Tokyo based Mystica Tribe is an electronic producer and melodica player who blends his own unique 'Far Eastern' dub style reggae with techno. He heads up his own label but has also dropped heat on the likes of The Hague's SD and here brings the heat to a vital new 7" on Jamie McCue's Moon Garden. 'Rising Tide Dub' has lush harmonica leads and oodles of echo and reverb that sinks you in deep to the cavernous bass. 'Current Swell Dub' then steps it back to an even more silky and liquid rhythm with dainty chords and gentle dynamic drums. Both these cuts are heady and soulful in equal measure.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: New school Japanese dubwise king Mystica Tribe offers up a new, melodica driven take on a classic riddim. Whilst on side B he takes his instrument into new and exciting realms. One to watch this cat....

TRACK LISTING

Rising Tide Dub
Current Swell Dub

Presenting the second single from D.D. Mirage, a double header aimed squarely at the dancefloor featuring guest musicians Daniel Monaco and Nu Genea's Andrea De Fazio. A side 'Feel it' is a glittering cosmic disco jam with a hint of hedonism and an air of psychedelia. Capturing the euphoric exuberance of the dance floor, it draws influence from boogie legends such as 400 Blows, Patrick Cooley, Quando Quango and the Idjut Boys. The 12" Instrumental Mix takes inspiration from the Paradise Garage and Larry Levan, stripping back the musical elements to their core resulting in a Dubby and powerful DJ orientated mix.

B side 'So Hot' is a wonky mid-tempo heater, fusing trippy, sun-stroke delieria with infectious disco grooves. D.D. Mirage collaborated with some of Italy's finest groove merchants on this track, with Daniel Monaco (Rush Hour/Periodica Records) featuring on bass and Andrea De Fazio (Nu Genea/Parbleu) on drums. The track was influenced heavily by 80s Italo and Nigerian Disco. Label head Jura Soundsystem provides a Dubby extended take on the B2.

Instruments: JX-3P, Farfisa, Roland D-50, Jupiter, JV-1080, Korg Poly61, Juno-60, Guitar, Bass, Drums and various percussion.

A 140 gram pressing in 3mm spine kraftboard sleeve with labels and sticker designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Jura still on top with a feel-good, Balearic-boogie bash. Destined for sunnier times, I'm sure this'll still appease the more tasteful and sophisticated festive bash. Probably not yer average office party down Peter St. tho ;)

TRACK LISTING

Feel It (Original Mix)
Feel It (12" Instrumental Mix)
So Hot (Original Mix)
So Hot (Jura Soundsystem Dub)

**Limited to 300 copies - housed in a kraftboard sleeve**

Lovers rock style soul runnings from Sydney, Australia on this debut 7” from D.D. Mirage featuring Manchester's Private Joy. The original has a true 80’s lovers vibe with sweet harmonies from Private Joy and the flipside features a dubbed version.

Labels and sticker designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Pops is back doing a bit of a lovers / street soul ting with Sydney's D. D. Mirage. Sounds like a lost classic, but is infact - brand spanking new! Yes mate.

TRACK LISTING

Night Time
Night Time Version

The consistently on-point Heist hit us with another doozy of tech house brilliance via the mighty Dutch duo - Fouk.

"Mirage" is built around a stuttering synth loop and a seductive female vocal chanting ‘What made you wanna…” The real star here is the bassline, which propels the track into a seriously infectious groove. Add some Detroitian strings (very UR / Galaxy 2 Galaxy") and moody changeovers and you’ve got yourself a full-blown dancefloor weapon.

"Coffee" has that familiar bounce we've come to love from the pair. Rising strings and keyboard stabs also bring forth that Detroit flavour but without being too pastiche; whilst the skillfully executed breakdowns, coupled with a hooky arrangement give the track more of an exuberance, terrace-leaning sound.

"Tapioca" unpacks some serious electric funk into proceedings, and with its shuffled drum beat, I'm again reminded of Galaxy 2 Galaxy - it's clear that Fouk are fans of the Detroit supergroup!

Milan techno princess Eliza Bee ups the tempo and intensity of "Mirage" - adding slamming 909s and a very techno mindset before "Abalone" closes off proceedings with a very wavy, psychedelic house jaunt that's great for the warm up or the wind down. Top stuff! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Heist continues to be my one-stop shop when looking for that killer new house track for the weekend. Tasteful A&R, nice pressings, strong themes - they've nailed it!

