Category Archives: Blog

James Holden unveils second single ‘Common Land’

19 February 2023

Following the spellbinding and ecstatic ‘Contains Multitudes’, electronic maverick James Holden has shared a second single called ‘Common Land’. The track is lifted from Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, his first record in nearly six years which arrives on March 31st through his own Border Community. Of ‘Common Land’, Holden comments:

“The title comes from the British Library bird recordings I wrote the track around, but obviously references the idea that all land is everyones and we are all born with the right to roam or rave on it. I think who and what is allowed on the land tells you a lot about how this place is run, and for who.

Personally I think anything a rich person claims as ‘theirs’ is stolen off the rest of us and there’s nowhere that’s more obvious than the English countryside. Imagine! – the state protects the right of these cretins to fence off thousands of acres for their barbaric hobbies while ancient traditions like communities coming together to get high and dance in the woods are criminalised!

Everything is upside down and we need to fix it.”

‘Common Land’ features Christopher Duffin on sax and it comes with an accompanying video made by Innerstrings. Watch it below.

Aksak Maboul share first single from upcoming album, Une aventure de VV (Songspiel)

17 February 2023

Véronique Vincent & Marc Hollander | Photo: Diego Crutzen

2020 saw the return of legendary experimental pop group Aksak Maboul with Figures, their first album in more than 40 years. Now there’s again good cause for celebration as they have announced the release of a new album. Entitled Une aventure de VV (Songspiel), it arrives on March 3rd though Crammed Discs, as part of their celebrated composers’ series Made To Measure.

Written and arranged by the label and band’s founder Marc Hollander, the album, as the press release describes, “features his characteristic genre-hopping tendencies: strands of electronica, pop, jazz, collage, techno, ambient, improv, krautrock, contemporary classical & systems music”. A continuous suite of fifteen pieces, Une aventure de VV (Songspiel) is also described as an experimental audio play, with Aksak Maboul devising characters and stories. “The central thread”, adds the album’s blurb, “is an enigmatic philosophical-poetical tale unfolding through monologues, dialogues, spoken and sung by a series of characters.” There’s a compelling playfulness and looseness on the album, with storytelling as a driving force behind it.

Aksak Maboul enlisted outstanding musicians including Audrey Ginestet and Benjamin Glibert of Aquaserge, Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, John Pearce aka Alig, the founder of Family Fodder and Don The Tiger, as well as Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont (aka Robbing Millions) and Erik Heestermans.

‘Talking with the Birds’ is the first bewildering cut to emerge from Une aventure de VV (Songspiel) and it leaves the listener wanting more. Take a listen below.

Brandt Brauer Frick announce fifth album, Multi Faith Prayer Room; share first single ‘Act One’ feat. Mykki Blanco

15 February 2023

Photo: Felix Basser

We are huge fans of Berlin electronic music trio Brandt Brauer Frick and while they haven’t released any new album since 2019’s Echo, they have been busy with various musical endeavours. Last year they release Step, an EP that marked their return to club music, and now they are ready to follow it up with a full-length album. Entitled Multi Faith Prayer Room, the album was originally created during Art Basel Miami 2022 as an interactive installation which featured 120 voices from over 35 countries, and explored themes of faith, rituals, and the future. “We feel like we’re drowning in the present,” the band explained. “People are unable to project themselves into an idea of the future in the same way some did in the 1970’s, for example. We decided to reconnect with the concept of utopia and encourage positive thinking about the future in our own way, away from the rise of populism.”

On their forthcoming Multi Faith Prayer Room, the trio taps into multiple genres, including house, electronic soul, techno, electro-acoustic music, synth pop and future R’n’B. They have also enlisted the help of guest vocalists, including Mykki Blanco, Sophie Hunger, Azekel, Marina Herlop and Duane Harden. “We wanted to collaborate with people from various musical scenes and backgrounds,” the band said, “in the spirit of our concept for the Multi Faith Prayer Room”.

We’ll have to wait until June 2nd for the album to be out through Because Music but Brandt Brauer Frick have today released the first single ‘Act One’ featuring American rapper, performance artist, poet and activist Mykki Blanco. “I remember being struck by the idea that Mykki’s story transported so effectively, it was as if the ultimate spiritual room could be nothing more than a dance club”, Daniel Brandt commented. “And so it became the introduction to our album’s theme, the Multi Faith Prayer Room.” The single comes accompanied by a music video directed by Daniel Brandt in collaboration with TV STORE. Here it is.

