1
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Popul - Cliché - Soulwax Remix
2
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Popul - Cliché - Soulwax Instrumental Mix
3
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Popul - Ceci N’Est Pas Un Cliché - Original version
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, Belgium & Netherlands
Packaging: 12’’ Black Vinyl, 3mm spine printed sleeve, heavy weight printed inner sleeve
TRACKLIST
FACE A
1. Cliché - Soulwax Remix
FACE B
1. Cliché - Soulwax Instrumental Mix
2. Ceci N’Est Pas Un Cliché - Original version
BIOG
After co-producing their triumphant debut album ‘Topical Dancer’ which was heralded as Pitchfork’s Best New Music on release, Soulwax have delivered a remix of Charlotte & Bolis’ fan favourite 'Ceci N’est Pas Un Cliché'. The dynamic track which touches on all of the most cliché lyrics used in pop music has received the club treatment from Soulwax ahead of this summer’s lengthy festival run for the Belgian duo.
More
Packaging: 12’’ Black Vinyl, 3mm spine printed sleeve, heavy weight printed inner sleeve
TRACKLIST
FACE A
1. Cliché - Soulwax Remix
FACE B
1. Cliché - Soulwax Instrumental Mix
2. Ceci N’Est Pas Un Cliché - Original version
BIOG
After co-producing their triumphant debut album ‘Topical Dancer’ which was heralded as Pitchfork’s Best New Music on release, Soulwax have delivered a remix of Charlotte & Bolis’ fan favourite 'Ceci N’est Pas Un Cliché'. The dynamic track which touches on all of the most cliché lyrics used in pop music has received the club treatment from Soulwax ahead of this summer’s lengthy festival run for the Belgian duo.
More
More records from Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Popul
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, US, Belgium & Netherlands
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
Ltd Black & White LP : 1x Black Vinyl 140 gr + 1x Solid White Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Ltd Black & White LP : 1x Black Vinyl 140 gr + 1x Solid White Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
Black 2 x LP : 2x Black Vinyl 140 gr, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Black 2 x LP : 2x Black Vinyl 140 gr, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
CD : 1 X CD, Jewelcase,20 page booklet.
TRACKLIST CD :
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY 5. IT HIT ME 6. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 7. REAPPROPRIATE 8. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 9. HUILE SMISSE 10. MANTRA 11. MAKING SENSE STOP 12. HAHA 13. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
CD : 1 X CD, Jewelcase,20 page booklet.
TRACKLIST CD :
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY 5. IT HIT ME 6. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 7. REAPPROPRIATE 8. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 9. HUILE SMISSE 10. MANTRA 11. MAKING SENSE STOP 12. HAHA 13. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
More records from Deewee / Because Music
World excluding FR, UK,US,Belgium & Netherlands
Packaging: 1 x 140 grs Black Vinyl, 3mm spine sleeve with UV Gloss finish, Printed Inner Sleeeve,, marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING VINYL:
A1. Letter To Yu
A2. Completely Half
A3. Goodnight Mr Yi
A4. Doctor Says
A5. Spicy Crab
B1. Ma Tau Wai Road
B2. Causeway Bae
B3. Cantonese
B4. Kowloon
B5. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
Packaging: 1 x 140 grs Black Vinyl, 3mm spine sleeve with UV Gloss finish, Printed Inner Sleeeve,, marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING VINYL:
A1. Letter To Yu
A2. Completely Half
A3. Goodnight Mr Yi
A4. Doctor Says
A5. Spicy Crab
B1. Ma Tau Wai Road
B2. Causeway Bae
B3. Cantonese
B4. Kowloon
B5. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
World excluding FR, UK,US,Belgium & Netherlands
Packaging: 1x CD, jewel case, clear tray, 4/4 inlya, booklet with UV gloss finish marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING CD (includes an exclusive bonus track : "Frogs")
1. Letter To Yu
2. Completely Half
3. Goodnight Mr Yi
4. Frogs
5. Doctor Says
6. Spicy Crab
7. Ma Tau Wai Road
8. Causeway Bae
9. Cantonese
10. Kowloon
11. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
Packaging: 1x CD, jewel case, clear tray, 4/4 inlya, booklet with UV gloss finish marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING CD (includes an exclusive bonus track : "Frogs")
1. Letter To Yu
2. Completely Half
3. Goodnight Mr Yi
4. Frogs
5. Doctor Says
6. Spicy Crab
7. Ma Tau Wai Road
8. Causeway Bae
9. Cantonese
10. Kowloon
11. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, US, Belgium & Netherlands
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, US, Belgium & Netherlands
Format: 1 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 1 x 3mm spine sleeve UV Gloss , 1 x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. + download card + sticker
TRACKLIST LP:
FACE A
1. LIVESTREAM SUPERSTAR
2. PAUSE
3. TOUCH
4. RELEASE PARTY
5. REAL WORLD PARK
6. NEVER GIVE UP ON THE CITY
FACE B
1. A DAY AT THE RACES
2. I WANT TO LIVE
3. LOVER BOY
4. EMPTY ROOMS
5. PLAYING TO WIN
6. FAREWELL SUPERSTAR
INFORMATION/ BIOG
‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.
"I wrote this record during the first few months of the pandemic. At the time I wasn’t intending to make any music. I’d just released ‘The Performer’ on what turned out to be the first week of lockdown. The outside world shut down and I was busy being Dad. Then. I started making notes on my phone. Just words. In moments stolen from family life I’d head downstairs to my garage studio and put the words to music. When I was happy with a song I’d send it to Dave and Stef. Demos and Pro Tools sessions were passed back and forth between my home studio and the Deewee studio in Ghent. I was nervous about their response to the music I was making. It was personal, raw: unlike anything I’d ever written before. A conversation with the outside world during these times of isolation. For the most part my life was centred on the domestic. Getting to spend so much time with my family was a blessing. Making music was my play time. Isolation opened me to memories and allowed me to dream of the future. As the outside world tried to adapt to the pandemic I was asked more and more to promote ‘The Performer’ in live stream concerts on various platforms. As the pandemic went on, demands on production increased (more camera angles, better lighting, higher quality audio recordings). It became a one man show. I’d head downstairs to my garage, put on my Gucci suit, comb my hair and become someone else. Jim. Jim the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. A lonely stardom. And yet, Jim was part me. He made me feel like I still existed. Jim became the centre of the new album. Dave, Stef and I worked into the sessions over the following months. It was always exciting to see where they would take my initial demos. The working method and the restrictions of making music together but in separate spaces, separate countries shaped the sound and feel of the record.