TRACK LISTING

A1 Mirage
A2 Coffee
B1 Tapioca
B2 Mirage (Elisa Bee Remix)
B3 Abalone

Molly Lewis’s compositions seem to float into our ears from distant shores. They’re otherworldly, drawn more from landscapes of dream than from anywhere you could find on a map. Lewis is a unique presence in music today. Her trademark whistle, which brings to mind the great Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac, has graced recordings of everything from Schumann lieder and Brazilian jazz to Spaghetti Western ballads and noir lounge.

Lewis’s 2021 debut EP, The Forgotten Edge, was produced by Tom Brenneck (Charles Bradley, Amy Winehouse). It was a critical success, drawing praise from The New York Times and NPR, and landing Lewis a spot on CBS Sunday Morning.

Now, Lewis and Brenneck have teamed up again for her second EP, Mirage, bringing aboard Brazilian guitarist Rogê, as well as percussionist Gibi Dos Santos and keyboardist Roger Manning. Capacious and atmospheric, Mirage is Lewis’s most hypnotic effort yet. Like Eden’s Island (1970) by eden ahbez - whose “Nature Boy” is covered in one of Mirage’s standout moments - the album is based on Lewis’s visions of an imaginary island. The lush, oceanic textures of Mirage transport us to the sands of an unknown beach - all alone or in the company we’ve always dreamt of keeping.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mirage
2. Miracle Fruit
3. Dolphinese
4. Cabana Del Mel
5. The Green Ray
6. Nature Boy

Sixth studio album by the American rock band. 'Imploding the Mirage' was recorded in various locations, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Park City, Utah, and produced by Canadian producer Shawn Everett, and Jonathan Rado of the band Foxygen. It features contributions from Lindsey Buckingham ('Caution'), k.d. lang ('Lightning Fields'), Weyes Blood ('My God'), Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs, Blake Mills and Lucius.

Berlin based composer and producer Ben Lukas Boysen returns with his most progressive and shape-shifting work to date, the long awaited Mirage, on 1 May 2020 with Erased Tapes. The third album to be penned under his own name proceeding his Hecq moniker, Mirage follows 2013’s Gravity and the acclaimed 2016 full length Spells, a record as much admired by his peers as it was loved by fans that not only yielded remixes from Max Cooper and Tim Hecker, but also opened Jon Hopkins’ Late Night Tales compilation.

Since the release of Spells, Ben continued to be in demand for his scoring abilities, collaborating with cellist and composer Sebastian Plano on the music for David OReilly’s landmark innovative video game Everything. It was added to the long list for the Best Animated Short at the 90th Academy Awards, making it the first video game to qualify for an Oscar. In 2019 Ben contributed to the Brainwaves project alongside fellow Erased Tapes artists Michael Price and Högni Egilsson in collaboration with a team of scientists at Goldsmiths University, London — linking states of consciousness and music. He also scored the soundtrack to the DAFF award-winning German TV show Beat, the feature film The Collini Case, and co-composed the music for the short film Manifesto with Nils Frahm, starring Cate Blanchett.

As with Gravity and Spells, Ben has an array of musical guests adorning Mirage, including long time collaborator, Berlin based cellist and composer Anne Müller as well as Australian saxophonist and composer Daniel Thorne — for whom Ben wrote parts specifically, having heard his 2019 solo debut Lines of Sight. Lead track Medela features both and takes the listener on a kaleidoscopic journey that slides with ease across sonic terrains. By the end it’s difficult to tell what exactly was heard; “I wanted to experiment with blending these recordings with 100% artificial elements, often to points where an instrument becomes an abstraction of what it was and the musicians’ presence in the song is much more of an important DNA string in the song rather than an obvious layer.”

Mirage, like its title suggests, feels like a sonic optical illusion — each piece containing sounds and techniques bent and processed to make them seem overexposed; the overly felt-y piano on Clarion, Daniel Thorne’s saxophone on Medela, the single note voice of Lisa Morgenstern splitting into different chords on Empyrean. It is detectable but also easily missed, like the double piano on Kenotaph that could be perceived as one, but is actually two pianos in two different rooms, separate countries even — one is digital while the other is acoustic.

While on Spells Ben made programmed pieces sound indistinguishable from human playing, with Mirage he set out to do the opposite and make the human touch unrecognisable, creating something of a mystery or a mirage.

Knife Knights were born of the love of mystery. From the start of Shabazz Palaces – the groundbreaking project launched in 2009 by former-Digable Planets leader Ishmael Butler – confidentiality seemed essential: Butler wanted Shabazz Palaces to stand on its own strength, not his outsized reputation, so he adopted a nom de plume for himself. As the project’s network expanded, though, he needed new monikers for his partnerships. Knife Knights is the name he gave to his work with Seattle engineer, producer, songwriter, and film composer Erik Blood, a vital force in the Shabazz Palaces universe.

