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When Matt Karmil’s music comes on in a club, everything around you slows to a crawl, and you focus on that one tiny detail – a bouncing earring or a frozen smile, the lights flashing through the smoke as slow as a distant lighthouse – before it all comes zooming back and everything’s jumping at normal speed again. Karmil’s fourth album, "Will", is released on the Norwegian Smalltown Supersound label – the home of Lindstrøm among others. Even more than before Matt has managed to combine his love of the graceful forward motion of minimal techno beats with the deeply granular textures and meditative chambers of reverb and delay. Mastered by the careful hand of Rashad Becker at the legendary Dubplates & Mastering plant, this driverless vehicle takes bumps and curves with ease, but passes through enough scuzzy neighbourhoods to make the journey more memorable.
You can definitely hear the influence of Kompakt founder Wolfgang Voigt on Will – specifically the GAS project’s melding of billowy sound clouds and insistently pulsing 4/4 beats. Like the GAS albums, "Will" is presented as a continuous piece, even though it is a sequence of eight tracks. ‘It's mainly samples,’ Matt explains, ‘although usually heavily processed and decontextualised. I used a lot of my older samplers for this one - MPC 3000 and Akai S-612 basic edits and processing in ProTools.’
Before you get to the long ambient closing track, ‘Maffé’, "Will" contains its share of muted bangers like ‘Morals’ and ‘Can’t Find It (The House Sound)’. While these would vibrate well on the dancefloor, the experience for Matt is primarily a private domestic one. ‘I like to try to create a room to visit, and while it's nice to have details and look out the window occasionally, the fundamental is the room/environment itself – my personal enjoyment of music away from the club is often centred around long form and ambient works.’
With a studio established in Cologne, Matt made his LP debut with the well received (but hard to Google) ‘----‘, combining dusty samples and elegant tape hiss with scuba-diving grooves and minimalist vibes. In the same year he released the jubilant club anthem ‘So You Say’ on Tim Sweeney's Beats In Space label and remixed John Talabot and Axel Boman's (Talaboman) single ‘Sideral’.
Recent years have seen a raft of new releases from Matt, remixing X-Press 2 for Skint, the albums idle 033 and ++++, as well as 12”s for Yumé Records, Idle Hands, Endless Flight and Studio Barnhus, received with great reviews in publications from The Wire to Resident Advisor and beyond.
2016 also saw Matt much in demand for his skills in engineering, mixing and mastering, working extensively with Matias Aguayo for Crammed Discs, Kornel Kovacs for Studio Barnhus and Talaboman for R&S, among many others.
At the invitation of artist Christine Sun Kim, Matt composed a sub-20Hz piece for Bounce House at Sound Live Tokyo 2015, while his video collaboration with Boston’s MIT Media Lab, Time Moods, was premiered in late 2017.
Among all this activity Matt still finds time to make his signature tracks, sampling scraps of source sounds during his travels around Europe, then listening back with extreme care over long durations, documenting and trying to articulate the feelings provoked by them. Extended time is really the essence in this process: ‘I can easily listen to any of the ideas that made it to the record for five to six hours at a time,’ he says, ‘to really sink into the details of the textures and if there are any tones, or subtleties that I want to exaggerate or hide. I usually have a fairly disorderly looking working environment, wires and vinyls all over the place, then long walks while I listen to works in progress.’
By sheer force of Will, Matt Karmil’s music has entered sonic bullet time.
You can definitely hear the influence of Kompakt founder Wolfgang Voigt on Will – specifically the GAS project’s melding of billowy sound clouds and insistently pulsing 4/4 beats. Like the GAS albums, "Will" is presented as a continuous piece, even though it is a sequence of eight tracks. ‘It's mainly samples,’ Matt explains, ‘although usually heavily processed and decontextualised. I used a lot of my older samplers for this one - MPC 3000 and Akai S-612 basic edits and processing in ProTools.’
Before you get to the long ambient closing track, ‘Maffé’, "Will" contains its share of muted bangers like ‘Morals’ and ‘Can’t Find It (The House Sound)’. While these would vibrate well on the dancefloor, the experience for Matt is primarily a private domestic one. ‘I like to try to create a room to visit, and while it's nice to have details and look out the window occasionally, the fundamental is the room/environment itself – my personal enjoyment of music away from the club is often centred around long form and ambient works.’
With a studio established in Cologne, Matt made his LP debut with the well received (but hard to Google) ‘----‘, combining dusty samples and elegant tape hiss with scuba-diving grooves and minimalist vibes. In the same year he released the jubilant club anthem ‘So You Say’ on Tim Sweeney's Beats In Space label and remixed John Talabot and Axel Boman's (Talaboman) single ‘Sideral’.
Recent years have seen a raft of new releases from Matt, remixing X-Press 2 for Skint, the albums idle 033 and ++++, as well as 12”s for Yumé Records, Idle Hands, Endless Flight and Studio Barnhus, received with great reviews in publications from The Wire to Resident Advisor and beyond.
2016 also saw Matt much in demand for his skills in engineering, mixing and mastering, working extensively with Matias Aguayo for Crammed Discs, Kornel Kovacs for Studio Barnhus and Talaboman for R&S, among many others.
At the invitation of artist Christine Sun Kim, Matt composed a sub-20Hz piece for Bounce House at Sound Live Tokyo 2015, while his video collaboration with Boston’s MIT Media Lab, Time Moods, was premiered in late 2017.
Among all this activity Matt still finds time to make his signature tracks, sampling scraps of source sounds during his travels around Europe, then listening back with extreme care over long durations, documenting and trying to articulate the feelings provoked by them. Extended time is really the essence in this process: ‘I can easily listen to any of the ideas that made it to the record for five to six hours at a time,’ he says, ‘to really sink into the details of the textures and if there are any tones, or subtleties that I want to exaggerate or hide. I usually have a fairly disorderly looking working environment, wires and vinyls all over the place, then long walks while I listen to works in progress.’
By sheer force of Will, Matt Karmil’s music has entered sonic bullet time.
Norwegian house and techno producer Bjørn Torske started experimenting with electronic music in the late '80s in his hometown of Tromsø. As a teenager he was inspired by other Tromsø musicians, especially Geir Jenssen, the musical prodigy later to be known as ambient pioneer Biosphere. Torske started releasing minimalist techno in the beginning of the '90s, primarily under the name of Ismistik.
Very interesting but "Kickrock" is anything but minimal techno! Featuring that patented Torske sound palette - centred around cowbells and squelchy synth - the track marches on with a focussed but carefree attitude. deploying full rhythm section breakdowns at will and adding vibing keys and guitar sections as the track nears its conclusion. On the flip "Blue Call" sees a more tropical house flavour jam slowly permeate through the sweltering midday fug and slowly encapsulate us in some tribal flavoured firepit dancing. As usual a hallucinatory and totally engrossing affair from (one of) our favourite Norwegians... Recommended.
Very interesting but "Kickrock" is anything but minimal techno! Featuring that patented Torske sound palette - centred around cowbells and squelchy synth - the track marches on with a focussed but carefree attitude. deploying full rhythm section breakdowns at will and adding vibing keys and guitar sections as the track nears its conclusion. On the flip "Blue Call" sees a more tropical house flavour jam slowly permeate through the sweltering midday fug and slowly encapsulate us in some tribal flavoured firepit dancing. As usual a hallucinatory and totally engrossing affair from (one of) our favourite Norwegians... Recommended.
STAFF COMMENTS
David says: If I could put Kickrock on a 5 hour loop I would. It's one of those house records that sounds so simple but increasingly grooves and grows into a hypnotic monster guaranteed to leave any dance floor in a hot wet mess.
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we're unsure of the future, it's worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain. "Nothing's changed," says a younger Barack Obama in a sample for the opening track for the second album from Tokyo-based, American musician, writer, and photographer Will Long. The album is released as three separate 12” singles, and CD. Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, and is also involved with the Normal Cookie and Bun Tapes labels.
Third and final twelve in the tryptich. You know what to expect by now - a simple housey beat with atmospheric pad present weaving and winding through some hard hitting Barak Obama soundbites.
Third and final twelve in the tryptich. You know what to expect by now - a simple housey beat with atmospheric pad present weaving and winding through some hard hitting Barak Obama soundbites.
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we're unsure of the future, it's worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain. "Nothing's changed," says a younger Barack Obama in a sample for the opening track for the second album from Tokyo-based, American musician, writer, and photographer Will Long. The album is released as three separate 12” singles, and CD. Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, and is also involved with the Normal Cookie and Bun Tapes labels.
This opening 12" feels things out via two simple but atmospheric tracks which see a fluttery pad present jangle with digital claps and simple 4/4 mechanics with the odd snippet of vocal chucked in randomly. It recalls the languid deep house of the late 90s but also serves as a warm introduction as to what might follow in the series...
This opening 12" feels things out via two simple but atmospheric tracks which see a fluttery pad present jangle with digital claps and simple 4/4 mechanics with the odd snippet of vocal chucked in randomly. It recalls the languid deep house of the late 90s but also serves as a warm introduction as to what might follow in the series...
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we're unsure of the future, it's worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain. "Nothing's changed," says a younger Barack Obama in a sample for the opening track for the second album from Tokyo-based, American musician, writer, and photographer Will Long. The album is released as three separate 12” singles, and CD. Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, and is also involved with the Normal Cookie and Bun Tapes labels.
Second 12" in this album series, split across three discs, we get more Obama tit-bits segued into a flawless skeletal deep house groove. Introspective and political, but with a delicate, sparsely populated sonic environment...
Second 12" in this album series, split across three discs, we get more Obama tit-bits segued into a flawless skeletal deep house groove. Introspective and political, but with a delicate, sparsely populated sonic environment...
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we're unsure of the future, it's worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain.
"Nothing's changed," says a younger Barack Obama in a sample for the opening track to Long Trax 2, the second album from Tokyo-based, American musician, writer, and photographer Will Long. The album is released as three separate 12” singles, and CD.
Long Trax 2 follows Long’s deep house debut, Long Trax, released in 2016 on Comatonse Recordings. Receiving a 4.2 rating, Long Trax was praised by Resident Advisor and described as a “meditative listen.”
Its follow-up, Long Trax 2, presents as an ongoing criticism of cultural stasis, conveyed via minimal synthesizers, sampler, and rhythm machine. Dance floors are widely perceived by the masses as safe zones, but few can imagine how to apply notions of safety and equality to other aspects of society. We shouldn't need clubs to hide from our fears and differences in the outside world. Looking ahead, we should look not so optimistically upon what we have accomplished, but with urgency and empathy upon what we haven't.
Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, and is also involved with the Normal Cookie and Bun Tapes labels.
"Nothing's changed," says a younger Barack Obama in a sample for the opening track to Long Trax 2, the second album from Tokyo-based, American musician, writer, and photographer Will Long. The album is released as three separate 12” singles, and CD.
Long Trax 2 follows Long’s deep house debut, Long Trax, released in 2016 on Comatonse Recordings. Receiving a 4.2 rating, Long Trax was praised by Resident Advisor and described as a “meditative listen.”
Its follow-up, Long Trax 2, presents as an ongoing criticism of cultural stasis, conveyed via minimal synthesizers, sampler, and rhythm machine. Dance floors are widely perceived by the masses as safe zones, but few can imagine how to apply notions of safety and equality to other aspects of society. We shouldn't need clubs to hide from our fears and differences in the outside world. Looking ahead, we should look not so optimistically upon what we have accomplished, but with urgency and empathy upon what we haven't.
Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label Two Acorns, and is also involved with the Normal Cookie and Bun Tapes labels.
Lost Girls, the new project by Norwegian avant-pop artist Jenny Hval and multi-instrumentalist Håvard Volden, conjures sounds and moods displaced from specific moments in time, existing purely in the moment but tantalizingly just outside of one's reach. The project's inaugural release, the two-track “Feeling” EP, presents a pair of extended compositions, alternately contemplative and crackling with energy, that complement each other in sound and approach while offering a unique and cohesive vision. It is out March 2nd via Smalltown Supersound.
Hval and Volden have known each other for more than a decade, the latter playing regularly in Hval's live band; in 2012, they released an album together as Nude on Sand, but instead of resurrecting that moniker, Hval and Volden opted for a fresh start, taking nomenclatural inspiration from the 2006 graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and comics artist Melinda Gebbie.