I won’t make another record like this again”.James/Jim
More
Format: 1 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 1 x 3mm spine sleeve UV Gloss , 1 x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. + download card + sticker
TRACKLIST LP:
FACE A
1. LIVESTREAM SUPERSTAR
2. PAUSE
3. TOUCH
4. RELEASE PARTY
5. REAL WORLD PARK
6. NEVER GIVE UP ON THE CITY
FACE B
1. A DAY AT THE RACES
2. I WANT TO LIVE
3. LOVER BOY
4. EMPTY ROOMS
5. PLAYING TO WIN
6. FAREWELL SUPERSTAR
INFORMATION/ BIOG
‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.
"I wrote this record during the first few months of the pandemic. At the time I wasn’t intending to make any music. I’d just released ‘The Performer’ on what turned out to be the first week of lockdown. The outside world shut down and I was busy being Dad. Then. I started making notes on my phone. Just words. In moments stolen from family life I’d head downstairs to my garage studio and put the words to music. When I was happy with a song I’d send it to Dave and Stef. Demos and Pro Tools sessions were passed back and forth between my home studio and the Deewee studio in Ghent. I was nervous about their response to the music I was making. It was personal, raw: unlike anything I’d ever written before. A conversation with the outside world during these times of isolation. For the most part my life was centred on the domestic. Getting to spend so much time with my family was a blessing. Making music was my play time. Isolation opened me to memories and allowed me to dream of the future. As the outside world tried to adapt to the pandemic I was asked more and more to promote ‘The Performer’ in live stream concerts on various platforms. As the pandemic went on, demands on production increased (more camera angles, better lighting, higher quality audio recordings). It became a one man show. I’d head downstairs to my garage, put on my Gucci suit, comb my hair and become someone else. Jim. Jim the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. A lonely stardom. And yet, Jim was part me. He made me feel like I still existed. Jim became the centre of the new album. Dave, Stef and I worked into the sessions over the following months. It was always exciting to see where they would take my initial demos. The working method and the restrictions of making music together but in separate spaces, separate countries shaped the sound and feel of the record.
I won’t make another record like this again”.James/Jim
More
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, US, Belgium & Netherlands
Format: 1 x CD, jewel box, clear tray, 4/4 inlay + 16 page 4/4 booklet + sticker
TRACKLIST CD:
1. LIVESTREAM SUPERSTAR
2. PAUSE
3. TOUCH
4. RELEASE PARTY
5. REAL WORLD PARK
6. NEVER GIVE UP ON THE CITY
7. A DAY AT THE RACES
8. I WANT TO LIVE
9. LOVER BOY
10. EMPTY ROOMS
11. PLAYING TO WIN
12. FAREWELL SUPERSTAR
INFORMATION/ BIOG
‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.
"I wrote this record during the first few months of the pandemic. At the time I wasn’t intending to make any music. I’d just released ‘The Performer’ on what turned out to be the first week of lockdown. The outside world shut down and I was busy being Dad. Then. I started making notes on my phone. Just words. In moments stolen from family life I’d head downstairs to my garage studio and put the words to music. When I was happy with a song I’d send it to Dave and Stef. Demos and Pro Tools sessions were passed back and forth between my home studio and the Deewee studio in Ghent. I was nervous about their response to the music I was making. It was personal, raw: unlike anything I’d ever written before. A conversation with the outside world during these times of isolation. For the most part my life was centred on the domestic. Getting to spend so much time with my family was a blessing. Making music was my play time. Isolation opened me to memories and allowed me to dream of the future. As the outside world tried to adapt to the pandemic I was asked more and more to promote ‘The Performer’ in live stream concerts on various platforms. As the pandemic went on, demands on production increased (more camera angles, better lighting, higher quality audio recordings). It became a one man show. I’d head downstairs to my garage, put on my Gucci suit, comb my hair and become someone else. Jim. Jim the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. A lonely stardom. And yet, Jim was part me. He made me feel like I still existed. Jim became the centre of the new album. Dave, Stef and I worked into the sessions over the following months. It was always exciting to see where they would take my initial demos. The working method and the restrictions of making music together but in separate spaces, separate countries shaped the sound and feel of the record.
I won’t make another record like this again”.James/Jim
More
Format: 1 x CD, jewel box, clear tray, 4/4 inlay + 16 page 4/4 booklet + sticker
TRACKLIST CD:
1. LIVESTREAM SUPERSTAR
2. PAUSE
3. TOUCH
4. RELEASE PARTY
5. REAL WORLD PARK
6. NEVER GIVE UP ON THE CITY
7. A DAY AT THE RACES
8. I WANT TO LIVE
9. LOVER BOY
10. EMPTY ROOMS
11. PLAYING TO WIN
12. FAREWELL SUPERSTAR
INFORMATION/ BIOG
‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.
"I wrote this record during the first few months of the pandemic. At the time I wasn’t intending to make any music. I’d just released ‘The Performer’ on what turned out to be the first week of lockdown. The outside world shut down and I was busy being Dad. Then. I started making notes on my phone. Just words. In moments stolen from family life I’d head downstairs to my garage studio and put the words to music. When I was happy with a song I’d send it to Dave and Stef. Demos and Pro Tools sessions were passed back and forth between my home studio and the Deewee studio in Ghent. I was nervous about their response to the music I was making. It was personal, raw: unlike anything I’d ever written before. A conversation with the outside world during these times of isolation. For the most part my life was centred on the domestic. Getting to spend so much time with my family was a blessing. Making music was my play time. Isolation opened me to memories and allowed me to dream of the future. As the outside world tried to adapt to the pandemic I was asked more and more to promote ‘The Performer’ in live stream concerts on various platforms. As the pandemic went on, demands on production increased (more camera angles, better lighting, higher quality audio recordings). It became a one man show. I’d head downstairs to my garage, put on my Gucci suit, comb my hair and become someone else. Jim. Jim the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. A lonely stardom. And yet, Jim was part me. He made me feel like I still existed. Jim became the centre of the new album. Dave, Stef and I worked into the sessions over the following months. It was always exciting to see where they would take my initial demos. The working method and the restrictions of making music together but in separate spaces, separate countries shaped the sound and feel of the record.
I won’t make another record like this again”.James/Jim
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
CD : 1 X CD, Jewelcase,20 page booklet.
TRACKLIST CD :
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY 5. IT HIT ME 6. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 7. REAPPROPRIATE 8. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 9. HUILE SMISSE 10. MANTRA 11. MAKING SENSE STOP 12. HAHA 13. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
CD : 1 X CD, Jewelcase,20 page booklet.
