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AMOR
This rare take on the Bobby Caldwell classic will bring latin warmth to any dancefloor. Por Amor was the title track from the first ITTY release in 2021, after many requests for a repress it’s finally out again – now on a 7” with a new Comb dub version on the flip!
TRACK LISTING
A1. 7” Mix
B1. Dub Mix
Croatian Amor returns with “A Part of You in Everything” a companion piece to last year’s “Remember Rainbow Bridge”.
“My younger brother died at birth and I never had a chance to meet him. Growing up he was my ghost friend, someone told me he lived in the stars which I accepted. I had not paid attention to him for many years but when I was making "Remember Rainbow Bridge” and waiting for my son to come into the world he suddenly appeared again. I partly dedicated Remember Rainbow Bridge to him, but I knew that it wasn’t his record, so I thought I should make one just for him and here it is; “A Part of You in Everything”, 8 songs about being human on Earth. I think it’s music which is best listened to at night out under the stars. Thank you to all my friends who helped making it!”
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
- Rilke.
“My younger brother died at birth and I never had a chance to meet him. Growing up he was my ghost friend, someone told me he lived in the stars which I accepted. I had not paid attention to him for many years but when I was making "Remember Rainbow Bridge” and waiting for my son to come into the world he suddenly appeared again. I partly dedicated Remember Rainbow Bridge to him, but I knew that it wasn’t his record, so I thought I should make one just for him and here it is; “A Part of You in Everything”, 8 songs about being human on Earth. I think it’s music which is best listened to at night out under the stars. Thank you to all my friends who helped making it!”
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
- Rilke.
Two stoic nomads in sound, united in difference, emerge on Deep Cover with a brace of cranium rattling reanimations. Mission objective: body kinetics!
Two highly frenetic numbers that'll get arms flailing and hips gyrating as they venture deep into jacking zone on side A. Meanwhile on side B we get a space probing cosmic number with big gated drum splashes and hints of Italo dreaminess.
12" with insert in stickered sleeve, limited to 300 hand-numbered copies.
Two highly frenetic numbers that'll get arms flailing and hips gyrating as they venture deep into jacking zone on side A. Meanwhile on side B we get a space probing cosmic number with big gated drum splashes and hints of Italo dreaminess.
12" with insert in stickered sleeve, limited to 300 hand-numbered copies.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Deep Cover continue their crucial excavations of lost cosmic oddities, rare disco and minimal wave experiments. This one's a particular curio, leaving the more intrepid listener in a whole manner of confusion as to when and whence it came.TRACK LISTING
A. Stanton Carlisle
B. Navarone Again
Following a revelatory concert in Glasgow in January 2020 wherein the two sets of musicians met and performed together for the first time, a recording session was arranged the following day, resulting in the most elevated permutation of Amor’s art to date. Each track was built upon a rhythmic bedrock of percussion and drums performed by Paul Thomson and samples/synthesizer by Luke Fowler. Thomson used bamboo Javanese gamelan (most notably on “For You”) and scrap metal, as well as traditional percussion and drums while Fowler incorporated processed ambient field recordings recorded in enclosed acoustic spaces around Glasgow. Singer/pianist Richard Youngs contributes some of the most bright and mindful work of his career. Acoustic bass player Michael Francis Duch, whose lush playing as ever provides the elastic spine to each song, scored the string parts for “Lemur” on piano at home in Norway. The addition of swelling strings and drones fills out the Amor sound significantly, lending a sonorous tone to 8 minute, epic closer “For You” or an ascending melodic introduction to “Stars Burst” that feels like a new morning dawning on a world saved from certain death. With the circumstances of lockdown forcing the musicians to work differently, a thread of optimism and utopia grounded in the moment weaves through these tracks. “Unravel” reveals a spine tingling vocal from Youngs. It’s a song about the simultaneously grounding and ecstatic effect of love, feeling connected to others. It’s a simple message, ‘I’m finding myself in your smile, always unravels me’ speaks of ego death, the dissipation of the material into a nirvana of pure energy, the power of surrender.
