Electric Soul
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Butter Sessions: ...Following on from their contribution to the Butter Sessions Come Together compilation released in March this year, Melbourne’s Polito deliver their debut EP Ultraparallel. Polito is the collaboration between musicians Robert Downie and Finnian Langham and dancers Arabella Frahn-Starkie and Hillary Goldsmith. The ensemble integrates improvised techno and contemporary dance to form well-considered and captivating performances. The spirit of these performances are masterfully captured on the 12” record. On the transition between mediums, the group states; “we always aim to capture the unpredictability and liveliness of our improvised performances when we record, and try to sculpt the feeling of continuous movement which is so intrinsically tied to Polito’s identity.”Ultraparallel consists of four tracks that were extracted from studio sessions, emerging organically whilst jamming. The EP’s introduction Hornet’s Web wields mutilated samples of vocals and spoken word, paired with abrupt rhythms to forge anomalous techno. The eponymous track Ultraparallel, recorded in 2018, is a dark and brooding arrangement with a murmuring melody and an infectious recurring bassline. Polito reflects; “this track is from the first batch of studio sessions we had as Polito where our intention was to create more discrete ‘tracks’ which could be played by DJs, rather than the longform compositions more similar to the live performances which we had recorded up to that point.”Turning the record over, Seventh Limb embodies the music for dance nuance by infusing dub with sounds from outer-space. Polito reveals; “we wanted to explore creating something more in line with the mood of our live performances, which are typically slower and have a rather meditative atmosphere. The more relaxed tempo allows the dancers to move at a sustainable pace and gives the musicians more space to prepare and manipulate the various musical elements in real-time. The result is our first formal exploration of ‘the chugger.’” Ultraparallel’s finale Sublunary is a playful sequence mingling electronics with an airy clarinet and saxophone.Attuned to their audience, Polito imagines how their music will be consumed throughout the creative process. They comment “while making music in the studio, we try to transport ourselves mentally to hypothetical dancefloors the music we’re making could be played on, adding moments and sounds which would excite, energise, disorient, or have some other desired somatic effect. We’re also considering not just how the music sounds, but how it would ‘feel’ when played on large sound systems.” Ultraparallel ultimately presents a refreshing visual take on literal dance music; a considered and holistic approach to enhancing the experience of listening and moving.

We Jazz Records is delighted to share the first edition of our new series of reworks with you . Our aim is to invite some of our favourite artists to take a fresh look at our album releases with the interval of 10 full length album releases. In other words, the invited artist has complete freedom to choose (or not to choose) any sample material from their allocated range of ten We Jazz Records albums, and there are no artistic boundaries of what they should do with the material. Each artist will then create a new musical piece based on the sample material and whatever instrumentation they wish to add to it. Fun, eh?

U-Trax: ...U-TRAX presents some hi-energy old school electro and bass from Los Angeles turntablist and producer Nuklear Prophet, who follows up his recent EP on U-TRAX with the full-length album Prophecies 11:21.Formed of an eclectic and energetic collection of gems mined from his overwhelming archive, the album takes in genres such as Electro, Hip Hop, Footwork, Juke, and beyond.