pilole 2017 aprile/maggio

APRILE 2017	MAGGIO 2017
ACTRESS "AZD" NME - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The more experimental side of the record is where things get really challenging. `Dancing In The Smoke' is Actress's very own sonic Pollock, a six-minute soundscape that's part deep house meditation, part Burial B-sides." Pitchfork - "While AZD moves between modes and styles, reaching deep into both Cunningham's clubbiest and most avant-garde impulses, it maintains a clarity of vision." [ file under: clubby dubstep ]		ELLEN ALLIEN "Nost" Ellen Allien's seventh solo album Nost, which comes from nostalgia, is the quintessential sound of Berlin. It has a sensibility which can only be found in the depths of the city's darkest underground clubs. [ file under: techno-city ]
ANJOU "Epithymia" Mark Nelson formed the legendary Labradford in the early 90's and and started working solo under the Pan·American moniker a few years later. Robert Donne joined Labradford shortly after the release of the first album. Percussionist extraordinaire Steven Hess has collaborated with dozens of artists including Greg Davis and Fennesz and has worked in the Dropp Ensemble, Cleared and Haptic to name just a few. [ file under: experimental ]		DAY WAVE "Days we had" Jackson Phillips' debut as Day Wave is a perfect feel-good album for spring and the coming summer. The Days We Had pulls from various styles to create something unique and contemporary in pop music. Its mellow, low-fi production is a cross between New Order, ambient music, and '90s dream pop. The album is tender and wears its heart right on its sleeve and its spacey, nostalgic tracks almost make you feel like a teenager again. [ file under: indie pop ]
ELLEN ARKBRO "For organ and brass" For organ and brass' is comprised of two works by the Stockholm-based composer Ellen Arkbro. Both works focus on tuning, intonation and harmonic modulation. In previous projects, Arkbro composed for early music ensembles, wrote a series of durational pieces utilising synthetic tones and processed guitars, and, most recently, presented a work lasting 26 days at the Stockholm Concert Hall. [ file under: contemporary ]		FOREST SWORDS "Compassion" Compassion is the follow-up to 2013's critically lauded debut Engravings and released via Ninja Tune. The album will be followed by a set of projects across multiple mediums by Forest Swords’ own Dense Truth, a new experimental studio and record label, including a series of music videos. [ file under: ninja tunes ]
BLACK ANGELS "Death song" Written and recorded in large part during the recent election cycle, the music on ‘Death Song’ serves as part protest, part emotional catharsis in a climate dominated by division, anxiety and unease. “Currency,” a strong contender for the heaviest song the band has ever put to wax, meditates on the governing role the monetary system plays in our lives, while slow-building psychedelic earworm “Half Believing” questions the nature and confusing realities of devotion. [ file under: neo psychedelia ]		NICK HAKIM "Green twins" The record draws from influences spanning Robert Wyatt, Marvin Gaye and Shuggie Otis to My Bloody Valentine. “We wanted to imagine what it would have sounded like if RZA had produced a Portishead album. We experimented with engineering techniques from Phil Spector and Al Green’s Back Up Train, drum programming from RZA and Outkast, and were listening to a lot of The Impressions, John Lennon, Wu-Tang, Madlib, and Screaming Jay Hawkins.” [ file under: experimental soul ]
DANIEL BRANDT "Eternal something" Daniel Brandt, co-founder of Germany’s electroacoustic ensemble Brandt Brauer Frick, joins the Erased Tapes family with his solo debut album. Daniel played nearly all instruments himself with the only exception being fellow musicians Florian Juncker on trombone, Manu Delago on hang drum and Andreas Voss on cello. [ file under: erased tapes ]		HELIOCENTRICS "A world of masks" The Heliocentrics are a group for which genres are meaningless and boundaries invisible. Since first appearing on DJ Shadow’s 2006 album The Outsider the group have gone on to release a string of records that float through jazz, hip-hop, psych, krautrock, and musique concrete whilst collaborating with numerous genre heavyweights from Mulatu Astake to Gaslamp Killer and picking up prestigious fans along the way, such as Madlib and the recently departed David Axelrod. [ file under: trans-global ]
