Reviews 19.10.2022 Album of the Week: M.I.A - MATA Six years since her last full-length release, English-Sri Lankan firebrand M.I.A releases MATA via Island Records.
Reviews 12.10.2022 Album of the Week: Nils Frahm – Music for Animals Prolific German composer Nils Frahm returns with his first full-length material since 2019 with the sprawling yet intimate Music for Animals, released via his own LEITER imprint.
Reviews 06.10.2022 Album of the Week: Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately Roughly three years since his last release, the Grammy-nominated Alchemist collaboration Alfredo, Indiana, USA rapper Freddie Gibbs returns with a sprawling and long-awaited major label debut, $oul $old $eparately.
Reviews 30.09.2022 An introduction to jungle music The first thing you should know is: jungle is massive. It is defined by fast cuts, carefully arranged breaks, sharp percussion, and occasional piercing vocals. These blend perfectly with the genre’s deep yet soulful basslines and emotional harmonies, creating a unique mix of sounds, influences, and cultures. Thus, it is no surprise that this movement has given birth to some of underground music’s most listened to and appreciated genres while humbly staying in the shadows.
Reviews 28.09.2022 Album of the Week: Sampa the Great – As Above, So Below As this week's Album of the Week, Steve Rickinson looks at the long-awaited sophomore LP As Above, So Below from Zambian-born, Botswana-raised poet and rapper Sampa the Great; out now via Loma Vista Recordings.
Reviews 20.09.2022 Album of the week: Coby Sey – Conduit Kicking off our Albums of the Week series, Steve Rickinson looks at the claustrophobic post-grime of Southeast London's Coby Sey. His debut album, Conduit, is now available via AD 93.
Reviews 25.05.2022 Future Retro London Triple Release On the 6th of May, with the occasion of the final instalment of Bandcamp Friday, leading contemporary jungle label Future Retro London put out a triple release – two 12’’ records and one 10’’ vinyl, all in limited edition and accompanied by their respective digital versions.
Reviews 03.05.2022 Apron X Patta – Better Together To celebrate 8 years and more than 45 releases since its conception, UK’s contemporary electronic music label Apron Records has teamed up with Patta Soundsystem for an 8-track-long Various Artist release.
Reviews 12.01.2022 The Pop Group Meets Dennis Bovell - Y in Dub Adrian Sherwood called Mark Stewart, his frequent collaborator, intimidating, but now, two years after we connected, I have a special relationship with the artist/ philosopher and poet.
Reviews 20.12.2021 A look into Warren Walker's universe through (N)Traverse Warren Walker holds the torch high when it comes to innovation in jazz. His first electronic jazz LP, (N)Traverse, has a very intimate process behind it. Each song is a collab with one of his jazz and fusion artist friends during the 2020 pandemic. Having met on the jazz stages of the world, they now approached working within the realm of sound collage and sound synthesis, from home, safely and unrushed.
Reviews 09.12.2021 Cali P & Teka - Vizion Review Cali P's family musical background has transformed him into a fearless deejay and rapper with a strong, enthusiastic vocal delivery. Starting 2005, he released five albums and 24 vinyl singles and EP's on labels such as Nation Music, Hemp Higher Productions, One Love Records, and others. TEKA is a lover of analog vibes. You sense that in his productions, riddims, and collaborations. What kicked off his collab with Cali P was a Migos Remix.
Reviews 24.11.2021 Journey to the Waking Light The new Adi Stoenescu Group album Romanian jazz, mythology, spirituality, and science fiction have had a strong relationship since the seventies. And so you can find a thin red dotted line between Electrecord LP’s like Marius Popp’s Nodul Gordian, Ramon Tavernier and Cătălin Târcolea’s Panpipe In Jazz, Zoltan Boroș’s Pași spre Infinit and Harry Tavitian and Corneliu Stroe’s Creation Suite and present days independent jazz artists like Adi Stoenescu and his group, plus his collaborations with Alexandru Arcuș, Krisper band, and Iordache.
Reviews 31.08.2021 The Bug - Fire Fire comes, same as London Zoo did, with a city of sounds. The album has a natural tectonic evolution texture. Loose your mind in the dancehall, but feel the dread of the times we are living. The music is catchy but also spine-breaking, ready to shatter and break.
Reviews 24.03.2021 Tenor Youthman - All Right Then EP The latest release of Tenor Youthman is signed for Dub Universe Records, an imprint of the Big Roba Sound System duo, Pavel and Sergey. These guys have crafted some envy-attracting riddims for this 2021 release. Without a doubt, Tenor Youthman can be called the inexhaustible bard of the East.
Reviews 14.03.2021 Guedra Guedra - Vexillology Released on the 12th of March by On the Corner Records, the debut album of Guedra Guedra is massive. Concept and music blend in spiritual polyrhythms that take over the dancefloor.