Brandt Brauer Frick put together an instalment of our monthly mixtape in 2017. Be sure to check it out.

Yalla Miku join Bongo Joe Records; eponymous debut album out next month

14 February 2023

Boasting an excitingly rich and refreshing catalog of artists, Bongo Joe Records has been rolling out an impressive array of releases, including CTD favourites Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, La Tène or Madalitso Band. There’s more great things to come and Yalla Miku is the latest band to join the label and set to release an eponymus debut album next month.
Yalla Miku brings together musicians from North and East Africa and musicians that are part of the fabric of Geneva’s experimental scene. Founded by Cyril Yeterian (banjo, electric guitar, voice) and Cyril Bondi (drums and voice), the band also comprises Simone Aubert (synths, guitar, and vocals) and Vincent Bertholet (bass and vocals) of post-disco electro pop duo Hyperculte, Moroccan guembri player Anouar Baouna, Eritrean krar player Samuel Ades and Algerian darbouka player Ali Bouchaki.

Speaking about the new project, Yeterian who is also the founder of Bongo Joe, comments:

“I’ve always had this project (Yalla Miku) to show the real international Geneva, and with all these different activities I am fighting to keep the city interesting and honor the underground life that happens here”

Rather than devising a mélange of musical styles and traditions and having European artists collaborate with foreign artists, Yalla Miku, as the label describes, aims to “honor this meeting of cultures by specifically drawing attention to those points of contrast between different traditions, voices, and instruments, creating a lively, polyphonic conversation that gives each musician the freedom to improvise and tell their own story.”

The upcoming album, which arrives on March 31st, combines varied influences, from gnawa and Eritrean folklore to krautrock and electro-trance, for an ineffable and vibrant celebration of musical encounters. For an exhilarating taster of what’s on offer, listen to lead single ‘Asmazate’ below.

Listen to GoGo Penguin’s second single ‘Saturnine’

12 February 2023

Photo: Veil Projects, Emily Dennison

Last month GoGo Penguin announced the release of their new album Everything Is Going to Be OK and shared the transcendent first single ‘Glimmerings‘. Now the incredible and quirky jazz trio are enticing us again with a majestic new cut from the album called ‘Saturnine’. Of the track, the band comments:

“In our studio we have a lucky cat, like the ones you sometimes see in Chinese restaurants. Its arm makes a clicking sound when it waves, reminiscent of a metronome. It was a strange place to find inspiration, but it was just what we needed for this track. The title felt apt as one day we were discussing it and Chris mentioned how he felt it sounded a bit sad and melancholic. It hadn’t really occurred to me up until this point as I was more focused on it sounding quite bouncy and poppy to my ears. I think it’s a bit of both, but we find it’s fascinating that we can be working on the same track at the same time and yet experience it differently whilst doing so.”

Listen to ‘Saturnine’ below and grab the album when it’s out on April 14th through Sony Music/XXIM.

Grandbrothers announce fourth full-length album, Late Reflections

11 February 2023

Photo: Dan Medhurst

Two years on from the release of All The Unknown, Grandbrothers are ready to follow it up with their fourth album. Entitled Late Reflections, the new album was recorded in the iconic Cologne Cathedral following a surprising invitation from the church’s master builder and architect, Peter Füssenich back in 2019. On the run up to the performance, which took place last summer, the duo of German-Turkish pianist Erol Sarp and Swiss engineer/mechanic/sofware designer Lukas Vogel ended up writing a whole album. Vogel elaborates:

“The first idea was to only have one or two songs specially made for the concert. This concert came closer, and we were there to have the first test of the acoustics. We were really impressed by this place. Sound-wise, it is really huge, and especially at night, when nobody else is in the Cathedral, it’s so breathtaking. During the process, we realized that this environment makes it so much fun and challenging to write music for this place.”

The actual recordings were done before the concert but it bears the influence of such a monumental and historical building and is reportedly more ambient and atmospheric. “On our previous album we went into a more physical and club-influenced direction,” Sarp said. “This album, we just said, ‘Let’s see what happens and be free to go more into ambient, or more atmospheric, experimental sound spheres.”

We’ll have to wait until April 14th for Late Reflections to be out through City Slang but Grandbrothers are already enticing us with a grand and gripping single, ‘Infinite’, accompanied by a video. Watch it now.