Tuxedomoon member Peter Principle's untimely demise

Peter Principle, one of the key members of American avant-garde rock band Tuxedomoon, unexpectedly passed away in Brussels on July 17, 2017.
He was 63. The probable cause of his sudden death is a heart attack, or a stroke. The band celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and had gathered in Brussels to rehearse for a tour and to write music for a new album.

Peter was an exceptional bass & guitar player, and a great sonic experimentalist. He had joined Tuxedomoon shortly after the band's creation by  Steven Brown et Blaine Reininger, and played a central role in the composition, recording and production of all the band's records, from their first EPs and their debut album "Half-Mute" (1980) to their most recent releases, the "Pink Narcissus" album (2014) and the original soundtrack for the film "Blue Velvet Revisited" (2015).

Peter Principle also recorded four very interesting solo albums ( "Sedimental Journey" and  "Tone Poem",  respectively released by Crammed in 1985 & 1989, as part of the Made To Measure series, and "Conjunction" [1990] & "Idyllatry" [2005]), in which he gave free rein to his taste for experimentation and his love for quasi-psychedelic soundscapes. He once explained that he  had discovered the magic of pure sound by listening to the sound of lawn-mowers in his native New York suburb, and then proceeded to reinvent musique concrète (which he didn’t know already existed)…

Born Peter Dachert, he had adopted this pseudonym as an ironic tribute to the book of the same name ("The Peter Principle", a satirical management theory which states a.o. that, in all hierarchies, any employee tends to rise to the position where he reaches a maximal level of  incompetence, or something like that…)

Peter Principle also produced albums for other artists, including Minimal Compact, Marine, Isolation Ward, Sprung aus Den Wolken & more, and recorded with the likes of Wim Mertens. These last few years, he collaborated with his friend Dok Gregory under the project name Zero Gravity Thinkers.

His presence, his intriguing ideas, his imposing silhouette and stage presence, his inimitable bass guitar style will be cruelly missed.

Four cult Crammed albums to be reissued on vinyl

Starting with Yasuaki Shimizu's legendary 1987 album "Music For Commercials"




We're excited to announce the reissue of Juana Molina's "Un Dia" (2008), "Noir et Blanc" by Zazou/Bikaye/CY1 (1983), Aksak Maboul's "Un peu de l'âme des bandits" (1980), and Yasuaki Shimizu's "Music For Commercials"

Originally issued by Crammed in 1987, this is one of the most sought-after releases in our legendary Made To Measure series. Known for his numerous albums, soundtracks, and collaborations with an impossibly broad array of artists (from Ryuichi Sakamoto and DJ Towa Tei to Van Dyke Parks, Björk, Manu Dibango and Elvin Jones), composer, saxophonist and producer Yasuaki Shimizu also released several electronic music productions during the '80s, which are currently generating a lot of interest (a.o. his recently reissued Mariah project). 

"Music For Commercials" is a brilliant and inventive collection of short pieces, initially conceived as soundtracks for Japanese TV commercials (and bearing sweet titles such as “Seiko”, “Sharp”, “Honda” etc). These twenty-three tracks (each clocking in at two minutes or less, except one longer piece composed for a computer-animation short) abound with hit-and-run sound collages, twittering computers, and energetic ricocheting between myriad styles of music. This album has achieved near-mythical status in the last few years, which have seen artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never sing its praise.

The album has been remastered, and is coming out on vinyl, as well as CD and digital.

Advance track by Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas

Renowned DJ & electronic music producer Matias Aguayo will soon be releasing the debut album of his new band The Desdemonas. We're happy to share Nervous, a first track from the album.




Nervous was recorded live at the Gewölbe in Cologne, and will appear in Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas' LP Sofarnopolis (out in Oct 2017 on Crammed Discs). It tells the story of a nightly encounter with a girl floating in purple light and glowing in the dark. It's a scene from Sofarnopolis' dystopian narrative (which will also be unfold in cartoons and videos based on Matias' drawings).

On this track, Aguayo sings and plays the "Mona", Gregorio Gomez is on guitar, Henning Specht on keys and Matteo Scrimali on drums.

Juana Molina : accolades and tour

Her new album "Halo" gets impressive kudos, while she gets ready for a tour in Europe and Argentina




Juana Molina's mesmerizing seventh LP is unanimously acclaimed by US & UK media, from Pitchfork ("her strongest") to Mixmag ("endlessly bewitching"), the Sunday Times ("An album veering on genius"), MOJO ("Finest yet from the idiosyncratic electronicist") and Libération ("Her most spellbinding album to date"). More press quotes below.