TANIKA CHARLES "Soul run" Growing up on a musical diet of Patti Labelle, Jill Scott, Bob James, Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo, Bjork and The Black Crows, Charles' eclectic music taste subconsciously shines through in 'Soul Run', an album's name that came from a tragic part of Tanika's life. For fans of Sharon Jones, Lauryn Hill and Macy Gray! [ file under: neo retro soul ]		SOPHIA KENNEDY "S/t" DJ Koze introduces Sophia Kennedy's stunning debut album by 26 years old wonderwoman Sophia Kennedy! Elegant, melancholic, sometimes menacing, with smoldering piano melodies, desolately whistling organs, and a jaunty jaw s harp loop, kissed by the golden Californian sun, or shrouded in gloomy, dreary fog: Sophia Kennedy is currently the most versatile composer in German pop music. [ file under: pop muzik ]
EL MICHELS AFFAIR "Return to the 37th chamber" The wait is over, Return To The 37th Chamber is El Michels Affair’s highly anticipated follow up to 2009’s underground cult classic Enter the 37th Chamber. This time, in addition to re-interpreting the Wu compositions for a live band, EMA pays homage to the production and sonic fog that makes a RZA beat so recognizable. [ file under: wu tribute ]		LAKE "Forever or never" Lake are an experimental-pop ensemble centered around the songwriting partnership of wife/husband duo Ashley Eriksson and Elijah Moore. More than ten years on, Lake have made Forever or Never, their eighth album, which bookends the first decade of the group’s take on the 1970s rock and pop idiom. [ file under: stereolab's ]
GAS "Narkopop" Nearly two decades after the last official GAS album release, Wolfgang Voigt returns to his iconic Ambient project with a brandnew full-length. Narkopop continues the classic GAS aesthetic of symphonic scope and subtle variation, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey to the depths of rapture and reverie. Available as luxurious hardcover CD or vinyl artbook editions incl. 24 pages booklet. [ file under: em:t ambient ]		ARTO LINDSAY "Cuidado madame" The album is titled after an infamous 1970 Julio Bressane film about oppressed housemaids revolting against and brutally murdering their mistresses. The literal translation is Careful, Madame. The album is produced by Lindsay. It features Melvin Gibbs, Paul Wilson, Kassa Overall, Patrick Higgins, Ryu Takahashi and Thiago Nassif. The album is an exploration of the cultural nexus of Afro-Brazilian spirituality and western modernity. [ file under: brazillika ]
THOMAS LEER "1979" Recorded in 1979 this was Thomas Leer's very first explorations into the world of electronics. Produced in his little tabletop studio in Crouch End, using two cassette machines & a few effects pedals, guitar, bass & wasp synthesizer. [ file under: experimental wave ]		MIWON "Jigwastooth" Miwon (aka Hendrik Kröz) makes soulful electronic music, balancing ambient textures, glitches, driving beats and anthemic melodies in his very own way. He takes time to sculpt his tunes, until it’s near impossible to pinpoint where the pop, techno and cinematic elements of his imagination shake hands. [ file under: idm ]
MAXIMO PARK "Risk to exist" Risk to Exist is the sixth studio album by British indie rock band Maxïmo Park. The press release for the album's announcement described its lyrical content as being "informed by the dire state of world affairs in 2016". The album is to be released in several formats, including deluxe CD, transparent vinyl and on tape cassette. [ file under: indie pop ]		NITE JEWEL "Real high" Recorded over the course of four years in Los Angeles with the help of Cole M.G.N., these songs of transformational love and relentless nostalgia present the most personal, lyric driven Nite Jewel record to date. Featuring contributions from long-time collaborators such as Dâm-Funk, Droop-E, and Julia Holter. [ file under: electropop ]
JOHN MILK "Paris show me love" After being compared with Mayer Hawthorne on his first world acclaimed classic soul album, Treat Me Right, John Milk is back with Paris Show Some Love a piece of modern and engaged R&B that delivers a genuine and solid recording based on real to real tape machines and electronic sounds [ file under: new soul ]		PENGUIN CAFE "Imperfect sea" A penguin stands in the middle of a scorching desert, far away from its natural habitat. This mirrors composer Arthur Jeffes’ journey and exploration into a new musical territory. Penguin Cafe have evolved into something of their own at the hands of Arthur who started the band in 2009 with the continuation and homage to his father’s legacy, to the late Simon Jeffes’ Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Now, their upcoming album The Imperfect Sea echoes reminiscent sounds that embrace the new. [ file under: contemporary ]
