Category Archives: Blog

Anna Meredith’s Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems out now

01 August 2021

Anna Meredith‘s music is exhilarating and magnificent. An incredible electronic contemporary composer, producer and musician, she never ceases to surprise us. Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems is her latest offering, an album described as “a full-throttle reinvention of the traditional fairground dodgems”, which is also part of the Dodge installation at London’s Somerset House. The idea came to life as a pandemic-friendly alternative for the ice rink at the main courtyard at Somerset House and can be visited and experienced this summer. If you’re not in London, you can still play the dodgems virtually at home on bumpsperminute.com.

Speaking about Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems, Meredith said she “approached writing these 18 tracks like little exercises, making identities that are bold, playful and characterful but without beats, percussion or any acoustic elements and relying on my skills to create melodic and harmonic based energy.” She added:

“They’re also less about musical development than my orchestral work or material in my studio albums, these tracks are only themselves and unapologetically so, and that freed me up to unleash some pretty bonkers ideas, knowing it’s about these bold switches – like a sort of musical Whacky Races…”.

For a taste of what’s on offer, here’s ‘BPM 124’.

Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems is out now through Moshi Moshi

Manu Delago unveils video for new single ‘Curveball’

30 July 2021

‘Curveball’ is the second stunning single lifted from Manu Delago‘s forthcoming album Environ Me, following lead track ‘Interference’. Delago has paired the track with a video, coreographed by himself and also featuring percussionists Charly Mair and Chris Norz playing ball games in UV light. Watch it now.


Environ Me is out on September 24th through One Little Independent Records.

Liars close video trilogy with new single ‘From What the Never Was’

28 July 2021

With just over a week to go until the release of The Apple Drop, Liars have shared a new single called ‘From What the Never Was’ and an accompanying video featuring album collaborators Laurence Pike and Cameron Deyell. It closes their trilogy of videos with direction by Clemens Habicht, following ‘Sekwar’ and ‘Big Appetite’. Angus Andrew comments:

“‘From What the Never Was’ is intended as a moment of recollection within the journey of The Apple Drop; a point that our traveller has reached which is far from the starting place, but also right back there in memory. The drum sound was appropriated from an old song called ‘We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own’. In that track, the protagonist is drunk on delusions of grandeur, relishing the power of destruction. Now far removed, that character is weary, remorseful.

In preparation for the video, I went back to the ‘Sekwar’ cave to map it three-dimensionally. Instructed by a digital artist in NYC (Dan Moore), I strapped a 360-degree camera to my head and paced the lengths of the cave’s interior. The resulting data was transformed into a wireframe model and featured as a hologram in ‘FWTNW’. The cave’s positioning right beneath another location manifests the premise of the song. You’re in the “same spot” but understanding it from a completely new perspective. My experience in revisiting that space alone was both psychologically informative and disturbing. The slow, methodical steps required to document the dark depths of the cave’s interior invited the company of bats and of fear.”

Director Clemens Habicht also had this to say about it:

“Angus and his crew are subjected to the traumas and melodramas of classic sci-fi tropes, brutalised by the sadism of scenes from films I think I was probably way too young to have seen as a kid. Only Liars would entertain and embrace my trepanning fantasies. Like any mission, this was only possible by the absolute commitment of everyone involved. Special thanks to DOP Tyson Perkins for signing up for another adventure, and to Beau and her team for their absolute generosity and excitement.”

Now watch the video for ‘From What the Never Was’ below:

The Apple Drop is out on August 6th through Mute

ECHT! share second single, ‘Charlier’, from upcoming album Inwane

27 July 2021

After sharing the intoxicating and hypnotic lead single ‘500 gr.‘, Belgian instrumental outfit ECHT! are teasing again their upcoming debut album, Inwane, with a new track called ‘Charlier’. “On that one we love how the trippy vibe is increased by Federico Pecoraro’s unreal bass solo”, comments the band. “On top of it, crazy production moves by Rowan Van Hoef open another dimension .” ‘Charlier’ comes with an accompanying video made by Toxic Motel. Watch it below and watch out for the release of Inwane on September 24th through Sdban Ultra.

Watch Manu Delago’s video for ‘Interference’

23 July 2021

Hot on the heels of the recently announced Environ Me, Manu Delago shared earlier this month a phenomenal video to accompany the album’s first single, ‘Interference’. The video depicts perfectly human interference in nature and features the staggeringly talented percussionist and composer along with five other percussionists on a metal structure, with electricity poles around and right in the middle of mountains. Watch it below.

Environ Me is out on September 24th through One Little Independent Records.

Mas Aya shares first single from upcoming solo album Máscaras

22 July 2021

Toronto based composer, percussionist and producer Brandon Valdivia is a very talented and busy musician, known for his membership and collaborations with bands like Not The Wind, Not The Flag, Picastro, The Cosmic Range, I Have Eaten The City, US Girls, Sandro Perri, Lido Pimienta and many more. Under the moniker Mas Aya, he is set to release his new solo album, Máscaras. Slated for a September 24th release through Telephone Explosion, Máscaras is rooted on his signature production style, encompassing “intricate spiraling synths, balmy environments, and crisp drum programming, variously drawing from trap, footwork, early Warp-label gestures, and the digital end of dancehall reggae”.

‘Momento Presente’ serves as the first enticing taste from the album and is offered with an accompanying video created by Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea. Here it is.