The two compositions that make up the “Feeling” EP, "Drive" and "Accept," are the results of ongoing work that took place over the past three years. The first track, "Drive," is the final recorded version of an extended composition that's been a staple of Hval's recent tours over the past several years. "It kept changing because we were improvising a lot together," she states, and that shapeshifting nature is reflected in the track itself: over thirteen minutes, frissons of electricity and hand drums give way to a persistent beat and shimmering synths that are as menacing as they are strangely serene. Above it all is Hval's vocals, delivering meditations on the nature of performance, gender, and ownership of one's self and the material things that exist in our lives. The lyrics to "Drive" also underwent many changes during the track's living gestation. "I was using words to make sense of time and music—lyrics as a compositional tool—which I found really interesting, this interplay between words as meaning and words as something that could build musical structures."
"Accept," originally recorded four years ago by Volden, is quite the left turn from the lyrical interplay and relatively formal structure of "Drive"; the eleven-minute composition is atmospheric bliss, with jagged guitar tremolo, free-jazz drumming, and intense synths puncturing pockets of silence as Hval's voice wordlessly snakes in and out of frame.
Even though Hval and Volden have played shows in Oslo, parts of the material captured on “Feeling” won't—and, due to the pair's complicated recording setup in Oslo, for the moment can't—be replicated live: "This is the death of the material," Hval explains cheerfully, "and the transcendence from being something ever-changing to something we can give to others that doesn't belong to us anymore. It's also an opportunity for us to keep making things."
Hval and Volden have known each other for more than a decade, the latter playing regularly in Hval's live band; in 2012, they released an album together as Nude on Sand, but instead of resurrecting that moniker, Hval and Volden opted for a fresh start, taking nomenclatural inspiration from the 2006 graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and comics artist Melinda Gebbie.
The two compositions that make up the “Feeling” EP, "Drive" and "Accept," are the results of ongoing work that took place over the past three years. The first track, "Drive," is the final recorded version of an extended composition that's been a staple of Hval's recent tours over the past several years. "It kept changing because we were improvising a lot together," she states, and that shapeshifting nature is reflected in the track itself: over thirteen minutes, frissons of electricity and hand drums give way to a persistent beat and shimmering synths that are as menacing as they are strangely serene. Above it all is Hval's vocals, delivering meditations on the nature of performance, gender, and ownership of one's self and the material things that exist in our lives. The lyrics to "Drive" also underwent many changes during the track's living gestation. "I was using words to make sense of time and music—lyrics as a compositional tool—which I found really interesting, this interplay between words as meaning and words as something that could build musical structures."
"Accept," originally recorded four years ago by Volden, is quite the left turn from the lyrical interplay and relatively formal structure of "Drive"; the eleven-minute composition is atmospheric bliss, with jagged guitar tremolo, free-jazz drumming, and intense synths puncturing pockets of silence as Hval's voice wordlessly snakes in and out of frame.
Even though Hval and Volden have played shows in Oslo, parts of the material captured on “Feeling” won't—and, due to the pair's complicated recording setup in Oslo, for the moment can't—be replicated live: "This is the death of the material," Hval explains cheerfully, "and the transcendence from being something ever-changing to something we can give to others that doesn't belong to us anymore. It's also an opportunity for us to keep making things."
After dominating our Piccadilly player with his recent LP "It's Alright Between Us As It Is", Norwegian disco hero Hans-Peter Lindstrøm drops a DJ friendly MAXI 12" of brand new track "Didn't Know Better". Harking back to his collaborative LP with Christabelle, this party starter is packed with infectious boogie licks, propulsive grooves, soulful strings and killer vocals from Ronika. A masterpiece of retro-futurist pop perfection, "Didn't Know Better" traces a line between mirrorball masterpieces from NYC '83, Ibiza '99 and Ross 128b in the year 2030. Alongside the sequined shimmer of the Original Version, we get an acapella, and a Lindstrom remix which piles on the feel good with Jingo style pianos, mellifluous keys and some Club Trop style riffage - utterly infectious and exactly what a dull February morning requires.
THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2017.
PICCADILLY RECORDS EXCLUSIVE:
For a limited period only, buy either the vinyl or CD of 'Kelly Lee Owens' and get a free 3 track remix CD bonus disc.
Without wishing to get too jackanory, I'm gonna start this review with a little anecdote. Way back in April 2015, when I was a little younger and lot lighter, Kelly Lee Owens strolled into our glorious establishment and casually inquired if we'd be interested in stocking her self-released debut 12". Always a sucker for something new, limited and hand labeled I took a cursory ten copies off her hands as she left for the train station. Approximately four minutes later, as the dreamlike shimmer of ghost-pop paean "Lucid" echoed through my headphones I called the number she'd left and asked if she could drop off another thirty copies without missing her train.
Fast forward two years and three Piccadilly Record Of The Weeks later and the Welsh wonder is back with a majestic full length on the excellent Smalltown Supersound. As she leads us through ten tracks of spectral techno, nebulous synth pop and squelching waveforms, Kelly meditates on anxiety, sadness and darkly-shaded ecstacy, pouring pure emotion into an expansive electronic landscape. Previous 12" tracks "Arthur", "Lucid" and the hypnotic "CBM" sound better than ever next to the brooding synth soul of "S.O." and late night mysticism of Jenny Hval collaboration "Anxi", while the bleep heavy "Evolution" is a sultry, seductive club cut for very late in the session. For me, this LP perfectly captures those moments when you get home from the club with a loved one and settle into that time honoured pre dawn routine. It's intimate, emotional, sexy and slightly blurred - in other words, midnight music at its finest.
Deluxe CD Info: This extended version includes 3 bonus tracks, "Spaces", "Pull" and "1 out of 3". Also includes a Piccadilly exclusive free CD bonus disc.
PICCADILLY RECORDS EXCLUSIVE:
For a limited period only, buy either the vinyl or CD of 'Kelly Lee Owens' and get a free 3 track remix CD bonus disc.
Without wishing to get too jackanory, I'm gonna start this review with a little anecdote. Way back in April 2015, when I was a little younger and lot lighter, Kelly Lee Owens strolled into our glorious establishment and casually inquired if we'd be interested in stocking her self-released debut 12". Always a sucker for something new, limited and hand labeled I took a cursory ten copies off her hands as she left for the train station. Approximately four minutes later, as the dreamlike shimmer of ghost-pop paean "Lucid" echoed through my headphones I called the number she'd left and asked if she could drop off another thirty copies without missing her train.
Fast forward two years and three Piccadilly Record Of The Weeks later and the Welsh wonder is back with a majestic full length on the excellent Smalltown Supersound. As she leads us through ten tracks of spectral techno, nebulous synth pop and squelching waveforms, Kelly meditates on anxiety, sadness and darkly-shaded ecstacy, pouring pure emotion into an expansive electronic landscape. Previous 12" tracks "Arthur", "Lucid" and the hypnotic "CBM" sound better than ever next to the brooding synth soul of "S.O." and late night mysticism of Jenny Hval collaboration "Anxi", while the bleep heavy "Evolution" is a sultry, seductive club cut for very late in the session. For me, this LP perfectly captures those moments when you get home from the club with a loved one and settle into that time honoured pre dawn routine. It's intimate, emotional, sexy and slightly blurred - in other words, midnight music at its finest.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: An absurdly accomplished debut, this is just about as Piccadilly as it gets, referencing our collective favourites and transforming them into something fresh and exciting. Harnessing the Cocteau’s, MBV and JAMC, as well as the rhythmic thrust of Chicago and Detroit, KLO trades in immersive, psychedelic pop music, as danceable as it is dreamy. Swathes of hazy synthesis eddy and whirl beneath crystalline vocals, lending the music an aquatic depth matched perfectly by the intimate, expressive lyrics. Fusing the outsider musings of Arthur Russell with Bjork’s cryptic poetry, Kelly meditates on anxiety, sadness, identity and ecstasy, pouring pure emotion into an expansive electronic landscape. A dynamic listen from start to finish, the LP ranges from the hypnotic thump of ‘Evolution’, ‘CBM’ and ‘Bird’ to the medicated daze of ‘S.O’, ‘Lucid’ and ‘Keep Walking’, constantly varying tempo and intensity on its way to sprawling closer ‘8’, a wonderfully blurred end to this nocturnal journey.FORMAT INFORMATION
Deluxe LP Info: Includes a Piccadilly exclusive free CD bonus disc.Deluxe CD Info: This extended version includes 3 bonus tracks, "Spaces", "Pull" and "1 out of 3". Also includes a Piccadilly exclusive free CD bonus disc.
On Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s latest album, those northern disco lights are twinkling once more. Over the continuous stream of nine interlocked tracks on It’s Alright Between Us As It Is, he’s refined his love of arpeggiated synths, warm and steamy analogue bubble baths and earworm melodies into his most rounded and complete statement to date.
A Norwegian based in Oslo, Lindstrøm has always made a virtue of his obsessive work ethic, turning his city centre studio (where his neighbours include friends and collaborators Prins Thomas, Todd Terje and Andre Bratten) into a factory floor for churning out monster tracks, then punching out regularly and going home to his family. This is about music being woven seamlessly into the fabric of life.
The album’s title is a direct quote from one of Lindstrøm’s favourite movies, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. This Swedish arthouse classic is about looking for meaning and finding closure at the end of a long life. About reaching the special place you’ve waited for all your life. A professor asks his longtime housemaid if they could become more familiar, starting with her brushing his teeth for him. She replies they shouldn’t become too intimate: ‘it’s all right between us as it is.’
The album aggregates all the best elements from his long and varied career: the Balearic free-disco excursions of his two albums with Prins Thomas, experimental cosmic voyages in the vein of Six Cups of Rebel and 2015’s collaboration with the stellar Todd Rundgren, Runddans; shimmering electronic pop featuring vocals by American singer Grace Hall (‘Shinin’) and Sweden’s Frida Sundemo (‘But Isn't It’). ‘Bungl (Like a Ghost)’ features a stream of conscious poem by transgressive Norwegian vocalist Jenny Hval. Most of all it reveals him as a masterful mood sculptor, with heart-stopping chord changes rolling over his relentlessly uplifting beats.
Conceived as a continuous flow, each side of the vinyl version will play as one track; while the CD and streaming versions will be timestamped. But in any case, once you’re strapped into Lindstrøm’s driverless vehicle, you won’t want to get out. It’s alright as it is. In fact, it’s more than alright: it’s almost nearly perfect.
A Norwegian based in Oslo, Lindstrøm has always made a virtue of his obsessive work ethic, turning his city centre studio (where his neighbours include friends and collaborators Prins Thomas, Todd Terje and Andre Bratten) into a factory floor for churning out monster tracks, then punching out regularly and going home to his family. This is about music being woven seamlessly into the fabric of life.
The album’s title is a direct quote from one of Lindstrøm’s favourite movies, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. This Swedish arthouse classic is about looking for meaning and finding closure at the end of a long life. About reaching the special place you’ve waited for all your life. A professor asks his longtime housemaid if they could become more familiar, starting with her brushing his teeth for him. She replies they shouldn’t become too intimate: ‘it’s all right between us as it is.’
The album aggregates all the best elements from his long and varied career: the Balearic free-disco excursions of his two albums with Prins Thomas, experimental cosmic voyages in the vein of Six Cups of Rebel and 2015’s collaboration with the stellar Todd Rundgren, Runddans; shimmering electronic pop featuring vocals by American singer Grace Hall (‘Shinin’) and Sweden’s Frida Sundemo (‘But Isn't It’). ‘Bungl (Like a Ghost)’ features a stream of conscious poem by transgressive Norwegian vocalist Jenny Hval. Most of all it reveals him as a masterful mood sculptor, with heart-stopping chord changes rolling over his relentlessly uplifting beats.
Conceived as a continuous flow, each side of the vinyl version will play as one track; while the CD and streaming versions will be timestamped. But in any case, once you’re strapped into Lindstrøm’s driverless vehicle, you won’t want to get out. It’s alright as it is. In fact, it’s more than alright: it’s almost nearly perfect.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Eschewing the proggy flavours of recent work in favour of the twinkling arps, crisp percussion and gliding basslines of his early years, Lindstrøm returns with a blast of pure disco euphoria.
