Sp@sms
Titanic EP

EM Records: ...Cool, sophisticated and melodically funky pop from Japan, recorded in 2014/15, six irresistible new songs from veteran members of 90s Tokyo underground pop bands like Love Tambourines, Arch and Bridge, all influenced by the Tokyo Neo Acoustic scene as well as early "club music" like Acid Jazz, Rare Groove and early Techno and mentored by Kenji Takimi of Crue-L Records. Bank formed in 2006 and have been assiduously honing their sound since then, distilling an elegant brew compounded of 80s dance music, the funkier elements of post-punk and the Factory Records roster, and other groups such as Young Marble Giants, Weekend and Duran Duran. A consummate blend. Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Dai Nakamura is joined by guitarist Nobuyuki Ohashi, keyboardist Tadashi Kitami, with Fumio Hirami on bass and Bo Suzuki on drums. The contributions of the latter two are a key part of Bank's charm, with Hirami's funky bass laid over Suzuki's YMO-inspired grid-style drums. But make no mistake, these are true songs, not mere rhythmic exercises. Featuring memorable melodies, heavenly harmonies and attractive arrangements, these songs were mixed and mastered by Tomoki Kanda, a renowned member of the Shibuya-kei scene.

hellosQuare: ...Recorded while overseas and waiting in the wings for just over a year, this talented Australian duo create a world of deep sound, founded on a base of acoustic instrumentation (the aformentioned saxophone along with gongs and percussion) and rewired with live processes. Touching on elements of noise music as well as improvised jazz and glitch electronics in it's aural palette, Circuitous is a must for lovers of musique concrete and dark ambient/doom drone.

Comfortnoise: ...“Powder Blue” is another composition of crisp heavyweight Swiss dubbings delivered by NEW.COM on his Comfortnoise imprint: Six soundsystem workouts assembled into a proper mini album, accompanied by a picture inlay plus sticker, and the download code.This record maps NEW.COM’s own take of Bristol-influenced bass music. It advances his preceding “The Unity Is Submarine” EP by inclining towards grime and drill patterns, shaded by reggae, jungle, funky, acid and electro.“Milan” opens the A-side with a turbulent flow of percussion grounded by a solid, deep-rooted bassline. It develops into a ravey, yet melancholic hands-in-the-air mood. “Olamina” invites to dance by displaying a reduced, funky drum pattern with fat kicks: You choose whether you ride the pushy flow or drift into a cool, laid-back reverie. “Dubclusion” concludes this side with a mighty bassline wrapped up in a deliberately idiosyncratic digital reggae tune.On the B-side, “Decoy” rushes through the dancefloor like a proper techno tune. However, it has its own edge and surprises not only with some sort of hysterical birds but also a swinging bassline. Thereafter, “Brainbridge” enters a most reduced, spacious, heavyweight realm. Its drill pattern is fully presented just once but never stops clinging to your head throughout the whole suspenseful journey. “Cessation” comes full circle as a dark, spooky, droning tune that dismisses you into your very own inner world.This is serious heavyweight meditation business!

C. Lavender is a New York based sound artist and sound healing practitioner whose third full-length album explores meditative physical rituals of sound with binaural recordings from inside a geodesic dome in the Catskill Mountains of New York.“The future is a choice between utopia and oblivion,” noted architect, futurist and geodesic dome theorist Buckminster Fuller. Myth of Equilibrium delves into these divergent paths by featuring equal parts of pastoral raw acoustic percussion combined with C. Lavender’s signature “devastating caustic drones” (Ad Hoc) via her custom bass guitar and synthesizers.An assistant to the late pioneering electronic composer and Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros, C. Lavender’s astute editing and the binaural recording process places the listener within the heady fluctuating underworld she has created on this album. The recording environment of the geodesic dome allowed for sounds to transfer out beyond the confines of the walls as well as allowing outside sounds from the surrounding wilderness to permeate in like that of a mutating cell. The album suggests “headphone listening” for the full hypnotic experience Myth of Equilibrium presents to the listener.C. Lavender is a 2020 Pioneer Works (New York) Music Artist-in-Residence.

This classic Music From Memory 12” focuses on the little known UK band The System. A project masterminded by Bob Lamb, a somewhat cult figure in Birmingham's music history; the short lived group released only one album ‘Logic' and a single in 1983 on the somewhat obscure French label ‘Romantic Records’. This distinctively forward thinking new wave/synth pop album met with poor distribution and with almost no promotion to speak of at the time and quickly dwindled into obscurity. The albums sense of technological exploration, outstanding production value coupled with the band’s gift of writing deeply emotive, yearning pop tunes, make it sound though perhaps more relevant today than many other far more successful albums of it's time.Whilst the band and the album might have sunk into obscurity, the band were no novices to the music business. In fact the highly regarded producer Bob Lamb had played as a drummer throughout the late sixties and into the late seventies for a number of progressive rock bands. The last of which, The Steve Gibbons Band, found moderate success both at home and in US, even opening up for The Who on their world tours. Having travelled the world as a musician, in 1979 Lamb would set up a 4-track recording and mixing studio in his basement flat to focus on production. In this state of the art Birmingham studio he would work with Duran Duran on their earliest work as well as producing UB40's very first album. With this highly developed sense of production, it was here in Bob Lamb’s studio that the four members of The System set out to make a pop record very much driven by the new possibilities of technology and developments within studio recording.With instrumental tracks ‘Vampirella’, sounding almost prophetic of Detroit techno tracks that would not be made until some 10 years later and ‘Pendy! You’re In Some Awful Danger’ a vaporous synth excursion and anthemic drum-heavy vocal track ‘Almost Grown’, this 12" also features the unreleased end of the night jam ‘Find It In Your Eyes’, a track which somehow never made it on to the original LP release.

Bosq’s aptly titled third full-length effort Love & Resistance is a collection of songs that reflect a producer’s continuing emergence by diving deeper into his influences. The strains of Afro and Latin flavors are interwoven and still heavily permeate but the underlying groove and rhythms have taken on a more modern, jazz-funk and disco-soul vibe with nods to Bobby Caldwell, Roy Ayers, the Mizell brothers and Nile Rodgers’ Chic.Originally based out of Boston, MA but now calling Medellin, Colombia home, Bosq’s new surroundings have inspired him to create his most diverse and creative album to date. Already featuring the top tune “Can’t Seem To Hide” with Megan Doherty that made a splash off the gates as the first single from the album (10/10 rating from Mixmag), the whole album is soldered together with each track being a single-worthy release in it’s own right. Featuring guest vocalists on all but one of the tunes including frequent collaborators Kaleta, and Nicole Willis, along with Ray Lugo who’s known for his work in Kokolo and Boogaloo Destroyers. LA based singer Induce and new duo Lucid Paradise (E da Boss & Ishtar) along with vocalist Bruno Morais whose classic Brazilian voice is reminiscent of Jorge Ben round out the cast of Bosq’s most vocally varied album work to date, reflecting both his growth as an artist and his willingness to push his own sonic boundaries.A relentless work ethic fused with a broad and varied music palette all attuned to the groove and a focus on making folks move has led to numerous remix projects, most recently with legendary Beninbased Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou. With a steadily growing fan base and reputation amongst fellow artists and musicians, Bosq’s immediate future is already laden with releases lined up for Fania and his collaborative effort Body Music alongside The Rapture’s Vito Roccoforte.