TRACKLIST CD :
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY 5. IT HIT ME 6. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 7. REAPPROPRIATE 8. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 9. HUILE SMISSE 10. MANTRA 11. MAKING SENSE STOP 12. HAHA 13. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
Black 2 x LP : 2x Black Vinyl 140 gr, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Black 2 x LP : 2x Black Vinyl 140 gr, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Rights: WORLD excluding FR, UK, US, BENELUX
Ltd Black & White LP : 1x Black Vinyl 140 gr + 1x Solid White Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Ltd Black & White LP : 1x Black Vinyl 140 gr + 1x Solid White Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve + UV gloss, 2x heavy weight printed inner sleeve. Sticker + download card
TRACKLIST 2LP :
VINYL 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
BIOG :
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
More
Label:Deewee / Because Music
Cat-No:DEEWEE042
Release-Date:27.08.2021
Genre:House
Configuration:12" Excl
Label:Deewee / Because Music
Cat-No:DEEWEE042
Release-Date:27.08.2021
Genre:House
Configuration:12" Excl
Rights : World excluding FR & UK
12“ – Printed sleeve with 3mm spine UV Gloss finish, 140 G Black Vinyl, Heavy Weight 200 grs Printed Inner Sleeve
TRACKLIST
A SIDE : 1. CONNEXION À LIÈGE 2. CACAO
B SIDE : 1. MISSING TEETH 2. VELEDA 3. IN MY BODY
SHORT INFORMATION/ SHORT BIOG
DEEWEE ‘s new releases now worked with Because Music. Formed in 2012, Asa Moto purvey non-standard body music from their Ghent outpost, Studio Martino. Closely affiliated with famed Soulwax imprint, DEEWEE, the Belgian duo’s recorded offerings carefully juxtapose expert synth-work with aesthetic imperfection. Charming melodies and throbbing rhythms come courtesy of archaic tone generators and acoustic instrumentation alike, landing Asa Moto in a zone of confident sonic idiosyncrasy. Their studio prowess has hardly gone unnoticed and during their breakout year of 2018, Resident Advisor, Redbull and the BBC were quick to take note of the group’s steady ascent. Via their ever-changing live performances, Asa Moto have become regular fixtures on the European touring circuit, touching down for club nights and festival appearances across the continent. As astute selectors, they operate a bi-monthly radio show in Brussels, digging into their sprawling collection, ranging from obscure jazz records to contemporary electronic cuts. Asa Moto have re-adapted their unmistakable strain of body music into a live show, which premiered on the Mainstage of the Lokerse Feesten 2019 and at the 40th anniversary of Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. In 2020, they co-produced and mixed the Turkish band, Altin Gün album 'Yol' marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders.
More
12“ – Printed sleeve with 3mm spine UV Gloss finish, 140 G Black Vinyl, Heavy Weight 200 grs Printed Inner Sleeve
TRACKLIST
A SIDE : 1. CONNEXION À LIÈGE 2. CACAO
B SIDE : 1. MISSING TEETH 2. VELEDA 3. IN MY BODY
SHORT INFORMATION/ SHORT BIOG
DEEWEE ‘s new releases now worked with Because Music. Formed in 2012, Asa Moto purvey non-standard body music from their Ghent outpost, Studio Martino. Closely affiliated with famed Soulwax imprint, DEEWEE, the Belgian duo’s recorded offerings carefully juxtapose expert synth-work with aesthetic imperfection. Charming melodies and throbbing rhythms come courtesy of archaic tone generators and acoustic instrumentation alike, landing Asa Moto in a zone of confident sonic idiosyncrasy. Their studio prowess has hardly gone unnoticed and during their breakout year of 2018, Resident Advisor, Redbull and the BBC were quick to take note of the group’s steady ascent. Via their ever-changing live performances, Asa Moto have become regular fixtures on the European touring circuit, touching down for club nights and festival appearances across the continent. As astute selectors, they operate a bi-monthly radio show in Brussels, digging into their sprawling collection, ranging from obscure jazz records to contemporary electronic cuts. Asa Moto have re-adapted their unmistakable strain of body music into a live show, which premiered on the Mainstage of the Lokerse Feesten 2019 and at the 40th anniversary of Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. In 2020, they co-produced and mixed the Turkish band, Altin Gün album 'Yol' marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders.
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Deluxe Triple LP (with free download) - Rights : World excluding France, UK, Belgium,Netherlands,Luxemburg,Spain,Portugal
DELUXE TRIPLE VINYL EDITION :
3 x Black 12" 140 G Vinyl - 6 x Labels 4/0 - 12" special Trifold Sleeve (3 wallets) , 4/1, 2 x Side + 1 x Top Opening pockets, UV Gloss
3 x 4/0 Printed Inner Sleeves, Uncoated - 26 x 5cm tracklisting Sticker 1/0 - Position: Back Sleeve, Centralised. Over Shrink-wrap. Marketing Front sticker.
Includes a download card.
Informations :
Deewee presents their first compilation ! 27 tracks from Soulwax 's label, including 3 new & exclusive tracks.
Features Charlotte Adigéry ,Soulwax , James Righton , Die Verboten, Asa Moto..
TRIPLE VINYL EDITION
A1. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - BEAR WITH ME (AND l'LL STAND BARE BEFORE YOU)
A2. LAIMA - DISCO PREGNANCY (TONAL+ RHYTHMICAL)
A3. EACH OTHER - BURN IT DOWN
A4. BOLIS PUPUL - MOON THEME
A5. JAMES RIGHTON - RELEASE PARTY
B1. DIE VERBOTEN - AQUARIUS
B2. SOULWAX - HEAVEN SCENT FEAT. CHLOE SEVIGNY
B3. EMS SYNTHI 100 - MOVEMENT 6
B4. SOULWAX - CONDITIONS OF A SHARED BELIEF
C1. SOULWAX - CLOSE TO PARADISE
C2. ASA MOTO - KIFESH
C3. LAILA - THE OTHER ME (DEEWEEDUB)
C4. ASA MOTO - WANOWAN EFEM
D1. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - PATÉNIPAT
D2. KLANKEN - DRIE
D3. PHILLIPI - 9000
D4. MOVULANGO - LEAVE
D5. LAIMA - HOME
E1. EMMANUELLE - ITALOVE
E2. SWORN VIRGINS -TAKE YOUR LADY
E3. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - PACIENCIA
E4. EXTRA CREDIT- DRIVE ME
F1. BOUS PUPUL - WÉI?