After joining forces on the collaborative album “Square One” earlier this year, Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas are now ready to share their brand new 12inch named “Arpa”. The new 12inch is the perfect continuation of the album. Prins Thomas explains:
”After the initial "Square One"sessions we felt that "Arpa" was less of a "teamplayer"and one that would be difficult to shoehorn naturally into position on the album. Where the album sounded more like breaking new(old) ground between the two of us, "Arpa"is the one that felt most like an expected outcome from these sessions. Purpose made for adventurous dancefloors, either on earth or in a parallel universe you'll find "Arpa"in 3 versions. The original with it's sparse BUT "all hands on the desk"arrangement, the chopped up and reassembled remix with it's static energy cranked up to the max and last but not least the "Plastikman BUT in the 60's..." version in "drum version". Once again utilizing a giant mixing desk for the arrangement, 4 hands(+ other free limbs), the percussive elements are let free to roam in what we call a "dj-unfriendly tool"”
”After the initial "Square One"sessions we felt that "Arpa" was less of a "teamplayer"and one that would be difficult to shoehorn naturally into position on the album. Where the album sounded more like breaking new(old) ground between the two of us, "Arpa"is the one that felt most like an expected outcome from these sessions. Purpose made for adventurous dancefloors, either on earth or in a parallel universe you'll find "Arpa"in 3 versions. The original with it's sparse BUT "all hands on the desk"arrangement, the chopped up and reassembled remix with it's static energy cranked up to the max and last but not least the "Plastikman BUT in the 60's..." version in "drum version". Once again utilizing a giant mixing desk for the arrangement, 4 hands(+ other free limbs), the percussive elements are let free to roam in what we call a "dj-unfriendly tool"”
We’re all on our own unique emotional road trips. "Infinite Avenue" happens to be Carmen’s. Here she is, holed up in the Motel Nowheresville, unpacking a suitcase full of stories of guilt, desire, rage, apathy, love and friendship, loneliness, nature, inner demons and other tales of twenty-first century womanhood. Carmen Villain is half-Norwegian and half-Mexican, born in the USA and now living in Oslo, Norway, having moved back after living in London for a few years. She has a lot of stories to tell.
A makeshift studio, an infinite avenue. Writing, recording and producing alone, Carmen’s intensely personal songs are entirely self-created, made up of tapestries of guitar, piano, programmed drums and synths, making the most she could out of her limited gear. Her music, her rules… Once she had arrived at enough tracks for a follow-up album to 2013’s Sleeper, some of them were mixed with experimental house producer Matt Karmil and "Quietly" was treated by noise improviser Helge Sten (aka Deathprod).
Taboo-busting Norwegian artist Jenny Hval contributes lyrics and vocals on "Borders", a song especially relevant among today’s tightening frontiers in America and elsewhere. "Red Desert" is titled after the legendary Antonioni movie about a woman’s survival tactics in a surreal industrial landscape full of threats and existential crisis. ‘To me the movie feels like a perfect visual representation of what it can be like to be anxious and uncomfortable in your head sometimes,’ says Carmen. Musically, Infinite Avenue has a similar effect.
With Infinite Avenue, Carmen Villain’s songwriting and production skills have taken a major leap forward, and on the final, ethereal "Planetarium" her voice shoots into the stratosphere, riding the comet tail of a Korg bass drone. It’s about acknowledging the immensity of the universe, while remembering that we’ve each got our own private constellation of issues to deal with down here. It’s a typically Villainous contrast of rapture and irony, with a murmured coda recorded as she was falling asleep one night. ‘Everything I write has to be true,’ she says, ‘even if I sometimes find it’s too confessional. Whatever was my truth at that moment.’
The hollow-eyed lady on the cover, that’s Hollywood actress Gena Rowlands, partner of the late director John Cassavetes – a heroine of Carmen’s because of the way her face and body can so brilliantly express psychological states, nervousness, being stressed out, anxiety without necessarily using words. A freakish dream sequence in Love Streams, where she gambles with the love of her estranged husband and child and desperately tries to make them laugh with a bunch of practical-joke toys, is manic genius – and one of Carmen’s favourite film scenes. Ms Rowlands, by the way, personally approved the use of her image for this project.
A famous movie maker once called film ‘truth at 24 frames per second’. With Infinite Avenue, you get an earful of truth at 33 1/3 revs per minute.
A makeshift studio, an infinite avenue. Writing, recording and producing alone, Carmen’s intensely personal songs are entirely self-created, made up of tapestries of guitar, piano, programmed drums and synths, making the most she could out of her limited gear. Her music, her rules… Once she had arrived at enough tracks for a follow-up album to 2013’s Sleeper, some of them were mixed with experimental house producer Matt Karmil and "Quietly" was treated by noise improviser Helge Sten (aka Deathprod).
Taboo-busting Norwegian artist Jenny Hval contributes lyrics and vocals on "Borders", a song especially relevant among today’s tightening frontiers in America and elsewhere. "Red Desert" is titled after the legendary Antonioni movie about a woman’s survival tactics in a surreal industrial landscape full of threats and existential crisis. ‘To me the movie feels like a perfect visual representation of what it can be like to be anxious and uncomfortable in your head sometimes,’ says Carmen. Musically, Infinite Avenue has a similar effect.
With Infinite Avenue, Carmen Villain’s songwriting and production skills have taken a major leap forward, and on the final, ethereal "Planetarium" her voice shoots into the stratosphere, riding the comet tail of a Korg bass drone. It’s about acknowledging the immensity of the universe, while remembering that we’ve each got our own private constellation of issues to deal with down here. It’s a typically Villainous contrast of rapture and irony, with a murmured coda recorded as she was falling asleep one night. ‘Everything I write has to be true,’ she says, ‘even if I sometimes find it’s too confessional. Whatever was my truth at that moment.’
The hollow-eyed lady on the cover, that’s Hollywood actress Gena Rowlands, partner of the late director John Cassavetes – a heroine of Carmen’s because of the way her face and body can so brilliantly express psychological states, nervousness, being stressed out, anxiety without necessarily using words. A freakish dream sequence in Love Streams, where she gambles with the love of her estranged husband and child and desperately tries to make them laugh with a bunch of practical-joke toys, is manic genius – and one of Carmen’s favourite film scenes. Ms Rowlands, by the way, personally approved the use of her image for this project.
A famous movie maker once called film ‘truth at 24 frames per second’. With Infinite Avenue, you get an earful of truth at 33 1/3 revs per minute.
After a session together in a Bergen studio 20 years ago which sadly only resulted in a distorted tape, Bjørn Torske and Prins Thomas finally get back together to make music. Bjørn Torske is a figurehead and grand old man of the electronic music scene in Norway, inspiring and laying the foundation for producers like Prins Thomas, Lindstrom and Todd Terje. Bjørn and Thomas' relationship goes back to the mid 90's when they first bonded over a shared passion for oddball disco, dub and detroit techno. This album is in many ways full circle with Bjorn and Thomas making music together for the first time. Square One is a collection of loose, abstract and freeform avant-disco jams, parallel world-disco maybe? Whatever you call it, this album is a labour of love. A sound they both have traveled towards for all these years. And here they finally are, at square one. The album was recorded live in Taakeheimen Studio, Oslo, in the spring of 2015 with both guys manning an instrument each in each overdub, piling the layers of sounds on top of each other. A year later they took the now edited tracks and mixed them down in live takes with all hands on the desk in Malabar, another Oslo studio. After a couple of rounds with some very blunt scissors the tracks became what are now included on this album. "Square One" is a meeting of two minds. Probably as close to their musical soul as you can get.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: The perfect alchemy of the Norwegian dreambeam’s diverse styles, ‘Square One’ offers dubby basslines, motorik rhythms, tribal vibes and trippy sound design. Far out!
Carmen Villain returns with the 'Planetarium' EP, the follow-up to her 2013 debut, Sleeper. In the span of the last few solitudinous years, the US-born, half-Norwegian and half-Mexican has honed and nurtured her songwriting and production craft, while still drawing from the gossamer atmospheres of 'Sleeper.' She weaved the hyper-personal songs in peaceful seclusion, creating starry tapestries of field recordings, piano, guitars, programmed drums and synths. The slow build of "Planetarium" with its emotive strings and spectral vocals slots perfectly into the artist's growing catalogue, while Gigi Masin's ambient excursions are works of true beauty. Music for dreamers and drifters.
Without wishing to get too jackanory, I'm gonna start this review with a little anecdote. Way back in April 2015, when I was a little younger and lot lighter, Kelly Lee Owens strolled into our glorious establishment and casually inquired if we'd be interested in stocking her self-released debut 12". Always a sucker for something new, limited and hand labeled I took a cursory ten copies off her hands as she left for the train station. Approximately four minutes later, as the dreamlike shimmer of ghost-pop paean "Lucid" echoed through my headphones I called the number she'd left and asked if she could drop off another thirty copies without missing her train.
Fast forward two years and three Piccadilly Record Of The Weeks later and the Welsh wonder is back with a majestic full length on the excellent Smalltown Supersound. As she leads us through ten tracks of spectral techno, nebulous synth pop and squelching waveforms, Kelly meditates on anxiety, sadness and darkly-shaded ecstacy, pouring pure emotion into an expansive electronic landscape. Previous 12" tracks "Arthur", "Lucid" and the hypnotic "CBM" sound better than ever next to the brooding synth soul of "S.O." and late night mysticism of Jenny Hval collaboration "Anxi", while the bleep heavy "Evolution" is a sultry, seductive club cut for very late in the session. For me, this LP perfectly captures those moments when you get home from the club with a loved one and settle into that time honoured pre dawn routine. It's intimate, emotional, sexy and slightly blurred - in other words, midnight music at its finest.
Patrick says: Currently uniting the staff in slack-jawed adoration, Kelly Lee Owens comes entirely correct with a sublime debut album. Moonlit, moody and saturated with a Lynchian haze, the LP combines subtle synth pop, cerebral techno and sensual electronics into the perfect post club listen. Expect this to feature highly in all the end of year charts!
Fast forward two years and three Piccadilly Record Of The Weeks later and the Welsh wonder is back with a majestic full length on the excellent Smalltown Supersound. As she leads us through ten tracks of spectral techno, nebulous synth pop and squelching waveforms, Kelly meditates on anxiety, sadness and darkly-shaded ecstacy, pouring pure emotion into an expansive electronic landscape. Previous 12" tracks "Arthur", "Lucid" and the hypnotic "CBM" sound better than ever next to the brooding synth soul of "S.O." and late night mysticism of Jenny Hval collaboration "Anxi", while the bleep heavy "Evolution" is a sultry, seductive club cut for very late in the session. For me, this LP perfectly captures those moments when you get home from the club with a loved one and settle into that time honoured pre dawn routine. It's intimate, emotional, sexy and slightly blurred - in other words, midnight music at its finest.
STAFF COMMENTS
Sil says: Lots of crossover potential here. Ranging from electronic pop sensibilities to more danceable and accessible club tools. Owens' work is multifaceted, visceral and gentle. Truly essential.Patrick says: Currently uniting the staff in slack-jawed adoration, Kelly Lee Owens comes entirely correct with a sublime debut album. Moonlit, moody and saturated with a Lynchian haze, the LP combines subtle synth pop, cerebral techno and sensual electronics into the perfect post club listen. Expect this to feature highly in all the end of year charts!
Every year/year and a half, Smalltown Supersound founder Joakim Haugland puts together a label compilation to see where the labels at and where it`s heading. To see it from the outside sort of. To find the flow, and the red thread. This year's compilation became a 2016 Best Of Compilation, with tracks from all of the albums and EPs released in 2016. 9 tracks from Biosphere, Prins Thomas, Dungen, Supersilent, Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Mr Tophat & Robyn, Mungolian Jetset and Dan Lissvik.
We hope you like these auteur jams!
We hope you like these auteur jams!
In between the release of Dungen’s most recent two albums (2010’s Skit I Allt and 2015’s Allas Sak), the beloved Stockholm quartet was asked to create an original score to Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 touchstone The Adventures of Prince Achmed, understood to be the oldest surviving full-length animated feature film. Inspired by the work and the characters – Prince Achmed, Peri Banu, Aladdin, the Sorcerer, and most of all, the Witch – the members of Dungen immersed themselves into the groundbreaking visual language of this landmark film.
Häxan (translation: “The Witch”) is Dungen’s first all-instrumental album. Produced by Mathias Glavå, and recorded, mixed, and edited by hand to tape entirely in the analog domain, Häxan was sequenced away from the linear narrative of the film. This process helped to create a path of its own, fully capturing the rawness and spontaneity present in the sessions, as well as a loose, abstract, and fragmented collage feel. Dense with dissonant free-form rock-outs, haunting ambient passages, and gorgeously cinematic soundscapes present in the work, Häxan is a record that stands on its own outside of the presence of its primary inspiration. Moody, evocative, stormy, and brimming with life, Häxan provides both a tacit summation of the Dungen journey until now, and gives the beloved group a chance to stretch out like never before.
