1
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Dark Blue Trees
2
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Spiral Jetty
3
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Cold Stars
4
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Hireath
5
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Left Home
6
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Below Mono
7
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - Fogou
8
Open Yellow Circle / O Yuki Conjugate - The Chasmic
In 1994, UK ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate recorded their landmark Equator album. To mark the 30th anniversary of this musical milestone, many of the same personnel – Roger Horberry (co-founder of O Yuki Conjugate), Dan Mudford (ex-Sons of Silence and co-creator of the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack), Joe Lamb (ex-Sons of Silence) and Malcolm McGeorge – came together to make New Meridian, reflecting the range of influences they’ve picked up over the intervening years.
Generously described as “almost like normal music”, the eight tracks of New Meridian feature instrumentation ranging from classic analogue to actual wooden logs. The result takes you on a rain-drenched, open-top ride from Electronica Avenue to the drone caverns of Uranus, with various Fourth World ambi-dub diversions along the way. File under: duress. More
Generously described as “almost like normal music”, the eight tracks of New Meridian feature instrumentation ranging from classic analogue to actual wooden logs. The result takes you on a rain-drenched, open-top ride from Electronica Avenue to the drone caverns of Uranus, with various Fourth World ambi-dub diversions along the way. File under: duress. More
More records from Optimo Music
1
GAEG (Monkey Timers & Keita Sao)n - Fountain
2
GAEG (Monkey Timers & Keita Sao)n - Blue Fusion
3
GAEG (Monkey Timers & Keita Sao)n - Brother
4
GAEG (Monkey Timers & Keita Sao)n - Crazy Pa Pa
Optimo Music excitedly unleashes Japan’s G?G and their Anarcho Disco volumes 1 & 2 into the world. We thought we were done with 12” single release, at least for now, but then these tracks showed up and it was instantly obviously ESSENTIAL that they get pressed up on big fat twelve inch singles. Every single track here has been tried and tested and caused delirious delight on the dancefloor over the last year. Now it is time to share them with YOU! Truly Anarchic, Psychedelic dance music for the open-minded and genre-free crews.
G?G say – ?DISKO KLUBB boss MONKEY TIMERS, who leads Tokyo’s underground disco scene, and KEITA SANO, who has been gaining attention for his releases on labels around the world, have started the project “G?G”.
Using a variety of sampling and unique FX, our music has created a unique G?G sound that is psychedelic and anarchic.
This subversive sound is sure to be the key to shaking the dancefloor. More
G?G say – ?DISKO KLUBB boss MONKEY TIMERS, who leads Tokyo’s underground disco scene, and KEITA SANO, who has been gaining attention for his releases on labels around the world, have started the project “G?G”.
Using a variety of sampling and unique FX, our music has created a unique G?G sound that is psychedelic and anarchic.
This subversive sound is sure to be the key to shaking the dancefloor. More
1
GAÉG - Bonne M
2
GAÉG - Merpa
3
GAÉG - Hi-Land
Optimo Music excitedly unleashes Japan’s G?G and their Anarcho Disco volumes 1 & 2 into the world. We thought we were done with 12” single release, at least for now, but then these tracks showed up and it was instantly obviously ESSENTIAL that they get pressed up on big fat twelve inch singles. Every single track here has been tried and tested and caused delirious delight on the dancefloor over the last year. Now it is time to share them with YOU! Truly Anarchic, Psychedelic dance music for the open-minded and genre-free crews.
G?G say – ?DISKO KLUBB boss MONKEY TIMERS, who leads Tokyo’s underground disco scene, and KEITA SANO, who has been gaining attention for his releases on labels around the world, have started the project “G?G”.
Using a variety of sampling and unique FX, our music has created a unique G?G sound that is psychedelic and anarchic.
This subversive sound is sure to be the key to shaking the dancefloor. More
G?G say – ?DISKO KLUBB boss MONKEY TIMERS, who leads Tokyo’s underground disco scene, and KEITA SANO, who has been gaining attention for his releases on labels around the world, have started the project “G?G”.
Using a variety of sampling and unique FX, our music has created a unique G?G sound that is psychedelic and anarchic.
This subversive sound is sure to be the key to shaking the dancefloor. More
1
Blotter Trax - Tramp
2
Blotter Trax - Machine Sky
3
Blotter Trax - Level Control
4
Blotter Trax - Super Conductor
5
Blotter Trax - Octopii
6
Blotter Trax - Dictation
7
Blotter Trax - Beets
8
Blotter Trax - Circus In My Head
9
Blotter Trax - Steppin' Through
10
Blotter Trax - Muscle Relaxer
11
Blotter Trax - Sleeping Through The Day
Back in 2018, two mysterious twelve-inch singles appeared in underground record sthops. Credited to Blotter Trax, a previously unknown outfit who cherished “faceless” anonymity, the pleasingly twisted and mind-altering music on show was a mutant form of electronic psychedelia. The included tracks were variously informed by analogue techno, acid, electro and minimal, but inhabited their own clandestine sonic space. These tracks were, we later discovered, lightly edited “straight to tape” jams, crafted on the fly by their creators in one of Berlin’s most admired studios.
By the time Blotter Trax delivered their follow-up on Clone offshoot Frustrated Funk a year later, the secret was out: the project was in fact a collaboration between two storied artists, techno titan Magda – a DJ/producer who should need little introduction – and serial underground aggravator (and man of many aliases) Jay Ahern, sometime Hauntologists member and acid techno royalty thanks to years spent releasing similarly shadowy EPs as T.B Arthur.
In the years that followed, and before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded them in Berlin, the pair took their incendiary, modular-driven live show to esteemed clubland institutions (Fabric included), on an acclaimed tour of Japan, and onto the stages of festivals across Europe.
Four years on from that appearance on Frustrated Funk, Blotter Trax are back in updated and expanded form. Now a trio thanks to the addition of bassist Hannes Strobl, the band is set to release their far-sighted, funk-fuelled debut album, Super Conductor – a pulsating, thrill-in-minute ride includes contributions from a swathe of notable guests (Nina Hynes, Ilhem Khodja and David Moss provided vocals, Shigeru Tanabu played guitar, Matthew Styles mixed the set and old friend John Tejada mastered it).
While rooted in electro and acid, the album is impressively low-slung, stylish and funky, with nods towards Blotter Trax’s mutual love of Arthur Russell, early ‘80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. Released by JD Twitch’s Optimo Music imprint, it charts the ongoing dancefloor evolution of a band whose days of mystery and mischief are now a distant memory. More
By the time Blotter Trax delivered their follow-up on Clone offshoot Frustrated Funk a year later, the secret was out: the project was in fact a collaboration between two storied artists, techno titan Magda – a DJ/producer who should need little introduction – and serial underground aggravator (and man of many aliases) Jay Ahern, sometime Hauntologists member and acid techno royalty thanks to years spent releasing similarly shadowy EPs as T.B Arthur.
In the years that followed, and before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded them in Berlin, the pair took their incendiary, modular-driven live show to esteemed clubland institutions (Fabric included), on an acclaimed tour of Japan, and onto the stages of festivals across Europe.
Four years on from that appearance on Frustrated Funk, Blotter Trax are back in updated and expanded form. Now a trio thanks to the addition of bassist Hannes Strobl, the band is set to release their far-sighted, funk-fuelled debut album, Super Conductor – a pulsating, thrill-in-minute ride includes contributions from a swathe of notable guests (Nina Hynes, Ilhem Khodja and David Moss provided vocals, Shigeru Tanabu played guitar, Matthew Styles mixed the set and old friend John Tejada mastered it).
While rooted in electro and acid, the album is impressively low-slung, stylish and funky, with nods towards Blotter Trax’s mutual love of Arthur Russell, early ‘80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. Released by JD Twitch’s Optimo Music imprint, it charts the ongoing dancefloor evolution of a band whose days of mystery and mischief are now a distant memory. More
1
Kaukolampi - Inside the Sphere
2
Kaukolampi - VCS3
3
Kaukolampi - /n?'stald??/
4
Kaukolampi - Ee-Nni-Aa-Ssa
5
Kaukolampi - The Mask of Sanity
6
Kaukolampi - Chrystal Desert
Timo Kaukolampi, frontman for Finnish electronic rock group K-X-P and tireless sonic wanderer, is releasing his second solo album, this time on Optimo Music. Exquisitely rendered, shadowy, curiously claustrophobic and even occasionally paranoid, Inside The Sphere is an album wholly deserving of its name.
A sense of paranoia is one of the threads through this glittering, winking electronic maze. Kaukolampi says “I came up with this metaphysical concept of the “sphere”. When you are manipulated you are ‘Inside The Sphere’. It’s like this dome of ‘undue influence’ that you don’t know exists around you. It’s a bit like the inside of a cult.”
Indeed, it’s amazing the effects achieved with a few sparse electronic textures, the odd smattering of studio trickery, and two or three well-placed synthesizer parts. Though the result might sound ostensibly simplistic, Inside The Sphere is an album of reduction rather than addition. The rhythmic and textural scaffolding is based around what’s not there, rather than what is. Take ‘VCS3’. At first listen, it seems forged from a few synth lines and a simple percussion part – so far, so simple. But listen closer, enter the sphere, look behind the mask – notice the slightly detuned drones, the chattering percussive textures, that distant swell of bass, the way the central fugue shifts and mutates somehow statically, like a barber’s pole.
Might we be listening to an album within an album, a more complex song cycle hiding within the folds of an ambient electronic album? This ties in with another of Kaukolampi’s thematic frameworks – that of the mask. He references Oscar Wilde’s quotation that “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
Inside The Sphere is not a one-note album. For every moment where a clammy ambient space enters, a buttery analogue bassline is there to fill it. This clash seems to be the album’s engine room, its power supply.
Timo references devotional and choir music as an influence on this album. The paranoia and foreboding is tempered by these headier aspects. Kaukolampi mentions “empty and hollow spaces” in relation to several of the songs. Perhaps this is the very space behind the mask, where outward disguise merges with inner reality. Perhaps inside the sphere is not always such a bad place to be. More
A sense of paranoia is one of the threads through this glittering, winking electronic maze. Kaukolampi says “I came up with this metaphysical concept of the “sphere”. When you are manipulated you are ‘Inside The Sphere’. It’s like this dome of ‘undue influence’ that you don’t know exists around you. It’s a bit like the inside of a cult.”