F2. SOULWAX - ESSENTIAL ELEVEN
F3. SWORN VIRGINS - FIFTY DOLLAR BILLS
F4. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - RETROGRADO
F5. FUTURE SOUND OF ANTWERP - TOM CRUISE, SCIENTOLOGIST
More
DELUXE TRIPLE VINYL EDITION :
3 x Black 12" 140 G Vinyl - 6 x Labels 4/0 - 12" special Trifold Sleeve (3 wallets) , 4/1, 2 x Side + 1 x Top Opening pockets, UV Gloss
3 x 4/0 Printed Inner Sleeves, Uncoated - 26 x 5cm tracklisting Sticker 1/0 - Position: Back Sleeve, Centralised. Over Shrink-wrap. Marketing Front sticker.
Includes a download card.
Informations :
Deewee presents their first compilation ! 27 tracks from Soulwax 's label, including 3 new & exclusive tracks.
Features Charlotte Adigéry ,Soulwax , James Righton , Die Verboten, Asa Moto..
TRIPLE VINYL EDITION
A1. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - BEAR WITH ME (AND l'LL STAND BARE BEFORE YOU)
A2. LAIMA - DISCO PREGNANCY (TONAL+ RHYTHMICAL)
A3. EACH OTHER - BURN IT DOWN
A4. BOLIS PUPUL - MOON THEME
A5. JAMES RIGHTON - RELEASE PARTY
B1. DIE VERBOTEN - AQUARIUS
B2. SOULWAX - HEAVEN SCENT FEAT. CHLOE SEVIGNY
B3. EMS SYNTHI 100 - MOVEMENT 6
B4. SOULWAX - CONDITIONS OF A SHARED BELIEF
C1. SOULWAX - CLOSE TO PARADISE
C2. ASA MOTO - KIFESH
C3. LAILA - THE OTHER ME (DEEWEEDUB)
C4. ASA MOTO - WANOWAN EFEM
D1. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - PATÉNIPAT
D2. KLANKEN - DRIE
D3. PHILLIPI - 9000
D4. MOVULANGO - LEAVE
D5. LAIMA - HOME
E1. EMMANUELLE - ITALOVE
E2. SWORN VIRGINS -TAKE YOUR LADY
E3. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - PACIENCIA
E4. EXTRA CREDIT- DRIVE ME
F1. BOUS PUPUL - WÉI?
F2. SOULWAX - ESSENTIAL ELEVEN
F3. SWORN VIRGINS - FIFTY DOLLAR BILLS
F4. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - RETROGRADO
F5. FUTURE SOUND OF ANTWERP - TOM CRUISE, SCIENTOLOGIST
More
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Double CD - Rights : World excluding France, UK, Belgium,Netherlands,Luxemburg,Spain,Portugal
DOUBLE CD EDITION :
2 x CD Onbody - Clear Jewelcase with hinged CD bracket - 8 Page Booklet CMYK
1 x Inlay CMYK - 6.4cm x 4cm tracklisting Sticker 1/0 - Position: Back Sleeve, Centralised. Over Shrink-wrap.
Marketing front sticker.
Informations :
Deewee presents their first compilation ! 27 tracks from Soulwax 's label, including 3 new & exclusive tracks.
Features Charlotte Adigéry ,Soulwax , James Righton , Die Verboten, Asa Moto..
Tracklist
DOUBLE CD
CD 1
01. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - BEAR WITH ME (AND l'LL STAND BARE BEFORE YOU)
02. LAIMA - DISCO PREGNANCY (TONAL+ RHYTHMICAL)
03. EACH OTHER - BURN IT DOWN
04. BOLIS PUPUL - MOON THEME
05. JAMES RIGHTON - RELEASE PARTY
06. DIE VERBOTEN - AQUARIUS
07. SOULWAX - HEAVEN SCENT FEAT. CHLOE SEVIGNY
08. EMS SYNTHI 100 - MOVEMENT 6
09. SOULWAX - CONDITIONS OF A SHARED BELIEF
10. SOULWAX - CLOSE TO PARADISE
11. ASA MOTO - KIFESH
12. LAILA - THE OTHER ME (DEEWEEDUB)
13. ASA MOTO - WANOWAN EFEM
CD 2
01. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - PATÉNIPAT
02. KLANKEN - DRIE
03. PHILLIPI - 9000
04. MOVULANGO - LEAVE
05. LAIMA - HOME
06. EMMANUELLE - ITALOVE
07. SWORN VIRGINS -TAKE YOUR LADY
08. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - PACIENCIA
09. EXTRA CREDIT- DRIVE ME
10. BOUS PUPUL - WÉI?
11. SOULWAX - ESSENTIAL ELEVEN
12. SWORN VIRGINS - FIFTY DOLLAR BILLS
13. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - RETROGRADO
14. FUTURE SOUND OF ANTWERP - TOM CRUISE, SCIENTOLOGIST
More
DOUBLE CD EDITION :
2 x CD Onbody - Clear Jewelcase with hinged CD bracket - 8 Page Booklet CMYK
1 x Inlay CMYK - 6.4cm x 4cm tracklisting Sticker 1/0 - Position: Back Sleeve, Centralised. Over Shrink-wrap.
Marketing front sticker.
Informations :
Deewee presents their first compilation ! 27 tracks from Soulwax 's label, including 3 new & exclusive tracks.
Features Charlotte Adigéry ,Soulwax , James Righton , Die Verboten, Asa Moto..
Tracklist
DOUBLE CD
CD 1
01. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - BEAR WITH ME (AND l'LL STAND BARE BEFORE YOU)
