Electronica

[Music] Kruder & Dorfmeister – 1995

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Have 25 years really passed so quickly? I can still remember working at Aron’s Records with some of the best music buyers in Los Angeles at that time, getting introduced to artists like Aphex Twin, μ-Ziq, and all sorts of Acid Jazz compilations. Then came Kruder & Dorfmeister’s G-Stoned EP.

My first reaction was based on the record cover, naturally. I though, “Meh, a couple of clowns aping Simon & Garfunkel.” The reaction may have been caused by actually listening to Bookends just a few days before. Thankfully, one of the buyers insisted that I hear it, and it left me blown away. It opened a world of music genres I had heretofore never had access to. Trip-hop, drum & bass, downtempo, the horribly-named electronica… All of this was new, exciting, invigorating music, and these two lads from Austria seemed to be at the forefront of these movements.

The boys never lost their touch. They would continue on remixing so many classic albums, even going mainstream for a moment working with Madonna herself on a rather fruitful track collaboration.

2020, this most weird and horrible of years, ends with a very pleasant surprise. As it turns out, a lost album managed to turn up. It is, to no one’s surprise, titled 1995, from the year the album was probably recorded and then forgotten about.

I have heard only one track from it, called Johnson. It sounds like a great continuation of that G-Stoned EP mentioned earlier. It’s rich, meaty, dark and chilled music. For those of you who pine for the days of early trip-hop, your fix has arrived.

You can enjoy a track from 1995 called Johnson below:

Consider purchasing the album here, or wherever you feel most comfortable buying your vinyl or digital downloads. For those interested in the track list, here you go:

1995 tracklist:
1. Johnson
2. Love Hope Change
3. Swallowed The Moon
4. Spring
5. Dope
6. King Size
7. Holmes
8. Don Gil Dub
9. Stop Screaming (only available on physical copy)
10. Morning
11. White Widow
12. In Bed with K&D
13. Ambiente
14. One Brake
15. Lovetalk

[Music] Emma-Jean Thackray – Um Yang 음 양

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Emma-Jane Thackray has quietly become the most important trumpet player to emerge from the London jazz scene in at least the past 10 years. Her sound melts the best of jazz fusion with electronic music of many shades. From her Bandcamp site:

Emma-Jean Thackray, an outstanding figure in the UK jazz scene, releases Um Yang, her long-dreamed project dedicated to the Taoist philosophy of duality and harmony. A highly ambitious and personal record that sees Thackray leading a septet featuring Soweto Kinch and Steam Down’s Wonky Logic, recorded straight to vinyl.

An accomplished trumpeter, beat-maker, singer, composer and DJ, Thackray draws on far wider influences than jazz. Her sound is distinctive; in the words of The Guardian like “Bitches Brew-era Miles entering the dub chamber with a New Orleans marching band – in a good way”. Since debuting in 2016, Thackray has directed the London Symphony Orchestra, performed at the NY Winter Jazz Fest, played Glastonbury five times in 2019 alone, and launched her own record label, Movementt (in association with Warp). Championed by Gilles Peterson, Theo Parrish and Jamie Cullum, Thackray has firmly cemented her place among a new wave of exciting young musicians, collaborating with Makaya McCraven, Junius Paul and Angel Bat Dawid, and still finds time to host her monthly radio show on Worldwide FM.

Raised in Yorkshire, Thackray inherited a grounding in Taoism from her father, and approaches her music with the same pursuit of harmony between Um & Yang (the Korean Ying & Yang), balancing melody and rhythm, groove and free improvisation, cerebral and physical. For this one-off recording, Thackray has applied this ideology in every sense, even down to the ensemble itself featuring not one but two percussionists. Um commences with ethereal interplay between keys, percussion, and Thackray’s trumpet, recalling the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane’s classic records. As the piece builds, an earthy groove emerges. On both trumpet and vocals, Thackray leads the ensemble further out until the piece peaks with an epic breakdown. On the flip, Yang starts on the same cacophonous note but progresses to a joyful groove before returning to a peaceful state again, balance restored.