Indeed, it’s amazing the effects achieved with a few sparse electronic textures, the odd smattering of studio trickery, and two or three well-placed synthesizer parts. Though the result might sound ostensibly simplistic, Inside The Sphere is an album of reduction rather than addition. The rhythmic and textural scaffolding is based around what’s not there, rather than what is. Take ‘VCS3’. At first listen, it seems forged from a few synth lines and a simple percussion part – so far, so simple. But listen closer, enter the sphere, look behind the mask – notice the slightly detuned drones, the chattering percussive textures, that distant swell of bass, the way the central fugue shifts and mutates somehow statically, like a barber’s pole.
Might we be listening to an album within an album, a more complex song cycle hiding within the folds of an ambient electronic album? This ties in with another of Kaukolampi’s thematic frameworks – that of the mask. He references Oscar Wilde’s quotation that “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
Inside The Sphere is not a one-note album. For every moment where a clammy ambient space enters, a buttery analogue bassline is there to fill it. This clash seems to be the album’s engine room, its power supply.
Timo references devotional and choir music as an influence on this album. The paranoia and foreboding is tempered by these headier aspects. Kaukolampi mentions “empty and hollow spaces” in relation to several of the songs. Perhaps this is the very space behind the mask, where outward disguise merges with inner reality. Perhaps inside the sphere is not always such a bad place to be. More
1
Various Artists - Can't Cheat Karma
2
Various Artists - Girl on the Run
3
Various Artists - Bloody Revolutions
4
Various Artists - Hello Horror
5
Various Artists - Tube Disasters
6
Various Artists - Death is Big Business
7
Various Artists - Underbitch
8
Various Artists - Anti-Christ
9
Various Artists - Rub Me Out
10
Various Artists - Mob Violence (unreleased studio version)
11
Various Artists - We're Looking for People
12
Various Artists - Here's What You Find in Any Prison
13
Various Artists - Idolisation
14
Various Artists - The Force is Blind
15
Various Artists - Revolution
16
Various Artists - Aye Carmela
17
Various Artists - Conscious (Pilot)
18
Various Artists - No Doves Fly Here (unreleased studio version)
Anarcho Punk was the one sub-genre of Punk that emerged in isolation from the rock & roll establishment. During its pioneering days of the early 1980s it thrived in opposition to the music industry, existing as a fiercely underground alternative to the bands, labels and venues of the commercialised mainstream Punk scene. It continues to do so. Anarcho Punk represented one of the last truly underground and autonomous music movements ever witnessed and remains a movement that has never sold out and has never gone away.
The major differentiation between the Anarcho Punk acts and the more traditional Punk outfits was that for the former, albeit often more due to musical limitation than intent, the message was more important than the music. Standard song structures were often dispersed with in favour of a relentless lyrical polemic accompanied by a similarly uncompromising aural assault. As the scene grew, so did the diversity of records that emerged under the Anarcho Punk umbrella: from D & V (drums & vocals) to the proto-EBM synth-pop of Belfast’s one-man Hit Parade and the Dadaist Beefheart hybrid of The Cravats. In later days the two biggest acts of the scene, Flux of Pink Indians and Crass themselves, both released LPs which had more in common with improv Jazz than hardcore punk.
The resounding victory of Anarcho Punk is that it is now a the unifying soundtrack to a culture of resistance that spans Scotland to Indonesia and remains without compromise. It is still as removed from mainstream music and oppositional to conventional culture as it was over forty years ago and shows no sign of changing. Quite the opposite: the more popular Anarcho Punk becomes the less it has to engage with the music establishment and the more control it can enjoy. In 2023, that message remains as uncompromising as ever.
This is a double vinyl retrospective compilation of some of the most radical music ever made, a musical force that changed lives. Covering the years 1979 - 86 and including classic tracks from Crass, Poison Girls, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Mob, Zounds, Annie Anxiety, The Ex, ATV plus 10 more, all newly remastered by iconic Punk mastering engineer Daniel Husayn. It has been lovingly compiled by JD Twitch and Anarcho legend Chris Low and was ten years in the making. There are also a couple of previously unreleased mixes included. It comes as a high quality double vinyl pressing, and has a full colour sleeve with back and front images designed by the legendary Gee Vaucher. It also comes with a 6 page fold out poster on one side with detailed sleeve notes, recollections and essays on the other side.
The compilation is a fundraiser for Faslane Peace Camp. Not so far from Glasgow Faslane Naval Base is home to Britain's abhorrent Trident nuclear missiles. The camp has been there, protesting since 1982 and is still active to this day. We hope in our lifetime we will see those missiles leave Scottish soil. We have so much respect for those who have dedicated their lives to protesting these weapons and it seemed an obvious choice that the proceeds from this release should go to help them, and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. More
The major differentiation between the Anarcho Punk acts and the more traditional Punk outfits was that for the former, albeit often more due to musical limitation than intent, the message was more important than the music. Standard song structures were often dispersed with in favour of a relentless lyrical polemic accompanied by a similarly uncompromising aural assault. As the scene grew, so did the diversity of records that emerged under the Anarcho Punk umbrella: from D & V (drums & vocals) to the proto-EBM synth-pop of Belfast’s one-man Hit Parade and the Dadaist Beefheart hybrid of The Cravats. In later days the two biggest acts of the scene, Flux of Pink Indians and Crass themselves, both released LPs which had more in common with improv Jazz than hardcore punk.
The resounding victory of Anarcho Punk is that it is now a the unifying soundtrack to a culture of resistance that spans Scotland to Indonesia and remains without compromise. It is still as removed from mainstream music and oppositional to conventional culture as it was over forty years ago and shows no sign of changing. Quite the opposite: the more popular Anarcho Punk becomes the less it has to engage with the music establishment and the more control it can enjoy. In 2023, that message remains as uncompromising as ever.
This is a double vinyl retrospective compilation of some of the most radical music ever made, a musical force that changed lives. Covering the years 1979 - 86 and including classic tracks from Crass, Poison Girls, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Mob, Zounds, Annie Anxiety, The Ex, ATV plus 10 more, all newly remastered by iconic Punk mastering engineer Daniel Husayn. It has been lovingly compiled by JD Twitch and Anarcho legend Chris Low and was ten years in the making. There are also a couple of previously unreleased mixes included. It comes as a high quality double vinyl pressing, and has a full colour sleeve with back and front images designed by the legendary Gee Vaucher. It also comes with a 6 page fold out poster on one side with detailed sleeve notes, recollections and essays on the other side.
The compilation is a fundraiser for Faslane Peace Camp. Not so far from Glasgow Faslane Naval Base is home to Britain's abhorrent Trident nuclear missiles. The camp has been there, protesting since 1982 and is still active to this day. We hope in our lifetime we will see those missiles leave Scottish soil. We have so much respect for those who have dedicated their lives to protesting these weapons and it seemed an obvious choice that the proceeds from this release should go to help them, and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. More
1
De Ambassade - Verderfelijke
2
De Ambassade - De Elitetheorie
3
De Ambassade - Brand in De Straten
4
De Ambassade - Bag of Gold (Words by John Cage)
5
De Ambassade - Oh Light, Oh Flame
6
De Ambassade - Commando
7
De Ambassade - Later Met Je Beste Zelf feat. Eelco Couvreur
8
De Ambassade - Verwijder Jezelf
9
De Ambassade - De Dwaas
10
De Ambassade - The Valley
11
De Ambassade - Hé Romy
12
De Ambassade - Vlees Bloed
13
De Ambassade - De Zon Voor Altijd Rood
Ambassade’s 2019 ‘Duistre Kamers’ album was a huge favourite here at Optimo Music towers so we jumped at the chance to release the follow up; ‘The Fool’.
Following hot in the heels of the acclaimed ‘Young Birds / Palette’ 12” on Optimo Music, ‘The Fool’ is destined to be another Cold Wave, Synth, New Industrial, Experimental …whatever you want to call it …classic. We asked Ambassade to tell us a bit about the album – Born from several years of research and contemplation on the human mind ‘The Fool’ can be understood as a reflection to the dark energies – natural, political, human and otherwise – that are released when it comes to religion, greed and power.
Historically, some rulers have used religion to legitimise their power. We were also inspired by wanting to examine what negative impact religion can have from the fact that it’s always dominated by men.
This was pursued by exploring a wide range of diverse and unusual types of instruments that took on a new approach of tonal expression, with the use of detuned choral and voice samples, droned tape loops and DIY metal and found percussion. It’s from these diverse sources that the process of creativity keeps persistently mutating. This process was focused through the enigmatic electronic and percussion composition from the band which alternates between foreground and background for the haunting vocal performances. More
Following hot in the heels of the acclaimed ‘Young Birds / Palette’ 12” on Optimo Music, ‘The Fool’ is destined to be another Cold Wave, Synth, New Industrial, Experimental …whatever you want to call it …classic. We asked Ambassade to tell us a bit about the album – Born from several years of research and contemplation on the human mind ‘The Fool’ can be understood as a reflection to the dark energies – natural, political, human and otherwise – that are released when it comes to religion, greed and power.
Historically, some rulers have used religion to legitimise their power. We were also inspired by wanting to examine what negative impact religion can have from the fact that it’s always dominated by men.
This was pursued by exploring a wide range of diverse and unusual types of instruments that took on a new approach of tonal expression, with the use of detuned choral and voice samples, droned tape loops and DIY metal and found percussion. It’s from these diverse sources that the process of creativity keeps persistently mutating. This process was focused through the enigmatic electronic and percussion composition from the band which alternates between foreground and background for the haunting vocal performances. More
1
Pleasure Pool - Pure Touch
2
Pleasure Pool - Love Without Illusion
3
Pleasure Pool - Sell Your Stuff (Dub)
4
Pleasure Pool - Zero Hours
5
Pleasure Pool - Modern Nature
6
Pleasure Pool - Open Hours
7
Pleasure Pool - Ask Your Body
8
Pleasure Pool - Lick the Bag
Pleasure Pool are Finn O’Hare, Andrew Robertson and a rolling cast of Glasgow-based musicians, performers and artists. They sound like nothing else to have come out of Glasgow recently, exploring the territory between live performance and club culture through their collaborative ethos and party-starting attitude. Their debut EP, Night Scars, arrived in early March 2020 and now comes Love Without Illusion, Pleasure Pool’s debut album, released on Optimo Music.