02. LAIMA - DISCO PREGNANCY (TONAL+ RHYTHMICAL)
03. EACH OTHER - BURN IT DOWN
04. BOLIS PUPUL - MOON THEME
05. JAMES RIGHTON - RELEASE PARTY
06. DIE VERBOTEN - AQUARIUS
07. SOULWAX - HEAVEN SCENT FEAT. CHLOE SEVIGNY
08. EMS SYNTHI 100 - MOVEMENT 6
09. SOULWAX - CONDITIONS OF A SHARED BELIEF
10. SOULWAX - CLOSE TO PARADISE
11. ASA MOTO - KIFESH
12. LAILA - THE OTHER ME (DEEWEEDUB)
13. ASA MOTO - WANOWAN EFEM
CD 2
01. CHARLOTTE ADIGÉRY - PATÉNIPAT
02. KLANKEN - DRIE
03. PHILLIPI - 9000
04. MOVULANGO - LEAVE
05. LAIMA - HOME
06. EMMANUELLE - ITALOVE
07. SWORN VIRGINS -TAKE YOUR LADY
08. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - PACIENCIA
09. EXTRA CREDIT- DRIVE ME
10. BOUS PUPUL - WÉI?
11. SOULWAX - ESSENTIAL ELEVEN
12. SWORN VIRGINS - FIFTY DOLLAR BILLS
13. PHILLIPI & RODRIGO - RETROGRADO
14. FUTURE SOUND OF ANTWERP - TOM CRUISE, SCIENTOLOGIST
More
Customers who bought this also bought this
World excluding FR, UK,US,Belgium & Netherlands
Packaging: 1 x 140 grs Black Vinyl, 3mm spine sleeve with UV Gloss finish, Printed Inner Sleeeve,, marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING VINYL:
A1. Letter To Yu
A2. Completely Half
A3. Goodnight Mr Yi
A4. Doctor Says
A5. Spicy Crab
B1. Ma Tau Wai Road
B2. Causeway Bae
B3. Cantonese
B4. Kowloon
B5. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
Packaging: 1 x 140 grs Black Vinyl, 3mm spine sleeve with UV Gloss finish, Printed Inner Sleeeve,, marketing front sticker
SHORT BIOG
Following 2022' acclaimed 'Topical Dancer' album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes 'Letter To Yu', the debut solo album by Bolis Pupul : produced by fellow Belgians Soulwax & released on DEEWEE/Because Music. Exploring many themes including loss, grief, ancestry, culture, belonging/not belonging and identity. It's no coincidence that Bolis Pupul's music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in the super-cool creative city of Ghent, Bolis' music is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. Mixing widescreen electronica with the warm-hearted and wonky naivete of Belgian New Beat, Bolis' singular sonics are at once playful, emotive, unrelenting and tender. The real key to unlocking Bolis' musical secret, however, is that conversation he has between his Eastern and Western roots. The creation of the album is built around Bolis' trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his late mother's roots.
TRACKLISTING VINYL:
A1. Letter To Yu
A2. Completely Half
A3. Goodnight Mr Yi
A4. Doctor Says
A5. Spicy Crab
B1. Ma Tau Wai Road
B2. Causeway Bae
B3. Cantonese
B4. Kowloon
B5. Cosmic Rendez-Vous
More
Rights: World excluding FR, UK, US, Belgium & Netherlands
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
2 x 140 G Black Vinyl, 5mm spine printed Sleeve, 2 x Black Dust Inner Sleeve, 2 page 30cmx30cm printed insert, sticker
BIOG
“sweet, moreish and deliciously unpredictable” - The Guardian
“striking, playful electro pop with a sly sense of humor” - Pitchfork
“Delightfully (Deliberately) Absurd” - Vogue
“A deeply sardonic salvo that, in a better world, would annihilate mansplaining once and for all." - The New York Times on Thank You
Today sees Belgian-Caribbean provocateur Charlotte Adigéry and her long-term musical partner, Bolis Pupul announce their debut album Topical Dancer, due for release on March 4 2022 via Soulwax’s iconic label DEEWEE.
Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their debut album Topical Dancer. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions – never didactic and always with a knowing wink.
Their debut studio record – which cements them as a duo under both their names for the first time and is co-written and co-produced by Soulwax – is both a triumph of kaleidoscopic electro-pop and “a snapshot of how we think about pop culture in the 2020s.” It captures Charlotte and Bolis’s essence as musical collaborators and the conversations they’ve had over the past two years on tour, as well as their perspectives as Belgians with an immigrant background, Charlotte with Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Bolis being of Chinese descent.
Beyond the album’s thematic heft, Topical Dancer reflects Charlotte and Bolis’s idiosyncratic sound: it’s thoughtful but it bangs. Their take on familiar genres is always off-kilter; songs sound undone or a little wonky; but these are nocturnal heaters to make the club throb. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” laughs Bolis. “We cringe when we feel like we're making something that already exists, so we're always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”
Topical Dancer is fizzing with ideas – there’s certainly no filler among its 13 tracks. But above all, perhaps, it has a restlessness, a desire not to be boxed in and to escape others’ narrow perceptions of who they are. It’s summarised by the refrain of their new single, ‘Blenda’: “Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like.” “One thing that always comes up,” says Bolis, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”
‘Blenda’ in particular references how “I am a product of colonialism,” says Charlotte, “and I feel guilty for taking up space in a white country.” The song was inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m Not Longer Talking To White People About Race. “It talks about the colonial past and post-colonial present in the UK,” Charlotte continues, “but that isn’t merely a British or American problem, Belgium is part of that as well.” She says that her home country is likewise “oblivious to a big part of its history” which “results in general ignorance and a lack of understanding and empathy towards Belgian inhabitants of immigrant descent.”
On Topical Dancer, it’s less about finger pointing or being dogmatic about all the things they speak about. It’s about emancipation through humour. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” says Charlotte. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”
TRACKLIST
LP
VINYLE 1
FACE A
1. BEL DEEWEE 2. ESPERANTO 3. BLENDA 4. HEY
FACE B
1. IT HIT ME 2. ICH MWEN (WITH CHRISTIANE ADIGERY 3. REAPPROPRIATE
VINYL 2
FACE C
1. CECI N’EST PAS UN CLICHE 2. HUILE SMISSE 3. MANTRA
FACE D
1. MAKING SENSE STOP 2. HAHA 3. THANK YOU
More
1
Andy Ded - A1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs
2
Andy Ded - A2. Can Swim
3
Andy Ded - B1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tribal Mix)
4
Andy Ded - B2. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tolouse Low Trax Rework)
Territory World Ex FR
Andy Ded was an English artist who living in Paris in the mid 80's. The only trace of his work is this EP called "Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs" mixing industrial music with a Post-punk attitude.
Notwithstanding a danceable appeal, the release did not gain access to an audience more attracted by the emerging french Cold Wave scene.
This reissue is accompanied by a mutant Tolouse Low Trax Rework featuring additionals lyrics and vocals. With the help of some friends (Laura Lippie and Gwen Jamois aka Iueke) he adds a deviant Laurie Anderson atmosphere to the original track.
Remastered and Limited to 300 copies.
Tracklist
A1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs
A2. Can Swim
B1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tribal Mix)
B2. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tolouse Low Trax Rework)
More
Andy Ded was an English artist who living in Paris in the mid 80's. The only trace of his work is this EP called "Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs" mixing industrial music with a Post-punk attitude.
Notwithstanding a danceable appeal, the release did not gain access to an audience more attracted by the emerging french Cold Wave scene.
This reissue is accompanied by a mutant Tolouse Low Trax Rework featuring additionals lyrics and vocals. With the help of some friends (Laura Lippie and Gwen Jamois aka Iueke) he adds a deviant Laurie Anderson atmosphere to the original track.
Remastered and Limited to 300 copies.
