After several months punctuated by impressive modular rig shots, enigmatic sound design videos, ritualistic filmic objects, and a few singles released on Bandcamp, we finally get a clearer picture from the black and white world of LA producer Snakes of Russia, in the form of a first self released EP named “At Home Alone With Lions”.

Right at the crossroads of all distorted cinegenic downtempo music we love, (let’s say if you’re already into Lorn or Eprom, you should feel cosy here), “At Home Alone With Lions” is a remarkable display of sound design. Grounded by heavy and tightly clocked drum impacts, themselves tempered by calmly roaring basslines and textured synth leads floating on top, SoR delivers a methodic sequence of sonic shapshots, leaving no superfluous excess get in the way. Definitely the kind of project we want to hear more often.

Those interested in his background and production process should check his interview for Noise Engineering, in which a wide array of topics are discussed, from his modular setup to questions of music synchronization. By the way, he’s also released some Ableton Wavetable presets, called ‘Isolation Presets’, available here : https://gumroad.com/l/hXfkb

If you’re only here for the pics, we got you : here’s his Insta : https://www.instagram.com/snakesofrussia/

Tagnawit EP the first project of Cheb Runner (formerly known as GAN-GAH) and the latest addition to the rich catalog of the belgian label Rebel Up Records. Counting artists such as Nuri, Arabstazy and Susobrino, in their catalogue. the Belgian label has been introduced to me a couple years ago (thanks to Ozferti) and has for more than 10 years maintained a unique vision, pushing projects that bridge electronic and diaspora music, Their refreshing approach offers a great potential for discovery, such as this one. Let’s dive in !

https://chebrunner.bandcamp.com/album/tagnawit-ep

The latest project by belgo-moroccan producer Reda Senhaji, alias Cheb Runner, focuses on breeding a new style of music from Electronics and Gnawa. Taking inspiration from New Beat to Techno, Acid House and Gabber, the grooves are relentless, stiff and club oriented, relying heavily on analog synths and drum-machines.

The sound is darker, more experimental and mature than the artist’s previous project, Gan Gah. But the producer also digs into the acoustic sounds of his youth, for an organic feeling of warmth and celebration. The syncopation of the classic Gnawa percussions – Qraqebs & Tbal – combined with the use of Gembri guitar are the soul of the Tagnawit EP, and the groove is undeniable. Featuring two traditional singers based in Brussels, Mâalem Driss and Mâalem Hichem, the EP is a reunion for the belgian Gnawa scene, keeping the vibe alive.

In a world of dematerialized culture, we tend to forget where we come from: by putting Gnawa music at the center of his production, Cheb Runner creates a bridge with the past. The young producer is a son of Gnawa himself, this is the music he grew up with and played as a kid. Now he brings it to the club scene : Cheb Runner’s first EP is experimental, brutal, innovative.

Getting past definitions and genres, it opens new horizons for North-African producers, showing them how to use their roots to make new beats. It encourages both tradition and modernity in Music. In 2019, Gnawa music, dance and culture were added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, demonstrating both the relevance of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.

Cheb, the Arabic word for “young boy”, is traditionally used to describe the young generation of Raï singers – like Cheb Hasni, Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled. It means the new generation is here, to create something new with something old. The reference to the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner is just that: while the Cheb comes from the bled, a moroccan village in the Agadir region, the beats come from the club scene of an industrial city, like Berlin, Detroit or Molenbeek/Brussels.

Cheb Runner takes you on a trip through space and time, as well as to pass on ancient rhythms to inspire the next generations. 

Quiet force behind Polaar Sounds, a label that delivered some of the most mature and forward thinking bass-music mutations we’ve heard in the past couple years, french artist Flore‘s artistic path has ben a fascinating one to follow. Seeking balance between the soundsystem infused fabric of her DJ persona, deeply rooted in UK and afrobass as you can often hear on Rinse France and her inclination towards more visual and conceptual soundscapes, her vision has spawned an A/V performance project with WSK VJ collective and three EPs, before maturing into the present album, Rituals. What we have here perfectly illustrates that balance between two extremes, where an absolute 160BPM banger such as Coded Language (aaa, too short) lies just a few tracks away from the eponymous Rituals, a 3:34 drony build-up that, again, I could take a few more minutes of. A rich 10 track trip, illustrated by a gorgeous artwork by Dorian Rigal (from NEON MINUIT, of which we recommend the short film La Matière des Souvenirs), available both on digital and vinyl formats at the link below.

https://floremusic.bandcamp.com/album/rituals

Rituals, Flore’s second album is the map of a new continent and worrisome dark lands inhabited by primal energy. 10 musical pieces, 10 clues shaping a musical territory where nothing is given, where everything has to be conquered. From ‘Aether’ to ‘You Were Here’, Rituals explores multiple facets of electronic music crafted with meticulosity. It seems here that every step of Flore’s journey to this second album, every influence, every idea, every reference is digested, understood, reinterpreted and feeds into new shapes, layers of textures, indented rhythmics, and menacing bass lines.

