (Victor Mac)
        5. Rockin' Daddy (Willie Dixon)
        6. Country Boy (Muddy Waters)

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        Cover of Blue Film by Lo-Fang.

        Lo-Fang

        Blue Film

        4AD

          4AD release ‘Blue Film’, the debut album by LA-based producer Lo-Fang (née Matthew Hemerlein).

          Classically trained in violin, cello, bass, piano and guitar, Hemerlein’s soulful falsetto floats above a rich blend of classical, R&B and electronic music, telling stories of love, loss and deceit.

          The album was written and recorded during Hemerlein’s world travels everywhere from a farmhouse in Maryland to a hotel in Cambodia to studios in London and Nashville. He completed the album at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with GRAMMY Award winning producer Francois Tetaz.

          Noted filmmaker Grant Singer (Sky Ferreira, Kendrick Lamar, DIIV) directed the stunning twopart video for album track ‘Look Away’. The first half nodding to the op-art movement, with the latter half filmed in an abandoned mansion in the Hollywood Hills where Steven Spielberg once shot scenes from Columbo.

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          Cover of Swing Lo Magellan by Dirty Projectors.

          Dirty Projectors

          Swing Lo Magellan

          Domino

            On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.




            STAFF COMMENTS

            Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Offspring Are Blank
            2. About To Die
            3. Gun Has No Trigger
            4. Swing Lo Magellan
            5. Just From Chevron
            6. Dance For You
            7. Maybe That Was It
            8. Impregnable Question
            9. See What She Seeing
            10. The Socialites
            11. Unto Caesar
            12. Irresponsible Tune

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            Cover of Swing Lo Magellan - Deluxe Edition by Dirty Projectors.

            Dirty Projectors

            Swing Lo Magellan - Deluxe Edition

            Domino

            On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.




            STAFF COMMENTS

            Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Offspring Are Blank
            2. About To Die
            3. Gun Has No Trigger
            4. Swing Lo Magellan
            5. Just From Chevron
            6. Dance For You
            7. Maybe That Was It
            8. Impregnable Question
            9. See What She Seeing
            10. The Socialites
            11. Unto Caesar
            12. Irresponsible Tune

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            Cover of Well Done Europe by The Chap.

            The Chap

            Well Done Europe

            Lo

              The Chap, a pan-European modern pop group based in London and Berlin, began life at the beginning of the last decade. In their quest to create music which “sounds wrong”, they pre- empted the current flavour for lo-fi prog-pop by several years and spawned a legion of fans who couldn’t believe how a band that revelled in the multilayered detachment and precision of their recordings could dive headlong into the realms of hard rock n roll immediacy, gaining themselves a reputation as one of the most exciting, challenging, and engaging live acts around. After two seminal bedroom-produced albums, “The Horse” and “Ham” - the latter in particular gathering considerable acclaim from the likes of Errol Alkan, Kissy Sellout and The Wire Magazine - The Chap delivered a third album, the masterpiece that is “Mega Breakfast”. This album featured corporate motivational style anthems about “proper music” and wanting to clone oneself.

              Despite being lauded by Pitchfork and many others, commercial success and world domination continued to evade The Chap, so they finally decided to “sell out” by recording a collection of pop classics that constitute their fourth album “Well Done Europe”. Needless to say, it’s another masterpiece featuring hit after hit, quite a few of which mention love and death and stuff like that. It sounds like the coolest new wave pop album ever recorded by a group of teachers (almost nobody in The Chap is a teacher).



              TRACK LISTING

              01. We’ll See To Your Breakdown
              02. Even Your Friend
              03. We Work In Bars
              04. Obviously
              05. Gimme Legs
              06. Well Done You
              07. Nevertheless, The Chap
              08. Pain Fan
              09. Torpor
              10. Maroccan Nights
              11. Few Horoscope
              12. Chalet Chalet

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              Various Artists

              Milky Disco

              Lo Recordings

                As it says on the wrapper to this CD 'A quintessential compendium of cosmic disco' not my words but ones I will echo throughout this review, because here we have pretty much everyone who counts on that scene from the magnificent Danny Wang, through Quiet Village Feat. Godsy (exclusive track) on to Studio and winding up with Six Cups Of Rebel (exclusive track). Basically it's all you need to get your swirling disco dancing friends heated up into a frenzy without having to get behind the one's and two's, and that's always a blessing when you're feeling a bit ropey after the club's ended.

