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No More Sad Trance!

Kolida Babo is the collaboration between two Greek woodwind musicians from separate regions - Socratis Votskos is from Pella, and Harris P is from Athens. This, their debut album, was recorded in improvised live-take sessions beginning on the night of the “Kolida Babo” folk rituals of music and dance in northern Greece in winter 2013. The sessions proceeded over three years, exploring the ancient music of Armenia and the folk traditions of northern Greece’s Epirus and Thrace regions alongside abstract electronics and free jazz.As musicians of modern Greece, the sonic palette is developed in part as a means of processing the country’s immediate actualities: its relation to its regional traditions, its urban centres and its humanitarian and economic crises. In this, the music is at once clearly located in traditional sounds and disjointed from them, at times contrasting or harmonious in both concept and sound.The Armenian Duduk that anchors the project is a double-reeded woodwind instrument made of apricot wood with thousands of years of history and generations of venerable masters - the duo cite Djivan Gasparyan as a main influence, and Harris studied with Vahan Galstyan. Traditionally its music is played in duet: a melody on one duduk, a low drone accompaniment (“the dum”) on another. Kolida Babo preserves and extends the dual nature of duduk music in many ways, replacing the dum at times with the tones of a moog synthesizer to allow the two players to weave harmonies together in duet. And there is a persistent duality in the braid of Kolido Babo’s sonic associations - modern and ancient, local and global - sometimes underpinning one another, sometimes undermining. “Sometimes we mock modern times and sometimes the other way around”, they say - it’s a collision, or an engagement, romantic or pugilistic, and the sense is of an experiment without expectation, without preciousness or exoticism of folk culture. The elements challenge each other and the listener - while the music is very much about texture and tone, the sounds aren’t clearly modern or ancient: it’s futile to identify, we’re reminded, and instead we experience the immediate presence and power of the combination. Influences include Armenian Folk music, Greek Rebetiko, German Kosmiche, Spiritual Jazz, the Fourth World Music of Brian Eno and John Hassell, British Trip Hop, Electrified West African Funk. But where these can be identified they are as sidelong journeymakers through the borderless idiolect belonging to the dialogue between the two players and enabling its free and full execution, subtle markers used to co-ordinate the collaboration.

The cutting-edge ambient music from Japan brought by up-and-coming producer and musician Okada Takuro and sound artist duenn.This urban sound is made to be the “air” to you“As ignorable as it is interesting” is how Brian Eno describes ambient music. Then how should this interesting yet may be ignored sound be part of our life in 2020?Now after works by Oh Shu & BIOMAN, Jim O’Rourke, Ana Da Silva & Phew, NEWHERE MUSIC is proud to present concept album “Urban Planning” from Okada Takuro + duenn.After Moriwaikiteiru disbanded, Okada Takuro started his solo projects with the debut album “Nostalgia”. Apart from songwriting, Okada is also active as a producer and in film score.duenn has been working with labels from all over the world including Entr’acte (Belgium) and Past Inside The Present (US). His experimental unit 3RENSA with Merzbow and Nyantora has performed with legendary sound designer Matsuo Ohno (Astro Boy) and artist Shohei Tsuda. In recent years, duenn’s sound can be heard at galleries and exhibitions, including the latest collaboration with Shiho Yoshida.It started from a sparkle in the discussion between Okada and duenn, “sound of the city” as a keyword. What should be the ambient music in our life, at our time? Through conversations, the two had made an important point, that is “complete an album with melodies by duenn and only duenn”, for so far, duenn has rarely created melodies.The album has a precise concept, yet without much embellishment, probably because of the primitive melodies by duenn, being a freshman as a melody maker. For the listeners, the touch of simplicity may well remind them of the lullabies in their childhood.duenn and Okada also had clearly divided roles during the making, with duenn on melodies and Okada on editing and producing. It is also interesting that duenn chose to use GarageBand, a tool that accessible to all for his first melody-making, which eventually turns out to be inevitably.Respect of ambient musicians and contemporary artists since the 80s, Yukio Fujimoto and Hiroshi Yoshimura to name a few, could be recognized from this album. This is also the unique feature thanks to the continued crossover activities of the duenn and Okada. However, the two did not stop at admiring the masterpiece, instead, they focused on the cities in 2020s. The tracks are concise and comprehensive of 1 or 2 minute-long echo with the artists of the subscription era.The artists spent two years on this creation. Imagine the commuter trains, cars, your room, local park for a walk. This is the sound of city to blend into every moment in urban life.

Since the Beach Diggin' compilation series launched a few years back, a number of its obscure, Balearic-minded selections have been given full length reissues of their own. We can probably expect a number of the tracks from this brilliant fifth volume to get the same treatment. As usual, the wide-ranging track list is thick with highlights, from the synth-heavy, French language reggae of Raphael Toine's 1986 bubbler "Femmes Pays Douces" (taken from the artist's frustratingly hard to find Ce Ta Ou album) and vibraphone-laden jazz-funk smoothness of Yasuko Agwa's sought-after "L.A Night", to the barely-known brilliance of Andre Maria Tole's Cameroonian gem "Sweet Dole". In other words, it's another essential selection.

Anglo-French RnB singer songwriter with expertly crafted Love songs charting the course of relationshipS. A new take on the alternative RnB and Neo Soul genre with instrumentally daring arrangements, melancholic soundscapes, sumptuous jazz harmonies and effortless mantra-like soulful melodies. appolonie - vocals (all tracks)barak schmool - keys, programming (all tracks); alto flute (3)joe lee - bass (all tracks)lyle barton - keys solo (2)todd oliver - guitar solo (5)aviv cohen - guitar (1 2 4 5)greg sanders - guitar (3)words/music appolonie, arrangements barak schmoolengineering - aviv cohen, tom cc, julius johanssonproduction - barak schmool, aviv cohenmixing, mastering - aviv cohenphotography - cinqcentquarante

The Brewmaster General (Brew Records, War Games) makes his long awaited debut on L.I.E.S. Currently, Amsterdam's bearer of the underground torch, Mr. Bergman follows suit in the tradition of his BREW label delivering his signature brand of chaotic jacking house madness over four tracks. Expanding on forefathers Sleezy D, the experiments of DJ Rush, or the Muzique clique, Bergman runs his tracks through the meat grinder serving up some of the most psychedelic house out there in this day and age. Limited to 300 copies. Strictly for the heads.

Artiste pluridisciplinaire, Lido Pimienta présente son style unique: une pop satanique, mélangeant beat électroniques, synthés analogiques, et rythmes afro-colombiens. Écriture puissante et mélodies engagées, Lido Pimienta est une artiste complète, qui définit elle-même sa musique de « Pop Satanico ». Une pop satanique faite pour interroger et réveiller les esprits et les consciences. Lido Pimienta est une musicienne et artiste multidisciplinaire née en Colombie et basé à Toronto. Elle a tourné dans le monde entier depuis 2002, explorant les politiques de genre et de race, la maternité, l'identité et la construction du paysage canadien dans la diaspora latino-américaine. Son nouvel album Miss Colombia porte son hybridation extatique à un nouveau niveau, en s'appuyant sur l'intersection de l'electronica et de la cumbia, établi par son album La Papessa, lauréat du prix Polaris 2016, comme album canadien de l'année. La voix et la musique aux textures multiples et à l'esprit tordu de Lido Pimienta projettent ce que le Globe and Mail canadien a appelé son personnage "audacieux, impétueux et polarisant", qui confronte constamment les pouvoirs en place. Produit avec Matt Smith, a/k/a Prince Nifty, Miss Colombia déborde d'un génie discret à qui l'on promet une extraordinaire réussite.