TARA JEAN O'NEIL "S/t" As a solo artist she has released eight full-length albums internationally. O’Neil was a founding member of Rodan, the Sonora Pine , amongst other ensembles. She has collaborated on recordings and stages with Papa M, Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Marisa Anderson, Catherine Irwin, Mirah, Mount Eerie, and many many others. [ file under: folk-singer ]		MAX RICHTER "Out of the dark room" Out of The Dark Room collects some 24 of Max Richter’s “most beautiful compositions for film” c. 2008-2015, issued in the wake of his string of major solo and score releases. As an OST composer, Richter is patently fluent in the language of film music, evidenced in his work with everyone from Tilda Swinton and Robert Wyatt to his work on films such as Waltz With Bashir, Sarah’s Key, Wadjda, Disconnect, The Congress, and Testament of Youth - all included inside. [ file under: original soundtrack ]
KELLY LEE OWENS "S/t" Even in the increasingly crowded field of electronic music, Kelly Lee Owens’ debut album arrives as a wonderful surprise. An album that bridges the gaps between cavernous techno, spectral pop, and krautrock’s mechanical pulse, the 27 year old Londoner has made a debut album brimming with exploratory wonder, establishing a personal aesthetic that is as beguiling as it is thrillingly familiar. [ file under: new electronica ]		ROHEY "A million things" Norwegian four piece Rohey’s debut album ‘A Million Things’ fuses new-beat with jazzy soul colours whilst drawing on a broad spectrum of flavours to create a truly fantastic set that deserves time to fully absorb. Tracks such as the emphatic Is This All There Is, the multi-layered title track A Million Things and the shimmering, stripped back vocal jazz of My Dream are standouts. At times Rohey Taalah comes close to Erykah Badu’s stylings but she twists and changes her style to suit the mood. [ file under: scando-jazzy ]
FIONN REGAN "Meeting of the waters" Fionn Regan is an Irish singer-songwriter whose elegant, wordy indie-folk has been simmering away in the underground for quite a while. He’s just announced a new album, The Meetings of the Waters – his fifth & the first in almost five years, to be released April 14th on his own label. [ file under: folk-singer ]		SLOWDIVE "S/t" The world has finally caught up with Slowdive. A band whose reach goes far beyond just influencing music is back, with their first new album in 22 years. The album is called Slowdive self-titled in an echo of their debut EP from 1990, and is remarkably direct. Deftly swerving what co-vocalist/guitarist Rachel Goswell terms "a trip down memory lane", these eight new tracks are simultaneously expansive and the sonic pathfinders' most direct material to date. [ file under: shoegaze ]
LAETITIA SADIER - SOURCE ENSEMBLE "Finding me finding you" New waves are breaking, upon which it is our choice, chance and challenge, to ride. The new collaboration Source Ensemble brings fresh percolations, energy and air to Laetitia's humanized community-politic. Geometric composition made with a belief that permeates and intimately binds all things — requesting free love and markets NOW! Our future selves depend on it. [ file under: stereolab's ]		WHITE SEA "Tropical odds" Tropical Odds is the second album by White Sea, the solo alias adopted by American singer, songwriter and producer Morgan Kibby. Born in Alaska, and now a resident of Los Angeles, Morgan fronted The Romanovs before joining acclaimed electronic music group M83 in 2007, co-writing, arranging and playing keyboards on the albums Saturdays = Youth and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, as well as completing several world tours. [ file under: electropop ]
SAN FERMIN "Belong" Following on from their acclaimed second album Jackrabbit, the Brooklyn-based chamber pop band San Fermin return with an eclectic mix of tracks on their exceptional third album, from shimmering pop grooves to downbeat indie folk! [ file under: chamber pop ]
STONE FOUNDATION "Street rituals" The album is produced by Paul Weller and features 10 brand new Stone Foundation tracks. Recorded at Black Barn Studios, Paul joined the band for the sessions adding piano, guitar & vocals as well as co-writing 2 of the songs. Street Rituals also features stunning contributions from legendary soul vocalists William Bell and Bettye LaVette. [ file under: brit soul ]
TUXEDO "II" After releasing their self-titled debut in 2015, Tuxedo (the joint project between Jake One and Mayer Hawthorne) have returned with their second full-length II. II is an eleven song offering that mixes elements of funk, soul, and dance music to deeply infectious effect. Across the entire album, Jake and Mayer demonstrate their prowess as veterans of the aforementioned genres. [ file under: acid, soul ]