When Night Dreamer Records invited Emma to record Um Yang straight-to-disc at Artone’s vintage recording studio in Haarlem, The Netherlands, Emma was excited by the idea of capturing this specific project in one-take, without overdubs or edits. “Recording in (Artone) was such a dream” Thackray recalls. “It had all the fantasy analogue equipment you daydream about one day being able to use. The desk looked like something Uhura would use. All the instruments were natural, woods and metals, no plastic in sight, and everything was to be hit or blown, all analogue. I really needed everything to be natural and real, because the music is about the universe, about the energy of all things, and what is more real than that.” Honest sound to match truly honest music. With Um Yang, Emma-Jean Thackray has created her most personal and defining work to date. 

https://ejthackray.bandcamp.com/album/um-yang

I have but one gripe. She needs to make those out-of-print vinyl records of hers in print at least digitally!

[Music] Azu Tiwaline – Draw Me A Silence Part. I

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A very pleasant surprise came into my inbox today.  From Azu Tiwaline’s Bandcamp site:

Azu Tiwaline : It’s a new name for a new spirit. The one of a producer willing to find a new sound in her origins which take root in the Sahara and El Djerid region in the south of Tunisia. A sound from the desert, drawing on berberian and saharan transe music that connects human beings with Nature.

Peculiar translations and spellings aside, this album managed to hold my attention the whole way through. Thanks to being better connected to the world, we are beginning to hear more and more musicians come out of Tunisia and the Maghreb who are of an astounding quality. This is 21st Century Berber Music mixes techno, dub, and native Saharan rhythms. Fourth World music, updated.

[Music] Web Web – Worshippers

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Compost Records released an album by Web Web a few days ago which hit a sweet spot for me. The album is a magical combination of free improv (without the racket), kosmische musik, soul and fusion, laced with elements of trip-hop, hip-hop, and any other -hop which comes to mind.

Joy Denalane’s voice is sumptuous. She is at ease telling a soulful story as she is using her voice as a improvisational instrument. Roberto Di Gioia, Tony Lakato and Stefan Pintey add a lush background for the three to play in.

This album will be my go-to disc for 3 a.m. listening for the foreseeable future. It is that good.

[Music] Yeong Choi – Pizzapi

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The cover art grabbed my attention, I have to admit.  This is one of those times where I probably would have passed this up without the shockingly surreal cover art and cheesy tune titles, but I’m glad I stopped by.  Yeong Choi is a pianist, programmer and composer from Seoul, South Korea who puts up an album that has a feel like a soundtrack for a new, more acid-laden version of Alice In Wonderland.  Quite good, this.

[Music] Mexican brother-sister duo Sotomayor drop new album ‘Orígenes’ – a groovy house fusion of cumbia and Peruvian chicha — WORLD TREASURES MUSIC

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The new album by Sotomayor is Orígenes (“Origins”) and captures Latin American stylings, fusing them with contemporary electronic sounds. The Mexican’s third studio album (following Salvaje in 2015 and Conquistador in 2017) is produced by multiple Grammy award-winning producer Eduardo Cabra (Calle 13). Sotomayor’s electronic Latin music has a strong sense of roots and tradition, […]

via Mexican brother-sister duo Sotomayor drop new album ‘Orígenes’ – a groovy house fusion of cumbia and Peruvian chicha — WORLD TREASURES MUSIC

[Music] Pyroclastic – Blast Tunnel EP

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It’s nice when I get to tell one group of friends about another.  When I was young, my brother and many of our mates would go to what we knew then to be “industrial dance clubs.”  These were fun times, but the music was what I remember most.  Stark, brutal, with quasi-militaristic beats, perfect for stomping up a floor with your heavy boots.  My old friend Ryant Takai has continued mining in this field, and his latest project, Pyroclastic, continues on that nasty, thudding, beat-heavy tradition.  As someone who was working with electronic body music during the late 1980s, it is fair to say that he has been continuing hitting that perfect beat for the past 30 years.  If anyone can go 30 more, he can.