Altin Gün - On (Bongo Joe)
While 2018 gently sweeps towards the summer here in Romania, the Anatolian plateau waves at us with a stunning LP that draws pretty much all our attention. Altın Gün (Golden Day) is a Turkish Psych Folk band that recently made its long play debut on one of the hottest labels that explores contemporary underground worlds to dig out instruments, voices and machines, Bongo Joe. Fueled by a passion for traditional music values, the album is a modern combination between top dogs like Barış Manço, Erkin Koray or Selda Bağcan with psychedelic breaks, wah-wah guitars, analogue organs or bağlama saz infused rhythms on the other. It's like a eastern contemporary Breakestra if you want, where traditionals and standards from the late 60's and 70's are taken, being completely rearranged and making it their own. The Amsterdammers who come from various backgrounds (Turkish but also Indonesian and Dutch) comfortably create their work in the adventurous no-man’s land that exists between these two worlds. On the surface, its inspiring sleeve design from the Cappadocia region of Turkey really blends in this brilliant new context, making "On" our first pick from this list. Boom!
Picked by Alexandru Draganescu.
VA - African Scream Contest Vol.2 - Benin 1963-1980 (Analog Africa)
Analog Africa returns with the second volume of their VA compilation
African Scream Contest, focusing on the music made in Benin between 1963 to 1980. Ten years on, intrepid crate-digger Samy Ben Redjeb unveils a new treasuretrove of Vodoun-inspired Afrobeat heavy funk crossover greatness. Where some purveyors of vintage African sounds seem to be strip-mining the continent’s musical heritage with no less rapacious intent than the mining companies and colonial authorities who previously extracted its mineral wealth, Samy Ben Redjeb’s determination to track this amazing music to its human sources pays huge karmic dividends. Like every other Analog Africa release, African Scream Contest II is illuminated by meticulously researched text and effortlessly fashion-forward photography supplied by the artists themselves.
Bojanek & Michalowski – Solid (N_Coded Records)
„Solid“ — the second full-length album of Piotr Michałowski and Grzegorz Bojanek is the result of their nearly ten-year cooperation. After „As Far As It Seems“ — a record released by Ohm Resistance (USA) — Michałowski and Bojanek joined their forces yet again, in search of new sounds and textures. This over 50-minute release showcases a very unique collection of subdued, oneiric tones, the duo has always been appreciated for.
David Ross - Stochastic Moods (Cuspeditions)
Unpredictable micro-rhythms awkwardly roaming across an electronic wasteland. Composing with volatile analogue systems now seemed an endeavour to distil stable voltage-states from the infinitely random potential of the electrical field, to determine audible balance situations for musical contemplation. Stochastic Moods is a paean to the joy of experiencing a pleasantly unexpected thought or feeling as it enters into consciousness.
VA - In Death's Dream Kingdom (Houndstooth)
In Death's Dream Kingdom is a voyage into the unknown for Houndstooth and all the artists on it. It represents a complete rethink about what it means to compile and commission music in the streaming era – and the tracks and seductively dark atmospheres conjured as a result are exploring all kinds of new sonic territory, too.
Jan Jelinek – Zwischen (Faitiche)
Faitiche releases a short version of the radio play
Zwischen (German for ‘between’). Devised and produced by
Jan Jelinek for German public broadcaster SWR2, Zwischen brings together twelve sound poetry collages using interview answers by public figures. Each collage consists of the brief moments between the spoken words: silences, pauses for breath and hesitations in which the interviewees utter non-semantic sound particles. These voice collages also control a synthesizer, creating electronic sounds that overlay and merge with the voices to make twelve acoustic structures.