Love Without Illusion adds layers of complexity and introspection to Night Scars’ squarely dance floor-focused brew, though the record still oozes danceable energy. Open Hours is like opening a door and finding a party already in full swing, an assortment of recurring Pleasure Pool motifs – echoing, dubbed-out vocals, gorgeous, impossibly airy synth melodies, louche percussion, cowbells, rising and falling flecks of trumpet – all introduced in short order. Lick The Bag, which prominently features vocalists Chloe Charlton and Raissa Pardini, has a controlled chaos befitting its morning-after-the-night-before name.
The rest of the album rides this glimmering, night-magic mood at varying frequencies, with the title track a gentle storm of grandiose walls of synth and pulsing vocal fragments. The slow and low flickering funk of album closer Zero Hours pulls all that has come before it together to end things in the woozy bliss of a walk back home in warm, gentle sunlight.
Love Without Illusion is a dazzlingly complete expression of Pleasure Pool’s intoxicating sound and vision. Dive on in and explore. More
Love Without Illusion adds layers of complexity and introspection to Night Scars’ squarely dance floor-focused brew, though the record still oozes danceable energy. Open Hours is like opening a door and finding a party already in full swing, an assortment of recurring Pleasure Pool motifs – echoing, dubbed-out vocals, gorgeous, impossibly airy synth melodies, louche percussion, cowbells, rising and falling flecks of trumpet – all introduced in short order. Lick The Bag, which prominently features vocalists Chloe Charlton and Raissa Pardini, has a controlled chaos befitting its morning-after-the-night-before name.
The rest of the album rides this glimmering, night-magic mood at varying frequencies, with the title track a gentle storm of grandiose walls of synth and pulsing vocal fragments. The slow and low flickering funk of album closer Zero Hours pulls all that has come before it together to end things in the woozy bliss of a walk back home in warm, gentle sunlight.
Love Without Illusion is a dazzlingly complete expression of Pleasure Pool’s intoxicating sound and vision. Dive on in and explore. More
1
De Ambassade - Palette
2
De Ambassade - Young Birds
The Netherland’s De Ambassade have dropped the ‘De’ and are now known as Ambassade. Optimo Music is extremely happy to be working with them and will be releasing their second album in 2023. Ahead of that is this glorious 2 track 12” featuring music that took our breath away when we first heard it. Both tracks are exclusive to this release. We asked Ambassade to tell us a bit about the tracks… “These 2 songs were born after a collaboration with Naama Freedman. She’s an artist from Amsterdam and former member of Ambassade. She brought a couple sketches to the studio and we came out with these 2 songs. The lyrics on ‘Young Birds’ come from an old traditional English folk song from around 1903. It has been re-arranged a couple times throughout the years by multiple artists. The song reflects our development in sound and arrangement with extended synthesiser parts, less conventional song-writing. Also, us singing in English is a new path. The pulsing song ‘Palette’ is a perfect combination of sequence and extended legato vocal parts. It creates a tense atmosphere which builds up to the very end.”
More
1
Isa Gordon - Second Love
2
Isa Gordon - A Coin In The Bush
3
Isa Gordon - Joanna Picollo
4
Isa Gordon - Isolee With Sarah
5
Isa Gordon - Stride Breaker
6
Isa Gordon - Three Airs
7
Isa Gordon - Blue Fire
8
Isa Gordon - For You Only
9
Isa Gordon - Definitely Defy
10
Isa Gordon - Stranger Than Disguise
11
Isa Gordon - Lament Crescent
12
Isa Gordon - Parting Game
When Isa Gordon sent the demo of this album to me I knew I wanted to release it before I had got half way through it. I had previously released her super good Resili collaborative project but I wasn’t quite prepared for how good this was going to be. Isa is patently a once in a blue moon talent and I feel honoured to help get her unique, visionary sounds out into the world. This is next level programming & sound design but always with soul, and musicality. Sui generis.
Isa says
“For you only came about in the lockdown winter in 2020. I started seeing a lot of beats and motifs that I’d been working on working together as a collection and spent a few months compiling, completing, mixing and weaving together the tracks into a coherent album.
It was many nights tucked away entering the wormholes of making music and trying to honour the emotion contained in each song by expanding the sentiments within them into complete pieces, chasing down the journey in each one.
It was a very personal, solitary exploration of how I interpret and compose instrumentals, with the rare global situation inhibiting outsider contact and influence. I include a mix of tempos, styles and freely combine digital and live instruments in order to serve whatever intention or feeling needs to be heard”.
Isa is an Ayrshire bred, Glasgow based producer and singer. Impressed upon by myriad styles; Singing folk music since a youngster, Playing guitar since a teen, Producing electronic music thereafter. Now freely cherry-picking whatever sounds, instruments, words and methods serve the feeling. Exploring solitary beat making as Isa Gordon and Singing and writing heartfelt lyrical ditties with her band Fantasy Land. More
Isa says
“For you only came about in the lockdown winter in 2020. I started seeing a lot of beats and motifs that I’d been working on working together as a collection and spent a few months compiling, completing, mixing and weaving together the tracks into a coherent album.
It was many nights tucked away entering the wormholes of making music and trying to honour the emotion contained in each song by expanding the sentiments within them into complete pieces, chasing down the journey in each one.
It was a very personal, solitary exploration of how I interpret and compose instrumentals, with the rare global situation inhibiting outsider contact and influence. I include a mix of tempos, styles and freely combine digital and live instruments in order to serve whatever intention or feeling needs to be heard”.
Isa is an Ayrshire bred, Glasgow based producer and singer. Impressed upon by myriad styles; Singing folk music since a youngster, Playing guitar since a teen, Producing electronic music thereafter. Now freely cherry-picking whatever sounds, instruments, words and methods serve the feeling. Exploring solitary beat making as Isa Gordon and Singing and writing heartfelt lyrical ditties with her band Fantasy Land. More
1
INIT - Holes In My CV
2
INIT - Time
3
INIT - Snowglobe
4
INIT - NRGY
5
INIT - Module
6
INIT - N.O.D.
INIT is Benedikt Frey & Nadia D`Alo. We are delighted to present their long delayed vinyl and digital album, NRGY.
Born out of various art performances and installations, INIT states a logical outcome of Berlin based duo Nadia D`Alo and Benedikt Frey. With heavy use of analogue synthesis and drum-machines, INIT rethinks its genre's sonic approach, unfolding a unique and organic, yet alienating sound, somewhere in the mysterious midst of Acid, Techno, Ambient and Kraut-Rock.
This is INIT's third album, following two releases on Hivern Discs, and performances at clubs such as Berghain, Robert Johnson and Pudel Club.
INIT say -
Module, NRGY, and Time were reverse extracted out of our live set and re-recorded and re-arranged after we realised how well they work in clubs. It is the first time we worked this way as we tend not to play our compositions live, like we produced them. Mostly we just extract loops out of our production to mess around with in a loose live project.
Snowglobe, Holes In My CV and N.O.D. were more built up from a studio jam plus a bulletproof-ish arrangement afterwards.
Tried and tested on dance floors this is a surefire hit album on the dancefloor, and at home. NRGY! More
Born out of various art performances and installations, INIT states a logical outcome of Berlin based duo Nadia D`Alo and Benedikt Frey. With heavy use of analogue synthesis and drum-machines, INIT rethinks its genre's sonic approach, unfolding a unique and organic, yet alienating sound, somewhere in the mysterious midst of Acid, Techno, Ambient and Kraut-Rock.
This is INIT's third album, following two releases on Hivern Discs, and performances at clubs such as Berghain, Robert Johnson and Pudel Club.
INIT say -
Module, NRGY, and Time were reverse extracted out of our live set and re-recorded and re-arranged after we realised how well they work in clubs. It is the first time we worked this way as we tend not to play our compositions live, like we produced them. Mostly we just extract loops out of our production to mess around with in a loose live project.
Snowglobe, Holes In My CV and N.O.D. were more built up from a studio jam plus a bulletproof-ish arrangement afterwards.
Tried and tested on dance floors this is a surefire hit album on the dancefloor, and at home. NRGY! More
1
Rudolf Abramov - Cold Feet
2
Rudolf Abramov - Agent Kink
3
Rudolf Abramov - Fragments Of A Marching Stone
4
Rudolf Abramov - Lazy Soldier
5
Rudolf Abramov - All Diving Lucid Blue
Rudolf Abramov hit all Optimo Music's buttons at once. Drums, energy, songs, instrumentals, super production, Post Punk echoing, dance floor destroying, home listening friendly, and completely unique.
Who are they and what are they about? Read on...
Rudolf Abramov is a duo based in Berlin. They seem to open a door to unexpected musical encounters. It's an almost impossible task to sum up their sound in a comprehensible way, but in their own words their music is 'a response to a seemingly endless conflict about disgust, acceptance and love.' Since the duo likes to invite other musicians and fellow humans to add to their pieces, this often creates another layer to their unexpected musical encounters.
"Losing Perspective" is the result of a journey that began with a week-long recording session outside the city. Back in Berlin the skeletons of the track gradually grew in flesh, experience and emotion, describing this time in a vibrant and ever-changing city; a city where the faded colours sometimes seem more appealing than the unifying glow of the new.
In order to preserve for ourselves the conflicting colours in their fantastic disharmony, we have therefore watched the pieces change rather than moving them in a particular direction. The result is a number of tracks with different facets that derive from different moods and voices, indulging in diversity.
At the end of this process, we look back at this colourful collage and connect our own very personal history with it and both resolve in harmony. When asking the cat from our studio’s courtyard for example, she said that "Losing Perspective" was about stray tomcats who have lost their old home port to a newfangled establishment wandering randomly through the days in search of songbirds, distraction and rest. And we feel like she kinda has a point there. More
Who are they and what are they about? Read on...
Rudolf Abramov is a duo based in Berlin. They seem to open a door to unexpected musical encounters. It's an almost impossible task to sum up their sound in a comprehensible way, but in their own words their music is 'a response to a seemingly endless conflict about disgust, acceptance and love.' Since the duo likes to invite other musicians and fellow humans to add to their pieces, this often creates another layer to their unexpected musical encounters.