Tracklist
A1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs
A2. Can Swim
B1. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tribal Mix)
B2. Summer Nightmares and Lazy Dogs (Tolouse Low Trax Rework)
More
1
MLD - A1. Perpetual Motion
2
MLD - A2. Camouflage
3
MLD - A3. Dance With Shadows
4
MLD - A4. Invisible Beats
5
MLD - A5. The Hole
6
MLD - B1. Dynamo
7
MLD - B2. Night March
8
MLD - B3. Micro Vibration
9
MLD - B4. Storm PT.1
10
MLD - B5. Burning
11
MLD - B6. Vortex
LP
MLD (Minimal Lethal Dose) was a Japanese project lead by Takayuki Shiraishi after his first mythical release with BGM on Vanity Records in 1980.
Made with the help of Jun Sonohara it was active between 1983 and 1986 in Tokyo.
This compilation collects nine unpublished tracks from the original tapes and confirms his unique offbeat style ranging from Post-Punk, Dub, and Industrial.
It's completed by "Perpetual Motion" and "Dynamo" previously released in 1983.
With his quirky approach, this record unveils another piece of Japanese experimental music history.
All these tracks have been carefully remastered by Krikor Kouchian.
A1. MLD - Perpetual Motion
A2. MLD - Camouflage
A3. MLD - Dance With Shadows
A4. MLD - Invisible Beats
A5. MLD - The Hole
B1. MLD - Dynamo
B2. MLD - Night March
B3. MLD - Micro Vibration
B4. MLD - Storm PT.1
B5. MLD - Burning
B6. MLD - Vortex
More
MLD (Minimal Lethal Dose) was a Japanese project lead by Takayuki Shiraishi after his first mythical release with BGM on Vanity Records in 1980.
Made with the help of Jun Sonohara it was active between 1983 and 1986 in Tokyo.
This compilation collects nine unpublished tracks from the original tapes and confirms his unique offbeat style ranging from Post-Punk, Dub, and Industrial.
It's completed by "Perpetual Motion" and "Dynamo" previously released in 1983.
With his quirky approach, this record unveils another piece of Japanese experimental music history.
All these tracks have been carefully remastered by Krikor Kouchian.
A1. MLD - Perpetual Motion
A2. MLD - Camouflage
A3. MLD - Dance With Shadows
A4. MLD - Invisible Beats
A5. MLD - The Hole
B1. MLD - Dynamo
B2. MLD - Night March
B3. MLD - Micro Vibration
B4. MLD - Storm PT.1
B5. MLD - Burning
B6. MLD - Vortex
More
2LP - 2022 Repress Edition
"Recondite's debut album "On Acid" ATLP01 see's a reissue on September 18th together with a brand new single ASD025 "Limber/Undulate - Lawrence Mixes" !
The melancholic acid album released on Absurd's Acid Test imprint gained much acclaim upon it's initial release and has been in high demand for a repress since.
Next to the mentioned Single 12" - the album repress also precedes the release of his upcoming album "PLACID" - For those who have been waiting for "On Acid" to be listened to on long autobahn rides or more generally to have it at hand ready to be played any other time
- Placid will also be released on CD with "On Acid" being Bonus CD 2 !
Tracklist:
A1 Petrichor , A2 Tie In , B1 Felicity , B2 Petrichor - Tin Man remix , C1 Harbinger , C2 Sultry , D1 Jaded , D2 Jaded - Scuba remix
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"Recondite's debut album "On Acid" ATLP01 see's a reissue on September 18th together with a brand new single ASD025 "Limber/Undulate - Lawrence Mixes" !
The melancholic acid album released on Absurd's Acid Test imprint gained much acclaim upon it's initial release and has been in high demand for a repress since.
Next to the mentioned Single 12" - the album repress also precedes the release of his upcoming album "PLACID" - For those who have been waiting for "On Acid" to be listened to on long autobahn rides or more generally to have it at hand ready to be played any other time
- Placid will also be released on CD with "On Acid" being Bonus CD 2 !
Tracklist:
A1 Petrichor , A2 Tie In , B1 Felicity , B2 Petrichor - Tin Man remix , C1 Harbinger , C2 Sultry , D1 Jaded , D2 Jaded - Scuba remix
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1
Yoran - Concert Maillol
2
Yoran - Je Derve avec l'air
3
Yoran - Montparnasse
4
Yoran - La Bou
Territory World Ex FR and USA
Tracklist :
A1 Concert Maillol
A2 Je Derve Avec Láir
B1 Montparnasse
B2 La Bou.....
First reissue of this long time looked after Japanese experimental gem from the 80's !
A walk in Paris somewhere between the 30's and the 50's made by a Japanese lost soul. "Montparnasse" by Yoran is a surreal journey into an era which has maybe existed but long gone. A melancholic phantasy about a time you'll never know and can only smell the atmosphere. Memories and flashes come from an ancient time, cobbled streets where heels crack far away surrounded by the tickle of a street musician, a classical dance class directed by some piano notes or an announcement from an old train station. The cryptic french spoken-word infuses the extracts and sound collages taken from different french movies looped into a broken tape player. The result is one of the most mysterious and looked after japanese 80's underground record.This reissue is pressed for the first time on 12" at 45 RPM. Remastered and limited to 500 copies.
More
Tracklist :
A1 Concert Maillol
A2 Je Derve Avec Láir
B1 Montparnasse
B2 La Bou.....
First reissue of this long time looked after Japanese experimental gem from the 80's !
A walk in Paris somewhere between the 30's and the 50's made by a Japanese lost soul. "Montparnasse" by Yoran is a surreal journey into an era which has maybe existed but long gone. A melancholic phantasy about a time you'll never know and can only smell the atmosphere. Memories and flashes come from an ancient time, cobbled streets where heels crack far away surrounded by the tickle of a street musician, a classical dance class directed by some piano notes or an announcement from an old train station. The cryptic french spoken-word infuses the extracts and sound collages taken from different french movies looped into a broken tape player. The result is one of the most mysterious and looked after japanese 80's underground record.This reissue is pressed for the first time on 12" at 45 RPM. Remastered and limited to 500 copies.
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RE-RELEASE! No one can say they didn’t see these two brats coming! Justice, who’s name the world (well at least that part of the world that loves to dance) chants with emotion and whose first album is awaited with bated breath ever since the French duo revolutionised dancefloors with two radically different hits. It comes as no surprise that «†», the first album by Justice, is a fantastic treat for the ears and for the feet. A kind of musical opera marked with religious and baroque symbols, where the melodies are ripped to shreds by the beats, where electro teaches rock a lesson and where pop gets a botox injection.
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1
Skee Mask - Cerroverb
2
Skee Mask - Session Add
3
Skee Mask - Rev8617
4
Skee Mask - 50 Euro To Break Boost
5
Skee Mask - Via Sub Mids
6
Skee Mask - Soundboy Ext.