Rituals is a very sharp piece of work by Flore, who delivers the result of 20 years of work, experiment, encounters, and curiosity, all knitted together in these 10 pieces of music. This album is the outcome of 5 years of work launched with the eponym audio/visual live performance and prolongated by 3 EP’s released on POLAAR. Rituals, even if dark in its essence, transpires with savage energy, and opens doors to new musical landscapes, constantly oscillating between interrupted daydreaming and furious dances. Altogether, Rituals draws the portrait of a threatened universe healing in collective

2020 – Digital album – Vinyl

Featured in one of our previous compilations (Southern Dreams, Unlog Complex #08 – 2017), Ozferti grew to become of the leading artists of a new strain of afro-futuristic revival we’ve been witnessing in the past few years in electronic music. His album Solarius Gamma, released last March can definitely attest it. Somewhere with excellent artists such as CLAP CLAP! or Engone Endong Ozferti succeeded in crafting his very own style, chanelling Ethiopic vibes through a lively and impeccable production, solid instrumental skills and a dense string of collaborations he’s built over the years between his studio in Brussels and artists in Addis Abeba.

Filled with 11 absolute bangers, Solarius Gamma also reveals another facet in Ozferti’s universe. His undeniable musical skills are completed by an incredible talent in character design, illustration and animation that all combined, allow him to put his music in context in an colorful and elegant way, tapping into animation tropes, tales of a future past and ethiopian culture to create a unique and multilayered afro-futuristic world, as in the video clip he’s made for his track Hagir Fikir, feat. Eténèsh Wassié. Beyond music, we’re talking about a new realm of world-building here.

Back to the album, who better to describe than Ozferti himself.

https://nubianovarecords.bandcamp.com/album/solarius-gamma

Welcome to the first chapter of the OZFERTI saga. Step into an unknown galaxy, where gravity is multi-dimensional and they don’t have Netflix ; where new gods are replacing the old idols and the ecosystems are being crushed by space-mining economy. Follow OZFERTI, the masked beatmaker, in his journey to the stars, in an album inspired by East-African music and partly produced and recorded in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
The 11 track album takes you through desertic landscapes and sci-fi atmospheres, with traditionnal rythm patterns and percussions being mixed with electronic synthesisers and live electric guitar.

The A side of the album kicks off with the long intro to Abyssinium Express, setting the atmosphere of the journey and the colorful sounds of HaddinQo’s masenqo. Following is the majestic bass of Hagir Fikir crowned with the powerful voice of Ethénèsh Wassié, like a solemn greeting to this new world. The groove on Space Gurage is undeniable and invites you to some celebration with the Sons of Dire Dawa and Ayou Nagesh on vocals. Chika Bet is a more mature tune, displaying Ozferti’s guitar skills and complex drum arrangements. Closing the side A is the almost religious experience of Selam,joining the Sons of Dire Dawa again.
Side B starts with a slower and more meditative pace, announced by the dark atmosphere and organ of the Lost Stela interlude and the preacher voice of Miki Mac. The title track Solarius Gamma is minimalistic and dreamy, opening space for the clarity of Mékidès Nigatu’s singing. The chainsaw synth riff of Eshi Eshi is brutally groovy and takes the album back on some more upbeat, almost rave, territory. Following are two masenqo tunes with breathtaking solos by Endris Hadié on Ta Na Da ;
and HaddinQo carrying the groove on Komet Melka while Ozferti’s synthesisers take a real space-opera take-off. The closing of the album takes us back to the desert with Purple Sand, a percussive
and up-beat track for the road. 

Needless to say we highly recommend getting the vinyl limited edition.

