‘The Nature of Nature’ is the debut LP by Hanegi Koen, the Japan-based creative duo composed of British filmmaker Sam King and Canadian label head Sean Mallion (ADSR Collective). Picking up where they left off with their 2021 EP ‘Well Worth A Visit’, this album continues the legacy of spaced-out ambient guitars and driving analog beats the band nicely cued up for us. It has continuity from their previous work, going even deeper this time, further defining the contours of their sound.

As the title suggests, Nature was a big influence on the record. Many of the track titles are from the season they were recorded in – for example, ‘Hanafubuki’, when the cherry blossoms fall, ‘Tsuyu’, the rainy season, or ‘Kaminari’ which was written during a crazy thunderstorm. The sights and sounds of those times are reflected in the tracks, with field recordings helping to supplement the atmosphere.

Hanegi’s founding ethos of only using analog instruments and drum machines to compose and perform, minimizing the need for the computer as an interface, is alive and well in this album. The tracks got tested in front of an audience and improved on, based on feedback from playing them live, leading to a psychedelic, synth-rich, analog journey.

“We like all things analog. We both use computers and digital screens a fair amount in our day job, so it’s nice to give our eyes a rest from that and allow the music to be created from everything we have on the table. Similarly vinyl records, film photography, and simply walking around outside in the forest – all these things are a way of slowing down and escaping the digital world.”

Greatly influenced by the wild contrasting outdoors of their home in Japan, the mountains, forests, and ocean, ‘The Nature of Nature’ is an open invitation to unplug to reconnect, a feeling that Hanegi Koen want to share with you.

Released on August 18th, on vinyl and digital via Subtempo.

Credits:
Written and composed by Sean Mallion and Sam King
Mixed by Aoki Takamasa
Mastering by Manmade Mastering
Album art by Laine Butler
Design by Rocco Tyndale More

Wistful, quietly positive, and a little bit melancholic; ambient artist Umber is set to release kaleidoscopic new album ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ on 21st April 2023. Focused on melodies that engage the heart as much as the mind, the album brings his electronic influences to the fore, combining shimmering soundscapes with a throbbing pulse of movement.

Umber, the project of Nottingham based Alex Steward, has been steadily releasing sublime music since 2011. Living in a small town provides Alex with a balance between the peace of rolling green fields and the energy of community. This life on the edge of the countryside comes across in his music, which finds the verve of night life enveloped in organic textures and environments.

Wistful, quietly positive, and a little bit melancholic; ambient artist Umber is set to release kaleidoscopic new album ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ on 21st April 2023. Focused on melodies that engage the heart as much as the mind, the album brings his electronic influences to the fore, combining shimmering soundscapes with a throbbing pulse of movement.

Umber, the project of Nottingham based Alex Steward, has been steadily releasing sublime music since 2011. Living in a small town provides Alex with a balance between the peace of rolling green fields and the energy of community. This life on the edge of the countryside comes across in his music, which finds the verve of night life enveloped in organic textures and environments.

Alex draws from his experience as a part time palliative care giver, which has had a significant impact on this record. He says, “Through caring for elderly patients, whose time is in short supply, I have discovered that life needs to be celebrated. Even if it’s just playing a game of Scrabble or the way that the shadows of trees dance on a living room wall on a sunny day; there is beauty everywhere. Sometimes we just need to slow down and look a little harder.”

The evocative track titles stem from phrases Alex has heard or read, with the album’s title taken from Stephen King’s book The Shining. They range from the literal (‘It Is Going To Be Ok’, ‘The Last Perfect Day’) to the oblique (‘Hologram Shut Stability’, ‘Sun House Chant’), bestowing the everydayness of fleeting inputs and thought processes to more conscious mantras.

“I feel that my music taps into a part of who we all are”, says Alex. “I try to create music that will emotionally resonate with the listener. Ultimately the album is about finding hope in the smallest actions, something that can often be overlooked or discarded in a world that doesn’t always make a lot of sense.”

Umber’s ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ is set to be released on vinyl and digital formats via California-based label Subtempo on 21st April 2023. More

It’s not a new release, but as it’s been out of press for over 3 years, AND has been remastered for 2024, we feel this classic house masterpiece should be offered out to you lucky people once again…but only if you’re worthy. So, now available on wax on what could be the last ever press of this Pal Joey House standard on Cabaret.

No DJ or House music record buyer can call their collection complete without a copy (or 2) of this!

A timeless classic that sounds as fresh as it did back in 1989.

Played and supported by anyone and everyone HOUSE for 4 decades.
More

This release is a story of serendipitous stars aligning. Having released Bala Desejo’s anthemic single, 'Baile De Máscaras’, back in May 2023, we could sense that we had a summer classic on our hands. We always thought that it had the potential to find fans in a dance music audience, and thanks to a fortuitous moment whilst listening to Gilles Peterson's radio show, we heard a mysterious “Jamz” edit of the track. In a further twist of fate, the sensational DJ, producer, and radio presenter Jamz Supernova recently graced our Great Escape in-store event with a phenomenal DJ set. After some feverish digging and emailing to her team, we discovered that she was a fan of the original song and had made a personal edit to play in her DJ sets. Gilles had heard Jamz spinning the edit and asked for a copy, and by sheer coincidence and good fortune, it all fell into place.

For this release, we have included the original edit that Jamz and Sam Interface had made for personal use only. It is a beast of an edit that gets heavier and deeper as it progresses. It makes the track dancefloor ready and adds to the anthemic nature of the original. Additionally, Jamz and Sam wanted to deliver a further updated remix where the pair have added more percussive elements that take the song in a tropical house direction. So, a massive thank you to Jamz and Sam for allowing us to make these wonderful productions available for all. More

Repress!

"I’ve never met Rod Modell (Deepchord) in person, but we have met through music. He found an obscure cassette of Chi music (from ’86), sent it to Astral Industries and paved the way for the release (30 years later) of ‘The Original Recordings’ in 2016. Since then, we’ve exchanged ideas and good music. I sent Rod a preview of ‘The Kallikatsou Recordings’ - he really liked it - and here came the idea for a remix of ‘Lanterns’. I started working on some random, lo-fi samples from Youtube, using Audacity, perhaps the simplest way of producing loops and samples. It’s the only computer based system that feels like the tape recorders I used to work with. I sent the first sketches to Rod on Facebook, but they ended up in the wrong inbox. I forgot about them, but months later he came back saying he loved them. I decided to go back to working on them, maintaining the lo-fi approach. I began manipulating the samples: time-stretching, tempo and pitch-shifting, mixing different layers and adding old-school monophonic “old speaker” effects, delays and loops. I used a few field recordings, voices and samples from my early ambient cassettes, and they matched. Ario from Astral Industries got involved and the experiment turned into a plan - a vinyl release - ‘Red Lantern at the Kallkatsou’”.

Hanyo van Oosterom More