Experience the possessed prowess of "Jakten genom skogen,” the first single from Häxan bearing all the marks — from Mellotron to mood — of a classic Dungen composition.
Häxan (translation: “The Witch”) is Dungen’s first all-instrumental album. Produced by Mathias Glavå, and recorded, mixed, and edited by hand to tape entirely in the analog domain, Häxan was sequenced away from the linear narrative of the film. This process helped to create a path of its own, fully capturing the rawness and spontaneity present in the sessions, as well as a loose, abstract, and fragmented collage feel. Dense with dissonant free-form rock-outs, haunting ambient passages, and gorgeously cinematic soundscapes present in the work, Häxan is a record that stands on its own outside of the presence of its primary inspiration. Moody, evocative, stormy, and brimming with life, Häxan provides both a tacit summation of the Dungen journey until now, and gives the beloved group a chance to stretch out like never before.
Experience the possessed prowess of "Jakten genom skogen,” the first single from Häxan bearing all the marks — from Mellotron to mood — of a classic Dungen composition.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: From serene post-rock passages to lengthy psychedelic freakouts, and flowing jazzy interludes, Dungen pull out an instrumental stunner. Progressive and profoundly varied, this has something for everyone.
Without knowing it, you've probably heard Kelly Lee Owens' work over the past few years: the 27-year-old London producer contributed vocals and writing to several tracks on fellow UK techno wizard Daniel Avery's debut LP, 2014's Drone Logic, and she's made waves with a pair of limited-release 12" singles showcasing her gifts for spectral, hallucinatory pop. On Oleic, her debut release on Smalltown Supersound, Owens flexes her considerable muscle as a dance producer with four luscious, deeply satisfying slices of big-room electronic music. If previous single "Arthur" tugged at the threads of expansive house music, then Oleic finds Owens fully immersed in cavernous bass, circuitous melodical phrasing, and intricately textured synths. "C.B.M." wanders ominously through a thicket of rushed snares and distant synths, with Owens' vocal incantations occasionally emerging through the fog. Oleic's title track is ecstatic club fare, an endless loop doing swan dives around a patient, sturdy backbeat.
On the B-side, Owens' remix of Norwegian avant-musician Jenny Hval's "Kingsize" provides an experiment in the use of negative space, turning Hval's original into a propulsive, handclap-dotted journey with a few synth squiggles here and there that provide jarring bursts of color.
Oleic closes with a throwback to the days of Midwestern acid with the aptly named "Elliptic," all crisp drums and stuttering vocal samples with acid's signature squelches just close enough to touch the elements around them. It's a closer on an EP that showcases deep range and know-how when it comes to dance music's past and present, and Oleic only draws further intrigue as to what the future holds for Owens.
On the B-side, Owens' remix of Norwegian avant-musician Jenny Hval's "Kingsize" provides an experiment in the use of negative space, turning Hval's original into a propulsive, handclap-dotted journey with a few synth squiggles here and there that provide jarring bursts of color.
Oleic closes with a throwback to the days of Midwestern acid with the aptly named "Elliptic," all crisp drums and stuttering vocal samples with acid's signature squelches just close enough to touch the elements around them. It's a closer on an EP that showcases deep range and know-how when it comes to dance music's past and present, and Oleic only draws further intrigue as to what the future holds for Owens.
STAFF COMMENTS
Patrick says: Piccadilly favourite and all round unstoppable force Kelly Lee Owens follows two black label excursions into synthesized dream pop with a four tracker of immersive techno. Somehow slinky AND slamming, these four floor warming cuts provide sensory boosts for the mind, body and soul - highly recommended!
You can’t accuse Supersilent of keeping the noise down. Ever since the Big Crunch of 1997, when Norway’s finest free music outfit came together for the first time, their unpredictable noises and rapturous textures have been heard all around the world – and maybe somewhere outside the stratosphere too. Currently a trio featuring Helge Sten, Arve Henriksen and Ståle Storløkken, Supersilent ’s album number 13 marks a turning point in the group’s two-decade career. After a dozen recordings under the umbrella of the diverse Rune Grammofon label, Supersilent have now signed to Oslo based Smalltown Supersound, where they join the likes of Lindstrøm, DJ Harvey, Prins Thomas and Andre Bratten as labelmates.
Supersilent is a platform for a highly physical improvised electronic music, made by a trio that’s a kind of supergroup of Norwegian players in their own right. Arve Henriksen’s hypnotic trumpet has been heard with everyone from David Sylvian and Laurie Anderson to Jan Bang and the ice music of Terje Isungset, as well as releasing a string of acclaimed solo albums on Rune Grammofon. Keyboardist Ståle Storløkken has worked with Motorpsycho, Elephant9, Terje Rypdal, and the Humcrush duo with Sidsel Endresen. Helge Sten uses a complex array of homemade electronics, samplers, sound processing and analogue effects – cumulatively known as the ‘Audio Virus’ – in his solo ambient music as Deathprod, as well as having worked with Motorpsycho and producing artists like Susanna.
Supersilent was born when Sten injected the audio virus into a pre-existing late 90s free jazz group called Veslefrekk. Originally featuring drummer Jarle Vespestad, Supersilent slimmed to an electronic three-piece core in 2009, with all three often handling their respective instruments as if they were percussion, stabbing buttons and keys in real time. Recently Supersilent threw the legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones into the mix for a series of improvised concerts and recordings.
Most of 13’s nine tracks were taped in an Oslo studio at the end of 2014. The band record everything live, while blasting their sound through a PA system, so that they can feel the physical air moving as if they were on stage. Tracks 1 and 5 date from 2009, immediately after their drummer’s exit. ‘They were tryout sessions to see how we should proceed,’ says Helge. ‘It was a kind of research for the band to feel how is to be three, not four, and to blow off some steam.’
All of Supersilent’s music is entirely unplanned, with all three experienced musical adventurers throwing themselves into the moment and riding the emerging maelstrom. They always manage to surprise you, whether it’s the Indonesian ritual music heard from a Scandinavian mountaintop on the opening track ‘13.1’, to the demonic organ blasts at the end of ‘13.5’; or from haunting, pastoral atmosphere pieces (‘13.6’) to all-out splatter-improv (‘13.7’) and the compressed digital labyrinths of 13.9.
The trio swap instruments with abandon: percussion, trumpet and woodwind, electronics and Storløkken’s collectable assortment of vintage keyboards. In this technologised environment, sounds are passed around, distorted and spat out again in tantalising splurges. ‘It takes time to shape a band from the beginning,’ says Helge, ‘but for us now the trio is working really well’. With Supersilent’s lucky 13, now you can be the judge of that.
Supersilent is a platform for a highly physical improvised electronic music, made by a trio that’s a kind of supergroup of Norwegian players in their own right. Arve Henriksen’s hypnotic trumpet has been heard with everyone from David Sylvian and Laurie Anderson to Jan Bang and the ice music of Terje Isungset, as well as releasing a string of acclaimed solo albums on Rune Grammofon. Keyboardist Ståle Storløkken has worked with Motorpsycho, Elephant9, Terje Rypdal, and the Humcrush duo with Sidsel Endresen. Helge Sten uses a complex array of homemade electronics, samplers, sound processing and analogue effects – cumulatively known as the ‘Audio Virus’ – in his solo ambient music as Deathprod, as well as having worked with Motorpsycho and producing artists like Susanna.
Supersilent was born when Sten injected the audio virus into a pre-existing late 90s free jazz group called Veslefrekk. Originally featuring drummer Jarle Vespestad, Supersilent slimmed to an electronic three-piece core in 2009, with all three often handling their respective instruments as if they were percussion, stabbing buttons and keys in real time. Recently Supersilent threw the legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones into the mix for a series of improvised concerts and recordings.
Most of 13’s nine tracks were taped in an Oslo studio at the end of 2014. The band record everything live, while blasting their sound through a PA system, so that they can feel the physical air moving as if they were on stage. Tracks 1 and 5 date from 2009, immediately after their drummer’s exit. ‘They were tryout sessions to see how we should proceed,’ says Helge. ‘It was a kind of research for the band to feel how is to be three, not four, and to blow off some steam.’
All of Supersilent’s music is entirely unplanned, with all three experienced musical adventurers throwing themselves into the moment and riding the emerging maelstrom. They always manage to surprise you, whether it’s the Indonesian ritual music heard from a Scandinavian mountaintop on the opening track ‘13.1’, to the demonic organ blasts at the end of ‘13.5’; or from haunting, pastoral atmosphere pieces (‘13.6’) to all-out splatter-improv (‘13.7’) and the compressed digital labyrinths of 13.9.
The trio swap instruments with abandon: percussion, trumpet and woodwind, electronics and Storløkken’s collectable assortment of vintage keyboards. In this technologised environment, sounds are passed around, distorted and spat out again in tantalising splurges. ‘It takes time to shape a band from the beginning,’ says Helge, ‘but for us now the trio is working really well’. With Supersilent’s lucky 13, now you can be the judge of that.
After teasing us with the "Shuvit" 12" in 2015, Smalltown Supersound treat us to a brand new instrumental LP from Dan Lissvik (formerly of Studio), composed in 2015, the year Lissvik became a father for the first time. The title refers to the time he would start his recording sessions after his wife and newborn baby went to bed. "Midnight" is filled with the Dan Lissvik signature sounds; gentle guitars, laidback bass, dubby disco, lush Balearic and sun-drenched psychedelics. The album was recorded at home with a stripped back setup of an analog graphic equalizer he found at a flea market, a bass guitar and a mic. He worked at night with a thermos of coffee, while his young family slept in the room furthest away from his studio. His process was to press record and let the midnight jams unfurl, resulting in a sound and mood that has shifted since his previous release, 'Meditation', under the moniker Atelje in January 2015. Ten years ago, Dan Lissvik was instrumental in kicking off the midnoughties Balearic revival alongside his partner in the group Studio, Rasmus Hägg. Both came from the frozen coast of Sweden (rather than Ibiza) and their debut "West Coast" was hailed as one of 2006’s best releases, and a true Piccadilly Records classic. Their sound was a blissful, effortless, laidback afrobeat-kraut-disco-pop and won a legion of fans. Now, ten years after the release of "West Coast", as the influence of Studio’s work reverberates up through a new generation of producers (Jamie xx sampled a beach-blissed loop from it for “Girl”), Lissvik’s "Midnight" is right on time.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Vinyl comes with CD version of the album enclosed.
Following Prins Thomas’ lovingly received 4xLP vinyl ambient record Principe Del Norte released last week, Smalltown Supersound announce the equally sprawling remix package to compliment it, including remixes from seminal ambient legends The Orb and artists featured on his ‘Paradise Goulash’ mix in 2015; Sun Araw, Young Marco, I:Cube, Ricardo Villalobos and, for this 12" release, Hieroglyphic Being.
A star pairing of two stone cold stalwarts of their respective scenes, Chicago's leading sound wizard, Hieroglyphic Being reworks Nordic space house / disco demigod Prins Thomas' ambient dreamscape "D", taken from his lavish "Principe Del Norte" 4xLP. The Chicago shaman conjures up a mystic blend of elements for his remix; rich orchestration from the original mixed with his trademark barrage of frenetic drum machines and a brooding, bitter-sweet sheen that occasionally breaks through the celestial murkage. Both serene, urgent and intoxicating in equal measure, once it's got you in its grasp you'll be hooked till the end. On the flip Mr. Moss offers us another interpretation of the original, utilizing collaged strings, keys and space glimmers demolished by side-chained drum machine abuse and bursts of black matter. It's possibly the more epic and transient of the two, building slowly through its course but ending up somewhere really quite magical; the delicate, angelic melodies all converging on the mechanical blasts in a blissful display of machine-fuelled showmanship.
A star pairing of two stone cold stalwarts of their respective scenes, Chicago's leading sound wizard, Hieroglyphic Being reworks Nordic space house / disco demigod Prins Thomas' ambient dreamscape "D", taken from his lavish "Principe Del Norte" 4xLP. The Chicago shaman conjures up a mystic blend of elements for his remix; rich orchestration from the original mixed with his trademark barrage of frenetic drum machines and a brooding, bitter-sweet sheen that occasionally breaks through the celestial murkage. Both serene, urgent and intoxicating in equal measure, once it's got you in its grasp you'll be hooked till the end. On the flip Mr. Moss offers us another interpretation of the original, utilizing collaged strings, keys and space glimmers demolished by side-chained drum machine abuse and bursts of black matter. It's possibly the more epic and transient of the two, building slowly through its course but ending up somewhere really quite magical; the delicate, angelic melodies all converging on the mechanical blasts in a blissful display of machine-fuelled showmanship.