7
Skee Mask - Dial 274
8
Skee Mask - VLI
9
Skee Mask - Flyby VFR
10
Skee Mask - Muk FM
11
Skee Mask - Kozmic Flush
12
Skee Mask - Calimance (Delay Mix)
Repress coming soon!
Skee Mask’s endless search and fascination for fresh music, weed and burgers channeled into his own vision of sound. Enjoy the ride through his second album, a detailed experimental universe of a young dedicated hustler.
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Skee Mask’s endless search and fascination for fresh music, weed and burgers channeled into his own vision of sound. Enjoy the ride through his second album, a detailed experimental universe of a young dedicated hustler.
More
1
Monolink - Amniotic
2
Monolink - Black Day
3
Monolink - Sirens
4
Monolink - Rearrange My Mind
5
Monolink - Frozen
6
Monolink - Father Ocean
7
Monolink - Swallow
8
Monolink - Take Me Home
9
Monolink - Riverman
10
Monolink - Return To Oz
11
Monolink - Burning Sun
WORLD EXCLUDING GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA (GSA), NEW ZEALAND.
2LP, Special remarks : Doppelvinyl im Gatefold + 180g + 2 printed Innersleeves + Downloadcode
Tracklist 2LP:
A1 Amniotic
A2 Black Day
A3 Sirens
B1 Rearrange My Mind
B2 Frozen
B3 Father Ocean
C1 Swallow
C2 Take Me Home
C3 Riverman
D1 Return To Oz
D2 Burning Sun
Short release info:
Berlin's own Steffen Linck, a multi-instrumentalist known as Monolink, announces his debut album Amniotic, due April 20th via Embassy of Music subsidy Embassy One.
It is the experiential nature of Monolink's music that defies the muddy definition of modern live electronic music. Armed with a singular blend of Berlin underground culture with the pop-leaning sensibility of American electronica, Steffen transports listeners into his own realm of sonic exploration. The music is pillared by emotive guitar tones, analog synth stabs and, for the first time, his own vocals - acting as a singular point of departure for this budding talent.
Amniotic stands as Monolink's first complete body of work, following his 2017 EP 'Burning Sun' via Sol Selectas, and 'The End', a collaborative record with Acid Pauli in 2015.
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2LP, Special remarks : Doppelvinyl im Gatefold + 180g + 2 printed Innersleeves + Downloadcode
Tracklist 2LP:
A1 Amniotic
A2 Black Day
A3 Sirens
B1 Rearrange My Mind
B2 Frozen
B3 Father Ocean
C1 Swallow
C2 Take Me Home
C3 Riverman
D1 Return To Oz
D2 Burning Sun
Short release info:
Berlin's own Steffen Linck, a multi-instrumentalist known as Monolink, announces his debut album Amniotic, due April 20th via Embassy of Music subsidy Embassy One.
It is the experiential nature of Monolink's music that defies the muddy definition of modern live electronic music. Armed with a singular blend of Berlin underground culture with the pop-leaning sensibility of American electronica, Steffen transports listeners into his own realm of sonic exploration. The music is pillared by emotive guitar tones, analog synth stabs and, for the first time, his own vocals - acting as a singular point of departure for this budding talent.
Amniotic stands as Monolink's first complete body of work, following his 2017 EP 'Burning Sun' via Sol Selectas, and 'The End', a collaborative record with Acid Pauli in 2015.
More
1
Bobby Caldwell - Special To Me (4:00)
2
Bobby Caldwell - My Flame (3:30)
3
Bobby Caldwell - Love Won't Wait (4:00)
4
Bobby Caldwell - Can't Say Goodbye (5:20)
5
Bobby Caldwell - Come To Me (2:52)
6
Bobby Caldwell - What You Won't Do For Love (4:45)
7
Bobby Caldwell - Kalimba Song (2:00)
8
Bobby Caldwell - Take Me Back To Then (3:30)
9
Bobby Caldwell - Down For The Third Time (3:30)
Territories: Worldwide no restrictions
Format Notes:
Part of Bobby Caldwell Reissue Campaign, 2023 first time reissue, 140g vinyl
Track List:
A1 Special To Me 4:00
A2 My Flame 3:30
A3 Love Won't Wait 4:00
A4 Can't Say Goodbye 5:20
B1 Come To Me 2:52
B2 What You Won't Do For Love 4:45
B3 Kalimba Song 2:00
B4 Take Me Back To Then 3:30
B5 Down For The Third Time 3:30
Release Notes:
Known principally as a smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over. Tragically passing away in March 2023 at the too young age of 71, it still feels as if Bobby's true artistry is profoundly under-appreciated. His double platinum self-titled album from 1978 is a timeless masterpiece of sophisticated jazzy soul brilliance and is strictly canonical. Yes, it's perfect, yet it's been out of press on vinyl for years. We're deeply honoured to present the long-awaited reissue this summer.
Whilst Ned Doheny is known in Japan as "Mr California", native New Yorker Bobby Caldwell has always been "Mr AOR" to his Far-Eastern friends. His distinct charm is an irresistible blend of soul, jazz, and pop influences. He possessed phenomenal songwriting prowess, smooth vocal performances, was both a great soul guitarist and dextrous keyboard player and known for genius chord progressions. It all added up to a multi-layered brilliance entering the studio, and the singular sound he landed on was laced with soulful, sweeping strings and funky horns, touching lightly on disco, while allowing his supple voice to carry the stunning tracks he'd crafted.
String-swept opener "Special To Me" immediately sets the tone with its lush instrumentation, rich harmonies, and Caldwell's velvety-smooth vocals. Next up, a huge one. The infectious, mid-tempo bounce of "My Flame" showcases Caldwell's ability to effortlessly blend catchy pop hooks with soulful arrangements. It's an exquisite, emotive ballad that, at the same time, absolutely SLAPS. Game recognise game, and all that, so, accordingly, Notorious B.I.G. memorably ran with “My Flame” for his 1997 single “Sky’s The Limit”. The rolling, disco-very "Love Won't Wait" is a slick, uptempo track containing heartfelt lyrics intertwined with elegant strings and a horn section to die for. Aching - and achingly cool - single "Can't Say Goodbye" is a real fan favourite, and it's no surprise. It's a laconic, slow-mo jazz-funk stepper, with fantastic, very deliberate playing that closes out the A Side quite exceptionally. "Come To Me" slows proceedings down elegantly to open Side B before the universally agreed-upon masterpiece enters proceedings.
