Fedia Laguerre
Divizion (2023 Repress)

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London-based keyboardist/producer Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) introduces a new album project ‘Mattering And Meaning’ to be released by We Jazz Records on August 13th. Nicholls' music uses acoustic piano as its key element, transporting the instrument into new territories that sound remarkably natural and organic, whilst displaying a strong kinship with the world of abstract electronic music. The music utilises piano loops and field recordings as its key elements, forming what might be described on the surface as a fascinating ambient jazz record – but at the same time there's so much more at play here on deeper levels. Dan's music sounds at once otherworldly and immensely inviting.After years of unlearning and unravelling the knots of a music college education – moving from a career in jazz, via electronic music, to a heartfelt embrace with rave culture and the feminist and queer theories which have so challenged perspectives across many disciplines on the objectified world and the values of capitalism – Dan Nicholls has spontaneously reimagined his relationship to the piano, that edifice of the decaying foundations of european classical music.

Manchester jazz-funkers, Secret Night Gang return with their sophomore album “Belongs on a Place Called Earth”, due for release 23rd June 2023. This is a record birthed from the emotional turmoil the world collectively faced as a result of the pandemic. A time which cultivated self-reflection and profound life questions leading to an evolution for the Manchester natives. On this album they present a fresh & bold new neo-soul sound, with the leading purpose of permeating hope & light through their music. In continued strength to strength, Secret Night Gang are carving their own lane across the British jazz & street soul scene and this upcoming album, is set to take them to new heights.

Butter Side Up Records welcomes back Liquid Earth for Deputy Dog, his second EP on the label. It arrives in early May and once again explores a sublime and spaced-out club sound with original artwork by Cleymoore.New school mainstay Liquid Earth last appeared on this label in the summer of 2020. Since then, the LA-based artist has continued to bring his sound to labels like Kalahari Oyster Cult and his own Liquid Earth Physical. He mixes up elements of the OG 90s tech house sound with fresh West Coast feels, infectious analogue grooves and a real understanding of dance floor dynamics.This new EP continues that signature sound with opener '2 The Dance Floor' bringing tight, punchy drums and swirling cosmic pads that make for a cinematic trip. 'Deputy Dog' gets more unhinged with its wild modulated leads bleeping and squeaking over brushed metal drums and a fat bassline. 'Rim City' continues to up the ante with party-starting energy coming from quick, slick drums and jungle breaks, raved-up chord patterns and subtle trance vibes. It's a brilliantly busy arrangement to really make the floor cut loose. Last but not least, 'Feels So Good (As It Should)' locks you into a deeper, more marching groove that's coloured with muted neon pads and cosmic motifs.

Between a Japanese archipelago and an injunction to love in Italian, we still don't know the true origin of the name of the Geneva trio... The same goes for their music: unclassifiable. Between dance hall, afro pop, guayla, dub reminiscence and middle-eastern sounds, AMAMI traces a unique road in the Geneva, Swiss and international musical landscape.Founded by the keyboardist and bassist Inès Mouzoune, Raphaël Anker (Imperial Tiger Orchestra) on EVI, percussion and drum machine and Gabriel Ghebrezghi on vocals and casiotone, AMAMI is above all a space of encounter and experimentation. Between several origins, Eritrean for Gabriel Ghebrezghi, Italian and Swiss for Raphaël Anker, Bulgarian and Moroccan for Ines Manzoune, their sound also fuses different musical sensibilities: electronic, traditional, dub and experimental music.With Giant, EP released in September 2019, AMAMI launched the foundations of a universe devoid of borders that fuses without complex dance hall, tropical rhythms and intoxicated dub. After a few promising dates, including a noticed passage at the Transmusicales of Rennes, the trio was slowed down in its momentum by the situation that we know ... It took more to stop them! In a few weeks, the group composed and recorded its first album, Soleil. A passage in studio with the paces of setting in the green, far from the ambient gloom of the scenes, empty and silent.Their album Soleil is a raw jewel, a pop, street and terribly modern soundtrack led by a band on fire. Furious claps, hypnotic rhythms, deep bass, sharp synths and voices with soul and pop accents create a strange cocktail, a frenetic post-modern dance. In The City, Soleil, with its frantic beats, best embodies the band's urban sound where dance hall, pop choruses and over-the-top screams are intertwined. On Highway Dehli and Atlas, the musical roots of the group are expressed: the rhythms of North Africa, verses in Trigrinia and these leads of synthesizers and EVI which will recall the flights of Oumar Souleyman, Mammane Sani or Hailu Mergia. Fresh and its chorus worthy of Sade Adu, the soaring Mystery and the furious Sempre Tu sung in Italian pour in a strange mellow and pop languor but still terribly bouncy and exciting. In this unstoppable construction, Dangerous Flower and its Scientist-like mix offers the dub touch that completes the work. Definitely, Soleil imposes itself as the soundtrack of a dance floor which is waiting for its most beautiful dance steps !

From their native St. Petersburg, Square Fauna evoke a score for imaginary protoplasmic oceans, surreal, sepia-tinged space operas and Russian sci-fi folk tales; lush, green landscapes littered with the burned out husks of automobiles, military vehicles, and askew telephone poles no longer in use though marked by pools of water in which can be found the debris of modern society.Primitive kosmische electronics and vintage spacescapes cascade around complex polyrhythmic percussion. Ethereal mists of gaseous reverb are scattered by windswept synths and white-noise striations.‘Meet The Fauna’ is as much of a cheeky nod to The Residents and Coil (or even Haroumi Hosono and John Hassell) as it is to the likes of B12, Black Dog, Richard H Kirk.A completely singular, modern sci-fi soundtrack for the discerning sofanaut.