This isn’t a quasi-religious message, this is the power of each other, a love song to connection in a temporary age of isolation. “Stars Burst” is a play on the inner and outer cosmos, with narrator Youngs exploring wonder to a pounding galloping rhythm and snake-charming synth. It’s an open dance, with the group locked in together for the wild ride. “Fear” is the centerpiece of the record, starting with drones and scraped overtones before swirling synth notes filter upwards to meet reverberating minor chords. Over 8 minutes of tight but loose playing, Youngs is the shaman instructing us to use “Fear” as a celebration of the moment, embrace it and jump into the unknown. The only way to overcome your fear is to feel it, use it as an energy. The use of the studio as an instrument throughout side 2 is particularly important, with the dubbing and mixing prowess of engineer Paul Savage (who mixed unattended due to lockdown restrictions) and tape manipulations performed by Jason Lescallet coming into play. “For You” closes out with a largely instrumental, evolving composition that uses many of the abstract and novel aspects of this permutation to aid the trance. It’s massive, an unfurling creature with unexpected tonalities and serious heft.
This isn’t a quasi-religious message, this is the power of each other, a love song to connection in a temporary age of isolation. “Stars Burst” is a play on the inner and outer cosmos, with narrator Youngs exploring wonder to a pounding galloping rhythm and snake-charming synth. It’s an open dance, with the group locked in together for the wild ride. “Fear” is the centerpiece of the record, starting with drones and scraped overtones before swirling synth notes filter upwards to meet reverberating minor chords. Over 8 minutes of tight but loose playing, Youngs is the shaman instructing us to use “Fear” as a celebration of the moment, embrace it and jump into the unknown. The only way to overcome your fear is to feel it, use it as an energy. The use of the studio as an instrument throughout side 2 is particularly important, with the dubbing and mixing prowess of engineer Paul Savage (who mixed unattended due to lockdown restrictions) and tape manipulations performed by Jason Lescallet coming into play. “For You” closes out with a largely instrumental, evolving composition that uses many of the abstract and novel aspects of this permutation to aid the trance. It’s massive, an unfurling creature with unexpected tonalities and serious heft.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Another fruiting body from the cultivated hotbed of musical mycelium - Green Door Studios, Glasgow. It's decidedly less jagged that previous eminations from the studio - possessing a loose, baggy groove that'll resonate with fans of ACR and the more tasteful end of the Madchester scene.TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. Unravel
2. Stars Burst
Side 2
1. Fear
2. For You
Sinking Into A Miracle is the debut album by Glasgow’s AMOR, a quartet of musical travellers exploring the sonic open-ended-ness of dance music. Following two critically acclaimed 12-inches, this is a fully developed treatise on ecstasy and transcendence. Here, Richard Youngs, Michael Francis Duch, Paul Thomson and Luke Fowler are more honed, razor sharp in focus and timing, testing their instrumental prowess on condensed song structures and new, enlightened feelings of expansive hope and bliss. From the outset, it’s an ambitious yet ultimately inclusive journey. Recorded to 24-track tape at Chem 19 and mixed by Paul Savage and Richard McMaster (Golden Teacher), this full length retains the elastic grooves of Paradise and Higher Moment, the group’s previous singles, but relinquishes the classic Philadelphia International-tinged sound in favor of looser rhythmic patterns. There are new depths to the compositions: a more free-flowing approach to percussion and deft experiments in hybridity make for a full and rounded, emotionally tinged record. Indeed, there are times when AMOR sound like the lost house band from David Mancuso’s Loft parties: Richard Youngs’ uplifting, gospel-tinged lyrics talk about moving beyond, universal truths, sailing through the horizon. It’s a wideeyed optimism Mancuso would perhaps have approved of and which is embroidered with spectral details that begs to be auditioned on large, tweaked out sound-systems.
Fantastic cover art by Robert Beatty.
Fantastic cover art by Robert Beatty.
