Th Blisks
Elixa

smilingc: ...Aset was a feminine goddess of ancient Egypt. She had the magical prowess to cure the sick and bring her husband back from the dead. Over 5,000 years later, a collective of individuals deeply involved in community improvement initiatives and the struggle for justice and equality would gather in the Washington, DC metropolitan area to form a social movement of their own. They named themselves after Aset, the ‘Goddess Of The Immortals’, and their power was diffused through song. They had a unique approach as a record label to incorporate local D.C. youth and give them a space to develop their musical talents.This compilation explores the back-catalog of Aset, anthologizing three distinct projects that they were focusing on from 1986-1988. Aset’s first release was a debut album from Latonya, the niece of one of the Aset members. She was eleven at the time of recording and sang about divorce, dancing, and love. She was set to be the poster child of Aset with a follow-up LP planned, but ultimately, the recording process became too demanding for Latonya and her parents. Moving forward, Aset split their creative energy into two follow-up groups, Treo & Whax. Treo was a trio of high school gals in harmony singing about relationships. Their song ‘Demands Decrease Desire’ discusses the strain we put on our significant others that pushes them away, and the group touched on a romantic-electro sound through their two releases. Whax was Aset’s male counterpart to Treo, they were meant to represent the sillier side of Aset. The group was led by two high school boys who recorded a lone 7” called “Can I Take You Home?”, and we were fortunate to receive an unreleased extended mix of this song that adds a dubby delayed breakdown.Far from commercial, “A Totally New Sound” is a collection of the songs from these three acts that demonstrate how Aset crafted an electro-soul sound that is absolutely their own. All the projects were guided and produced by the label director, Mba Mbulu. He maintains Aset to this day as an online university, one of the first-ever free internet colleges. Mba continues the spirit of Aset as a political writer.Album remastered and restored as a single LP pressed at 33rpm. It comes with a Smiling C logo sticker, and an inner sleeve displaying Aset archival material, and an interview with Mba Mbulu.

“The word ‘Isolation’ undoubtedly has a new weight to it. For any person, within communities, it has the ability to starve us of something essential OR positively recalibrate an individual whose introspection can lead to creation. The title & concept of this release is simply an acknowledgement of a creative process in which going inwards can lead to the discovery of something unique.We as people move alongside technological advancements & this has the power to ‘connect & isolate’. Our personal relationships with one another also take on new forms as our tools for communication change. This inspires creative action. The human response to modern devices can result in surreal and unfamiliar expressions. In terms of music, our instant access to information from the past & engrained intuitions lead us to revisit atavistic rhythms of the past & reinterpret them with new sensibilities. We create music from the ‘Now’ that traverses the ‘Past’ with sights set on the future!Bonds created from this expression can withstand and even strengthen when inter-continental physical distance is imposed - forcing us to look inward to investigate the true depth of relationships forged out of creative expression. Rhythm has been used for millennia to locate the deepest parts of the soul & to re/connect spirits - this is true also in the modern age. Certain feelings cannot be expressed via digital text-communications nor with words alone; Music is the answer. Connection through disconnection.The Artwork on the B-side of this record is a symbol of the individual, isolated & pinned down by the spindle, falling, spiralling, a metaphor for whatever turns you inward. The needle on the record emanates the rhythm”

tagged: ambient electronic electronica futurepast idm malta Malta

ORANGE MILK RECORDS: ...Drop Shadow is the new album from New Zealand native Luke Rowell, and his first release under the Eyeliner name since 2015’s Buy Now (Beer on the Rug). The album is filled with highly composed MIDI pop music that covers a range of mood and emotion, from the uplifting Vince DiCola-esque opener to the beautiful digital vocal “ahh”s that merge into crashing waves at the end of “Keep Calm”. Rowell is using the language of instrumental dance and pop to express multiple themes, the first being personal loss and caring for a sick loved one, as reflected on the suite of songs from “Contact” to “Carry On”. At the albums center these songs form a sort of emotional core that also reframe lighter pieces like “Coffee News” as mini respites along the way.Drop Shadow also explores Rowell’s fascination with American and Japanese music culture and their many intersections, most evident to me on the upbeat “Drop Shadow” which utilizes the Korg Wavestatoion and M1 VST (which is the highest selling synth of all time in its hardware form) and lands somewhere between early house music, a Madonna instrumental, and something from a Nintendo 64 soundtrack.If the previous Eyeliner album LARP of Luxury can be seen as a sunrise record and BUY NOW as night time music, Drop Shadow goes from morning to night and back again. Songs like “Reverie” can feel bright and head-nodding on first listen, only to shift into a hopeful melancholy the second time through.

Butter Sessions: ...Canadian born and Naarm (Melbourne) based Jennifer Loveless returns one year on from her debut release Hard/Soft (Pure Space Records) with Water, a 12” EP presented by Butter Sessions. Bestowing us with five tracks of dystopian dance-floor thump, Water is a bustling showcase of Jenn’s breadth as an artist. Reflecting on the contrast of Water with her first EP, Loveless comments “I wanted a hard contrast to the Hard/Soft release. I always had a plan to release an energetic frivolous fun type EP after Hard/Soft. I had a feeling people might see me as an ambient producer (although I wouldn’t really categorise Hard/Soft as that), and I guess this EP, Water, is my response”. At its core, Water is a hyper-charged cetacean maelstrom of electronic music, sampling weddell seals, humpback whales, pacific walruses and water itself. Water kicks off with the rumbling patter of Out/Under before moving into the unabating Syzygy (Scissor Me). Jenn stamps a joyful yet skittish imprint onto ECC, while fly on the wall Backroll Buddy sits on a sound bed of audio Jenn recorded at parties, capturing friends chattering and an edit of a Whitney Houston earworm she heard a DJ playing, paying ode to a night out. B L U YOU is a charming endnote; a fusion of fluorescent pop and a catchy bassline. The verdict here is that Water allows Jennifer Loveless to prove herself truly as a jack of all trades. Water takes shape as an engrossing palette of bold dance music.

Format: 12” & DigitalDistributed by One Eye Witness (NL)Cover Design by Lou KarshPhotography by Aaron Claringbold