"Losing Perspective" is the result of a journey that began with a week-long recording session outside the city. Back in Berlin the skeletons of the track gradually grew in flesh, experience and emotion, describing this time in a vibrant and ever-changing city; a city where the faded colours sometimes seem more appealing than the unifying glow of the new.
In order to preserve for ourselves the conflicting colours in their fantastic disharmony, we have therefore watched the pieces change rather than moving them in a particular direction. The result is a number of tracks with different facets that derive from different moods and voices, indulging in diversity.
At the end of this process, we look back at this colourful collage and connect our own very personal history with it and both resolve in harmony. When asking the cat from our studio’s courtyard for example, she said that "Losing Perspective" was about stray tomcats who have lost their old home port to a newfangled establishment wandering randomly through the days in search of songbirds, distraction and rest. And we feel like she kinda has a point there. More
1
Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - Black Cat In A Black Room
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - A Man Without Purpose Feat. Andreas Røysum
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - Hab Mich Lieb
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - Slow Down Feat. Linn Nystadnes
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - Cold Clementine
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - The Light You Saw Was Not For Real Feat. Andreas Røysum
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - The Night Within The Night
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Sex Judas Feat. Ricky - When You Wak Up Everything Will Be Fine
International musicgroup SexJudas feat.Ricky returns to Optimo Music this Winter with a new album: Night Songs. The eight track LP draws inspiration from the night and features Malian percussionist Sidiki Camara,jazz clarinetist Andreas Røysum and noise rocker Linn Nystadnes. Making their own blend of disco, post punk and African music.
“It’s the return of Sex Judas feat.Ricky, this time as a six piece in fully fledged band mode. We’re here to take you on a journey through suburban psychedelia, forming our own brew of postpunk, disco and electronic, as well as traditional music from Mali. Night Songs is a meditation on the night time. The excess, the dreams, the highs and lows of night time activity.”-Sex Judas feat. Ricky.
“Black Cat In A Black Room” begins proceedings, taking the form of a psychedelic six-minute offering packed full of tribal drums and desert-like percussion. “A Man Without Purpose” comes next with its African-inspired vocal, before “Hab Mich Lieb” soon arrives. The six-minute cut is hypnotic, trippy and relaxing all in one, as is “Slow Down” feat. Linn Nystadnes. Taking on more of a funk-rock feel, there’s plenty of groove in the guitar-laced bassline, whilst in “Cold Clementine”, Sex Judas tells the sad tale of rave casualty over a dark and funky groove.
We’re taken down a spiritual path on The Light You Saw Was Not For Real, as Andreas Røysum’s clarinet solos sit underneath shamanic vocal offerings that open neatly into The Night Within The Night. Aslow-burning cut, riffs and hats serenade us before When You Wake Up Everything Will Be Fine brings proceedings to a close. Dream-like chords wrap us in a warm and glowing hue, with the harp-like sounds from Sidiki’s Ngoni, leaving us in a starry-eyed state to finish.
The calming nature of the album is a nod to the band’s influences: they were inspired by the great meditative records of the past, setting off on a musical trip that saw them record the whole release at legendary Norwegian studio Athletic Sound. This happened during lockdown and whilst the LP was never meant to be comment on the pandemic, there remains a brooding intensity to each track because of it. Sex Judas feat. Ricky originally began life as the solo project of Tore Gjedrem (from electronic duo Ost & Kjex), but has since grown into a steady six piece involving the talents of Sidiki Camara (djembe/ngoni/balafon), Ivar Winther (guitar/keys), Tracee Meyn (vocals), Tore Brevik (drums/percussion) and Kristian Edvardsen (bass). Centre stage is also illustrator and comic artist Sindre Goksøyr, this time portraying each character as they paddle their way into the sunset and uncharted territories.
Malian-born, Norwegian-based percussionist Sidiki Camara has played a pivotal role in promoting “Night Songs” to world music circles. Having lived in Norway since 2006, he has helped bring WestAfrican rhythms into the country’s wider jazz scene. More
“It’s the return of Sex Judas feat.Ricky, this time as a six piece in fully fledged band mode. We’re here to take you on a journey through suburban psychedelia, forming our own brew of postpunk, disco and electronic, as well as traditional music from Mali. Night Songs is a meditation on the night time. The excess, the dreams, the highs and lows of night time activity.”-Sex Judas feat. Ricky.
“Black Cat In A Black Room” begins proceedings, taking the form of a psychedelic six-minute offering packed full of tribal drums and desert-like percussion. “A Man Without Purpose” comes next with its African-inspired vocal, before “Hab Mich Lieb” soon arrives. The six-minute cut is hypnotic, trippy and relaxing all in one, as is “Slow Down” feat. Linn Nystadnes. Taking on more of a funk-rock feel, there’s plenty of groove in the guitar-laced bassline, whilst in “Cold Clementine”, Sex Judas tells the sad tale of rave casualty over a dark and funky groove.
We’re taken down a spiritual path on The Light You Saw Was Not For Real, as Andreas Røysum’s clarinet solos sit underneath shamanic vocal offerings that open neatly into The Night Within The Night. Aslow-burning cut, riffs and hats serenade us before When You Wake Up Everything Will Be Fine brings proceedings to a close. Dream-like chords wrap us in a warm and glowing hue, with the harp-like sounds from Sidiki’s Ngoni, leaving us in a starry-eyed state to finish.
The calming nature of the album is a nod to the band’s influences: they were inspired by the great meditative records of the past, setting off on a musical trip that saw them record the whole release at legendary Norwegian studio Athletic Sound. This happened during lockdown and whilst the LP was never meant to be comment on the pandemic, there remains a brooding intensity to each track because of it. Sex Judas feat. Ricky originally began life as the solo project of Tore Gjedrem (from electronic duo Ost & Kjex), but has since grown into a steady six piece involving the talents of Sidiki Camara (djembe/ngoni/balafon), Ivar Winther (guitar/keys), Tracee Meyn (vocals), Tore Brevik (drums/percussion) and Kristian Edvardsen (bass). Centre stage is also illustrator and comic artist Sindre Goksøyr, this time portraying each character as they paddle their way into the sunset and uncharted territories.
Malian-born, Norwegian-based percussionist Sidiki Camara has played a pivotal role in promoting “Night Songs” to world music circles. Having lived in Norway since 2006, he has helped bring WestAfrican rhythms into the country’s wider jazz scene. More
1
Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
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Bergsonist - No Title
After a digital single on Optimo Music Digital Danceforce, Optimo Music welcomes Bergsonist to the main label with a full album. Ridiculously talented and prolific, Bergsonist is one of thee most interesting, thoughtful and important artists of our times. Bergsonist aka Selwa Abd is a New York–based artist and musician originally from Morocco. She is the founder of Bizaarbazaar, a music platform and publication that publishes podcasts and interviews by DJs and producers from around the world. Under the guise Bergsonist (derived from Deleuze’s Bergsonism), she uses a variety of media to investigate social resonance through divergent conceptual aesthetics (minimalism, techno, and music concrete, to name a few). Through her work, she explores notions of identity, memory, and social politics. In 2017, she started Pick Up The Flow, a resource to promote congregation and exchange between peers. Currently, co-run with Stephen Decker. In 2019, she co-founded 3afak with DJ Sanna, a collective that aims to empower Arab women’s creative vision in New York.
More
More
After a digital single on Optimo Music Digital Danceforce, Optimo Music welcomes Bergsonist to the main label with a full album. Ridiculously talented and prolific, Bergsonist is one of thee most interesting, thoughtful and important artists of our times. Bergsonist aka Selwa Abd is a New York–based artist and musician originally from Morocco. She is the founder of Bizaarbazaar, a music platform and publication that publishes podcasts and interviews by DJs and producers from around the world. Under the guise Bergsonist (derived from Deleuze’s Bergsonism), she uses a variety of media to investigate social resonance through divergent conceptual aesthetics (minimalism, techno, and music concrete, to name a few). Through her work, she explores notions of identity, memory, and social politics.
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lia mice - Human Being
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lia mice - Overwrite the Past
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lia mice - It's All Connected
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lia mice - Time Can Break In
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lia mice - We Are the Beat
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lia mice - Marconi's Eternal Tone Cloud
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lia mice - Made of Glass
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lia mice - Which Memories Will Make It?
Optimo Music is delighted to release the new album from Lia Mice, Australian-born but UK-residing DJ, producer and instrument designer. Here’s a few words from Lia - "When I moved to London in 2015, many things changed at once - I started going to more techno and electro nights, I changed my live-set setup, and I had access to a fully-equipped recording studio through my music masters programme. At the same time I was reading a lot of books on time travel, not just science fiction but also psychology and neuroscience - like how the human brain perceives time from moment to moment, how we can experience overlapping time, and how we interact with our past and future through memory and imagination. “The Sampler As A Time Machine” is the result of all these new influences coming together. The tracks were developed out of ongoing studio experiments interpreting these different ideas of time travel by using samplers and tape to re-sample and manipulate original music performed by me on various instruments including my voice."
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the golden filter - End Of Times (Golden Dub)
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the golden filter - End Of Times (Silver Dub)
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the golden filter - End Of Times (Drone-Apella)
Optimo Music don’t generally do limited edition releases but when The Golden Filter did these extra mixes of “End Of Times”, the A1 track off their recent EP we thought they were too good to remain in the digital domain so have pressed up a small run of 12” singles aimed specifically at DJs. The original single version is a future synth classic. These new dub versions take it to the dancefloor and have been tried and tested around the world over the last few months. They are considerably extended, dubbed out and add extra dynamics & ecstatic synth power with hints of the original vocal. There is a slo mo version at 103 bpm and a faster version at 118bpm which means the track should work any time from warm up to peak set. There is also a Drone-Apella version included too
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We like to let our artists speak for themselves about their music whenever possible so asked Penelope to tell us about her album – “In 2016. I rented out a small piano studio in East London for nearly the whole year and set out to write an introspective, trendless, and mostly beatless album. Inspired by albums from This Mortal Coil and Scott Walker, who also sought freedom to work outside of the expectations of their previous work, I limited the instrumentation to mostly an acoustic piano and effects, which left space to expose a lot of emotional vulnerabilities about myself and people close to me. Writing lullabies about being a mother in a dystopian world, with pensive words about swimming against the current as a female artist, I felt free enough to tell untold truths that I’ve never felt comfortable talking about within music. Free, liberated, empowered. naked.”
