MUSIC RECOMMENDATION

VARIOUS ARTISTS

As you know, artists usually have tons of unreleased material in their hardware, so when a label requests a track for a VA, it’s easy to go through this list and many artists do that. If a track is unreleased, it’s yet because it doesn’t reach the labels’ standards usually (or the artist’s). As a result, each week, we experience lots of poor VAs while digging.

On the contrary, KVLTÖ Records is celebrating its five years anniversary with a phenomenal monument of music. There is nothing to throw in this compilation. Each artist seems to have taken the project very seriously. We guess that label owner Martyn Päsch has also something to do with this achievement…

No matter what, we are in to sing “Happy birthday” on top of the VA’s trippy hypnotic techno tunes, but having no microphone, you won’t hear us sadly. Too bad!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KVLTÖ 🙂❤️

“Metanoia” means “change of view”… on Colombia?

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

HOD is also very familiar with KVLTÖ Records for having released the excellent “Supernatural Disclosure” on the label lately.

In the past few years, he has been very active for our greatest pleasure, and he’s already back with “Metanoia”, beautiful with a flawless production.

If “being Italian” is often synonymous with “talent”, “being Colombian” seems to become also more and more a pledge of quality. Hod, Aleja Sanchez, !nertia, Zemög, Launaea, Dåggěr; they are all super-talented and make us almost regret being born in another country.

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

After a mind-blowing mix on KVLTÖ Podcast (please, stop it KVLTÖ), Sam Wilson followed up with a remarked participation on Space Textures’ last VA and continues to impress with the present solo EP. It’s hard to believe that his first release is only three years old. If like Caue, he doesn’t deny some influences from Affin‘s music, yet his work on the amplitude is particularly exemplary, reminding also SAAM’s vast soundscapes and sonic confidence. Wilson is on a rocket to join the panel of well-established deep techno artists. 

Do you remember this remix for Oslated?

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Laurent Garnier in its last VA, Dozzy and Shuttle in the present one, looks like the Dutch label SoHaSo has decided to be surrounded by totally unknown artists lately. Happily, Gal Tsadok-Hai, Ultrastation and Shoal add a bit of fame to this project and we thank them deeply for that (😜😘)

The six maestros (and not five: “Ultrastation” = Cosmic Force and label owner Dos Santos) have been reinterpreting tracks from two past EPs: “Laren” and “ZL2“. Behind them: Bas Dobbelaer and Vand, also Dutch, also very talented, with their entrancing dubby tribal sound, so dearly to Jong-min Lee from Oslated.

ORIGINAL VERSIONS

REMIXED VERSIONS

Rohrer and his band Ambiq humbly remain in the background to value Villalobos’ work in this magical live show:

Rohrer fusing music genres in a solo act:

EXPERIMENTAL

To appreciate this release, you have to deconstruct the links that your mind naturally makes to categorise the music. If you don’t do that, you will waste time trying to connect this album with known tribal techno signatures, from artists such as Hakimonu, Rambadu or even Bas Dobbelaer and Vand whom we just mentioned. Yet the versatility of the acoustic sounds from the present album will systematically prove you wrong, with potential permanent damages to your honourable musical self-esteem. 

Instead, we invite you to visit this album under the angle of Jazz, which is “a non-genre”, which is “not made to be intellectualised on”.

Awarded trumpeter Marsalis explained: “Jazz is the power of now. There is no script. It’s conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfil what they feel the moment requires.”

Samuel Rohrer, from Switzerland, is first and foremost an acclaimed Jazz drummer, well-inspired improviser, and through “Codes Of Nature”, he unveils the roots of living music in a fusion of genres. It’s a concert, but it’s not exactly a concert. It’s a reviewal, a reset. It’s a moment for your body and mind to abandon themselves to the playfulness of music.

DARK TECHNO

We missed Unknot01, Unknot02 and Unknot03, but happily, Mother Music brought a bundle of the trilogy in front of our eyes and ears. Behind Unknot are label owner and techno producer Sciahri and electroacoustic musician Emanuele Porcinai, who perfectly complement each other with their respective expertise. Dark yet accessible thanks to well-dosed minimalism, as well as intriguing and captivating motives, the album is made to be visited and revisited. A touch of musique concrète barely noticeable in the structure keeps the listeners alert and subtle drones sometimes make them touch the stars, such as in “Strain”, cosmic and meta-cosmic. “UNKNOT” – the bundle – is a superb piece of art.

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

If our scene contains many valuable labels, the most innovative ones for us are Prologue, Hypnus, Well Street Records and Horo. Drum’n’bass stalwart Presha created Samurai Horo in 2011, which became Horo in 2016, at a time when he was leaning toward techno. He wanted to operate a fusion between Drum’n’bass patterns and techno tempos, which defined Horo (and also Grey Area, in partnership with ASC and Sam KDC). Problem: Horo’s very unique sound signature, deep and polyrhythmic, has not been as popular as planned and works very slowly now, focusing on sure values, such as ASC. “Hiding In Plain Sight” is undoubtedly sublime and virtuous, obviously prepared with lots of care. Horo is one of our favourite labels and we wish it a brighter future.