Reviews 05.03.2021 Ink Project - Rhythm Spirit Released on 26 of February on Bind Colour, Ink Project's new album explores a wide range of tempos and genres. Producer Jez Lloyd sails on complex rhythms, introducing, one by one, the story chapters with the help of versatile voices of Coreysan, Fifi Rong, and Yazmyn Hendrix.
Reviews 26.02.2021 Positive Thursdays in Dub - Remixed on Planet Dub Positive Thursdays in Dub debut LP, Landing on Planet Dub, has received a great remix treatment. As I see it, it is more like Landing on the Dark Star, filled with challenging and authentic deconstructions by Vibronics, Chazbo, Suns of Dub, Uncle Fester on Acid, Død, Jabbadub, and Alien Levi.
Reviews 09.02.2021 Giacomo Pellegrino - Dub Experience Giacomo Pellegrino, head honcho of the Italian label Detroit Side, explores the depth of the dub-techno realm with his latest release, 'Dub Experience'.
Reviews 12.12.2020 EVA808 - Sultry Venom EVA808's 'Sultry Venom', released on the 18th of December on Innamind Recordings, comes after the hype the artist has raised in the last years with tracks like Prrr (2017), Pink Uzi Gang (2018), and Exchange (2020). Not a stranger to other tempos, Eva delivers not a concept record, but a collection of tracks and emotions.
Reviews 09.12.2020 Lukasz Polowczyk & Jan Wagner - Aint About Me 'Ain't About Me' is one pure uncut spoken-word masterpiece, a 360 degrees cultural project that benefits from a physical release on cassette and on a book with typography and illustrations by Rrrumburak. On this record, the spoken words have liquid tactile properties.
Reviews 06.12.2020 The Untouchables - Culture Clash Launched at the beginning of 2020, DNO Records announces its 4th vinyl release, signing five tracks from the Belgian duo, The Untouchables. Kate and Ajit don’t need much of an introduction as they are producers with strong releases to show their versatility. Part of the Samurai Music family, The Untouchables constructed their unique sound where elements of jungle and dub are forming a bridge under 170 BPM productions.
Reviews 24.11.2020 Egopusher and the inspiration for Beyond release Beyond, the latest release of Egopusher comes with an eerie approach to synth and drums. Beyond, the title track of the album invites the listener to a meditative state and, slowly, starts to unveil the different layers of electronic sensations.
Reviews 20.11.2020 The Bug & Dis Fig – In Blue 'In Blue' is The Bug comeback after this year's ambient textural alien transmission LP Frequencies for Leaving Earth Volume 1 to 5. Through this comeback, he presents a brand new batch of riddims, carefully complemented by eerie vocals courtesy of miss Chen, sounding closer to ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) earworms than traditional chanteuse singing melodies.
Reviews 07.10.2020 Babylon Dead - Book of the Dead Fast, on target, meaningful, the modern UK hip hop is a pledge to consistency. With the commercial focus on grime, hip hop artists were able to play and explore without the pressure of 1 mill copies. In the UK hip-hop, there is no fight for who’s the king. There is no king. There is only the oppression of Babylon and the fight against it.
Reviews 26.09.2020 Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement The fifth edition of DokStation takes place between September 17th and 20th, and the following lines are a review for Punk the Capital – A Sound Movement, one of the films featured in the festival.
Reviews 18.09.2020 Gorrilaz: Reject False Icons The fifth edition of DokStation, the only music documentary film festival in Bucharest, takes place between September 17 and 20. The following review explores the documentary Gorillaz – Reject False Icons, one of the films featured in the festival.
Reviews 03.09.2020 Gaudi - 100 Years of Theremin (The Dub Chapter) Already sold out for the second press, the latest release of Gaudi, '100 Years of Theremin', is stuck in space and time, perfectly encapsulating the philosophy of dub.
Reviews 16.03.2020 Review of Ghostophonia by Silent Strike & Makunouchi Bento Launched as the first release of the new label Cinemaude, cinematic and experimental sounds oriented, Ghostophonia is a real gem of experimental electronic music. Heavily based on the modified samples of Bela Bartók's folklore music from the Banat area, recorded on phonograph cylinders about a century ago, the album is the result of a collaborative live show between Silent Strike and Makunouchi Bento.
Reviews 30.10.2019 Driftmachine plays Marien van Oers Released by the Netherlander label Ongehoord, "Driftmachine plays Marien van Oers" album playfully circles around the notion of trance-inducing repetition, following Marien van Oers's (1955-2013) concept presented in 1983: "The basic idea of the performance is experiencing a constant repetition of sound (=rhythm), which can result in the spectator taking action through movement or getting into a form of trance".
Reviews 24.10.2019 Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East Following the “Anthology of contemporary music from the African continent”, this new collection released by Unexplained Sounds Group focuses on experimental and alternative music from the Middle East. The compilation aims to draw a picture of the current experimental music in different territories which are not always mapped by mainstream culture operators."