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Pussy Mothers is the behaviour of a cross-continental two piece from Scotland and Down Under: formed by waving not drowning. Chasing percussions, vocal athletics and hand claps concocted into a platter of disco junk funk and early hip hop rhythms, The Number 1 EP took shape in Glasgow's tenement flats and came to life through a spaced-out echo party held at Green Door Studios.
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trentemoller - Moan (Trentemoller Remix)
2
trentemoller - Moan (Radioslave Remix)
2022 repress
Tracklist:
01 Moan (Trentemoller Remix)
02 Moan (Radioslave Remix)
Only released in October 2006, Anders Trentemøller‘s stunning debut-album „The Last Resort“ already evolved into one of the most successful independent albums of the year. Raving reviews all over the place, various elections as „album of the year“ and solid playlists at the radios express the huge interest in the fantastic album. While 2006 has been topped of with a tour through Australia, the first Trentemøller highlight in 2007 will be the release of „Moan“, the second single from the album. For the a-side Trentemøller himself created a brilliant remix of the „Moan“-Vocal Version, which has been released on the Bonus-CD of the limited edition album only. Trentemøller managed to keep the mystic melancholic vibe of the track featuring the vocals of danish talent Ane Trolle, but adds punshy drums, screaming synths and some more guitars to guarantee serious dancefloor-action. Radioslave aka Matt Edwards aka Rekid aka Quite Village, on of the most in demand remix artists at the moment (Moby, Booka Shade, Justice, Peace Division, Pet Shop Boys, Joakim etc) contributed a great remix on the flipside. Slowly building over reduced drumpatterns their mix culminates into a manic wall of sound. While Poker Flat 81 features the vocal versions of both Trentemøller‘s and Radioslve‘s remixes, the instrumental and dub versions will be released simultaneously More
Tracklist:
01 Moan (Trentemoller Remix)
02 Moan (Radioslave Remix)
Only released in October 2006, Anders Trentemøller‘s stunning debut-album „The Last Resort“ already evolved into one of the most successful independent albums of the year. Raving reviews all over the place, various elections as „album of the year“ and solid playlists at the radios express the huge interest in the fantastic album. While 2006 has been topped of with a tour through Australia, the first Trentemøller highlight in 2007 will be the release of „Moan“, the second single from the album. For the a-side Trentemøller himself created a brilliant remix of the „Moan“-Vocal Version, which has been released on the Bonus-CD of the limited edition album only. Trentemøller managed to keep the mystic melancholic vibe of the track featuring the vocals of danish talent Ane Trolle, but adds punshy drums, screaming synths and some more guitars to guarantee serious dancefloor-action. Radioslave aka Matt Edwards aka Rekid aka Quite Village, on of the most in demand remix artists at the moment (Moby, Booka Shade, Justice, Peace Division, Pet Shop Boys, Joakim etc) contributed a great remix on the flipside. Slowly building over reduced drumpatterns their mix culminates into a manic wall of sound. While Poker Flat 81 features the vocal versions of both Trentemøller‘s and Radioslve‘s remixes, the instrumental and dub versions will be released simultaneously More
1
Henry Hektik - Haiwasa
2
Henry Hektik - Private Apocalypse
3
Henry Hektik - T.B.A
4
Henry Hektik - Hong Kong Wedding Night
5
Henry Hektik - Nightwatch
6
Henry Hektik - Here Comes Escape
Natural Sciences Recs and Harsh Reality Music team up for the first reissue of Henry Hektik's Motion P. Music, booted up as a 12" sampler for DJ's not yet consumed by the candyfloss.
A figure who collaborated with M. Finnkreig and active in the 80's German underground and tape trading circuit, he disappeared off the grid, leaving few documents of his music behind, with the handful of remaining tapes swallowed by mould or fried in electrical accidents. What is left is true unhinged tracks from the edge, with six cuts of jacking proto-house (Haiwasa, T.B.A), night-stalker surveillance wave jams (Hong Kong Wedding Night), Black ops narco paranoia (Private Apocalypse) and static knuckle-dragging workouts (Here Comes Escape). A snapshot into a man on the edge!!
Limited to 300 copies worldwide with insert and fanzine. More
A figure who collaborated with M. Finnkreig and active in the 80's German underground and tape trading circuit, he disappeared off the grid, leaving few documents of his music behind, with the handful of remaining tapes swallowed by mould or fried in electrical accidents. What is left is true unhinged tracks from the edge, with six cuts of jacking proto-house (Haiwasa, T.B.A), night-stalker surveillance wave jams (Hong Kong Wedding Night), Black ops narco paranoia (Private Apocalypse) and static knuckle-dragging workouts (Here Comes Escape). A snapshot into a man on the edge!!
Limited to 300 copies worldwide with insert and fanzine. More
1
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - A1 : Flying High (3:35)
2
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - A2 : Going Home (2:46)
3
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - A3 : Walking In The Dark (4:42)
4
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - A4 : Fighting For Life (3:37)
5
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - A5 : Feeling Tense (4:05)
6
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - B1 : Running Fast (4:42)
7
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - B2 : Loving Tenderly (3:27)
8
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - B3 : Fearing Much (3:35)
9
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - B4 : Being Friendly (2:54)
10
Jay Richford and Gary Stevan - B5 : Having Fun (4:00)
2023 repress
Format Notes: 140g vinyl, remastered from the original tapes
Territories:
Worldwide no restrictions
Track List:
A1 : Flying High (3:35)
A2 : Going Home (2:46)
A3 : Walking In The Dark (4:42)
A4 : Fighting For Life (3:37)
A5 : Feeling Tense (4:05)
B1 : Running Fast (4:42)
B2 : Loving Tenderly (3:27)
B3 : Fearing Much (3:35)
B4 : Being Friendly (2:54)
B5 : Having Fun (4:00)
Release Notes:
More than once Jay Richford and Gary Stevan’s Feelings has been described as the greatest library record ever released. Of course Be With can’t be seen to be playing favourites, but we have to admit, it’s pretty good. Insanely rare and immensely sought-after, it’s a tough funk, street jazz masterpiece coveted for many years by collectors of all musical genres.
Since its original release on Italian label Carosello in 1974, Feelings has appeared on several labels with different sleeves and even under a different artist. Indeed cult library label Conroy put it out in one of their iconic red sleeves in 1976 and yes, Feelings has indeed had more than one modern re-issue since these “original” releases. But a record this special deserves to be kept in press and we think it deserves the Be With treatment.
No, Jay Richford and Gary Stevan aren’t two of the most Italian sounding names. As the story goes these were the pseudonyms adopted by Stefano Torossi and Giancarlo Gazzani who wrote the album but couldn’t use their real names on the original release for legal reasons. But Stefano Torossi himself later both clarified and confused the tale further by explaining that Feelings was the work of four people not just Gazzani and himself. Fellow composers and musicians Sandro Brugnolini and Puccio Roelens also worked on the album and as Torossi himself explained “we all worked together”, with all four gents “dividing the royalties in equal parts… that’s the story.” Right, so, with that all sorted out let’s get back to talking about the music. And what music it is.
Long hailed as a holy grail of library music, Feelings is the epitome of the sort of cinematic orchestral jazzy funk that is “that 70s library music sound”. Infectiously funky, deliciously melodic and with impeccible, elegant production, this record is the showcase for a stunning set of compositions and arrangements and with performances that are nothing short of virtuoso.
The record’s first side lifts off with “Flying High”, soaring brilliant and shimmering. Funk licks, menacing strings and swaggering horns combine for an ice-cold intro groove that Isaac Hayes would surely have envied, before the steady-paced drums deliver the slo-mo TKO. The string-drenched cop-funk of “Going Home” raises the tempo. All funky quick-fire bass lines and killer electric guitar soloing. A real thriller.
“Walking In The Dark” positively drips in blaxploitation-funk drama strings and horn struts, all laced with delicate drums, velvet piano and more filthy wah-wah. “Fighting For Life” is another funk-fuelled workout built around an effortlessly relentless drum track that refuses to give up until even the stiffest-necked head is nodding.
The loping, open drum break that guides the much-loved “Feeling Tense” through its early stages would be good enough on its own. The heavy bass gloss, swirling strings and ominous horns that follow take things to the next level.
The second side opens with another favourite “Running Fast”, and the track does precisely that. This is one fine rollicking chase theme underpinned by frenetic (yet funky) Fender Rhodes and skipping bass and drums. Those sweeping strings are a gorgeous extra. It’s a deliciously feel-good groove that sets the heart racing.
“Loving Tenderly” envelops us in warm, velvety night-time vibes with easy listening horns and slinky strings dialing up the seduction. Definitely one for the lithe lovers out there. The pace picks up on the electrifying “Fearing Much” where strings dart around deep bass, buzzing guitars and another funky drum break. The lush, melancholic “Being Friendly” is another easy beauty, all warm Rhodes and strings. Majestic stuff that puts an aural arm around you. The climactic “Having Fun” rides a pulsating, bass-heavy drum break with snatches of a funky guitar refrain, some luxurious keys, sweeping strings and triumphant horns. Sensational.
“Feelings” is a profoundly appropriate title for such an emotionally funky and genuinely affecting record. Groove-laden bass, irrepressible horns, sweet flute lines, warm Rhodes, lush string arrangements, blaxploitation-styled wah-wah guitars and so, so much more make this one of the finest instrumental soul LPs of the 70s, if not of all time.
The audio for this re-issue of Feelings comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman. The same care has been taken by the Be With team to restore that glorious original Carosello sleeve. Feelings is almost too good to be true. Feels good all over.
More
Format Notes: 140g vinyl, remastered from the original tapes
Territories:
Worldwide no restrictions
Track List:
A1 : Flying High (3:35)
A2 : Going Home (2:46)
A3 : Walking In The Dark (4:42)
A4 : Fighting For Life (3:37)
A5 : Feeling Tense (4:05)
B1 : Running Fast (4:42)
B2 : Loving Tenderly (3:27)
B3 : Fearing Much (3:35)
B4 : Being Friendly (2:54)
B5 : Having Fun (4:00)
Release Notes:
More than once Jay Richford and Gary Stevan’s Feelings has been described as the greatest library record ever released. Of course Be With can’t be seen to be playing favourites, but we have to admit, it’s pretty good. Insanely rare and immensely sought-after, it’s a tough funk, street jazz masterpiece coveted for many years by collectors of all musical genres.
