Dédales is the second LP from Opera Mort following a debut for the inhouse label of the sadly defunct Parisian record shop Bimbo Tower. The project is an ongoing collaboration between Jo Tanz and Laurent Gerard, two figures from France’s contemporary avant garde underground; Jo with his Tanzprocesz label and Laurent with his Élg project (Élg’s ‘Mil Pluton’ album appeared on Alter in 2012).
They also form two thirds of the trio Reines D’Angleterre with the legendary French artist Ghedalia Tazartés who will be returning to live performance later in 2014. The 8 tracks on Dédales were edited down from a series of improvised live takes of abstract and other-worldy electronics, shifting the Opera Mort sound into more focussed territory and creating a musical language that’s uniquely singular and a direct result of their close collaborative relationship. The album is set to be released on April 14th, 2014 and you can stream a track from the record below.
Brussels-based Orphan Swords is a duo between Yannick Franck aka Räum, sound experimentalist & founder of Idiosyncratics label and Maze, producer & Bozar Electronic Arts Festival curator. Previously described as "industrial-slanted techno" or "new school industrial" by XLR8R or The Quietus, Orphan Swords' music results of the collision between Räum & Maze's widely different influences, including techno, noise or cold wave.
Orphan Swords has been recently remixed by SHXCXCHCXSH, Dwellings, Paul Purgas (Emptyset) and Exoteric Continent and collaborated with Ike Yard's Stuart Argabright.
"... in the realm of acts like Sandwell District and Richie Hawtin's digressive and hypnotizing Plastikman moniker." XLR8R
"Their debut EP, DANTALION/RAUM is a slow-building, intricately-layered exploration of heavily processed synths, voices, tape loops, feedbacks, drones and beats. Each track on the EP builds to a staggering crescendo of ear-shattering, gritty noise and techno-driven beats."
ORPHAN SWORDS
Risk In A New Age
dsr099
Out May 5.
Track listing:
A1 – Haagenti
A2 – Leraikha
B1 – Vassago feat Ike Yard
B2 - Orobas
Gentle Friendly are the London-based duo of David Maurice and Richard Manber, whose penchant for circular melodies, tidal fuzz and rapid junked rhythms is delivered via an austere instrumental setup of vocals, Casio MT-40 keyboard and drums (sometimes electronic), alongside an array of tapes and electronics. Since forming in 2008, they have released a steady sequence of singular and acclaimed recordings, forging a sound that – whilst informed by a rich tapestry of influences and a particular brand of ‘Future Englishness’ - is instantly recognizable as their own.
The band released their first material in 2008, with the ‘Night Tape’ 7” appearing on indie label No Pain In Pop, whilst 2009 saw London DIY powerhouse Upset The Rhythm release their debut album ‘Ride Slow’ to critical acclaim. Uncut considered “No Age, Ponytail and Health as spiritual kin”, whilst Pitchfork even cited Clipse and Lil Wayne as influences on the band. A split 12” EP (shared with Dustin Wong) on FatCat’s Palmist imprint followed in 2011. Since then Gentle Friendly have remodelled and rebuilt their sound into a stronger beast at their home studio called Deep House, a practice space they share with other leftfield lo-fi artists, Echo Lake, Way Through and others, all of whom Gentle Friendly credit with helping to shape and influence their sound.
Building on the musical and lyrical themes of ‘Ride Slow’ and 2011's ‘Rrrrr’, ‘KAUA'I O'O A'A’ is perhaps their most coherent and assured statement to date. Drawing from an expanded palette of English originality – including the likes of Disco Inferno, Seefeel, This Heat, and Kate Bush - combined with harsh/ethereal sonic atmospheres and top 40 radio pop and R&B, Gentle Friendly have crafted a wide-eyed ode to "the sounds and feelings of a city in love and/or on fire."
According to the band, "the twelve songs on this record are about a lot of things, but they are mostly collective love songs and songs about the weather. Some of them are also about skinhead girl gangs, circular time, arson... One thing we were thinking about was translation, how music from Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere could make sense in terms of this primitive broken-down set of instruments we have - two punks in an ex-industrial building hundreds and thousands of miles away hearing those sounds and trying to make sense of it in a different way."
“Over the past year or so we recorded hundreds of fragments and sketches. We then began to re-sample the recordings we’d made, to pull them all apart and rework them again, to build things up gradually until we came to what became the final forms of songs. We always begin with the same basic setup of a Casio, tape machines and drums, and this record was about experimenting within those limits. We were also thinking about making words into sounds, and vice versa (just like the title).” They differentiate the album from previous records mainly in terms of sound: “it has a lot more texture, and a totally different focus - to us the record seems very 'song'-based, even in its strangest moments.”