Nordic disco / house hero and Piccadilly Records favourite Prins Thomas is back, gracing Smalltown Supersound with his fourth solo LP. Here is a little message from Thomas about the album:
"There's a certain risk some of you are already overfed, with the 'Paradise Goulash' still piping hot on the stove…but anyway, here it goes… I've known Joakim (Mr. Smalltown) professionally for quite a few years now and I've worked on many projects for him, mainly doing remixes like Nissenenmondai, Lindstrom, Alf-Emil Eik, Idjut Boys and so on.
A couple of years ago he asked me to consider doing an album for him. At the time I was busy concentrating on gathering material for what would become my 2nd album (Prins Thomas II) on my own label Full Pupp and I was not entirely friendly to the idea of giving away my solo material to somebody else's label. However, the possibility of doing something different seemed an option but at the time I had no “different" in mind and I generally try not to force ideas.
Then, roughly a year ago an Instagram-post and a recommendation of a posthumous release by Swedish producer Joel Brindefalk, sparked an idea. I likened his "Doobedoo Dub’e'dope" release under the moniker Ü’s to KLF's "Chill Out” and The Orb's "Peel Session EP". That had Joakim and me enthusing about those early 90s electronica releases. So I set off on the task at hand, making an ambient album, leaving conventional drums and drum machines out of the equation.
So that's basically it, a few tracks loosely inspired by the braindance of the 90s and its themes and components reworked into slightly more danceable counterparts. The song "titles" refers to the sides of the vinyl version. Matching tracks up with their melodic partners is up to the listener. How you listen to this album is entirely up to you but I'd recommend finding center position in front of your speakers, a comfortable couch or chair and dedicate yourself to the music for a long hour" - Prins Thomas,
"There's a certain risk some of you are already overfed, with the 'Paradise Goulash' still piping hot on the stove…but anyway, here it goes… I've known Joakim (Mr. Smalltown) professionally for quite a few years now and I've worked on many projects for him, mainly doing remixes like Nissenenmondai, Lindstrom, Alf-Emil Eik, Idjut Boys and so on.
A couple of years ago he asked me to consider doing an album for him. At the time I was busy concentrating on gathering material for what would become my 2nd album (Prins Thomas II) on my own label Full Pupp and I was not entirely friendly to the idea of giving away my solo material to somebody else's label. However, the possibility of doing something different seemed an option but at the time I had no “different" in mind and I generally try not to force ideas.
Then, roughly a year ago an Instagram-post and a recommendation of a posthumous release by Swedish producer Joel Brindefalk, sparked an idea. I likened his "Doobedoo Dub’e'dope" release under the moniker Ü’s to KLF's "Chill Out” and The Orb's "Peel Session EP". That had Joakim and me enthusing about those early 90s electronica releases. So I set off on the task at hand, making an ambient album, leaving conventional drums and drum machines out of the equation.
So that's basically it, a few tracks loosely inspired by the braindance of the 90s and its themes and components reworked into slightly more danceable counterparts. The song "titles" refers to the sides of the vinyl version. Matching tracks up with their melodic partners is up to the listener. How you listen to this album is entirely up to you but I'd recommend finding center position in front of your speakers, a comfortable couch or chair and dedicate yourself to the music for a long hour" - Prins Thomas,
STAFF COMMENTS
Martin says: Thomas Moen Hermansen always drew his influences from a broad musical palette, even if at first he confined his genius to the seemingly oxymoronic Norwegian disco genre. It is no surprise then that Mr.Hermansen might want to express his talent in other areas - he has injected psyche and kraut rock into the beats in more recent work; in Principe Del Norte he explores more meditative electronic territories, although consistency is maintained here with nods in the direction of Harmonia, Manuel Göttsching and Cluster.FORMAT INFORMATION
Vinyl comes with CD version of the album enclosed.
“'Gode' is a personal album. It's the album I have always wanted to make” says André Bratten.
The album was made between 2012 - 2015 in Oslo and Bratten sites artists like Giacinto Scelsi, Arvo Pärt, Gescom/AE, Brian Eno and Norwegian compatriot Biosphere as inspiration. “Gode" has a dual meaning in Norwegian. It’s a Middle English word that gave us the modern English word “Goad” (meaning to provoke or annoy). On the one hand it literally means “cattle prod”, a farming tool used to, er, prod cattle. But it also came to mean “a right or privilege” as the cattle prod came to symbolize the indentured labour of the Norwegian rural working class. The land owning aristocrats would exploit the people as if they were so much livestock. Like a stark black & white film, the record is a meditation on the darker days of Norway’s past, before the country discovered its oil wealth. From 1900 - 1939 it was one of Europe’s poorest countries, beset by illness and starvation even. Rural poor depended completely on their families and had more children to work the land. Only the privileged could afford to make art, and Bratten thinks of the void all the music and art from the poorest families that was lost. “Gode” is a hymn to those people.
“Gode” is Bratten giving free rein to his imagination and further deepening his unique musical practice. His previous work was made with synthesizers, drum machines and computers but this album is recorded through tape machines, layered with field recordings, heavily modified piano, string arrangements and even vocals (amongst others Susanne Sundfør).
The album was made between 2012 - 2015 in Oslo and Bratten sites artists like Giacinto Scelsi, Arvo Pärt, Gescom/AE, Brian Eno and Norwegian compatriot Biosphere as inspiration. “Gode" has a dual meaning in Norwegian. It’s a Middle English word that gave us the modern English word “Goad” (meaning to provoke or annoy). On the one hand it literally means “cattle prod”, a farming tool used to, er, prod cattle. But it also came to mean “a right or privilege” as the cattle prod came to symbolize the indentured labour of the Norwegian rural working class. The land owning aristocrats would exploit the people as if they were so much livestock. Like a stark black & white film, the record is a meditation on the darker days of Norway’s past, before the country discovered its oil wealth. From 1900 - 1939 it was one of Europe’s poorest countries, beset by illness and starvation even. Rural poor depended completely on their families and had more children to work the land. Only the privileged could afford to make art, and Bratten thinks of the void all the music and art from the poorest families that was lost. “Gode” is a hymn to those people.
“Gode” is Bratten giving free rein to his imagination and further deepening his unique musical practice. His previous work was made with synthesizers, drum machines and computers but this album is recorded through tape machines, layered with field recordings, heavily modified piano, string arrangements and even vocals (amongst others Susanne Sundfør).
FORMAT INFORMATION
Vinyl comes with CD version of the album enclosed.
Dungen frontman/mastermind Gustav Ejstes has been making music for nearly twenty years—at first for himself, then eventually and inevitably for all of us. As a teenager in rural Sweden, he became obsessed with hip-hop and sampling. Digging through crates and searching for obscure source material provided him with an informal education in ‘60s pop and psychedelia, and soon he learned to play the bits and pieces he was sampling. He took up guitar and bass, drums and keyboard and even flute, then took to his grandmother’s basement to put it all on tape.
When Ejstes recorded his first album, he released it in 2001 under the name Dungen, which means “The Grove”— a nod to his village upbringing or perhaps a deeper reference to American folk songs like “Shady Grove.” While his music has routinely garnered comparisons to acts like Love, Pink Floyd, the Electric Prunes, and Os Mutantes, he has always emphasized a strong sense of songcraft. The music has deep roots in the past, but it blooms in the present.
With 2004’s breakout Ta Det Lugnt Dungen garnered an avid fanbase outside of Scandinavia. Only on the road did Dungen blossom into a full band, with a rotation of musicians joining Ejstes onstage and eventually coalescing into a fully democratic band that includes Reine Fiske on guitar, Mattias Gustavsson on bass, and Johan Holmegard on drums. Starting with 2007’s Tio Bitar and 2009’s 4, the band members helped Ejstes realize his own vision while adding flourishes of their own. As a result, Dungen grew into something bigger and more formidable: one of the best and most consistently inventive psych rock bands in the world.
At the height of their powers, however, the band took a step back. It’s been five years since the last Dungen album, 2010’s Skit I Allt, which is by far the longest interval between releases for a band that proved especially prolific and inspired during the 2000s. Allas Sak picks up where Dungen’s previous album left off, but somehow it sounds bolder and livelier, feistier yet more focused. The quartet jam with greater purpose and principle on songs like the otherworldly instrumental “Franks Kaktus” and the stately “En Gång Om Året,” while the prismatic “Flickor Och Pojkar” and closer “Sova” reveal subtle nuances in the band’s arrangements.
The band brought in “a good friend of ours” named Mattias Glavå to produce the record. In addition to helming records for the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sambassadeur, and the Amazing, Glavå worked with Dungen on 2005’s Stadsvandringar, which made these sessions a reunion of sorts. “Mattias is a true wizard of analog sound engineering, but he’s more than a technique nerd,” says Ejstes. “He’s the ultimate hand between my vision of a sound and reality.”
Glavå suggested the band work out songs before they entered the studio, rather than writing during the sessions. It was a different way of working, but one that Ejstes found invigorating. “He suggested we come to his studio with finished songs, and we did live takes directly to tape—the old-school way. It has truly been a quite different experience from the earlier records.” Allas Sak is about everyday matters: family, friends, the fine texture of life. Common but never mundane, these subjects anchor the music in the here and now, while the music lends a certain grandeur to ordinary moments. “Lyrics are very important to me,” says Ejstes. “These songs are my everyday experiences, my thoughts and stories from the life I live. I hope people can create their own stories around the music and maybe we can make music together, the listener and I.”
When Ejstes recorded his first album, he released it in 2001 under the name Dungen, which means “The Grove”— a nod to his village upbringing or perhaps a deeper reference to American folk songs like “Shady Grove.” While his music has routinely garnered comparisons to acts like Love, Pink Floyd, the Electric Prunes, and Os Mutantes, he has always emphasized a strong sense of songcraft. The music has deep roots in the past, but it blooms in the present.
With 2004’s breakout Ta Det Lugnt Dungen garnered an avid fanbase outside of Scandinavia. Only on the road did Dungen blossom into a full band, with a rotation of musicians joining Ejstes onstage and eventually coalescing into a fully democratic band that includes Reine Fiske on guitar, Mattias Gustavsson on bass, and Johan Holmegard on drums. Starting with 2007’s Tio Bitar and 2009’s 4, the band members helped Ejstes realize his own vision while adding flourishes of their own. As a result, Dungen grew into something bigger and more formidable: one of the best and most consistently inventive psych rock bands in the world.
At the height of their powers, however, the band took a step back. It’s been five years since the last Dungen album, 2010’s Skit I Allt, which is by far the longest interval between releases for a band that proved especially prolific and inspired during the 2000s. Allas Sak picks up where Dungen’s previous album left off, but somehow it sounds bolder and livelier, feistier yet more focused. The quartet jam with greater purpose and principle on songs like the otherworldly instrumental “Franks Kaktus” and the stately “En Gång Om Året,” while the prismatic “Flickor Och Pojkar” and closer “Sova” reveal subtle nuances in the band’s arrangements.
The band brought in “a good friend of ours” named Mattias Glavå to produce the record. In addition to helming records for the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sambassadeur, and the Amazing, Glavå worked with Dungen on 2005’s Stadsvandringar, which made these sessions a reunion of sorts. “Mattias is a true wizard of analog sound engineering, but he’s more than a technique nerd,” says Ejstes. “He’s the ultimate hand between my vision of a sound and reality.”
Glavå suggested the band work out songs before they entered the studio, rather than writing during the sessions. It was a different way of working, but one that Ejstes found invigorating. “He suggested we come to his studio with finished songs, and we did live takes directly to tape—the old-school way. It has truly been a quite different experience from the earlier records.” Allas Sak is about everyday matters: family, friends, the fine texture of life. Common but never mundane, these subjects anchor the music in the here and now, while the music lends a certain grandeur to ordinary moments. “Lyrics are very important to me,” says Ejstes. “These songs are my everyday experiences, my thoughts and stories from the life I live. I hope people can create their own stories around the music and maybe we can make music together, the listener and I.”
