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.

“When, by an extended application of ordinary thought, a certain number of the higher mysteries have been assimilated and found intelligible by any one, then the right moment has come for the methods of Slugabed’s research to be applied to his individual personality: these will give him access to the unseen world. 

Nor will any genuine scientist be able to find contradiction, in spirit and in truth, between his science, which is built upon the facts of the sense-world, and the way in which Slugabed’s science carries on its researches. The scientist uses certain instruments and methods. He constructs his instruments by working upon what nature gives him. Slugabed’s practice also uses an instrument, but in this case the instrument is man himself. And that instrument too must first be prepared for that higher research. 

The faculties and powers given to man by nature at the outset without his cooperation, must be transformed into higher ones. In this way man is able to make himself into an instrument for the investigation of the unseen world. “

37 minutes of original abstract beats, bass music and dnb by our friend Sicaa.

Stay tuned, Full beat tape will be available on June 3rd

https://sicaa.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sicaabeats/

More from Sicaa :

FR

Je ne suis pas vous.
Insolent et pourtant assez logique, un paradoxe assez commun, justifier une frustration.
Le climat belge du sud-est, et me suis vu évolué, transformé au gré des répétitions laconiques du quotidien pour être muté au mi-mutisme mimétique.
Des saccades numériques vers des ponts froids, des espaces clos où émergent des courants libérateurs, Liège est là.
Je ne suis pas vous.
Il n’y a pas de raisons à cette démarche, et c’est bien la seule. Un défouloir spontané et assumé de trop-plein social et deux quotidiens. Une recherche, ou plutôt une accoutumance, mais l’énergie s’y absorbe. Un dédale d’idées, n’y voyez aucunes prétentions poétiques, cela serait trop régulier.
En revanche de ce qui plait et déplait à la masse, un fruit bien mûr recelant la vermine.
Déambulations chroniques, effervescence en 4/4, textures rugueuses.
Je ne suis pas vous.
La fin de quelques choses qui n’a jamais vraiment vécu.
Un condensé de ce qui n’a jamais été et ce qui ne sera plus.
Un briquet vide, un café froid.

« I’m done. »

EN

I am not you.
Insolent and yet quite logical, a fairly common paradox, justifying frustration.
The Belgian climate south-east, and I saw myself evolve, transformed at the discretion of laconic repetitions of the daily to be mimetically mutated to half mutism.
Digital saccades towards cold bridges, enclosed spaces where emerge liberating currents, Liège is here.
I am not you.
There is no reason for this, and it is the only one. A spontaneous and assumed défouloir against social overflow and parallel routines. Research, or rather addiction, but its energy absorbs itself. A maze of ideas, do not see any poetic pretensions, it would be too regular.
On the other side of what pleases and displeases the masses, a ripe fruit harboring vermin.
Chronic wanderings, effervescence in 4/4, rough textures.
I am not you.
The end of a few things that never really lived.
A digest of what has never been and what will not be anymore.
An empty lighter, a cold coffee.

“I’m done.” 

https://romanowitch.bandcamp.com/album/im-done

Limited edition silk screen posters

Via soundwayrecords.com

“Soundway records present a unique record: a modern, haunting take on Sudanese music heard through the sonic lens of French artist / producer, Débruit and the poetic, ethereal lyrics and melodies of Sudanese-born singer Alsarah.

Aljawal (The Traveller) is a nomadic reflection for the 21^st century. Each song reflects a new stop in the journey, with new cities and new people along the way. When Alsarah first heard Débruit’s music she sensed and recognised a fellow traveller through the space and geography of his influences, a sense of time and history coupled with a forward-thinking futuristic outlook.

Born in the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, Alsarah spent the first 8 years of her life here before she relocated to Taez, Yemen with her family to escape the ever-stifling regime in her native country. She abruptly moved to the US in 1994, when a brief civil war broke out in Yemen, and has lived there to this day.  

Xavier Thomas revealed Débruit in 2008 with 2 sold out 12″s for his and Fulgeance’s Parisian “Musique Large” imprint. Three more EPs on Civil Music followed that included his hit ‘Nigeria What’. Piquing interest from the likes of XLR8R, Fact Mag, Benji B and Gilles Peterson his debut album ‘From The Horizon’ came out last year. His dazzling live electronics show has taken him around the world, from Russia to New York, Glastonbury to Sonar. 

On Aljawal he managed to capture and play with an analog sound that stretched the boundaries of the Sudanese rhythms and melodies that Alsarah had grown up with. A unique record was imagined and is finally presented here after a 2 year interplay of ideas and interaction between France and Brooklyn: Alsarah’s adopted home.”

– See more at: http://www.soundwayrecords.com/release/dbruit–alsarah/dbruit–alsarah—aljawal–sndw052#sthash.syWETIxz.dpuf 

“This year’s label-compilation thematically revolves all about the rise up from the generic. It is about young talented artists who are still struggling on their way up and are out there to make a name for themselves.

A wild stallion fights it’s way up from the dirt and tries to receive recognition by separating itself from the herd. Breaking through the anonymity of the group to the freedom of running through endless land- and soundscapes into horizons of new sonic worlds.

The compilation includes IIIII (Five Eyes), KRTS, Sieren, my.head, FiJi, Long Arm, Kidkanevil, Daisuke Tanabe, Hanami, Julien Mier, Deft, submerse, opti, Den5hion, Tom Day, Monsoonsiren, Tendts, Thriftworks, DH the Mythicalifornian, PYUR, Rain Dog, Daixie, FauDeam, Jean du Voyage, Djéla, Pierre Harmegnies, Robot Koch, Robert Valsinger, Blossom, Neema, Tomika, How Green, Drogtech, Bruises, Night Logic, Deep Shoq, Stèv, Cass., Anna Marjamäki, Vitrion, and MockSun.”

Takáts Eszter – Nem is idegen ( Dnte remix raw edit)

Here’s the new EP ”Floating” from Zerolex. This young beatmaker from Besancon (google it that’s in France) is signed on Ekleltik records wich is also the Yoggyone label. You’ve probably ever heard of one of his side project, Cotton claw.
This new EP between hiphop and electronic is definitively a ”must listen”. Enjoy