Driven relentlessly forward by Manber’s bustling, frenetic beats and Maurice’s distinctive vocal phrasing - clipped, overlaid, structurally repetitive, informed by his creative writing practise - the record is a snarling, bustling, expansive sprawl. Urgent and insistent; adventurously skewed and complex whilst underpinned by strong melodic hooks, you might catch glimpses of the visceral sonic / rhythmic chaos of early Animal Collective; the fractured melodic sensibility of punk experimentalists like Wire and This Heat, or more recently Micachu & The Shapes; as well as hearing the influence of the loop-based electronics and sample-experimentation of post-rock pioneers like Disco Inferno and Seefeel or more modern dance splinter genres like juke / footwork and wonky.
The title KAUA'I O'O A'A comes from the Hawaiian bird, which was named after the eerie, echoey sound it makes and declined drastically during the 20th century following the islands’ cultivation after the arrival of Europeans. In 1981 just a single pair remained. The female was lost following Hurricane Iwa in 1982, and the sole remaining male’s hollow, haunting, flute-like calls were last heard in 1987. The band felt the title “seemed perfect for the record. It looks good and feels good to say.” The last known field recording of the species - a mating call by that last remaining male appears on ’18 Wave Crash’. “Our record is nowhere near that sad but the story seemed to resonate somehow.”
‘KAUA'I O'O A'A’ will be released on vinyl and digital formats, and will be accompanied by UK / European tour dates.
ozinja is the South African artist famous for creating the revolutionary dance movement dubbed 'shangaan electro’. A 21st century reboot of local folk tradition, Tsonga disco, kwaito and South African house, Nozinja has transcended these reference points to dream up an innovative and iconic Afro-futurist strain of electronic dance music. There is nothing quite like a Nozinja production: it is home-grown rave music in its purest form.
A mover, shaker and shape-shifter sometimes referred to as ‘Dog’ by his friends and associates, Nozinja’s infectious persona has extended way beyond his position as kingpin of the traditional Shangaan street dance community and the man behind a vast catalogue of cassettes, CD-Rs and DVDs released locally via Nozinja Productions, into the position he now occupies as a hugely influential soundclash pioneer on a global scale.
The shangaan electro sound was brought to wider international attention in 2010 when Honest Jon’s released the stunning compilation ‘Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa’. Growing out of the traditional street dances held in Limpopo and Soweto in South Africa, the compilation was essentially a showcase of Nozinja’s production work and the various vocal/dance crews he had assembled. The record and the attention it threw on various YouTube clips of the dancers in action captured the imagination of music fans and fellow artists around the world. Trailblazing touring soon followed, with a succession of wave-making performances at Sonar Festival, Berghain and elsewhere across Europe, Australia and Africa quickly establishing shangaan electro as a club-ready new strain of electronic dance music whose unbridled joy, breakneck speed and creative flair stood way out from the crowd.
Unsurprisingly, Nozinja's sound has found a particular kinship with other forward thinking electronic producers and DJs, with fans and champions including Caribou, The Knife, Mount Kimbie and Pearson Sound. A high profile series of 12”s on Honest Jon's capitalised on this with Theo Parrish, Rashad & Spinn, Ricardo Villalobos, Hype Williams and others remixing Shangaan tracks. They were subsequently compiled on the 'Shangaan Shake' double CD. 2013 saw the release of 2 brand new Nozinja cuts (under various pseudonyms) on Dan Snaith's (Caribou, Daphni) Jiaolong label.
Having found the perfect home on Warp Records, Nozinja will be breaking out fresh tracks and a brand new live show this April/May on a short run of intimate club and festivals, showcasing the inimitable next-level production, hyper-speed dance moves and soulful vocal hooks that make this a club experience like no other.
White Denim have unveiled the video for "At Night In Dreams" the new single from Corsicana Lemonade, released on 14th April via Downtown. The clip, which was directed by acclaimed Texas artist Brian K. Jones of the art duo Chuck & George, pays homage to iconic Big Tex, a 52-ft. tall mechanical talking cowboy that went up in flames on October 19th – the final day of the 2012 Texas State Fair and Big Tex’s 60th birthday. Watch it below...
Brian K. Jones says of the video, “White Denim had really taken a liking to my 'Meanwhile...back in Dallas!’ two-second animated burning Big Tex/self portrait video loop. The animation was comprised of 48 ‘traditional’ paintings ranging from six inches to eight feet that hung salon style in the gallery setting. For ‘At Night in Dreams’ I took a more digital approach to avoid the ‘byproduct’ of traditional paintings, using free open source software GIMP to produce the animated drawings and KDEnlive to edit the parts into video. There are winks and nods to psychedelic grind house theater graphics of the 70's and a sprinkling of old Saturday morning cartoons to lighten the mood.”
