Rangers - Europe On TV (Not Not Fun Records)
Nearly a decade after their original assembly, two crucial early volumes of Texan ranger Joe Knight’s voyaging kaleidoscope kitchen sink-psych have been dusted off and dressed up for a new generation of suburban tourists. Europe On TV collects the entirety of both 2009 outings on freeform Pittsburgh imprint As Above So Below, totaling 110 twisted minutes of miasmic guitar heroics, sci-fi city surf, face-melt glam, no-fi jangle, art rock squall, and nebulous new wave, pocked with 4-track feedback bramble and cathode-blasted voices.
Ry-co Jazz - Dansons avec le Ry-co Jazz (Radio Martiko)
Ten swirling and euphonic Afro-Latin gems from the Congolose band Ry-co Jazz, recorded between 1961 and 1966 for the Disques Vogue series “Dansons avec…”. Ry-co Jazz was one of the leading combos during the heydays of Afro-Latin music in Central and West Africa. Their rhythmical and amusing play tempted European listeners and soon they recorded in France and toured all over Europe. After the Disques Vogue period in 1966 Ry-co Jazz embarked for Martinique to play one gig and unexpectedly wrote a new chapter in the Caribbean music history. Radio Martiko tracked down the more obscure masterpieces from the pre-Martinique repertoire of this cosmopolitan band.
The Boiler - Body=Death (Cut Surface)
Experimental electronic project The Boiler comprising Vienna-based artist (real name: Kristina Pia Hofer) released their next album "Body=Death" on Cut Surface, an independent record label from Vienna, Austria in both digital and Vinyl formats. BODY=DEATH took shape between January and July 2018, in close collaboration with British experimental/electronic musician Mahk Rumbae (of Codex Empire, Konstruktivists, Mitra Mitra, et al.), who played the key role in the album’s production and recording processes. Dino Spiluttini, Vienna-based experimental musician and producer, was entrusted with the mastering touch.
Thomas Fehlmann - 1929 - Das Jahr Babylon (Kompakt)
“1929 - Das Jahr Babylon" marks Thomas Fehlmann's third full length release of 2018 and presents what appears to be a creative peak in his career that spans beyond his solo career to his early days in Palais Schaumburg, collaborating with Moritz von Oswald as 3MB to his long time work with The Orb. Having left The Orb in late 2017 has set free unforeseen energies in Fehlmann's studio. This is a film soundtrack from the documentary that aired on ARD network on September 30, 2018 and is now available as a podcast series. To compliment the internationally lauded TV series "Berlin Babylon", German director Volker Heise has created a documentary about 1929, the fateful year during Germany's "Weimarer Republik" in which "Berlin Babylon" is settled. Heise's stirring documentary portrays Germany's sizzling capital that is faced with radical changes by the dark forces whom are about to toss the world into the abyss we know as World War II. Fehlmann's composition for "1929" consists of sample material taken from the era and thwarts the exaggerated lust for life with threatening undertones that anticipate the dawn of mankind's darkest chapter so far. Although all the sounds breathe yesterday's atmosphere this soundtrack bursts with modernity. Fehlmann accomplished the daring feat to musically render the unsettling resemblance between the political situation 90 years ago and our current time.
Tonga Boys - Vindodo (1000 HZ)
Tonga Boys is a new African band which presents music combining the traditions of the Tonga people (hence the name of the band) and modern chaotic lives in the slums. The album "Vindodo" is a step further - a mature, more dynamic and more refined effect of the sparkling creativity of Peter Kaunda, Albert Manda, Solomon Nikho, Mylius Minthall, and Guta Manda.
UNKNOWN ME - Astronauts (Not Not Fun Records)
Japanese synthesis squad UNKNOWN ME’s latest sequence of electron blueprints is true to its title, evoking a sense of lunar wonder and stargazer reverie, inspired by notions of “20th century space development.”
Voetvolk - The Sea Within (Rotkat Records)
Composed by Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Elko Blijweert and Bjorn Eriksson, the Original Music from The Sea Within is a thrilling ménage à trois of acclaimed soundscape artists. As it’s already given away by the title, their first collaboration comprises the original scores to The Sea Within, a contemporary-dance performance by Voetvolk, the company of Van Cauwenberghe and dancer/choreographer Lisbeth Gruwez.