And so is her new video "Paraguaya", featuring her famous mother, actress Chunchuna Villafañe, appearing as a witch who teaches Juana how to prepare a love potion, which ends up not working...

Concert dates:

17/05/2017 AR Buenos Aires - Niceto Club
20/05/2017 AR Rosario  - Galpon de la Musica
24/05/2017 AR Buenos Aires -  Niceto Club
27/05/2017 AR Cordoba - Club Paraguay
03/06/2017 AR La Plata -  El Teatro Sala Opera
15/06/2017 ES Madrid  - Picnic Session / Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo
16/06/2017 ES Barcelona - Sonar
17/06/2017 FR Paris - La maroquinerie
19/06/2017 GB London - Moth Club
20/06/2017 BE Antwerp  - Roma
22/06/2017 DE Berlin - Franzz Club
24/06/2017 PL Bialystok - Halfway Festival


From the press on "Halo": 

MAÏA VIDAL releases a new video & single: Mama Told Me So

a how-to guide for getting out of toxic relationships and finally accepting that your mother really does know best




Catch up with Maïa on tour:

May 21 Calonge (SP)
June 2 Magdeburg, Volksbad (DE)
June 3 Wilwarin Festival (DE)
June 4 Offenbach, Hafen2 (DE)
July 7 Sitges (SP)

KASAI ALLSTARS

at the core of Alain Gomis’ movie "Félicité"




Inspired by the music of Kasai Allstars and by their vocalist Muambuyi (whose voice is heard in the soundtrack), director Alain Gomis created the main protagonist of his film, a proud woman named Félicité who works as a singer with the band, and sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa in order to save her son. The movie just earned the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Golden Stallion at the FESPACO (Panafrican Film Festival).

The band wrote and performed most of the soundtrack, and appears onscreen playing their own part. Muambuyi’s voice is omnipresent, and is being heard everytime Félicité (played by Congolese actress Vero Tshanda) sings in the bars of Kinshasa, backed by Kasai Allstars.

The Around Félicité album includes the film’s main pieces, performed by Kasai Allstars and by the Kinshasa Symphonic Orchestra (who specially arranged three works by composer Arvo Pärt), alongside new tracks by Kasai Allstars, as well as interludes consisting of fragments of dialogues and sound bites taken from the soundtrack.

The album comes with a companion piece: Félicité Remixes, a collection of 10 remixes of Kasai Allstars tracks by electronic music producers from Europe, North America and Africa, including reworks by Clap! Clap!, Daedelus and Africaine 808.

Around Félicité and Félicité Remixes - LP/CD/Digital
Out in France now - elswhere on April 28th

“Yambadi Mama”

Les Inrocks premiere new music video by Konono N°1 meets Batida, just ahead of K1's new tour.




Directed once again by Catarina Limão, who’s also responsible for the Bom Dia and Nlele Kalusimbiko music videos, Yambadi Mama was premiered by Les Inrocks, who aptly described it as “rhythmic trance”.



Tour dates:

31/03 VILLENEUVE-LA-GARENNE, VIRTUOZ CLUB (FR)
01/04 COPENHAGEN, GLOBAL COPENHAGEN (DK)
02/04 BERLIN, FESTSAAL KREUZBERG (DE)
05/04 VILLEFRANCHE, THEATRE DE VILLEFRANCHE (FR)
06/04 SAINT ETIENNE, LE FIL (FR)
07/04 BOURGOIN-JALLIEU, LES ABATTOIRS / FESTIVAL ELECTROCHOC (FR)

“The United States is a cult, but sometimes people break away”

says McCloud Zicmuse. Listen to his new Le Ton Mité album...





...a treasure trove containing 50 gems, "a sprawling record that refracts the American experience through layers of re-interpretation.... with pieces of jazz, country, roots rock, exotica, R&B and tejano... (Tiny Mix Tapes).

"The Residents' Commercial Album remade at Muscle Shoals...[with] Moondog-influenced stompers" (MOJO) 

An itinerant musician, poet, puppeteer, archer, showman and poet, and American exile in permanent residence in Brussels, McCloud Zicmuse conceived "Passé Composé Futur Conditionnel" during a trip on which he revisited the United States after an absence of 15 years.

Watch Gabriela Gonzalez' video for "Mystery Trail", a track recorded with Deerhoof's John Dieterich on guitar

Face To Face with Aquaserge

Watch the new music video by the brilliant experimental pop band




Aquaserge present the music video for "Virage sud", the first single off their new album "Laisse ça être" to be released on Feb. 3rd.

The video was directed by the band’s bassist Audrey Ginestet and in her own words, "There's something magical watching people listening to music. The face is the reflection of the soul." 

Have a look for yourself…