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                Susumu Yakota

                Mother

                Lo Recordings

                Susumu Yokota returns with one of his most engaging albums to date, with every track a gently glowing gem. The set features the vocal talents of Casper Clausen (Efterklang), Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden), Claire Hope (The Chap), Panos Ghikas (The Chap), Nancy Elizabeth, Caroline Ross and Kaori. Yokota creates an album full of great songs within a mesmerising web of sound made of subtle rhythms and deep tones. From the almost soft bossa vibes of "Love Tendrilises" to the fractured folk of "A Flower White", the electronic jazz of "A Ray Of Light" and the Twin Peaks beauty of "Meltwater", this as an album that repays deep and repeated listening.

                Tracklisting
                1. Love Tendrilises - vocals by Casper Clausen (Efterklang) & Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden)
                2. Breeze - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
                3. A Ray Of Light - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
                4. A Flower White - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
                5. The Natural Process - vocals by Caroline Ross
                6. Reflect Mind - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth and Kaori
                7. Inside Foresighted - vocals by Kaori
                8. Meltwater - vocals by Caroline Ross and Kaori
                9. Tree Surgeon - vocals by Kaori, ClaireHope (The Chap) & Panos Ghikas (The Chap)
                10. Suture - vocals by Casper Clausen (Efterklang) & Anna Bronsted (Our Broken Garden)
                11. Bonda - vocals by Kaori
                12. 12 Days 12 Nights - vocals by Nancy Elizabeth
                13. Warmth

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                Pacheko

                Tryouts / Bi Polar Bear - Inc. Cardopusher & Starkey Remixes

                Lo Dubs

                  Enter Pacheko, of Caracas, Venezuela. A long time producer and supporter of the breakcore sound in his homeland, his sound has slowly adapted to dubstep with exciting effects. Musically, "Tryouts" and "Bi-Polar Bear" are similarly structured to the golden era Moving Shadow (Think Hyper-On Experience's "Disturbance" applied to dubstep), with each track revealing a series of distinct movements. "Tryouts", for instance, starts out quite aggressive, yet ends dubby. Pacheko shares an office in a design firm in Caracas with Cardopusher, and once he heard what was being plotted up with Lo Dubs, he threw his hat in the ring and rapidly presented a positively scorching remix of "Tryouts" for the flipside. About the same time, Philly ruler Starkey was working on a remix for Cardopusher on Terminal Dusk, and when his dubstep-to-four-beat-bassline-eight-minute-and-change epic remix of "Bi-Polar Bear" was added to the pyre, the circle was complete.

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                  Lo Moda

                  Gospel Store Front

                  Creative Capitalism

                    Creative Capitalism announces "Gospel Store Front", the debut CD release from newly formed avant-pop innovators LO MOdA, available in a beautifully designed custom packaged booklet. The band's instrumentation is constructed through guitars, a minimal stand-up drum kit, keyboards, viola, and vocals, the sum total of which is a physically and emotionally moving collection of songs. LO MOdA has been described as 'minimally devised hooks and tensions brought up on agit-prop and Motown'. "Gospel Store Front" is a poetic manifesto of love songs and defiant resistance. It will sear your heart and leave you wanting more.

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                    Europa 51

                    Abstractions

                    Lo

                      This is the debut album from Europa 51, the new band featuring Andy Ramsay and Simon Johns of Stereolab, along with Marcus Holdaway, John Bennett and Dominic Murcott from the High Llamas amongst others. It also includes a host of guests including the late Mary Hansen of Stereolab. The result comes across like a mixture of Stereolab and the Incredible String Band! The multimedia CD also contains a 25-minute film "Top Ten Of Everything" featuring the original score by Europa 51.

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