NIHILOXICA
ANNOUNCE NEW MUSIC VIDEO, REMIXES EP AND EUROPEAN TOURAfter the long corona-induced hiatus which followed the release of Kaloli, the breathtaking debut album by the Anglo-Ugandan band, Nihiloxica join forces with some of the UK scene’s most unique purveyors of bass for the band’s first ever remixes. Now, as clubs begin to reopen and the band prepares to tour once again, these five tracks redirect the densely percussive and synthetic sonic territory of the band’s debut album Kaloli into club-friendly ammunition for the recently re-employed DJs of the world.
"KALOLI RECYCLED EP” is out on all digital platforms on October 8
NIHILOXICA ON TOUR
Kasai Allstars
Musungu Elongo Paints His Face White To Scare Small Children (Official Music Video)The legendary collective from the DRC Congo have recently released their 4th album Black ants always fly together, one bangle makes no sound, which marks a new milestone in their already rich history, as the band have incorporated their own approach to electronic music into their new tracks.
Musungu Elongo is the 2nd video off the album. It was shot in Kinshasa, and directed by Kasai Allstars guitarist Mopero Mupemba.
This is the story behind the lyrics: in certain villages of the Basongye people, someone occasionally plays the part of a traditional character named Musungu Elongo. He covers his face with white clay to scare naughty little children. He runs after them and threatens to devour them if they don't behave (and if they don't give him candies and nuts).
The track was produced (as was the whole album) by Mopero Mupemba, and was mixed by Vincent Kenis.
Coming up soon: “Black Ants Remixes”, a digital EP containing 6 remixes of tracks off the album (made by Deerhoof, Khalab, Martin Meissonnier, Ekiti Sound, and Nihiloxica’s Spooky-J and pq), as well as a previously-unreleased original Kasai Allstars song.
Un grand sommeil noir
AQUASERGE announce new album with a poem by VERLAINE set to music by EDGAR VARÈSEThis new video & digital single is an appetizer for the upcoming album by incomparable French avant-pop band Aquaserge.
Un grand sommeil noir is the band’s interpretation of one of the rare songs by revered composer Edgard Varèse, who set a poem by Paul Verlaine to music, in 1906.
This lovely melody is carried by the voices of Aquaserge’s Julien Gasc and Audrey Ginestet. The video was filmed by Karine Pain & Gaëtan Chataigner, and edited by Karine Pain.
As for Aquaserge’s new album, it’s a very special project in which the band set themselves quite a challenge: drawing inspiration from four major, atypical figures in contemporary classical music from the mid-20th century (Ligeti, Scelsi, Varèse and Morton Feldman), in order to write & record an album which joyfully blurs boundaries between rock and what used to be called ‘serious music’.
Entitled The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge (the title is inspired by that of a Morton Feldman piece), the album will be released on October 15, as part of Made To Measure, Crammed Discs’ celebrated composers’ series, which is being reactivated in 2021 after a long slumber.
Un grand sommeil noir is the band’s interpretation of one of the rare songs by revered composer Edgard Varèse, who set a poem by Paul Verlaine to music, in 1906.
This lovely melody is carried by the voices of Aquaserge’s Julien Gasc and Audrey Ginestet. The video was filmed by Karine Pain & Gaëtan Chataigner, and edited by Karine Pain.
As for Aquaserge’s new album, it’s a very special project in which the band set themselves quite a challenge: drawing inspiration from four major, atypical figures in contemporary classical music from the mid-20th century (Ligeti, Scelsi, Varèse and Morton Feldman), in order to write & record an album which joyfully blurs boundaries between rock and what used to be called ‘serious music’.
Entitled The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge (the title is inspired by that of a Morton Feldman piece), the album will be released on October 15, as part of Made To Measure, Crammed Discs’ celebrated composers’ series, which is being reactivated in 2021 after a long slumber.
KASAI ALLSTARS
A music video to announce new album‘Olooh, A War Dance For Peace’ heralds the release of the first album in four years by the mighty collective from the DRC Congo. Shot outside of Kinshasa and directed by Patrick Zoom, the video (and the song) refers to an ancestral custom in certain villages: when a problem occurs between some inhabitants, they look for a peaceful solution by performing a specific war dance, bearing weapons in their hands. It's a dance which used to signal the end of hostilities, and serves nowadays to solve conflicts.
Titled 'Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound’, the album sees Kasai Allstars enhance their exhilarating trance music by blending in some intricate, self-made electronics beats with their customary array of guitars, traditional percussion, distorted thumb pianos etc.
The album was produced by Allstars guitarist Mopero Mupemba, who also wrote half of the songs, including ‘Olooh’, featuring wonderful singer Bijou, who recently joined the band and shares vocal duties with the band’s mainstays, Muambuyi, Kabongo, Mi Amor and Tandjolo.
'Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound’ comes out on May 7, on Crammed Discs
IKOQWE
Crammed Discs welcome IKOQWE to their roster !IKOQWE (pronounced ee-kok-weh) are a pair of fictional characters who, coming from a distant time and space, are confronted with today’s world. Their impressions are conveyed over the course of an exciting album which blends electronic music, hip hop and the sounds of old kalimbas from Angola.
This is no coincidence: IKOQWE stems from the reunion of two old friends: Angolan/Portuguese producer and DJ Pedro Coquenão, also known as Batida (who ranks among the leading exponents of the new wave of African electronic music), and Luaty Beirão, aka Ikonoklasta, the Angolan rapper turned iconic activist.
IKOQWE’s debut album is set for release in March 2021. Meanwhile, to whet our appetites, here’s the first single: “Pele” (’skin’), which comes in three guises: the album version, and remixes by Portuguese afro house legend Bodhi Sattva and by UK ‘disco noir’ band MADMADMAD. Out on January 22 on digital platforms.
Eras
Juana Molina’s “Eras” announces her first-ever live albumThis live version of Juana Molina’s classic song “Eras” is a foretaste of the experimental pop maestro’s first live album, which comes out on Oct 23. Entitled ANRML, it was recorded in March 2020 at the NRMAL festival in Mexico, and contains rearranged renditions of tracks off her previous, acclaimed releases (the “Halo", "Wed 21" and "Un día" albums, as well as the “Forfun" EP).
ZAZOU BIKAYE “Nostalgie”
Here is the first track from the upcoming reissue of their ”Mr Manager" album (1985)With its 'Kraftwerk in Africa' overtones, “Nostalgie” heralds the release of Zazou Bikaye’s “Mr Manager”, a collection of tracks dating from 1985, which will include many previously-unreleased tracks. Stemming from the encounter between Congolese vocalist/composer Bony Bikaye, French musician/producer Hector Zazou and modular synth wizards CY1, Zazou Bikaye made history with their debut, cult album “Noir et Blanc” (1983), a groundbreaking Afro-electronic experiment which has been adulated to this day by generations of music fans and musicians. With “Mr Manager”, their music became less overtly experimental and took on original shades of digital Afrobeat/Afrofunk. “Mr Manager” was a 5-track mini-album. Coming out on Oct 16, the expanded and remastered edition will comprise no less than 14 tracks, to which “Nostalgie” serves as a great introduction.
NIHILOXICA SHARE VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE "BLACK KAVEERA"
Ahead of their debut album, "Kaloli"(out June 12th), Kampala’s afro-electro outfit present the latest blistering music videoThe music video for Black Kaveera is like an optical fever dream. A dizzying collage of incidental tour footage smashed together by drummer Spooky-J harnesses the band’s brutal live energy.
In typical lockdown fashion, Spooky looks to the past for inspiration for this piece. Elaborating the sentiments of their DIY, strobe-filled video for Kadodi, he condenses a range of footage captured by the band in their few years on the road across Europe and Uganda into a hallucinatory five minute evocation of the band’s entrancing multi-cultural energy. But Black Kaveera is much more than a just a pummelling groove: Black Kaveera is an ode to the Ugandan way, a wordless story of use and refuse.
An immediacy is apparent in its structure, an urgent call to act, to move. Nihiloxica put two traditions in conversation, and the topic of discussion is getting heated.
STUBBLEMAN "Great River Road" (Miss Kittin Remix)
Here’s the fourth release in a series of reinterpretations of tracks from the acclaimed electronic ambient album “Mountains and Plains” by Stubbleman (aka renowned producer Pascal Gabriel).Legendary French electroclash DJ/producer Miss Kittin has created an instant classic: a punchy club track which retains the evocative atmosphere of the original, overlaid with her iconic vocals.
This rework of Great River Road, exploring the path of the Mississippi as it meanders south from state to state, was made in January 2020 and somehow signals a poignant foreboding of the dark times to come.
More Stubbleman remixes by remarkable collaborators coming up soon, expect more surprises..
AKSAK MABOUL ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW ALBUM WITH A HYPNOTIC VIDEO AND SINGLE
"Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift”"Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift” - the 2-track single heralds the release of Aksak Maboul's new double LP 'Figures' (out May 15, 2020), which will be the legendary experimental pop band’s first real new album in decades.
These two tracks are reworks, which won’t appear as such on the album.
Tout a une fin (short version) (‘Everything ends’)
A tight 3-minute track including a song part (in which Véronique Vincent’s voice performs sinuous variations around the words in the title) and a section featuring electronic, rock and orchestral instrumentation rising to a wild, crescendo finale.
Blaue Bleistift
Unveiling some of the more electronic and experimental aspects of the new LP, with its criss-crossing keyboard lines and sound collages. Kind of a mysterious, ambient cousin of Aksak Maboul’s Saure Gurke?
Tout a une fin is also out in the shape of a dizzying music video directed by young animator/collagist Yoann Stehr (whose recent work includes short films for fashion designer Paul Smith).
Just like the Figures album, this single was written and produced by Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent (respectively founder of Aksak Maboul & Crammed Discs, and former vocalist with The Honeymoon Killers).