Todd Rundgren, Emil Nikolaisen, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm
Runddans Remixed - Erol Alkan / Stereolab & The High Llamas / EYE Remixes
Smalltown Supersound
Todd Rundgren / Emil Nikolaisen / Hans-Peter Lindstrøm's “Runddans" was launched to wide acclaim in May this year. As a companion to the spangled prog of the LP, the trio have invited some of their favourite producers to wade into the multitracks and come up with their own versions. As Todd was doing vocal takes during the initial studio sessions for "Runddans", he claimed he would "try to do "ba-ba's", meaning vocal harmonies, like Stereolab”. It quickly became obvious that both Todd, Emil, Hans-Peter and the label all had a soft spot for Stereolab's gleeful eccentricities, and the connection was made. In remix-response, Stereolab joined their friends The High Llamas, resulting in five minutes of classic lounge bossa bliss! As Erol is a big fan of Mr Rundgren, all parties were interested to hear how he would take this mastodon piece to the dancefloors. Erol delivered the goods and came up with a 10- minute disco epic. In the words of Mixmag: “It’s a joy to hear classic Lindstrom synths manipulated in such fine fashion, putting this rerub up with Erol’s best". Last but not least, Smalltown Supersound turned to renowned psychedelic master EYE from Boredoms. This bleep heavy assemblage of loops, squelches, arps and sonic magic astral projects your keister into the next world, rounding the 12" off to perfection.
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2015 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
This special limited edition 12” sees a life affirming movement from the cosmic trio’s recent “Runddans” long player served up in 12” format with the RSD15 exclusive “Anything (Vocal Outtake)” on the flip. Rundgren, Nikolaisen and Lindstrom chuck prog, disco, cosmic techno and all manner of synthesis into the supercollider and hit the big red button. Stargate tackle!
This special limited edition 12” sees a life affirming movement from the cosmic trio’s recent “Runddans” long player served up in 12” format with the RSD15 exclusive “Anything (Vocal Outtake)” on the flip. Rundgren, Nikolaisen and Lindstrom chuck prog, disco, cosmic techno and all manner of synthesis into the supercollider and hit the big red button. Stargate tackle!
The brainchild of DJ Harvey as a means to keep his multi-instrumentalist hand in, Wildest Dreams is a modern day equivalent of the LA wrecking crew. They (or more probably, just Harvey as one-man band) make music inspired by the landscape of LA and its surroundings for your road and acid trip. Forget Balearic, disco and techno, Wildest Dreams is Harvey's chance to ROCK OUT, which he does in spades across 10 tracks on this eponymous long player. The album was recorded over a week a couple years ago and unearthed by Smalltown Supersound.
DJ Harvey is a near mythical character whose musical style cannot simply be filed as eclectic or retrospective; he plays whatever he feels, as he feels it, but always for the crowd. He is an analogue loving DJ that utilizes reel to reel and effects all conjured live while not being afraid to also work new technology in the mix. He's respected and in demand all over the world. Best put by Rolling Stone when included in their "25 DJs That Rule The Earth," "If Keith Richards was a DJ, he'd totally be Harvey. A libertine Englishman turned California surfer dude, Harvey has been rocking dancefloors since the 1980s with his ocean-deep collection of rare disco, Pink Floyd-y space rock, off-kilter techno and anything else danceable.
DJ Harvey is a near mythical character whose musical style cannot simply be filed as eclectic or retrospective; he plays whatever he feels, as he feels it, but always for the crowd. He is an analogue loving DJ that utilizes reel to reel and effects all conjured live while not being afraid to also work new technology in the mix. He's respected and in demand all over the world. Best put by Rolling Stone when included in their "25 DJs That Rule The Earth," "If Keith Richards was a DJ, he'd totally be Harvey. A libertine Englishman turned California surfer dude, Harvey has been rocking dancefloors since the 1980s with his ocean-deep collection of rare disco, Pink Floyd-y space rock, off-kilter techno and anything else danceable.
Neneh Cherry's 'Blank Project' has proved to be one of the breakout albums of the year so far here at Piccadilly Records. The collaboration of Cherry with avant-jazz / post-rockers Rocketnumbernine and Four Tet's Kieran Hebden has been inspired. The RNN brothers Tom and Ben Page keep the backing tracks compact and intense, Hebden provides his magic ingredient 'X', and Cherry is as raw as she's ever been.
And now come the remixes: (Ricardo) Villalobos & (Max) Loderbauer get together as Vilod once again, providing two minimal tech / house reworks of album track 'Everything'. On the 'High Blood Pressure Mix', the duo strip away all excess fat, leaving only crisp digital drums and a random scattering of Hebden's polyrhythmic percussion for Cherry's vocal (complete with Prince-like chorus) to ride, stark and unadorned, before the track melts down with dub efx and ambient keyboard washes. The 'Low Blood Pressure Mix' slows the track down to an almost skanking, walking pace, giving the drum machines a bit of (digital) company with distant drones and random machine pulses fleshing the track out.
And now come the remixes: (Ricardo) Villalobos & (Max) Loderbauer get together as Vilod once again, providing two minimal tech / house reworks of album track 'Everything'. On the 'High Blood Pressure Mix', the duo strip away all excess fat, leaving only crisp digital drums and a random scattering of Hebden's polyrhythmic percussion for Cherry's vocal (complete with Prince-like chorus) to ride, stark and unadorned, before the track melts down with dub efx and ambient keyboard washes. The 'Low Blood Pressure Mix' slows the track down to an almost skanking, walking pace, giving the drum machines a bit of (digital) company with distant drones and random machine pulses fleshing the track out.
Reduced
Neneh Cherry releases her first solo album in 16 years - a collaboration with RocketNumberNine, produced by Four Tet, and featuring a guest appearance by Robyn. The 10-track album, recorded and mixed over a five-day period is, out on Smalltown Supersound. It follows 2012’s 'The Cherry Thing', a collaborative record with free jazz, noise collective The Thing, which featured new versions of songs by The Stooges, MF Doom, Ornette Coleman, amongst others.
While her energy and demeanor may not have changed since the days of Rip Rig + Panic, musically, 'Blank Project' is a departure from anything Neneh has previously done, initially written as a means of working through personal tragedy. What stands out upon first listen is the album’s sparseness: loose drums and a few synthesizers are the only accompaniment to Neneh’s wildly poetic, sometimes-spoken, sometimes-screeching, soul-flooded and raw vocals. The space created by this minimal aesthetic leaves room for occasional pistes and flurries of rapid, yet throbbing and thunderous instrumentation. Featuring combined elements of beat poetry, avant-electronica and beautiful vocal melodies, it’s a record that uses simple ideas to create something entirely original. And despite the personal struggles Neneh was working through in writing this new material, the songs are far from introverted.
With 'Blank Project', Neneh continues to arrive at moments in musical history when there is an opportunity to subvert ideas of popular culture. She is subverting once again, only this time, although this record is musically bold, Neneh sees the stasis she’s challenging isn’t musical or societal, but her own.
While her energy and demeanor may not have changed since the days of Rip Rig + Panic, musically, 'Blank Project' is a departure from anything Neneh has previously done, initially written as a means of working through personal tragedy. What stands out upon first listen is the album’s sparseness: loose drums and a few synthesizers are the only accompaniment to Neneh’s wildly poetic, sometimes-spoken, sometimes-screeching, soul-flooded and raw vocals. The space created by this minimal aesthetic leaves room for occasional pistes and flurries of rapid, yet throbbing and thunderous instrumentation. Featuring combined elements of beat poetry, avant-electronica and beautiful vocal melodies, it’s a record that uses simple ideas to create something entirely original. And despite the personal struggles Neneh was working through in writing this new material, the songs are far from introverted.
With 'Blank Project', Neneh continues to arrive at moments in musical history when there is an opportunity to subvert ideas of popular culture. She is subverting once again, only this time, although this record is musically bold, Neneh sees the stasis she’s challenging isn’t musical or societal, but her own.
STAFF COMMENTS
Philippa says: Neneh Cherry follows her collaboration with Nordic free jazz noise collective the Thing with the intense electro-percussive album ‘Blank Project’, first unveiled at the Manchester International Festival. The guttural analogue synths and pummelled kit drumming of power duo RocketNumberNine (brothers Ben and Tom Page) provide the backing for Cherry’s distinctive emotionally vulnerable soul-flooded vocals, while Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden proves to be the perfect producer for the project, stripping tracks back to their essential elements. The first solo record Cherry has made since the death of her mother, ‘Blank Project’ is stark, bracing, brooding and reflective. There is anger and sadness here, but this isn’t a sad record. This is a life-affirming angry howl at the world, a cathartic blast of intensity that leaps from the speakers. In an era of often soulless synthetic emoting, it’s good to have some raw emotion back with us. Raw like, er, Cherry!
"Grace," the poet Frank O'Hara once wrote, "to be born and live as variously as possible." Though early in his musical career, this ambitious but certainly worthy aspiration toward "variousness" might be said to be the defining characteristic behind the artistic output of Alexis Georgopoulos, aka Arp.
After all, not many people can claim to have curated and performed at New York's downtown bastion of the avant–garde, The Kitchen (where Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca and Philip Glass cut their teeth), to have been DJ'ed by NY underground disco pioneer David Mancuso (at his legendary party The Loft), to have soundtracked a Chanel runway show per Karl Lagerfeld's request and to have released an album of minimalistic classical music (Arp & Anthony Moore’s FRKWYS 3 [RVNG Intl]).
Perhaps best described as a pop album by an avant–garde musician, MORE is an album that begins in one place and ends in another, melding bedroom art–pop with avant-garde composition to create a world of heady atmospherics and melodic song craft over its concentrated 46 minute arc. Played almost entirely by Georgopoulos, MORE reveals an impressive grasp of style and vision, following a distinct narrative, dipping into 70s art rock, autumnal baroque pop, musique concréte, minimalistic piano epics, narcotic gospel, sound library atmospheres, and delicate space folk.
Although 2010’s The Soft Wave (a New York Times “Notable Album of 2010”) may be his most–heard album so far, Georgopoulos' 2010 collaboration with Englishman Anthony Moore may provide more appropriate background for MORE. Not merely content to espouse the voguish sounds of the day, Georgopoulos decided early in 2012 that he'd abandon his analog synthesizer–centric abstractions in favor of something he'd never done, write songs. The better to challenge himself. As such, with MORE, he has made his first album–length foray into song.
The 12 pieces that make up MORE might best be heard as distinct scenes in a single film. And this being his first New York album, the city figures in significantly, both in scale and in character. “High–Heeled Clouds" locates its protagonist amongst the well–heeled, boutiqued mirages of Manhattan's 5th Avenue, a lilting waltz and a tale of delusional souls and refracting mirrors. "Judy Nylon" is all highbrow primitivism, chugging forward on an adrenaline rush of Phil Manzanera–like fuzz guitars and locomotive rhythm, picking up speed as it builds. The otherworldly, baroque atmospheres of "A Tiger In The Hall at Versailles" are a tale in contrast, with the tension of the harpsichord–led verses giving way to a lush, doe–eyed chorus, akin to a shaft of light breaking through a sinister scene. "E2 Octopus" is the first of three candy–coated morsels of musique concréte on MORE, revealing a love of innovators like BBC's Delia Derbyshire and Bernard Parmegiani and tactile field recordings. Moved by the premature passing of Broadcast chanteuse Trish Keenan, "Light+Sound" is a delicate, moving ballad awash in Mellotron and harpsichord, calling to mind the kind of softly psychedelic, autumnal atmospheres Robert Wyatt has specialized in. "17th Daydream" begins in the open air of the country and travels, by air and rail, to the rising steam of the city. The very New York–inspired, minimalist mini–epic "Gravity (for Charlemagne Palestine)” is an alternate Empire State theme, an ecstatic pull portrayed by an always–ascending pillar of sound chugging on piano, cello and spiraling guitars. "More (Blues)" suggests a stoned choirboy fronting a gospel church group, Georgopoulos' delicate delivery melding with the song's narcotic sway. The misty mix of astral folk and beach–influenced atmospherics of "Daphne & Chloe" is, simply, epic. Finally, closer "Persuasion" rides into the sun, a bookend in the form of overdriven fuzz guitars and Moog synthesizer.
After all, not many people can claim to have curated and performed at New York's downtown bastion of the avant–garde, The Kitchen (where Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca and Philip Glass cut their teeth), to have been DJ'ed by NY underground disco pioneer David Mancuso (at his legendary party The Loft), to have soundtracked a Chanel runway show per Karl Lagerfeld's request and to have released an album of minimalistic classical music (Arp & Anthony Moore’s FRKWYS 3 [RVNG Intl]).