Now, after more than a decade of collaboration and the development of a rich friendship, Butler and Blood have made a proper full-length record together as Knife Knights: 1 Time Mirage, an eleven-track odyssey that finds the pair and a cast of their friends weaving together a singular world of soul and shoegaze, hip-hop and lush noise, bass and bedlam. 1 Time Mirage represents a playground for Butler and Blood, a free space for unfettered exploration, and a radically adventurous start to something much more than a mere production duo or side project.

Recorded in three fertile sessions interrupted by Shabazz Palaces tours and Blood’s recording projects, 1 Time Mirage is a profound fulfilment of the partnership, realized at the crossroads of Butler’s and Blood’s mutual enthusiasms. Their shared interests have been split into pieces and fused together with enviable imagination. In the decade since Butler launched Shabazz Palaces and first christened his partnership with Blood as Knife Knights, much of the external mystery has, of course, fallen away. And 1 Time Mirage is a very public step forward for the pair. The early sense of secrecy has given way to a spirit of friendship and creative candor, to the doors of experimentation being thrown open by old pals thrilled by the prospect of testing new ideas.

Still, these eleven songs retain a core of intrigue and, indeed, mystery; each listen reveals yet another connection between infinite and interlocking pieces. To wit, Robert Beatty’s brilliant cover for 1 Time Mirage depicts a futuristic vehicle, being coolly steered with one hand into some great, mildly ominous unknown. That’s how these songs feel, too—confident conquests of the dark that unlock sounds and spaces you have yet to imagine.
  

TRACK LISTING

1. Bionic Chords (feat. OC Notes & Darrius Willrich)
2. Drag Race Legend
3. Give You Game (feat. Marquetta Miller & Stas Thee Boss)
4. Light Up Ahead (Time Mirage) [feat. Porter Ray, Gerald Turner, Darrius Willrich,
5. OC Notes & Shabazz Palaces
6. Seven Wheel Motion
7. Low Key (feat. Shabazz Palaces)
8. My Dreams Never Sleep (feat. OC Notes, Marquetta Miller & Shabazz Palaces)
9. Light Work (feat. El Mizell)
10. Can't Draw The Line (feat. OC Notes)
11. Come On Let's Go (feat. OC Notes & Marquetta Miller)
12. Mr. President

Volume 8 in this series, originally features artists the US, UK, Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
The all-star producer line up of Muneshine, George Fields and IceRocks was bound to bring something special to the table.
Check out the Evil Ed remix!!
The project took several years to complete (in fact spanning a 15-year period in total!) and the artwork of the individual tracks created by EZPZ forms together to make the cover for the EP. TIP!!

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Fresh in the shop, Mirage & Concept and Quartzcrystallus drench us hip hop beats from the remix Worldwide. Underlying jazzy tones make this a must have record.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mirage, Concept - Worldwide (Evil Ed Remix)
B1. Quartzcrystallus - Worldwide (DJ Grazzhoppa Remix)

‘Solide Mirage’, the follow up to the 2014 album, ‘Piano Ombre’, offers a glimpse of coherence in a distorted world. The album was recorded in the chaotic-yet-calm environment of Brussels - the capital of Europe - a city where the future of a million ‘others’ is being decided.

Fránçois Marry and his shape-shifting band The Atlas Mountains recorded with Ash Workman (Christine & The Queens, Metronomy) before Owen Pallett added violins from his home in LA.

‘Solide Mirage’ - like an imperceptible dream, a fantasy where reality shifts as one approaches it - is a perfect definition for this protean, changeable-yet-direct album which reveals new facets and new territories in every listen. Sometimes soft (on ‘1982’, ‘Apocalypse à Ipsos’, ‘Pepétuel été’, ‘100.000.000’), sometimes tough (‘Bête Morcelée’ and its rush of pure grunge, ‘Grand Dérèglement’ and the roughness and splinters of ‘Jamais Deux Pareils’), sometimes crazy (the digitized trance of ‘Âpres Après’) but always highly political, whether direct or reading between the lines.

TRACK LISTING

Grande Dérèglement
Tendre Est L'Âme
Apocalypse à Lpsos
1982
100.000.000
Âpres Après
Bête Morcelée
Jamais Deux Pareils
Perpétuel Été
Rentes Écloses