"What You Won't Do for Love," the standout hit that became a classic in its own right, perfectly captured Bobby's ability to infuse a contagious groove with introspective and relatable lyrics. With its instantly recognisable horn riff and Caldwell's soulful delivery, this timeless, chiller anthem continues to captivate audiences and define his musical legacy. He scored huge with the track, taking over the pop and R&B airways with this mellow soul stepper. It has remained a perennial favourite and has been heavily sampled, such is its unique allure; Aaliyah sang over snatches of it on "Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number" and you can hear Caldwell’s vocal sample used for the hook on Tupac’s posthumously released “Do For Love”.
Upon submitting the finished album to his label, they requested more material in hope of a big single. As Bobby remembered to Wax Poetics a few years ago: “Now at this point, I’m mentally exhausted...and bear in mind that I got so close to all the songs I’d written. I gave each song a profound amount of thought, and maybe too much. So, in haste, I went in and cut this song, "What You Won’t Do For Love". Wrote it in a day, cut the rhythm track, overdubbed the horns, I sang the song, and literally turned it in three days after. And lo and behold, the one song I gave the least thought to,” Bobby laughed, “ended up being a national anthem.”
The mysterious, magical "Kalimba Song" is a cosmic, kalimba-driven melodic-funk instrumental - short but oh, so sweet. It's followed by the supreme tear-jerker "Take Me Back To Then", Bobby's otherworldly voice deeply longing for a simpler time, "when life was mellow". I think we can all get behind this sentiment. The final cut is arguably its deepest, its low-key finest moment. For us, it is, anyway. The glorious, driving, effortlessly funky guitar-soul jam "Down For The Third Time" is a huge melancholic Be With favourite and has been played by discerning genre-hopping DJs with significant glee for years. Hypnotic, melodic, beautiful. Like the album it elegantly rounds out.
Bobby sadly passed away on 23rd March 2023, after a long struggle with mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress, due to an adverse effect from a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The reissue of his wonderful eponymous album will be available on vinyl across the globe, ensuring that fans of his incomparable talent - and soul music enthusiasts worldwide - can radiate in the deep beauty of this seminal album. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland. More
Format Notes:
Part of Bobby Caldwell Reissue Campaign, 2023 first time reissue, 140g vinyl
Track List:
A1 Special To Me 4:00
A2 My Flame 3:30
A3 Love Won't Wait 4:00
A4 Can't Say Goodbye 5:20
B1 Come To Me 2:52
B2 What You Won't Do For Love 4:45
B3 Kalimba Song 2:00
B4 Take Me Back To Then 3:30
B5 Down For The Third Time 3:30
Release Notes:
Known principally as a smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over. Tragically passing away in March 2023 at the too young age of 71, it still feels as if Bobby's true artistry is profoundly under-appreciated. His double platinum self-titled album from 1978 is a timeless masterpiece of sophisticated jazzy soul brilliance and is strictly canonical. Yes, it's perfect, yet it's been out of press on vinyl for years. We're deeply honoured to present the long-awaited reissue this summer.
Whilst Ned Doheny is known in Japan as "Mr California", native New Yorker Bobby Caldwell has always been "Mr AOR" to his Far-Eastern friends. His distinct charm is an irresistible blend of soul, jazz, and pop influences. He possessed phenomenal songwriting prowess, smooth vocal performances, was both a great soul guitarist and dextrous keyboard player and known for genius chord progressions. It all added up to a multi-layered brilliance entering the studio, and the singular sound he landed on was laced with soulful, sweeping strings and funky horns, touching lightly on disco, while allowing his supple voice to carry the stunning tracks he'd crafted.
String-swept opener "Special To Me" immediately sets the tone with its lush instrumentation, rich harmonies, and Caldwell's velvety-smooth vocals. Next up, a huge one. The infectious, mid-tempo bounce of "My Flame" showcases Caldwell's ability to effortlessly blend catchy pop hooks with soulful arrangements. It's an exquisite, emotive ballad that, at the same time, absolutely SLAPS. Game recognise game, and all that, so, accordingly, Notorious B.I.G. memorably ran with “My Flame” for his 1997 single “Sky’s The Limit”. The rolling, disco-very "Love Won't Wait" is a slick, uptempo track containing heartfelt lyrics intertwined with elegant strings and a horn section to die for. Aching - and achingly cool - single "Can't Say Goodbye" is a real fan favourite, and it's no surprise. It's a laconic, slow-mo jazz-funk stepper, with fantastic, very deliberate playing that closes out the A Side quite exceptionally. "Come To Me" slows proceedings down elegantly to open Side B before the universally agreed-upon masterpiece enters proceedings.
"What You Won't Do for Love," the standout hit that became a classic in its own right, perfectly captured Bobby's ability to infuse a contagious groove with introspective and relatable lyrics. With its instantly recognisable horn riff and Caldwell's soulful delivery, this timeless, chiller anthem continues to captivate audiences and define his musical legacy. He scored huge with the track, taking over the pop and R&B airways with this mellow soul stepper. It has remained a perennial favourite and has been heavily sampled, such is its unique allure; Aaliyah sang over snatches of it on "Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number" and you can hear Caldwell’s vocal sample used for the hook on Tupac’s posthumously released “Do For Love”.
Upon submitting the finished album to his label, they requested more material in hope of a big single. As Bobby remembered to Wax Poetics a few years ago: “Now at this point, I’m mentally exhausted...and bear in mind that I got so close to all the songs I’d written. I gave each song a profound amount of thought, and maybe too much. So, in haste, I went in and cut this song, "What You Won’t Do For Love". Wrote it in a day, cut the rhythm track, overdubbed the horns, I sang the song, and literally turned it in three days after. And lo and behold, the one song I gave the least thought to,” Bobby laughed, “ended up being a national anthem.”
The mysterious, magical "Kalimba Song" is a cosmic, kalimba-driven melodic-funk instrumental - short but oh, so sweet. It's followed by the supreme tear-jerker "Take Me Back To Then", Bobby's otherworldly voice deeply longing for a simpler time, "when life was mellow". I think we can all get behind this sentiment. The final cut is arguably its deepest, its low-key finest moment. For us, it is, anyway. The glorious, driving, effortlessly funky guitar-soul jam "Down For The Third Time" is a huge melancholic Be With favourite and has been played by discerning genre-hopping DJs with significant glee for years. Hypnotic, melodic, beautiful. Like the album it elegantly rounds out.
Bobby sadly passed away on 23rd March 2023, after a long struggle with mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress, due to an adverse effect from a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The reissue of his wonderful eponymous album will be available on vinyl across the globe, ensuring that fans of his incomparable talent - and soul music enthusiasts worldwide - can radiate in the deep beauty of this seminal album. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland. More
1
Leoparden - No Title
2
Leoparden - No Title
Leoparden dive into the summer with the warm, lovely space anthem "hoyt oppe" and the dancing synth-disco groove "Lopebass" on the B side.
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