2020 – Digital compilation

“FROM JAPAN TO THE WORLD WE ARE ∞”

Behind this enigmatic motto lies one rich and fascinating art project, an interconnection between Japan, Europe, fashion, visual arts underground electronic music. Their last project, CREVASSE OF MIND[S], has been in heavy rotation back in 2013 and ever since. After 6 years of patience, a third compilation came out this month, released precisely on Earth Day. 13 track strong, gathered around a brutalist keyword assemblage, both a mantra and a statement of sorts that resonate with the heartbeat sounds you’ll hear at several places in the project :

HUMAN BLOODS DNA EARTH HUMAN BLOODS DNA EARTH

https://utopiansocietys.bandcamp.com/album/a-connexion-of-blood-s

Expect rich aesthetic deconstructions and soundscapes in this project. Starting with a strong abstract hip hop segment with Wad Plasma Automator & T-DK’s ‘阿 ー 魂道’ (could be translated as Soul Road, check notes below*), chaos × ksk,s ‘o’clock’ and rich asymetrical beats by french producer Le Parasite’s Fractal Cosmology (present both their and our latest compilations), the projects mutates towards more minimalistic electronica / dub-techno with Anonumous Letter’s remix of AKI PALLADIUM, Taishin Inoue’s Distant City lights, before diving in complextro territory, incorporating various blends of IDM and breakbeat for a couple dense tracks. Then, after a swift transition to more ambient material, hydrant house purport rife on sleepy’s troumen (also on Thirty Three Records’ catalogue, gotta check this out) we unexpectedly switch back to lo-vibes hip hop with the laidback Gan-Kyu by mic.edu. Not the latest surprise you’ll get from that release, and we’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

Spot our program at https://unlog.info/radio in the next few days, you might see it appear as a featured release in our listening sessions time slots.

If you want to leave this to chance, just connect to our radio and see what happens. If you don’t just go and grab it on their bandcamp below.

*We’ve been lucky to have some more detailed explanations of the titles of intro and outro by one of the initiators of this project :

Track 1 : 阿 means ” birth “, ” beginning of universe ” in Buddhism. – 魂道 – is original subtitle for 阿 which means Soul Road.
And track 13 吽 is a set of words with 阿. 吽 means ” dead “, ” end of universe ” in Buddhism. We say 阿吽 A UN basically.

https://wiklow.bandcamp.com/album/bloom

Link to all available streaming platforms

https://unlog.fanlink.to/bloom

“Bloom” is the latest experiment from Canadian downtempo artist Wiklow (Michael Gary Dean). Fuelled by recent audio-visual collaborations with artists Push 1 stop and Diagraf, Wiklow merges computer-generated rhythms with sensitively crafted melodies. In “Bloom”, Wiklow shows us a path between chaos and cadence, discovering softness in uncomfortable places.

All tracks produced by Wiklow
Artwork : Jérome Guilleaume
Mastering : Cristobal Urbina

https://himuro-yoshiteru.bandcamp.com/album/view-from-bottom

While incredibly active as a sound designer and composer for movies, art projects, ads, this is the first release from japanese artist Himuro Yoshiteru, since OUR TURN, ANYTIME released in 2012 on OILWORKS Rec. Back in 2013, we were very honored to have one of his track open our second compilation, the excellent “Almost Robot” open for our second compilation, a precisely crafted banger that not only hit like a ton of bricks, but also paved the way for some of our more experimental and IDM releases, such as Fausto Mercier, and Romanowitch‘s “I’m done“

Needless to say, a new album from Himuro Yoshiteru was something we’ve been longing to hear for a while now, and needless to say, ‘View from the bottom‘ delivers. From the dark and ominous ambience haunting The Gate, an opening track that’s highly reminiscent of what we’ve known in past works, we then move towards compositions that incorporate more melodic and cinematic elements that state the obvious : each track of this project is a demo of worldbuilding each evolving according to its own rules. Not only it is a great display of production and composition skills, this album reveals a large palette of influences, used in all its diversity to create an uncanny mix of novelty and familiarity.

In a hurry? Check the track Venn Diagram, and come back later

About Himuro Yoshiteru :

https://himuro-yoshiteru.bandcamp.com/album/view-from-bottom

https://himuro-yoshiteru.com

Trailer for Netflix’s Devilman Crybaby

NYC based soundscaper Oddlogic (Outlier Records) just self-released this 3-track EP.

If you haven’t already, we highly recommend checking the rest of his discography on Bandcamp.

https://oddlogic.bandcamp.com/album/nova-scotia-76

Long awaited, a new project from Yosi Horikawa emerges, 6 years after his excellent and widely acclaimed album Vapor.