Since its original release on Italian label Carosello in 1974, Feelings has appeared on several labels with different sleeves and even under a different artist. Indeed cult library label Conroy put it out in one of their iconic red sleeves in 1976 and yes, Feelings has indeed had more than one modern re-issue since these “original” releases. But a record this special deserves to be kept in press and we think it deserves the Be With treatment.
No, Jay Richford and Gary Stevan aren’t two of the most Italian sounding names. As the story goes these were the pseudonyms adopted by Stefano Torossi and Giancarlo Gazzani who wrote the album but couldn’t use their real names on the original release for legal reasons. But Stefano Torossi himself later both clarified and confused the tale further by explaining that Feelings was the work of four people not just Gazzani and himself. Fellow composers and musicians Sandro Brugnolini and Puccio Roelens also worked on the album and as Torossi himself explained “we all worked together”, with all four gents “dividing the royalties in equal parts… that’s the story.” Right, so, with that all sorted out let’s get back to talking about the music. And what music it is.
Long hailed as a holy grail of library music, Feelings is the epitome of the sort of cinematic orchestral jazzy funk that is “that 70s library music sound”. Infectiously funky, deliciously melodic and with impeccible, elegant production, this record is the showcase for a stunning set of compositions and arrangements and with performances that are nothing short of virtuoso.
The record’s first side lifts off with “Flying High”, soaring brilliant and shimmering. Funk licks, menacing strings and swaggering horns combine for an ice-cold intro groove that Isaac Hayes would surely have envied, before the steady-paced drums deliver the slo-mo TKO. The string-drenched cop-funk of “Going Home” raises the tempo. All funky quick-fire bass lines and killer electric guitar soloing. A real thriller.
“Walking In The Dark” positively drips in blaxploitation-funk drama strings and horn struts, all laced with delicate drums, velvet piano and more filthy wah-wah. “Fighting For Life” is another funk-fuelled workout built around an effortlessly relentless drum track that refuses to give up until even the stiffest-necked head is nodding.
The loping, open drum break that guides the much-loved “Feeling Tense” through its early stages would be good enough on its own. The heavy bass gloss, swirling strings and ominous horns that follow take things to the next level.
The second side opens with another favourite “Running Fast”, and the track does precisely that. This is one fine rollicking chase theme underpinned by frenetic (yet funky) Fender Rhodes and skipping bass and drums. Those sweeping strings are a gorgeous extra. It’s a deliciously feel-good groove that sets the heart racing.
“Loving Tenderly” envelops us in warm, velvety night-time vibes with easy listening horns and slinky strings dialing up the seduction. Definitely one for the lithe lovers out there. The pace picks up on the electrifying “Fearing Much” where strings dart around deep bass, buzzing guitars and another funky drum break. The lush, melancholic “Being Friendly” is another easy beauty, all warm Rhodes and strings. Majestic stuff that puts an aural arm around you. The climactic “Having Fun” rides a pulsating, bass-heavy drum break with snatches of a funky guitar refrain, some luxurious keys, sweeping strings and triumphant horns. Sensational.
“Feelings” is a profoundly appropriate title for such an emotionally funky and genuinely affecting record. Groove-laden bass, irrepressible horns, sweet flute lines, warm Rhodes, lush string arrangements, blaxploitation-styled wah-wah guitars and so, so much more make this one of the finest instrumental soul LPs of the 70s, if not of all time.
The audio for this re-issue of Feelings comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman. The same care has been taken by the Be With team to restore that glorious original Carosello sleeve. Feelings is almost too good to be true. Feels good all over.
More
WORLDWIDE
SLEEVE ARTWORK VARIANT 3
Title: The White Lotus (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series)
Genre: Soundtrack, Exotica, Ambient, Shamanic, Dance
DLP: 180g White Colored Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Gatefold Sleeve, 3 Sleeve Artwork Variants, Inside Out Sleeve Printing, Obi, 12" x 12" Art Print Inlay
Tracklisting DLP
A1. Aloha!
A2. Pineapple Suite
A3. Jungle Fever
A4. Rejuvenated
A5. Pool Walk
A6. Dinner
A7. Courtship
A8. Special Chosen Baby Child
A9. Honeymoon
B1. Ocean Call
B2. Wtf!
B3. Sabotage
B4. Decadence
B5. Ashes
B6. Welcome to America
B7. Drugs
B8. Waves
B9. Manchild
C1. Human Remains
C2. Wake Up!
C3. Meds
C4. Mahalo
C5. Finally Jesus!
C6. A Way Out
D1. Fuck This Place!
D2. A Mistake & the Ocean
D3. Sea Turtle Song
D4. I Want to Live
Info
WRWTFWW Records is ecstatic to announce the first ever vinyl release for the remarkable soundtrack of HBO® hit series The White Lotus by Chilean born composer, arranger, music producer, multi-instrumentalist Cristobal “Cristo” Tapia de Veer (Utopia, Smile, Black Mirror and many many more).
This limited edition release is packed with 28 tracks, showcasing the complete music score of the cult series’ first season. It comes as a deluxe double LP with white-colored 180g vinyl housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with an OBI strip and a double-sided 12x12 inches art print. It is available in a choice of 3 different sleeve artwork variants, each based on the series’ brilliant opening sequence concept by Plains of Yonder and illustrator Lezio Lopes.
Shamanic, feral, mysterious, sexual, sometimes very danceable, sometimes slightly frightening (in the best ways), and always insanely enjoyable, The White Lotus soundtrack is a roaring beast of its own and one of the most visceral listening experiences in recent memory. Tapia de Veer’s haunting score sensually blends tribal percussion with charango, bass, atmospherics, and organic vocals from humans and animals, bringing to life the tension, the wildness, as well as the rare but precious serenity and romance felt throughout the guests’ adventurous stay at The White Lotus Resort - with grace and a just the right amount of insolence. It’s big, wonderful and audacious music, sure to captivate a wide array of melomaniacs, from soundtrack collectors to exotica adventurers, library diggers, ambient dreamers, sorcerous dancers, and experimental pop bon vivants.
Included in the release is the series’ iconic theme song (S01 version), a bonafide hit and spellbinding sensation.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s work has been celebrated with numerous award wins, including 2 Emmy Awards for The White Lotus.
Points of interests
- For fans of soundtracks, tv series, ambient, percussion, exotica, library, experimental pop, shamanism, zeitgeist sensations, HBO, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, tension, wild animals, secret romance, luxury resorts, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock, Hawaiian shirts.
- First ever vinyl release of HBO® hit series The White Lotus soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer
- 28 tracks on double 180g white-colored vinyl
- Heavyweight gatefold sleeve with a choice of 3 artwork variants, with OBI, inside out sleeve printing, 12x12inches art print inlay
More
SLEEVE ARTWORK VARIANT 3
Title: The White Lotus (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series)
Genre: Soundtrack, Exotica, Ambient, Shamanic, Dance
DLP: 180g White Colored Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Gatefold Sleeve, 3 Sleeve Artwork Variants, Inside Out Sleeve Printing, Obi, 12" x 12" Art Print Inlay
Tracklisting DLP
A1. Aloha!
A2. Pineapple Suite
A3. Jungle Fever
A4. Rejuvenated
A5. Pool Walk
A6. Dinner
A7. Courtship
A8. Special Chosen Baby Child
A9. Honeymoon
B1. Ocean Call
B2. Wtf!
B3. Sabotage
B4. Decadence
B5. Ashes
B6. Welcome to America
B7. Drugs
B8. Waves
B9. Manchild
C1. Human Remains
C2. Wake Up!
C3. Meds
C4. Mahalo
C5. Finally Jesus!
C6. A Way Out
D1. Fuck This Place!
D2. A Mistake & the Ocean
D3. Sea Turtle Song
D4. I Want to Live
Info
WRWTFWW Records is ecstatic to announce the first ever vinyl release for the remarkable soundtrack of HBO® hit series The White Lotus by Chilean born composer, arranger, music producer, multi-instrumentalist Cristobal “Cristo” Tapia de Veer (Utopia, Smile, Black Mirror and many many more).
This limited edition release is packed with 28 tracks, showcasing the complete music score of the cult series’ first season. It comes as a deluxe double LP with white-colored 180g vinyl housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with an OBI strip and a double-sided 12x12 inches art print. It is available in a choice of 3 different sleeve artwork variants, each based on the series’ brilliant opening sequence concept by Plains of Yonder and illustrator Lezio Lopes.
Shamanic, feral, mysterious, sexual, sometimes very danceable, sometimes slightly frightening (in the best ways), and always insanely enjoyable, The White Lotus soundtrack is a roaring beast of its own and one of the most visceral listening experiences in recent memory. Tapia de Veer’s haunting score sensually blends tribal percussion with charango, bass, atmospherics, and organic vocals from humans and animals, bringing to life the tension, the wildness, as well as the rare but precious serenity and romance felt throughout the guests’ adventurous stay at The White Lotus Resort - with grace and a just the right amount of insolence. It’s big, wonderful and audacious music, sure to captivate a wide array of melomaniacs, from soundtrack collectors to exotica adventurers, library diggers, ambient dreamers, sorcerous dancers, and experimental pop bon vivants.
Included in the release is the series’ iconic theme song (S01 version), a bonafide hit and spellbinding sensation.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s work has been celebrated with numerous award wins, including 2 Emmy Awards for The White Lotus.
Points of interests
- For fans of soundtracks, tv series, ambient, percussion, exotica, library, experimental pop, shamanism, zeitgeist sensations, HBO, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, tension, wild animals, secret romance, luxury resorts, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock, Hawaiian shirts.