TRACK LISTING
1. Phantoms Of The Sun
2. Glimpses Across Thunder
3. Full Fathom Future
4. Heaven Among The Days
5. Truth Of Life
Some crate-digging compilations are often the result of someone handpicking their choice favourites from another country’s musical history, perhaps unaware or uninvolved with its cultural lineage in the process. On Soundway’s latest release - a treasure trove of synth jams, pop, samba boogie, balearic and electro from 1980 & ‘90s Brazil - the tracks are picked by Millos Kaiser, one half of the Brazilian duo Selvagem, who are at the helm of throwing some of the country’s best dance parties. It’s a rare compilation that offers Brazilian music actually picked by a Brazilian.
Whilst names such as Ricardo Bomba, Villa Box, Fogo Baiano, Electric Boogies and Batista Junior may not be household names, they tell an untold, yet rich and important part of musical history in Brazil. If the 80s has a bad reputation amongst traditionalists in Brazil then the 1990s are even more derived and deplored. This going against the grain and plucking gold from such forgotten periods is what makes this such a charming, unique, character-loaded and fascinating collection of music. It’s a release that is loaded with smooth grooves, bubbling bass, glistening synthesisers, funk strutting guitar lines and sheen of production that undeniably marks it of its time.
For Kaiser this compilation is about reintroducing music during a period of reappraisal, catching a new wave and hoping contemporary listeners will ride it with him. “The idea is to do justice to these songs. Songs that combine all the right ingredients that should have put them on radio playlists when I was growing up or at least in the cases of more adventurous DJs”.
Millos Kaiser is a DJ, digger, vinyl junkie/dealer born in Rio de Janeiro and living in Sao Paulo for the past 8 years. He launched the dance party/club night Selvagem with partner Trepanado in 2010, bringing thousands of dancers one Sunday a month to a public square in the heart of Sao Paulo.
As both a solo artist and part of the DJ duo with Trepanado, Millos Kaiser has played all over Brazil as well as touring in the US and Europe, including festivals such as Dekmantel. Selvagem has also had remixes and edits released on labels such as Disco Halal, Disco Deviance, Hello Sailor, Music For Dreams and Beats In Space Records
Whilst names such as Ricardo Bomba, Villa Box, Fogo Baiano, Electric Boogies and Batista Junior may not be household names, they tell an untold, yet rich and important part of musical history in Brazil. If the 80s has a bad reputation amongst traditionalists in Brazil then the 1990s are even more derived and deplored. This going against the grain and plucking gold from such forgotten periods is what makes this such a charming, unique, character-loaded and fascinating collection of music. It’s a release that is loaded with smooth grooves, bubbling bass, glistening synthesisers, funk strutting guitar lines and sheen of production that undeniably marks it of its time.
For Kaiser this compilation is about reintroducing music during a period of reappraisal, catching a new wave and hoping contemporary listeners will ride it with him. “The idea is to do justice to these songs. Songs that combine all the right ingredients that should have put them on radio playlists when I was growing up or at least in the cases of more adventurous DJs”.
Millos Kaiser is a DJ, digger, vinyl junkie/dealer born in Rio de Janeiro and living in Sao Paulo for the past 8 years. He launched the dance party/club night Selvagem with partner Trepanado in 2010, bringing thousands of dancers one Sunday a month to a public square in the heart of Sao Paulo.