Spaces, 11 track long, is also available for preorder on vinyl and CD.

https://yosihorikawa.bandcamp.com/album/spaces

Yosi Horikawa makes music quite unlike anything you’ve heard, music that reflects not only the appeal of rhythm and melodies but also the power and hidden musicality of everyday sounds. In that sense Horikawa is not just a producer or musician or sound artist: he is a world builder whose materials constantly surround us, though we rarely stop to appreciate
them. Horikawa honed this approach for more than a decade, travelling far and wide to record forests, beaches, cities and people while never missing an opportunity to also find sounds closer to his home in Tokyo.

Spaces is Horikawa’ s new album, following from 2013’ s Vapor released via London-based label First Word. This time the album is released on Borrowed Scenery, a new label setup by Horikawa and close collaborator Daisuke Tanabe to enable them to operate free of constraints.
The album features 11 songs that combine field recordings and sound design with a range of stylistic touch points: the fluid intricacies of hip-hop, the precise efficacy of IDM, the euphoric physicality of dance music, the humanity of acoustic instrumentation. Each song blends a primary sound source with a certain style, with titles often hinting at the origins of
the sounds – “Moldy Vinyl,” “Vietnam,” “Fluid,” “Swashers,” “Nubia” – or the mood the music evokes. What ties it all together is Horikawa’ s deeply personal understanding of what constitutes music, an understanding shorn from the commercial and stylistic structures of music as a commodity.

Spaces is a deeply human experience, and through Horikawa’ s approach music feels as natural as breathing. Horikawa has collaborated with French producer Fulgeance, American singer Jesse Boykins III and fellow Japanese experimentalist Daisuke Tanabe. His music has been supported by Gilles Peterson and Benji B. Outside of music Horikawa is an in-demand sound engineer and speaker designer who has worked with J-WAVE, Kengo Kuma, Mitsubishi and Sound & Bar Howl in Tokyo. 

In the meantime, we highly recommend this short feature on Red Bull Music, recorded in 2018

Toronto-based electronic producer thook has signed with Dome of Doom for the release of his latest full-length, the NOISE LP. Landing on cassette and digital formats May 17, the album continues thook’s journey into the outer edges of bass-driven electronic music. Exploratory in nature, subharmonic frequencies, angular melodies, and experimental overtones run wild, anchored by an excursion into dense drum patterns and cyclonic bass lines. The high levels of juxtaposition are bridged with dance culture and formal song structure, diverging two worlds with powerful results.
The NOISE LP feels like an arboretum from its complex shapes and color schemes, indescribable in many instances. The music is rooted to a consistent canvas with lush rhythm sections and a penchant for dynamic fluctuations that retain the same level of energy. Regardless of the sonic palette presented, the music moves with a striking force, calculated in some forms and free in others. A track like “SPEED” exemplifies this to the highest level, with a razor-like synth trailing across the mix as powerful drum patterns and darkened bass lines charge under. The morphing that happens after the main section is drastic yet normal to the album’s flow, grinding out some of the oddest tones you’ll hear in an electronic record this year. “DIGITAL WORLD,” a catalyst to how thook shaped the rest of the NOISE LP, is another menacing and exploratory track, filled to the brim with monstrous drums and catastrophic sounding overtones. As the song winds up and the momentum catapults forward, the transition that follows takes the music into another realm of unorthodox sound design, towering in its unique identity and consuming in its reception.

In the context of thook’s path signing with Dome of Doom, label owner Wylie Cable expands on the connection he made with the Toronto artist in 2018. “I was initially introduced to thook’s music by Huxley Anne, another artist on the label, and after spending some time with thook’s catalog I reached out to him to perform with Daedelus, Holly and myself at the Toronto stop on our North America tour in 2018. thook delivered an incredible set of all original music and we got to spend some time hanging and talking about music at the show. Since then we have stayed in touch and have had an ongoing conversation about releasing thook’s debut full-length album on Dome of Doom, which has culminated into the NOISE LP project you’re about to hear.”
Dome of Doom has pressed thook’s NOISE LP on a limited edition run of 100 solid orange cassettes, with the album available to stream and download across a variety of platforms worldwide on May 17. thook will also tour the album through the United States this year, with an appearance at Emissions Festival 2019 scheduled for late May.

https://domeofdoom.lnk.to/NoiseLP