- First ever vinyl release of HBO® hit series The White Lotus soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer
- 28 tracks on double 180g white-colored vinyl
- Heavyweight gatefold sleeve with a choice of 3 artwork variants, with OBI, inside out sleeve printing, 12x12inches art print inlay
More
Label:Pingipung
Cat-No:Pingipung65
Release-Date:17.05.2019
Genre:Alternative/Electronic
Configuration:LP
Label:Pingipung
Cat-No:Pingipung65
Release-Date:17.05.2019
Genre:Alternative/Electronic
Configuration:LP
1
Anadol - Görünmez Hava
2
Anadol - Ay Çürüdü
3
Anadol - Adieu
4
Anadol - Casio Havasi
5
Anadol - Ya Evde Korksan
6
Anadol - 78 Yilinin En Uzun Dakikasi
Anadol is a psychedelic synth folk project by Go¨zen Atila, a Turkish sound artist and photographer based in Berlin. Her third album Uzun Havalar is based on collective improvisations of middle eastern folk songs called „uzun hava“. They turn out as rich, atmospheric synth ballads. A diverse roster of improvising musicians creates their fascinating complexity. Anadol recorded them during extensive sessions in Istanbul. You can hear drummers laughing and playing guitars, composers howling, announcements in French and screams in no language, record collectors playing oscillators, and trumpets through spacious echoes. Anadol represents Go¨zen Atila’s liberation from a rather academic approach to electronic composition which she pursued during her music technology studies in Istanbul. She calls her education the „darkness of serious music“ where she first tried to belong, then to break free with the help of lo-fi synth pop. As a producer of radio plays and an expert field recording artist she has developed a distinct sense of timing, editing and sound design. Her Anadol project walks in the footsteps of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment. On Uzun Havalar she translates her experimental background into these floating folk ballads. The album was originally released on tape via Kinship in 2018.
More
WORLDWIDE
SLEEVE ARTWORK VARIANT 2
Title: The White Lotus (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series)
Genre: Soundtrack, Exotica, Ambient, Shamanic, Dance
DLP: 180g White Colored Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Gatefold Sleeve, 3 Sleeve Artwork Variants, Inside Out Sleeve Printing, Obi, 12" x 12" Art Print Inlay
Tracklisting DLP
A1. Aloha!
A2. Pineapple Suite
A3. Jungle Fever
A4. Rejuvenated
A5. Pool Walk
A6. Dinner
A7. Courtship
A8. Special Chosen Baby Child
A9. Honeymoon
B1. Ocean Call
B2. Wtf!
B3. Sabotage
B4. Decadence
B5. Ashes
B6. Welcome to America
B7. Drugs
B8. Waves
B9. Manchild
C1. Human Remains
C2. Wake Up!
C3. Meds
C4. Mahalo
C5. Finally Jesus!
C6. A Way Out
D1. Fuck This Place!
D2. A Mistake & the Ocean
D3. Sea Turtle Song
D4. I Want to Live
Info
WRWTFWW Records is ecstatic to announce the first ever vinyl release for the remarkable soundtrack of HBO® hit series The White Lotus by Chilean born composer, arranger, music producer, multi-instrumentalist Cristobal “Cristo” Tapia de Veer (Utopia, Smile, Black Mirror and many many more).
This limited edition release is packed with 28 tracks, showcasing the complete music score of the cult series’ first season. It comes as a deluxe double LP with white-colored 180g vinyl housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with an OBI strip and a double-sided 12x12 inches art print. It is available in a choice of 3 different sleeve artwork variants, each based on the series’ brilliant opening sequence concept by Plains of Yonder and illustrator Lezio Lopes.
Shamanic, feral, mysterious, sexual, sometimes very danceable, sometimes slightly frightening (in the best ways), and always insanely enjoyable, The White Lotus soundtrack is a roaring beast of its own and one of the most visceral listening experiences in recent memory. Tapia de Veer’s haunting score sensually blends tribal percussion with charango, bass, atmospherics, and organic vocals from humans and animals, bringing to life the tension, the wildness, as well as the rare but precious serenity and romance felt throughout the guests’ adventurous stay at The White Lotus Resort - with grace and a just the right amount of insolence. It’s big, wonderful and audacious music, sure to captivate a wide array of melomaniacs, from soundtrack collectors to exotica adventurers, library diggers, ambient dreamers, sorcerous dancers, and experimental pop bon vivants.
Included in the release is the series’ iconic theme song (S01 version), a bonafide hit and spellbinding sensation.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s work has been celebrated with numerous award wins, including 2 Emmy Awards for The White Lotus.
Points of interests
- For fans of soundtracks, tv series, ambient, percussion, exotica, library, experimental pop, shamanism, zeitgeist sensations, HBO, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, tension, wild animals, secret romance, luxury resorts, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock, Hawaiian shirts.
- First ever vinyl release of HBO® hit series The White Lotus soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer
- 28 tracks on double 180g white-colored vinyl
- Heavyweight gatefold sleeve with a choice of 3 artwork variants, with OBI, inside out sleeve printing, 12x12inches art print inlay
More
SLEEVE ARTWORK VARIANT 2
Title: The White Lotus (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series)
Genre: Soundtrack, Exotica, Ambient, Shamanic, Dance
DLP: 180g White Colored Vinyl, Heavy 350gsm Gatefold Sleeve, 3 Sleeve Artwork Variants, Inside Out Sleeve Printing, Obi, 12" x 12" Art Print Inlay
Tracklisting DLP
A1. Aloha!
A2. Pineapple Suite
A3. Jungle Fever
A4. Rejuvenated
A5. Pool Walk
A6. Dinner
A7. Courtship
A8. Special Chosen Baby Child
A9. Honeymoon
B1. Ocean Call
B2. Wtf!
B3. Sabotage
B4. Decadence
B5. Ashes
B6. Welcome to America
B7. Drugs
B8. Waves
B9. Manchild
C1. Human Remains
C2. Wake Up!
C3. Meds
C4. Mahalo
C5. Finally Jesus!
C6. A Way Out
D1. Fuck This Place!
D2. A Mistake & the Ocean
D3. Sea Turtle Song
D4. I Want to Live
Info
WRWTFWW Records is ecstatic to announce the first ever vinyl release for the remarkable soundtrack of HBO® hit series The White Lotus by Chilean born composer, arranger, music producer, multi-instrumentalist Cristobal “Cristo” Tapia de Veer (Utopia, Smile, Black Mirror and many many more).
This limited edition release is packed with 28 tracks, showcasing the complete music score of the cult series’ first season. It comes as a deluxe double LP with white-colored 180g vinyl housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with an OBI strip and a double-sided 12x12 inches art print. It is available in a choice of 3 different sleeve artwork variants, each based on the series’ brilliant opening sequence concept by Plains of Yonder and illustrator Lezio Lopes.
Shamanic, feral, mysterious, sexual, sometimes very danceable, sometimes slightly frightening (in the best ways), and always insanely enjoyable, The White Lotus soundtrack is a roaring beast of its own and one of the most visceral listening experiences in recent memory. Tapia de Veer’s haunting score sensually blends tribal percussion with charango, bass, atmospherics, and organic vocals from humans and animals, bringing to life the tension, the wildness, as well as the rare but precious serenity and romance felt throughout the guests’ adventurous stay at The White Lotus Resort - with grace and a just the right amount of insolence. It’s big, wonderful and audacious music, sure to captivate a wide array of melomaniacs, from soundtrack collectors to exotica adventurers, library diggers, ambient dreamers, sorcerous dancers, and experimental pop bon vivants.
Included in the release is the series’ iconic theme song (S01 version), a bonafide hit and spellbinding sensation.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s work has been celebrated with numerous award wins, including 2 Emmy Awards for The White Lotus.
Points of interests
- For fans of soundtracks, tv series, ambient, percussion, exotica, library, experimental pop, shamanism, zeitgeist sensations, HBO, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, tension, wild animals, secret romance, luxury resorts, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock, Hawaiian shirts.
- First ever vinyl release of HBO® hit series The White Lotus soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer
- 28 tracks on double 180g white-colored vinyl
- Heavyweight gatefold sleeve with a choice of 3 artwork variants, with OBI, inside out sleeve printing, 12x12inches art print inlay
More
1
Kölsch - I Talk To Water (With Perry Farrell)
2
Kölsch - Dreams
3
Kölsch - Grape (With Patrick Reilly)
4
Kölsch - Pet Sound
5
Kölsch - Khenpo
6
Kölsch - Thoughts
7
Kölsch - Only Get Better
8
Kölsch - Implant
9
Kölsch - Hands Of Time
10
Kölsch - Tell Me (With Patrick Reilly)
11
Kölsch - An Amazing
12
Kölsch - It Ends Where It Began (With Patrick Reilly)
I Talk To Water, the fifth album for Kompakt by Danish producer Kölsch, is the artist’s most personal statement yet. While all the trademarks that make his music so popular and powerful are still present – lush, melodic techno; swooping, trance-like figures; sensuous, shivery texturology – I Talk To Water is also a deep and intimate rapprochement with family and history, a beautiful, finely detailed document of loss and memory, and a tracing of the long, unbroken thread of grief that runs through our lives once we’ve lost those we loved.
The emotional core of I Talk To Water, then, is a cache of recordings by Kölsch’s father, Patrick Reilly, who passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. With time rendered elastic by the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, its sudden, alienating shifts in everyday living, Kölsch found himself reflecting on his father’s passing and ongoing spiritual presence, thinking about how best to memorialise such a significant figure in his own life. Those recordings opened a gateway, of sorts, for Kölsch to move through – a way to bring past and present together and entwine them in a sensitive, poetic manner.
Kölsch’s father was a musician – “touring in the sixties and seventies, in the Middle East especially, he was doing the whole hippy trail, playing guitar, and wrote some songs over the years,” he recalls. “But all in all, he decided to focus on family rather than pursue a [musical] career.” Reilly kept playing and writing music over the years, though Kölsch hadn’t listened to the material for some time: “I’d never had the guts to listen to it, because I just felt too fragile listening to his voice. It’s such a tough thing to go through.”
During the pandemic, though, Kölsch listened through the fragmented body of work that his father had produced over the years. “I decided I’m gonna finally release my dad’s music twenty years after his passing,” he reflects. “This whole album is about the process of loss, and for me it’s been one of my main driving forces in my musical life, the whole emotional aspect of whatever I’ve done has been based in that feeling that he’s not there anymore.”