As both a solo artist and part of the DJ duo with Trepanado, Millos Kaiser has played all over Brazil as well as touring in the US and Europe, including festivals such as Dekmantel. Selvagem has also had remixes and edits released on labels such as Disco Halal, Disco Deviance, Hello Sailor, Music For Dreams and Beats In Space Records
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Selvagem's Milos further cements his reputation as a total gee with this sunny set of MPB, Balearic boogie and synth-funk winners from his native Brazil. There's plenty of paradise to go around, but I'd suggest you start with V Nia Bastos' stellar Sade cover...TRACK LISTING
Ricardo Bomba - Voc Vai Se Lembrar
V Nia Bastos - Tabu (The Sweetest Taboo)
Rosana Mendes & Grupo Veneno - Reague
Grupo Controle Digital - A Festa Nossa
Villa Box - Break De Rua (Vers O Longa)
Batista Junior - Cheira
Dado Brazzawilly - Saramandaia
Anacy Arcanjo - Toque Tambor
Fogo Baiano - O Fogo Do Sol
Dod Da Bahia & As Virgens De Porto Seguro - Africamerica
Via Negromonte - Love Is All
Electric Boogies - Electric Boogies
Os Abelhudos - Contos De Escola (Millos Kaiser Edit)
Nanda Rossi - Livre Pra Voar (Millos Kaiser Edit)
Andr Melo - Onda De Amor
Regi O Abissal - Feminina Mulher (Instrumental)
"Higher Moment / Amnesia" is the follow up to "Paradise / In Love An Arc", Amor’s debut 12”, which surfaced in May 2017. Culled from the same sessions at Chem 19 and The Green Door in Glasgow, these two tracks elevate the ecstatic, transcendent aesthetic Richard Youngs, Luke Fowler, Michael Francis Duch and Paul Thomson introduced with their previous release. Amor is collectivism in the servitude to trance, a master class in ensemble playing, an avant-disco one-mind. Amor’s practice is simple. Four musicians, in a room, together with the groove. Playing for hours on end, improvising and honing down each track to its bones to be fleshed out, Amor fuses acoustic instrumentation with sharp, electronic precision.
Central to each track is the elastic double bass playing of Michael Francis Duch, a backbone that breathes and allows drummer / percussionist Thomson to explore. This time around mixed by Paul Savage at Chem 19, "Higher Moment" on Side A, forsakes the 4/4 of the group’s previous two tracks for a loping ecstasy, a driving rhythm that forges forward around the bassline. Youngs’ vocal here is the focal point, teaming with an almost utopian positivity. For an artist who’s built a career obfuscating, sidestepping the straightforward, to hear a sentiment so pure is spine-tingling. In fact to imagine a Youngs brimming over with a higher love is almost the biggest curveball this artist has ever thrown at the listener. With the line 'following fearless through clear boredom,' we imagine a path to a new world shorn of the material. On the flip, "Amnesia" re-introduces the pounding 4/4 kick with a bittersweet cadence provided by Youngs’ piano. Here, Fowler’s subtle effects dress the movement, highlighting the tension between the forceful, House percussion and Youngs’ minor key melody. "Amnesia"’s power comes from the edit, a skillful carving up of the groove to create several beautiful, odd moments in time. Indeed, with its to-the-floor pulse, "Amnesia" searches deeper into inner space, providing a melancholy twist to "Higher Moment"’s optimism. Artwork by Robert Beatty.
'Combining grooving double bass, felt electronic beats, analogue keyboards and quivering vocals, all explored within the contours of an epic 14 minute dance jam, Amor’s "Paradise" suggests what the mutant, earthy funk of the early 1980s might have sounded like if it had found its first breakthrough in 2017. It’s simply one of my favourite tracks of the year.' - Tim Lawrence.
Central to each track is the elastic double bass playing of Michael Francis Duch, a backbone that breathes and allows drummer / percussionist Thomson to explore. This time around mixed by Paul Savage at Chem 19, "Higher Moment" on Side A, forsakes the 4/4 of the group’s previous two tracks for a loping ecstasy, a driving rhythm that forges forward around the bassline. Youngs’ vocal here is the focal point, teaming with an almost utopian positivity. For an artist who’s built a career obfuscating, sidestepping the straightforward, to hear a sentiment so pure is spine-tingling. In fact to imagine a Youngs brimming over with a higher love is almost the biggest curveball this artist has ever thrown at the listener. With the line 'following fearless through clear boredom,' we imagine a path to a new world shorn of the material. On the flip, "Amnesia" re-introduces the pounding 4/4 kick with a bittersweet cadence provided by Youngs’ piano. Here, Fowler’s subtle effects dress the movement, highlighting the tension between the forceful, House percussion and Youngs’ minor key melody. "Amnesia"’s power comes from the edit, a skillful carving up of the groove to create several beautiful, odd moments in time. Indeed, with its to-the-floor pulse, "Amnesia" searches deeper into inner space, providing a melancholy twist to "Higher Moment"’s optimism. Artwork by Robert Beatty.
