Mouse On The Keys release new EP Arche

21 May 2020

Mouse On The Keys turned our heads a long time ago with their blend of influences and genres, from classical, jazz and electronic to math-rock, hardcore and heavy metal. So new music from the Tokyo based trio is welcomed with excitement. Akira Kawasaki (drum, keyboards), Atsushi Kiyota (piano, keyboards) and Daisuke Niitome (piano, keyboards), who make up the trio, have just released a new EP yesterday. Entitled Arche, the four-track EP sees them place the piano at the core of their sound again. Unlike their 2018 album tres, and last year’s single, ‘Circle’, which featured vocals and guitar, on the new EP Mouse On The Keys embrace back the instrumental basics. For a taste of what to expect, here’s the magnificent opening track ‘Praxis’.

Arche is out now through Topshelf Records

Listen to Qasim Naqvi’s new single ‘Onna At Pulse’

19 May 2020

Back in March, extraordinary percussionist and composer Qasim Naqvi announced the reelase of Beta, the follow-up to last year’s Teenages which was one of our 15 Album Picks of 2019. Beta is meant as a sister release to Teenages, and just like it, was brought to life using the analog modular synthesizer Naqvi built over the course of two years. Originally slated for a Record Store Day release through Erased Tapes, the new record will now be released on June 20th, coinciding with the first ever Love Record Stores Day, and digitally on July 3rd, which will be Bandcamp’s Artist Appreciation day.

we had already heard the striking ‘Matic’, and now Naqvi has shared another taste from Beta called ‘Onna At Pulse’, saying this about it:

“Onna at Pulse was the first piece of music I made with an extremely rudimentary modular synthesiser. I had just acquired two components and I wrote this simple exposition as an exercise to see what the machine would do. It was like teaching one eyeball to blink.”

Take a listen to ‘Onna at Pulse’ below.

Quest Ensemble unveil new single ‘The Boatman’

15 May 2020

Photo: Zoe Maxwell

We are nearing the release of The Other Side, the upcoming second album from Quest Ensemble. Pianist Filipe Sousa, cellist Tara Franks and violinist Preetha Narayanan, the three masterful musicians who make up the London based trio, had previously shared the gorgeous and poignant ‘Moment’, serving as the first single from the album. Ahead of its release on June 19th, Quest Ensemble are charming us again with another stunning single,’The Boatman’. Here it is.

Inventions share title track, ‘Continuous Portrait’, ahead of album release

13 May 2020

Photo: Matthew Cooper

Inventions are approaching the release of their third album Continuous Portrait later this month, and they had already enticed us with two singles, the gorgeous and gentle ‘Outlook For The Future’ and the delightful and jubilant ‘Calico’. Longtime friends Matthew Cooper of Eluvium and Mark T. Smith of Explosions In The Sky, who make up the duo, have now shared the album’s title track, ‘Continuous Portrait’. The track is “perhaps the most inward looking of the bunch”, as the press release describes, “with an ambient electronic interplay acting as an uplifting mind-frame that helps to pave the way for the rest of the interplay between the duo.” Take a listen below.

Continuous Portrait is out digitally on May 29th and on cd/vinyl on July 10th through Temporary Residence.

Listen to Thiago Nassif’s new single ‘Plástico’

11 May 2020

Last month we heard ‘Soar Estranho’, the lead single from Thiago Nassif‘s upcoming album, Mente, which sees him continuing to explore and merge various influences, including no-wave, electronic music, Tropicalismo, jazz and rock. Now the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer is giving us another taste from the record with new single ‘Plástico’. It “offers a criticism of the institutionalized “white cube” format of art galleries”, as the press release describes, and “is evidence that music can be all at once jarring and discordant, yet also head-noddingly catchy and satisfying.” Take a listen below.

Mente is out on July 3rd through Gearbox Records.

Nightports team up with Betamax on upcoming new album

07 May 2020

Adam Martin and Mark Slater, who make up Nightports, collaborate with other musicians to explore and rework their music in varied ways, with their single remit being to only use sounds produced by the featured musician. Following their first album with Matthew Bourne in 2018, their latest sonic collaboration saw  them join forces with Betamax, the incredible drummer and percussionist, also known as one half of Soccer 96 and one third of The Comet Is Coming. There’s an album on the way bearing the fruits of this collaborative labour, Nightports w/ Betamax, where the duo set about “amplifying the characteristics of the musician.”

“Within the depths of the drum takes, we found hidden melodies, chords, structures and bass lines which we distilled and exaggerated to realise this album,” Slater explained. “On the one hand, this album is fully improvised in that all drum performances were spontaneous, intuitive and responsive; however, they were then subjected to editing and manipulation to arrive at a sound that is neither purely improvised nor constructed.”

Nightports w/ Betamax is set for release on June 12th through The Leaf Label but we can already listen to the rhythmically wild, relentless and hypnotic single ‘Hydro’.