Perhaps best described as a pop album by an avant–garde musician, MORE is an album that begins in one place and ends in another, melding bedroom art–pop with avant-garde composition to create a world of heady atmospherics and melodic song craft over its concentrated 46 minute arc. Played almost entirely by Georgopoulos, MORE reveals an impressive grasp of style and vision, following a distinct narrative, dipping into 70s art rock, autumnal baroque pop, musique concréte, minimalistic piano epics, narcotic gospel, sound library atmospheres, and delicate space folk.
Although 2010’s The Soft Wave (a New York Times “Notable Album of 2010”) may be his most–heard album so far, Georgopoulos' 2010 collaboration with Englishman Anthony Moore may provide more appropriate background for MORE. Not merely content to espouse the voguish sounds of the day, Georgopoulos decided early in 2012 that he'd abandon his analog synthesizer–centric abstractions in favor of something he'd never done, write songs. The better to challenge himself. As such, with MORE, he has made his first album–length foray into song.
The 12 pieces that make up MORE might best be heard as distinct scenes in a single film. And this being his first New York album, the city figures in significantly, both in scale and in character. “High–Heeled Clouds" locates its protagonist amongst the well–heeled, boutiqued mirages of Manhattan's 5th Avenue, a lilting waltz and a tale of delusional souls and refracting mirrors. "Judy Nylon" is all highbrow primitivism, chugging forward on an adrenaline rush of Phil Manzanera–like fuzz guitars and locomotive rhythm, picking up speed as it builds. The otherworldly, baroque atmospheres of "A Tiger In The Hall at Versailles" are a tale in contrast, with the tension of the harpsichord–led verses giving way to a lush, doe–eyed chorus, akin to a shaft of light breaking through a sinister scene. "E2 Octopus" is the first of three candy–coated morsels of musique concréte on MORE, revealing a love of innovators like BBC's Delia Derbyshire and Bernard Parmegiani and tactile field recordings. Moved by the premature passing of Broadcast chanteuse Trish Keenan, "Light+Sound" is a delicate, moving ballad awash in Mellotron and harpsichord, calling to mind the kind of softly psychedelic, autumnal atmospheres Robert Wyatt has specialized in. "17th Daydream" begins in the open air of the country and travels, by air and rail, to the rising steam of the city. The very New York–inspired, minimalist mini–epic "Gravity (for Charlemagne Palestine)” is an alternate Empire State theme, an ecstatic pull portrayed by an always–ascending pillar of sound chugging on piano, cello and spiraling guitars. "More (Blues)" suggests a stoned choirboy fronting a gospel church group, Georgopoulos' delicate delivery melding with the song's narcotic sway. The misty mix of astral folk and beach–influenced atmospherics of "Daphne & Chloe" is, simply, epic. Finally, closer "Persuasion" rides into the sun, a bookend in the form of overdriven fuzz guitars and Moog synthesizer.
For RocketNumberNine, capturing the spirit of the music is paramount and with their debut album, 'MeYouWeYou', the London-based Page brothers - Tom (drums) and Ben (synths) - invite you into their tribal Chingford roots, taking music forwards to reach where it came from. This is hard hitting, modern dance music played live without a single click track in sight. With a name taken from a song by space jazz crusader Sun Ra and musical influences from Detroit to London to Africa and beyond, RocketNumberNine, have spent the last eight years shaping, breaking and squeezing their sound into what it is today.
Let’s get this out of the way right from the start. Carmen Villain used to be a very successful model. Her face has appeared on the covers of Vogue and Nylon, and high profile cosmetic ad campaigns. But as the shutter clicks and the palm trees sway, what’s a cover girl really thinking? Most models are expected to remain mutely anonymous, mere ciphers of a commercial brand. But it turns out, behind the scenes, Carmen Villain (aka Carmen Hillestad) was channeling her frustrations into a set of songs with a defiantly DIY underground free-rock sound. Now at last, she’s stepping off the glossy page and emerging as a new songwriting voice and multi-instrumentalist.
Carmen Villain was born in the USA, lives in London, and is half-Norwegian, half-Mexican - a cocktail of ice and fire that can be heard throughout Sleeper’s tempestuous, dreamlike music. Throughout this debut album, lyrics are plastered over loose, abrasive instrumental tracks, on which Carmen plays guitars, bass, drum machines, keyboards and percussion. 'Sleeper’'s distinctive production was halved between herself and Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh), who also played drums and keyboards; and she also collaborated and co-produced one track with Prins Thomas, who sequenced the album. Most of the songs are about escaping an unsatisfying world, with references to sleeping, not being present, displacement, anxiety, feeling trapped, but longing for something more.
Carmen draws on a lineage of sprawling, taboo-busting lo-fi rock: Sun City Girls, Sonic Youth, Royal Trux, Broadcast and Bikini Kill, but equally admires This Heat and the cut ‘n’ paste productions of J Dilla and Wu-Tang Clan.
Carmen Villain was born in the USA, lives in London, and is half-Norwegian, half-Mexican - a cocktail of ice and fire that can be heard throughout Sleeper’s tempestuous, dreamlike music. Throughout this debut album, lyrics are plastered over loose, abrasive instrumental tracks, on which Carmen plays guitars, bass, drum machines, keyboards and percussion. 'Sleeper’'s distinctive production was halved between herself and Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh), who also played drums and keyboards; and she also collaborated and co-produced one track with Prins Thomas, who sequenced the album. Most of the songs are about escaping an unsatisfying world, with references to sleeping, not being present, displacement, anxiety, feeling trapped, but longing for something more.
Carmen draws on a lineage of sprawling, taboo-busting lo-fi rock: Sun City Girls, Sonic Youth, Royal Trux, Broadcast and Bikini Kill, but equally admires This Heat and the cut ‘n’ paste productions of J Dilla and Wu-Tang Clan.
Hot on the heels of 2011`s "Schlungs", the Jetsetters have kept those buttons busily pushed, and are already here with their next chapter installment, featuring eight new nuggets entitled "Mungodelics".
The album is essentially a psychodramatic sequel to the highly acclaimed "We Gave It All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back" album of 2009, as it is musically a blend of originals and remakes made into originals, as well as solo performances and external collaborations from the band's musical core members, Knut Saevik and Paul 'Strangefruit' Nyhus.
However, in Mung context, that should all make for perfect sense. As a band infamous for taking musical excess to previously unexplored lengths and then weaving it through the stars in a funked-up join-the-dots fantasy of intergalactic proportions, "Mungodelics" is the return to the Terran homeworld, or rather the Underworld. In the Mung context, it is an excavation of a rarely visited cave on the dark side of the Mung. "Mungodelics" unleashes some of the most epic-sounding progressive electronic music out there, but the emphasis is more to the deeper, darker, melancholic and melodic sides of the psychedelics.
In the peaktime dancefloor ticking bomb that is "Smells Like Gasoline" ( its working title was "Ibeeza" ) and it`s space-age driven Yacht housing counterpart "Revolving Door" ( with Unni Wilhelmsen ), the Mungs show that they perfectly do mingle in with the sophisticated dancing crew, as the music is jetsettingly sparkling at its most accessible best. Deeper down in the jungle, the fever and psychedelic pyronomics of "The Dark Incal" and its equatorial cousins "Ghost In The Machine" and "Mush In The Bush", tickles the body and soul with its folkloric sounds and grooves from the urban village. "Mung`s Picazzo" ( with Athana ) takes an even lower flight across swamp-like Krautian landscapes previously uncharted in the Mung dominions. "People On Strong Stuff" features the first lead appearance of legendary Mung Tenor, the Julian of Chode aka Monzta, and is an anthem for the demagnetized generations blended with a free-floating symphony over an ingenious bassline.
"Tocatta" (with Jaga Jazzist) is the hybridized Reichian output of the Jumungus militia`s highly individualistic Gestalt labs, featuring patterns designed to alter various brainwave patterns in previously unexplored ways (and invoke rain in arid areas). It is thoughtfully put as the third eye-opener on the cd version of the album.
All in all, "Mungodelics" musically summons everything that is hazy, dazy, underearthly and crazy. This is the Mungolian Jetset taking you on a ride through the seasons, and shifts of the days and nights, from the Cantina to the Ewok forest, via ritualistic dancing at Kilmin Taboour and stellar swimming in the galactic Goa. All revved up as clouds like souls from the stolen sky, encountering people on strong stuff, being, strong on people stuff.
Well, didn’t we say sober??
The album is essentially a psychodramatic sequel to the highly acclaimed "We Gave It All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back" album of 2009, as it is musically a blend of originals and remakes made into originals, as well as solo performances and external collaborations from the band's musical core members, Knut Saevik and Paul 'Strangefruit' Nyhus.
However, in Mung context, that should all make for perfect sense. As a band infamous for taking musical excess to previously unexplored lengths and then weaving it through the stars in a funked-up join-the-dots fantasy of intergalactic proportions, "Mungodelics" is the return to the Terran homeworld, or rather the Underworld. In the Mung context, it is an excavation of a rarely visited cave on the dark side of the Mung. "Mungodelics" unleashes some of the most epic-sounding progressive electronic music out there, but the emphasis is more to the deeper, darker, melancholic and melodic sides of the psychedelics.
In the peaktime dancefloor ticking bomb that is "Smells Like Gasoline" ( its working title was "Ibeeza" ) and it`s space-age driven Yacht housing counterpart "Revolving Door" ( with Unni Wilhelmsen ), the Mungs show that they perfectly do mingle in with the sophisticated dancing crew, as the music is jetsettingly sparkling at its most accessible best. Deeper down in the jungle, the fever and psychedelic pyronomics of "The Dark Incal" and its equatorial cousins "Ghost In The Machine" and "Mush In The Bush", tickles the body and soul with its folkloric sounds and grooves from the urban village. "Mung`s Picazzo" ( with Athana ) takes an even lower flight across swamp-like Krautian landscapes previously uncharted in the Mung dominions. "People On Strong Stuff" features the first lead appearance of legendary Mung Tenor, the Julian of Chode aka Monzta, and is an anthem for the demagnetized generations blended with a free-floating symphony over an ingenious bassline.
"Tocatta" (with Jaga Jazzist) is the hybridized Reichian output of the Jumungus militia`s highly individualistic Gestalt labs, featuring patterns designed to alter various brainwave patterns in previously unexplored ways (and invoke rain in arid areas). It is thoughtfully put as the third eye-opener on the cd version of the album.
All in all, "Mungodelics" musically summons everything that is hazy, dazy, underearthly and crazy. This is the Mungolian Jetset taking you on a ride through the seasons, and shifts of the days and nights, from the Cantina to the Ewok forest, via ritualistic dancing at Kilmin Taboour and stellar swimming in the galactic Goa. All revved up as clouds like souls from the stolen sky, encountering people on strong stuff, being, strong on people stuff.
Well, didn’t we say sober??
STAFF COMMENTS
Philippa says: More Nordic cosmic-Balearic delights from the Mungs!
In a world in which trance DJs with names like Ferry, Armin and Tiësto plead for votes in the DJmag Top 100, it’s nice to know there are other, stranger, galaxies circling the more secular and mundane one in which we live. One such universe, Planet Idjut, is occupied by two otherwise unemployable characters called Daniel (Tyler) and Conrad (McConnell). It circles the other planets suspiciously, unwilling (or perhaps more pertinently, unable) to conform to the mores and habits of other mere mortals.
They are, it is true, DJs just like the aforementioned Tiësto and company, but where most are happy to serve up a formulaic and entirely predictable menu to keep the happy E hordes of Ibiza content, the Idjut Boys play, as Conrad once quipped, “Whatever we can get away with.” That could include anything from 70s jock metallists Nazareth to Phil Collins interspersed with perhaps some Underground Resistance for light relief, swiftly followed by the Temptations, something which makes their DJ sets non-conformist, occasionally brilliant, sometimes floor-clearing, but always interesting.
Amazingly, despite a 20-year career they have never produced an artist album. Until now. Those expecting formulaic disco-not-disco floor-screamers will be disappointed. Many months in the making, many collaborators in its gestation, this is what the Idjut Boys sound like strapped to an Eames chair, cheroot in hand, while their pet tiger Keith sits by the hearth fire. “What we’ve tried to do is make an LP, four tracks a side on vinyl,” reports Conrad. “You stick it on your stereo, have a cup of coffee and read the paper. When it’s finished you stick the other side on. So we’ve made an LP in the traditional way.”