'Combining grooving double bass, felt electronic beats, analogue keyboards and quivering vocals, all explored within the contours of an epic 14 minute dance jam, Amor’s "Paradise" suggests what the mutant, earthy funk of the early 1980s might have sounded like if it had found its first breakthrough in 2017. It’s simply one of my favourite tracks of the year.' - Tim Lawrence.
Love Means Taking Action' is the new album from the multifaceted Copenhagen-based artist Loke Rahbek under his alias Croatian Amor. It is the first full-length Croatian Amor recording since 2014's 'The Wild Palms,' a release that was made available on cassette for a single month, and only in exchange for a nude self-portrait.
Since the inception of the project, Croatian Amor has dealt with a mixture of fiction and reality, often using real events and places as a platform for a largely fictional play. Where there is playfulness, there is revelation. On 'Love Means Taking Action'—without a doubt the project's strongest work to date—the effect of the perpetual collaging of information is keenly felt. Short, unnerving moments appear with slick familiarity. Voices repeat and quietly glitch through tonal shifts. We are ushered along by the shuddering effect of the samples and field recordings on the pristine synthesis, with motifs and plot lines presented as quickly as they disintegrate. We are enticed to find comfort here but we are not guided through a space as with much ambient music.
The textures and terrains that 'Love Means Taking Action' present form an array of scenarios with what at times feels like a punishing degree of indifference to the listener. We are bluntly shown snippets of impassioned architectures. It is a process that draws the listener in through alienation. There is something in the way that the music and track titles progress which is not unlike the experience of submitting to social media news feeds, where love stories become the neighbours of civil wars and selfies, and reports from refugee camps are presented next to advertisements for lifestyle magazines. 'Love Means Taking Action' lets the fragmented motifs of fictions tenderly tug at reality’s patchwork veil. In the artist's own words, 'Love Means Taking Action' is "twelve tracks of very human electronic music."
Since the inception of the project, Croatian Amor has dealt with a mixture of fiction and reality, often using real events and places as a platform for a largely fictional play. Where there is playfulness, there is revelation. On 'Love Means Taking Action'—without a doubt the project's strongest work to date—the effect of the perpetual collaging of information is keenly felt. Short, unnerving moments appear with slick familiarity. Voices repeat and quietly glitch through tonal shifts. We are ushered along by the shuddering effect of the samples and field recordings on the pristine synthesis, with motifs and plot lines presented as quickly as they disintegrate. We are enticed to find comfort here but we are not guided through a space as with much ambient music.
The textures and terrains that 'Love Means Taking Action' present form an array of scenarios with what at times feels like a punishing degree of indifference to the listener. We are bluntly shown snippets of impassioned architectures. It is a process that draws the listener in through alienation. There is something in the way that the music and track titles progress which is not unlike the experience of submitting to social media news feeds, where love stories become the neighbours of civil wars and selfies, and reports from refugee camps are presented next to advertisements for lifestyle magazines. 'Love Means Taking Action' lets the fragmented motifs of fictions tenderly tug at reality’s patchwork veil. In the artist's own words, 'Love Means Taking Action' is "twelve tracks of very human electronic music."
TRACK LISTING
1:An Angel Gets His Wings Clipped
2:Nadim Call Emergence
3:No Sex Club (Man)
4:Any Life You Want
5:Reality Summit
6:Like Man
7:Like Angel
8:Refugee Turns To Safety
9:Octopus Web
10:Nadim Call Emergence II
11:Like Animal
12:Love Means Taking Action