Recordings of Reilly appear on three songs across I Talk To Water. His guitars drift pensively across “Grape”, offering a lush thread of melody that Kölsch wraps with clicking, driftwood rhythms and droning, melancholy bass. “Tell Me” is a lovely three-minute art song, a sadly beautiful reflection, minimally adorned with gentle keys and a muted pulse. And on the closing “It Ends Where It Began”, Kölsch lets his father’s acoustic guitar take centre stage for a lament that’s unexpectedly folksy, a guitar soli dream, which Reilly originally recorded in 1996. “He actually recorded it for my first album that never came out,” Kölsch reveals, “and I had it sitting around forever. That is purely him.”
These three imagined collaborations between father and son are poised and delicate. But their relationship also marks the gorgeous music Kölsch has made across the rest of I Talk To Water, from the itchy yet lush “Pet Sound” (titled in tribute to one of Reilly’s favourite albums), the flickering synths and yearning vocal samples that slide through “Khenpo”, the ecstatic shuddering that marks “Only Get Better”, or “Implant”’s slow-motion pans and subtle reveals.
There’s also the title song, where Kölsch is joined by guest Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction, Porno For Pyros), singing a mantra for internal reflection: “I talk to water / Searching for myself / Looking for answers / Oceans of you.” Farrell’s appearance brings another timbre, another spirit to the album, aligning neatly with his recent interest in electronic music. “He was completely taken by this idea of talking to water,” Kölsch says, thinking about the ways we collectively lean towards the natural world as a comfort and a listener, a guide through mourning, a way to map out the terrain of the heart. This mapping is something that Kölsch has proven remarkably adept at through the years; dance music for both body and mind, but also both for the here-and-now, and for the hereafter. More
The emotional core of I Talk To Water, then, is a cache of recordings by Kölsch’s father, Patrick Reilly, who passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. With time rendered elastic by the pandemic and its associated lockdowns, its sudden, alienating shifts in everyday living, Kölsch found himself reflecting on his father’s passing and ongoing spiritual presence, thinking about how best to memorialise such a significant figure in his own life. Those recordings opened a gateway, of sorts, for Kölsch to move through – a way to bring past and present together and entwine them in a sensitive, poetic manner.
Kölsch’s father was a musician – “touring in the sixties and seventies, in the Middle East especially, he was doing the whole hippy trail, playing guitar, and wrote some songs over the years,” he recalls. “But all in all, he decided to focus on family rather than pursue a [musical] career.” Reilly kept playing and writing music over the years, though Kölsch hadn’t listened to the material for some time: “I’d never had the guts to listen to it, because I just felt too fragile listening to his voice. It’s such a tough thing to go through.”
During the pandemic, though, Kölsch listened through the fragmented body of work that his father had produced over the years. “I decided I’m gonna finally release my dad’s music twenty years after his passing,” he reflects. “This whole album is about the process of loss, and for me it’s been one of my main driving forces in my musical life, the whole emotional aspect of whatever I’ve done has been based in that feeling that he’s not there anymore.”
Recordings of Reilly appear on three songs across I Talk To Water. His guitars drift pensively across “Grape”, offering a lush thread of melody that Kölsch wraps with clicking, driftwood rhythms and droning, melancholy bass. “Tell Me” is a lovely three-minute art song, a sadly beautiful reflection, minimally adorned with gentle keys and a muted pulse. And on the closing “It Ends Where It Began”, Kölsch lets his father’s acoustic guitar take centre stage for a lament that’s unexpectedly folksy, a guitar soli dream, which Reilly originally recorded in 1996. “He actually recorded it for my first album that never came out,” Kölsch reveals, “and I had it sitting around forever. That is purely him.”
These three imagined collaborations between father and son are poised and delicate. But their relationship also marks the gorgeous music Kölsch has made across the rest of I Talk To Water, from the itchy yet lush “Pet Sound” (titled in tribute to one of Reilly’s favourite albums), the flickering synths and yearning vocal samples that slide through “Khenpo”, the ecstatic shuddering that marks “Only Get Better”, or “Implant”’s slow-motion pans and subtle reveals.
There’s also the title song, where Kölsch is joined by guest Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction, Porno For Pyros), singing a mantra for internal reflection: “I talk to water / Searching for myself / Looking for answers / Oceans of you.” Farrell’s appearance brings another timbre, another spirit to the album, aligning neatly with his recent interest in electronic music. “He was completely taken by this idea of talking to water,” Kölsch says, thinking about the ways we collectively lean towards the natural world as a comfort and a listener, a guide through mourning, a way to map out the terrain of the heart. This mapping is something that Kölsch has proven remarkably adept at through the years; dance music for both body and mind, but also both for the here-and-now, and for the hereafter. More
1
VARIOUS - Mindfield : Saturnalia 4
2
VARIOUS - Apostolis : Clock Croc (House Quickly Mix)
3
VARIOUS - F.U.S.E. : F.U.2 (Re-edit)
4
VARIOUS - Peyote : Alcatraz
5
VARIOUS - Psyche : The Saint Became A Lush
6
VARIOUS - Man With No Name : From Within
7
VARIOUS - Zen : Solar Data (Extended Tribal Mix)
8
VARIOUS - Francesco Farfa & Joy Kitikonti : Beat Con
9
VARIOUS - Public Relation : Eighty Eight (Instrumenta
10
VARIOUS - Ghostdance : Ghostbeat (New Beat Mix)
11
VARIOUS - Chris & Cosey : Exotika (12” Mix)
Sound Metaphors and Transmigration explore the early underground Goa party scene with a 2x12” compilation.
A collection of Techno, Italian-House, New Beat and Post Punk all heard on the same dancefloors amongst Goa's tropical beaches during the late 80's and early 90's. What is now understood as Goa Trance was once preceded by an amalgamation of many different genres smuggled to Goa in tape format by true music devotees that filtered through all that was being produced in the West shaping a unique dancefloor sound that could only pertain to the “Special Goa Music” genre. Sound Metaphors teams up with Transmigration and journalist, DJ and first hand witness of the scene at hand - Ray Castle – to present a meticulous body of research into the sound signature of that unique scene. 11 highly sought after tracks presented in a double LP gatefold format with an A1 poster insert and insightful liner notes by Ray Castle. A tracklist so lush, your discogs wantlists will forever be grateful – buy on sight.
“Everything about the Goa counterculture was illicit. The music from vinyl was bought with black market money and bootlegged onto cassettes and backpacked to India. Collectors and DJs would swap, dub and edit it, for free parties. The music was disseminated tape-to-tape by a clandestine traveller clique of ragtag party makers. This highly coveted ‘Special Goa Music’ contained a vibe—a brain-infesting vibe—capable of triggering apotheosis-like states for dosed up dancefloors, only possible for sunrise Goa parties in nature, in India.” - Ray Castle More
A collection of Techno, Italian-House, New Beat and Post Punk all heard on the same dancefloors amongst Goa's tropical beaches during the late 80's and early 90's. What is now understood as Goa Trance was once preceded by an amalgamation of many different genres smuggled to Goa in tape format by true music devotees that filtered through all that was being produced in the West shaping a unique dancefloor sound that could only pertain to the “Special Goa Music” genre. Sound Metaphors teams up with Transmigration and journalist, DJ and first hand witness of the scene at hand - Ray Castle – to present a meticulous body of research into the sound signature of that unique scene. 11 highly sought after tracks presented in a double LP gatefold format with an A1 poster insert and insightful liner notes by Ray Castle. A tracklist so lush, your discogs wantlists will forever be grateful – buy on sight.
“Everything about the Goa counterculture was illicit. The music from vinyl was bought with black market money and bootlegged onto cassettes and backpacked to India. Collectors and DJs would swap, dub and edit it, for free parties. The music was disseminated tape-to-tape by a clandestine traveller clique of ragtag party makers. This highly coveted ‘Special Goa Music’ contained a vibe—a brain-infesting vibe—capable of triggering apotheosis-like states for dosed up dancefloors, only possible for sunrise Goa parties in nature, in India.” - Ray Castle More
1
Chris & Cosey - - Take Control
2
Isolators - - Concentrate On Us
3
Mike Dunn - - Life Goes On
4
KC Flight - - Voices (Original Dub Mix)
5
Faze Action - - Good Lovin' (Special Disco Mix)
6
Hannah Holland - - Ekotypic
7
Divine - - Shake It Up
8
XS-5 - - I Need More (Extended Dance Version)
9
Liquid Liquid - - Optimo
Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost. It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge. Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed. There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be. This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night. Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.
More
1
Brainticket - - Places Of Light
2
T.J. Lawrence - - Fireplay
3
Robert Rental - - Double Heart
4
African Head Charge - - No, Don't Follow Fashion
5
Keith Hudson - - Nuh Skin Up Dub
6
Smokin' Cheeba - - When I Was A Youth
7
The Wad - - 15 inches
8
Idjut Boys & Laj - - Foolin' (Beatin on Dave)
9
JBB Et Soprann - - Tibi Lap
Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost. It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge. Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed. There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be. This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night. Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.
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1
Godiego - The Birth Of The Odyssey - - Monkey Magic
2
Ikue Sakakibara - - This is Hot
3
Soul Media - - I Will Give You Samba
4
Hatsumi Shibata - - Purple Shadow
5
Yumi Murata - - Krishna
6
Yoshito Machida·Godiego - - Ame Wa Knife No Yo Sa
7
Pink Parachute - - Disco Great Tokyo
8
Hatsumi Shibata - - Hazumi De Daite (A Woman In A Man's World)
In the mid-seventies, discotheques were booming in Tokyo and all over Japan. When the Fatback Band topped the 1975 US charts with their infectious "Do The Bus Stop" hit, Japanese label Victor put out the following year the first Japan made Disco tune with "Sexy Bus Stop", released under the mysterious name Dr. Dragon & Oriental Express, a pseudonym for successful Japanese pop composer Kyohei Tsutsumi. "Sexy Bus Stop" became an instant hit in the country and, taking this opportunity, various Japanese record companies started releasing Disco music. From 1976 until the early 1980s the music was often recorded by skilled studio musicians, rather than by computer input, providing a really solid sound to the dancefloor. Disco music was also spreading into TV series, commercials and anime. From Godiego's monster hit "The Birth Of The Odyssey - Monkey Magic" to Pink Parachute's obscure (and excellent!) "Disco Great Tokyo" tune, this selection explores some of the finest Disco and Boogie music released on the legendary Nippon Columbia label in the late seventies and early eighties. Are you ready? Put your dance shoes on, and enjoy!
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