Although the album was made with the armchair rather than the podium in mind, their approach to music-making as not altered at all. Although neither plays an instrument, they use the mixing board as their Stratocaster or Rhodes, often adding effects live as the song plays. “We do lots and lots of versions and mixes,” says Conrad. “Then we edit stuff from one into another. We try and use as many different sound sources and lots of different musicians. We’ve tried to make this sound as good as possible, so we’ve gone all over the place recording things, like Oslo for Bugge Wesseltoft’s piano, our friend Andy Hopkins’ for the drums and guitar and writing with Sally and Steve from A Man Called Adam in Cornwall.”
If this gives you the impression the duo have settled down, bought themselves knitted Arran sweaters, flutes and a subscription to Wallpaper*, you’d be wrong. Although the Idjuts are keen for the album to be a listening experience, they are already champing at the bit to start making dance versions (a “drum and bassy dub” of ‘Going Down’ is already in the can). “Hopefully enough of them will buy the LP and think, “Yeah I don’t mind wasting some more money on you fucking idiots.”” Or Idjuts, as the case may be. (Bill Brewster)
They are, it is true, DJs just like the aforementioned Tiësto and company, but where most are happy to serve up a formulaic and entirely predictable menu to keep the happy E hordes of Ibiza content, the Idjut Boys play, as Conrad once quipped, “Whatever we can get away with.” That could include anything from 70s jock metallists Nazareth to Phil Collins interspersed with perhaps some Underground Resistance for light relief, swiftly followed by the Temptations, something which makes their DJ sets non-conformist, occasionally brilliant, sometimes floor-clearing, but always interesting.
Amazingly, despite a 20-year career they have never produced an artist album. Until now. Those expecting formulaic disco-not-disco floor-screamers will be disappointed. Many months in the making, many collaborators in its gestation, this is what the Idjut Boys sound like strapped to an Eames chair, cheroot in hand, while their pet tiger Keith sits by the hearth fire. “What we’ve tried to do is make an LP, four tracks a side on vinyl,” reports Conrad. “You stick it on your stereo, have a cup of coffee and read the paper. When it’s finished you stick the other side on. So we’ve made an LP in the traditional way.”
Although the album was made with the armchair rather than the podium in mind, their approach to music-making as not altered at all. Although neither plays an instrument, they use the mixing board as their Stratocaster or Rhodes, often adding effects live as the song plays. “We do lots and lots of versions and mixes,” says Conrad. “Then we edit stuff from one into another. We try and use as many different sound sources and lots of different musicians. We’ve tried to make this sound as good as possible, so we’ve gone all over the place recording things, like Oslo for Bugge Wesseltoft’s piano, our friend Andy Hopkins’ for the drums and guitar and writing with Sally and Steve from A Man Called Adam in Cornwall.”
If this gives you the impression the duo have settled down, bought themselves knitted Arran sweaters, flutes and a subscription to Wallpaper*, you’d be wrong. Although the Idjuts are keen for the album to be a listening experience, they are already champing at the bit to start making dance versions (a “drum and bassy dub” of ‘Going Down’ is already in the can). “Hopefully enough of them will buy the LP and think, “Yeah I don’t mind wasting some more money on you fucking idiots.”” Or Idjuts, as the case may be. (Bill Brewster)
FORMAT INFORMATION
CD Info: Limited edition comes with exclusive URL link to a THREE HOUR 'Discolimone' online DJ mix.
For a limited period both the vinyl and CD include a free 'Exclusive Bonus Tsugi Mixtape' CD.
Five… four… three… two… one…With the latest album from dance producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, Norway’s latest entry in the space race has been launched out of the wooded outskirts of Oslo. "Six Cups Of Rebel", Lindstrøm’s fourth solo album, is a super-sized cosmic disco rocket that burns up a galaxy of eclectic influences in its wake, from Bach to Deep Purple, from prog rock and arpeggiator disco to acid house, while sounding sleek and utterly contemporary. He may worship at the temple of godlike European DJs from the 80s like Daniele Baldelli and Beppe Loda, but the relentless, occasionally monumental scale of "Six Cups Of Rebel" has the power to move mountains all by itself.
From the opening “No Release” - a five-minute coitus interruptus of cascading cathedral organ - to the pumping Detroit pistons of “Call Me Anytime” and the wah-wah stabs and fizzing 808 basslines of the title track, "Six Cups Of Rebel" acts like a star map of Lindstrøm’s own voyage to the outer limits of electronic music. When he holds back, as on the ten-minute “Hina”, it’s only to let rip with added propulsion, like a satellite using a planet’s orbit to push it to the next level.
Five… four… three… two… one…With the latest album from dance producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, Norway’s latest entry in the space race has been launched out of the wooded outskirts of Oslo. "Six Cups Of Rebel", Lindstrøm’s fourth solo album, is a super-sized cosmic disco rocket that burns up a galaxy of eclectic influences in its wake, from Bach to Deep Purple, from prog rock and arpeggiator disco to acid house, while sounding sleek and utterly contemporary. He may worship at the temple of godlike European DJs from the 80s like Daniele Baldelli and Beppe Loda, but the relentless, occasionally monumental scale of "Six Cups Of Rebel" has the power to move mountains all by itself.
From the opening “No Release” - a five-minute coitus interruptus of cascading cathedral organ - to the pumping Detroit pistons of “Call Me Anytime” and the wah-wah stabs and fizzing 808 basslines of the title track, "Six Cups Of Rebel" acts like a star map of Lindstrøm’s own voyage to the outer limits of electronic music. When he holds back, as on the ten-minute “Hina”, it’s only to let rip with added propulsion, like a satellite using a planet’s orbit to push it to the next level.
FORMAT INFORMATION
CD Info: Initial copies include bonus mix CD.
The "Sagara" project began life in 2009 when Diskjokke was commissioned to create a one off piece for top Norwegian festival Øya. He was given free reign as to what this project might entail, and he was given the resources to travel almost anywhere to find the right people to work with. He researched a seemingly endless list of genres before he finally settled on the Indonesian Gamelan tradition. Soon after he made contact with a group called Sambasunda (led by Ismit Rutchimat). Diskjokke then spent two weeks in Bandung, Java, staying in their studio recording traditional instruments, sounds and ideas. He recorded everything he heard, from the city noise to the pulsating hot mountain springs.
The album was written, produced and recorded as music in Oslo, but a lot of the sounds used are recorded various places in Indonesia. Diskjokke says: "I have always been labelled as inspired by Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno, but to be honest I really haven't listened much to them until I tripped over them, as part of the research for this project. There is a guy I met on Bali called Gus Till, his ambient watermusic was the soundtrack of the first days in our daughter's life and she still recognises it as hers." On how he sees this album as part of his output; "I feel now in retrospect that this albumis a natural step from the last, but it is in no way a final piece - I have no idea where the next record will take me!"
The album was written, produced and recorded as music in Oslo, but a lot of the sounds used are recorded various places in Indonesia. Diskjokke says: "I have always been labelled as inspired by Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno, but to be honest I really haven't listened much to them until I tripped over them, as part of the research for this project. There is a guy I met on Bali called Gus Till, his ambient watermusic was the soundtrack of the first days in our daughter's life and she still recognises it as hers." On how he sees this album as part of his output; "I feel now in retrospect that this albumis a natural step from the last, but it is in no way a final piece - I have no idea where the next record will take me!"
Pechenga is Rune Lindbæk and Cato Farstad. Pechenga is the name of the area in Siberia that’s distantly visible from Vardø (pop. 2500), the Norwegian fishing island Rune Lindbæk & Cato Farstad both call their birthplace, and where they made their debut album, Helt Borte. While Cato stayed and became Vardø’s one-man musical milieu, Lindbæk moved to the city of Tromsø before establishing himself in Oslo and Berlin as a sought-after musician, producer and remixer.
In the winter of 2007, after forming a mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work and love for old synth music, prog rock, and ambient music, Lindbæk and Farstad hunkered down in Lindbæk’s grandmother’s house in Vardø to work on music together. Surrounded by the dark of the season, the flickering northern lights, cold storms, and heavy snow, "Helt Borte" was born in an intense two-week period. They cite ambient masters Stars Of The Lid, Dead Texans, Peter Namlook, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, and Biosphere (Lindbæk’s old Tromsø neighbor) as a massive inspiration in creating this album. "Helt Borte" was self-released by the duo in 2008 on their Pechenga Records, and made available only in Norway. The record sold a grand total of 59 copies before Smalltown Supersound’s Joakim Haugland 'discovered' it, naming it one of his favorite albums in recent years. He promptly signed the project and decided to give it a worldwide release.
In the winter of 2007, after forming a mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work and love for old synth music, prog rock, and ambient music, Lindbæk and Farstad hunkered down in Lindbæk’s grandmother’s house in Vardø to work on music together. Surrounded by the dark of the season, the flickering northern lights, cold storms, and heavy snow, "Helt Borte" was born in an intense two-week period. They cite ambient masters Stars Of The Lid, Dead Texans, Peter Namlook, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, and Biosphere (Lindbæk’s old Tromsø neighbor) as a massive inspiration in creating this album. "Helt Borte" was self-released by the duo in 2008 on their Pechenga Records, and made available only in Norway. The record sold a grand total of 59 copies before Smalltown Supersound’s Joakim Haugland 'discovered' it, naming it one of his favorite albums in recent years. He promptly signed the project and decided to give it a worldwide release.
Balearic: Like many musical genres, it has changed shape over the years, slowly filtering out the cheesy Euro-pop, leftfield electronica and cute disco tunes that defined its umbrella-like ‘anything goes’ meaning in the 1980s, becoming for many producers an excuse to create albums of bland musical mush in 2009. All very pleasant, but perhaps just a little bit too soporific for my liking. Thank god for the Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek then, working together as Meanderthals, who have created the kind of dreamy Balearic album that actually catches your ear and keeps your attention rather than sending you to sleep. All played live, "Desire Lines" features a warm blend of beautiful Balearic disco, dub, folk, kraut, and 70s west coast style psychedelia all combined in an organic, slanted, and proggy feel. Perfect for setting the mood on your sun-bleached summer holiday isle, but just as good at putting a smile on your face on a grey Sunday afternoon back in Blighty.
"My Last Day" is the second full-length album from Kim Hiorthøy since his critically acclaimed debut "Hei" from 2000. Compared to "Hei", "My Last Day" is less fragmented and more song based. It is also more melodic and complete, all with Kim's characteristic sound. He often has an organic and folk-like tone to his music which XLR8R magazine recognized when they placed him in the forefront of the new electronic folk music movement with artists such as Herbert, Matmos and Four Tet. Kim Hiorthøy's music draws influences from folk, jazz (his live sets these days are with free-jazz drum virtuoso Paal Nilssen-Love), lo-fi/leftfield electronics, acid, hip-hop, field recordings and samples.
Having played all over the world the last four years, both Hiorthøy and Smalltown Supersound have received many requests for his live material. That is why Hiorthøy has now collected and recorded his favourite live tracks. The material on this CD has been performed at venues in Barcelona, Bergen, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London, New York, Normandy, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Skotbu and Stockholm during 2002 and 2003. In a way it works as a new album, as it isn't recorded live, but also it differs from the music he is known for on record.
Three track 12" of splendid electronix on Norway's in-demand Smalltown Supersound label. Alog's remix is a slowly unfurling trip through swathes of fuzzy chords, analog twiddly-bleeps, folky acoustic guitar and music box before ending up being enveloped in Ovalesque glitch-warmth (ahh!) Flip for Mainpal Inv's two remixes are definitely at the stranger, more challenging end of the spectrum - very minimal, very odd!
FORMAT INFORMATION
12" Info: 500 copies only.
The Norwegian experimental electronica label commemorate their 50th release with a tasty 10-track sampler CD showcasing their artist roster. Many different flavours of electronix from the likes of Kim Hiorthoy, Jaga Jazzist, Jazzkammer, Martin Horntveth, etc and a lovely guitary thing from Monopot. Excellent.
Multi-talented Norwegian producer Kim Hiorthoy follows his 2000 debut "Hei" with this B-sides, rarities and remixes compilation. His music, which has been classed with the new 'folktronica' movement combines lo-fi electronics, cut-up beats, glitches and samples, field recordings and live instrumentation. Hiorthoy is also a renowned filmmaker, photographer, and graphic designer who produces the cover art for the Rune Grammofon label.
Damn we have some good albums on in the shop today. @kendricklamar @bocamoonia @courtneymelba and @HouseOfBMSR are… https://t.co/NgWYZWqpbS
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